design that resonates

  • Promised the world; given an atlas: A personal service experience (Part A)

    I thought it was about time I did a post on service experience. Yeah, I talk a good rap about technique and philosophy, but how about capturing some (non-client) service experiences for dissection. And so like Marie Curie exposing herself to radioactive material (albeit unknowingly) I chose the service experience of filing my tax return…

  • Schrödinger’s cat or: how observation causing nature to collapse is good information design

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYyCHGWJq4] I just watched this video by Henry Reich from MinutePhysics* and: Discovered why I’ve struggled to write my all encompassing seminal infodesigngraphatainment post I’ve wanted to write ever since I started this blog Feel like Neo saying “I know kung fu” only I’d say “I know quantum physics” (and then I’d quickly qualify before…

  • I don’t need a vacation, I just needed my vocation re-energised

    Yesterday* something great happened that reminded me why being a designer is my vocation, not my job. A colleague in Washington DC, Leslie Tergas, attended the Transform 2011 Conference at Mayo. She presented us her highlights. The gist of Mayo, innovation and the conference: Here’s a leading organisation – good at what they do –…

  • Collaboration – that’s the name of the game

    Oh, no wait – that’s multiplication. But in a funny way, it still works. Cue quote: “The range of our collective vision is far greater when individual insights become one” Andrew Carnegie. Amen Andy. As designers we espouse the value of collaboration. But what I’ve noticed in my years in the game is sometimes a…

  • Emergence: revelations, percolations, bunnies & unicorns

    There are three notions my design mind oft returns to: ‘Time’ in the service design context – time taken, time spent, time saved (both from the design process and within the delivery of a service) Design evaluation – what is it, how do you do it What’s different about design in business that makes it…

  • Love movies, Like info-graphic-tainment

    Presented without comment. Except ‘cool’   Source: Flowing Data

  • Maps, shmaps, pathways, shmathways, etc, shmetc

    I write this post with a conflicted heart. The post is ostensibly about language. And making sense – which simultaneously is precisely what this blog is for me; a record of my thinking, and thoughts in progress. But, I’ve just read Nick Marsh’s post on service design is dead, and while I don’t agree necessarily…

  • Service Design & UX Design; Po-tay-to/Po-tar-to or as umami is to salty*

    I have recently found myself working in the same physical space with some user experience practitioners.  Good people, nice people. As a service designer I have been listening to them talk, hearing familiar descriptions of activities and outcomes sought. Familiar but not the same. ‘Contextual enquiry’ and ‘affinity diagramming’ are expounded in such a way…

  • What is Visual.ly?

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiVKfNeRbPQ] I’m intrigued. My assumption from the name is some kind of bit.ly for the visual realm. Interesting(?) A little. Maybe….*heavy sigh* – y’know I used to really love information design and feel like part of a visual community trying to make a difference but now if everyone’s doing it and recognising it as ‘information…