Design with Intent | Convention

So long, and thanks for all the rubbish

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 12, 2008 ⋅ 9 comments

It cost nothing to put this (trilingual) thank-you message on this litter bin at Helsinki Airport. But does this kind of message – a very simple injunctive norm – have more effect on user behaviour than the absence of a message? To what extent does it make you more likely to use the bin? To [...]

Review: Architecture as Crime Control by Neal Katyal

By Dan Lockton ⋅ October 18, 2007 ⋅ 5 comments

Review: Katyal, N. K. “Architecture as Crime Control”, Yale Law Journal, March 2002, Vol 111, Issue 5.
Professor Neal Kumar Katyal of Georgetown University Law School, best-known for being (successful) lead counsel in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case dealing with Guantanamo Bay detainees, has also done some important work on the use of design as a [...]

In default, defiance

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 8, 2007 ⋅ 9 comments

‘Choice of default’ is a theme which has come up a few times on the blog: in general, many people accept the options/settings presented to them, and do not question or attempt to alter them. The possibilities for controlling or shaping users’ behaviour in this way are, clearly, enormous; two interesting examples have recently been [...]

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 [...]

A bright idea?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ March 28, 2007 ⋅ 47 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.
This may well be the example which involves the most different ‘architecture of control’ issues so far – by a long way. It is a complex case with a number of aspects, intentions [...]

Friday quote: Precedents (the flipside)

By Dan Lockton ⋅ February 16, 2007 ⋅ One comment

As a flipside, perhaps, to the quote on precedents from a couple of weeks ago:
If there is something really cool, and you can’t understand why somebody hasn’t done it before, it’s because you haven’t done it yourself.
(From Lion Kimbro’s fascinating How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought You Think.)
The way I interpret that [...]

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 [...]

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