Weber, T. (2010). “Why companies watch your every Facebook, YouTube, Twitter move.” BBC News Online. Retrieved on October 6, 2010: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11450923 Summary: Weber makes the point that many companies are changing the way they are monitoring, interacting, and responding to social media. Although many companies have not fully encompassed the impact social media can have on their businesses, those that have, are actively incorporating it into both a communications tool and to a customer relationship management channel. Through social media, companies now have for the ability to collect people’s thoughts, feelings and sentiments in real-time, thus unlocking anything from current trends and hot topics to the reach of their brand and how the completion is doing. The fact that the application of social media is still not mainstream, means that businesses that have fully embraced its potential likely have a level of insight their completion is lacking, and thereby are creating a competitive advantage vs. their peers. While some companies are still on the fence trying to figure out what to make of it, others have already come to the realization that marketing outside the social media channel is thinkable! User Groups: Weber makes the point that in order to…
Conceptual Design, Contributor, Errors, Interaction Design, Interface Design
On “Keeping Kids Safe From the Wrong Dangers” by Belkin
by Ketil E. Jensen •
Belkin, L. (2010). “Keeping Kids Safe From the Wrong Dangers” New York Times Online. Retrieved on October 6, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/weekinreview/19belkin.html?_r=1 Summary: Belkin puts the spotlight on the somewhat irrational behaviors of parents when it comes to protecting their children. With the best of intentions, they worry about kidnapping, school snipers, terrorist, dangerous strangers and drugs, while the most likely things to cause children harm are car accidents, homicide (usually at the hands of someone they know), child abuse, suicide and drowning. So why are parents constantly overestimating rare dangers while underestimating common ones? The author makes the point that evolution may have something to do with it in that our brains are not designed to process abstract or long-term risk, but rather to react to an immediate dangers for instance represented by a sound and make a determination of whether not it presents a danger. In today’s fast-paced world where we are bombarded with all kinds of worst case scenarios and sensationalism, our sense of proportions gets distorted. So, we end up driving our kids to play-dates, when a walk on their own may have been better both health and safety wise. User Groups: So how can parents make more…
Conceptual Design, Contributor, Interaction Design, Interface Design, Product Design Strategy, Users
On “3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution” by Vance
by Ketil E. Jensen •
Vance, A., (2010). “3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution.“ New York Times Online. Retrieved on October 6, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/technology/14print.html Summary: Vance highlights the remarkable impact and wide application 3-D printing has on a wide range of traditional and non-traditional manufacturing industries. While traditional printers print on one dimensional paper, 3-D printers create a 3-dimensional physical object, usually from plastic or metal, by stacking layers one on top of another. The application of 3-D printers spans a wide variety of applications: from custom made prosthetic casings to building houses, and literally anything in-between. It may very well hold the promise of a game-changing technology for the US manufacturing industry in that the cheap labor may no longer be the “be-all” important factor it is today. User Groups While the application of technology in design and manufacturing hardly is a new phenomenon, the scale, ease of use and its wide application do provide something of a paradigm shift in a cross-section of manufacturing industries. In tomorrow’s 3-D printing world, yesteryears chasm between conceptual design and manufacturing is a non-existing obstacle. In this new 3-D printing world the virtual product concept conceived by the product creator and the material manifestation of her/his creation…