Design with Intent | Design engineering

Do you really need to print that?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ November 6, 2007 ⋅ 12 comments

This is not difficult to do, once you know how. Of course, it’s not terribly useful, since a) most people don’t read the display on a printer unless an error occurs, or b) you’re only likely to see it once you’ve already sent something to print.
Is this kind of very, very weak persuasion – actually [...]

Slanty design

By Dan Lockton ⋅ October 29, 2007 ⋅ 5 comments

The Main Reading Room, Library of Congress. Image from CIRLA.
In this article from Communications of the ACM from January 2007, Russell Beale uses the term slanty design to describe “design that purposely reduces aspects of functionality or usability”:
It originated from an apocryphal story that some desks in the US Library of Congress in Washington, DC, [...]

Water on the membrane

By Dan Lockton ⋅ October 1, 2007 ⋅ 2 comments

The Cranfield/Electrolux Smart Sink – photo from Trespassers by Ed van Hinte and Conny Bakker.
Ten years ago, teams from Cranfield University and Electrolux Industrial Design collaborated on an ‘eco-kitchen’, a family of related concepts for a kitchen of the future. Part of the intention was to demonstrate that eco-design could be a positive spur to [...]

On the level

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 24, 2007 ⋅ 2 comments

A tilt-detector from this 1984 US patent, with intended application on a packing box.
The liquid detection stickers in mobile phones, which allow manufacturers and retailers to ascertain if a phone has got wet, and thus reject warranty claims (whether judiciously/appropriately or not), seem to be concerning a lot of people worldwide. Around a quarter of [...]

Freelancing Part 3: The Ben Wilson Interview

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 12, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

In Parts 1 and 2 of this series I looked at some aspects of what it’s like being a freelance designer / engineer / maker, and some of the things I’ve learned along the way. Lots of freelancers have blogs, and sites such as Freelance Switch and Sologig News draw together some very interesting (and [...]

Dishonourable discharge?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 7, 2007 ⋅ 4 comments

Long overdue, I’m currently reading Bruce Schneier’s excellent Beyond Fear, and realising that in many ways, security thinking overlaps with architectures of control: the goal of so many systems is to control users’ behaviour or to deny the user the ability to perform certain actions. I’ll post a fuller comparison and analysis in due course, [...]

Design & Punishment

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 26, 2007 ⋅ 8 comments

Design and Punishment, by Ben Cunningham. Photo from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth’s 2007 Three Dimensional Design graduate directory.
Very neatly linking the themes of the last two posts (devices to make users aware of their energy use, and intentionally uncomfortable seating) is the Design and Punishment chair by Ben Cunningham, a Three Dimensional Design graduate [...]

Making energy use visible

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 24, 2007 ⋅ 11 comments

Photos courtesy of Harry Ward
We’ve looked recently at water taps with meters built in, the thinking being the ’speedometer’ approach to shaping users’ behaviour – making users aware of the scale/rate/level of some activity should cause them to adjust that behaviour.
A number of projects and initiatives also apply this approach to electricity use – [...]

Another charging opportunity?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 23, 2007 ⋅ 13 comments

Last month, an Apple patent application was published describing a method of “Protecting electronic devices from extended unauthorized use” – effectively a ‘charging rights management’ system.
New Scientist and OhGizmo have stories explaining the system; while the stated intention is to make stolen devices less useful/valuable (by preventing a thief charging them with unauthorised chargers), [...]

Making exercise cooler

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 5, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Main image and above right: Snowdown aesthetic model; below right: Snowdown functional test rig prototype.
Snowdown, by Matthew Barnett, is fantastic. Powered by a child exercising, moving the handle, it crushes ice cubes and compacts them to make snowballs. There are a lot of kids out there who would very much like one of these, at [...]

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