Food for thought

My approach to design

This short presentation tells the story of my approach to design.
I truly believe in the value of untangeling the fuzzy-front end. Through this process you can envision what the product could and should be. It leads to a better understanding of the product that you are about to design and the people you are designing it for.

Keywords: approach, design, thinking

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Parenting technology

Thoughts by Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly was one of the guestspeakers at TEDxAmsterdam back in november (2009) and he is also Senior Maverick at Wired magazine (US). But most of all Kevin Kelly is a pioneer in exploring and writing about the history, meaning and purpose of technolgy in our lives.
He sees technology as an extension of life and technology is anything useful invented by a mind. It is fully intertwined with our lives and it is not only expressed through the devices we carry in our pockets, it is also expressed in things like law or systems like cities.

After watching the TED-talk I quickly browsed the internet to find more information about Kelly, and bumbed into many different sites including the Monitor talent site which has a nice overview of Kelly's activities and thoughts;
....
Why More Technology is Good for the World
Technology has become the primary driver of society and civilization. New technologies alter politics, the arts, social norms, science, and even our identities. The progress of technology is making the world better, but no body is very happy about it. Progress is out of fashion. Yet the march towards the next innovation seems inevitable. Do we even have a choice? We do. We have a choice in how to devise technology that will increase the possibilities and opportunities in the world. The answer to a bad idea is a better idea, rather than to stop thinking, so we should be increasing the good technology in the world.

Read the full article at the Monitor talent website here

You can also watch the TEDxAmsterdam-talk. I particulairy liked the part when he compared technology with children:
" ...technologies are sort of like children. Our job as humans is to parent our mind children, to find them good friends and to find them a good job. And so every technology is a creative force looking for the right job. There are no bad technologies just as there are no bad children. We don't say children are neutral. Children are positive we just have to find them the right place..."

Kevin Kelly is currently researching/writing his next book, in which he hopes to answer the question, “What does technology want?” It will be most likely published by Viking/Penguin sometime in 2010. His thoughts-in-progress can also be seen and read on his extensive semi-blog, The Technium.

Keywords: technology, ted

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Wieden+Kennedy, Masters of advertising

Is it Monday yet? & MVP Season II

Just a quick pick out of the amazing Wieden + Kennedy portfolio. Engaging, inspiring and well executed!

Go check out the video's on their website

ESPN - Is it Monday yet?
Nike - MVP season II

Keywords: advertisement, wieden+kennedy

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Why wait for the iSlate?!

Gesture Interfaces by Pranav Mistry

Pranav Mistry explaining his reason for the 'SixthSense' project.

'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. By using a camera and a tiny projector mounted in a pendant like wearable device, 'SixthSense' sees what you see and visually augments any surfaces or objects we are interacting with. It projects information onto surfaces, walls, and physical objects around us, and lets us interact with the projected information through natural hand gestures, arm movements, or our interaction with the object itself. 'SixthSense' attempts to free information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer.

You might have seen bits and pieces of this project before (since it was on TEDtalks februari 2009) but this is latest the video from TEDtalks in India, november 2009.

You can find more of Pranav's work on his website


Keywords: interface, technology, ted

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Glimmer

Books worth reading

Glimmer is a book by journalist Warren Berger, in collaboration with Bruce Mau, looking at the way designers think and how it can improve our lives. Drawing largely on the work of Bruce Mau the book presents ten groundbreaking principles of design in action – principles that address business, social, and personal challenges, and are designed to improve the way we think, work, and live.

You might remember Bruce Mau of his great book and exhibition Massive Change in 2004.
Today he is one of the leading figures in design and design thinking.

"... Mau is at the forefront of a loose movement embracing a new way of thinking about design. It includes individual designers and larger companies like IDEO, as well as several prominent design schools, where new theories about "design thinking" are being developed: what it is, how it works, what it can accomplish. But this "glimmer movement" (the "glimmer" being when a life-changing idea crystallises in the mind) also includes people from outside the design profession - basement tinkerers, technologists, do-it-yourselfers, "crafties", social activists, environmentalists, video-gamers and business entrepreneurs. What links them is their belief that everything today is ripe for reinvention and "smart recombination". And what makes them all designers is that they don't just think this, they act on it..."

You can read the full article on Wired.co.uk

I say 'YES IS MORE'!

Keywords: books, designthinking, research

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Back from inspiring Chile

Ready for new career opportunities

After 5 weeks of inpsiring Chile I am back home in freezing Amsterdam. It has been a wonderful inspiring trip and I have (re)discovered a lot of new sides of myself (who would have thought I had some hiking skills or archeological interests!). You can check out some of my adventures on http://www.caroel.nl (in Dutch).

But enough personal talk it is time to get back to business...
Time to update some of my work, add blog content, attend design meetings, meet you and get things rolling!

Best wishes for 2010!
Kind regards,

Caroline

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In Transition 1.0

from oil dependence to local resilience

I'm sure we all know bits and pieces about the content discussed in the "In Transition" film, but is always a good thing to remind yourself as often as you can.

... ‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. ...

Watch the film online here

Another (sort of) related platform is Sourcemap which is researching, optimizing and sharing the supply chains behind a number of everyday products. It is a tool for producers, business owners and consumers to understand the impact of supply chains and is supported by different groups within the MIT.
Look for yourself sourcemap.org or visualcomplexity.com


Thank you Doors of Perception Report for bringing this to my attention!

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Off to new adventures

Chile, New year, new adventures

After a year of hard labor it is time for some high-end relaxing, inspiration and adventures.
In a couple of hours time I'll be on a plane to Chile!
I can't wait to see the the Atacama desert, drink wine in Santiago, hear the sound of breaking ice in Patagonia and stare at the statues on Easter Island...

I'm back on the first of january and ready for new careerbased adventures.
Any proposals/suggestions/tips/tricks are welcome =]
Just drop me a line here!

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Story of stuff

and related videos

For those of you haven't already seen this, The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.
No real solutions, but a great overview of a product cyclus and the problem we encounter.



Keywords: video

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Design for Usabilty

Symposium and workshop

As part of the World Usability Day the TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and University of Twente organized the Symposium Design for Usabilty.
An event with lectures, exhibitions and workshops. It triggered my curiousity and I decided to attend the lectures and one of the 7 workshops.

It turned out out to be an inspiring day with lectures by;
- Prof. dr. Gerrit van der Veer; President of ACM SIGChi
- Océ-Technologies specialists Abbie Vanhoutte MSc and Robert Eijlander MSc
- Cees van Dok MSc; creative director at Frog design Amsterdam
- Jasper van Kuijk MSc;TU Delft researcher

In the afternoon I joined the workshop; Advanced user research and evaluation hosted by Roel Kahmann from P5 Consultants.

For more information please visit the Design for Usability website which also has a link to the lectures on video.

Keywords: symposium, usability, workshop

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