Tokarski

I took advantage of the holiday break to polish off the rest of Don Norman’s “The Design of Future Things,” (since the book sat languishing on my desk for a few weeks). Having enjoyed Norman’s previous works, “The Invisible Computer”, “The Design of Everyday Things”, and “Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things”, I found this to be more of the same, with a focus on new design (as opposed to an examination of existing designs). It addresses the question: “How can we be sure the designs of the future work for us, instead of the other way around?”

His ‘conversation’ with a machine at the end of the book was especially amusing and provides context for providing some human-machine interaction design rules from the machine’s perspective:

Design rules for human designers of “smart” machines

1. Provide rich, complex, and natural signals
2. Be predictable
3. Provide good conceptual models
4. Make the output understandable
5. Provide continual awareness without annoyance
6. Exploit natural mappings

Design rules developed by machines to improve their interactions with people

1. Keep things simple
2. Give people a conceptual model
3. Give reasons
4. Make people think they are in control
5. Continually reassure
6. Never label human behavior as “error” (rule added by the human interviewer)

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I just finished “The Myths of Innovation” by Scott Berkun.

Snippet from Amazon’s description: “In The Myths of Innovation, bestselling author Scott Berkun takes a careful look at innovation history, including the software and Internet Age, to reveal how ideas truly become successful innovations-truths that people can apply to today’s challenges. Using dozens of examples from the history of technology, business, and the arts, you’ll learn how to convert the knowledge you have into ideas that can change the world.”

It was a good, quick, interesting read and provides a glimmer of hope that innovation truly can happen anywhere, not just in the mythical scenario of the genius toiling away in solitude until that aha! moment of divine inspiration.

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I occasionally run across books that I think may provide insight into my quest for simplicity, balance, and the elimination of the ‘bigger is better, more is better’ mindset. “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” by Timothy Ferriss has some interesting ideas and perspectives. A recommended read if you’ve ever thought about getting off that treadmill and doing things a bit differently. Like any book, I don’t agree with all of it / some of it is not applicable, but a worthwhile read nonetheless.

Check out Ferriss’ site for more.

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“Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die…” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I’ve always appreciated the power of effective storytelling and this book identifies the attributes of memorable and ’sticky’ stories and provides techniques for crafting compelling narrative. The authors identify six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories.

I also found the table of contents unique (each chapter annotated with a simple list of the keywords and topics covered) and the “Easy Reference Guide” (a five-page CliffsNotes-like synopsis of the book) especially handy.

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My good friend and former colleague, Alain Breillatt, started a new blog called “Picture Imperfect.” The focus of the blog is to “explore the winding paths of how to build innovative new products and services that succeed in the marketplace by generating passion in the ultimate enduser.”

Alain is a Senior Associate at Kuczmarski & Associates, “the foremost management consulting firm specializing in innovation”.

Take a look at the site and/or subscribe to his feed (he’s still not using FeedBurner yet…. ;->) – Alain’s always had some great insights and I look forward to his future topics.

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Just wanted to document a great quote I ran across perusing 37signals’ Signal vs. Noise blog today: ‘Excerpts from Stephen King’s “On Writing” ‘

I have to use this next time my daughter complains about her violin lessons…

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Today, UPS delivered “Designing Interactions” by Bill Moggridge, a founder of IDEO. Designing Interactions “summarizes how the technology of interaction came into being and how it will advance in the future” and presents interviews with over 40 influential designers who have shaped the field of interaction design.

It’s a monster of a book, tipping the scales at over 750+ pages and includes a DVD that contains segments from all of the interviews along with examples of interactions being discussed. Based on a cursory skim this evening, I’m looking forward to diving into this since it’s still very fresh, having been first published in October 2006, and contains many recent products and designs.

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I ran across a reference to “Quintessence – The Quality of Having It” by Betty Cornfeld and Owen Edwards in a Design Observer post a few weeks ago.

The book starts with a five-page discussion of “Sense and Quintessence,” followed by 65 one-to-two page essays of “quintessential” products. My original intent was to get some insight into the attributes that give some products that inexplicable “it” factor via these essays – in a hope to, in turn, apply some of “it” to design – but I found the introductory discussion much more fascinating, useful, and moving.

Some excerpts:
(Read the article)

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I ran across a reference to “Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time,” by Brian Tracy, in one of my many magazines and found the title intriguing enough for a follow up.  I stopped by the local library and saw that it was available, wasn’t too terribly long, and decided to check it out. 

Unfortunately, it sat on my desk for a few weeks and I only decided to pick it up when I got the library courtesy reminder that it was due in a few days (how’s that for procrastination…).

I finally found some time to start and polish it off today (it’s only a 113 pages, so it’s a quick read).

The title refers to an old saying that states that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day. Overall. it’s pretty straightforward and direct and there’s nothing terribly revolutionary here – just some common sense, logic and discipline.

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Just finished reading
“The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)” by John Maeda.

It was a good, quick read (in the interests of simplicity, the author capped the book length to 100 pages) and in a strange coincidence, Parade magazine in today’s Chicago Tribune had an article by the author titled “How to Keep It Simple.”

Maeda presents ten laws and three keys:

1. REDUCE – The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
2. ORGANIZE Organization makes a system of many appear fewer
3. TIME Savings in time feel like simplicity
4. LEARN Knowledge makes everything simpler
5. DIFFERENCES Simplicity and complexity need each other
6. CONTEXT What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral
7. EMOTION More emotions are better than less
8. TRUST In simplicity we trust
9. FAILURE Some things can never be made simple
10. THE ONE Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful

1. AWAY More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away
2. OPEN Openness simplifies complexity
3. POWER Use less, gain more

The companion Web site is at http://www.lawsofsimplicity.com/.

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