Making Money on a Bet Yesterday, I came across a little post on LinkedIn: L.G. update: “I have a bet with one of my colleagues today. He thinks that using LinkedIn is a waste of time and does not see the benefit. So he has agreed to give me £1 for every like/comment I get. Considering I have over 2000 connections I reckon I will get £300 easy out of this. Start liking this update people!” It wasn’t from anyone I knew. But a LOT of people I did know (and are linked to) commented and liked this update. I added my like as well. To date (the original comment was made 2 days ago), there are 6,298 likes and 1,286 comments! Mr. L.G. stands to make some money here. With Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and the like, all pushing the value of social networking, it was interesting to see this little experiment making a direct conversion from social networking to money. And it’s not over—the post sparked an emotional response among the members of LinkedIn. The emotional trigger is still there. With each new like and comment, the temptation to add another like on the pile grows. It’s contagious!
Conceptual Design, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy
Good Idea, Bad Idea
by Olga Werby •
In the spirit of Animaniacs’ “Bad Idea, Good Idea,” enjoy the following product ideas. And for those who’ve never heard of Animaniacs, please watch the short segment (you can see more on YouTube!). Need a bit of assist in your bedroom? Add springs for the extra bounce. Find yourself in need of a sure grip? Make room for fingers. Short on space? Don’t waste the cupboards under each stair. Need more animation in the morning? Use the light. Bored with tea? Get a personal assistant. Worried about your waistline? Get measured. Live to serve? Bump it up. Too sure-footed? Make every climb a challenge. Too close? Give your photos some distance. Product design is limited only by imagination. A Short Introduction to Animaniacs’ “Bad Idea, Good Idea”
Pipsqueak Articles
ICT & Human Rights
by Olga Werby •
IADIS conference is fast approaching. It will take place at the end of July in Rome, Italy. I’m chairing the ICT & Human Rights panel. Here’s a list of speakers and their topics. I’m also attaching the poster for the session. Please feel free to pass it on to those who might be interested in this topic. Thank you! I hope to see some of you in Rome! 2011-06-29 ICT Human Rights Poster Download ICT & Human Rights Monday, July 25th 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This panel is dedicated to discussing how Information and Communication Technologies can be used to advance human rights around the world. Individuals can impact society, react, and reach out with the aid of technology. ICT is a powerful tool for encouraging, teaching, and protecting human rights. To learn more, please visit the IADIS web site: http://www.ict-conf.org/panel.asp To continue the conversation beyond the conference, please join our LinkedIn Group: LinkedIn: ICT & Human Rights linkedin.com/groups/ICT-Human-Rights-3398838 Presenters Dr. Miranda Kajtazi “Information Inadequacy in Information Society: Advantages of ICTs” School of Computer Science, Physics and Mathematics Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden Dr. Sarai Lastra “ICTs and Children: Bridging the Gap between Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives” Universidad del Turabo…
Cultural Differences, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy, Reference, Scaffolding, Users
Generation C, a Sample User Persona
by Olga Werby •
Here’s an Booz & Company article by Roman Friedrich, Michael Peterson, Alex Koster, and Sebastian Blum: “The Rise of Generation C Implications for the World of 2020.” [contact information for the authors is available inside the PDF] The Rise of Generation C
Pipsqueak Articles, Scaffolding
Design & Emotion
by Olga Werby •
Greenpeace communicates its point well: using emotional scaffolding, Greenpeace drives its ideas home on conservation. Read a CNN article here.
Cognitive Blindness, Conceptual Design, Diagnostic Errors, Errors, Featured, Mirroring Errors, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy, Scaffolding
Empathy on the Brain
by Olga Werby •
Empathy is a necessary component of product design. To design and make something that is comfortable to use for someone else, requires the maker of the product to imagine how another human being would feel while using it. This is a hard thing to do. Medical students have to take “bed side manners” classes that explicitly teach empathy for the patient. Some design schools do the same (check out this video in Product Design Resources). Fortunately, humans come equipped with a special region in the brain whose job it is to help us see the world from another’s point of view. Here’s a short introduction by Rebecca Saxe, “How we read each other’s minds.” So when we go to the movies, we relate to the characters and feel what they feel, and cry when they are sad, and laugh when they are happy, and cringe when things get awkward, because we have the Right TPJ (or RTPJ) region in our brain just behind and above our right ear. We aren’t born ready to use this part of our brain, as the experiments described by Dr. Saxe in the video show. It takes a long time for this social problem solving…
Cultural Differences, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy
Bio-Couture
by Olga Werby •
My grandmother grew a “mushroom” in her kitchen, feeding it tea and sugar. It had a slightly sickly sweet smell and it was hard and springy to the touch. I never liked to drink the stuff, but I always considered it somewhat of a family pet (I never had a dog or cat, being allergic to both). Years later, a friend game a small batch of mother culture grown in black tea—”That’s the stuff,” I thought! I kept growing it for a few years, with my family extremely squeamish even at the thought of it living in our kitchen. But I liked it, it felt like a bit like having grandma in my kitchen. It lived for about 4 years, and then died when we left it alone for a few weeks while we traveled on vacation. My boys were thrilled. Recently, I’ve read that Google has been growing these in green and black tea varieties for their employees cafeteria—apparently, it’s in fashion again. And now I came across a video below: Now that’s truly being fashionable!