Classic Apple icon design by Susan Kare You can tell a lot about how much someone knows you by the gifts that they give. A good friend gave me this gift today after returning from a trip to New York. He bought it at MoMA and the label said it was on sale for $3.95…
Category: design
IDEO Method Cards widget
IDEO’s excellent Method Cards for human-centered design are available as a widget for Mac OS X users. (Saves you $50) Available as a download in the right column of the news page. Really easy to miss. Incidentally, Fast Company has an article on IDEO Method Cards Turn, Um, 7! Happy birthday Method Cards!
UX for Good
Just launched a new blog UXforGood.org which tries to bring together my often intersecting interest in user experience (UX) and social change. In quite a visionary statement with far before the birth of the internet, Charles Eames said: Beyond the age of information is the age of choices. It is an understatement to say that…
Touch interface for good
Touch screen NYC ticket vending machine (photo credit: yuen_long / flickr) Here’s a comment I posted on Changemakers AshokaTech discussion board in response to question How would you use touch-screen technology for good? Following our blog post on touch-screen technology, I’d love to hear about your ideas on how we can make such technology work…
Great Hanoi Business Cards
Great Hanoi business cards printed by MOO.com As part of the Master Urban Plan of the Expanded Hanoi Capital (a.k.a. “Great Hanoi”), we printed some business cards from MOO.com. I chose photos from our last trip to Hanoi (no need to worry about copyright there). I purposefully chose images about the current urban condition, monuments,…
The Brand Gap
A couple of months ago, a colleague asked me what branding was. I remember fumbling to find the right definition, and said something like, it’s the whole experience or impression you get when you recall the name of a company, organization or a person. It’s something that you can guide but it is ultimately outside…
Personalization and Mobile Phones
Mobile phones and most personal electronics devices have been made for durability. My Samsung phone is finished in stainless steel, plastic and glass. It is black and shiny. My iPod Nano is aluminum. My wallet is made of leather. When I first bought by wallet, it was stiff, and uncomfortable. But at some point in…
My Top 10 Favorite TED Talks
I’ve been systematically going through the TED video podcasts ever since I got my iPod Nano in late October, 2007. I’ve finally achieved my goal of being up-to-date with the podcast, sitting through some 180 episodes. TED for those who are unfamiliar, is handful of annual events, the heart of which is a conference hosted…
Projecting Corporate Identity to Retail
I used to live in Fairfax Virginia, about 10 minutes away from Tyson’s Corner Mall. Tyson’s Corner was the mythical location of the first Apple Store which opened in the summer of 2001. When I first visited the Apple Store in 2001, it was like setting foot inside a gallery: very quiet, uncrowded, with patrons…
Adventures in the Seoul Metropolitan Subway
I take the Seoul Metropolitan Subway system to work everyday, compacted like sardines in a can. I was in no rush to get to work the other day and as I took my time through the system, I started to notice the signage around me. I found some interesting ones. (My personal favorite) In…