Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Microsoft's Design Drive
In 2010, Jon Bell was an interaction designer in the Seattle office of Frog Design, the company that created the beige cases for some of the iconic early Apple (AAPL) computers. Like many of his colleagues—and most of his profession—he worshiped Steve Jobs. While he’d owned a series of iPhones and MacBooks, he’d never purchased a Windows PC.
Still, in November 2010 curiosity led him to the mall to check out a Samsung phone running Microsoft’s (MSFT) brand-new Windows Phone software. It looked different from anything else on the market, a lively grid of different-sized rectangles with smooth transitions between apps. “I just had this spidey-sense that I couldn’t put into words,” says Bell. He bought the phone. Minutes later, he texted a friend at Microsoft to ask about jobs there. Bell, 33, joined in January 2011 and is now a Windows Phone design lead. His colleagues were aghast. “Unanimously, they said, ‘They’re doomed, that’s it, turn out the lights,’” he recalls.
Over the last few years, Microsoft has been working to replicate Bell’s conversion on a broader scale. From its start, the company reflected founder Bill Gates’s engineering mind-set, resulting in functional, unsexy products that Apple lampooned in its “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads. Microsoft could use some pizzazz: Sales of its consumer software have struggled as buyers swoon over iPads and shun notebooks. Revenue at the Windows division has fallen short of analysts’ estimates in four of the five quarters through December 2011. In mobile, the hottest segment of the tech sector, the situation is far more dire. According to researcher Gartner (IT), not only do Apple’s iOS and Google’s (GOOG) Android operating systems have greater U.S. market share than Windows Phone, so does Samsung’s Bada—a piece of software few Americans can even name.
To win, or even just to survive, in what has become a consumer-driven industry, products need to be eye candy that force shoppers to take a second look. Microsoft has roughly doubled its design ranks to 600 employees over the past five years and lured talents like Albert Shum, who developed technology-centered products at Nike (NKE) before becoming Windows Phone design chief in 2008. The company has also rethought how it builds things. Steve Kaneko, a top Microsoft designer, says engineers and executives have ceded more authority to designers. They’re organized in small teams under the belief that democracy is the enemy of good design, and regularly switch groups to allow ideas to percolate. “It’s a huge, dramatic change compared to five years ago,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research (FORR). “They’re realizing design is absolutely essential to the experience.”
Photographs by Kyle Johnson for Bloomberg Businessweek
The primary evidence of this amassing of talent is Metro, a new way for interfacing with Microsoft products, from phones to PCs. The design is influenced by the fonts of the Swiss typography movement and stylings of airport and road signs. While many software products strive to resemble digitized versions of real-world objects—think of the curling pages in Apple’s iBooks app—Metro does away with the faux realism. Users navigate the touch-based interface through colorful blocks, which display live information such as the weather and new Facebook updates and, at a touch, expand into full-screen apps. The visual reference points that have defined Microsoft software for decades are gone: There are no frames, no desktop, no drop-down menus, no X’s to close out of programs.
Microsoft has been gradually rolling out Metro on its major platforms over the past few years. It arrived on Windows phones in 2010, when it caught Bell’s eye, and took over the Xbox interface in 2011. Earlier this month it got its most public outing yet with the highly publicized debut of Nokia’s (NOK) Lumia 900 phone. In the fall, it’ll come to computer and tablet screens everywhere with the launch of Windows 8. Young Kim, an industrial design manager for Microsoft, says the company is taking cues from Metro for future hardware products as well, including the next Xbox. To Gadi Amit, principal designer at NewDealDesign, the San Francisco-based agency behind products like the Fitbit activity tracker, Metro is the best design work Microsoft’s ever done. “From a purely design standpoint, it’s really superior to Apple,” he says.
Microsoft may have picked the right moment to push Metro. Some of its design elements were pioneered in the Zune, the Microsoft music player that flopped in the marketplace but won accolades—including a 2010 International Design Excellence Gold Award. According to Amit, when Zune came out in 2006 people didn’t want a new idea; they wanted an iPod. That’s changing, he says, and many users are bored by Apple’s ubiquity.
Changing the perception of Microsoft as a fusty software company will take time. That’s as true of professional designers as it is of consumers. “Microsoft doesn’t have a big presence in the student brain around design,” says Bill Burnett, executive director of the Design Program at Stanford University. He calls Metro an example “of Microsoft getting it right,” but adds that his students still think “Microsoft is so their parents’ company. They don’t have any Microsoft products in their life.”
Metro is a big enough break with Microsoft’s past interfaces that it may jar some users and software developers, says Mark Rolston, the chief creative officer at Frog Design. Microsoft is “sort of trapped by their own aesthetic,” he says. To keep the experience consistent for users, app developers have less flexibility on Windows Metro than they do on platforms such as iOS, making the software far more uniform. “It’s like country music,” says Rolston. Vary the composition slightly and “it starts to look like something else.”
The real test for Microsoft is whether it remains committed to the changes. Microsoft recruited designers from places such as MTV to build the Zune; when the device failed to catch on, the division was cleaved in two and its workers shunted off to different parts of the company. Microsoft’s top-secret design incubator in downtown Seattle created an early tablet computer, but the company canceled the project in 2010 and shuttered the studio. Ralston says the company hasn’t always responded well to setbacks. “If the market says, ‘Hey, we like it, but we need some changes,’ do they move on that, or do they flinch and go back to the drawing board?”
The bottom line: Microsoft has doubled its design staff to 600. While its new Metro interface gets high marks, it hasn’t fully been tested in the marketplace.
How to Design a Logo: Sagi Haviv
A great logo is not about what one likes or dislikes. It’s about what works. And what we want to determine is: What problem is our client trying to solve? Often a company might want a new logo to freshen up its image, when really it should keep its logo but change its marketing. Look at Pepsi (PEP). It’s been years, and I bet few people could draw the new logo from memory. The old one they could, instantly. It was a perfectly good mark. Coke (KO), meanwhile, has had more success keeping its wordmark the same but constantly changing its packaging and marketing. When you want a new logo is when your current trademark is too complex, no longer relevant to your brand, or you want to unite various sub-brands. A new mark should be an uncomplicated form that can work anywhere, from a billboard to an app tile. It must be appropriate and relevant to the company and its field. And it must be memorable. Of course, the simpler the form, the less special it tends to be, so the challenge of designing an iconic logo becomes: How memorable can a design be while remaining simple? — As told to Brad Wieners
Watch Sagi Haviv explain how to design a logo at www.businessweek.com/howto/logo or in our iPad and iPhone apps
Illustration by Neal Fox; Earth: Getty ImagesHaviv is a partner with Chermayeff & Geismar, which designed the NBC peacock, Chase octagon, and National Geographic rectangle. Thursday, 19 January 2012
Warhol Foundation Sued by Velvet Underground Over Banana Design
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Andy Warhol Foundation was accused in a lawsuit by The Velvet Underground of infringing the trademark for the banana design on the cover of the rock group’s first album in 1967.
The band’s founders, Lou Reed and John Cale, said that the foundation infringed the design by licensing it to third parties, according to the complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.The band, which was active from about 1965 to 1972, formed an artistic collaboration with Warhol, who designed the banana illustration for “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” which critics have labeled one of the most influential rock recordings of all time, according to the complaint.The Warhol Foundation claimed it has a copyright interest in the design, according to the lawsuit. The Velvet Underground partnership said in the complaint that the design can’t be copyrighted because it’s in the public domain. The banana image Warhol furnished for the illustration came from an advertisement that was in the public domain, according to the complaint.The illustration appeared on the album cover without a copyright notice and no one sought to copyright it, according to the complaint. That put the design in the public domain, the group said in the lawsuit.“The banana design is a significant element of Velvet Underground’s ongoing licensed merchandising activity,” the group said. Use of the design as a trademark by the band “has been exclusive, continuous and uninterrupted for more than 25 years.”Pop ArtWarhol, one of the most celebrated Pop artists, began his collaboration with the band in 1965. The group performed at his New York studio, the Factory, and in his traveling light show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol died in 1987.Nina Djerejian, a spokeswoman for the New York-based foundation, didn’t return messages yesterday seeking comment on the lawsuit.Warhol’s copyrighted works have a market value of $120 million and the foundation has earned more than $2.5 million a year licensing rights to those works, according to the complaint.The Velvet Underground is seeking a judicial declaration that the foundation has no copyright to the banana design, an injunction barring the use of any merchandise using the artwork and monetary damages. The group is requesting a jury trial.In the so-called Banana Album, the Velvets chronicled the 1960s hard-drug scene in songs written by Reed such as “Heroin” and “I’m Waiting for the Man.” Released by MGM Records, the album was a commercial failure, according to the complaint. The catalog of MGM became part of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, which has re-released the album.The case is The Velvet Underground v. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 12-0201, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado in New York. Editors: Mary Romano, Andrew Dunn
To contact the reporter on this story: Don Jeffrey in New York at djeffrey1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at +1-415-6‘ mhytha@bloomberg.net.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Design That Transforms the Eating Experience
Food is the most fundamental product we consume, yet most people don’t appreciate the amount of research, design, and engineering that goes into many of the items at their local supermarket or favorite restaurant. Although design's role in other consumer goods, especially electronics, is widely acknowledged, the contribution of product design to food and culinary items is often overlooked. Designers have, in fact, come up with countless innovations to command shelf space and redefine established categories in the hotly contested culinary marketplace.
As is the case with most new products, delivering a memorable user experience has become an important goal of many food-related items. Whether it's an attempt to renew interest in a proven brand or a fresh approach to bring consumers together through food, a well-designed eating experience can sooth, satisfy, and entertain us in the most powerful ways.
The past year has seen the introduction of hundreds of new food-related products, not to mention the start of innumerable food-related trends. Here’s a brief roundup of the designs and innovations I predict will have staying power, as well as a few I’m hoping will slide off the cultural radar faster than fried eggs on a Teflon pan.
Joel Delman is creative director for the Los Angeles office of Product Development Technologies in Lake Zurich, Ill. He blogs about product innovation at www.productfetish.com
Twelve Decades of Innovations in Food Design
From Jell-O to Jiffy Pop, TV dinners to Tupperware, product design has radically altered the way we carry, cook, and consume food. While many food innovations fail the test of time (see a brief review of this past year’s new products and designs), some endure to become cultural icons of the most visceral kind—smells, tastes, and experiences that are part of our lives and social interactions to a degree that rivals the cultural contribution of any smartphone or electronic gadget. The following slides offer some of the innovations that have changed our food experience over the past 100 years.
Joel Delman is creative director in the Los Angeles office of Product Development Technologies in Lake Zurich, Ill. He blogs about product innovation at www.productfetish.com.
Thursday, 29 December 2011
Gates Global Aims Played Down in Design of $500 Million Campus
Review by James S. Russell
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- An aerodynamically curved building wing zooms over the entrance court at the new $500 million campus of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. Such future-focused imagery suggests an aggressive corporation on the move. Bill Gates, the Microsoft Corp. founder, and his wife, Melinda, pursue their philanthropic goals with the same impatient fervor that he brought to achieving world domination by Windows. With $33.5 billion in assets (which is growing quickly through gifts from Warren Buffett), the foundation aims to transform global health, agriculture and education.By contrast, the 900,000-square-foot campus located near the foot of the Space Needle north of downtown seems designed to play down the urgency and breadth of that mission. The Seattle- based architecture firm on NBBJ supplies a generic glass-and- metal corporate niceness with comforting wood floors and neutral carpeting. From the street, it looks like a standard-spec office building.The lofty glassy lobby overlooks an alluring plaza that unites two six-story boomerang-shaped buildings with lush plantings heavy on native ferns and ponds spanned by wooden bridges. The ponds, designed by landscape architect Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., store rain runoff to water plants in dry months. Cool underground water storage reduces power demand for air-conditioning.Sharing IdeasI strolled down sun-filled corridors that run along the tightly curved inside face of the buildings. Lined by small meeting spaces and lounges, these hallways subtly encourage people to stop and share ideas. Coffee and snack areas are organized around spacious stairways showered in daylight at the apex of the boomerangs, so that people trying to end AIDS will cross paths with education reformers.Most people work near a window because the buildings’ profiles are narrow, and the light quality is superb compared to your average cubicle farm. Gates people call this “daylight equity.” It also saves lighting energy.From a high balcony I gazed into a huge space that serves as a cafeteria and “civic room,” as NBBJ managing partner Steve McConnell calls it, because it also hosts large meetings of grantees and other global partners. Receptions spill outside to the lush plaza. In addition, there’s a large conference center.The planned and informal socializing aspires to lead to eureka moments. Too bad they feel ticked off a checklist rather than exuding engagement with the necessary passion and urgency.Default to BlandnessArtifacts from many countries hang on the wall and strategically placed screens play videos of work being done, but they are background ambience, not front and center. The place is almost aggressively impersonal, as if any meaningful architectural gesture might offend someone or be read as colonialist bullying.A visitor center will open next year, but it’s conceived as a museum, and may feel like a defense against interested citizens rather than an invitation to them.The default to blandness is a lost opportunity.It put me in mind of Livestrong, Lance Armstrong Foundation, whose recently built home in Austin I had toured not long ago.Founded by the bicycling champion, the organization supports people with cancer. The San Antonio architecture firm Lake/Flato remodeled an old metal warehouse, and bathed its cavernous interior with daylight from bands of windows built into the roof. Informally arranged cubicles flow around boxlike wooden structures enclosing conference spaces.Joy of GivingTouching testimonials from grateful partners and supporters -- heavily bicycle-themed -- clutter the place. The joy of giving and the connection to people served is palpable.Livestrong offers conference space free to nonprofits around the city. In this way it builds community connections not only through its core mission but by mingling with other charitable organizations.At 30,000 square feet, Livestrong is tiny compared to Gates, with a simpler mission focused on people in deep distress. Rather than fence off emotion, the foundation and its architecture invite it in, with the result that the place has a cheerful energy utterly invisible at the posh, sober Gates.(James S. Russell writes on architecture for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. Island Press has just published his book, “The Agile City.” The opinions expressed are his own.)--Editors: Jeffrey Burke, Manuela Hoelterhoff.
To contact the writer of this column: James S. Russell in New York at jamesrussell@earthlink.net. web.me.com/jscanlonrussell
To contact the editor responsible for this column: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value
Design Thinking is packed with intriguing case studies and practical advice from industry experts. This anthology is organized into three sections that focus on the use of design for innovation and brand-building, the emerging role of service design, and the design of meaningful customer experiences. This book provides readers with the strategies necessary to encourage the creative thought process in their companies, which will ultimately help to cultivate innovation, and therefore boost business. Experienced design leaders share their personal stories and give specific examples of their companies’ forward-thinking creations. This unique approach helps the reader learn how to build a solid brand foundation, solve problems with simplified thinking, anticipate and capitalize on trends, figure out what consumers want before they do, and align mission, vision, and strategy with a corporate brand. A sense of the content within Design Thinking can be gained from the titles of some of the key essays: “Building Leadership Brands,” “The Designful Company,” “Brand Building by Service Design,” “Service Design Via the Global Web,” “Customer Loyalty,” and “Driving Brand Loyalty on the Web”.Price: $24.95
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
The myth of innovation is that brilliant ideas leap fully formed from the minds of geniuses. The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities.
This book introduces the idea of design thinking‚ the collaborative process by which the designer?s sensibilities and methods are employed to match people?s needs not only with what is technically feasible and a viable business strategy. In short‚ design thinking converts need into demand. It?s a human?centered approach to problem solving that helps people and organizations become more innovative and more creative.
Design thinking is not just applicable to so?called creative industries or people who work in the design field. It?s a methodology that has been used by organizations such as Kaiser Permanente to icnrease the quality of patient care by re?examining the ways that their nurses manage shift change‚ or Kraft to rethink supply chain management. This is not a book by designers for designers; this is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization‚ product‚ or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.
Price: $27.99
Friday, 20 May 2011
Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean
It's about having a vision, and taking that vision to your customers. Think of game-changers like Nintendo's Wii or Apple's iPod. They overturned our understanding of what a video game means and how we listen to music. Customers had not asked for these new meanings, but once they experienced them, it was love at first sight.
But where does the vision come from? With fascinating examples from leading European and American companies, Verganti shows that for truly breakthrough products and services, we must look beyond customers and users to those he calls "interpreters" - the experts who deeply understand and shape the markets they work in.
Design-Driven Innovation offers a provocative new view of innovation thinking and practice.
Price: $35.00
Saturday, 14 May 2011
The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm
IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation.There isn't a business in America that doesn't want to be more creative in its thinking, products, and processes. At many companies, being first with a concept and first to market are critical just to survive. In The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley, general manager of the Silicon Valley based design firm IDEO, takes readers behind the scenes of this wildly imaginative and energized company to reveal the strategies and secrets it uses to turn out hit after hit.
IDEO doesn't buy into the myth of the lone genius working away in isolation, waiting for great ideas to strike. Kelley believes everyone can be creative, and the goal at his firm is to tap into that wellspring of creativity in order to make innovation a way of life. How does it do that? IDEO fosters an atmosphere conducive to freely expressing ideas, breaking the rules, and freeing people to design their own work environments. IDEO's focus on teamwork generates countless breakthroughs, fueled by the constant give-and-take among people ready to share ideas and reap the benefits of the group process. IDEO has created an intense, quick-turnaround, brainstorm-and-build process dubbed "the Deep Dive."
In entertaining anecdotes, Kelley illustrates some of his firm's own successes (and joyful failures), as well as pioneering efforts at other leading companies. The book reveals how teams research and immerse themselves in every possible aspect of a new product or service, examining it from the perspective of clients, consumers, and other critical audiences.
Kelley takes the reader through the IDEO problem-solving method:
> Carefully observing the behavior or "anthropology" of the people who will be using a product or service
> Brainstorming with high-energy sessions focused on tangible results
> Quickly prototyping ideas and designs at every step of the way
> Cross-pollinating to find solutions from other fields
> Taking risks, and failing your way to success
> Building a "Greenhouse" for innovation
IDEO has won more awards in the last ten years than any other firm of its kind, and a full half-hour Nightline presentation of its creative process received one of the show's highest ratings. The Art of Innovation will provide business leaders with the insights and tools they need to make their companies the leading-edge, top-rated stars of their industries.
Price: $29.95