Kurt Cobain, kitten, and Frances Bean
(Source: reddit.com)
Patrick Whitney on Reframing Design Thinking
RJ: In the 2000s, design was fighting for a seat at the boardroom table. In the 2010s, it’s there. What is the biggest challenge that designers face in the corporate arena today? And how do you suggest such a challenge be overcome?
PW: To live up to the expectations and claims designers make. We not only need to develop a belief that design is an effective business strategy, but also develop ways of accomplishing what people now expect. There has to be a more reliable way to achieve design success other than just hiring a creative genius. We need methods and theories on how to accomplish more work, at less expense, and with more insight. Otherwise design strategy will go the way of knowledge management.
We can do this by not letting hype get ahead of reality, which is a lesson from the knowledge management wave.
So the challenge is really about formalizing design knowledge in several dimensions. For example, designers never accepting a problem as a given is often viewed as a delinquent activity, misunderstood by most executives. Determining the best practices for reframing a problem, including understanding the economic value of redefining the problem, will help more executives value this dimension of design. […]
(Source: designmind.frogdesign.com)
myEdu Sign-Up form
myEdu is one of the most beautiful sites I’ve come across…but I have to highlight how fun their sign-up process is. All they did was turn what’s customarily a mundane form into a first-person sentence, as if you’re talking to a real human. Furthermore, the lightweight aesthetics is refreshing and encouraging.
Losing that knowledge and getting slammed into more work than they expect is what users hate. It’s not change. Instead, it’s feeling stupid when they previously felt smart.
On radical redesigns (http://www.uie.com/articles/radical_redesign/)
New Home
I recently leased a studio apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn. What makes me especially giddy are its two balconies, walk-in closet, large bathroom, and high ceiling. I guess these are the perks of having a unit #PH (penthouse).
But, what’s making me crazy is furnishing both the inside and outside areas. Like any other design project, how do I feng shui a huge clean slate?
I wanted to create a moodboard to answer this. I came across olioboard.com , and was so happy to discover how well it facilitated a process that should be quick — thanks to its elaborate library, and editor functions.
As a moodboard for each room is completed, I’ll upload it onto this post.
Bathroom: I’m not a morning person, so hits of bright color & shine would help. I want this to be the only room with mirrors, i.e. the only place to nitpick my appearance.
Bedroom: Unlike the bathroom, I want the bedroom to have a palette providing a gradual fade into sleep or wake. Also I have a huge appreciation for floral detail, and there’s nothin wrong with lying on a bed of flowers.
It’s pretty disgusting how obsessed I am with this song…a good shock to those endorphins.
(Source: Spotify)
Spiritual, Not Religious
Doing good work is the deepest act of service one can engage in. For this you needn’t any religion or spirituality; you simply need your humanity.
Mobile Opportunities
Some interesting points (and something to brainstorm) from Fred Wilson’s “MBA Mondays” post about our life partners…er smartphones:
I do not believe that we have yet cracked the code on mobile advertising. Mobile native approaches like Twitter’s promoted tweets show the way. Interruption and “display” models aren’t likely to work in mobile so we will need ad formats and solutions that are truly native in the mobile app and browser.
But as attractive as selling apps and running ads on them is, I believe the biggest and most attractive model in mobile is the transaction. Slowly but surely, our phone is becoming our wallet. And I don’t mean wallet in the way that Google and PayPal think. I don’t think we will necessarily have a mobile wallet. I think the apps on the phones will just have native transaction capability in them.
[…] Imagine if you could both checkin and checkout on your Foursquare app? Imagine if you could just walk into a movie or an airplane just using your phone (you can!). All of these things are possible without mobile wallets. The phone is our mobile wallet.
I assure you, my fireworks are a spectacle.
"Cento" Copyright © Andrew Brinker 2011.
