Social innovation

Thanks to my son Nicholas for this one. Innovation and design can lead not only to cool, beautiful, highly-functional gadgets, it can also lead to cool, beautiful, highly-beneficial ideas that serve important social functions as well. I really like this idea of an Innovation Camp -- a place where innovative folks come to work together, dreaming up great new ideas. Good Gym is one of the ideas that emerged from the Social Innovation Camp. Watch the presentation the team put together. Great idea, good pitch -- we can learn a lot from the folks at www.sicamp.org

Function + beauty = positive emotion & great design

Designing new and "better" ways to charge all our gadgets has been a major focus in recent years. Many people are coming up with some great ideas, such as this "Visual Desktop Charger" or the cute, but functional "Toasty Charger" or the functional, cool, and eco-friendly wind charger I have pictured here. Each one of these designs has great functionality, but adds in something that creates a positive connection. The VDC creates beautiful lights and evokes positive emotions from the warm glow. The Toasty is peppy, cute, and attractive to view. As Donald Norman tells us, attractive things work better because we are drawn to use them and the positive moods the create help unclog our cognitive capacities. The Windy appeals to the eco-conscious, but also provides a way to charge gadgets when you are far away from any source of electricity. If you love to go backcountry hiking (as I do) you might want a way to recharge your GPS unit or that emergency cellphone you are carrying. I'm sure there are more cool chargers out there -- post 'em if you find 'em

Videos of things going on BEHIND you

Another shout out to Matt T.: a video camera that records what you want it to record, but also records what is going on behind you. The "Behind the Scenes" camera was design with the insight that when you are taking pictures, your attention is focused forward, toward whatever you are recording, but sometimes great stuff is going on behind you. This camera is designed to overcome that limitation. Another innovation based upon careful observation of users and spotting something obvious that most of us simply overlooked.

Sony's Bravia apple remote

How about this for an innovative remote? Each apple corresponds to a specific device, such as your TV or DVD player. You shake or move the apple to control the device. It looks great sitting on your table, it evokes wonderful, positive emotions just by the way it looks. Holding the apples must be a nice experience too -- most of us like fresh, crisp, sweet-tart apples so that image alone is a happy one. This is a great example of taking a normal device and doing something really great with it. Thanks to Matt T. from innovation class this year for sharing this idea!

Good Magazine

GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward.
Since 2006 we've been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn.
This website is an ongoing exploration of what GOOD is and what it can be.

http://www.good.is/

cool idea for an great study space -- build it inside the Commons!

I told some students about a class I lead a few years ago where a group of students and I proposed some renovations for the Commons. We suggested building some "tree houses" back by Commons C (the egg room) as innovative spaces for teams to gather and work. This is picture is something like the ideas we pitched. I still think these would be awesome to have there....Find out more about this real tree house here.

Powered by RAIN!

In keeping with alternative sources of power, how about rain?! This is pretty amazing: use rain drops to power LEDs. If you can light up an umbrella this way, could you light up a room on a rainy day? Could you create a ceiling that creates the illusion of sunshine, powered by rain, so it turns on automatically on rainy days? How about something like this on our cars, along with photovoltaic cells on the roof, plus the kind of dynamic energy recovery the Prius already uses to power its battery, plus...who knows?

why didn't I think of this

I can't count the number of times I have plugged in something to charge -- cell phone, camera battery, GPS unit -- and had no place to put the unit itself. But, unfortunately, I always had my "user-centered observation" button turned off. Now I see this and I think, "DUH!".

Powered BY the people!

This is a great idea for green energy: powered generated BY people walking! It's called piezoelectric My mind is spinning with the possible applications. Think of all the places where hundreds or thousands of people walk every day. Then, think about harnessing energy from their foot steps. Pretty amazing! It looks like one of those ideas that might be catching on, in a big way!

What we think might make us happy...

Often does not.

Back to the Beginning

While taking a break from grad school apps, I was roaming around on digg.com and found a few articles talking about neuroplasticity and cognitive fitness....interesting stuff

Can Everyone be an Einstein?
Are Our Brains Becoming "Googlized?"

Additionally, on gizmodo.com (man do I waste a lot of time on the internet...or do I?--read the googlized article) There are tons of examples of people tinkering with gadgets to make them better--prototyping, if you will.

Toothpick speakers, DIY MacPro, DIY Mac Four finger Gestures

Anyhoo, gizmodo also always has posts about the coolest new gadgets (whether already released or still in the making), so i suggest looking there for some inspiration if you ever need it.

G-Speak

G-Speak is an interface that allows users to use their hands (instead of a mouse or touchpad) to use their computer. The link right now shows just technical, governmental uses for the software and hardware, but it is very feasible that t will be available to the public in due time. The system shown is huge...I wonder how that would translate to PC's.

http://www.oblong.com/

Frustration-free packaging

Another great example of the power of simplicity: offer stuff in easy to open, highly recyclable packages. Ask most people what they think about blister packages and you will get an ear full. I know, because I have asked. So far, every single person I have asked feels the same: they hate blister packages. I have heard lots of stories about how frustrating they are and I have heard many stories about rather severe cuts that have been produced by the sharp edges that seem to inevitably appear when someone tries to open a blister package. I have suffered these cuts myself. Enter Amazon's wonderful idea to simplify packaging. No more pain and suffering, no more frustration, fully recyclable...nice, very nice!

This morning, as I was trolling around for info on yesterday's amazing political elections, I found myself pleasantly lost in the New York Time's interactive map. There is tons and tons of info available, but it is all organized in a wonderfully simple and quite beautiful way. From the nice font to the very peaceful blues and reds, to the fantastic, and highly fluid, pop-ups, the map is both treasure-trove and wonderland. This is an excellent example of design and how Pink's 5 principle's -- story, symphony, empathy, play, & meaning -- can be used to create a fantastic fount of information. The map tells the story of yesterday's voting, integrating the both the big picture (the national level) and all the little pictures (the precinct level), using multiple modes of communication (pictures, numbers, words), all organized to provide the user with the info s/he might want in an simple, clean, easy-to-navigate package. It encourages the user to explore and helps him/her make sense out of the final tally. With a quick glance, I just noticed (11:43 am EST) that my home state -- Indiana -- was officially declared as a win for the President-elect: the color turned from light blue to dark blue. A quick look gives me the details: Obama 49.9%, McCain 49.0%.

This post is similar to my post about the watches: I really like Field Notes products, but I'm not entirely sure why. Evidently a lot of other people do too because they are selling very well. I'm also surprised that innovation can come to the notepad industry: for years you could get functional, but boring pads. Ah HA! There is a clue: for me, these are not boring, so why? There is a retro feel to them: something like the 1940s retro. I like the simplicity (!) and the natural or more rugged feel. The font is cool. The whole thing reminds me of camping -- FIELD notes -- duh matt. Anyway, it's an example of symphony -- everything works together -- and high concept, high touch -- the thing evokes positive thoughts and emotions. They just look like the would be awesome to use. OK, I'm going to get some!

Awareness Test

My roommate found this on YouTube...it only takes a minute and really makes you think.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

Grades & Success?

OK, this is not so much about innovation, but it is about life. Do good grades predict success? The answer is pretty loud and pretty clear: NO! They don't predict much, except future grades. Interesting that we spend so much time on them here at ND, huh? There is a ton of research on this subject (check out the "About" portion of our website for some links to this research). This is an entertaining blog on the subject.

Newest and best eco building

The California Academy of Sciences just opened this new building which may be the greenest building in the world. I like the looks of the thing, but the way this building works is even more amazing. The level of both innovation and design that went into it puts it way on top of my WOW list. There are tons of reviews of the building [here's one]. For example, the roof is a field or lawn with over 1.7 million native plants that insulate the building, capture rainwater, and provide a 2.5-acre habitat for butter flies, hummingbirds, and other critters. Inside, you can see the outside from almost any location and shredded blue jeans insulate the walls. And there are 60,000 photovoltaic cells along the roof's edge to provide electric power. Even tearing down the old building was an exercise in greenery: The 12,000 tons of old steel & concrete were recycled.

Experiencing The City Museum

While visiting St. Louis, MO last weekend I was slightly disappointed when I found out that I would be spending my afternoon in a museum, The City Museum. Don't get me wrong, I do have an appreciation for the arts and can appreciate the vast collection of knowledge found at the typical museum. I, however, am not a huge fan of reading plaque after plaque attempting to soak in and appreciate every exhibit. Quite frankly, I am typically mentally exhausted after a few hours in a massive museum.

I was more than pleasantly surprised to find out that this is not "the typical museum," according to my kind hostess. It's about experiencing the museum by using your every sense. The museum is housed in a 600,000 square-foot warehouse and every part of the museum has been recycled from the city of St. Louis. Like any innovative experience, no words can do this museum justice.

Bob Cassilly, the man who came up with the idea of this unique museum says, "CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know. The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, 'Wow, that's wonderful.' And if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving."

In short, however, the museum is like a giant playground that even adults can crawl through. As soon as you enter you start exploring and crawling through whatever small passageway you can find that can range from crawling through a giant whale (mouth to butt - yep!), tubes of metal, hollowed logs, and a fake cave (these are only a few examples). One of the museum's highlights is the seven story spiral slide, a personal favorite. After crawling around inside of the museum it's time to try exploring the old airplanes suspended in the air outside the building. Like I said, it's tough to explain so check out this photo tour on their website ... http://www.citymuseum.org/phototour.html

Experiencing the innovative The City Museum was truly unique and incredible. Even though I may not have left with facts and figure about St. Louis, my heart was captivated through this a-typical learning experience.

Innovation in wooden toys

While I am on the car theme, I wanted to mention Autoblox, an innovation in toys. I found it even more interesting because it is an innovation in WOODEN toys! The company grew out of an innovation project the founder had while he was a student at Carneige Mellon University. I find these toys both beautiful and inviting. The designs make me want to play with them. The colors evoke positive moods. The components create opportunities for people to design their own cars, but the car will always look good because of the "constraints" built into the cars -- the body, wheels, etc cannot be changed, but can be used interchangably. The people also seem to draw children into playing with the cars because they can personalize their car: "Mommy and Daddy and Billy are all in the car with me!" They also have a variety of designs, and new ones coming out all the time. They launch a new car just the way real car companies launch new models. The web site has this nice mix of toy-like pictures and also pictures from real cars, like a picture of real gears. This gives it a more realistic, less cartoonish flavor. OK, you'll probably see some in class this semester!