Ged Carroll

Category: design | 設計 | 예술과 디자인 | デザイン

Design was something that was important to me from the start of this blog, over different incarnations of the blog, I featured interesting design related news. Design is defined as a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, interfaces or other object before it is made.

But none of the definition really talks about what design really is in the way that Dieter Rams principles of good design do. His principles are:

  1. It is innovative
  2. It makes a product useful
  3. It is aesthetic
  4. It makes a product understandable
  5. It is unobtrusive
  6. It is honest
  7. It is long-lasting
  8. It is thorough down to the last detail
  9. It is environmentally-friendly – it can and must maintain its contribution towards protecting and sustaining the environment.
  10. It is as little design as possible

Bitcoin isn’t long lasting as a network, which is why people found the need to fork the blockchain and build other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin uses 91 terawatts of energy annually or about the entire energy consumption of Finland.

The Bitcoin network relies on thousands of miners running energy intensive machines 24/7 to verify and add transactions to the blockchain. This system is known as “proof-of-work.” Bitcoin’s energy usage depends on how many miners are operating on its network at any given time. – So Bitcoin is environmentally unfriendly by design.

On the other hand, Apple products, which are often claimed to be also influenced by Dieter Rams also fail his principles. They aren’t necessarily environmentally friendly as some like AirPods are impossible to repair or recycle.

  • Autonomous car technology + other news

    Autonomous car technology

    Baidu accuses former staffer of stealing autonomous car technology | FT – interesting case. Presumably it must involve autonomous car technology that falls outside the scope of the Apollo open source software project. Baidu started Apollo as an open source initative on autonomous car technology. Who would the staffer be giving this autonomous car technology to and isn’t there a risk that the Chinese government would get involved against the staffer? Autonomous car technology relies on a series of strategic priority technologies that the Chinese government cares about. In particular automation, machine learning and sensors. 

    Business

    Iced tea maker soars 500% after pivot to blockchains | FT – yep things are as messed up as this looks

    CryptoCurrency Screener – Yahoo Finance – it gives you an idea how mainstream cryptocurrency speculation has become

    Culture

    Bill Brewster Recalls His NYC Stint Living (and Record Collecting) in the ’90s – via our Jed

    Design

    Apple Plans Combined iPhone, iPad & Mac Apps to Create One User Experience – Bloomberg – my big concern would be around UX and design

    Amazon Puzzles Over the Perfect Fit—in Boxes – WSJ – with e-commerce do you need the packaging to market the product on the shelf anymore? (paywall)

    Cathay Pacific reuses uniforms to create sustainable red envelopes for Chinese New Year | The Drum – I really like this idea, although it might jar with job and pay cuts at Cathay Pacific

    Ethics

    Apple, CALEA and Law Enforcement – Lawfare  – Apple is consistently making choices to protect users privacy and security. In the face of the kinds of attacks we’ve been seeing, from the “hack in a box” that Chinese criminals were selling to the sophisticated hacking Jupiter’s VPN, the better security is on phones and in communications, the better off we all are. So while Nick is right on the current vulnerability in iMessage, he has it wrong on both on Apple’s legal obligations under CALEA and how easy it would be for the company to accommodate law enforcement’s demands.

    Marketing

    Inexperience is hurting digital content: DeVries global CEO | PR | Campaign Asia – PR agency line of ‘engagement’ with everything – which shows a lack of understanding around effective marketing communications a la Byron Sharp and the Ehrenburg-Bass Institute work. Interesting what they are doing in China, but needs more nuance

    Volkswagen ad to interrupt other brand advertising – interesting brand dynamics

    How brands secretly buy their way into Forbes, Fast Company, and HuffPost stories | The Outline – this looks far more corrosive for the PR industry than Bell Pottinger

    Media

    Twitter Users Like Long Tweets More Than Short Ones | Buzzfeed – impressive if true

    Retailing

    China’s Guangzhou Tengshi secures further funding to expand automated convenience stores | South China Morning Post – interesting store concept that turns the retail space into a giant vending machine

    brandchannel: Unboxing Boxed: 5 Questions With CMO Jackson Jeyanayagam  – good to see this write-up with fellow WE veteran Jackson

    Security

    Germany accuses China of using LinkedIn to recruit informants-Sino-US – not terribly surprising

    California fires: Navigation apps like Waze sent commuters into flames, drivers say | USA Today – this will damage Waze in California.

    Technology

    Qualcomm’s Anti-Competitive Conduct Could Be Exacerbated By Mergers | Disruptive Competition Project – interesting analysis

    Alexa skills top 25,000 in the U.S. as new launches slow | TechCrunch – I guess its a limitation around the ‘type’ of knowledge taught. There are all kinds of restrictions over IP – so no movie dialogue quotes or sports results for instance unless you are ESPN or a film studio

    3D printed Wi-Fi – still getting my head around this (PDF) via our Matt

  • Hidden information design

    I’ve stared at UK mainline railway station departure boards at many times over the years, yet there is hidden information design that I just caught on to. I am usually fixated on the platform number and whether it will leave on time. So it was only this week that I picked up on the hidden information design of this little train ideogram as a footnote at the bottom of each destination on London Euston station’s display. I have been staring at this screen on and off for two decades as I travelled to see families or clients.

    Once you realise that the ideogram is there, it’s a revelation as it gives you a lot of pertinent information at a glance.  Just look at the picture I took of it below

    Untitled

    Ideogram as hidden information design on train departure board.

    The diagram flips, this was the dominant image.  It shows:

    • How many carriages are on the train
    • How full of reserved passengers each carriage is ( in this picture carriages A, B, E and J are very full).
    • Which coaches are first class (in this picture the first class coaches are indicated to be K,J,H & G)
    • A cup periodically flashed over coach C to show that was where the shop / takeaway cafe was onboard the train. (It is very rare for UK trains to have proper dining cars on board now. Instead you buy a sandwich and a coffee from a kiosk on board that you can eat at your seat).
    • That the quiet zone had to be indicated in text because they had pushed the limits of the constrained screen space for the ideogram

    It would be interesting to see if this data was available in API form for apps or web service usage and what could be done with it. More related content here. 

    SaveSave

  • 200 billion dollars & other news

    200 billion dollar markets

    Upgrade to 5G Costs 200 Billion Dollars a Year, May Not Be Worth It | Advertising Age – this will be interesting. 3G mobile networks were in a similar position at launch. I remember going to a Cap Gemini conference at the time, where research from European mobile operator c-suite opinions was presented. TL;DR no one knew how it was going to make money. Some like Three had ideas of making money on short form media like sports highlights.  Three didn’t manage to build a business selling football clips. None of the current ideas look worth $200 billion a year. Not even at the inflated values that we currently have, nothing close to 200 billion dollar markets. More related content here.

    Culture

    Outlaw Appeal: The Yakuza in Film and Print | Nippon – nice analysis of the Yakuza in popular culture

    Design

    Why Is There No Freighter Equivalent of the Airbus A380? – this is explains why Airbus made non-cargo optimised design decisions (like a cockpit on the lower flight deck so you can’t fit a cargo door in the nose). I would be very surprised if Airbus doesn’t make the same mistakes in the future. 

    Ethics

    Jaron Lanier interview on Silicon Valley culture, #MeToo backlash, AI, and the future – Business Insider

    FMCG

    Family Greatly | Kraft Brand – YouTube – classic planner driven creative targeting important family moments. Textbook FMCG advertising

    Japan

    No news, just snooze: Japan’s paper deliverers enjoy press holiday | World news | The Guardian – I love that Japan still values print

    Luxury

    Hiroshi Fujiwara Explains Why Fragment Sneakers Are So Hard to Get | GQ  – There’s many shoes out there. I want everyone to have it who wants to have it. But it’s hard because so many people buy them just to make money. And I don’t like that. And sometimes it’s good to work hard to get a sneaker, because otherwise you won’t buy it – Fujiwara-san on point as ever

    Security

    China unveils satellite network plan for round-the-clock lock on South China Sea | South China Morning Post

    Chinese woman offered refund after facial recognition allows colleague to unlock iPhone X | South China Morning Post – when you have a huge population like China even small odds become significant – I do have a nagging doubt about if the story is true though

    Technology

    Telling AI to not replicate itself is like telling teenagers to just not have sex | Quartz – runaway singularity?

    Wireless

    FT Opening Quote – Dixons Carphone profits fall 60% – UK consumer upgrade cycle stretched. More people going for SIM only deals and upgrades are pretty meh (paywall)

  • Most popular blog posts of 2017

    How did I go to define the most popular blog posts of 2017. I looked at my most trafficked articles from January to June 2017 here.

    What did June to December look like?

    # Title Notes
    1 Is your PR plan good enough? A series of six posts and a work book on developing and assessing how thorough a communications plan is
    2 Thinking about Marcel Reflections on the challenges and opportunities posed by Publicis Groupe’s bid to build machine learning into the core of the business
    3 My decade of the iPhone Reflecting on the impact that the iPhone had on my smartphone usage. Probably not as much as you would have thought
    4 Out and about: Blade Runner 20149 Review of Gosling and Ford’s reboot of the Blade Runner story 30 years after the original
    5 That Trivago poster The meme created by blanket out of home advertising throughout London in September
    6 The Bell Pottinger Post I was a bit surprised to see Bell Pottinger go into administration after I wrote this post. Even the London finances were bearing up, the key challenge seems to have been NO interested from any agency approached in acquiring the London office.
    7 Living with the Apple Watch A reflection live with the Apple Watch 2. My first Apple Watch went on eBay within 48 hours of its arrival and my initial trials with it. How will the Mk II version cope?
    8 Can too much design thinking be a bad thing? There is a lot of mediocre thinking shrouded in design methodologies out there. But this post wasn’t about that. Instead I wanted to consider the process itself. Was there be constraints on the process itself?
    9 Technology is way ahead of interface designs Good user experience, ergonomics and the latest technology don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand
    10 Three takeaways from Cannes and Vidcon Blind trust in influencers as a marketing tool. The unhealthy state of the online advertising eco-system and transfer of value from agencies and media to two platforms

    What did the most popular blog posts  of 2017 look like overall?

    # Title Notes
    1 Living with the Casio GWF -D1000 Frogman watch Casio took their Frogman watch and improved it even further. Some of the technology is interesting mainly because they’ve managed to run it all off a diminutive solar panel. The bigger changes for me was moving world time from the ‘home screen’ and reengineering how the strap is fastened to the case in a much more robust manner
    2 Louis Vuitton, Supreme and the tangled relationship between streetwear and luxury brands Louis Vuitton has been dragged into the 21st century by its creative director. A collaboration with Supreme seems logical in retrospect for so many reasons
    3 Is your PR plan good enough? A series of six posts and a work book on developing and assessing how thorough a communications plan is
    4 Thinking about Marcel Reflections on the challenges and opportunities posed by Publicis Groupe’s bid to build machine learning into the core of the business
    5 Richard Edelman is wrong, PR isn’t at a crossroads… Richard Edelman commented on the trend for large marketing groups to consolidate PR agencies and integrate PR offerings into a larger marketing services stack. This mirrors changes that Edelman’s own company has gone through as multiple disciplines close in on a marketing singularity
    6 It’s time that we talk about micro-influencers Looking past the hype of micro-influencers to work out how it fits with brand planning scenarios
    7 Oprah Time: Blood and Faith – the purging of muslim Spain (1492 – 1614) by Matthew Carr I picked this book up on a trip to Madrid. Carr’s books looked at Spain’s history with the muslim world in an unsympathetic light. The issues of conservative populism and racism also feel very contemporary given political sentiment across Europe
    8 Magic Lantern Festival, Chiswick House Gardens Chiswick hosted a lunar new year oriented lantern festival similar to what you’d seen in Hong Kong and across China
    9 Have we reached peak streetwear? A follow-on post from my jog down memory lane about luxury and streetwear. I started thinking about it in terms of a market in its own right
    10 My decade of the iPhone Reflecting on the impact that the iPhone had on my smartphone usage. Probably not as much as you would have thought

    There is it is; the most popular blog posts of 2017.

  • Kindle – tenth anniversary

    I was blown away when I realised that it was the tenth anniversary of the the Amazon Kindle. Ten years, think about that for a moment.

    Amazon Kindle & Sony eBook

    If you look at the original Kindle versus the latest model you can see how the design language moved from a ‘BlackBerry’ type product design to a smartphone type design. Along the way it benefited from improvements in e-ink display technology to provide a crisper viewing experience. Sony’s competitor might have looked more modern bit it didn’t manage to get the marketing mix and the hardware / services mix right.

    Sony’s failure indicated while you could be successful in a number of media markets, it didn’t guarantee success in other media.

    Rather like Apple products Kindle is a combination of hardware, software (including content), payment infrastructure and the Whispernet global mobile virtual network.

    Like Apple, Amazon came in and refined an existing business model. Companies like Sony made very nice e-readers, but they didn’t have the publisher relationships and market access that Amazon had.

    Context rather than convergence

    In a time where consumer electronics thinking was all about convergence, from the newly launched iPhone to the Symbian eco-system, Amazon were determined to come up with a single purpose device.

    Amazon resisted the trend and created a dedicated device for reading. That is why you have a black-and-white e-ink screen and an experience exclusively focused on seamless content downloads.

    Yes, they’ve rolled out tablets since, but even the latest range stick to the original Kindle playbook. Some of their decisions were quite prescient. The Kindle was deliberately designed so that it didn’t require content to be side loaded from personal computer like an iPod.

    The Kindle has survived the smartphone and the tablet device as a reading experience. Even if ebooks didn’t conquer the book publishing market in quite the way Amazon had planned.

    Using the U.S. legal system to clear the field

    Amazon was helped out by the US government prosecuting Apple under the Sherman Act. Wikipedia has a good summary of this case. On the face of it Apple was doing a similar structured deal with publishers on book pricing to what it had done previously with record companies for iTunes music.

    This case effectively stalled Apple book store momentum and lumbered Apple with overzealous US government overwatch. The consumer benefit has been minimal – more on that later. The irony of all this is the way Amazon has leveraged its monopolistic position to decimate entire sectors of the retail economy.

    The interesting thing about this case, say compared to the Apple | Qualcomm dispute is that Apple still kept Audible audio book sales in iTunes throughout this dispute and didn’t look at ways to bounce the iPad Kindle app from the app store. Audible is an Amazon-owned company.

    By comparison, Amazon bounced Apple’s TV from its own e-commerce platform and has taken a long time to support the AppleTV app eco-system – long after the likes of Netflix.

    Piracy in China

    Amazon hasn’t had it all its own way. China had a burgeoning e-book market prior to the Kindle and Chinese consumers used to read these books on their laptops.  Depending which store you used; it might have more books at a cheaper price because intellectual property wasn’t ironed out. This has undermined Amazon’s slow entry into the Chinese e-book marketplace.

    A cottage industry sprang up that saw Kindles acquired in the US and Japan shipped back to China and reflashed with software that made them compatible with the local app stores. These Kindles were bought at a subsidised price as Amazon looked to sell devices to sell books.

    The Kindle brain phenomenon

    I moved from the UK to Hong Kong to take up a role and tried to lighten my burden by moving my reading from books to the Kindle. I found that I didn’t retain the content I read. I enjoyed the process of reading less and did it less often. I wasn’t an e-book neophyte I had enjoyed reading vintage pulp fiction novels as ebooks on Palm devices and Nokia phones in the early 2000s as a way of passing them time on my commute.

    Talking to friends their experience was similar. I now read on the Kindle or listen to audio books only for pleasure. I tend to buy my reference books in the dead tree format. There is something more immediate about the process of reading from a ‘real book’ rather than an e-book.

    It seems that digital natives aren’t ready to give up books just yet. Studies about the use of digital technology and e-books in education are mixed and anecdotal evidence suggests that technology industry leaders liked to keep the level of digital content in their children’s lives at a low threshold.

    The Kindle hasn’t replaced the bookshelf and the printing press yet.

    Pricing

    Disposing of the medium didn’t mean that we got cheaper e-books. On Amazon it is worth looking carefully to see what is the cheapest format on a case by case basis. Kindle competes against print books and secondhand books.

    Secondhand books win hands down when you are looking at materials beyond bestsellers. A real-world book is easier to gift and Amazon Prime allows for almost instant gratification. The Kindle starts to look like Amazon covering all the bases rather than the future of publishing. This may change over time, a decade into online news was a more mixed media environment than it is now – but Kindle feels as if it has reached a balance at the moment. More related content here.

    More information

    New study suggests ebooks could negatively affect how we comprehend what we read | USA Today
    Shelve paperbacks in favour of E-books in schools? | BBC
    Study challenges popular beliefs on e-reading | The Educator
    Are Digital Textbooks Finally Taking Hold? | Good eReader – makes the case for a heterogenous book environment of standard textbooks, e-books and used books
    Do ‘Digital Natives’ Prefer Paper Books to E-Books? | Education Week
    Our love affair with digital is over | New York Times (paywall)