BrainBoost Design Pod

Class 11: February 12

pterals — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:08:03 +0000

We only had Mike and Graham today as everyone else was sick or away. I had planned a work day for everyone so we mostly worked on Mike’s and Graham’s projects and came up with ancillary ideas for these. We talked about how to combine their projects with other design ideas we had to make each project more novel. Some design links we discussed include:

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/02/if-world-of-warcraft-were-cute.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/07/remix-culture-not-ju.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+(Boing+Boing)&utm_content=Google+Reader

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/12/google-on-fence-about-making-black-friends.html

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/02/you-should-get-this-for-your-office.html

Class 10: February 5

pterals — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:05:26 +0000

We had a full class today. Everyone participated in a lively discussion where we analyzed ads, talked about design (particularly about the new iPad) and discussed what we could do to improve each instance. The following links show what we talked about:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9743988

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2010/01/28/apples-ipad-and-the-importance-of-price/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adaptivepath+%28Adaptive+Path+Blog%29

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/02/everyone-loves-tasty-bagels.html

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/01/how-to-produce-news-report.html

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/01/rethinking-fast-food-receipt.html

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/people/meeting_with_this_jr_copywriter_will_get_you_karma_points_150065.asp

http://www.thepineappleblog.com/2010/01/the-macview-a-concept-tablet-design/

All in all, a very good class.

Class 9: January 22

pterals — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:06:43 +0000

In this class we had Adam, Damien, Graham and Josh – the others were away or sick.

We discussed many ideas in this class, looked at different types of advertising, and debated the finer points of design, and the problem of many solutions (as in, one solution is often not as good as the next). Here is a list of resouces:

http://www.cooldesignideasblog.net/2010/01/18/red-dot-award-highlight-marks.htm

http://passfail.squarespace.com/

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2009/12/what-geek-wedding-invite-looks-like.html

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/01/job-search-will-never-be-same.html
We talked about new ways to find jobs – some of the resources above have examples of ways that people set them apart from others in order to be hired immediately. Not included in the links is the facebook as a resume template, which is also available online and again shows the power of design and creativity to change the future.

Class 8: January 15

pterals — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:59:08 +0000

This was a big class – we had new students Mike and Graham join us and team up for their project, which will be a LARP – Live Action Role Playing – game. They were very excited and set to work immediately. Adam, Damien and Sam were all in attendance as well and also got some work completed on their projects.

As for the class itself, we got things rolling by introducing the McSweeney’s Mantra – which can be found here: http://the99percent.com/articles/6211/the-mcsweeneys-mantra-havent-tried-it-yet-do-it-anyway. Basically, not having tried something is not a good reason not to do it (or, always try new things).

We also discussed some design ideas and debated the merits, here:

http://www.cooldesignideasblog.net/2010/01/13/hidden-extension-cord-in-the-wall.html

Class 7: December 11

pterals — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:24:42 +0000

We worked on paper prototyping in this class – Damien and Sam mocked up what their websites will look like while Adam worked on what the logo of his label for his t-shirts will look like. We also went through our normal news period and discussed some interesting marketing campaigns – basically, different ways of looking at the ordinary in our everyday lives and making those encounters unique.

Examples:

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2009/12/clever-wins-every-time.html

http://www.groupon.com/new-york/unsubscribed?mid=96988&addx=

And the act of prototyping:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/paperprototyping/

Class 6: December 4

pterals — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:29:39 +0000

This class really flew by – we discussed what public markets were and how that related to equities (stocks). It was very much about laying a reliable ground work so we could then discuss and analyze stocks collectively. We talked about what trades we made and what companies we were interested in for our stock portfolios.

Technically speaking, we addressed what income statements, balance sheets, and cashflow statements were – at a very introductory level. Recall that cashflow talks about what cash came in from what activities and where it went during a given time period and what that can tell us about a company’s strategy. Income statements tell you whether you are profitable on paper during any time period and balance sheets can display the inherent strength or weakness of a company, and (more or less) what that company is worth if it were shut down and sold piecemeal tomorrow.

Next week we will return to 50% design/marketing but we will continue to discuss stocks and portfolios; additionally we will update our projects and make sure there is progress to be made for the next week.

Class 5: November 27

pterals — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:12:53 +0000

In this class we checked out some new products:

The Feetz bike:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/feetz-tribike-kid-carrying-cargo-hauling-folding-trike.php

Note that the blog, treehugger, is a great resource for all kinds of news and innovation. The blog has a left-leaning and green focus and is great to spend some time exploring.

Wikitude vs. Google Vision

New products for how to travel, which introduced us to the idea of augmented reality (where the digital world meets the physical – simple example, yellow first down marker in televised football games). Below is the link to the Esquire magazine example of AR in action.

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2009/11/more-pr-about-esquires-augmented.html

We finally got back to the branding talk – which is here:

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/11/10/untangling-brand-and-customer-experience-in-10-minutes-or-less/

The last thing we did was set up trading accounts to learn about publicly traded companies (accounts are simulated and free at financial post) – the homework is to bring one company each that you want to learn more about, and I will help you analyze it on the spot next Friday. If you want to make trades in stocks go ahead – we can discuss results on Friday.

We need to start generating artifacts for our project as well, as I’m worried we might be stalling – since you both are working on website type projects we need to start seeing some evidence that we are creating them.

Class 4: November 20

pterals — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:23:56 +0000

In this class we went more in-depth into the project building process and discussed various next steps for each student (except Adam, who wasn’t present). Both Sam and Damien are working on projects that are related to building and designing a website, so we talked about various methods of doing that, including by hand (markers and paper or a whiteboard), using something like wordpress to try and approximate relative location and function, and iPlotz. I demoed my project and showed Sam and Damien how wireframing (in iPlotz) can lead to good design.

As a discussion object, we dissected the pros and cons and the whys of this product (Selke bag).

Later, we reflected on the Sixth Sense device and watched an update to that given by Pranav Mistry.

If you missed the talk, please watch it here.

Class 3: November 13

pterals — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:48:04 +0000

In this class we talked about some new products that were coming out such as google vision. The gadgets we discussed can be found at: www.coolhunter.net

Then we went on a ride as we talked about what it means to design something, and how it takes a different type of vision to go from a laptop computer (mobility + computing) to the sixth sense machine (mobility + computing + interaction). That video can be found at the TED Talks website, by searching for ‘MIT labs’ or ‘sixth sense’. We will be talking a bit more about that this coming Friday.

Last, we began but did not finish a segment on branding and communication. I will post the link to that talk next week once we complete it.
For our projects, everyone had a task this week which we will be reviewing at the start of our class this Friday. Sam’s job is to get a list of websites that will help inspire the design for his site. Damien is exploring different websites that help people look for jobs and give them information about wages etc that is normally unavailable. Adam is going to do some research on silk screening for t-shirts and different methods he might use to make his own designs to be able to sell them.