Sage with Design

Image credit: Freepik 2 days ago, Meta announced their new AI-integrated smart glasses.   They might be the most promising affordable smart glasses to hit the wearable technology market, with potential to democratize access to this technology and bring it to the mainstream. The value in smart glasses technology has always been the ability to have hands-free access to the internet. So the user can update their knowledge in real-time based on what is in front of them. The challenges continue to vary from designing the tech to be low-profile, stylish, cost-effective, creating clear use cases and also privacy concerns.  The change we're seeing today proves that people are becoming more comfortable with everything being recorded and that people are interested in the convenience wearable technology offers. For people who want to translate audio or visuals in other languages instantaneously. Or for getting help with fixing an appliance. Or for creating a more unique and immersive exp...

Image credit; Freepik John Sylvan, inventor of the K-Cup, doesn't own a Keurig. John makes drip brew coffee. "Before I go to bed, I put the coffee and water in, and when I wake up there's a pot of coffee," he said pointedly.   Originally, his idea was aimed at office workers that normally go to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. He wanted to design a faster, cheaper and "no fuss" solution that would lower waste from disposable coffee cups. He's upset that his design is, at best, carbon neutral in relation to the world prior to disposable coffee pods. Over 25% of American homes and 40% of US workplaces have a pod coffee machine in them. Billions of coffee pods are dumped into landfills every year which take 500 years to decompose. Recyclable pods don't help because people don't recycle enough.   Reusable pods are a good idea but it begs the question — why not buy a drip brew coffee maker for single cups? Drip brew coffee is the better option for environ...

Image credit: Freepik Service models are taking over many industries. You could buy Photoshop just 6 years ago. Today, it's exclusively a subscription. DVDs can still be bought, but you likely buy movies through a streaming service. Although, you don't really buy these movies, you're purchasing a "Limited License" through Amazon and all of the others. What you buy is the ability to watch your movie on-demand. If Amazon were to go under, or lose the streaming rights to what you've "purchased," you would lose access. SaaS is growing due to reduced costs, increased profit and increased efficiency for companies. But the drawback is that people don't really own the products they are paying for.  However, there is an opportunity in this trend to implement more sustainable practices.  Subscription models can support the idea of the Circular Economy, where companies rely on people to come back to their product or service. One example includes  refill sta...

Image credit: tonodiaz on Freepik I believe that the deepest pain you feel should be understood as a cry for humanity and universal love.  Charles Bradley, one of the greatest soul singers of all time, embodied this idea .  At 14, Charles felt unloved by his mother and ran away from home. He lived in the subway tunnels of New York and in the winter, he would ride the trains to stay warm. At 16, he found work as a cook and began singing in small clubs.  Despite his powerful and energetic stage presence that clearly pulled from James Brown, he couldn't make it mainstream until he was 62. That's when he released his first album and found both critical and commercial success. He reconnected with his mother and took care of her until she passed.  And all the way up until Charles passed away in 2017, he believed that if he put enough effort into his music, he could love people into loving.  It's innately human to want to create. For me, creating is where I find purpos...

Image credit: Freepik Minimalism is a design philosophy to strip away the excess and leave only what is essential. It ties in with designers' and engineers' general goal to simplify solutions as much as possible.  However, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Complexity can be necessary or even wanted. Many machines in a nuclear power plant are complex and there's no real way to simplify their interfaces further without compromising safety or functionality. They're simplified as much as possible in order to improve how efficient they perform and how easy they are to use by employees. Image credit: fanjianhua on Freepik Creativity and self-expression are important. If you're a kid, you might not want minimalist wooden blocks to play with, you want the LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Millennium Falcon set.  Or, chances are the shirts you pick out are probably not all the same plain black or white t's.  Despite many exceptions, there's good reason why Louis Sulli...

  Image credit:  Viktor Ritsvall on Unsplash Some people buy luxury products because they're well-made and offer a high-quality experience. But others buy them because they want to signal their wealth and status. Louis Vuitton / Supreme's $6,000 hoodie doesn't keep you warmer or fit better than one you could find in Macy's. It's expensive because the brands are expensive. It's meant to show to the people around you that you can afford to wear your money. The same goes for most supercars, private jets and yachts.  To be clear, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with owning luxury products. Buying a nicer house or car or phone isn't an inherently bad thing. If designer jeans are in your price range and you like the look and feel of them, you should get them.  High-quality items serve the purpose of offering a high-quality experience. If you've ever dined at a steakhouse in front of a $75 steak, you know how good that feels. That feeling ...

Image credit: ASphotofamily on Freepik Grocery stores commonly keep cheaper products on the bottom shelf. As you move up the shelves, prices generally increase.  Product placement strategies for stores have been used to influence customer buying decisions since the existence of stores. Current logistics make sense from a store's perspective because every inch of shelf space has a dollar value. From their perspective, it's logical to reserve the bottom shelf for storing items with limited demands, bulk items, oversized items and store brands. Eye level products are convenient to reach. This is no coincidence, they're more likely to be bought impulsively. Items at eye level are what your store wants you to buy. Some people can find the best deals shopping the bottom shelf, but "finding the best deals" implies that you have options. For many people, the bottom shelf is the only option. If you have shopped with your head down, because "down" is where you co...

Image credit: Chad Stembridge on Unsplash People who don't study product design may know of a handful of designers. Jonathan Ive, James Dyson, Ray Eames and maybe Dieter Rams would sound familiar to some outside of the product design circle. But no designer has had a more profound impact on the products we use every day than Henry Dreyfuss.  Dreyfuss's portfolio is vast and he was one of the first to focus on Human Factors engineering. He was the Industrial Design Society of America's (IDSA) first president in 1965. Notable designs from Henry include: Hoover Model 150 upright vacuum cleaner (1936) New York Central Railroad's streamlined Mercury train (1936) Bell Laboratories 300 tabletop telephone (1937) New York Central Hudson locomotive for the 20th Century Limited (1938) Westclox Big Ben alarm clock (1939) Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter (1939) Western Electric Model 500 telephone (1949) John Deere tractor (1950s) Steamships - SS Independence and SS Constitution (195...

Before the invention of the sphygmomanometer (blood pressure monitor), there was no way to measure blood pressure without making an incision. The first blood pressure reading Reverend Stephen Hales was the first person to measure blood pressure. In the early 1700s he made a small cut on a restrained horse and inserted a brass pipe (cannula) attached to a 9 foot tall glass tube (manometer) standing upright. Hales untied the ligature of the artery and slowly blood rose in the glass tube, slightly rising and falling at each pulse. This was a major moment for Hales to develop the fundamentals of comparative physiology, despite being inaccurate and an experiment of nightmares.  Image credit: American Heart Association The first non-invasive sphygmomanometer It wasn't for another 100 years, 1828, until Jean Leonard Marie Poiseuille would invent the first non-invasive sphygmomanometer . Poiseuille's device used a metal band to compress the arm and a mercury column to measure the press...

Back to the Future II (1989). Image credit: Universal Studios. Still waiting on that hoverboard… Self-lacing shoes from Back to the Future II (1989) are a great example of a diegetic prototype (fictional technology). They didn't exist yet, the self-lacing feature was accomplished by a person beneath the floor pulling the laces tight. But the movie did something important: it made people want self-lacing shoes. For decades people asked for them. And decades passed before a working prototype could be developed and then several more years passed for technology to advance enough to make these shoes sellable.  Artificial Intelligence, AR/VR/XR, and robotics are all areas that are rapidly developing. They are also areas that are being inspired by movies.  2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Image credit: Warner Bros. Studio. Ai may be the most obvious example. Hal, from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), comes to mind when AI is mentioned. So does The Terminator (1984) and Blade Runner (198...

Good design is as visible as it needs to be, often argued to be invisible. Although, as intuitive as a stop sign is, hopefully it's visible at an intersection.  Photo by Will Porada on Unsplash It's easy to not notice how easy a screwdriver is to use. Yet an ergonomic handle may have taken dozens of prototypes to get to the one that went into production. Photo by Tekton on Unsplash Or let's say you're trying to open a jar of pickles. You're using your bare hands, but the lid is too tight. You try twisting and turning and hot water but it's no use. You're frustrated. Photo by little plant on Unsplash Now imagine you have a jar opener. You simply place it over the lid and twist. The lid opens easily and effortlessly. The jar opener has made the existing scenario of opening a jar of pickles preferred. It's now easier, faster and more efficient. Photo by SuckerPunch Gourmet on Unsplash Designers study the before and after . Design takes an existing scen...

Image by Freepik. Gradation is slow, steady and subtle.  It's easy to get discouraged when you don't see results immediately, especially in a world where we're used to instant gratification. TikTok, Netflix and 24-hour news is constantly giving us information in bite-sized bursts.  Who is responsible for the invention of TikTok, Netflix and 24-hour news?  Zhang Yiming, Reed Hastings, Marc Randolph and Ted Turner might come to mind. They certainly couldn't have accomplished what they did without Ben Franklin, Edison, Tesla, Bell, Meucci, John Baird, Frank Canova, Jony Ive and countless others.  We build on work that comes before us. Small, consistent change over time can lead to a big change. Big change may feel abrupt when it's first noticed, but it always comes from many smaller factors. No great orator gave a famous speech without previously speaking, writing and humiliating themselves in front of people again and again. Slow and steady and subtle change is a good...

Early 20th century skyscraper elevators were slow and cramped. In 1903, a mirror was installed in the Equitable Life Building's elevator as suggested by the wife of Otis Elevator Company's president. She believed the mirror would make people feel less claustrophobic. In 1950, occupants in an older skyscraper were complaining about excessive elevator wait times. Engineers explained that modifying it would be expensive and difficult, so management consulted a psychologist to develop a solution. The psychologist argued that the issue wasn't about the elevator moving slowly, but rather the perception of time was intolerable. His suggestion was to install mirrors in the boarding areas to distract people while they waited. Mirrors were quickly installed at low cost and the complaints stopped. Mirrors were not new technology and using mirrors inside the elevator had been done before. Design thinking is not meant to only develop creative solutions, it's about reframing problems...

Not you, your idea concepts. Thinking outside the box for new and innovative ideas is an important cornerstone for being a designer. But, it can be tough to know where to start and how to deviate from a starting point. Collections of inspiration, like mood boards, are a great way to organize ideas from different sources. These don't need to be direct references. Pull ideas from nature, fashion, art, architecture and anything that catches your eye.  Speak with other designers about your project if possible because their background may bring about fresh ideas. Experiment with colors and shapes and textures and patterns and any design detail that might work.  You don't truly know how a hat is going to look on you until you try one on. You won't know which hat to buy until you've tried dozens of them.

They're coated in denatonium benzoate (DB), the most bitter chemical known to people. After incidents of kids swallowing gaming cartridges, in 1995, many states passed legislation to make it mandatory for certain products to use DB. All major video game manufacturers have done this as standard practice. It's not toxic despite the strong bitterness. But it is used in toxic products like antifreeze, which would taste sweet without DB. How effective it is has been debatable. If you tell people they could taste the most bitter thing on the planet, someone's going to try it.

It's easy to get caught up in your thoughts, but you can't work everything out in your head. Write it down, draw it out, make a mockup. That's the only way to analyze an idea. A scratchy sketch is more to work with than a thought. 

Similar to people, EvoBOT balances itself like an upside-down pendulum. This allows the robot to adapt to an object's size, weight or form in order to pick it up. It has two arms and two legs, but avoids uncanny valley territory by not being humanoid. The design is "bio-inspired" with hopes that consumers will accept its behavior. It's sort of like people, but unmistakably a robot. EvoBOT's design is a reflection of our changing culture to accept mobile robots in our streets, stores and homes. It isn't on the market yet so time will tell how consumers take preference. At the very least, it challenges our traditional notions of how a robot should look and behave.  On a side note, I wonder if the design was also Sci-Fi inspired. It looks a lot like early designs of TARS from Interstellar.

When the Juicero had its moment of fame , it was going to be Pressed Juicery, Nespresso and Tesla all in one product.  The geometric form and lack of buttons gave it a clean and modern look which attracted investors. This juicer featured an app and easy to use pouches that load into it. People caught on that they didn't need a $400 juicer to extract juice from the $7 packets. They could squeeze the packets with their hands. Or go to the store for juice. It was discontinued after 2 years on the market. It's not enough for a product to only look and feel premium. They could've at least made the pouches harder to squeeze.

Are white noise machines that happen to filter air.  The air filter does collect dust. Whether it makes a huge difference on my health or not, I can't really tell.  Originally I bought it because I lived in an older apartment with mold problems. I thought it would help me breathe a little easier. Maybe it did. What really came in handy was using it to drown out the neighbors while working from home. That and for falling asleep. I don't think anyone likes their air purifier for the same reason they bought it.

When you learn how to drive with cones on the road, you're told to not focus on the cones. Look at the space in between the cones, never what should be avoided. The same is true for accomplishing goals. Your focus is what you get.

Even if that's what you design. Your product is more than a feature dispenser. Good designs are a solution to a problem which people need and want.

Which begins by addressing the single most important problem your customer faces. The fewest prioritized pain points, perhaps one. Once you design a solution for the biggest, most immediate, detrimental element, build upon that. Address other pain points to improve your solution.  This can go on forever. It's easy to chase perfection, but the idea is to make something worth everyone's time through  falling in love with your customer's problems. Mediocrity falls short, but done is better than perfect. 

Summarize articles on computers Google Bard is ideal for summarizing articles because Google puts more effort into developing Bard to perform better at this than others. Go to Google Bard.  www.bard.google.com Find an article to summarize.  In a separate tab or window. Here's one you can use.   Copy the article's URL address. Click   the address bar  to select the article address.  Press "Ctrl + c" ("⌘ + c" for Mac) to copy it. Paste into Bard's prompt. Press "Ctrl + v" ("⌘ + v" for Mac) to paste the article address. Press Enter . Simplify or elaborate the summary. If you want to learn more, use: "Elaborate." If the summary is too wordy, use: "Simplify." Useful follow-up prompts: Explain the key concepts. Identify the author's biases. Summarize the main points. Evaluate the evidence presented. Discuss the pros and cons of the argument. Compare and contrast the article with other sources. Create  a shortcut to...

The world has never felt a rate of change quite like it feels today. Stories of the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of the internet come up a lot lately. State-of-the-art technology and usability are at a detrimental disconnect, similar to when computers were on the rise in the late 20th Century. The iMac G3 was colorful and easy to use and new; it was the first model in Apple's iMac line of personal computers. Computers were now (1998) stylish and friendly to first-time computer users. And these new Apple computers were both premium and affordable at just under $1,000. Translucent plastics, which came in a variety of colorful flavors, were so approachable because they looked like toys. Apple caught the tail end of the clear craze in an effort to express their vision that this computer has nothing to hide. Anyone could figure out how to use this computer because Apple (Jony Ive) showed you that everything was out on the table. Its surface was curvy, unlike the Gateways or Compaq...

Robots have been replacing skilled labor for a while in Amazon warehouses , Walmart warehouses , automotive plants and even  White Castle restaurants . The upfront cost of implementing these systems is high, but the long-term benefits are significant for business. Robots are faster, produce higher quality products at greater consistency, and reduce the amount of injuries and deaths in the workplace. This is especially true in the construction industry, where accidents are common. When programming is augmented with Ai, it is capable of troubleshooting basic problems on its own. This can save time and money, as it eliminates the need for human intervention. Additionally, Ai can be used to create custom-designed homes with less effort spent preparing the tools to build them.  There are many companies that are beginning to integrate Ai into their production system. As investors become more confident in the future of these companies, they will scale up and Ai will be adopted in th...

There is truth in Peter Moore saying, "Poetry only makes life bearable. Engineering got us to the moon." But if not for poetry, I doubt we would have bothered to go to the moon in the first place.

At the end of Moneyball , Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) shows Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) a clip of one of their minor league players .  This was shortly after the Oakland A's lost their final game of the season in 2002. Billy bet on undervalued players by using new statistical analyses to only come close to winning the World Series. He also set an American League record with 20 consecutive wins and changed baseball strategy forever. Those are types of wins, but not the one he set out for. Billy felt the loss. The minor league player in the clip is Jeremy Brown. Jeremy is used to stopping at first base after a hit, but this time he pushes himself to stretch a single run into a double play. He stumbles rounding first and falls and crawls back to base. Only then does he discover that he had hit a home run. So, what does this have to do with design?  Have you ever seen a drawing better than yours? Or when others have better ideas than you have. When the promotion goes to another. And your...

Recycling is last because it's not very good.  There's always been emphasis on recycling, but electronics and assembled products are difficult to recycle and often aren't. Designing for disassembly helps when the user follows through, same for repairability.  The landfills you see from the highway or on tv are hard to gauge. There's only so much a person can do about it. Our days are full, it's hard to be conscious of it. Or it's difficult to afford the sustainable option. Sustainable manufacturing and designing for a Circular Economy are promising ideas. We need systems to be put in place even though systems are difficult to implement. Designs need to guide our hand to good practices. Make it a behavior that isn't too different from what people already do or know how to do. Easier said than done, but worth saying. Also, apparently there are 10 Rs now, starting from the most effective to least: Refuse Rethink Reduce Reuse Repair Refurbish Remanufacture Repu...

A constant question with design thinking that's needed at all stages. It's the starting point and compass for user empathy. We turn people's experiences into a narrative to design around.  The narrative is then lined up with what we want people to do. Designers will consider how they want people to feel and say and think, but eliciting action is the priority.   Which is possible by getting people to want what we want.

It's hard to know when to stop. Paula Scher still goes back to adjust the Public Theatre logo from time to time and no one ever notices. She designed the original one 30 years ago, the most recent revision was 3 years ago. She's an infamous designer, a millionaire and has plenty of high-priority projects on her plate. She doesn't need to bother adjusting the Public Theater logo, it was iconic from the start. But she does it anyway. And nobody cares, but her. Of course we don't care about margins. It doesn't always matter when others can't tell the difference. She knows the design is as good as it could be, today.