mightaswell

Want True Sustainability? Then Design to Seduce

- by Amit Gadi (New Deal Design)

“….(talking about the unibody macbook) to create its aluminum case, engineers take a sheet of aluminum 15mm thick and machine away 90% of its mass. They then regrind and smelt the leftovers up to 20 times to make 20 more notebooks--hardly a 'sustainable' practice from an energy use and dematerialization standpoint. However the resulting product is beautiful and solid as a rock. I will keep mine for a long time--unless they force its obsolescence through software--because I simply love it! And that's the most sustainable point about it….”

Labels: design, sustainable

Intel is working on a "Whole home storage" solution.
very insightful article regarding consumer research.
Its interesting how a chip making company is envisioning solutions for consumers using their core technology and packaging it in a product/ service.

" Intel conducts in-depth research with people around the world to explore their homes, cultures, relationships, desires, and how they interact with technology. The goal of this effort is to improve our understanding of where Intel platforms can make meaningful differences in their lives. One of the focal points of our research is to learn how people interact with their large and growing collections of digital media.

People are generating immense collections of photos and home video, and they are building large music and video libraries consisting of media they buy on the Internet, obtain from friends and family, or purchase in stores.

During our research, we spent many hours with people in an attempt to understand:

Where, why and how do they create or acquire digital media today, and how have they done so in the past?
What devices do they use to acquire and create their media, and where are these devices located and used, within and outside the home?
Where are they currently storing these files?
Are they creating backup copies, and if so, how? If not, why? Would they like to do this?
What do they do with their media once they have it? Do they view it alone, with others, share the media, or file it away?
What would they like to be able to do with their media that they are not doing today?
How do they find what they are looking for? ...."

Here's another related article.

Biomimicry

Interesting article about "Biomimicry" at Designboom

"....The discipline of biomimicry takes its name from the greek words ‘bios’, meaning life and ‘mimesis’, meaning to imitate. as its name might suggest, biomimicry involves the study of nature’s designs and mimicking them to solve human challenges. janine benyus, one of biomimicry’s pioneers defines it as, ‘innovation inspired by nature.’ an early and well-known example of this process is evident in the invention of velcro. the product’s inventor george de mestral stumbled upon the idea by observing how burrs stuck to his dog’s fur and his clothing. by mimicking the small hooks of the burrs, he was able to develop the product we now know as velcro...."

FontShop has just launched a micro-site devoted to FF Meta Serif. Some interesting content, including this downloadable PDF poster:

link via i love typography

ReDesign Me!

Here' a new business model we as designers should be aware (if not scared) of!
Its called "ReDesign Me" where manufacturers pay the website to put product challenges to ask for improvements in their products by the end users and in turn reward them with RDMs- their online currency with which you can buy stuff from any RDM shop!
Cool isn't it?

Thanx "core77"

Freeconomics !

Here's a great read from "wired" magazine about the economics of "FREE !"

" For years, webmail users had to pay for extra storage. Then, as storage prices continued to fall, Google went after new customers by offering 1 gigabyte free to every user. Yahoo responded last year with the ultimate offer: infinite free storage. Since each page of webmail comes with ads, more users means more revenue. "
"....What's free: any product that entices you to pay for something else. Free to whom: everyone willing to pay eventually, one way or another...."
"......The huge psychological gap between "almost zero" and "zero" is why micropayments failed. It's why Google doesn't show up on your credit card. It's why modern Web companies don't charge their users anything. And it's why Yahoo gives away disk drive space. The question of infinite storage was not if but when. The winners made their stuff free first......"