garygilliland:

I’ve written about ideas like this before but just because it’s a repeat doesn’t make the idea any less important.

In the December 2009 issue of Wired, Ideo talk about how they would manage the problem of urban rage and in particular the stresses caused by queuing. The idea is simple, convert the queue from an object of stress into something positive.

Members of the public can register for a card which allows them to log the time spent queuing at participating locations. The time accrued on the card can then be converted into time which the member organisations then ‘donate’ to nominated charities.

The whole article is worth reading both for a fuller explanation of the queuing idea and also for an overview of the thinking processes within Ideo itself

Wired: Reinventing British manners the Post-It way

It’s just after Christmas and like a lot of people I’ve spent my fair share of time in toy shops and I’ve been reminded of a goal that I had when I ran a programming team. Everything should be designed like a Tomy toy. I don’t mean child-like but where possible solutions should follow the pattern in toys.

I’ve got a memory like a sieve so I like acronyms hence SERIES

• S imple – nothing wasted
• E ngaging – asks to be used
• R obust – hard to break
• I nteractive – instant feedback
• E lective – you choose how to use it
• S timulating – encourages creativity

Compare this with Word, Photoshop and even web apps like Gmail. How many menus, icons and hidden rules are there to cope with before you can use the things?

When it comes to changing attitudes about the environment, apparently ‘No!’ is not the answer we were looking for. Getting hit with a green stick has had little effect.

So how do we convince six-billion-plus people that changing the way they live is important? Think carrot, not stick. Seduction, not sacrifice. ‘Yes!’ not ‘No!’We must reimagine everything we do. But we must do so in a way that allows people to experience beauty, exhilaration, love, pleasure and delight.

There is only one way to make this happen: use design to make the things we love more intelligent. Embrace the revolution of possibility to radically reduce the material and energy consumed, while increasing the positive impact of the things we use. Make sustainable more compelling, more attractive, more exciting and more delightful than the destructive, short-term ways. Compete with beauty and make smart things sexy.

Meet Bruce Mau. He wants to redesign the world

In their own words Project H Design is

“a charitable organization that supports, creates, and delivers life-improving humanitarian product design solutions. We champion industrial design as a tool to address social issues, a vehicle for global life improvement, and a catalyst for individual and community empowerment”

In Adobe’s Inspire E-zine Emily Pilloton founder of Project H Design, outlines her 5 tenet credo for a revolution in design which drives the work of her organisation. Emily is fortunate, in that her work is focused on more noble, humanitarian goals than most of us. Nevertheless the framework she outlines in the articles provides a basis for projects in the commercial world.

There is no chapter without action

In short, stop talking and start doing.

Design with not for

a process of "co-creation" is an absolutely necessary approach that makes clients not just recipients of services, but partners in the development of solutions that are appropriate and sustainable over time

If we’re sitting next to clients, hashing out details of what’s really important to them, we’ll find ourselves pleasantly surprised when our final, co-created designs, are not just good by our own standards, but great solutions for real people.

Start locally, scale globally

… scalability represents a new approach to mass production—by building in adaptability to our single solutions, we ensure replication that is both large in scale and personal to each of our end users

Document, share, and measure

To document, share, and measure means to diligently document every step of your design process (so that it can be improved and replicated), to measure its impact both quantitatively and qualitatively, and to share those solutions (along with the documentation and metrics) with other designers and users. The credo reads: "We keep a record of all work as a means to measure, and ask for feedback as a means to constantly improve. Our designs are never "done." We share practices between chapters so that we never have to start from zero.

Design systems, not stuff

“designing systems that can be adapted, replicated, and implemented, by users, in sustainable and infinitely relevant ways.”

"Systems over stuff" means not designing a bridge, but finding a way to cross a river—looking at the root problem rather than a quick fix, and thinking beyond the material

Take the time to read the full article and see what impact the framework has on your thinking for your next project.

Artist Kentaro Nagai has created a series of images which the recreates the creatures from the Chinese zodiac using a morphed world map.

I love this kind of thing because on first glance they are just graphically interesting pictures of animals but on deeper inspection a new layer of creativity is revealed.

You can see the video of how the pictures were created here

via swissmiss | Map Animals