“To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o’clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through the silences, that was what Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.”

The Pedestrian (1951), Ray Bradbury

“All fiction lies between the poles of playful simulation of utopian (i.e. radically better) relationships and ideological explanation as to why relationships are as they are and can change only for the worse. As a rule, utopian presentation has to be explicit since it presents an alternative, while ideological presentation will best be served by remaining implicit, as an unargued premise that this is how things are, were, and will be. Both the cognitively utopian and the mystifying horizons are intimately interwoven in most stories, often in the same paragraph or indeed the same sentence.”

Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack (a review on gordsellar.com)

//@solle
//London

Two children. One with pencil and A4 pad. The other with newspaper open at sports pages. The latter reads out football scores (often having to spell out the teams in full), the former writes them down. As they get off the train they both ask their father to promise that he will finish the task when he gets to his office.

So

It is generally agreed that following a program of positive reinforcement when handling dogs is a good thing. Related to this, by only calling them by name when they do something good or you are commending behaviour but never when they do something bad or misbehave results in a less confused animal (and quite probably a more content and all round better behaved animal).

Now

Take this up with your children. Start only calling them by name when it is connected to a positive thing or related to thanking or commending (obviously age related) and when it is a negative thing, a scold, a telling off don’t refer to them by name. Just deal with the matter in hand.

If you have had the fortune/misfortune of bearing witness to a primary school/Key Stage 2 classroom of late you will probably have overheard the use of children’s names in relation to negative actions more frequently than positive.

And

We all react in different ways to our names being called out especially in front of large numbers of people (peers in particular).

Imagine if throughout your childhood whenever you heard your name called out it was *only* ever in relation to a positive action, a recommendation, a thank you, a smile. Imagine then how in adulthood you would only react positively to hearing your name called out. You would always be pleased. You would never think you had done something wrong.

(Thanks PN)

//@solle
//London

//@solle
//London

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Let us know what you think. All shades of opinion welcome.

We are busy editing some other recently recorded stuff: another interview and a roving reporter thingy from this month’s IASummit in New Orleans. Look out for it.

Thanks for listening

//@solle
//London

The user centred web designer had done all the training, read all the books, subscribed to all the important blogs and feeds, followed all the sages and wise and clever heads, rubbed shoulders with them at all the important places, attended all the conferences, subscribed to all the podcasts, done everything he was supposed to do. He was up to date. He was confident. Even his opinion was sought.

He had a good job in a cool User Experience Design Agency in a bustling town next to the river. The nice white converted warehouse office was full of other cool, happy designers and other assorted types. They all loved their jobs – ’the best in the world’. They did good work. They worked hard. They cared. Everyone knew they cared. They wanted everyone to know they cared. Everyone did know. They thought they were best practice and so did the user centred web designer.

But unfortunately he was in for a bit of a surprise.

Things were changing, in fact had been changing for quite a while. He had begun to notice as if out of the corner of his eye that things weren’t quite as they seemed anymore. Things seemed to scurry about in the periphery of his work. Things didn’t sit still. Not quite what he was told, what he’d always been led to believe, what he’d read, what he was taught. He felt rather uncomfortable. Ill at ease. Strange goings on in his job. The way he did his job. The people he was supposed to be designing for. He wasn’t quite sure who they were anymore. In fact, he wasn’t quite sure what they were. Where they came from, what they wanted, where they might be going. Things were getting way more complicated than he’d ever been led to believe. Weird things were happening. Things he hadn’t forseen.

The clients continued to request things in the accepted way. No real change. Asking for the same type of stuff. Similar types of guidelines were coming through but it was as though something had shifted. Was out of line. It had started to erode his confidence in his work, who it was for and who might use it. Only slightly but enough.

He felt it was still early days. Time for him to get on top of things. To understand exactly what was going on. Exactly how things were changing. But he realised that he had to start doing it now and he was going to need to learn what was changing. They never told him it was going to be this complicated.

//@solle
//London

There is no argument that there are infinite possibilities when designing typefaces and chairs. That isn’t going to change anytime soon. Demand is infinite too. We always read, we always sit.

But

Without sounding like a cockle-headed heathen, how about you the designer overcoming the call of the typeface or the whisper of the chair and working up other forms. Some other things need to be firmly in the designer’s eye. Exalted and popular.

No harm.

No harm done if more of us step away from the black mirrors and tradition. Refocus attentions across new sight lines.

Though, let’s get this absolutely clear from the out: typography is civilisation and I fidget in front of bad kerning. I can sit on the top deck of a London bus and discuss the form of a chair. But I can also debate the New Aesthetic. It’s just that maybe, just maybe, over recent years reading and sitting have received a disproportionate degree of designer attention and a few other things could now do with a bit of that enthrallment.

Just for starters

Some other forms and things/places we all use that require the same scrupulous attention:

–The modern sustainable interconnected home and the components and interfaces therein. We all have to live somewhere.

–The city and its interconnected components and interfaces. Our future is pretty much encapsulated in how we handle the development and sustainability of the ever growing city. Sorry, no escape from this one.

–Transport and travel: public (airlines, buses). Airlines. Terrible.

–Transport and travel: private (beyond peak car). We still rely on the combustion engine. WTF? And, where’s the flying car you promised me.

–Your children’s education. Everyone has done it but it’s broken.

–Sustainable products: where’s my futuristic toothbrush?

–PLEASE ADD MORE HERE

NB Let’s accept that above excludes world wide web sites

//@solle
//London

“Think of it like two roads coming together. One called ‘Geek’, which is the internet and its ability to tell stories, and the other called ‘Luddite’, which is a company who wants to make great products that last. And the more we can make a product that lasts, the more stories it will have to tell.”

What I think about when I have paper and scissors in my hand

From Ben Bashford’s presentation at Lift12

The purpose of a computer is to help you do something else.
The best computer is a quiet, invisible servant.
The more you can do by intuition the smarter you are.
The computer should extend your unconscious.
Technology should create calm.

Marc Weiser

//@solle
//London

(View full size on Flickr)

(View full size on Flickr)

(View full size on Flickr)

More details of LDNIA March 2012

The format for the weekend is non-prescriptive. Come and read, come and write, come and sit, come and think, come and walk, come stare out of the window, come and cook, and of course come and talk.

As we get a list of people who are interested, we will put more meat on the bone with the planning.

Register interest in the direction of matthewsolle at gmail telling me what you are most interested in doing with the weekend (reading, writing, staring etc) and what month/weekend suits you best.

Then I’ll try and pull it together.

Thanks

//@solle
//London