The Baxter ALYX blood component separator takes a 2005 Medical Device Excellence Award.



I worked on the Industrial Design and was the lead Interaction Designer for this product for Baxter Healthcare while at Insight Product Development.

Jurors made special note of the instructionless and global-use User Interface. "It's an innovative improvement in the essential task of blood collection," with "increased speed and attention to error reduction."

Core77 has initiated a "Design Slam" competition open until February 14th.
The concept is to use their discussion boards as an open forum to develop your work in progress. The winner will be judged not only on their concept, but on their participation.

I can't resist the social-experiment of collaborating 24/7 with a worldwide audience of (sometimes anonymous) designers. So my on-a-whim concept has to do with the eBay effect I've blogged about before: Check it out live and see what unfolds!

In the January '05 Wired, Jeff Bezos is asked "Do physical bookstores have anything to offer that Amazon doesn't?" and replies "One thing is face-to-face meetings with authors. And what Howard Schultz at Starbucks likes to call a third place, where people go and sit and spend time. We humans are a gregarious species; we like to mingle with other humans."

At first I was reminded of my concept for virtual storefronts via interactive digital signage and speedpass-like authentication/express checkout.

But what if Amazon were to maintain micro-storefronts for on-demand author tours and physical retailing? Instead of maintaining a large volume of books, they would ship a modest selection of books to line the walls of the space based on a theme (such as the author and subject matter) entirely selected by their recommendation-engine. The space would instantly become the best bookstore in the city on the particular subject matter and based on what millions of other people consider relevant to that topic at that specific moment in time, while leveraging Amazons unsurpassed catalog. It would trump niche retailers because all of the merchandise would be entirely up to date and cover obscure or emerging topics/trends that a retailer couldn't sustain.

The store wouldn't even need to push the merchandise. It could maintain one of each item and each visitor could be given a handheld scanner with three buttons: one to add the item to their Amazon cart, the other to add the item to their Wish List, and a third to flag the item as a gift.

"The Persuaders," Frontline's must-see and much-talked-about expose on the advertising industry is now available as a stream on PBS.org, with a bunch of interactive extras.

-Thanks to Brand Autopsy

Surface Magazine has pulled out the heavy-hitters in contemporary industrial design to celebrate it's 10-year anniversary. Their "future" minisite seeks to explore the technology and design potentials for the next decade.

Anita Campbell's "Small Business Trends" blog has cataloged some great consumer-trends for 2004 and predictions for 2005.

"According to Datamonitor, these are the top 10 global consumer trends:"

Age Complexity
Gender Complexity
Lifestyle Complexity
Income Complexity
Individualism
Homing
Connectivity
Sensory Experiences
Convenience
Health

For 2005, Watts Wacker says:

Rise of the Gray Hairs
Premium is In
Trends of "Anti-trending" (a close relative to anti-design?)
Lock it Up
Accelerated Online Sales
Homeopathic Medicine
Low-impact Makes an Impact
Image Enhancement
Technology Convergence
Return of Loyalty

From Entrepreneur Magazine for '05:

Authenticity
Age 35 (marketing to)
Multitasking and Memory Loss
Obesity
The Third Place
Snobization
Uniqueness
Life Caching

Top tech trends from Red Herring for '05:

The death of distance
Desktop search heats up
Rise in web services
Home sweet digital home

If you're into this stuff, or care what a bunch of designers think of it check out our ongoing conversation on Core77.

Joanne Eglash tells us why toys at work are a good thing, and why Programmers tend to like juggling, while designers tend to like action-figures.

Cranium is one of the coolest board games ever.

After hearing "who invented this?" one to many times this Christmas, I decided to find out for myself. It turns out the story is one of user-centered iterative-design process and two former Microsoft execs. An inspiring story behind an inspiring game.

Cyberpunk cum "design provocateur" Bruce Sterling reflects on six powerful technology trends in this streaming lecture from ICONIC TURN.

1. Interactive Chips for labeling (RFID) "spimes"
2. Local and Global Positioning
3. Powerful Search Engines
4. 3D virtual design of objects
5. Rapid prototyping production/computer fab of objects
6. Cradle to Cradle manufacturing

Instant Market Research via Amazon:

Top Selling Products (hourly)

Early Adopter Products (daily)

"Movers & Shakers" (daily)

Remember when I wondered who would be the first major Chinese brand?

Well, it might just be IBM, who just sold their PC business to China's Lenovo in a deal that makes it the worlds 3rd largest PC manufacturer. They're relocating to NYC, and the brand was built here in the US, so can you really consider it a Chinese brand? Nah.

Few would argue that Drum & Bass is one of the most continuously innovative styles of pop music in the past, post-rave decade. But let's face it, the last few years have seen little progress and few new artists.

Instead, hot new splinter-strains like Broken-Beat and UK Garage have sexed-up the sound and shown there is life after Techstep. So just when I was convinced the whole thing was over, High Contrast, Dieselboy and yes, even the Don himself, Roni Size come to the rescue, delivering three epic works to round out '04. These three albums each blaze new trails and show that D&B has plenty of ammo left: Size evolves his live megamix style, vocals and sawtooth hums, High Contrast crafts soulful house-influenced tracks (no, wait, songs) that will keep your iPod on shuffle for weeks, while Dieselboy jacks your wetware with the most tightly mixed Techstep masterpiece I've ever experienced.

If you haven't been keeping up, now's the time.

The long awaited Mozilla Firefox browser was released today. A friend pointed out how its a great alternative to the brain-dead IE we've been stuck with, but the bookmarking engine is hopelessly stuck in the '90s.

This got me thinking about Google, and their upcoming entry into the browser market. It seems like "smart bookmarks" would be a great opportunity for them to add some usability innovation.

For instance, what if their Page Rank premise was extended to bookmark management? When you bookmark a site, it looks at what categories other Google users categorized their bookmark as? As a side effect, they'd build a web catalog like Yahoo--but it would be more democratic and current by design.

Ideally a bookmark manager should augment your memory by allowing you to mine it in a lot of different ways, including chronologically or even spatially by the original site that referenced you. Wouldn't it be neat to see the browsing relationships of all of your bookmarks?

But perhaps bookmarks are redundant. How many bookmarks do you have but wind up using Google anyway because it's faster? Perhaps the best approach is for bookmarks to go away and instead become a pervasive part of your personalized search results; your very own Page Rank.

Last but not least, Motorola finally has a "Vision of the Future" site to call their own.

This is the work IDEO did for Geoffrey Frosts marketing group earlier this year, at the same time the design group was closing it's Milan office and without a leader following Tim Parsey's unceremonius departure. I caught up with Iulius (the face behind the iconic v70 and the Milan-office co-founder) at the IDSA National, and he was still smarting from the whole thing. He's now heading the design practice at Ignite. (The more interesting conversation was how he was trying to buy a surfboard out here to use on Lake Michigan… Good luck w/that!)

My favorite thing about the website is that it comes with its own instructions. How very Motorola of them.

Gizmodo teaches us how to make to make an iPod fake:

Step 1: Remove signature scroll wheel.
Step 2: Replace streamlined interface with wonky computer-like controls.
Step 3: Add every bit of software, hardware, and functionality you'd ever imagine anyone wanting.
Step 4: Photoshop!

This people, is why I do what I do.

Bad user, bad, bad user!

Users continue to front the blame for poorly designed software. MSNBC reports that "disasters are often blamed on bad software, but the cause is rarely bad programming. As systems grow more complicated, failures instead have far less technical explanations: bad management, communication or training."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6174622/

Of note, the famously bad SAP (Cooper uses it as a case-study) was recently responsible for a deployment foul up at HP that caused executives heads to roll.

http://superfluousbanter.org/archives/000151.php
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-980648.html

Philippe Starck is very odd, but very good.
I definitely want his new Pumas.

Microsoft has become an R&D powerhouse, despite their historic tendancy to buy vs. build.

As an Interaction Designer, I was happy to see that the VIBE ("Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment") team has put many of their usability study demo's online.

More advanced R&D can be seen on Microsoft's fantastic "Your Potential. Our Passion" innovation showcase.

Of particular note is the recurring reference to optimizing navigation on larger displays or multi-monitor setups. A solid step towards Sun's "Starfire" vision pioneered by Bruce Tognazzini in 1994, aimed at "envisioning the life of a knowledge worker in the year 2004."

Augmented-Reality (like that featured in my future of timekeeping concept) is making some progress.

The "magic lens metaphor" was recently demonstrated to good effect on PDA class devices... Mass market opportunities are sure to follow via cameraphones. We should expect a windfall of innovation as a result, not the least of which includes a location-aware "spatial internet."

Below: A virtual train appears properly superimposed onto the image of real train tracks as seen by the camera:


Thanks Gizmodo

A few years ago I identified photorealisim in 3D videogames as an untapped resource for advertisers, citing surprising demographics and even coming up with an ROI that would make Sergio Zyman proud.

But it's not rocket science when you realize that Goldeneye the game makes more money than Goldeneye the movie and that the typical gamer spends 50 hours mastering it.



Today Tom Loftus documents this recent "discovery" by Madison Avenue. The question is, will Double-Click leverage their online dominance, or do the big boys have a chance?

I for one hope that free high-quality, ad-supported gaming is on the way.

The new iMac's out.

While the previous iMac was both sexy and innovative, emphasizing it's thinness and taking advantage of natural affordances such as a weighted base, what Apple's given us this time reads like an overweight flatpanel that's outgrown it's stand.

By placing all of the connectors in a row along the right-rear surface they've given it an inadvertant combover that interferes with tilt and mobility. No wonder they don't show it with attachments.

Apple missed an opportunity for a true innovation here centered on desktop vs. mobile usage: a Superdock that would connect everything to the desktop through a usable satellite station. Ideally it would include a charge and sync dock for your iPod, mobile phone and wireless mouse. Then throw in your data connectors but also add AC power, all with one elegant cable.

Don't you get the feeling that this design is all about reducing the manufacturing costs of the previous model?

My Saab has two unusual buttons on the gearshift labeled S and W. (Saab owners like to call those kind of things "quirks.")

S activates "Sport Mode" telling the car to shift sooner, providing greater acceleration. "Winter Mode" does the opposite, actually skipping first and second gears to prevent slippage on ice.

That W button isn't doing me a lot of good sitting in Southern California traffic. What I really want is a "G" for "Gridlock Mode" button.

Ideally it would let me keep my foot on one pedal the whole time and have the car default to a stopped state. The brake seems like the right pedal, but only if the Mode can be smart enough to not ride the brakes the whole time, and instead rely on ultra-low idling and engine braking. (If it were the accelerator, I would expect a braking effect with my foot off the pedal.)

This would reduce the chance for fender benders, since I'm not constantly switching pedals, lengthen the life of my brakes and conserve fuel, but most importantly, help me cope with the insanity.

Why are all "major appliances" relegated to the kitchen or the laundry room? How antiquated. I think it's time for a new class of appliances for our information and entertainment needs, starting with the end of cables and DC transformer madness.

For the same reason that I don't put my fresh fruit in one refrigerator and my vegetables in another, I want a single place to put my gadgets so that they can stay "fresh" with juice and data.

Rackmounts are becoming popular for hi-end media rooms, and it's a good start. Now let's take it to the next step by developing a universal "bus" for consumer electronics that includes interconnects, power, cooling, etc. Homes could be prewired from this location with smart-jacks that include a universal modular connector, making any wall outlet a candidate for Video, Audio, USB, DC or AC power etc. Older homes could easily and inexpensively retrofit with sleek cord management housings that double as moulding or tracklighting rails (and of course for the conspicuous-cool factor.)

The results from Timex' future-vision design contest are pending, but here's my idea of a timekeeping device for the year 2154: (Unfortunately I couldn't enter due to the demands of my move at the time of the deadline.)

150 years out says beyond wearable to me: think Cortical Implants with the ability to virtually project information overlayed with your regular vision:

Now combine the state of the art in time shifting technologies with virtual graphic overlays and imagine a system that would allow you to "see" time based information such as milestone markers virtually overlayed with the real world:

Ghost Data would represent realtime splits of your past performance or famous races or events.

(Let's load that Carl Lewis program again but timeshift it to 50% this time so I have a chance!)

This type of concept could eventually replace numerical representation of time with information about the meaning of time itself.

This morning NPR reports on the hysterical Disinformation effort surrounding the upcoming Republican National Convention in New York. Disinformation activists will be dressed like their counterparts, and offer just as friendly advice on what Broadway musical to see, or the fastest route to Madison Square Garden.

The only difference is that their "helpful advice" sends you into Harlem, or via non-existant subway lines.

Also noted is the $50-$150m financial windfall expected by Bloomberg by the protesters alone, who are expected to outnumber the delgates by 50 to 1!

It's always been my dream as a designer of embedded User Interfaces to be able to control the UI without all of the antiquated paper based "Spec" documentation and interpretation.

Macromedia is making this dream a reality by opening flash specifically to embedded developers via an SDK.

Cool stuff.

OurType is a fantastic online typography store with the best type browsing interface's I've seen yet.

Bonus: They carry one of Erik Spiekermann's favorite typefaces, Fred Smeijers Arnhem.

Wired features some very predictable "products of the future" that I'm forced to report on as a YAVOTF.

Even worse is it's attempt at a future timeline which throws a bunch of technology we already have out another decade. Sometimes I miss the 90's...

The fantastic Design by Fire blog has two great designer head-to-heads:

Gurus vs. Bloggers Round 1
Gurus vs. Bloggers Round 2

Snarky copywriting, excellent deep linking and some design heavyweights make it worth the read!

How Magazine profiles the Designers behind this years Olympics.

Cool things I wish my iPod could do:

Bluetooth for sync, wireless earbuds and car stereo play-through

Radio-program capture and sync

Pre-emptively load with purchaseable music that it thinks I would like. Allow me to unlock and listen to the music at any time, then when I sync it the financial transaction goes through. (Assuming huge storage.)

Beaming abilities so I can share with a friend (even if they need to purchase to unlock.)

Sync word .doc's and .pdfs and then read them to me with a high quality text-to-speech engine (doesn't someone offer something like this for iPod?)

DJ functionality: tempo, fader, beatmatch etc.

Built in radio with pause/rewind/save (ie. Tivo for radio.)

Color display for cool visualizations including album art

Better management of various-artist compilations (like DJ mixes.)

Sync with my Tivo/play video

Bypass CD-ripping process and instead unlock a fully downloadable version from the record label. (I own one CD which actually included a copy of all the songs in .mp3 format in addition to the traditional redbook audio.)

Sync playlists with my selected friends for tribal knowledge sharing.

Offer me free music with built-in ads (not saying I like ads, but hey, free music!)

Built in barcode reader that captures UPC's off of any CD jewel case for later lookup and download.

Big props to Speakeasy DSL for continuing to blow my mind with service.
When I called to complain about a $300 disconnect fee, they not only voided it but turned around an unexpected $250 windfall, finding unused pro-rated service and equipment vouchers.

How's that for customer service when calling to cancel?
(Do you hear me now AT&T?!!)

So we finally ditched the landline phone in favor of a shared mobile plan and a cable modem. It just doesn't make any sense anymore. We're using Faxaway for our faxing and I even hooked our Tivo2 up to our home WiFi network instead (which has some cool added perks like online scheduling and mediacenter abilities.)

With AT&T now running VOIP ads and the explosion of residential broadband and WiFi I think we can anticipate the death of the dialtone within a few years.

If you could design a computer from scratch specifically for kids, it might look something like the $900 Disney Dream Desk PC by Frog Design:


Kid-friendly concepts include hidden connectors, a digital pen, parental controls and an integrated suite of Disney applications (only one of which is designed around an inevitable subscription model.)

Web-browser gripes, pt. 1:

Most websites are list-based, and many of the sites I frequently use are returning multi-page search results. Because of the way that browsers work, and how sites are organized, I'm forced to do something I don't want to do: drill down or flip pages in the most inefficient way possible.

This gets really tiring, really fast.

Here's my gripe (and obvious solutions:)

1) Going to the "next" page creates an agonizing wait while it renders itself--at exactly the wrong moment--when I'm ready to view it! I would much rather have the computer caching the next page so that it's ready and waiting.

2) I don't want a separate page to begin with! Let me use that oh-so-efficient scroll wheel on my mouse instead, and let me mark snap-spots on the scroll-bar that interest me.

3) The "next" hyperlink:
It's done differently on every site (typically a small hyperlink.) It's placement typically varies from page to page, forcing me to scroll, hunt and peck.
They're ALWAYS too small, giving equal emphasis to things I probably don't care about, like jumping to page 52.
They're not the same as the "Next" button on my browser (next to the most frequently used "back" button.)
They're not tied to my "page down" key on my keyboard.



Forget 3D spatial interfaces. Fix the obvious stuff!

I bought a home in Carlsbad CA yesterday.

You can find us 2 miles due north of "Fun Town" at LEGOLAND

So I'm shopping for a new refrigerator, and while I love the concept of in-door filtered water, why do refrigerators still push pressurized water out of a soda straw sized dispenser?

What I really want is a fast-pour, gravity-fed mechanism like I get with my brita pitcher. Water could dump out one glassful at a time (just push the button the corresponds to your glass size) and even throw in some ice-cubes. Afterwards the reservoir refills itself, chilling and filtering the water in the process.

Taken one step further, how about a prefilled glass dispenser at the ready? Drop your used glass in the top and it even cleans it for you. I always thought dishwashers were a lame way to clean your glassware anyway...

Finally, the re-emergence of playground-as-sculpture, via Little Tikes (thanks to MOCOLOCO)

It's unfortunate tht well-designed and affordable are typically mutually exclusive.
One hot new concept recently featured by Wallpaper and Dwell are "Modernist Prefab Dwellings."



Take a look at the experimental projects featured by fabprefab.com and you'll never look at mobile homes in the same way.

I'm hiring 3 Senior Interaction Designers at ALARIS Medical Systems.

Know anyone?

"But it's only £8."
"But we don't need it."
"But it's only £8!"
"But we don't ... OK. Whatever. Whatever."

All designers need to understand the IKEA story. The Guardian gives us a glimpse. (Thanks to Steve Portigal via AIGA Experience Design!)

"After a catastrophic debut and a major makeover, BMW's iDrive infotainment system is gaining acceptance with critics, competitors, and customers" according to this geeky article from Electronic Design.

"When the time came to port the iDrive to 5 and 6 Series BMWs, the automaker simplified the system, cutting its menu options in half (Climate, Communication, Navigation, and Entertainment). "This made it quicker to use. Tactile feedback was also changed, and speech processing was improved," says BMW's Kunzner.

"The great advantage in the 5 Series, which is the top of the art, is that the driver can use the system without looking at it."