Comments for GlimmerSite

Comment on Urban planning 2011–style by Nate Rosenberg

Nate Rosenberg — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:44:03 +0000

Thanks for the pointer. My favorite part of the design: "Staircases were placed before the elevators in the hallways and the stairwells were given windows, to nudge people to walk."

Comment on Can we teach kids to design? Or should they be teaching us? by Kenny

Kenny — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:09:54 +0000

Teaching children to solve problems and make decisions will help their imagination grow. This will give them the desire to learn the rest of their life.

Comment on A Japanese designer to the rescue by GlimmerGuy

GlimmerGuy — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:00:56 +0000

Now the NY Times is getting on the Shigeru Ban-wagon with this Q&A: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/garden/24qna.html

Comment on A glance back at GLIMMER by Scott Goodson

Scott Goodson — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 03:13:31 +0000

Love the book. Even more now with the newly designed cover. Congrats

Comment on Re-examine everything. And don’t be afraid to ask “stupid questions.” by Pete Abilla

Pete Abilla — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:53:47 +0000

A key concept in lean manufacturing is the notion of "root cause". A method often used is something simple but very effective called "the 5 whys". Basically, the assumption is that there is more than the first "why" and so if consecutive "whys" are asked, we get closer to the root cause.
This practice has been adopted by many companies and is so simple, effective, and accessible by anybody. And, it works.

Comment on Jane Fulton Suri on the power of empathy by Bostitch Floor Nailer Review

Bostitch Floor Nailer Review — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:01:50 +0000

Howdy I am so grateful I found your blog page, I really found you by mistake, while I was researching on Aol for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a fantastic post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the superb job.

Comment on A car brake that makes sense—except to car companies by pc

pc — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:25:21 +0000

Sometimes I read articles on (good) design blogs and just scratch my head. That pedal design is horrible!
The sideways turning out of the foot is very unnatural. An average person's legs are not naturally that fine-grained in their movements, and there are a large number who could never adjust to such a change – people who are pigeon-toed or have less ankle mobility for a wide variety of reasons. And it overloads the control even further to bind these two actions in closer physical proximity. They are even joined to the same physical structure, giving a single point of failure. Innovation fail.
After considering this problem for all of 5 minutes I've come up with several sensible alternatives. Many valid options have been proven in other transportation categories.
Why not separate these controls further, physically, and split the actions between hands and feet. Motorcycles and lawn mowers have hand throttles that could easily be adapted to cars without affecting the form factor of the interior. There are many other proven solutions out there – for example, airplane controls – push the wheel to accelerate, pull to ease up on throttle, pull and stomp for a hard stop. Have a "safety clutch" like lawnmowers to keep from accelerating when you push or pull the wheel getting in and out of the car. There you go.
And there are higher order contexts from which this problem could be solved, if we (collectively) were open to higher order change. We could look at how cars (or roads, or traffic patterns) are engineered, and rebuild to optimize flow. We already have "smart car" technology that can detect road conditions, traffic, imminent impacts, deer preparing to cross the road… etc. And we have safer impact materials too. So another way to address this is to look at how we can regulate car movement outside the cockpit.
Or better yet, why not just design better public transportation, or remodel cities to support more natural human movement and interaction within communities? Use distance travel for recreation or collective trade, so that everyone isn't forced to drive (including my 80 year old mother)? We should be looking more long term, big picture, and simply pragmatic.
Sorry to be a wet blanket. I just think the "Design" community is entirely too self-congratulatory and silo'd in our ivory towers. Just because a design is novel and interesting academically doesn't mean it's not mediocre or, in fact, quite awful in everyday reality.

Comment on Lost in Space, the sequel by Tom Ivarson

Tom Ivarson — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 22:24:21 +0000

The open floor plan which is rampantly being forced onto employees – at startups is disastrous to productivity & thinking. Even while management seems to think that they could have better visibility while keeping an eye on an employee's screen at all times, we have lost the ability to think in solitude. The constant buzz is a distraction at best and an inhibitor at worst.

Comment on Lego “plays well” with grown-ups by UPS Systems

UPS Systems — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:04:18 +0000

That's just incredible! Since I was a kid, I always found myself fascinated with lego and as the years have gone by, I've always kept an eye on what people are using Lego for, this is probably one of the most interesting uses I've seen in a while.

Comment on Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Nathanael Boehm

Nathanael Boehm — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:30:51 +0000

I've put up a PDF version of the Manifesto on my website that can be easily downloaded and printed:

http://www.purecaffeine.com/2010/09/bruce-mau-incomplete-manifesto-for-growth/