Tag archives: design research

design mix with management…

“The inconvenient truth is that the science of management fails because it treats people as either mere inputs into the production process or as faceless “consumers” who have no real stake in outcomes. Design thinking allows for these truths to remain unaddressed, thereby avoiding any discussion of power itself. Workers are cast as something to be organized or “incented.” Consumers are to have their “needs met.” And neither group is granted a meaningful stake in the creative process.

Within this frame, design techniques attempt to solve managers’ typically tone-deaf executions of creativity without ever naming the root cause of workers’ and consumers’ dissatisfaction, which is their lack of meaningful participation in the design process. Managers’ ability to control both the organization of work and the availability of consumer goods is the true problem, not an inability to think “creatively.”

Managers have control over the working conditions under which creativity is supposed to happen, as well as the the distribution of the fruits of such labour. One significant reason workers’ creativity does not flow easily from studio or factory to consumers is because of management’s need to control costs and secure profits. Were it not for the profit motive, workers would be free to radically innovate continually and consumers would have unrestricted access to such new and innovative goods. But because profit stands as the pre-eminent benchmark of business success, both workers and consumers are thwarted in their pursuit of supplying and demanding innovative goods.”

LINK

a different blogger that goes into detail about management and design research.

21st century business!

THANK YOU! Sloan Review…

someone else has stated clearly about methods of the last century and this century. It could also explain why we are having an economic SHIFT! for those that are not designers – we designers have been saying “we are in a design shift” for so long within the academia world that it is now leaking into the other “bubbles” – business, industry, corporate, etc.

The result is that many of the core businesses—involved with what may be boring old, mainstream, mature products and services that everyone has taken for granted—are themselves becoming more uncertain. As uncertainty increases, companies are finding themselves facing what we call a high ratio of “uncertainty to knowledge.” This is a problem because making decisions based on old assumptions often leads to unfortunate outcomes.

Human beings have a tendency to embrace information reinforcing their pre-existing beliefs, while challenging or rejecting information that calls these beliefs into question. At the same time, many established management tools, such as net present value, are built on a foundation of assumed certainty—that it’s realistic to forecast likely cash flows into the future and discount them to today. In volatile business environments, such thinking is no longer practical.”

the article – LINK

KAM MAN … Quincy?

For those in the boston area, and can’t seem to decide on the right asian grocery store or in need of japanese face / hair products…

or just one of those designers that need INSPIRATION for packaging, organizers, tools, perfect stop to do that type of product research. cause i really don’t think a picture is as fulfilling than the real deal. LINK

New addiction – Sloan Review

Today is a new addiction for myself – access to sloan review achives…. it all started for a simple random interest search for brainstorm tactics… LINK

but i discover this article which i will state some qoutes but can’t show it all cause of copyright issues…..MIT got all angles covered….

“One of the reasons that recommendation offerings are proliferating is that consumers today are overwhelmed by “the paradox of choice” — so many choices to make, and no easy way to distinquish among the offerings. Producers face the opposite problem: They need to make wise investment decisons in a world cluttered with cultural products. They seek to mitigate the increasing risks of developing and distributing new offerings. For both consumers and producers prediction and recommendation capabilities are particularly important today.”

This is a problem considering that manufacturing capablities are moving faster and faster and apply cheaper solutions to building products…we are then flooding our market with products that people literally need to be “emotional moved” by the branding and graphics—statements like—”I must be the first to have it” (us youngster’s say) or “Oh i should get that, my friend was telling me about it the other day” (the older generation say). but i must say, this article is a great at pointing what the book “paradox of choice” is about. For the product industry it is a must read.

Discovered Clip Marks

Just testing it’s ability and i must say, convenient! so far….
okay so… the next step for clipmarks is more control. yeah… i am picky but also i am not. Our society has grown picky…last century it was about speed – faster and faster – internet, email, instant messaging, cellphone – now i notice the pattern is control…. the way we blog – the level of control to change colors, stylize, and make it the way the user wants it. Even on the scale of cellphones, we want control of our cellphone and access everywhere on the grid. If a wifi connection is down, we get upset because we lost control of the wifi.
For clipmarks i want control of the edge widget borders and to make the video file bigger, which i have already done, by going through the code and changing the numbers. But do i want to do this for every clipmark i post. but, i think i can deal with this because control is complete outweighed by convenience!
clipped from clipmarks.com
You can save clips publicly for others to see, post them to Facebook, or embed a widget of them on your own site. You can also save clips privately for your own viewing later. Your clip collection is searchable from any computer with an internet connection (including your iPhone, Blackberry, etc).

blog it

Missing the EPIC 2015

Earlier i posted the “Did you know?” video and honestly i felt bad not posting the EPIC 2015, cause back in the day of 2004 when style – technology – internet was just starting to mix together, All of us college geeks were like “hey have you heard of googlezon?”

I personally felt this video was a turning point in my decision for what type of designer i wish to become – cause at risd i did everything full speed and then went “okay? that was not challenging enough…” And post risd i jump into medical products – talk about complications….rules, ISO, FDA, human factors, etc, I am like —”okay, cool now that is what i am talking about”

enjoy.

The aging population

The demographics of the baby boom
have resulted in startling statistics:
today, well over 15% of North America’s
population is over 65. In 2030, 25% of
the population of the province of Ontario
will be 65 or over, doubling the number
of seniors. Today, a minimum of 20% of
visits to Emergency Units are by seniors,
and half of these results in admittance. If
we apply the same logic of an increase in
the senior population, by 2030, 40% of
the visits to Emergency will be by seniors
and half of them will be admitted as
patients. Our current hospital facilities
cannot accommodate these requirements
in an optimal manner.

Informedesign newsletter

View more documents from Thegwen .
It is the sad truth about designing for the aging population, and i personally feel most of us (youngsters) don’t wish to design for the elders due to our fear of our future. But this is how i see it. if we start now in our 20s thinking about what type of lifestyle we want to claim in our 80s then we need to face the problem and give ourselves decades of trial and error to solve, cause usually it is til we are 45-55 that we start saying “hey wait a minute, i want this for retirement, not that!”
the newsletter sums up a very well rounded issue that we will face in our retirement era. just realize this much…we have 30 year intervals – childhood 0-30, supporting family(steady job) 30-60, retirement 60-90. I know this is not true for all, but the idea of thirty years each…different than the past.

Fire Safety & Our Behaviors

Doing a bit of research, I would figure we have a fire safety accessories and equipment like we do for first aid kits and like our crafting tools, (i grew up using tools for multiple tasks, while in today’s market we buy several scissors for specific tasks – a first aid scissor, a craft scissor, a kitchen scissor, a fabric scissor. you know the drill? same thing with hammers…)

but there is no such thing as a fire safety kit or tools, except for a fire extinguisher, escape ladder, fire blankets/broom, and most importantly the alarm detector. but even still 43% of house fires had no alarm detector. What is the deal? What makes Americans not see to buy alarms for the house?

We even have fire-safe cigarettes in the market because cigarettes are the leading cause of fire deaths, seriously, at least one of the Victorian (Australia) bushfire was started by someone tossing an unextinguished cigarette out of a car. And that was a serious bush fire killing –208 people had been killed during the fires, with more than 10,000 left homeless.

This area of opportunity is just itching for products and ideas and implementations to figure out, what is wrong and how to correct the situation. Like for me, i read lists upon lists of what we are to do to prevent fires, but we never follow them. look at the list below and ask yourself do you do this now, and also ask did you know about this too? cause there is a difference to being ignorant and not caring. I personally think people don’t care, that is a design problem to figure out.

below is from this LINK

Prevent Fires Caused by Cooking:

  • Always stay in the kitchen while cooking.
  • Keep things that can burn, such as dishtowels, paper or plastic bags, and curtains at least three feet away from the range top.
  • Before cooking, roll up sleeves and use oven mitts. Loose-fitting clothes can touch a hot burner and catch on fire.
  • Never leave barbecue grills unattended while in use.
  • Keep grills at least ten feet away from other objects, including the house and any shrubs or bushes.
  • Always stay by the grill when cooking.
  • Prevent Fires Caused by Heating:

  • Store matches and lighters in a locked cabinet.
  • Keep space heaters at least three feet away from things that can burn, such as curtains or stacks of newspaper. Always turn off heaters when leaving the room or going to bed.
  • *
  • Have a service person inspect chimneys, fireplaces, wood and coal stoves and central furnaces once a year. Have them cleaned when necessary.
  • Keep things that can burn away from your fireplace and keep a glass or metal screen in front of your fireplace.
  • Prevent Fires Caused by Smoking:

  • Use “fire-safe” cigarettes and smoke outside.
  • Use large, deep ashtrays on sturdy surfaces like a table.
  • Douse cigarette and cigar butts with water before dumping them in the trash.
  • Prevent Fires Caused by Candles:

  • Never leave burning candles unattended. Do not allow children to keep candles or incense in their rooms.
  • Always use stable, candle holders made of material that won’t catch fire, such as metal, glass, etc.
  • Blow out candles when adults leave the room.
  • Prevent Fires Caused by Gasoline and Other Products:

  • Store gasoline in a garage or shed in a container approved for gasoline storage.
  • Never bring or use gasoline indoors; and use it as a motor fuel only.
  • Close the lid on all dangerous products and put them away after using them.
  • Store them away from the home and in a safe place with a lock.
  • Don’t plug in too many appliances at once.
  • Keep Your Family Safe At Home

  • Make a fire escape plan for your family. Find two exits out of every room. Pick a meeting place outside. Practice makes perfect – hold a family fire drill at least twice each year.
  • Install smoke alarms on every level of your home. For the best detection and notification protection, install both ionization- and photoelectric-type smoke alarms. Some models provide dual coverage. The type will be printed on the box or package. Put them inside or near every bedroom. Test them monthly to make sure they work. Put in new batteries once a year.
  • Know how to put out a small pan fire by sliding a lid over the flames.
  • Teach every family member to “Stop, Drop, Roll and Cool” if clothes catch fire by dropping immediately to the ground, crossing hands over your chest and rolling over and over or back and forth to put out the flames. Cool the burned area with cool water and seek medical attention for serious burns.
  • Consider having a home fire sprinkler system installed in your new home, or when you remodel.
  • Learn how and when to use a fire extinguisher.
  • If you have a fire in your home, once you get out, stay out.
  • Do not go back inside for any reason.
  • * Photo Courtesy of Chimney Safety Institute of America

    MINDJET – a mindmapping software

    So i went in search of mindmap by mindjet. (thanks to the doc in a previous posting) I can’t give an opinion yet cause i just found it, but once i play around with it (give me a month or so) i will give the update. for now the link is for others who wish to try it out (they have a 30 day trail – but that is never enough time). And personally i don’t think this is the best picture to represent the program (it needs some graphic love!)

    they have a blog too. LINK

    transits of the world

    okay, besides toilet design, my other insane hobby is public transportation design. I am no transportation/auto designer, and i don’t want to be one. I pretty much look at metro design as a culture imprint to the city. Everything from location/train line layout—station architecture—graphics—subway car room— is what i look and see how they all fit together for a particular culture. America is one country but in each city is a different system of signage and equipment they use. And of course in Europe such metros fascinate me because the culture is more dependent on their subways than the American. If i have a favorite, that is difficult to pin point, cause well, I like the “actions” of our experiences. For instance, in Moscow I love the effect the escalators have when you leave and enter the subway station. But in Paris, I love the “family-ness” of the car seat layouts in each car. So there is no one loved metro. but i have to admit i need to see the Asian ones… in time…in time.