Literal string

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

Chest-high wall sockets?

Why in the world are these wall sockets so high? 

One idea I had was that it was designed for standing desk but this is a conference room. Another idea was they reduced bending over or stooping to plug things in near the floor. Another idea I had was that to make cables running along the floor more conspicuous than if they laid flat on the ground. Makes me think of the motivations behind the MagSafe magnetic plug that detaches with force instead of yanking the whole machine.

Any ideas?

TED Talk: What do consumers really want?

Interesting. A couple of notes I made:

• Experiences > Services > Goods > Commodities
• Experiences are about Rendering the Authenticity
• Services are about Improving the Quality
• Goods are about Controlling the Costs
• Commodities are about Supplying the Availability
• Basic paradox: No one can have an inauthentic experience but no business can supply and authentic experience because all businesses are man-made objects.
• 4 possible states of authenticity (2x2 matrix):
1. Real real: IS what it says it is, IS true to itself
2. Fake fake: Is NOT what it says it is, is NOT true to itself.
3. Real fake: IS what it says it is, is NOT true to itself
4. Fake real: Is NOT what it says it is, IS true to itself
• The economic experience Starbucks has provided:
• Coffee beans as a commodity is $0.02 to $0.04 cents a cup.
• Roast it, grind it, make it available on a grocery shelf, now it's treated as a good at $0.10 to $0.15 cents per cup.
• Take that good, brew it somewhere, now it's a service and you get maybe $0.50 to $1.00 per cup.
• Surround the brewing of the coffee with ambiance of Starbucks and their authenticity, it's now an experience and you can charge $4.00 to $5.00 per cup.
• Summary for business people:
1. Don't say you're authentic if you're not authentic.
2. It's easier to be authentic if you don't say you're authentic.
3. If you say you're authentic, you better be authentic.
• Summary for the consumers: Increasingly, what will make us happy is spending our time and our money satisfying our desire for authenticity.

Side note: Makes me a little happy that my functional group at work is called Experience Design.

Now packaged with less suck!

Can we party in the streets when blister packing goes away for good?

OS X Help Menu: Denied

I wish I could see more of the help topic previews. Especially since I find the launched Help window and browsing so unwieldy for some reason.

Mystery iPhone Fingerprints

I noticed some fingerprints on my iPhone around the home button at the bottom. But also around and on the area where the earpiece is. I thought, "Weird." 

Then realized that it's not surprising after considering I often pull it out of my pocket without looking and have few tactile cues to communicate which end I'm holding. If the pressed area doesn't give, then I flip it around and press - all without looking and with one hand. It subconsciously became second nature I guess.

Thoughtless Acts: Spray bottle hanger

But why on the inside?

Fail: Proprietary XD picture card format

Mark Dziersk on Design Thinking

Design in its most effective form is a process, an action, a verb, not a noun. A protocol for solving problems and discovering new opportunities. Techniques and tools differ, and their effectiveness is arguable, but the core of the process stays the same. It has taken years of slogging through 'design = high style' to bring us full circle to the simple truth about design thinking: that when used effectively, it can be the foundation for driving a brand or business forward. [article]

My favorite part:

[Design is a] protocol for solving problems and discovering new opportunities. 

When friends or acquaintances ask, I usually try to explain that at work, I "solve problems" to improve and optimize existing products and offerings which is somewhat self-evident as a competitive asset. However, the second portion about "discovering new opportunities" is at least as exciting and important in my role. 

As mentioned in a Harvard Business Review article "Design Thinking":

Historically, design has been treated as a downstream step in the development process--the point where designers, who have played no earlier role in the substantive work of innovation, come along and put a beautiful wrapper around the idea. 

Now, however, rather than asking designers to make an already developed idea more attractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consumers' needs and desires. The former role is tactical, and results in limited value creation; the latter is strategic, and leads to dramatic new forms of revenue.

Whether it's re-understanding a problem we thought we understood or recognizing an opportunity that had been overlooked, I try to convey that I work both in this innovation space as well as in the more stereotypical downstream problem solving spaces. Being able to deliver on multiple levels is part of what makes the work so fun and satisfying.

As Mark said:

The simple truth about design thinking: when used effectively, it can be the foundation for driving a brand or a business forward.

"Swans aren’t cuddly. They’re bitches."

Eric Spiekermann on the difficulty of designing numbers.