A Design Revolution That Could Lift Humanity Editors’ note: The following is an excerpt from The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (Island Press). In iconic nature scenes, one shape is ubiquitous: the tree. Based on evolutionary biology’s findings about innate human preferences for savanna-like environments, Judith Heerwagen and other psychologists have focused on tree images as signals of refuge that offer the potential for shelter, shade, and nourishment. Trees and other vegetation have inspired the art and architecture of every culture throughout history, which suggests their universal appeal. One species in particular, the Acacia tortilis, dominates the African savannah, where its silhouette emblazoned on the human retina for thousands of millennia, and research verifies that people are drawn to its shape--broad, spreading canopies and branches close to the ground. The appeal of the acacia in truth may have nothing to do with its being recognized as a tree. And not just in nature. Consider the strange attractor.
How Reframing A Problem Unlocks Innovation Editors’ note: The following is an adapted excerpt of InGenius (Harper One) by Tina Seelig. What is the sum of 5 plus 5?" "What two numbers add up to 10?" The first question has only one right answer, and the second question has an infinite number of solutions, including negative numbers and fractions. Mastering the ability to reframe problems is an important tool for increasing your imagination because it unlocks a vast array of solutions. A classic example of this type of reframing comes from the stunning 1968 documentary film Powers of Ten, written and directed by Ray and Charles Eames. Starting at a picnic by the lakeside in Chicago, this famous film transports us to the outer edges of the universe. This magnificent example reinforces the fact that you can look at every situation in the world from different angles, from close up, from far away, from upside down, and from behind. You can open the frame even farther by asking why I want to get to the other side of the river.
How an accountant created an entire RPG inside an Excel spreadsheet It's not always easy (or possible) to install your favorite games on your work computer. Sometimes a bit of Solitaire or some collaborative Bomberman might be all you can manage—and it had better look like work to any nearby screen snoopers. Over this past winter, Cary Walkin created the perfect solution to this problem: an entire RPG made of a spreadsheet and many macros. While the game isn't a beauty to look at—the hero is represented by a smiley face and all enemies are all bracket-parenthesis pairs—it's fairly complex for, well, a spreadsheet. The game also engages in some light borrowing of characters and elements from other fictional universes. The whole game is driven by an anachronistic story involving the hero's battle through an emperor's arena of monsters. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with Walkin, he said that he decided to use Excel due to his extensive knowledge of the program (Walkin is an accountant by trade).
8 | Can Bud's New Beer Can Become An Icon Like The Coke Bottle? Fifteen years ago, Dean launched the “chug” bottle, a plastic reimagining of the traditional milk carton. They spent millions on its advertising, but the gamble paid off. Sales jumped ~65% in a year. And Dean milk became differentiated from any plain old milk on the shelf. Structural branding, or identity by shape alone, is one of the brass rings of consumer product design. “Honestly, our brand needs more design to it. It’s quite an opportunity at quite an expense. The can itself has been in development since 2010, driven by a manufacturing breakthrough by Belvac. "I think, like every invention and innovation, we had a lot of trials and tribulations. Which just goes to show, Anheuser-Busch anticipates big, long-term gains out of differentiating Budweiser packaging. Look for the new cans starting May 6. Read more here. [Hat tip: Core77]
What's The Secret To Design Innovation? Extreme Immersion Editors’ note: The following is an excerpt from Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Create Extraordinary Products for Tomorrow’s Customers by Jan Chipchase with Simon Steinhardt (Harper Business). There’s a particular type of traveler that many of us know: the tourist who never strays from the well-worn path of landmarks and tourist traps, who only sees the side of another culture that has been handpicked for people like him, and returns home with a very predictable--and incomplete--experience. Then there are those who like to explore, to get lost on purpose and let the unexpected find them. Unlike the first form of travel, those who allow themselves to get lost in the new environment have fewer guarantees and a greater risk of disappointment (and mugging), but there is also an infinitely greater chance of new and unique experiences that will prompt new ideas and points of view. But there’s a better way to do it. Buy Hidden in Plain Sight for $17 here. Jan Chipchase with Simon Steinhardt.
s April 2013 Trend Briefing covering the consumer trend "CLEAN SLATE BRANDS" There's a profound shift in power taking place in the business arena. With a whole new breed of exceptional new brands living by the rules of Business 3.0, consumers are now attracted to unproven and unknown brands the way they were attracted to established brands in the past. In fact, 'established' is now often just another word for tired if not tainted. The future belongs to CLEAN SLATE BRANDS. CLEAN SLATE BRANDS: Newer, better, faster, cleaner, more open and responsive; consumers are rushing to CLEAN SLATE BRANDS and are now lavishing love, attention and trust on brands without heritage and history. Driving this trend: Why for consumers, ‘new’ now truly means ‘better’ As we highlighted in NEWISM, the consumer arena has never been more fixated on the ‘new’. So from being something that was pushed to consumers by businesses (‘new and improved’), the ‘new’ is now subject to an increasingly strong pull from consumers. CLEAN SLATE BRANDS better reflect the zeitgeist.
Replace Your iPhone Interface With A Dieter Rams Classic Dieter Rams’s 1973 T3 Pocket Radio is one of the most sought-after objects in postwar industrial design. The unassuming plastic radios--which many argue inspired the first iPod--regularly go for thousands of dollars online, when they’re being sold at all. “Original T3's are extremely hard to come across,” says Bryn Bodayle, the developer behind an iOS app that replicates Rams’s gadget. “I believe we’ve put this piece of history back into people’s pockets.” The T3 Player App, which goes for 99 cents on iTunes, is the brainchild of Bodayle’s partner, Peruvian designer Eder Rengifo. Open up T3, and you’ll see a vertically oriented screen that looks quite a lot like the face of Rams’s original. There’s something hilariously meta about using the T3 app. Check it out for yourself on iTunes.
First Look: How The Google Glass UI Really Works Google Glass has arrived like a piece of sci-fi memorabilia sent from the future. But with all the talk about wearing the Internet on your face and whether or not these glasses can ever be fashionable, the most obvious and important story has gone untold: What is Google Glass actually like to use? In a 50-minute presentation at SXSW, Google’s Timothy Jordan walked developers through what the Google Glass "Mirror" API and interface looks like today. And if we were to sum it up in just a few words, it’s a multimedia twitter feed for your eyeballs. Here’s how that actually plays out: The Basic Controls The Glass screen sits out of view, and it’s usually off, just like your cellphone screen. To start things off, tap the frame with a finger (or nod your head), and you end up at Glass’s home screen. Swipe your finger down on the frame to dismiss the screen and go about your day--it’s basically the same thing as the Android’s back button. Some Cards Are Really Bundles More Options Lost?
CollabFinder Wants To Make Hackathons A Part Of College Life After he graduated from UCLA with a degree in philosophy, Sahadeva Hammari emailed one of his heroes, the tech entreprenuer Seth Godin, about working together. It was a shot in the dark--but it worked. A few weeks later, Hammari was on a plane heading to New York to work on Godin’s then-new project, Squidoo. That was seven years ago, but as Hammari explains, "the idea of reaching out to a complete stranger to do something cool stuck with me." Hammari has spent the past few years building CollabFinder, a website that helps others connect with potential collaborators. He describes the site as “a serendipity engine.” Networking, Optimized Right now, there are plenty of services that let you connect with people within your profession: There’s Dribble for designers, say, or GitHub for developers. CollabFinder doesn’t silo users by profession. A Model For Schools Though CollabFinder began as a way to increase professional connections, the model has potential applications in education, too.
How Serious Play Leads To Breakthrough Innovation The following is an excerpt from Creative Intelligence by Bruce Nussbaum (HarperBusiness), out March 5th. It took several hours, but Harry West and his team eventually reached a conclusion about their current challenge: Drinking was weird. West, the CEO of the Boston-based consultancy Continuum, had brought together a diverse group of his top people--collectively, they had degrees in packaging, design, business, engineering, human factors, and technology policy--to help redesign one of the greatest innovations in Swedish commercial history: the tetrahedron-shaped Tetra Paks now so common in Europe, Asia, and much of the world. Dr. After years of trying to fix the problem on their own, Tetra Pak’s executives contacted West for help. So West gathered together a team that had worked together before and trusted one another to be, well, a little nutty. The original Tetra Pak design from the 1950s. Play That Doesn’t Work When we play, we try things on and try things out. Planning For Play
A scientific guide to saying "no": How to avoid temptation and distraction 9.9K Flares Filament.io 9.9K Flares × Learning how to say no is one of the most useful skills you can develop I found, especially when it comes to living a more productive and healthy life. Saying no to unnecessary commitments can give you the time you need to recover and rejuvenate. But how do we actually get past the urgencies of everyday life and avoid distraction, so that we can focus the things that are really important to us? It seems like a big task, I wholeheartedly agree. How to Say No: Research Reveals the Best Way In a research study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, 120 students were split into two different groups. The difference between these two groups was saying “I can’t” compared to “I don’t.” One group was told that each time they were faced with a temptation, they would tell themselves “I can’t do X.” When the second group was faced with a temptation, they were told to say “I don’t do X.” Here’s what happened: Makes sense right?