Author: Mathew

I had this thought a few months back while thinking about how we have to sell design. That is, as an industry, how we have to convince clients that they need ‘design thinking’ and doing, because to a lot of people, it’s not actually obvious. When you work in any part of the design industry,… Continue reading What does the absence of design look like?

This is a deliberately silly exercise, in the vein of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies. A method of throwing out all the seemingly obvious things you should be trying to solve a (service design or interaction design) problem, and looking at it from another angle. With ‘what if we had to use postcards’, it’s a bit… Continue reading Addressing needs with unusual tactics: What if we had to use postcards?

I found this term hilarious the first time my PE teacher taught me about it. He explained that it was Swedish for ‘speed play’, and that it meant walking for a bit, then jogging, then sprinting, then walking again, and so on. A way to train the body in a more beneficial way than just… Continue reading Fartlek

In its mostly widely used context, the words ‘road map’ are fine. A map of roads. Big ones, small ones, main ones, M1s. All wiggling their way over a geographical area. You can find a starting point and then plan your journey. Take the road map with you and you could even change the route.… Continue reading Words we don’t realise we use in different ways: Roadmap

I’ve always liked desire paths. Even before I knew what they were called. At art collage I remember watching people take multiple routes across a square area of grass, but never around it. I liked the people watching element. And the way the paths effectively let you people watch after the fact. The documentary element.… Continue reading For the love of desire paths

This little nudge from a barber shop came to mind again today. The person at the desk doesn’t tell you to tip. There’s no sign saying ‘please tip’. And the barber certainly never asks for a tip. But the placement of a few pound coins in front of the mirror politely informs customers that a… Continue reading Barbershop semiotics and other subtle nudges

Based on these ‘1001 MUST’ type books and some quick calculations: assuming 74 minute long albums, 2 hour long films, 2 days per book and 7 days per place, it would take around 25 solid years to do all that we MUST do. Factor in sleep and other necessities, and you’re looking at around 50… Continue reading Have you read? Have you heard? Have you seen? Have you been?

TLDR for this post by Hugh Grant. Dark patterns are deliberate design decisions that cause people to do things they don’t want to do. Think of cookie notices on websites. The thing that is best for the user, in almost every case, is to NOT have any marketing cookies. The ability to opt out of… Continue reading Dark patterns when paying for parking

I’m often confused in situations like this: I glance ahead, and see ← LOOK LEFT, but I can also interpret ← LOOK RIGHT. This is because the words LOOK RIGHT are just as easy to read upside down. And despite the consistent left ← pointing arrow, the presence of the words LEFT and RIGHT add… Continue reading Look→Left?

It’s that easy in my opinion. The most important information you need for an event is the what, when, where. All else is metadata. The theory of what, when, where If I’m being invited to an event, the most important thing, no matter anything else, is to know what the event is. Is this an… Continue reading If you want me to attend, then I want to know what, when, where