Designing reassurances

Out walking recently along the busy bypass road outside Trim, and the footpath suddenly disappeared.
In fairness to the planners /road designers /whoever they may be, the footpath did continue on the other side of the road. And the sightlines were good providing us adequate visibility of oncoming traffic to decide to cross in safety. 

But there was no *reassurance* - that's my word for it. A designed element that ignites confidence in the user.
Like the yellow man walking along the Wicklow Way. Every now and then, at a point where you might doubt your route, some helpful person has positioned a reassuring sign "keep going, this way, straight ahead". So reassuring.

Soap Collection

Since I was about 7 years old - that's more than 25 years ago! - I have had a "soap collection". My granny used to add to the collection, buying me a new coloured, smelly, shaped soap every week or so for a while.

I've carried them with me every house move I made. I tried to use a soap or two from time to time. Maybe a Christmas-theme to add yuletide atmosphere to my bathroom.

Or a fun soap when I expected friends with children to visit.

Now it's time to get rid of them.

So I took time out, photographed my collection and put together this slideshow together as an Ode to my Soap Collection. Some of the details are quite stunning.

My brother asked me will I sell them... but I don't think anybody would be interested. They're at the door, waiting to be taken away. Not sure where to. 27 years is a long time, I'm quite attached to these soaps in an odd unfunctional way.

Insighting, Ideating, Iterating

I took this section from http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/the-innovative-organisation-learning-from-design-firms-3833
It describes for me so clearly the design process and the way I was taught in architecture school although nobody ever defined the stages like this.

User-centric insighting: In order to create value in novel ways (the goal of innovating), you must first locate opportunities to do so. Where to start looking is easy to see—with the end-user—but it’s far more difficult to detect and synthesise actionable information within the complexity of the user experience. Customer surveys and focus groups simplify the process, but are often removed from how people authentically respond in the marketplace. Designers, by contrast, prefer observation to interrogation, developing empathy to discern unarticulated, even unconscious, user needs. As Tim Kobe, CEO of design firm Eight, Inc. put it, “We represent the end-user in all the design decisions that take place in these innovation projects.” And that’s why building empathy with the target user is crucial, as Continuum did when working with Procter & Gamble to reinvigorate the Pampers brand. Observing mums and their babies, designers realised that the mothers’ ultimate concern was their infant’s development, not the diaper itself. With that in mind, they devised a line of premium diapers for different developmental stages (Swaddlers, Cruisers, etc.) rather than segmenting by age.

Deep and diverse ideating: Designers generate heaps of new ideas based on user insights. This phase is where they unleash their creativity, coming up with as many and as distinct potential solutions as possible before putting much thought into implementation. These preliminary solutions are the product of an organisational process that deliberately cultivates a broad range of perspectives. Far from avoiding eccentric and exceptional voices, design firms seek them out and encourage their contributions within an atmosphere of freedom of thought and playfulness. Playfulness is so important at IDEO that they have created a Toy Lab where designers conceive and test out some of their creations by playing with kids as young as 18 months.

Rapid and cheap iterating: Designers understand that the creative flurry of the ideation phase can take them only so far. They are quick to make ideas concrete and not shy to declare them failures when they don’t live up to expectations. For designers, failures are not negative events but learning experiences. Producing fast and cheap dummy versions to test out concepts means that even when the experiments flop, it’s still a win-win. Singapore-based multidisciplinary design consultancy Awaken Group makes “low-resolution prototypes” of spaces using stacked cardboard boxes to represent walls. That way, alterations can be made to the design in a matter of moments as the client walks through the demo space.

Thank you to Manuel Sosa. Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/the-innovative-organisation-learning-from-design-firms-3833#IubtlgXCQALWBUiK.99

Shop and Work Spaces in Köln

Three years ago, I took a notion that I would like to live in Paris. I took time off from my steady, pensionable job (which was making me miserable at the time) and lived in the Latin Quarter for a month. But I couldn't bear it. I barely survived three weeks. My niece had been born in Germany (she was born while I was still in Ireland) and I couldn't wait to go and meet her. Here I was, on continental Europe and so was she! So I abandoned ship, I left Paris a few days early. I paid a ridiculous price for a train ticket to Köln.
All of that is an unecessary prelude really... the real story starts like this...
I had a few hours to kill in Köln before catching my next train. I went walking through the city. I was blown away by all the high street stores. Every shop you could name. From the UK or France or Germany or Italy - Pimkie, Body Shop, l'Occitane, HandM, Next, Benetton, Penney's/Primark - they all had huge branches in Köln. I don't really favour high street shops but I couldn't help be astounded. Brussels was similar but not as big, and not all together on the broad pedestrianised street: Hohe Strasse and Schildergasse.
And then I meandered on to smaller streets. And loved what I saw there too. Designers with workshops behind their shops. So a shopfront, and then maybe a mezzanine floor where the clothes were being sewn and made situated above the till / dressing room / stock room. And there was more than one of these! I loved it. Eagerly, I asked the shop owners and designers for their business cards. I saw it as maybe an option for me. An alternative to returning to my dreary desk in Dublin.
And on my next visit to Köln, I was excited to revisit this street. Of course, I hadn't made any life changes. I had returned to my safe job. So I was seeking inspiration and reassurance that these alternative places existed.
But I couldn't find the shops. I walked along the streets where I thought they were. I had mislaid the business cards. I remembered "Breite Strasse" very distinctly. I walked it and the adjacent streets. No luck. Maybe they'd gone?! Maybe they couldn't survive? The dream isn't a practical reality. Other "cool" shops were now inhabiting the streets in the area. Gentrification.
I have visited Köln twice at least since. And each time, I've walked in the vicinity of Breite Strasse hoping to see something I'd missed. It's put me off Koln. I don't like the place as much anymore. With the hipster Belgian Quarter. Sure, I've discovered the amazing Die Wohngemeinschaft hostel, the fab hairdresser a few doors up, Mythos, and the lovely coffee shop called Yummy Müslibar.
But back to Paris... the other day I was going through my old travel diaries. And I was delighted to find, tucked into the back of the Paris scrapbook, the business cards for the designer-maker shops in Köln. With trepidation, I checked their webpages. And I was ecstatic to discover that they both still exist!

rkm-kleiderkunst.de
schinkelwitz.de

I blame the map on one of the business cards for my confusion. The map highlights Breite Strasse and other streets in the area and only has a big spot on the shop location... but *doesn't* hightlight the actual street that the shop is on.
The street name? Auf dem Berlich. And I can't wait to go back to Köln and walk along it.

Intuitive Design using Colour

My mam and I both have Hetty and Henry vaccuum cleaners. Hetty has been part of my life for three or so years and when mam needed to buy a new hoover, I had no hesitation in recommending the Numac family to her.

I noticed that everytime my mam went to turn off her Henry, that she hit the "hi power" button instead of the on/off switch.

This puzzled me. I never got this wrong. We investigated...

On my cleaner, the on/off switch is green and the hi-power switch is red - this must be the intuitive colour for operation.

Which one would you go for to switch it on/off?
Another example... I remember getting a new bank card and noticing that almost everytime I used it, I inserted it at the wrong end... whereas, this had never happened with my previous card.

Unfortunately I can't remember exactly which end I inserted first, but I think it was blue!

Back to first principles

I call this method with which I approach life "back to first principles" without being entirely certain that that term is correct. I remember learning about first principles in maths class in secondary school and a lightbulb flickering on inside my head.
Here's a story to illustrate my meaning...

A new washing machine is delivered and needs to be installed. The old machine had both a hot and cold water input whereas the new machine only has one water input.

The installer rummages through the bits and pieces of plumbing attachments... he can't find what he's looking for. He wants to close off one of the inputs, to cap it. Something like this:

But WHY?! Why add to the detritus? This is the first step in a scenario that could develop into this...

So I suggested "going back to first principles". Remove the excessive y-junction and replace with a more simple piece of plumbing - a straight joint. Simpler than the cap with all the potential problems it can bring.

The installer was full of praise. Dumbstruck in the simplicity of the solution. Surprised by the "out of the box" thinking. And it seemed so obvious to me. More than obvious, it seemed the better solution.

Spice Rack

For years, I've been needing a proper spicerack. And today, I got delivery of one which I bought on ebay.

 It's wonderful to have all the spices standing on a custom-made shelf.

So simple but so hard to find. I'm delighted I finally bit the bullet and made this purchase. Well-packaged, simply made: ian5088

Looking at that picture, my next requirement will be a carrot storage area! And something for all the bottles to :) but just imagine what the place was like before the spice rack arrived!!!