IDEO Playlist

Free Ride from IDEO on Vimeo.

Bio-Mimetics

Woke up today with a thirst for random inspiration,
Jumped to TED (but ofcourse)
and found these really cool videos :)
check em out....

IsenSeven: The Video Marvel

Isenseven - TIMES from Vincent Urban on Vimeo.

"Times" is a self-contained short-clip by Isenseven and at the same time the last part of the upcoming full-length movie "Let's Go Get Lost". As this clip will be edited slightly different in the final movie, we decided to publish this original version online already now.

This clip contains a collection of footage we gathered throughout the season and during the summer days in our hometown Munich as well as in Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Bejing, Portland, Barcelona and many other places.

We like to thank all of our close friends for a great year 2009 and especially thank those guys for riding their skateboards for us: Conny Mirbach, Christopher Geyer, Jonas Rosenbauer, Michael Von Fintel, Christoph Friedmann, Dennis Gläser, Timo Kavermann, Mack McKelton, Gunes Ozdogan, Marcus Sweeney, Philipp Schuster and John Zelehoski.

Filmed by: Felix Urbauer, Alex Schiller, Vincent Urban, Niko Jentsch, Magnus Törnkvist

Edited by: Vincent Urban

As Munich plays a major role in this clip, we are happy we could use a song from a local band for this project. The song's called "Mindestens In 1000 Jahren" by Frittenbude from the Album "Nachtigall". Support the band and be friends with them on Myspace! (www.myspace.com/frittenbude)

A Complex Simplicity Paradigm

Of late the buzzing word "simplicity" has struck every chord in my little mindspace. Really it is a beautiful word. Where we as humans have complicated everything including our lives that were initially set out to be very simple. Live for Survival.. It is a complicated word "simplicity" indeed. I'm going to try break it up here, atleast as much as i can.

The art of thin-slicing (as popularized by Malcolm Gladwell)

99% of the data you're posed with is useless. the 1% is critical. That one percent is the crux that binds the data together. We all know this but we still get stuck with the 99%.

There are various methodologies listed all over the web that help you reach the 1% and the one i choose to follow needs extreme getting used to. I call it the art of structure.

I structure everything. I write it down. I make diagrams/charts/ any other form of visual representations ..anything.. to structurally collate the data.

If you want to follow this path i can suggest an easy way to start.

Post-its. Write out all the variables on post-it notes. Paste them up on a wall. Re-arrange them to clusters which seem common.

Now take an individual cluster and ask yourself, What binds all your information together?

In the little cluster that you've intuitively created its easy to find the common link.

Once you have these common links, the next step is to bind them together. This is the hard part and it takes a while getting used to!

Two things will happen when you start this process, you'll start finding the information less over-bearing and therefore you'll attain a sense of calm within a whirlwind of mess. Secondly, you'll know where to look for more information..

I've practiced this for about a year and now im slowly getting used to it. Do this till the process of combining common variables becomes so deeply intuitive and instinctive that you start structuring everything from feelings to thoughts to emotions to decisions... its a fun world to live in coz you start questioning Everything! and thats when you start questioning anger, happiness, joy and you kinda become autistically fascinated by them.

This process is just to know what you're trying to achieve.. When it becomes instinctive and intuitive you don't need to do this process all the time.. It will come naturally. And for it to come naturally it is important to feel a little disconnected to your information. To practice the art of letting go i've found it easy to tear up all the un-organised information and retain only the common links to play around with. It gives a sense of detachment to the information which makes it easier to look a step beyond.

The art of information gathering is like making a shopping list, when you start of you say i have too much to do. when you've made a list you say hey i just need to go to 2 places for everything to be done!

Thin-Slicing is the art of breaking down everything within a "blink" till it meets you with startling revelations... and trust me, they're always startling.

The art of insight: the next dimension of visual creativity.

Do you remember your childhood days? Do you remember what you felt last time you were happy? Chances are that you just drew out a mental image of your happy moment and you added words and sounds that fit the visual description of your happy moment. Don't kill urself over it. its natural to do that. Its therefore established that its easier for your brain to collect and recollect images.

Now think about it this way.

Its easy for my mind to visually collate, so why don't i feed it more visual data?

.. And maybe if its easier for my mind to recollect visual data it must do a series a calculations or somethings that helps it to remember the visual data i fed it without making me realize it? So my mind actually has the capacity to think more about visual data.. with this realization I drew this map.

now let me try to break it down in "simpler" terms.

All of us have given interviews. Now pick your favorite. What did you like about the questions being answered? 9 times out of 10 you'll find what you liked about the answer is NOT that you answered exactly what was asked, what you liked is that the answer brought out a startling revelation.

Having given one such interview I found it interesting to dissect the art of visual mapping and i realised something i did very intuitively was create a visual map of where the question being asked is heading to and create a simultaneous visual map of what I want it to be and answered the question from MY perspective. Its like screw you i know what you're asking and you'll get me into shit so here's the real deal.. Whats interesting is that I did it instinctively.

This re-rendering of visual maps is one thing that spurs an insight... and insight the way Jane Fulton Suri describes it in thoughtless acts, not the marketing term that we're getting used to using in lay terms :)

maybe ill write about this in detail later.

Simplicity in basic dissections.

Simplicity till now i've viewed in 2 strange ways: Include Everything & Include Nothing.

1. Apple

Your mac is a highly intuitive piece of equipment. Infact the trend sparked by their technological revolution is to make technology conform to you rather than you conforming to it.. Humanising Tech

nology as i like to call it.

What does this simplicity require? Extreme technology. Include Everything. Include every known technological inspiration to make this happen.

Have you ever truly seen your mac laptop? sure its simple in interface but more than that there is a greater revelation: there is no visible demarcation to show that you can tear your laptop apart the way you're used to opening up your dells and compaqs. It visually feels as if they're saying hey, we know what we're talking about.. Its high-tech stuff here babe. Enjoy my privileges but don't mess with me.

Simple in interface. Complicated inside.

2. Ross Lovegrove's Chair

Its based on a simple principle: Minimise the Unnecessary. Include Something of what already exists and redefine the rest.

It just has to look simpler than what i usually see..

Simple in thought. Simple in Execution.

A sub-version of this is when i include nothing of what i already know and just redefine my parameters from scratch. We usually dont do this. We ask hey who wants to reinvent the wheel????

in all this ive realised one substantial thing. in simplicity lies complexity. Like my boss says, its like this, when you have a problem and you want to reach the simple insightful revelation to it, you need to create an entire circle around the problem, dwell into all complexities to reach the solution.. and when you reach the solution you say wtf! it was right there!!!! how did i not see it!

now i havent been able to come to the stage where simplicity is just simple and not with its fare share of a complexity circle. in other words, i havent been able to make that tiny little jump. When you do it, let me know about it ;)

Adieu!

T-Shaped Designers

Found a term today: T-Shaped Designers.

(http://www.designsojourn.com/only-god-is-t-shaped/)

I have been thinking about T-Shaped Designers for a long time now. How to be one, what does being one really mean and how effective can one be. Made popular sometime in 2005 by IDEO’s Tim Brown, T-Shape Designers are defined as:

…people who are so inquisitive about the world that they’re willing to try to do what you do. We call them “T-shaped people.” They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T — they’re mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. ~ Fast Company

I touch on this topic again in 2007, by calling these T-Shape Designers “Renaissance Designers” in my blog series: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Designers.

However after almost 5 years contemplating the existence of such T-Shaped designers and observing the many designers I know, I have to admit that such a personality trait is a myth. Honestly, to date I have never seen or met any designer that I would truly qualify as T-shaped, including myself.

I actually spoke to Chris Bangle about this and tried to tap into his vast experience as someone who hires talent. He agrees that while it was big in 2005, on one talks about this anymore probably because it was never true.

I postulated that such a personality trait is impossible simply because humans are just not wired to multi-task well, or to wear different hats for that matter. Even if a designer has the capability, he or she will lack the time or opportunity.

Therefore the reality is, instead of being a big “T”, you will find designers that are either a little “t” or a “T” with a short vertical stick.

Little “t-shape” designers are essentially most of who we are. Despite many of us feeling that we are “Jacks of all trades and masters of none” after our 4 years of design school. We eventually settle into a specialty of design and designing.

Stunted “T-Shaped” designers are often the senior creatives, the design managers, team leaders and entrepreneurs. Many deal with all the different touch points in the design development cycle, but do not have the opportunity to dive into detail. Some, like the entrepreneurs, may be in the position to do it all, but often will have to either accept work of lesser quality or learn to delegate and outsource.

———-

So at the end of the day, being a T-Shaped is just a nice story for designers to aspire to. While the value of a T-Shaped team is undeniable, it is probably more realistic to build a multi-disciplinary team of experts to work on complex (or wicked?) problems. Now that is something that has withstood the test of time.

What do you think? I’m looking forward to hearing your comments.

Steel-Velcro

Found this very very interesting in terms of the possibilities that lie with its usage!
imagine a car with this on the back side and you can velcro 2 additional seats when they fall short!! :D
or a building that got boring in architecture.. change the structure with these velcro pillars!

as i let my mind wander enjoy the read.. :)

metallic velcro: steel hook and loop fastener


'flamingo' fastener
photo credit: TUM

hook and loop fasteners have become commonplace features of both industry and households.
however, they have one snag: they are too weak for many applications.hook and loop
fasteners made of spring steel have now been developed at the institute of metal forming
and casting of the technische universitaet muenchen (TUM).

the device consists of hook tape and loop tape 0.2 mm thick.
these fasteners are resistant to chemicals and can withstand a tensile load
of up to 35 tonnes per square meter at temperatures as high as 800°C.

photo credit: TUM

spring steel hook elements deform elastically under light pressure to glide into openings
in a perforated tape, once inserted, they return to their original form and resist back pull
like an expanding rivet. numerous steel hooks can attach at any angle to the loops in the
perforated metal loop tape.

it can be mass-produced
photo credit: TUM

'metaklett' is a hook and loop fastener system developed by researchers at TUM,
the technische universitaet muenchen, under the leadership of professor hartmut
hoffmann (and as part of a joint project launched in 2005 with the federal ministry
of education and research / BMBF) in close cooperation with partners from industry.
'metaklett is a portmanteau of 'metall' and 'klettverschluss', which is the german generic
for velcro®. like velcro fasteners, 'metaklett' devices can be easy to secure and release,
yet they can withstand very strong mechanical stresses, high temperatures and harsh
chemicals. the unbeatable advantage of this hook and loop fastener is that it is easy
to close and open again, the principle therefore is put to a very wide range of uses,
for example air-conditioning and ventilation systems in building services engineering
and automotive construction.

hook HF 1 and loop LF1 combined
photo credit: TUM

the researchers created various three-dimensional models for the optimum interlocking
of the fastener elements on the computer.they then built the most promising candidates
as prototypes and subjected them to comprehensive tests. around 40 variations of the
geometry referred to as 'flamingo' alone were tested on the computer. they studied its adhesive
strength and reaction to extreme temperatures to establish the limits of its resilience.

'entenkopf" fastener
photo credit: TUM

a hybrid version with synthetic strap
photo credit: TUM

after testing, the institute settled on two variations: the 'flamingo' and 'entenkopf"
(or duck's head) models. the hook forms of the two systems are vaguely reminiscent of
a duck's head and a flamingo standing on one leg... the entenkopf uses fine steel hooks
and loops, while the flamingo uses wider hooks that snap into openings in the tape.
depending on the direction of the applied force, this fastener can withstand a load of
7 to 35 newtons per square meter.


'entenkopf' fastener
photo credit: TUM

close-up of 'entenkopf' fastener
photo credit: TUM

a car parked in direct sunlight can reach temperatures of 80 °C, and temperatures of several
hundred degrees centigrade can arise around the exhaust manifold. aggressive disinfectants
are used for cleaning purposes in hospitals, and traditional hook, and loop fasteners are too
weak for use in the construction of building façades...temperatures in excess and aggressive
chemical solutions do not pose any problem for 'metaklett', which also offers
adhesive strength of up to 35 tonnes per square meter when tensile force is applied parallel
to the fastener surface. when it is applied perpendicular to the fastener surface, 'metaklett'
can still withstand a force of seven tonnes per square meter, and, like a standard velcro® fastener,
it can be opened and closed without the help of any tools.

up and close on velcro®

more than 60 years ago, the swiss engineer and inventor george de mestral
was trying to painstakingly remove burrs from his dog's coat after a hunting excursion,
he stumbled on an ingenious idea. based on the model he had observed in nature,
he constructed a fastener from numerous small hooks and loops, which he
subsequently named velcro®. unfortunately, standard synthetic hook and loop fasteners
are not very resistant to heat and aggressive chemicals.

Via Designboom