In my Fast Company “Powers of Design” blog post today: between maker and consumer. (more…)
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Archive for the ‘Process’ Category
Growing creativity with the Korean Institute of Design
June 10th, 2009
Next week, June 15-19, LUNAR will play host to a group of designers from the Korean Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP). Since the very first day of business, LUNAR has sought to make a difference with creativity – to use creativity to design distinctive products that are meaningful for individuals, society, and the environment. (more…)
Taking out the trash
March 26th, 2009
Alameda County, Calif., has a rather progressive waste management program, with a goal of diverting 75% of our waste from landfill by 2010. This would be a remarkable achievement, and according to this report, we’re currently diverting up to 68% of our waste. A key strategy for the county is bringing about “behavior change” around trash, composting and recycling.
But, Oakland has a classic service design problem to solve. Last week my homeowner’s association tried to be good citizens and swap one of our trash bins for a recycling bin. Instead of being celebrated for our waste reduction, we were greeted by multi-page forms authorizing a “site inspection.” Wait a minute, I was expecting a gold star for helping my community, so what’s with the suspicion and bureaucracy?
In my “mental model,” I’m a good citizen trying to help reduce waste. To the city of Oakland, I’m a potential scammer trying to get out of paying for trash collection by throwing my trash in the street. While enforcement of waste management is certainly important, Oakland needs to clean up their communication and outreach.
As we transition away from the first tier of “getting people to use recycling and green bins” and start seeing actual reduction, Alameda County will need new tools to support the behavior change they are bringing about. At the same time, they can further improve educational tools for us. Because I can never remember, is that milk carton recycling, or compost?
And does it matter?
– Gretchen Anderson
It’s About Time
March 12th, 2009
LUNAR’s graphic design maven, Becky Brown, presented some work at San Francisco’s Pecha Kucha Night recently. I am terribly familiar with the work, but remarkably I was blown away as if seeing it for the first time again. Rather than showing the work in the usual, ordinary, plain, expected way, Becky crafted a story whose main character, Clive, befriended us, made us care – and then led us around an unexpected corner. And then another. And then there was the special bonus reel.
Beck’s presentation was a double whammy. The content of the work was great, engaging. And it’d have been enough, by many accounts. But she didn’t rest there. She used some very simple story telling tools to reshape the invisible components of her presentation. With the story in place, the direction of the visuals became obvious, and the result was perfection. It’s really just about caring. About applying design to the usually forgotten 4th dimension, time. For some easy inspiration, read Made to Stick, by Stanford professors Dan and Chip Heath.
– John Edson
Speed of Innovation
November 21st, 2008
Connections – Nov. 21, 2008: How do speed, creativity and innovation intertwine in the design process? In this Connections episode, Gretchen Anderson and Lisa Leckie talk with Steve Portigal of Portigal Consulting about getting results through design research.
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Nathan Shedroff on Sustainable Design
November 13th, 2008
Solutions – Nov. 13, 2008: Nathan Shedroff, author, academic and entrepreneur, presents at the Digging Deeper sustainable design conference held in late July in San Francisco. (Prefaced with a short interview by Lunar’s John Edson.)
The evening panel discussion dug deep into the eco-issues designers face everyday to reveal building blocks for sustainable design.
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Engineering the Illumina iScan
September 17th, 2008
Solutions – Sept. 17, 2008: Lunar engineers Robert Howard and Matt Durack discuss the product-development process and challenges associated with creating the Illumina iScan — a sophisticated biotechnology instrument — for long-time client Illumina.
How do engineers and designers juggle the requirements of customers, manufacturers, marketing and service technicians in a context of fierce competition, development calendars, technology risks and other considerations? Listen and learn.
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