Vegan Cooking for One

This is a design blog so I need to talk about the design of this book. Leah Leneman is the author. Published by Thorsons, a British publishing company in 2000 but originally published as The Single Vegan in 1989.

What I love is... the shopping lists. The book is broken into seasons: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. And there are 9 weeks in each season. So that's 18 weeks' worth of recipes.
The notes in the beginning explain that sometimes vegans live with other people who aren't vegans - so this recipe book is not for single people per se but in particular for vegans who cook for themselves. Clever!
There's one recipe per day except for Sunday when there's a lunch, dinner and dessert recipe provided!
One day, a recipe might require "half a cabbage" but one of the other days of the same week, the other half cabbage will be used up.
There's also a list of staples included - or store cupboard stock.
Personally, I am not a vegan. But I am single. I discovered I actually eat out a few nights in the week and therefore the shopping list actually lead to waste.
My favourite recipes were the indonesian noodles and the green curry. Some of the recipes were a bit odd - involving eggless mayonnaise but I suppose that's par for the course for a vegan... and I always replaced the tofu with sausages :)

Is it a painting? No, it's embroidery.

  

Seen in Gotheborg design museum:

Suzy Strindberg
Gron skog, 1999 

Design that makes the world work smoother

Sometimes we forget that things were designed. Systems and objects conceived in someone's mind. Solutions devised. Problems analysed. People and scenarios enquired into and understood.
How's this for a successful ubiquitous design?

The ticket machine with numbered slips of paper and correlating display. 

I have seen this in shoe shops, train station ticket offices, official government passport or motor tax offices. And used internationally also.

I especially think this is wonderful because users are empowered - it's quite a straightforward system, uncomplicated, easy to understand - and if this system is not working out in the user's scenario, it's easily removed and another queuing method devised.

Sometimes the tickets and the screen are out of synch when the customer agent clicks for the next number "64?" and nobody appears but quickly, humanly, a little bit of eye contact among queuers, a decision by the customer service agent and the numbers are brought back to function. When used in the right places, I love it!

Seen in Gotheborg Design Museum:

Turn-o-Matic, M80
Queue ticket dispenser and queue number display
A&E Design AB, Stockholm, 1974
Tom Ahlstrom
Hans Erich

Designing websites

I've dabbled in design of all sorts. And one area has been website design.
Similar to database design, it's really important to get the layout of the end item mapped out before ever using fancy software and good looking graphics. The "architecture" of the website is very important.
Here's a draft initial sitemap or layout design I did for the pages on a friend's website for her company. We never followed through on it but the initial sketch stands up.

I initially drew this on paper as a mindmap kind of but drew it on paint for the purposes of sharing here. All the technology in the world can't beat a little bit of human thinking and intellectualising and planning.

Graphic labelling

On an Aerlingus airplane.
This button/hook was never meant for a coat hanger but yet a coat hanger is the perfect icon.
It conveys hanging, suggests a place for coat.
The alternative would be a coat icon, but what kind? Male, female, duffle, ski jacket... Words are not an option on a plane carrying multilingual passengers.

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.