visual/graphic food nutrition label concept

The design and anthropology geeks in me are loving this, especially given the social justice implications.

New MBTA paint schemes

So here's a couple-week-old one: The MBTA [just had] a contest to choose the newest scheme for their new engines from MPI (presumably more of the MP36/40 MPXpress family). These are the three options they gave:



(Okay, first off, why's the last one a different engine model than the other two - do or don't they have rear platforms??)
My initial reaction was a very railfan-typical preference for the first design that continues the current, classier lightning-stripe scheme (though the handling of the transition on the roof cowling behind the cab is weak).

With time though my designer side has found more faults with the detailing of that scheme (what's with that little strip in the middle of the nose??) and grown fonder of the other two. The front is really bold, which can feel cheesier and doesn't satisfy my railfan aesthetic, but does appeal to the rest of me. (Also the black on purple with gold pinstripe is just plain pretty.) I think it's fascinating how divided my design opinions are based on my headspace at the time! Regardless, these will be fun to see trackside.

"Some Perspective On The Japan Earthquake"

A lot of people have written about how the Japanese earthquake is a perfect example of high engineering standards and rigorous training and preparations paying off, but I especially liked this account.

A train pulling out of the station had hit the emergency breaks and was stopped within 20 feet — again, just someone doing what he was trained for. A few seconds after the train stopped, after reporting his status, he would have gotten on the loudspeakers and apologized for inconvenience caused by the earthquake. (Seriously, it’s in the manual.)

[via Chockenberry]

"Durable" instead of "Sustainable"?

A little thought by Human Transit. I'm not sold, though the throwaway comment about "Resilient" caught me eye. [several weeks old, but then I have things I've been meaning to read for far longer and I'll probably post some of those, so, tough]

UI tweaks in OS X Lion

I always love these look at the steps in the evolution of a UI.

iTunes was first to go monochrome, and now Lion is following in its footsteps. Things like the color icons in the sidebar in Finder are now monochrome[.]
...
Another move to make the interface take a step back and bring user content forward. Giving up color cues almost certainly makes it less usable, so what’s gained? A nicer looking interface that feels simpler because it fades away into the background, presenting you with less information to process.

When Apple changed the system folders to monochrome I found that it did hurt usability, but I'm actually curious if it might be worth the trade off this time. We'll see. Regardless, the care the designers invest is undeniable.

Andy Ihnatko's Sheldon Moment

human nature in a nutshell (and why designing things that are new or different is always so challenging to get acceptance of):

I was having a true Sheldon Moment. I couldn’t come up with any credible reason why the sudden change to this familiar layout bothered me. Yet I found myself wanting to tell the person at the register “But that’s not where those tables go. Why would you do that?” in a calm but very firm voice.

Cool Singapore Urban Open Space Practice

Singapore's 'void decks': social engineering through empty space [via Kottke]

attack of the toddler brainz

yep: Immediate gratification in design (a completely written-about-to-death topic, but still, this one serves to give a slight spin on it that I like and can serve as a good litmus-test) [via @NiamahNyx]

Some Fucking Design Advice

like "Let limitations driving the fucking innovation." [via Rosscott]

The 2011 Mediocrity

Experience Mediocrity
Best marketing campaign ever (well... maybe after Old Spice dude...) [via Design Sojourn]

From 'Wayfinding' to 'Thingfinding'

Rez talks about how users are often looking for many things in a location typically over-looked by traditional wayfinding approaches and how to approach that broader goal [via Wayshowing]

Rail vs Bus transit planning, infrastructure design & emotional fads

humantransit.org - The beginning of this article isn't particularly new in any way, but a decent refresh of the contrasts in abilities of bus vs rail technologies for urban transit. The much more interesting part is towards the end - Jarrett talks about the historic legacy of infrastructure geometries that were influenced by the emotional climates of their time - this seems to be a defining feature of many (all?) major infrastructure trends throughout generations. The (difficult) key is differentiating emotional fads from important paradigm shifts when making these sorts of planing decisions.

Look around your city and I bet you can find some long-term infrastructure that's not at all what you would build today, and that presents obvious practical problems for the life of the city now. Those facilities were designed to meet the emotional needs of a past generation, and some of these were built in spite of obvious mathematical or geometric absurdity because of the passion of the moment.
...
Things were built a certain way to meet the emotional needs of a moment in history. Today, the emotions have changed, but the geometry hasn't. So we're still stuck with the geometric consequences of those emotional decisions.

(also? whoadamn that's an amazing comment thread he's got going there...)

Design for Disassembly - full life-cycle design guide

a bit too buzz-wordy, but another oldie-but-goodie from Core77

funky Taiwanese nonstop-station-boarding bullet train concept

'how to board a train that doesn't stop'

[via my friend 'Professor C']

"it's not me, it's bad design" (comic)

by Lunchbreath

University Website Design (xkcd comic)

As an RA I would regularly direct residents to a page they needed with the google search terms that would get them there the fastest - google still is the only practical way to navigate the umASS disaster we call a website

brain-dump thoughts on bridging the gap between 'leaders' and 'public'

[Presumably this will be turned into coherent english at some point, but for now I wanted to get my thoughts down and I figured some of you might be interested to see one of my brain-dumps edited just enough to be semi-comprehensible to others. Amusingly-enough turning this from my shorthand into something I figured you could actually follow more than quadrupled its length...]:

Very common problem with any organization: general 'public'/membership don't know what's going on with the leaders/who the people in any given possition are (elected, appointed, hired, volunteered, conscripted, blackmailed), what they're up to, what current business is being transacted
--> public too lazy to bother to find out or to listen when that info is shared - is somewhat their own damned fault
--> but as with all design issues anything that's "user-error" is almost always a faulty design that influences people to behave in an undesirable manner - if widespread is (almost) always structural design flaw (see The Design Of Everyday Things by Norman - READ IT NOW!!)
--> leaders/people in specific positions don't advertise this enough, don't distribute info widely enough in dif mediums, don't run things "open source" enough
--> depending on demographics, learning styles, lifestyles people have differing mediums to learn info that do/don't work as well - relying on just one medium will leave out too many
(side/related issue: email vs phone vs text vs im vs face-to-face - each mediums have strengths/weaknesses - each medium preferred by dif people depending on their learning styles, lifestyles, familiarity, context - dif mediums inaccessible to dif demo's and disenfranchise certain groups - need to understand this to communicate effectively w/ various people)
--> examples: umASS residence life, umASS bureaucracy in general, town govs, smaller obscure gov agencies, etc
--> need to offer as many oportunities for public to interact as possible - will get more active involvement, people will feel more empowered, will have better respect for the work that is getting done, will be more willing to pay for the work being done
--> can never reach everyone, too many people don't care, don't want to know - what's the right balance? when leave them to their bliss and tell them to shove off when they bitch unjustifiably?

Camera Design for Grandparents

and for that matter electronics design for every 'non-technical' user, and how badly the industry is ignoring good design, a case study

The Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car are being retired

It's impressive how distinctive and ubiquitous these specific models have become due to their specific design characteristics and the power of fleet standardization. But those large heavy frames that helped them become so popular are becoming a handicap. (16 city mpg?!)(Also, what is with the Dodge Chargers coming into favor for Police these days - those things look too small to be practical, butt ugly, and stick out like a sore thumb!)

Brand Recognition - not a 'smartphone,' but an 'iPhone?'

“No, I don’t work on a laptop at home,” someone recently said to me. “I work on my MacBook.”

Not sure if this frightens or impresses me...