THE COSMONAUTS

You heard the man ranting about focus groups, right?. Now, what phone were you expecting he’d have?

Is data from focus groups really relevant? This is what Donald Draper thinks:

Here’s a good way to fresh-start from vacation: finding that this little gem arrived home while you were away and awaits for a relaxed reading:

It’s a first edition of Design This Day by Walter Dorwin Teague, one of the first industrial designers and founder of a design firm that’s still out there after 80 years keeping a no-nonsense approach focused on creating quality products.

Mark Adams, managing director of Vitsoe, states it very clear when talking about their furniture. They make furniture that’s timeless because they don’t believe in recycling, they believe in designing adaptive systems that can be rearranged over time to suit different needs and scenarios.

the concept is to reuse your furniture…we see recycling as a defeat

Modularity and no-aesthetics as design is my big obsession when designing interactive products (mostly websites). It’s not about designing a good website, it’s about designing a system of elements that can be arranged in certain ways and that can fulfill the company needs over time and for different reasons. If done well, when there is a need for some module that’s not designed, its shape, look and behavior comes out of intuition, it’s evident. My goal is to leave something in the hands of my client that will be there in 4 years, probably rearranged, perhaps with more pieces but within the same system.

When I fist read the Ten Principles for Good Design (that was back in 2004) I was shocked. It was like a revelation that made reconsider all I knew about information architecture and HCI. Here are the ones that hit me harder:

4. Good Design helps a product be understood
6. Good Design is honest
7. Good Design is durable
10. Good Design is as little design as possible

In Dieter Rams’ words: less but better.

Los Angeles Times reports that Rupert Murdoch plans on launching a newspaper for the iPad and the like only. Freshly designed. Both content and form from scratch.

I’d sell my soul to Lucifer to be on that team.

In some of my recent talks I’ve mentioned the story behind USA Today. I think it’s one of the best examples to learn about information consumption and adaptation.

USA Today launched almost 30 years ago built on a premise: that most Americans didn’t read, that they mostly got news from television (color television) and that they spent a lot of time in front of the tube.

Al Neuharth, USA Today’s founder, understood the new context and decided to design a newspaper from scratch, one based on these premises where:

• there was color all over (for pictures, for sections) just like on TV
• photos drove the stories and not the opposite
• articles were short
• news didn’t need a follow-up, there was no incremental coverage

This was the result, the fresh design of the USA Today in 1982:

And here is what the New York Times looked like in the early 80′s (see how big the change was?):

In short, USA Today wasn’t targeted to newspaper readers but to TV watchers. The critics called it the McPaper, the junk news, the fast food of information. But despite that they ended up being the most read paper in the USA. They understood their new readers and the new context. They won.

And that is why most old newspapers redesign for the internet or for the ipad and they fail miserably. Why? They don’t pay attention to new users and their new contexts of use.

The difference between product design and architecture is in human scale and that has to do with political power.

There is something subduing in the creation of structures we humans inhabit or use in any way, something about those structures condioning our moves and behaviors. Architecture and (even more) urbanism have that powerful quality.

Architects project their structures to influence in the way we feel and behave. They manage flows of people, they regulate our exposition to daylight to condition our feelings or they make us feel free and empowered through space and height. They make structures that manipulate us.

Architecture and urbanism could be the use of power though means of space. That could explain why politicians have always flirted with architecture, and dictators love to have scale models of their dreamt cities.

Designers instead, have never been that interesting for the powerful (with some interesting exceptions). Their work is usually not that influencing. Designers make things that tend to be smaller than humans. Their structures may condition but don’t force us to do anything. It’s not the space which conditions the individual but the individual who manipulates the object.

Here is one nice pic of the Vostok iPad Sleeves the girls at Jositajosi crafted for us:

Their original post is here.

I just found Modernist, a WordPress theme by Rodrigo Galíndez. Although I think the tags for each post and the social media links could more discrete, overall it’s a very good theme and I would recommend it for anyone looking for something clean in two columns:

BTW, We are about to release a white vostok theme and as you may see (if not using a newsreader) we are tesing it around here.

I made a personal update to the Schematic Chart of Ideological and Design Changes from the 60s to the 80s by Massimo Vignelli. I decided to add a column named “internet times” suggesting that the internet is bringing a set of values to the way we understand creation, specifically designing and more specifically designing for the internet.

Mine is a personal interpretation of what that fourth column should be, if there should be a fourth column. I encourage you to make your interpretation too, filling the blanks with what you consider more appropiate. I’m sure there will be some common points.

Here is the original Schematic Chart of Ideological and Design Changes from the 60s to the 80s by Vignelli:

And here’s my interpretation. It’s a Fireworks PNG file for your editing convenience:

Now come and do yours, or at least help me out with rows 1 and 3.

I’ve been collecting charts and infographics about drugs for a while. The topic is multidimensional and that makes it interesting for visual representations. Some of its facets:

• type of effect (euphoria, relax, allucinations…)
• level of addiction provoked (very, little, extreme…)
• legal consequences of consuming/dealing (jail, misdeameanor…)
• secondary effects (nausea, sleep, appetite)
  price

• social acceptance
• context of consumption (marginal, social, individual…)

And here are the charts, numbered for your convenience when commenting:

1

2

3

4

5

Am I missing any classic that should be on this collection?

My favorite is #1 for obvious reasons. Which one is yours, you little druggies?

I deeply believe that honesty and beauty are two of the most important values in design. We put as much as we could in the redesign of the Search Results page of Minube for flights and hotels and the result has been good. Here it is:

Our assumptions

We (both minube and us) put extreme attention to what information mattered the most and made it stand above the secondary data. These were our main assumptions:

• Price matters most than company.
• Price (usually) matters most than hours.
• There is the cheapest and then the rest.
• Airlines are better recognized by their logos/colors than by their names.
• Some things don’t need to be a in a filter: price ranges, airline, websites searched, etc.
• Those with flexible dates need a different way to look at it.
• It’s easier to redo the search than to refine through ajax.
• Flight and flight back are consecutive, so let’s show them consecutive.
• It’s likely that your choice will be among the first 10 results (although you may want to see more).
• White space helps people identify choices, it makes everything clearer.
• Boxes help you separate between different types of content.
• It’s better to show just the essential data.

Old and new versions side to side

Minube is always quesioning how they do things and how these things can be improved. I like to say that at Vostok we are not good at innovating but at improving. The old version was good. But good as it was it could be, and should be improved. Here you have both versions side to side:

Facts prove it

We know the new one is more beautiful and more honest. Facts prove it. Raúl (Minube’s CEO) told me about the A/B Test results and the main indicators doubled in the new one. You should check Raúl’s post in Spanish about it.

We both believe

It’s a great thing we have clients who share our believes. Working with minube is always of great pleasure. We have a relationship based on trust and shared values. They also think that beauty and honesty are two of most important principles of good design.

If you do the rounds of cities in the UK who struggle to compete with London as a magnet for “creatives”, they’ll all have a creative hub, space or whatever. I remain unconvinced that the Eames furniture, lime green carpets and post-it friendly walls with clever graphics achieve that. To me, it’s like suggesting creative people like living in an IKEA catalogue.

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino on innovation hubs (and coffee)

Acabo de publicar toda la información sobre el próximo curso para formar a diseñadores de interacción. Será la tercera edición del Programa Vostok.

Gary Hustwit, who directed the great film Helvetica and the not-so-great-for-me Objectified, is about to close his movie trilogy with Urbanized. In his own words:

The third documentary in this trilogy is about the design of cities. Urbanized looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design, featuring some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

(via I Love Charts)

You know how long it takes to do simple? About ten times longer than fast and dirty.

Paul Giambarba

(via Minimal)

Mi abuelo, alguien de quien he aprendido muchas cosas, solía decir que “las cosas o se hacen bien o no se hacen”. Esa ha sido mi forma de entender el diseño desde que empecé, no sólo para ejercerlo sino también para enseñarlo.

He decidido volver a enseñar diseño de interacción.

Quiero volver a formar gente como creo que hay que hacerlo: sin prisas, enseñando con ejemplos, hablando, debatiendo y trabajando. Creo en la honestidad absoluta de enseñar ejemplos buenos y también errores, de hablar de lo que no funciona y de lo que sí, y también de invitar a gente mejor que uno mismo para que comparta sus formas de hacer. Quiero que mis alumnos practiquen, discutan, lean, salgan a la calle y observen para luego volver a practicar.

He estado dos años sin enseñar. No me sentía con ganas porque dudaba de muchas de las cosas que había enseñado antes. Tras dos años de trabajar muy duro he desterrado alguna creencia y he reforzado unas cuantas certezas. Primero pensé en organizar un curso de dos días, algo intensivo. Lo descarté porque realmente no sería capaz de transmitir todo lo que quiero transmitir. Si hay que enseñar diseño, hagámoslo bien.

En noviembre volveré a reunir a un grupo de 6 u 8 personas jóvenes que quieran crecer como diseñadores de interacción y que estén dispuestos a venir al estudio todas las tardes de los viernes durante 5 meses. Les enseñaré lo que sé, les haré trabajar duro y les trataré como si fueran mi proyecto más importante.

Empezaremos en noviembre. Dentro de poco tendré una web con todos los detalles: fechas, temario, precio, plazas) y podré empezar a seleccionar a los alumnos. Mientras tanto, si te interesa escríbeme a javier@vostok.es.

SUMMARY IN ENGLISH: I’m back to teaching interaction design. Starting this November I’ll repeat the Programa Vostok course I taught twice some years ago. It will be a 5 month course with classes every friday afternoon in Madrid. Classes will be in Spanish. Contact me if interested: javier@vostok.es

We like the iPad. We like elegance, simplicity and practicality and no iPad sleeve out there gave us that. So we decided to make our own and –if you like it– share it with you.

A few things that were important for us and wanted to abide by:

• It had to be handmade. We wanted good quality. Done with great care and attention. And the right tailor for that was jositajosi.
• It had to be pretty but practical. And what’s the iPad’s biggest hassle? Fingerprints. So choosing the right material was important. Solution: corduroy is perfect to clean glass. Slightly rugged but very gentle.
• The interior had to offer extra cushioning for ultimate protection and had to contrast with the outer cover (navy blue). Solution: a thin but resistant cushioning in Vostok blue.
• It should offer free-standing support. The sleeve is perfect to rest the iPad horizontally on top of it, the corduroy counterbalances the roundness of the base and keeps it steady.

It’s 35€ and can be shipped to anywhere in the world. Have a look:

You can buy it at vostok.es/ipadsleeve

In this video Timo gives us an update on the iPad app for Planetaki and shows us a preview of what’s to come. We hope to have it ready in a month.

In short:

• new design
• improved legibility
• ability to read posts offline
• fixed theme but customizable backgrounds

Most of you know that we collaborate closely with Floresfrescas.com. So it won’t come as a surprise to you that we received a beautiful assortment of flowers the other day and we couldn’t help but make a video of the unboxing. Perhaps some of you already know what it feels like to receive one of these babies. By the way, we designed and defined the identity of Floresfrescas.com and how it’s applied to their boxes.