Posts filed under 'Design'
I have read alot of books on product development, design, innovation, management, and business in general. I also have had about 10 years of experience in design – making a wide range of things for other people. So, I have a pretty good idea on how to set up, manage and complete projects.
But nothing has prepared us for one of the biggest challenges that we face on a daily basis — now that we’re on the other side of the table. It’s the up’s and down’s of it all. The motivation. The excitement. The cynical days. The “Oh-my-gawd-what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into” days. The days where you’re convinced it will be a sucess — and the other days where you’re convinced it will be a complete failure.
Here is a great list, taken from the article: Innovation in a nutshell. It’s the other 10 stages of innovation, that seem to never be discussed:
The 10 stages of innovation
* Scepticism
* Enthusiasm
* Brass band and fireworks
* Results aren’t visible
* Existing business suffering
* Is it worth it?
* Start to see pay offs
* This is taking time
* Maybe not a bad idea
* It works!
Link to article: Innovation in a nutshell
Technorati Tags: innovation, product development, design, motivation
February 28th, 2007
Good or bad? Here to stay? Below are some sites that I have
collected that dissect the current (web) design trends.
Have some more sites to add to this list?
Technorati Tags: design, style, web 2.0, design trends
February 16th, 2007
Creativity. It’s quite a buzz word these days, especially the phrase “Creative Thinking”. Not many people are sure exactly what it is — but it’s being hailed as the saviour in business — a new way of thinking that when unleashed will create abundant ideas and wealth.
According to A Whole New Mind — a great book by the way — “If it’s likely that someone in China or India can do your work more cheaply than you can, or if a computer can do your work faster than you can…” You better start thinking creatively.
But all of this fuss about creativity has gotten me thinking — Is one way of thinking really better than another way? Will it really solve anything if we all dress in black and become uber-creative?
And it was this article below on thinkvitamin.com that put things into perspective. It’s an article that tries to explain to the the Web Developer some of the outlandish behaviours that a Web Designer exerts on others during a project:
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-designers
It made me realise that at the end of the day — there really is no better way. The Designer is no more important than the Developer and visa versa. The fact is — is that we need each other to design & develop those great products for our clients.
Perhaps, what we need more than anything, is a common language. Or a common understanding. So that when we do communicate and work together on projects — we can do so in a way that would bring out and maximize the talents of both the left-brained and right-brained thinker.
Then we would really be creating new products that add value.
Technorati Tags: design, creative thinking, new product development, creativity
September 14th, 2006
I found this great little resource a couple of weeks ago — A blog that keeps tracks of web design trends. Also features a special trend watching section where you can upload snapshots from around the web yourself.
http://fadtastic.net/
Technorati Tags: web design, trends, resources
September 13th, 2006
One thing I’ve come to learn running a design studio — is that my clients don’t care if it takes me 2 hours or two weeks to create a design. But what they DO care about is that it’s done by the due date , that it is relevant to the brief and that it’s of a certain quality.
It would be easy to say that we should throw the whole idea of billing by the hour out the window and use the “value” of a project as the fee. But what exactly is this so-called “value”? The highest amount a client is willing to pay? Or how much you expect that it will be worth in the future, down the road? How do you determine the “value” of one logo to the next? Would there really be a difference in “value” from client to client? I’m sure that they would think that their logo was as “valuable” or as important as the next guy’s.
I guess the best thing that you can do, is be aware of all of the resources involved in completing the project, make a good estimation of your (time)costs and then tack your profit margin on top of it. Then be sure to comminicate to your client exactly what they should expect during the process: tangeable deliverables, due dates, expectations and clear pricing that makes sense to the client.
There is an excellent article on Signal v.s Noise debating this problem that many designers face:
http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/picasso_paula_scher_and_the_
lifetime_behind_every_second.php
Technorati Tags: pricing, design, management, fees, projects
August 26th, 2006
Welcome to the Remix Culture
The internet can connect us instantly to like-minded people who share the same interests and challenges. With works being released under Creative Commons licenses, we can mix & match or build upon the works of our peers to innovate and create new products at lightening speeds.
Or can we?
One of the main challenges that we still face on the internet is seperating quality information from junk. Just the sheer abundance of information to sort through is dizzying. And where would we go to even find works that are published under a CC license? Currently, there are a few tools for finding CC works, but it’s far from perfect.
The Role of Blogging & Social Networking
I believe that this is where the importance of blogging and social networking tools will come to play. As bloggers, we are the human aggregators — sifting through the sea of information to deliver relevant content to our audience. But also social networking clubs like OpenBC.com will become more important. Meeting like-minded people and creating an online network will perhaps lead us to the content that we are longing for — helping us to create those new products in lightening speed.
Tools for finding Creative Commons licensed content:
New to Creative Commons?
Watch Get Creative — A short animated film explaining the in’s and out’s of it all.
Watch Reticulum Rex — Also a short animated film about who is using Creative Commons and how.
PDF e-Book
Free Culture:How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig
Technorati Tags: creative commons, innovation, design, social networking, remix culture, blogging
May 28th, 2006
A few years back, students from the Copenhagen University developed an Open Source beer as part of a project for their innovation course.
They published their beer recipe under a Creative Commons
license, and the recipe is free for anyone to distribute, modify,
etc. The only requirement is that if you use the recipe to
make a profit, that you have to give credit to their name.
The recipe is growing and being modified by people from all
over the world. Some people are brewing it for home use –
and others are marketing it and selling it for a profit under
their own brand.
Organization of the Future?
One step further than Open Source beer — Brewtopia in Australia is an Open Source company. Thousands of people over the internet helped them to create their beer and their brand. Infact, via their website, you can customize and brand the beer yourself. In about a week, your personlized beer will be on your doorsteps.
And this got me thinking…
Not just information — but innovation is being democratized. Technology is allowing us to make things that we once had to rely on specialists for. With more and more people releasing their work under Creative Commons license, it has all of a sudden become very easy to collaborate with many people and to build upon other works to create new ideas and products at lighting speed.
Future Designer?
Perhaps the future role of the designer will be one that merely facilitates the process of design — one where the designer harnesses the power of technology to help the consumer to custom-create his own product — much like Brewtopia’s BeerBuilder. One where the designer only provides the tools and pieces necessary for the consumer to put it together as he or she sees fits.
Other Resources
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4718719.stm
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,68144,00.html
http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2004/03/16/no_small_beer.html
Technorati Tags: open source, beer, design, business, innovation
May 22nd, 2006