Cubli - Brilliant Design!

Check out the Cubli!  This is beautiful applied physics.  Great Project!



Details here:  http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/Cubli

Hat tip to BoingBoing.net

Design: Modular House on the Waterfront

This week's design post features a custom designed house that uses CNC machines (not 3-D Printers) to fabricate (Cut) wooden components.  The house is optimized for passive solar gain in winter and assembled in just two weeks.



The narrator explains that the "Software" makes this oh so simple, but I fear it violates two of my favorite design principles - simplicity and modularity.

Evaluation Design

For today's design-focused post, here is an interesting IGNITE talk by Keith Proctor:



Given at IGNITE AEA 2012 (American Evaluation Association)

Keith explains key considerations in designing evaluations.

Link at igniteshow.com:  http://igniteshow.com/videos/modularity-layers-evaluation-design

Brilliant Design - A Warm Embrace that Saves Lives

This week's brilliant design highlights Jane Chen's TED talk "A Warm Embrace that Saves Lives."  Simplicity is my favorite design principle, and this is a great example.  It also saves lives!

 

Design with the Blind in Mind

For today's "Brilliant Design" post, I offer Chris Downey's TED Talk "Design with the Blind in Mind.  What a great challenge!  Where do I sign up to work on this project?




Link to talk at TED.com:  http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_downey_design_with_the_blind_in_mind.html

UI Design Process demystified - InfoQ Presentation

Chris Nodder gave an awesome presentation on how to create a UI design (Product Design) in a week at GOTO-2012.  The presentation is available on infoq.com.  If you want to watch this (over an hour) use the InfoQ viewer - it shows video of the speaker and images of the slides side-by-side for a very nice viewing experience.

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Fast-Easy-Usability-Tricks-for-Big-Product-Improvements-GOTO-2012

Quote of the Week

From his TED Talk "Build a Tower, Build A Team"

Design is a Contact Sport
~Tom Wujec