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Categories
Culture Methods

Describing Problem Spaces

better together
Design Thinking – Better Together

You should be having a conversation when asked as a designer to design an experience, service, or product design. Don’t assume they have taken the time to think about it. You’ll have a hunch about which aspect of the strategy you are asked to focus on, but sometimes projects move so quickly. Asking to be intentional about the goals and objectives, about the problem to solve for the business, is the very building block of a foundational strategy. For instance, consider a project aimed at developing a new application. Instead of jumping directly into design, engaging stakeholders in discussions about user needs and business goals can reveal insights that shape the direction of the design process.

Understanding Problem Spaces in Design

The Future of Design and Problem Spaces

As technology continues to evolve, the landscape of design will change as well. Emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are creating new problem spaces for designers to explore. For instance, VR can be utilized in training simulations to provide immersive learning experiences. Designers must stay ahead of these trends to optimize their strategies effectively. Continuous learning and adaptation will be key to navigating the future of design.

Measuring the Impact of Design Solutions

In your mind, you can decide much of this is intuitive; mostly, it is implied and never explicit. However, bringing clarity to these problem spaces can lead to more intentional designs. By articulating and addressing these areas, designers can create solutions that resonate deeply with users and meet business goals effectively. Ultimately, the key to success lies in understanding and optimizing these problem spaces in the design process.

Measuring the impact of design solutions is crucial for understanding their effectiveness. Metrics such as user satisfaction, engagement rates, and conversion rates can provide valuable insights. For instance, after launching a redesigned website, a company can track user behavior to see if there is an increase in time spent on the site or improved sales conversions. This data can inform future design iterations and validate the strategies that were employed.

Examples of Problem Space Optimization

There are numerous examples of companies that have successfully optimized their strategies by focusing on problem spaces. For example, Airbnb revolutionized the hospitality industry by identifying the problem of high costs and lack of unique experiences in traditional hotels. By creating a platform that connects travelers with local hosts, they addressed these issues, providing affordable and unique accommodation options. Similarly, companies like Tesla have focused on addressing environmental concerns through innovative electric vehicles, demonstrating how understanding problem spaces can lead to impactful solutions.

Identifying Key Problem Spaces

Identifying key problem spaces involves analyzing the context in which a product or service operates. Designers should consider factors such as user demographics, industry trends, and technological advancements. For instance, in the tech industry, understanding emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can create opportunities for innovative solutions. A thorough analysis can help pinpoint areas where user needs are not being met, leading to targeted design efforts.

Applying Design Thinking to Problem Spaces

Design thinking is a powerful approach that can be applied to various problem spaces. It encourages designers to empathize with users, define problems, ideate solutions, prototype, and test. For example, a team working on a healthcare product might start by observing patients and healthcare providers to understand their challenges. This empathy phase can lead to defining key issues, such as accessibility and usability, which can guide the ideation of innovative solutions that address those challenges.

The Importance of Collaborative Design

Collaborative design is essential in creating solutions that meet user needs and align with business objectives. When designers collaborate with stakeholders, they can uncover perspectives that may not have been considered. For example, bringing in marketing teams during the early stages can help align the product’s design with market trends and user expectations. Additionally, involving end-users in the design process can lead to valuable feedback that enhances the final product.

Designer As
Describing Problem Spaces 5

In your mind, you can decide much of this is intuitive; mostly, it is implied and never explicit.

Categories
Cinema Observations

LA Light

Electric radiance of Los Angeles at night. Still incredible after I originally posted this back in 2011

LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

Colin Rich’s interpretation of the city captures the downtown district including a memorable reverse view of the Hollywood sign. Colin’s “LA Light” journey serves as a homage to the best of LA’s landmarks at night.

The most notable benchmark for cinematic brilliance of LA’s nighttime hues and tones could be Michael Mann’s 1995 feature film, ‘Heat‘.

This movie captured a quiet ambience, albeit with some lesser known architecture.

Dante Spinotti the cinematographer on ‘Heat’ provided stark unsentimental framing and Elliot Goldenthal gave an equally minimal soundtrack avoiding the mundane and elevating the sober mood into a truly admirable realisation.

Categories
Culture Products

Omega Seamaster Special Forces

“In December they talked about SBS Seamasters but this was still unconfirmed rumors and something of a minor myth or urban legend amongst military watch collectors.  Then they were all but unknown to the collector community, but now it seems to be veritably raining UKSF Seamasters.”

omega seamaster sas
Remarkable

You have to take a step back to the original Rolex Submarine watch, the first to be defined by true military specifications and collaboration with stringent military grade benchmark:

“They were a different breed of beast entirely.  Not only were they officially issued and thus more highly coveted by military watch collectors, but they were custom modified by Rolex at the factory from the drawing table forward with specially made hands, bezels, and special fixed bar lugs according to Royal Navy and Royal Marines stringent specifications, so much so that some like the 5517 were actually given a separate model reference that was never commercialized.  So not only is there an issue pedigree, but the Milsubs were substantially differentiable from the regular production models in form and function.”

HT via @ialreadyhaveawatch.com

Categories
Field Notes

Sci-fi cinema interface

The eye can discern that an elevated interface, one that was designed to convince you that the sequence is indeed sci-fi.

sas communicator omega seamaster caseback 1024px 2

Sci Fi

Categories
Observations Daring Acts

British Special Forces

Incredible footage. Stealth/surprise remains one of the most valued tactics of these small special forces units. Watch how intelligence teams track the operations from high in the sky.

British Special Forces in Afghanistan. It’s a rare glimpse to watch these team warriors slug it out. The faces are blurred out to protect the identities of these covert soldiers.

Categories
Observations

Monticello Dam

Incredible sight of Monticello Dam draining (Lake Berryessa, CA) photographs #scifi #bathtub

lake drain big
Incredible way of controlling overflow to prevent dam spills

This bathtub drain spillway last saw action May 2006 due to low rainfall. Try to comprehend the magnitude of it’s size. The hole diameter is 72ft (22m) wide whilst the critical drop is 280ft (86m). That’s a man-made monster of humongous proportions.

lake people to scale
Gives you a better sense of size with two people next to it
monticello dam glory hole
In summer, it’s full size is apparent
lake plug
At the base
Categories
Daring Acts People

Patagonia rock and roll act

Beautifully described purity of purpose from former Belgium native:

big rock

Sean believes he didn’t choose to climb – climbing chose him. He considers his first expedition to Patagonia as a turning point in his life because he felt utterly connected with the forces of nature and the adventure of just being alive. Climbing teaches Sean to live life to the fullest and that he can do whatever he wants if he puts his mind to it.

HT Patagonia’s Rock Climbing Ambassador “Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll”

Categories
Fine Arts

Figurative connections

Extrapolation junctions revealing curious dimensional shapes

lightbox
Triangulation

Categories
Observations

Hercules on the beach

c130 Hulk of a transport plane landing at Pembrey Sands in South Wales. Chalk it up as a daring act worthy of Ian Flemming. Stationed at squadron F7 – Based at Satenas in central southern Sweden, about an hour northeast of Gothenberg.

swedish-c130-pembrey-sands

HT via @fightercontrol

Categories
Photography

Ferrari 250 GT SWB

These cars are timeless masterpieces in automotive history. Whilst the 0-60 may be halved today, I’d pay 10X the amount for one of these over anything of recent vintage from Maranello.

lightboxFerrari 250 GT SWB (or 250 GT Berlinetta Passo Corto)

Categories
Field Notes Methods Photography

Nature

Cerita Ambar visited Kilauea lava flow from the sea at Kalapana, Big Island Hawaii.

nature

When molten lava meets the ocean it’s a profoundly cinematic moments in nature. Peter Lik’s award winning shot came after countless trips to Hawaii hoping to capture volcanoes. Stunning.

Kilauea Volcano, on Kalapana, The Big Island, I found following some rumors down dirt roads. I shot it at 5:54 a.m., under moonlight. It reminded me of the legend of Pele, Goddess of Fire in Hawaiian folklore—legend has it that she and her sister Na-maka-o-Kaha’i, Goddess of Sea and Water sabotaged each other. You can visualize Pele in the upper left, blowing steam from the volcano into the ocean.” Visit www.peterlik.com. *Tech Specs:* Tripod-mounted Hasselblad H2 with 50mm lens and Fujichrome Velvia 50. Exposure, 2 sec at f/11.

Categories
Cinema

Failure: The Secret of Success

It’s often said, “Always dare to fail. Always take chances, and never give yourself the comfort of not trying”. In honor of Edison who’s rare successes beat the 10,000 failures.

Failure. The mere thought can paralyze even the most heroic thinkers and keep great ideas off the drawing board. But is failing really that bad? We get an inside look at the mishaps of Honda racers, designers and engineers to learn how they draw upon failure to motivate them to succeed. From poor color choices to blown race engines, these risk-taking individuals provide an honest look at what most people fear most. Watch the film and discover the upside of failure.

Categories
Fine Arts

Cheeming Boey

Coffee cup drawings by Cheeming Boey. Designs that could be seriously cool tattoos. Simple non recycleable objects elevated to new heights with creativity.

Coffee cup illustrations by Cheeming Boey
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Coffee cup illustrations by Cheeming Boey
Cheeming Boey 16
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Cheeming Boey 17
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Cheeming Boey 18
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Cheeming Boey 19

h/t: @booooooom

Categories
Observations User Interface

Google TV

preview of google tv now available on android sdk 1
Failed attempt, or better still, describe going from product 0 to product release 1

The Apple way – do it right, or don’t do it at all. If you do it wrong, can it quickly and pretend you never made it in the first place (or, alternatively, call it a “hobby”).

The Google way – do it, put it out there regardless of the state it is in, hope to be able to fix it or upgrade it later to something worthwhile.

I am not saying one method is better than the other in all cases (Gmail and the iTunes Store are enormous successes of the two respective philosophies) but when it comes to something like this, I can’t see a future where GoogleTV has been fixed or upgraded to make it worthwhile. It is exactly he kind of thing that you don’t bother launching until all the partners and especially all the content is in place.

Otherwise you’re just doing damage to the brand, and later on when you do have the partners and the content, all anyone will remember are the jokes from the early days about how you don’t have anything to watch and can’t buy a screen with it built-in anyway.

Getting the tech right and the content wrong is a classic error, and Google should be smarter than this. It’s not like that film; just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come.

HT @engadget

Categories
Fine Arts

La Jetée

lajetee

La Jetée 1962 France
Director Chris Marker
Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux
Japan 1990 (1st Japanese release)

Rolled poster 20×28 was $450

Categories
Cinema Photography

STASIS

A welcomed addition to our cinema listing featuring luscious cinematography with a deep stirring soundtrack. Bit of a familiar and trying storyline but it’s worth sticking with it for such lovely art direction

STASIS from Christian Swegal on Vimeo.

STASIS by Christian Swegal 24m high definition movie with outstanding art direction.

In the future, an Ex-Soldier is placed in virtual exercises to cure his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the simulations, he sees glimpses of a mysterious girl, presumably someone from his past. When a Stranger appears in his facility offering answers, the Soldier finds himself once again asked to kill, this time for her…

Categories
Cinema

Adrenaline junkies

Adrenaline junkies captures the brilliance of bikes.

Shinya Kimura – Chabott Engineering from Henrik Hansen on Vimeo.

A short film about Japanese custom motorcycle engineer shinya kimura from chabott engineering. Directed by Henrik Hansen

Exquisite work. The film, the story, the subject, the bikes – beautiful.

Categories
Fine Arts

Defying Gravity

gravity 1

Tokyo Photographer ‘Levitates’

Natsumi Hayashi makes flying look easy. But these defying gravity self-portraits that seem to show the Toyko photographer levitating above the ground are actually the result of a lot of hard work.

“Sometimes I need to jump more than 300 times to get the perfect shot,” Hayashi told MSNBC.com on June 8.

Hayashi blogs a levitating picture-of-the-day each day on her website, http://yowayowacamera.com/. Either working with an assistant or using a self-timer, she uses photography to freeze herself hanging in the air in diners, phone booths and on Tokyo sidewalks.

Hayashi makes no bones about her levitation being an illusion.

Categories
Brands Observations

Supreme coffee cups

Coffee Supreme’s take-out cups were already known in NZ and Australia for being unusual, distinctive and quirky, so while we knew from our re-brand brief that they wanted the brand to ‘grow up’, they felt it was important they didn’t lose their individuality.

Cleverly sophisticated Supreme coffee cups Cleverly sophisticated and stylish design team at coffee supreme in NZ who give you these delightful cups.

Design and brewing, hand-in-hand:

When coffee drinkers pick up a cup of Supreme coffee they have high expectations. Our approach is based on finding the best quality raw materials – the green beans – that we can obtain, and then roasting them carefully so that the entire inherent flavor potential comes through in the cup.

Independent specialty coffee roasters all nodding in agreement.