Design with Intent | Cargo cult

Placebo buttons, false affordances and habit-forming

By Dan Lockton ⋅ October 1, 2008 ⋅ 13 comments

This is a great graph from GraphJam, by ‘Bloobeard’. It raises the question, of course, whether the ‘door close’ buttons on lifts/elevators really do actually do anything, or are simply there to ‘manage expectations‘ or act as a placebo.
The Straight Dope has quite a detailed answer from 1986:
The grim truth is that a significant [...]

Cross-purposes?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ June 18, 2008 ⋅ 4 comments

Last week I was at a seminar where a fellow student was outlining some (very interesting) research about how to adapt ‘professional’ products to be usable by a ‘lay’ audience (what functions do you retain, what do you lose, how do you deal with different mental models? and so on)
He repeatedly referred to the importance [...]

The Rebound Effect nicely illustrated

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 17, 2008 ⋅ 5 comments

The Rebound Effect is a significant problem in energy policy and sustainable design: if new devices are more energy efficient, will users simply use them more, or leave them on for longer? (A kind of Jevons’ Paradox). This UK Energy Research Centre report (PDF, 5 Mb) looks to be a comprehensive, interesting and readable treatment [...]

Normalising paranoia

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 27, 2007 ⋅ 12 comments

This is brilliant. Chloë Coulson, Erland Banggren and Ben Williams, three Ravensbourne graduates, have put together a project looking at the “culture of fear”, the media’s use of this, and how it affects our everyday state of mind.
The outcome is a catalogue, WellBeings™ [PDF link] accompanying a specially printed newspaper, The Messenger, designed [...]

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 [...]

Friday quote: Fashion & convention

By Dan Lockton ⋅ February 9, 2007 ⋅ One comment

L.J.K. Setright, the late motoring writer and commentator, self-taught mechanical engineer and all-round Renaissance Man, once wrote:
Fashion is a terrible fetter; convention, since it lasts longer, is even worse.
This was in an issue of Car, when it was still any good.
Setright wrote it in reference to car design, and the lack of [...]

No photography allowed

By Dan Lockton ⋅ January 22, 2007 ⋅ 4 comments

A couple of recent stories on photography of certain items being ‘banned’ – Cory Doctorow on a Magritte exhibition’s hypocrisy, and Jen Graves on a sculpture of which “photography is prohibited” – highlight what makes me tense up and want to scream about so much of the ‘intellectual property debate’: photons are no more [...]

Dependence

By Dan Lockton ⋅ January 17, 2007 ⋅ 3 comments

Karel Donk has some intriguing thoughts on ‘maximising the upside’ of life, by reducing dependence on other people, status and possessions, so that there is less to lose:
So one of the important things in life is to be as independent as possible and rely on very few things. After all, when it comes down to [...]

Limiting frequency of cigarette use

By Dan Lockton ⋅ December 30, 2006 ⋅ 9 comments

Images from nicostopper.com and Popgadget
Nicostopper is an electronic dispenser which holds up to 10 cigarettes, and releases them one at a time at programmed intervals, to help pace and restrict the smoker. The screen “will also flash “self-help” messages each time to make you feel guilty as well” (Popgadget). It’s styled fairly discreetly to look [...]

BBC report on Gowers Report reads like a press release

By Dan Lockton ⋅ December 7, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

They’ve got quotes from the BPI, AIM, FACT and the Alliance Against IP Theft, but nothing from the Open Rights Group or anyone else offering any counter-view. I wonder why, and I wonder if the BBC will update or alter the article at any point. Newssniffer’s Revisionista will let us know.
Still, I can rest [...]

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