GMail hotkeys

I am so addicted to using letters to work in GMail. Y for archive, C for compose, L for label, GI for inbox. Also love the Send & Archive button.

Anyway, what I meant to report is that I sometimes find myself pressing Y when I'm done reading something in a tab in my browser. I think it's going to go away. haha

Email Length & Self-Imposed Constraints

I write long emails. I hate receiving long emails and I feel bad sending them.

Whenever I type out an email on a BlackBerry or iPhone though, I feel like I'm writing a normal email but when I see it on the computer later, it looks super short and to the point.

I think the combination of physical restriction and the illusion of long email due to constant linebreaking help me to edit. Also maybe the context to being out and doing something else helps too.

Maybe I should write my email in something that has like 30-40 characters per line to help me visualize the length of the communication I'm putting out.

Yelp?

Exchange with my colleague:

Me: Your Skype status is "Exploring Laranjeiras" [where our new office is]

F: Yeah, I cannot find a good place to have lunch.

Me: We need a Yelp! [here in Brazil]

F: No, we need delivery.

Me: oh. interesting.

Digital Agencies on Mobile Browsers

So many of these digital agencies have Flash-dependent pages and no graceful degradation. I guess in their strategy they needed to show "flash" more than anything. See the screenshots of digital agency websites on an iPhone.

Thread Jack

Is it just me or does it seem like more and more of my email threads (I use GMail) become jacked by others or I jack them myself with topics rending the subject utterly irrelevant? Sometimes several times.

The rise of search making labeling (subjects) further irrelevant?

Eating challenge demonstrates good design

Watching Man vs. Food with my housemate, I noticed an eating challenge that is unusually well designed. Typical food/eating challenges have the basic time limit and so on and looks something like this:

• Defined quantity of food.
• Fixed time limit.
• Prize for the winner.
• Hall of fame public recognition.

Here's what's different about this Randy's stuffed pizza challenge that I think is so well designed:

• Two people do this challenge together.
• There is not only a hall of fame but a hall of shame where the losers must write their names.

The hall of shame is great advertisement. This challenge sees about 1% success. Plus, the fact that it's 10 lbs of pizza for TWO people, seems to make it seem so much more fun and likely that two people would see the hall of shame and say "Look at those losers, I bet we could beat them." So much more normal and likely sounding than some individual deciding to go do this on their own. And more fun than two friends going to do their own challenges at the same time.

Opacity

Photo credit: Ben

Citigroup Plutonomy Report

"What are the common drivers of Plutonomy?

• Disruptive technology-driven productivity gains
• Creative financial innovation
• Capitalist-friendly cooperative governments
• An international dimension of immigrants and overseas conquests invigorating wealth creation
• The rule of law
• Patenting inventions.

Often these wealth waves involve great complexity, exploited best by the rich and educated of the time."


Something about that passage intrigues me.

The Goldilocks of Websites

Note the error message in red: "Error ! The current browser is either too old or too modern (usind DOM document structure)." This page is at the SD Storage website which is apparently new as of October 2009.

I think it was just for the calendar feature which I'm surprised is so sensitive to browser version. It's incredible how long it takes to get a sense for what prices the different storage sizes are via the workflow of this website.

Not only is the error itself unfortunate since I'm sure the website could have been designed with more cross-browser compliance but the message itself is really "ugly". Reminds me of the book Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points.

Wandering through the halls of an ER

Emergency gas shutoff valves.

Oh, I see. I'm looking at a map next to the object that it is pointing out.

Never seen so many push-buttons for opening the doors. 2 per corner, per side. Critical, I'm guessing.

Beds in the hallways are not being stored. The signs on the walls are actually "addresses" or "room numbers" for them that can be tracked as locations for where patients are.

Good thing it's not blocked.

I intend to post more

I will post more things here. I have regularly kept screenshots and took photos of some random stuff that interests me and typically is related to design. I'm starting to see some amusing themes for what interests me pop up so I'll start sharing them.

Wonder if I should eventually move this blog to a proper website/homepage for myself.

IDEO's Tim Brown: Asking the right question

Highlight from interview with IDEO President & CEO Tim Brown where he emphasizes the importance of asking the right question when doing research. I like this reminder that it's of the utmost importance to bring an active, listening mind when doing product research. How many interviews wasted due to aimlessly following test/interview scripts, or not giving the team a chance to re-question assumed facts, or having weak or no follow-up questions, or simply thinking a ton of or quantitative questions will get us good data?

Linked Entities That Move Through Space

Originally uploaded by precious stuff

I want to board the flight that takes me to you instead of away from you.

Joshua Prince-Ramus TED Talk

Fascinating architectural approach utilizing highly data-driven and human-centered design that appears to be highly contextually sensitive and empathetic.

Extensions of system, extensions of mind

From Ben L.

"How many times have you parked and had to open the door and look down to make sure you are fitting into the space?"

Love this set of photos. Think about all the gadgets or hacks that have been devised to assist with the specific task of parking accurately or in a confined space.

• Floor mats or bumpy cues on the floor
• Antennae sticking up from the front corners of the bumpers
• Dangling tennis ball from a string in the garage
• Using visual reference in the garage of looking to the side
• Learning how the headlight beams change shape at different distances when projected against a surface directly ahead
• Beeping radar distance sensors
• Backup cameras
• Lexus' self-parking cars
• Having a friend get out and help direct
• Lexus' passenger side mirror automatically flip down to show the floor when put into Reverse to show distance to curb
• Auto-folding mirrors to squeeze into narrow spots (comes standard in a lot of countries)
• Pads or bumpers to go on the bumpers to avoid dings and dents from "love tapping" while parking
• "360 view" Nissan and Honda have
• Any others? I should find links/photos for these examples.

Yesterday, a friend of mine remarked as I was parking, "You San Franciscans love parallel parking and are so good at it." I definitely don't do it as well as I used to now that I don't live there anymore.

How come parking is still so tough when we feel so comfortable driving like it's an extension of ourselves. How well do these hacks or tools for parking help us bridge the gap?

While we're on the topic of parking, how about the problem of finding those elusive open spots in a huge parking area?

I always try to think of a better way to help people find a parking spot when I'm looking for parking at a huge lot like at college, the zoo, the airport, etc. I've seen a few attempted solutions. The best was probably a Westfield mall in west LA that had lights above each spot that would indicate whether there was a car in it.

Gestalt at fault?

Which way is which? Downtown Dallas. The drivers are presented with this view for about 2 seconds after braking and exiting the freeway in a very tight tunneled off ramp.

Watch your head on this bench

Spotted this fix at a friend's place to prevent scraping or poking at the sharp edges of the corners of the air conditioning unit positioned above a bench.

Wrench as handle

Seems more ergonomic than most handles actually, depending on how one grasps or touches door handles. [Thanks to Ben for the photo]

Car armrest innovation? Scirocco R

I wonder how the armrest thing on the left is meant to be used? I want to go try it now. Too bad it's only in Europe.

Literal string

Can't imagine a more effective way of explaining the situation.