This morning at 6am I read a new article in The Telegraph on the same subject. Now I am haunted again. Lost with no realistic reference points of experience. Just the facts.

“Passengers seem to know instinctively how to arrange themselves in an elevator. Two strangers will gravitate to the back corners, a third will stand by the door, at an isosceles remove, until a fourth comes in, at which point passengers three and four will spread toward the front corners, making room, in the center, for a fifth, and so on, like the dots on a die.”

How we behave in public spaces, how we design for others in public (and private spaces). There is so much to understand about our behaviour and needs in these everyday occurrences. More to come here. This and escalators, pavements, railway stations. So much designing for economy, needs and behaviour.

(I’ve also quoted other good stuff from it here)

Today also struck by Leisa’s thing this week on The Pastry Box Project about a need for wallspace and work environments. Linked. I’m always thinking how education and learning spaces need to evolve too. (Have written about this before – Learning Space bit.)

//@solle
//London

But

If you are lucky the idea will grow, crawl about, crawl about, hide, sleep, wake up again, grow again, crawl about, crawl about, hide again, sleep again, wake up yet again, grow again, crawl about, crawl about, hide again, sleep again, wake up yet again, grow, grow, crawl, crawl, sleep, evolve, grow so very beautiful, fly about, high, high up and feel like it lives forever.

Notes

Inspiration derived from the wonderful Woolly Bears (Pyrrharctia isabella)

//@solle
//London

Tips about spreading rumours successfully:

1. Tell the story casually, and don’t give yourself away by being overanxious to launch your rumour.
2. If the low-down is especially hot, tell it confidentially.
3. Never speak your rumour more than once in the same place. If it is good, others will repeat it.
4. Tell it innocently, and don’t disclose any source that can readily be discredited.

“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

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