designswarm thoughts

“Sustainable design is not only about environmentalism, even if it is an important part of it. Sustainable design is also very much about timelessness, new materials that push the envelope, storytelling, sensorial experiences and cultural awareness.”

Found here.

At some point we’re going to have to accept that sustainability actually involved limitations, cutbacks and sacrifices. Just like we had to “deal” when the first and second WW came around, we will have to be

- smarter
- do less of a number of things
- stop doing a lot of things
- apply new thinking and not see these things as bad, but just simply better

Definitions like the ones above only serve to make everyone think that we can just go about our daily business, that pumping out new products and services and “new materials”, will somehow make things better. And tying the whole thing up with creatively-soothing-methodology-driven words like “storytelling, sensorial experiences and cultural awareness” is just not good enough anymore.

• The SPIME Arrives
  Latest project pitched to Google from Scott Klinker and Bruce Sterling… key comment: does the metadata from a chair make it subconsciously disappear and people care even less about discarding it?
  (tags: internetofthings)
• Amsterdam closes a window on its red-light tourist trade | Travel | The Observer
  Pity to shut down a core part of what makes that city so liberal and open-minded in the eyes of the world and brings in a lot of tourists/money in as well as keeps these women safe and legal.
  (tags: Amsterdam politics)
• Icebreaker Dept.: Social Studies: The Talk of the Town: The New Yorker
  Amazing how we’ve created a society of people who won’t know how to initiate a conversation and have to take workshops to learn to do so.
  (tags: web2.0 social education)

View Larger Map

The interesting thing about traveling and relocating several times in a lifetime lies in the particular nostalgia one has about those places.

In my case, Amsterdam was always about the biking. The wind (or more often than not rain) in your hair, the upright posture, the power (you will never get a car honking at you as there are more bikes than cars), the infinite ways to explore the city, the pride to ride an old and battered beautiful dutch bike that noone would ever want to steal, the sound of the lock as it clings and clangs against the frame, being able to bike back drunk from an event in town, the wind on your back on a downward slope.

In London, things aren’t quite the same for bikers. I look at them go from the second floor of a bus and it looks like an Olympic sport. Aggressive, fast, on gear-less sports bikes, wearing bike helmets (you’d be laughed at for doing that in Amsterdam) and sometimes face masks, it’s just not the same.

So when I left for Amsterdam last week, I had been thinking for months about how I missed my precious bike and how much I wanted to take it back with me to London. Of course it only occurred to me once I got there that it wasn’t the bike I missed, but the biking experience. Something 20 pounds on Easyjet would never get me.

So I came back empty-handed and a bit sad. This was a good reminder that although you can take your friends and your work wherever you go and that global nomadism is the epitome of cool among geeks, there is a vast array of things you will never be able to export out.

And that’s why most people aren’t global nomads. Some places just are too good to leave behind.

• Ron Paul interview at Google - Presidential Candidate for the next US elections
  Really interesting to see who’s in line to replace Bush, this one scares me on issues of gun laws, and environmental issue and sounds like he’s read a lot of Ayn Rand
  (tags: politics USA)
• ‘We know a patient needs us when we see them crying’
  My mom was interviewed for an article on her role as a navigator nurse for cancer patients.
  (tags: health service design Montreal)

• Tasmanian Rain Sparkling Water
  riiiight, because being green just applies to energy-saving light bulbs right? grrr
  (tags: sustainability)

• Facebook suicide: the end of a virtual life - Times Online
  Over a lifetime it’s normal to lose touch with people as interests and circumstances change, but Facebook alters the natural ebb and flow of friendship. “Renewing old ties in this way can feel false,”
  (tags: web2.0 privacy)
• Le royaume de Belgique n’est plus à vendre
  Belgium was on sale on ebay for a few days
  (tags: web2.0 politics geography)
• LifeLongLog - dReam_me
  nice way to navigate through Alberto Frigo’s dreams, through icon-based selection
  (tags: visualization)
• First Move Dating Cards ‽ Break the ice and approach that attractive someone with confidence. Index
  just ridiculous
  (tags: web2.0 dating)

• From The Magazine : Radar Online : Cory Doctorow imagines a world in which Google is evil
  Brilliant short story by Cory Doctorow about the possible future security and privacy issues around the ever-inflating Google
  (tags: privacy web2.0)
• Not An Alternative » Friday: CoWorking, Cocktails, and a Keg!
  A nice new coworking space in Williamsburg, NY check it out!
  (tags: web2.0 work)
• ‘Pulp-based computing’ makes normal paper smart - tech - 19 September 2007 - New Scientist Tech
  Brilliant concept : pulp-based technology for smart paper… there might be issues with recyclability
  (tags: sustainability MIT product smart design)
• Newsknitter
  I like this idea a lot, making data visualization washable.
  (tags: product design visualization)
• Festival Emergences
  Electronic and new media festival in Paris, might be worth looking at for next year
  (tags: events paris ubicomp competition)
• Interactive Gestures Pattern Library
  wiki on interactive gestures
  (tags: interactive wiki gestures)

As I’m flying to Amsterdam for a few days tomorrow, I had to literally squeeze my london design festival experience in 2 days. Yesterday was dedicated to designersblock and today was 100%design at Earl’s Court. Some nice finds there, still too many tiles, bathroom fixtures and lighting design, and not much interaction design but there were a few nice things and some weird ones too.

Tomoaki Yanagisawa, former RCA student I met a few years ago in L.A. presented his fabulous project Luminos.

“Luminos are bricks in darkness. Like a candle needs a fire to light it up, Luminos, which have light sensors and LEDs, need light to turn the LEDs on.
This is a simple and intuitive interaction yet it has the possibility of complexity of a chain reaction created by configurations of Luminos like dominoes and bricks.”

Cassi Hill presented a series of fabric life-like lamps that you can wrap up around your apartment.

Yeon Juyang designed some interesting looking lamps, I can’t feeling there could be more to them, just not sure what.

And finally I had the great pleasure of seeing one of the few academics I truly admire, Jonathan Chapman talk about emotionally sustainable design in product lifecycle, at the 100%sustainable booth.

One strange thing I noticed is that several exhibitors were members of a so-called Anti copying in design association, clearly showing that the open-source phenomenon is not making any headway in product design yet.

• Facebook ban incurs ‘lactivist’ wrath
  It’s really interesting how some societies can be very conservative in private life and not in public (the UK is a good example) and vice versa (the US) and how that affects online services.
  (tags: social critique web2.0)

If you’re wondering what I’m up to, I’m spending most of my days this week walking around the London design festival, so go have a look at my pics and comments.

• YouTube - Russian students house tetris
  awesome what you can do with dorm rooms when you’re a student…ahh that was the life :P
  (tags: games architecture lighting)

An interesting online battle is being fought these days on the productdesign2.0 scene.

Ponoko just launched (I first heard about them back in May). Part online gallery, part market, part distributed manufacturing, they are catering to the creative industries to provide their catalogue. Think of is as a mash-up between Etsy and Amazon’s business model.

On the other side we have Crowdspirit which relies on people giving ideas about new products, the community votes and most popular ideas get manufactured. Slower pace, smaller slice of the pie (it’s only for electronic products) and reliant on the quality of the community’s ideas.

Who will win?

• Glossary of Online Gaming Acronyms, Abbreviations and Slang
  holy crap this is uselful! geekspeak on twitter will no longer be a mystery!
  (tags: web2.0 language)

I just received an email at my Topoware email address starting with “dear sir/madam” expecting it to be spam and horrified at discovering it was a recent graduate who was sending me his cv and portfolio.

Horror! Shock!

So I couldn’t let it be, I HAD to reply and I did, trying desperately not to be too rude. But commmoooooooonnnnnn, isn’t business development part of any design course in the world yet? Oh, and it’s called “the internet”, put your portfolio online for god’s sake! And do me a favor and click on the “who we are” or “contact” or “about” and figure out the name of who you’re trying to reach to at least start your letter with “dear Alexandra”

The only type of communication for which that particular form is still valid, is if I’m filling in my tax return or writing to the gaz company and desperately can’t find the name of the head of the department.

I’ve had the privilege to have experienced a rather luxurious service recently and it got me thinking about the way we design services for the elite vs the general public. Can one inspire the other? What are the differences and what’s the thinking behind it?

1. Planning for all possible scenarios:

I stayed in a very fancy hotel last month and found among other weird things a shelf next to the minibar including the following items:

- a promotional cup from the hotel
- an Alvar Aalto votive candle holder
- a bottle of liquor
- a box of condoms

Odd combination of items which in fact make total sense, but that I’ve never seen offered in more affordable hotels. What’s the scenario here? Have a cup of tea, light a candle, have a romantic drink and shag? Bring back the cup of tea as part of your collection, bring back the candle holder as you forgot your wife’s birthday, have a stiff drink and call a hooker?

In a way, this very fashionable hotel is almost acknowledging what it is more than hotels where you’ll find the Bible in the drawer of the bedside table. Culturally and otherwise these objects are far more useful to a guest because they can convey a sense of “we’ve thought about everything, just relax”.

It’s interesting to think about how this feeling could be replicated in services. How can you provide a service and give a sense of reassurance to it’s users? Are you honest-enough with your service provision?

2. Secret language:

We all know that the epitome of luxury is feeling like you’re part of the elite and have your own secret language. You can find this to be true of most internet memes (wtf is flume?) but it also applies to the services and objects you surround yourself with. The latest Core77 article on the latest Bang & Olufsen portable music player is an example of misunderstanding that language:

“Bang & Olufsen designs interesting-looking products that most of us will never own, either because they’re too expensive and/or we simply have no use for them.”

That’s besides the point really, because luxury was never about utility but about recognition. How can a service develop it’s own language, only understood by it’s users? I’m talking about more than a member card here. Can other users of the service recognize each other by that language, like those necklaces people who have been to New Zealand wear. Products and services can become part of a secret shared by few but who are the few? Your friends? Your family? Your colleagues?

3. Not for everyone:

Asmallworld has been enjoying a little press lately, and why shouldn’t it? When all the services out there these days have “free signup”, these guys are invite-only (perhaps also what makes feel so elitist still).

What would be the middle ground here? Partial service access depending on who you are to me as the prime user?

I think there’s a lot of potential here beyond thinking about luxury as guns, drugs and art deco :)