I love Craigslist. With a regional filter, it provides a window into the lives of the single, the unemployed, and the junk ridden people you never knew lived all around you. For me it is a constant source of entertainment. But more than entertainment, it has changed the way I think about buying the things I need, and how I think about product lifetimes.
Less than four miles from our office, McDonalds has built its first “earth-friendly” restaurant which opened on July 14th. I love everything this new place represents. I can charge my electric car at a charging station while I eat my burger at a table made from sunflower seed board. I’ll have the benefit of natural light provided by solatubes while I enjoy the educational video kiosk on the restaurant’s design features. The exterior materials are just as healthy as those used on the interior. For more details, check out http://www.mcnorthcarolina.com/7501/.
It’s great that McDonalds is taking this step. Now if they would just make the food as healthy for me as the table I’m eating on is healthy for the environment, they might see me swing by for lunch from time to time.
It’s no secret at HumanCentric that I love animals. I regularly bring in my own dog to hang out while I work, and I usually have a foster dog that tags along as well. Thank goodness HumanCentric is a dog-friendly workplace.
So given my love for animals and my love for beautifully-designed products, I was so excited to stumble upon this company: Wetnöz. They were featured in the summer 2009 issue of Innovation magazine. How great are their products? I completely agree with their company’s vision: that people spend lots of time selecting furniture and accessories to beautify their homes, and that should include pet products.
I don’t really collect anything. When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards, but so did everybody else. I do, however, have a growing stack of NYRB Classics at my house. What are NYRB Classics? They’re books. Specifically, they are “discoveries, the kind of books that people typically run into outside of the classroom and then remember for life.” Why do I have so many? In part, because the books are often fascinating reads. But mostly because I love their design.
As I was walking from my desk to the company break room, I noticed the variety of ways in which my colleagues and I have “annotated” computer equipment that we use. Here are a couple of examples:
When HumanCentric was asked to shoot video for a project, Alex and I got pretty excited. We set out to experiment, gathering materials for a video setup.
The project required footage of ice and water in motion. Our challenge (and the fun part) was filming in a way that reflected the product’s visual language.
As the years go by I’m noticing more often that certain memories are being purged for lack of brain storage space. How is it possible that I can remember minute details about elementary school and 5th grade Spanish class, but I can’t remember details about a trip I took last summer? I start reminiscing with a friend about how funny it was the time we were at the beach and we saw that crazy guy… you remember right? And she laughs and says “That wasn’t me.” Is it possible that my once photographic memory has overloaded in its late 20s?
When we built the HumanCentric website, we wanted to take advantage of Flash’s animation and drawing capabilities. However we didn’t want to alienate search engines (“Search Engine Optimization”, or “SEO”) and users who do not have Flash or JavaScript enabled. We took advantage of SWFObject, SWFAddress and PHP, and we devised a method for showing the same content regardless of browser capability.
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Being vertically challenged can pose a number of obstacles in my life. For instance, I can’t reach the top or the next to the top shelf in my kitchen cabinets. I can’t turn the fan on in the living room or my porch. I don’t hang pictures at the “appropriate” height for the general population and the list goes on.
One thing that was very important to me when purchasing a car last year was to find one that fit my needs:
All of the needs above were those I have never been able to find in a vehicle that was large enough to fit four family members and a good deal of luggage. Some of the various cars I test drove included:
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