Design with Intent

Runnymede Memorial: Part 1

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 29, 2007 ⋅ 22 comments

This post is the start of a series that will only be of interest to a few readers, but it’s about a subject that means a lot to me, and about a place which, in one way or another, has had an impact on design, and design education, in the UK and beyond. Brunel University [...]

Process friction

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 29, 2007 ⋅ 3 comments

Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah kindly sent me a link to this article by Ben Hyde:
I once had a web product that failed big-time. A major contributor to that failure was tedium of getting new users through the sign-up process. Each screen they had to step triggered the lost of 10 to 20% of the users. Reducing [...]

More thoughts on the Eaton MEM BC3, CFLs and Power Factor

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 26, 2007 ⋅ 18 comments

UPDATE: See this more recent post for information and photos of how to get a 2-pin bulb to fit in a BC3 fitting.
BC3 reactions
The post looking at the Eaton MEM BC3 system, a couple of months ago, has become something of a reference for UK householders and renters trying to work out why they [...]

Tearstrip-tease

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 25, 2007 ⋅ 2 comments

Alexander Freitas of the Infinity Squared blog notes the difficulties with frustrating tear-strips on packaging, and, comparing an easier-to-open pack from one manufacturer with a difficult tearstrip from another, suggests (somewhat along the lines of ‘Forcing functions designed to increase product consumption‘), that the company’s thought process may be something like:
We will make [...]

Chairman of the bored

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 25, 2007 ⋅ 2 comments

This blog often looks at methods for preventing people sitting down comfortably, usually in public space, from actual benches designed for this purpose, to features of walls and ledges which treat people like pigeons.
How often is the complete lack of seats a deliberate strategy? Seth Godin, in a post looking at different strategies for running [...]

archiPWNED

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 24, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Image from archiPWNED portfolio entry (PDF)
Scott Nusinow, one of Cory Doctorow’s students in his University of Southern California class, ‘PWNED: Everyone on Campus is a Copyright Criminal‘, carried out an architectural concept project for the design of a Los Angeles library. He’s specifically addressed ‘architectures of control’ in the contexts of encouraging the public to [...]

Welcome, new readers

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 17, 2007 ⋅ 5 comments

Thanks to Cory, this site has a lot of new readers today, so I thought I’d try to explain briefly what it’s all about.
‘Architectures of Control’ are features designed into things which intentionally attempt to restrict or enforce certain behaviour on the part of the users. The most prevalent examples are DRM and other attempts [...]

How this research will be moving forward

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 1, 2007 ⋅ 14 comments

UPDATE: This 2-page PDF (produced summer 2008) introduces the research
I’ve taken the plunge, and will be starting a PhD in September at Brunel University, Uxbridge, in the School of Engineering & Design.
The chosen subject incorporates both a formal investigation and review of certain architectures of control in design, and practical application of them for [...]

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Archive for May, 2007