Iterative small scale design processes

Two quotes from this short clip on a couple of inventors building their own mini-blimp.
(Paraphrasing) 'History is littered with these grandiose designs, real work doesn't get done like that, real work is accomplished in these small iterative design steps.'

Agile blimp building...


And more intriguingly "no one has done this before so we have to train ourselves as pilots ('users') as well as do the work of engineering."
Given that I'm a design team of one in my current position I've been forced to take a couple of shortcuts in regards to user testing. I practice something I call 'be the user'... I ought to write that methodology up some day (o;

Parallels between setting typography and paper-prototyping

'Computers make for sloppy thinking, thinking allows you to delete the non-essential.'

I like the analogy David Dabner makes with music... 'When playing Jazz, you've got to learn the instrument first, otherwise its going to sound bloody aweful'

One day software will be designed like this

Christopher Deam talks about how he went about redesigning the interior of an Airtstream by addressing the disconnect with the promise of the sleek exterior.



Link to video

What a wicked web we weave

I was going through a little benchmarking exercise with a competitor's product recently. Had a major deja vu moment. My screen on top, someone else's on bottom. The table contents are almost identical.


It would appear that an OEM vendor I'm working with is putting some my designs in to their shelf library and in turn, those designs are finding their way on to some competitors who are sourcing from the same OEM.

It's a small world (o;