Bruce Nussbaum obviously had a great time at Davos, and this post sums it all up quite nicely.

It’s a good time to be doing design thinking.

In Praise of Slow Design, by Michael Beirut

Really worth a read and some soak time. 

How long should it, does it, take to design something really good?  To create an innovation of lasting value?

Seth Godin wrote an interesting post about prototypes today.  I disagree with where he went with this argument, but being of a Voltaire-ish world view, I’m really happy with him saying it.

Here’s how my email response to Seth went:

Hi Seth,

Part of the problem is that there are many, many levels of prototypes.   There are sketchy prototypes, rough prototypes, works-like prototypes, looks-like prototypes, works-looks-like prototypes, launched product prototypes (Gmail), you know what I’m talking about.

What I find is that prototype owners aren’t very good about setting context for their audiences.  They focus too much on the prototype and don’t tell enough of a story about it.  In fact, I’ve found the best way to get people to understand a prototype isn’t to show them the prototype on a table, but to shoot a video of someone using that prototype, or to use the prototype as a prop in a skit.  Then you can show how and why it creates value in someone’s life, which is the point of the whole exercise anyway.

So, I guess I disagree that prototypes need to be better than the real thing.  It’s the storytelling that needs to be better than reality.

Best,

Diego

So, kind metacool reader, what do YOU think?  Let’s have a comment fiesta below.

The Citroën Mehari

A variant of the famed 2CV, the plastic-bodied Mehari is a wonderful example of the kind of aesthetic that results from a design point of view which is more concerned with materials, end use scenarios, manufacturing processes, and — above all — cost, rather than with the vagaries of style.  It’s the same type of point of view that gave us such classics as the original Jeep, Land Rover, and  Mini.  When done in a more conscious mode, it’s really hard to do this kind of design. 

The new Mini does a good job of it, but modern Jeeps just don’t have it.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see  a modern Mehari?  Maybe it will happen.

I’m very emotional about the Mehari.  For me, it’s evocative of the summer I spent as a boy staying with family in Spain.  My uncle Valentin Sama took me on a whirlwind tour of Southern Spain (in the summer, in a SEAT Panda, with three other people and our luggage and two dogs, and of course, no A/C.  We were hot) which included a few days relaxing in Agua Amarga.  Your quintessential fishing village with no phones, lots of beach dogs, and more than a few Meharis. 

I spent hours in Agua Amarga looking at an orange Mehari and a red 2CV.  Those two made for an aesthetic feast from Mars for this suburban Colorado boy.  I’m still figuring out how to get back there.

photo credit: Jacques Froissant, Creative Commons license, via Flickr

Here’s a wonderful bit of storytelling  which helps illustrate the true nature of the word bespoke.

From English Cut, of course.

Virginia Postrel tells this tale of her contribution to Starbuck’s "The Way I See It" campaign:

Due to an unfortunate interaction between the sleeve and the cup, it’s Virginia’s writing that we stop noticing almost immediately:

As is always the case here at metacool, my intent is not to poke fun at these kinds of sitiuations.  I’m much more interested in what there is to learn from this. 

I think the lesson here is how hard it is to successfully deliver an integrated offering.  Even for an experience delivery master such as Starbucks.   It’s these kind of snafus that make the routine performance of something like a Boeing 767 all the more extraordinary. 

The remedy?  It’s a bit of a cliche, but it comes back to the kind of multi-functional, multi-disciplinary teams fostered by Design Thinking.  Why not, for instance, put Virginia’s quote on the sleeve in addition to the cup?  Well, that would probably require a new set of manufacturing, graphic design, marcomm, legal, supply chain, and channel experts to meet and reach agreement.  But it could happen.   Design Thinking is a team activity.

The Rivendell Atlantis
from the Rivendell website:

"Form follows function" works for nature, but too often with people, it’s used as an excuse to rush to market something that’s fully functional but still not so good looking.  (Have you noticed that old things usually look good? Manhole covers, typewriters, ’50s station wagons, chairs, hand-saw handles, buildings, bells, letter openers, kitchen appliances, almost anything.  They were designed slowly, on a real drawing board, by people who were part industrial designer, part artist, part engineer.  When you mix those qualities with manual involvement and patience, what finally hatches usually looks good.)"

Here’s something I hadn’t heard before:  Studio 360 Design for the Real World

A nice bento box of audio insights.

"My inspiration comes from my childhood. I have a theory: As a child, you do a lot of things, you soak in the most; 20 or 30 years later you are in a position where you can make these things that you dreamed of or thought of back when you were a kid. You can make them happen. The color turquoise became very fashionable when the iMac came out. The designer who designed it was 35, my age then.  I remember that turquoise was all over when I was 9 or 10. It was a color from my childhood. Orange was a color of my childhood. The minimalism from the 60s came back. The 80’s are coming back in the work of the younger guys."

– Markus Diebel