Number of words: 224 The initial research to understand the nature of the problem itself is part of the discipline of design research. Note that this is research about the customer and the people who will use the products under consideration. It is not the kind of research that scientists do in their laboratories, trying … Read more

Number of words: 430 One of my rules in consulting is simple: never solve the problem I am asked to solve. Why such a counterintuitive rule? Because, invariably, the problem I am asked to solve is not the real, fundamental, root problem. It is usually a symptom. Just as in Chapter 5, where the solution … Read more

Number of words: 57 How should the design convey the information required to answer the user’s question? Through appropriate constraint and mappings, signifiers and conceptual models, feedback and visibility. The information that helps answer questions of execution (doing) is feedforward. The information that aids in understanding what has happened is feedback. Excerpted from ‘The Design … Read more

Number of words: 482 Consider the thermostat that controls room heating and cooling systems. How does it work? The average thermostat offers almost no evidence of its operation except in a highly roundabout manner. All we know is that if the room is too cold, we set a higher temperature into the thermostat. Eventually we … Read more

Number of words: 466 Ever watch people at an elevator repeatedly push the Up button, or repeatedly push the pedestrian button at a street crossing? Ever drive to a traffic intersection and wait an inordinate amount of time for the signals to change, wondering all the time whether the detection circuits noticed your vehicle (a … Read more

Number of words: 849 Decision making is such a vital element in making progress. Availability of choice or the dearth of it is in turn the most important factor in decision making. Maria Konnikova the American-Russian writer feels choices are bad to have, especially in the same value-zone. According to her, even after making a … Read more

Number of words: 1,297 Rebecca Bendick would like you not to panic. The University of Montana geophysicist knows you may have read the articles warning about “swarms of devastating earthquakes” that will allegedly rock the planet next year thanks to a slowdown of the Earth’s rotation. And she feels “very awful” if you’ve been alarmed. … Read more

Number of words: 3,258 At sophisticated dinner parties in Delhi, Calcutta, or Chennai, whenever the discussion turns to politics, one can be sure that sooner or later, and usually sooner, the British will be blamed. It’s a fine parlor game, and clever players can usually find a way to cast blame for whichever side of … Read more

Number of words: 587 It happened when the biggest and the most valuable company in the history of the world was brought down (among other things) by a Malayali from India.There was a moment in history when the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) or simply the Dutch East India Company was the most well funded and … Read more

Number of words: 471 “The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time”, according to a new paper just out. Swedish researchers Pontus Plaven-Sigray and colleagues say that scientists today use longer and more complex words than those of the past, making their writing harder to read. But what does it mean? There’s been a … Read more