Jewish Scots Tartans

Well folks, it's official. The Jews of Scotland now have a genuine certified Tartan for all their kilt, scarf and mug/pen/mousepad needs!

Ole to you Elizabeth Gilbert!

I once got into a spirited discussion with an old friend about Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray Love. We disagreed about the value of her perspective--too self absorbed and fairy tale to be worthwhile or valid and legitimate for the compelling message no matter the context. Either way, Gilbert shines in this enlightening talk about her thoughts on the creative process from the last TED Conference.

Ole' !

30 seconds of advice for novice designers (but equally applicable to all)

I couldn't agree more with the sentiment. I'm trying to live it and push myself in this direction daily:

Ryan Sims from MFA Interaction Design on Vimeo.

What is browser?

The folks at Google asked that question one day in Times Square..... watch what happened!

Poo + Industrial Design + sustainable lens = LooWatt

The power is in your hands.... (soon)

Otto is a new prototype that enables real-time manual beat slicing. The brainchild (and master's thesis) of Luca De Rosso, made using open-source hardware. Check De Rosso's site for more info.

OTTO ~ demo.01 from Luca De Rosso on Vimeo.

A Day in the Life of Planes

A full day of air traffic condensed into a minute and change.

Finally. The WineRack. Why Didn't I Think of That?!

It's like a CamelBack waterpouch, except its worn as a bra, and adds TWO CUP SIZES to your bust! Here's how it works...

Via FireBox

I Love My Morning Walk!

Tree of Life ...

I saw this great short capsule of evolution on my friend Lolo's blog.

KINO and Victor Tsoi

One of my all time favorite (Russian) songs. Ever.

This is from 1986 and he's singing in allegory, sort of, about the corrupt Soviet system. The chorus, "Mi Hotim Tantsivat" means "We Just Want to Dance."

Emotional Design

LUNAR Design, based in Palo Alto CA has this great presentation (a version of a Pecha Kucha slideshow given last January in SF) loosely based on Don Norman's ideas of emotional design. 

Take a look...

Think, Behold and Act: Clive from lunar on Vimeo.

Disturbing events in Iran. Warning, disturbing content.

Neda, a 16 year old girl was watching the peaceful demonstrators with her father on the sidewalk, when she was shot in the chest by a Basij paramilitary sniper from a nearby rooftop: 

Warning: this disturbing video shows Neda moments after she is shot and killed by the Basij bullet:

. 

The Softer Side of Design

Ever wondered what kind of thinking (sometimes, I wonder if any) goes into making new stuff? 

Well, here's a a few of the 'softer' tools used in industrial design to make better stuff. 

**********

Deep dives
Exploration into behaviors, trends, unmet needs, and aspirations for the purpose of developing people-centered innovation strategies around an experience topic.

Usability Studies
Benchmarking product ideas against user defined criteria.

Trend Mapping
Tracking trends in social, cultural, technological, and aesthetic domains.

Co-creation Workshops
Helping cross-functional teams synchronize their vision for innovation.

Ethnography
Observing and documenting people and their behaviors in their natural environment.

Participatory Design
Engaging your consumers in hands-on activities that enable them to imagine and express their desired solutions.

Flash Immersion
Exposing product innovation teams into the context of use followed by fast track brainstorming.

Deployment Studies
Evaluating the potential impact of new technologies or products by deploying them in the context of use and then studying how people use them over an extended period of time.

Handy Dandy Gmail

This may be old news to some, but a neat little discovery for me. Check multiple emails from Gmail with a custom "From" identifier.

There are two steps to make this happen:

1. Set up mail forwarding or fetching
Many email providers offer free auto-forwarding to other accounts. Log into your non-Gmail account and set your Gmail address as the forwarding target. If your other account doesn't offer forwarding but supports POP3 access, you can use Mail Fetcher in Gmail to automatically check your other account for new mail and download it to Gmail.

2. Set up custom "From:"
Gmail's custom "From:" feature lets you send mail with one of your other email addresses listed as the sender in place of your Gmail address. There's a good step-by-step for how to set this up in the Help Center, but the basics are adding the address you want to use and then verifying that it belongs to you. Once you have your custom "From:" set up, you can pick which address you want to reply from in the "From:" address drop down while composing messages.

P.S. If you're a recent grad and want more tips on how to use Google during this transition period, check out the Google for Students Blog, where we'll be posting more tips like this weekly for the next couple months.

[Via: Gmail blog]

The Prisoners Dilemma - The Game Show Version !!

The Vendor-Client Blues

This great, funny/unnerving video clip takes the typical design cient/vendor shenanigans and puts them into everyday situations like paying for a bill after a nice dinner or buying a DVD at a video store. 

Business and Design Thinking Quotes

Worth a look...