This excerpt from a recent conversation I had with a friend:

“…I know what you mean about products from China [being ill thought-through]. It is not that they lack the ability. I think they are so used to making bits and pieces in isolation for western companies, and they are only just now realising that they can put the bits together themselves and sell complete products directly to the …

This is a great little keyboard I spotted on an online shop. It’d be perfect if not for the large and utterly pointless badge.

Was this the designer’s need (must fill up that empty spot)?
Was this the manufacturer’s need (must have a badge)?
Or was it for the sake of customers (they may forget what this thing is)?

The Keep It Simple Stupid approach would be to dump …

From infosthetics.com

My friend Mark drew my attention to an odd oversight on Vodafone’s new customer login area.

Say you log in to use their Web2TXT service. You clearly see “Web2TXT” listed as a service (1) in the main body of the web page. So you click on it. But nothing happens because it is not a link!

None of the items shown in the main body of the …

My article on logo design in flyingsolo resulted in quite a few comments. Here’re my additional thoughts as a result.

The Bank of Queensland peeling poster

I did not know the Bank of Queensland logo was meant to represent the outline of the state - so thanks for pointing that out Greg from Toowoomba. This illustrates how hard it is for symbols to be read “correctly” …

The marketing material accompanying Lenovo’s new super-exclusive Thinkpad Reserve Edition is a great example of how increasingly, differentiation is about the soft stuff, the services; and less so about the quality or power of the hardware.

Take a look at the PDF Spec Sheet. Despite it being called a spec sheet, less than a quarter of the document was actually devoted to technical information. …

This is a (crappy) photo of the buttons panel of a lift I have been using 4 times a week for almost 8 weeks now. (More legible diagrams below). Every time I use it, I always had to pause to consciously find the floor number I wanted. This struck me as most odd. So here’s an attempt to understand why this is so.

A lift’s …

A very funny and pointedly thought-provoking post by Dave on the ethics around the Bratz dolls for young girls.

The comments are definitely worth a read.

When I first encountered these dolls a few years ago I was quite disturbed by them. Now I am hardly a prude by a long shot (just ask my friends!), but these dolls do seem to …

I was watching this digger at work whilst waiting for the train one day. Its movements were intriguing – digging, scraping, lifting, scooping, and levelling piles of rubble. As it switched tasks, it was deftly swapping its scoop attachment for others. To reposition itself in a tight corner, where its turning circle was too large, it even used its arm as a crutch to manoeuvre …

Signage within an environment can be tricky to manage.

This is a quick snap of a Sydney hotel lobby I was in last week.

From this angle (immediately after existing the lifts), there is only a single sign visible. And it was obviously put up in response to repeated queries.

Top marks for responding to customer needs. And for a decently designed and legible sign. …