Design is about many things. Above all, it's about clarity, and intentions and about putting yourself in the position of the end users (or the customers, students, audience, etc.). When designs are not well thought out, even though it may all look good from our point of view, users get frustrated, confused, or even angry. Anyone who has used a poorly designed user interface on a mobile phone, for example, or gotten lost while following the signs on the freeway in a new city understands these feelings. And anyone who is squinting to see a figure or read a quote on a PowerPoint slide is experiencing a bad design of sorts. I always say the lessons are all around. I love examples of poor design, even for the simplest of things, because they are occasions to learn. Here's one.
On the road Last week I checked in to one of the nice Hilton hotels in Japan. As is common in Japan, one of the staff took me to my room, opened the door, put my bags down, gave me the keys and left. I then immediately changed and went for a run before dinner. When I returned to my room I inserted the key the same way I have in any other hotel I've stayed in, with the front side and the hotel logo right side up. It did not work. I tried it again slow
This morning I caught this short story on CNN (video below) on a very cool organization called D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network) which, according to their website, "...create[s] media designed specifically to serve deaf audiences through the use of American Sign Language (ASL)." Their latest video is a visual interpretation of the song "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera. I never paid much attention to the song until I heard it augmented visually today by D-PAN. I think this is a great example of visuals combining with the music and lyrics to make a more powerful message. This is an inspirational little video for the deaf/hard of hearing and for the hearing alike. Frankly, I think it's better than the original; they did a great job with a good simple concept. You can watch the video below via YouTube, or go here to watch a larger version on the D-PAN site.
CNN on D-PAN Here's a short news piece from today on CNN on the story of D-PAN (it was shown here on CNN Japan as well).
One more D-PAN example If you like the video above, then you may like this one D-PAN did set to the song "Waiting on the World to Change." I like this one too, but some of the text is hard to read and it needs to stay on screen just a bit longer to be able to read it comfortably. Still, powerful stuff. Watch YouTube version below or watch a larger version here.
Perhaps you've heard by now, but billionaire oil man T. Boone Pickens is on a mission to make sure the USA has an actual energy strategy under the new US president. He has a plan — The Pickens Plan — and he's been talking about it to anyone who will listen (watch this behind-the-scenes clip from The Daily Show), and he's put together a nice little four-minute presentation outlining the plan. Slides were added to this whiteboard overview presentation (below) with good results. The combination of the whiteboard, the actual map, and animated slides worked well and is something that is easily replicated live in a typical conference room or classroom. Some of the best presentations I have seen were by people who moved from using slides and video to whiteboard to using hands-on visuals such as maps or prototypes, etc. and then smoothly back to slides and so on. Now, Pickens does not get into great detail, but he gives you the story of the plan. In
We talk about play around here a lot. Remember that play was one of the six aptitudes needed to be successful in today's world featured in Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. I often associate at least one aspect of play and playfulness with the old Buddhist idea of the beginner's mind (or child's mind). That is, in the child's mind there are infinite possibilities, but in our adult mind (one filled with habits and routines) there often seems to be few. One of TED's newest talks online is by Tim Brown the CEO of Ideo. In this wonderful short presentation Tim makes many salient points about the role of play, playfulness, and creativity and why they matter in our professional or academic lives. You may be a designer of consumer goods, or a medical doctor, or a researcher, or a teacher — every situation is different. But listen to what Tim Brown says and ask yourself how the idea of play might be introduced into your organization in a way that would benefit workers, patients, and students, not only in terms of productivity but also in terms
I mentioned this before, but Tribes is an absolute must-read for 2008. Many of you already know much of what Seth Godin talks about in the book, especially if you have been following Seth and his blog, buying his books, etc. over the years (this is not a how-to book). But there is something special and "sticky" about the way he puts it together in Tribes that reminds us of our mission and our market (tribe) and inspires us to take what we do up to another level. I have the book, but I have listened to the audio version over the past weeks during stolen moments on the train or even while working out at the gym (not easy to do). Seth did a sold-out presentation in New York recently and he put the slides he used up here on Slideshare. But even better than that,
This morning I caught this short story on CNN (video below) on a very cool organization called D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network) which, according to their website, "...create[s] media designed specifically to serve deaf audiences through the use of American Sign Language (ASL)." Their latest video is a visual interpretation of the song "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera. I never paid much attention to the song until I heard it augmented visually today by D-PAN. I think this is a great example of visuals combining with the music and lyrics to make a more powerful message. This is an inspirational little video for the deaf/hard of hearing and for the hearing alike. Frankly, I think it's better than the original; they did a great job with a good simple concept. You can watch the video below via YouTube, or go here to watch a larger version on the D-PAN site.
Perhaps you've heard by now, but billionaire oil man T. Boone Pickens is on a mission to make sure the USA has an actual energy strategy under the new US president. He has a plan — The Pickens Plan — and he's been talking about it to anyone who will listen (watch this behind-the-scenes clip from The Daily Show), and he's put together a nice little four-minute presentation outlining the plan. Slides were added to this whiteboard overview presentation (below) with good results. The combination of the whiteboard, the actual map, and animated slides worked well and is something that is easily replicated live in a typical conference room or classroom. Some of the best presentations I have seen were by people who moved from using slides and video to whiteboard to using hands-on visuals such as maps or prototypes, etc. and then smoothly back to slides and so on. Now, Pickens does not get into great detail, but he gives you the story of the plan. In
We talk about play around here a lot. Remember that play was one of the six aptitudes needed to be successful in today's world featured in Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. I often associate at least one aspect of play and playfulness with the old Buddhist idea of the beginner's mind (or child's mind). That is, in the child's mind there are infinite possibilities, but in our adult mind (one filled with habits and routines) there often seems to be few. One of TED's newest talks online is by Tim Brown the CEO of Ideo. In this wonderful short presentation Tim makes many salient points about the role of play, playfulness, and creativity and why they matter in our professional or academic lives. You may be a designer of consumer goods, or a medical doctor, or a researcher, or a teacher — every situation is different. But listen to what Tim Brown says and ask yourself how the idea of play might be introduced into your organization in a way that would benefit workers, patients, and students, not only in terms of productivity but also in terms
I mentioned this before, but Tribes is an absolute must-read for 2008. Many of you already know much of what Seth Godin talks about in the book, especially if you have been following Seth and his blog, buying his books, etc. over the years (this is not a how-to book). But there is something special and "sticky" about the way he puts it together in Tribes that reminds us of our mission and our market (tribe) and inspires us to take what we do up to another level. I have the book, but I have listened to the audio version over the past weeks during stolen moments on the train or even while working out at the gym (not easy to do). Seth did a sold-out presentation in New York recently and he put the slides he used up here on Slideshare. But even better than that,