Size, scale: earphones

How and why do some things get used and work... and others don't?
The latest example of this in my life is earphones.
I got a gift of these large pink earphones for Christmas a few years ago (not these ones but similar).

And since I started walking to college last September, I used them nearly every day. Apart from the fact that they blocked out the sound of traffic and were comfortable, the size of them meant that I found them in the mornings, stored them in my college locker during the day, and saw them again in the evening to remember to bring them with me on the walk home.

But they broke. Dunno how. The sound stopped working.

So I sourced a wee pair of earbuds that I had lying around.

Disaster.

The size and scale of the earbuds in comparison with the large pink headphones meant that I was always leaving them behind, putting them in pockets, losing them behind things in my locker. They weren't effective in my life!

I think it's interesting regarding design and intuitive design. And designed objects that get used.

Cloone co-op building

When I lived in Leitrim, this building was at the top of my road.

It was a pity it was empty and boarded up. Because I am sure it was a thriving place for community business.

Cooperatives were a big thing in Ireland, for farmers and maybe groceries too.

Vacuum cleaners and stairs

When I was hoovering my stairs recently, I took this photograph because I remembered a cartoon from a lecture in architecture school.

The cartoon showed a stairs and a hoover or vacuum cleaner which reached halfway and an exasperated housewife.
The question the lecturer posed was - which comes first - the length of the stairs or the length of the cable / hosepipe of the vacuum cleaner? Maybe the point he was trying to make is that architects can't be responsible for everything; the cart does come before the horse. Or maybe he was trying to suggest that a socket point halfway up a stairs wouldn't go amiss - if designers of electronic equipment can't be trusted then the architect should provide solutions for the domestic delight of housewives.
When I did a google search of "cartoon vacuum cleaner stairs", I didn't find the image I remembered but I did come across this ingenious solution!

A backpack vac.

Coffee cup waste bin

Spotted in DkIT college in Dundalk:

 

This bin is designed uniquely for the disposal of coffee cups. There are a number of round openings in the lid for coffee cups to go in and be stacked on top of one another. One of the round openings is for liquid disposal. 

Waste sorting in public places

Dublin Airport has got a new bin system.

There are three sections:

• Paper and cardboard
• Plastic and cans (includes plastic bags!)
• General Waste

Colour

Each section is a different colour.

• Blue for paper and cardboard (I think of blue for water, ie liquid, ie drinking, ie bottles)
• Green for plastic and cans (Green in my mind does not equal plastic or cans! Green is trees...!)
• Black for general waste (Yes, I think this colour makes sense).

In Ireland, our recycling wheelie bins come in a multitude of colours: orange, black, green, blue, brown. I think our heads are geared to black for general waste; brown for composting; green for recycling.

 I'd like to think that such colours are innately understood but we're not there yet.

Shape

The holes for each section are shaped differently

• Rectangular for paper/cardboard (I think this is logical)

• Circular for plastic and cans (circular is the obvious shape for bottles and can and drinking vessels, however this bin takes all kinds of plastic - bags etc)

• Square for general waste

The largest shaped opening is for general waste and I think this makes sense. However, although I think black is a good choice of colour for general waste, this opening is not the most appealing or "go-to". I think the idea of shapes is excellent, however this solution is not quite there yet.

Size

All the bins are the same size; I wonder if they could be narrower or smaller or different heights?

Design: a lot done, more to do

I am impressed but this is a protoype in my opinion.There are good design ideas but it's not quite there yet. I love that it is bilingual and I like the non-language-specific icons.

Czech schoolchildren

Spotted in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

An Irish conversation

This conversation happened on whatsapp between me and one of my fellow students:

If this were an Icelandic conversation, the answer would be "Room 256" or whatever, and the poor questioner would be left sitting there for an hour.
Whereas, because it's Ireland, the question presumes that the person asking is in a room for a 9 o'clock lecture and is puzzled because no-one else is there. Unspoken. And yet the person answering could read between those lines and gave the requisite answer although, arguably, not the answer to the question.
Fascinating!
(Maybe it's not an Irish thing, maybe this happens with other cultures too, but I recognise it as Irish and it certainly contrasts with my Icelandic experiences)