Notes from a father to his daughter a week after the attack on the WTC The rubble still smolders. The southern tip of Manhattan is shrouded in a brown haze. The air is still acrid with the smell of crushed…
How can we reframe and unbias our news media habits? How could we become aware of our political biases? What if we created a news reader that could keep track of how many blue and red news articles we’ve read?…
I’m curious to see, in a world where we’ve begun to understand much about human behavior, if there is a methodology and practice that can be offered to designers to enable them to design for the good – for themselves…
Another amazing workshop – this time in Munich. Much to learn each and every time I do these workshops. For the first time my team in New York generated a customer journey using an algorithm written by Joe McHeffey that…
I’ve often been asked to share my meditation resources. I’d recommend not relying on an app to help you first learn how to meditate. I’ve downloaded and tried most of them and have found for a beginner a weekend retreat…
Celebrating my 30th workshop. I’ve done them now for clients and internal teams, with small teams and with groups as large as 70. And yes, they get a bit unwieldy at that size. And here’s what I’ve learned along the…
Architecture swallows violence. The streets are washed clean. The walls patched. The holes filled. The windows repaired. And the names and lives of those lost are slowly forgotten. Mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and…
Bruce Chatwin’s book, The Songlines, inspired me to think how I might design an application that would enable composers to create and map music to a specific geography. In the book Chatwin describes Songlines as, “…the labyrinth of invisible pathways which…
Tinder’s use of a very familiar mental model – a stack of cards – is break through design work. Like a stack of cards it is a true thumb first expression of designing for mobile – first. The mental model –…
I’m still surprised to see ad agencies struggle after nearly 20 years but it occurred to me a few weeks back that most ad agencies are having a hard time modernizing and adapting to the needs of the new customer because…
Using Maslow to define need states, there is a hypothetical starter set of desirable features or services that, over time, are supported by learning. The mandatories – functional and usable – are built first. The topmost sections of the pyramid would…
Reframing – a tool for rapid innovation Reframing a question involves looking at the question from a different perspective and asking it in a way that changes its meaning or focus. Here are some steps you can follow to reframe…
Thoughts being those random things that jet around our heads. Attachment being the tension/reaction when becoming aware of the thought. Awareness being the “self” or emotional state that is defined by the attachment to that thought. Letting go is becoming…
This time with a financial services client. Always fun to do with clients whose product or service impacts our everyday lives so directly. We spent several months developing very robust personas – based on data and analytics from a wide…
Did a design workshop the other day. It was a very useful way for the team to build consensus and kickstart the project.
