06.25.2010
Miranda Capra /
Consumer Products /
Human Factors /
Industrial Design /
Mobile
I’m sad to say that my new iPhone has the same “death grip” problem as everyone else. If I hold it so that my hand bridges two of the three metal bands that encircle the device, the reception bars drop. It’s especially bad if you bridge a gap in the bands at the bottom-left corner of the device, right where it nestles into your palm if you hold it left-handed. What was Apple thinking, building the antenna into an exposed metal band around the edge of the phone?
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06.14.2010
Barry Beith /
Design Research /
Ergonomics /
Human Factors /
Industrial Design /
User Experience /
User Research
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is chartered with protecting the public from bad product design and recalls thousands of cribs due to the inability of some parents to follow directions. Now granted, often many designs and instructions for assembly are so bad as to be flagrant violations of all that is “design holy”, still three to four million cribs. And why, because a handful of children are injured, a smaller number die. Please don’t over-react. I understand the anguish of parents who lose a child or who are feeling guilty because their child was harmed or frightened. I get the anger they feel in this day and age over desperately needing to find the right scapegoat. However, the penalty seems to vastly outweigh the crime here and the solution seems to be all wrong.
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02.22.2010
Sean Farres /
Creativity /
Design Inspiration /
Industrial Design /
Trends
I am always fascinated by the design the Olympics. From the environmental graphics down to the tiny icons of each individual sport they all have a special relationship to every host city. The 2010 winter games in Vancouver do not disappoint. See the design process of the first sustainable Olympic medals made from electronic waste.
02.12.2010
Miranda Capra /
Design Inspiration /
Industrial Design /
Usability
In the fall I took my nephew and niece to Ganyard Hill Farms to pick pumpkins, get lost in the corn maze, and go on a hayride. An unexpected bonus of the trip was the corn husker. I grew up in New York City and had never seen one before, and I thought it was the coolest device ever – just a few moving parts were enough to get the job done.
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02.08.2010
Andy Hamilton /
Consumer Products /
Industrial Design
Come see some of the new ‘sophisticated and sleek‘ home decor accessories HumanCentric designed with PartyLite.
You will find traditional objects with a modern twist. Keep an eye out for lotus-inspired flourishes and obelisks that have found new life in new materials.
12.09.2009
Brian Chiarizia /
Industrial Design /
Mobile
Several months ago the industrial design team had an internal design competition with the intent of creating a “HumanCentric” mobile phone that we could then use to showcase some of our interaction + graphic + UI design skills. The designers brainstormed, sketched and argued as a group and then had one hour to render their vision for what our HC mobile phone should be. The final design that was selected is pictured above.
11.23.2009
Sean Farres /
Creativity /
Design Inspiration /
Graphic Design /
Green Technology /
Human Factors /
Industrial Design /
Medical /
Trends
One medical brand incorporating good design is Help Remedies. The simplicity is genius. The greatest feature of the medicine is no use of excessive fillers. What stands this product out even more is the packaging. Its main message is how it can heal me. What I like even more is that the packaging can go in the compost. Does your Advil do that?
In-Store Display
11.13.2009
Sean Farres /
Community Involvement /
Creativity /
Design Inspiration /
Graphic Design /
Green Technology /
Human Factors /
Industrial Design /
Local /
User Research
What a great meeting at the TriUPA & HFES Carolina World Usability Day event. HumanCentric had the opportunity to present our new recycling solution to this year’s design challenge. It goes without saying we were the clear winners in the design challenge (well… we were the only entry, but let’s not get caught up in the details…). The audience was very receptive and had lots of great questions about our process, information graphic and in-home bin prototype. Click here to view our presentation.
Many audience members wanted our solution implemented across the Triangle to jump-start awareness and increase recycling. HumanCentric is very excited about the community support and would love to have our vision for a better recycling system become a reality. If you would like to join our campaign for a greener Triangle please contact Alexander Hussain at HumanCentric. HumanCentric’s next steps are to connect local government officials to present our improved recycling solution.
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Alex presenting our solution
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Information Graphic
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Sean’s demo
09.29.2009
Andy Hamilton /
Design Research /
Industrial Design /
User Research
Thanks to everyone who made it out of bed and to our presentation at 9 am on Saturday! We appreciated the attentive ears, questions and discussion after the early morning presentation. For those of you who maybe had one too many caipirinhas at Luminaire, or couldn’t make the conference altogether, we wanted to share our paper and presentation with you. While this is a pretty mild substitute for the real deal, together they should give you a pretty good indication of what we were about. Enjoy!
Transparent User-Centered Design on a Dime (PDF, 310 KB)
09.29.2009
Andy Hamilton /
Industrial Design
After spending four days in beautiful Miami, sitting in freezing cold conference rooms, listening to a diverse collection of intelligent people talk about the field of industrial design, I noticed a few recurring themes. I recognize that there were probably many young industrial designers, much like myself, who didn’t have the opportunity to go this year due to budgetary constraints. So I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the themes I picked up on while I was there…
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