Have you noticed how some products seem to be deliberately designed to annoy the people around the user?

On a long distance flight recently, the person who sat next to me had a pair of headphones which featured elaborately designed motifs on the ear pieces; motifs which were backlit with super bright blue LEDs that flashed piercingly every second or so.

Imagine trying to ignore a bright blue flashing …

Most of us would have seen and used one of these before.

From what I have been able to gather, it is intended to function like a small bowl. You sip the liquid (or semi liquid) contents from the side of the “spoon”. But you don’t put the whole thing in your mouth – because you bleeding well can’t!

Even if you do manage to get …

One of Microsoft’s all time crappiest “innovation” has to be the hide-unused-menu-items function. It’s like an evil house-elf that hides infrequently used things such as the first aid kit and the fire extinguisher…

Is the Office 2007 ribbon interface yet another way to hide stuff from me? And steal my screen real estate at the same time?

I totally appreciate the effort …

Elevator access infographics in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings. The slightly retro look is especially appealing.

“Design can take a moral position. But the moral position should not be to go on strike. The best way to pursue your arguments is to be inside the system.” Konstantin Grcic.

Which tied in nicely with the recent comments on one of my older blog posts Toilet designed by a fashion designer.

I thought this quote neatly summed up the challenge to the next generation of fashion designers …

Isn’t it interesting how detailed the illustration is? And how clearly it communicated the message?

I am normally a fan of very simple and unfettered geometric forms for signage, but this has a unique charm that works.

It goes to show that you can use whimsical, decorative elements to create something beautiful that still fulfills the design intention.

One thing I noticed in my short time in Tokyo – the pavements are flawlessly even. This photo shows a perfectly level walking surface transitioning across three different materials: bitumen, flagstones and wood.

Excellence because someone gave a damn about what they do. Wow.

There’s beauty around us that we take for granted. When things work well, we stop noticing them. And then we go travelling…

R&D in products is often clearly separated from production and sales of the products. R&D can happen in isolation from other aspects of the operations, and also in isolation from customers.

An engineer and industrial designer can design a new toy without meeting a single child (customer). After the toy goes to market, feedback will eventually trickle back from the market. This then triggers the …