Dan Buchner on Impacting Global Issues By Design

Some of the world’s most significant problems can’t be solved with products alone, no matter how well designed they may be.

Richard Sapper: Fifty Years at the Drawing Board

At 75, design pioneer Richard Sapper continues to push his craft in new directions.

Selling P&G

P&G's chief marketing officer talks about the power of the Pampers brand--how strategic design moved the brand from "just" a product to an emotional experience between an infant and parent.

Design Collaborative: Back to Basics

Too many people can unfortunately relate to the following experience: You go to sit in a chair but you can't easily find or operate the controls to adjust how you like to sit. If you've experienced this scenario—or your customers have—then Allsteel's new Acuity chair should definitely be considered for your future projects.

Web 2.0 and the new role of Information Architects

In the world of Web 2.0, the role of Information Architects are getting more important and complex than ever.

Table of Contents: Creative and Beautiful Examples

Table of contents is often considered to be one of the most unspectacular design elements ever invented. Because of its simple, usual form, table of contents is often not given the attention it may deserve — after all, it is just a list of the parts of a book or document organized in the order in which the parts appear.

Future by Design

Future by Design presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems. As you will see, Future by Design is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions.

Segway CTO is riding away to Apple

Segway, the manufacturer of the scooter-like device that was supposed to change the world, is losing an early employee. Doug Field, the company's chief technology officer, is leaving the company to become a vice president of product design at Apple.

17 Cool Speakers Designs that Look Better than They Sound

Home audio speakers are designed to sound great, but many designers take it to the next level and create something so sexy that people can’t help but stare.

10 Gonzo Machines From Rogue Inventor Buckminster Fuller

The late, great architect and inventor brought us the geodesic dome, but Buckminster Fuller’s often twisted, often brilliant vision extended far beyond air-conditioned sporting arenas.

Innovation Doesn't Need Best Practices. It Needs Weird Practices!

Today innovation is no question the hottest topic but executives are generally disappointed in their ability to make innovation work or making tangible outputs or results.

Designing for mobile people not mobile devices

We must focus on mobile people, not mobile devices. In other words, we are not merely shrinking in size a Web experience, but creating an entirely new platform for communication and interaction.

Link Child Locator

Link is a product that a parent would use to help locate or keep track of a child in a crowded environment such as an airport, mall, or busy street. > More

IDEO Method cards

IDEO helps companies innovate. Key to their success as a design and innovation firm is the skill from understanding people and their experiences.

Designed to Win

Beyond the double glass doors, out past the marble fountain burbling near the Tiger Woods building, a billion perfect blades of grass stood at attention. Songbirds twittered....

Five points about the aesthetics of interaction design

In interaction design, we are not doing visual art. The user's aesthetic experience lies in the interaction, the way in which the system behaves and responds over time in interplay with the user. To put it simply, when we talk about aesthetics we need to talk about look and feel, not merely about look." (Jonas Löwgren)

Designing better services

Read this great summary about Service Design and how it can help address some key challenges facing organizations today. Down the load the PDF.

CNET's new, improved design

After more than a dozen years of bringing you content surrounded by yellow and green, CNET is getting a new look. As you'll see below, the carnival of colors is being replaced by a cleaner look that pivots off their updated, red CNET logo and our content.

Plug-In Hybrid Leads Toyota's Drive Beyond Oil

Toyota, rightly or wrongly, is widely considered the greenest automaker, and the company hopes to solidify its hold on the title and move beyond oil through a sweeping plan to produce cleaner, more efficient cars -- beginning with a plug-in hybrid it will produce by 2010.

Indie video game designers break through

In the second grade, James Silva didn't just play "Mario" and "Zelda" on his Nintendo but drew pictures of new levels and cooked up ideas for future games.

Coffee Carrier Bag

If you're stepping out to grab a coffee, decency requires you ask your co-workers if anyone else wants one. But on the way back to the office, you curse your own decency as you juggle multiple hot cups and the phone rings or you need to pull out your keys.

Here's a smart solution: A nifty solution is this carry-bag for coffees!

An elegant way to carry coffee and the carrier could be reused over and over again. Definitely a hit for coffee addicts and maybe our environmentalists as well!

Masters of Collaboration

The 21st century design environment trades individual stars for teamwork uniting designers, engineers, anthropologists, and others.

Herman Miller's Clinical Trials

Herman Miller took the office by storm with an ergonomically correct chair. Now it's trying to build up its hospital business.

Inventors

Inventors are a breed apart, a special kind of people who imagine what does not yet exist. Here are some great ones: Segway inventor Dean Kamen, Forrest Bird who invented the respirator, and Woody Norris, creator of the Air Scooter, amongst others.

Re-Thinking Digital Design: How To Feel Your Way To Innovation

Innovation can be defined simply as “introducing something new for the first time”, according to The Myths of Innovation author, Scott Berkun. Innovation is something that companies struggle to foster because it is seen as a key to differentiation, market leadership and therefore more customers and larger revenues. Read article here.

How To Deliver A Great Plan

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes - and even strategy.

ICON A5 Folding Plane Looks Like Sportscar, Costs as Much as Maserati

Loaded with features like folding wings (so you can keep it in your garage) and seat belt-like parachutes (so you can ease the whole thing down to the ground), ICON Aircraft’s new light sport airplane (LSA), dubbed the A5, might just be the ultimate joyride.

Crowded House

A firm based in Rotterdam solves the problem of too many people on too small a planet by tunneling down, packing tight and making pigs fly.

The '$100 laptop' may be a glimpse of the future

You've no doubt heard of the "$100 laptop" project. The idea is to help poor kids around the world by providing them with simple, durable, usable and wireless laptops for downloading and using textbooks and educational software, playing games and communicating.

Web Design Inspiration

Here are some web design sites that lend themselves towards great design.

BMW Builds a Shape-Shifting Car Out of Cloth

A concept car that stirs the imaginations of car enthusiasts and vandals alike. Pictures are abundant, but be sure to check the video to see how cool this really is.

Something new

You may have noticed that Google has a new favicon, the small icon you see in your browser next to the URL or in your bookmarks list.

From Mind-Blowing to Mockery — The iPhone 2 Mocked Up

The creative types that make up Apple's fan base have been busy dreaming up the ideal iPhone, Version 2. (Steve Jobs is expected to introduce the real thing on Monday.)

T-Shaped People

Interactive Marketing needs a holistic approach to creativity that blends big ideas with simplicity....

You’ve probably heard of the term “T-Shaped People.” Not sure who exactly coined the phrase, but the first time I heard it was from IDEO’s Tim Brown.

The notion is simple—cultivate people on your team that have a core competency, but can easily branch out (like the shape of a T). They ideally possess traits such as curiosity, empathy and aren’t afraid to ask why. And there is a distinction between this type of individual vs. a “jack-of-all trades.” The core competency and branches are complimentary, with the branches being secondary strengths. It represents breadth and depth of skills.

Design Companyof the week: Continuum

Continuum is a design and innovation consultancy. We are a group of design strategy, brand experience and product innovation experts.

Heat Sensitive Wallpaper

As the temperature rises, flowers bloom on the vines.

Extravagant Designs by Luigi Colani

Luigi Colani is a legend among industrial designers (see both his sites 1 and 2). His radical-looking Colani trucks, and his streamlined piano, but now - thanks to the photo material provided by Roger Todd, exclusively for DRB - you have a glimpse of his other designs.

State of the plumbing art: 10 examples of cutting-edge bathroom design

Check these radical designs in bathroom fixtures.

Rebuilding America

The country's infrastructure is crumbling, but PM examines promising solutions with a year-long investigation, plus video, audio, animations and podcasts.

100 miles per gallon or bust!

Carmakers are already charging batteries, tuning engines, and inflating tires to get ready for the Progressive Automotive X Prize contest, which will deliver $10 million to the winner whose car can exceed 100 miles per gallon.

Touch Screen Turntables

The ATTIGO TT was created by Scott Hobbs, a student at Dundee University studying innovative product design.

Evironmental Headquarters

What does one of the largest independently owned oil and gas companies do to turn over a more sustainable leaf? Well, in this case, EnCana hired green-tech architecture firm du jour Foster + Partners to design their new, environmentally sustainable headquarters in Calgary, Canada.

Industrial Robot

Robot trained to dance, paint, and...write the bible!

Beautiful And Original Product Designs

An overview of some beautiful and original product designs which will hopefully make the cut and will be available in the next years. Some of them are already available today.

Nubrella

April Showers Bring Nubrella's Hands-Free Weather Protection (and Thumbs-Down From the Ladies)

42 Awesome Business Card Designs

In today’s tech-oriented world of short attention spans it is more important than ever to make a compelling first impression. A brilliant business card that speaks to your profession, serves some unusual function or that transforms into something else can be a great way to grab attention and inspire those you meet. Organized by category here are 42 extremely creative business card designs.

Yamaha Branded Motorcycle Exoskeleton: A Segway on Steroids

Art Center Pasadena student Jake Loniak has taken everything that is cool about exoskeletons and motorcycles and crammed it into this Yamaha-branded Deux Ex Machina motorcycle.

The Most Incredible Parking Garages

The architecture and design of these buildings is as sophisticated and intricate as the cars they were built to house.

Autodesk at TED2008

At this year's TED2008 conference, Autodesk not only participated as a major sponsor, but hosted a lunch on Sustainable Design featuring Autodesk CEO Carl Bass and IDEO CEO Tim Brown as well as demonstrated a technology experiment called the BIGVIZ.

Thoughts on Interaction Design

Interaction Designers are the shapers of behavior. Behavior is a large idea, and may, at first blush, seem too large to warrant a single profession. But a profession has emerged nonetheless. This professional category includes the complexity of information architecture, the anthropologic desire to understand humanity, the altruistic nature of usability engineering, and the creation of dialogue. These topics are discussed in the four sections of this text.

Bezos On Innovation

Amazon.com's founder discusses his approach to innovation—both how to do it and how to stay focused when critics question high-risk projects.

A Zero-Emmissions Moto-Unicycle

The Uno accelerates with a simple lean and turns like a street bike on side-by-side wheels.

Yahoo! Design Pattern Library

Welcome to the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library. They're thrilled to be sharing patterns and code with the web design and development community.

Inside Steve's Brain

Lots have been written about Steve Jobs and Apple. Leander Kahney’s book, though, runs the full gamut on sharing the business mindset that drives Jobs and drives Apple to succeed. You’ll learn insights into developing new products, designing the customer experience, fostering an innovation spirit, hiring top talent, and sharing passion to “… put a ding in the universe.”

It’s a worthy read.

Sample some of INSIDE STEVE'S BRAIN...

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Improving Interface Design

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Joshua Prince-Ramus: Designing the Seattle Central Library

With beautiful visualizations, architect Joshua Prince-Ramus deconstructs the collaborative process of building the Seattle Public Library, hailed by critics as one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture. Watch the YouTube video above [20:43] http://www.ted.com With beautiful visualizations, architect Joshua Prince-Ramus deconstructs the collaborative process of building the Seattle Public Library, hailed by critics as one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture. He also offers a sneak preview of his works in progress (The Wyly Theater in Dallas and Museum Plaza in Louisville, Kentucky). Prince-Ramus is principal of REX (Ramus-Ella Architects), and was previously U.S. Director of Rem Koolhaas's Office of Metropolitan Architecture. (Recorded February, 2006 at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA.) More TEDTalks at www.TED.c

Innovation and Control

Navigating the complicated space between creativity and control in medical device design.

Luke Wroblewski on Web Form Design

Check out the podcast, where Luke answers a variety of questions such as:

• Why web form design is important.

• If form design is everywhere and easy, why are there so many bad forms?

• What are some of the common mistakes web form designers make?

• What are the Top 3 tips for improving web forms?

Inspirational PDF Magazines

Numerous visual arts publications from around the world are available for you to draw inspiration from. PDF magazines serve as excellent sources of both conceptual and visual.

Meet the real Iron Man

While audiences flood theaters this month to see the comic-book-inspired Iron Man, a real-life mad genius toils in a secret mountain lab to make the mechanical superhuman more than just a fantasy with the XOS Exoskeleton.

Using the tools of design to solve business problems creatively

Read the article, then visit the website.

Forest Fire Clear Cut Robot

The forest fire prevention robot by Jordan Guelde is an advanced robot designed to clear large areas of foliage from around a forest fire to help stop the flames from spreading.

Revolutionary Minds

Design & Architecture. Read Seeds first online Revolutionary Minds which feature profiles thinkers from the forefront of science-inspired design and architecture.

The tallest building in the world and still growing

When complete next year the Burj Dubai will stretch half a mile into the sky over the United Arab Emirates, taller than three Canary Wharf towers balanced on top of each other.

The 36th International Exhibition of Invention

More than 700 exhibitors, from 45 countries, are presenting at the 36th International Exhibition of Invention – the world's largest expo devoted to innovation. Here we present a selection of the inventors and their contraptions.

Longhand goes digital

The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen turns a sheet of paper into a computer interface. Write down an equation, and the solution appears on the pen's screen. The pen has a built-in audio speaker: record a lecture, and by tapping the pen on a line from a page of handwritten notes, you can call up the corresponding section of the recording. The pen's computational features work so long as the user writes on paper printed with a special pattern, which is read by camera's in the pen's tip.

Check out the YouTube video:

The Little Engines That Would

These new vehicles are zippy and green, but are American drivers ready for cute?

10 trends that will define logo design in 2008

It's important to be at the center of all design trends, because most clients want to be at the hype. And the hype for trends right now are pretty cool. Some have been out there for some time now, and others are somewhat new. Check it out.

A Futuristic Mobile Device Mockup

The idea behind this concept is exploit the internet ability in a mobile device. Touch screen, built in camera, scanner, WiFi, google map (hopefully google earth), google search, image search all in one slim device.

10 (More) Pieces of Clever Transforming Furniture: From Tetris Tables to Rooms in a Box

Why is transforming furniture so alluring? Does it appeal to our sense that innovation is progress?

Building the Perfect Laptop

The superslim ThinkPad X300 is Lenovo's bid for leadership in the high-stakes world of laptops.

Cutting Edge Designers

If you want to see what’s really hot in design, check out this new series on the Innovation & Design channel on Cutting Edge Designers.

Function Dysfunction

Allison Arieff, the former Editor in Chief of Dwell magazine, is Senior Content Lead for the design and innovation firm IDEO. In this article she discusses that in the never-ending quest to provide consumers with the newest, fastest, sleekest and most-highly-functioning-est stuff, technology companies (and their designers and engineers and marketers) often lose sight of the original purpose of the thing they are selling — not to mention the environmental and functional impacts.

Design Inc.

Want to know what the world of interior design is really like? Tune in to design inc., the show that takes you through the real elements of the interior design process — from the trials to the tribulations, to the triumphs.

Breaking the code

Frog recognized that the primary interface for the application, that which links the user with Lawson’s M3 application server, offered only limited interaction capabilities. The learning curve for frog was steep, with a huge number of codes and parameters to navigate, and an overwhelmingly comprehensive application scope.

Phone with fold-away screen launched

A Dutch company has squeezed a display the size of two business cards into a gadget no bigger than other mobile phones -- by making a screen that folds up when not in use.

Joint Venture

Foot-ankle prostheses can be tiring to wear and produce an awkward, ungainly stride, but the PowerFoot One is the first with battery-powered springs that propel the wearer forward and create a more natural gait. Its built-in microprocessors and environmental sensors enable it to negotiate slopes, stairs and level ground with ease. Invented by Hugh Herr, a double amputee and MIT professor, the PowerFoot also recaptures the energy produced with each step.
Available Summer 2008
iwalkpro.com/products

Venturi Eclectic charges via solar or wind power

Having transformed themselves from a low-volume sports car manufacturer to a twenty-first century "CarbonNeutral" car-maker, Venturi is showed a pair of very interesting concepts at the Paris Motor Show.

Aquaduct: Mobile Filtration Vehicle

The Aquaduct is pedal powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. A peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank draws water from a large tank, through a carbon filter, to a smaller clean tank. The clean tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, enabling the rider to filter the water while traveling or while stationary.

Apple Introduces the world's thinnest notebook

Apple introduces the world's thinnest laptop, the MacBook Air.

Big Ideas, Better World

Popular Mechanic's third annual innovation celebration, honor eight inventors (with video from the lab) and 10 products with one IQ-packed party and three discussions for our future.

Businesses have designs for the poor

As anyone who's fallen in love with an iPod or Wii game console can attest to, good product design matters. It can matter more, in fact, than how many (or what kind) of features are crammed into a device.

Birth of a Gadget: Inside the Industrial Design Process

Gadgets aren't immaculately conceived, in spite of what seems like lightning-speed development.

Kindle

CNET got one of the first review samples and had a chance to put the Amazon e-book reader through its paces. Here's what they think.

Jeff Bezos unveils Kindle

Minority Report becomes reality

Here's Jeff Han on TED Talks

A phone that's a pen

The product is not finished yet but you may want one. Take a look here.

The Best Inventions Of The Year

From the phone that has changed phones forever, to futuristic cars, to a building made of water, to a remote-controlled dragonfly, and a dazzling display of ingenuity. Check it here.

A Table Designed to Walk

Where Designers Rule

Electronics maker Bang & Olufsen doesn't ask shoppers what they want. Its faith is in its design gurus.

Design Vision

A conversation about the role of design-driven leadership.

Yahoo! Design Week: What makes design seem intuitive?

The always entertaining & insightful, Jared Spool- founder & principal of User Interface Engineering- spoke at Yahoo! Design Week about what makes designs...

Yahoo Design Week: Orgasming Flowers and Space Invaders

Evolution of the iPod...6 years later

Sunday will mark 6 years since Apple first released the iPod. This gallery takes a look at the evolution of the iPod and the changes that have been introduced throughout the last 6 years, culminating with the Touch.

Design Moves the Conversation Forward

If good design matters to the bottom line, why aren’t designers central to the business process?

That was the question three innovation design consultants from Stone Yamashita Partners (SYP) asked the standing room only audience in the Apple Store theater in downtown San Francisco, in the first of eight monthly presentations on the topic of “Why Good Design Matters.”

Timeline

Frog Design is a remarkable design institute. Their integrated process of strategy and design helps Fortune 500 companies evolve, expand, and envision their businesses.

Take a look at their past work via this timeline.

Streamlining HP

Sam Lucente's [ Hewlett-Packard's first vice president of design ] business is corporate design. Persuasion is his game.

Aptera's Future Car Set for Production

The Aptera could easily be named "The Official Car of the Future". The design references every space-car from the Jetsons' runabout to the cars from Woody Allen's Sleeper (pictured above. It's the one on the right).

See Aptera's website.

Blackbird Rider

San Francisco industrial designer Joe Luttwak, who is also an avid musician, wanted a portable steel-stringed instrument to take to the woods on camping trips.

IDEO interview

IDEO is one of the world’s most decorated design consultancies. Apple’s first mouse was IDEO’s work. The firm employs experts from disciplines as disparate as graphic design, mechanical engineering and anthropology to create human-centered design solutions for some huge clients.

Read the interview conducted by Good Magazine, where they asked an IDEO team to create the graphic statement—a blank canvas to interpret the issue’s theme: Design Solutions.

National Design Awards

The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor the best in American design. First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual Awards program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement. Go here to see the 184 nominees.

The Fine Art of Designing a Clean Presentation

Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have given their fair share of slide show presentations. It's fair to say that there is a fine art in designing a presentation, let alone present it to a live audience. What follows is an article one how Bill delivers the message and how Steve delivers. You be the judge.