A few photographs from Chikmagalur

Donna & Design

Click on the image to see invitation.

Why Africans need convenience

Grant Gibbs designed the Hippo Water Roller to give poor, rural South Africans an easier way to collect water. The Hippo is a plastic tank which doubles as a wheel, with a handle. It's easy to fill and easy to pull over rough rural terrain, even by children. It's an ingenious solution and as it turned out, people love the product, but will not pay for it. Despite its success as a development aid project, it was always acknowledged that it would not be a commercial success.

On the other hand, an interesting fact that emerged from the 1999 ICSID Interdesign, hosted by the Design Institute of South Africa was that the same disadvantaged people would pay someone to deliver water to their homes, rather than fetching it themselves from a communal tap. It seems that time is as valuable at the bottom of the pyramid as at the top.

At the opposite end of the technology spectrum, mobile phone company MTN has become one of the fastest growing telecoms companies in the world by expanding into risky markets in Africa. Some stories tell of people traveling for days to spend several month's wages on a phone. It's easy to assume that the explosive growth of mobile phone sales in Africa is simply a matter of usefulness; people are able to communicate where previously they were not. However it's possible that this is only part of the reason.
side from the inevitable calls to far away family and the crucial contact number for an itinerant handyman, mobile phones are used to arrange a lift, a party or for other social events that would have otherwise meant a possibly fruitless walk. In other words, the phone provides convenience, just like the service of water delivery.

C.K. Prahalad has pointed out that developing world customers are savvy and value-conscious. That's true, but there could be more to their discernment than that. Maybe the difference between the Hippo Roller and MTN is that these markets need not only great usefulness but also great convenience before they'll open their wallets. Add the possibility of earning extra money and you may have a winner.


Tasos Calantzis

Product Leads and Strategic Designers

In Design Group Organization I outlined the structural relationship between Product Leads (designers responsible for a specific business unit's product designs) and Strategic Designers (designers who lead the integration of corporate strategy and product concepts) within a large design team. In this organizational model, Product Leads and Strategic Designers often work on the same product but in different roles and at varying capacities.
During the ideation phase of a new product, the Strategic Designer is heavily involved. They work with key business stakeholders and corporate or product strategy teams to illustrate a vision of success through product concepts. They use the power of narrative and visualization to collaboratively develop a product vision that corporate stakeholders ultimately sign-off on.

During this process, the Product Lead is involved but does not need to absorb the overhead of the strategy development process. As a result, they remain able to direct the efforts of their design team on existing products for which they remain responsible. The Strategic Designer is handling most of the hands-on work and meetings for the new product.

As the ideation phase moves closer to implementation the Product Lead becomes more involved. They begin to work closely with the Strategic Designer on more detailed information architecture and interaction design concepts. Gradually this process generates a complete design spec for the new product. During this period, the Strategic Designer's involvement lessens as the Product Lead takes on ownership of the product.

Luke Wroblewski, a prolific writer and design strategist, has written a series on the organizational structure of a corporate design department. He has kindly permitted DD to reblog three of his posts on the topic here.

Design Group Growth Paths

Within a large design group you are likely to encounter two distinguishing career goals: designers who want to manage others and designers who don't. As a result, it makes sense for the organizational structure of the group to support the career goals of both individual contributors and managers.
[...]
In both cases, the opportunities may exist beyond the design organization. Product Leads may opt to pursue more direct product ownership by absorbing business responsibilities and becoming business/product owners in the Product Management organization. Strategic Designers may instead expand their skills to include new business growth and move into Product or Corporate Strategy groups. The diagram below illustrates these potential growth paths as well as those found within the design group (red lines).

Read the full post accompanying this growth chart here.

Luke Wroblewski, a prolific writer and design strategist, has written a series on the organizational structure of a corporate design department. He has kindly permitted DD to reblog three of his posts on the topic here.

Is design the new management consultancy?

http://www.designdirectory.com/blog/archives/business/default.asp

Victor Lombardi of the Noisebetweenstations blog has kindly consented to a reblog of his seminal post "Is design the new management consultancy?" here. He uses logic and evidence to break down the facts and reach the possible answer. Which is no, design is not the new management consultancy.
Some folks are asking this question. I've spent the past two years making the transition from designer to business consultant, jumping a lot of hurdles along the way. Here's a little of what I learned:
* Highlight opportunities instead of bitching. As designers, we walk around in the world and feel overly sensitive to everything that isn't designed well. We watch customers struggle when using poorly designed products. There's an inclination to highlight these faults to executives whom we think should know about these faults. And maybe they should, but mostly they need help seeing the big opportunities. It might sound like product faults and market opportunities are simply the flip side of the same coin, but it's the difference between being perceived as a whiny designer and a valued business advisor.

* Know your limits. When I hear a designer say, "We were doing the same kind of work McKinsey would do" I think "You really have no fucking idea what McKinsey does." I used to work at BCG (in the IT dept) and I have yet to meet a designer with thinking, methods, and tools nearly as sophisticated as those consultants. Just consider the career path at these firms: they take the top students from the top business schools who in turn have taken the top undergrads, and so on. Then the consultants work in a demanding up-or-out environment where excellence is necessary. This culture breeds great execution much more effectively than the best design studio cultures.

And I've beat the design thinking drum as much as anyone, but it's naive to believe only designers think this way.

* Invest in new hammers. Not every business problem is best solved by a product/service design or redesign. Sometimes an acquisition is the answer, or a divestiture, or hedging the financial markets. Business leaders have a lot of tools in their toolbox: marketing, sales, operations, finance, IT, HR, strategy, customer service etc., and each of these in turn has a deep toolbox, with practitioners who all want more strategic influence. Understanding them - and knowing when product or service design is not the best approach - makes for a more well-rounded management consultant.

* See the big picture. Sometimes design does have direct influence on business strategy. But describing that influence in terms of customer experience alone can lack the information that executives want to hear. Learning how to describe design's benefits in financial and strategic language is key.

* Be realistic about the influence of design. The current barrage of Fast Company and BusinessWeek stories on design can lull us into the impression that design is now king. In my experience, this isn't anywhere near the case. Sure, there are great changes happening: I see more companies doing field research and more realization of the power of customer experience. But it'll take years for the generations of business people to change their thinking and practices.

* Know what you mean when you use the word strategy. Unfortunately, strategy has become a muddled word, the meaning even traditional management consultants don't agree on (see Strategy Bites Back for an amusing look at the situation). But this is no excuse for us to practice muddled thinking. Here's a simple way I've been clarifying it in conversation:

o Product/service design: decide how to create something

o Design strategy: decide what to create, with a perspective beyond the current cycle (e.g. 3-5 years)

o Business strategy: decide what a business should do, with a perspective beyond the current cycle (e.g. 3-5 years)

Join the conversation in Victor's blog here.

How to charge a client

How to charge a client

20th of March, 2006

So you have started working as a freelancer, and you have gotten potential clients. Now you need to make a quote for the project. How much do you charge?

This is perhaps your first project, and you are afraid to offend the client if you over-charge.. Dont be. Here are some tips and considerations you can ponder before and after sending a quote.

Things to consider before sending the quote>How badly do you need the project?

Is this just a project to pay the bills, or is it a fun/interesting project to do? If so, consider this as a factor to lower the price if the client asks for it. (Which they most likely will).

Are you using subcontractors?

Can you undertake the entire project yourself, or do you need to use subcontractors for some areas? If you need to use subcontractors, you should make sure that you have gotten the lowest price possible from the subcontractors before sending the quote. You should also add some extra margin of profit to your quote, as you will most likely spend some hours communicating information between the client and the subcontractors.

Is the client a good name to have on your reference list?

This is something a client will say to get you to lower your quote, but it is also one of the few things that is actually worth considering. If it is a big corporation, having their name on your homepage or resume will definately be worth it. Maybe you will even get references from the client if they are happy with your work. Definately something worth considering.

Is it a big company?

In that case they will most likely have a price policy, and if you have not been informed by your contact person, you should get in touch with the company and enquire if they have a fixed hour rate for freelancers. This will prevent them from using this as a part of the negotiating.

Things the client most likely will say "Other contracters charge less."

Good reason, but the client wanted a quote from you for a reason. Your reply will ofcourse be that your competitors are not as skilled/professional as you. The ball is now in their court. You can tell the client that the competitors try to dump the price because they want more clients, but they cannot give the level of attention and/or quality you can. The competitors most likely use the same amount of time as you, but your work is better.

"We will have lots of projects in the future, so can we get a lower price?"

This is one of the most common comments, the clients always believe they have a fleet of projects waiting, and if you get this project and do a proper job, you will get them all. This is usually not true. Either the client is lying, or the projects rarely become reality. You can offer the client that future work will ofcourse be of a reduced salary, but you cannot lower your price for projects that might or might not become a reality.

"The price is much higher than I imagined"

This may or may not be true, but a classic answer that from the clients point-of-view is the beginning of a negotiation. Here you will have to take several things into consideration; Is the client new in the business for your kind of service? If this is true, then the client might be telling the truth, and you are close to loosing the client. If the client has hired people in your profession before, then it is most likely the only response they have to your quote, and you can begin negotiating.

"We only pay contractors xxx per hour"

This basically only applies to big corporations which will have a set price-policy for freelancers/subcontractors. You should have been informed of this in advance, if not, then you have a potential problem.

If your quote is set by a certain amount of hours, you can tell the client that the amount of hours is just set with your usual hourly rate, and the end price is a fixed price for the project. You can tell the client that if they are not willing to pay the amount you quote them for, that you can do the project by the hour rate they request, but the hours you set in your quote will rise to the actually amount of hours you spend on the project.

Things to consider before negotiating

How much do you want the project? Is it a fun project to do, or is it simply another job to earn some money to pay the bill?

Are you gonna undertake the project alone, or do you need subcontractors? If you need to use subcontractors, you will most likely not get a lower price from them that you allready had (see the paragraph at the top). If you lower the price, you are only gonna lower the profit you are gonna make.

Is it a large corporation? In that case they will most likely have a price policy, enquire with your contact person in advance.

The client accepted the quote immediately!

Amazing, simply amazing. This rarely happens, and it makes you wonder if you should have set a higher price. Dont think like this. This is an indication that the client might be a good client, which knows the rules of the game, but is happy with you and your quote. Be happy, you saved some time, and you can begin working and anticipate the payment on time.

The client refused!

Dont worry, this happens, and it will happen again. Dont let it discourage you, as you gain experience, you will finetune your quotes and your negotiating skills, but no matter how skilled and experienced you get, you will always encounter clients that cant afford your prices. Just move on, and attack the next project/client with the same energy, remembering what you’ve learned.

Quick DOF tip

This tutorial is mostly directed towards 3D Studio MAX users, but any 3D program should do it.

Most 3D artists have tried playing with GI (Global Illumination) and DOF (Depth Of Field) in their images. These tricks have been explored more widely with the inclusion of these in plugin-renderers such as Mental Ray, Vray and Brazil. common for all of these are that they are time-consuming. Re-creating realistic DOF and GI will impose a serious load on your CPU, and halt your work-flow. Global illumination adds the extra quality to your image, and DOF adds the little extra touch that can make a picture a whole lot more convincing.

I have a small trick though, that will make your life a whole lot easier.

Before image

Image generated with the Depth Of Field (DOF) trick (less than a minute)

In this tutorial I will go through the basics of a quick way of creating a DOF effect. Well, easy and quick once you get the hang of it. Remember, the emphasis doest not lie on creating a realistic DOF, but only to do show a quick way to create a production-ready method for fast scenes or the adding the little subtle detail that gives your scenes that million-dollar-look.

A close-up of the before-and-after Global Illumination generated in Photoshop.

My tools will be 3D Studio MAX 4 and Adobe Photoshop 5.5, but any 3D program and image-manipulation software will do. The trickery lies in the ability of the 3D software’s renderer to generate a depth-pass. There are ways to bypass a renderers lack of this ability, for instance by creating a material, which diffuse map is a gradient from white to black, based on the distance to the camera. If you have to do that, then this trick is beginning not to be worth the effort.

On with the trick.

Step 1

Create a sample scene for you to work with. The most work in this tutorial lies in Photoshop, not the 3D program.

This is the unmapped model I started with. A lot of work is necessary, as you can see :-)

As I mentioned earlier, the model was found on www.turbosquid.com

Textured, and ready to go.

The leather is a simple standard material with a brown texture applied, a bit of noise in the bump slot, and then I played a bit around with the Specular Level and Glossiness.

The metal is also a standard material witha Metal shader with Specular at about 188 and Glossiness at 57. In the reflection slot I put a Swirl map with the two colors turned to grey values. Remember to set the reflection map to spherical environment, or the metal reflection will look kindda funny.

Step 2

Render out the different parts out we need for our next step, in Photoshop.

Remember to save alle of these images with their alpha-mask. You never know when you might need them. So, use .tga or .tiff formats. Dont attempt to use .jpg’s. They will not take up as much harddisk space, but you will reduce the quality too much.

Diffuse pass	Standard rendering. It is up to you, but I recommend rendering it with out shadow casting lights. It is not necessary for creating this trick, but it does give you more freedom.
Z-depth pass	This little trick is where the key to our quick DOF lies. What we want is a depth map based on the environment’s distance to our camera. How we do it (in 3D Studio MAX is as follows): In the rendering settings (F10) go down to Render Elements. Add "Z Depth". Below the "Render Elements", you will se a "Z Element Parameters". Here you can tweak the settings. Default is 100min and 300max. Dont worry too much hitting the appropriate settings, you can tweak it later on in Photoshop, so just make an educated guess.
Shadow pass	A seperate pass with alle the shadows in the scene. It is a lot easier if you keep the different elements seperated for as long as possible in any process. Tweaking and fine-tuning can be achieved much easier in a program that is made for it, such as an compositing program, or Photoshop for stills.
Sliced pass	This is a normal rendering (with an alpha-mask) of the bottom part of the model. This pass is used to create the fake GI later on in the compositing.

Step 3 (Depth Of Field)

Time to open up Photoshop.

Start off with the actual rendering. Create a copy of the background-layer and apply a gaussian blur to it. Try to compare your scene to something real if you cant decide on how much blur to add.

Remember, we are trying to make a subtle effect, we dont want to overdo it, so people will focus on the strange blurring.

- Switch to the depth-pass image, and and copy it into memory. - Switch back to your blurred rendering, and go into the channels tab. - Paste the z-depth into a new layer. - Load the new alpha mask. (Select->Load Selection) - Switch back to your Layers tab and select the blurred layer. - Add it as a layer mask. (Layer->Add Layer Mask->Hide Selection).

You now have a seperate layer with a DOF-effect, which you can fine-tune by changing the opacity of the layer.If you want to change the depth of field, you can tweak the layer mask, by marking it with your mouse, and then press CTRL-L, which opens up Photoshop’s Levels-dialogue.

Andersklingenberg Design Agency

Andersklingenberg is a design agency, run by my friend Anders and this company is specialised in industrial design and product development. Besides, technical development, Anders also offers training on creative uses in 2D and 3D computer applications.

We exchange ideas, share communications and might be we will work together in near future. Anders is strong in design aesthetics, research and development and produced well conceptualised design in 3rd Annual Mitsubishi international design competition in 2001 and designed a concept car type of cross country vehicle. This new concept car is equipped with conscious motion control technology.

Anders has descibed the same like below-

The "CMC" is a system consisting of four closed drive units placed in the corners of the vehicle, each one linked to a computer. Each unit is fitted with a hydrostatic engine and a planetary gear. The two front units also have one steering control each, also powered by oil-pressure. Pure "drive-by-hose", so to say. Each unit is held by two parallel working arms, securing accuracy inthe wheels movements. The hydrostatic engines operate separately, sending back data to the "RMC"-computer, for the purpose of coordinating each unit's actions and movements. This gives a very precise traction, leading the power to the wheel(s) with best contact to the ground. With this system the vehicle has not only got an excellent grip, but is also kept in somewhat one level parallel to the overall level of the ground, offering the driver and passenger great comfort, and even higher enjoyment of a ride in the wilderness.

If you are feeling interested to know more on this, please visit his site at www.andersklingenberg.com and browse through his projects. You can contact him for any kind of queries you have.

I will request Anders to contribute his write ups in this blog.

Website elements to avoid by Tara Cianfrani

There are many elements that should be avoided in a website. Here are a few examples:
Overuse of animation – There is nothing wrong with having some movement on a website, however they days of having 10 animated gifs on a page are over. This is distracting to the user and will surely make them leave your site ASAP.

Unreadable Text
It is very important that a user be able to read your message. Having a good contrast between the text and the background color can make sure of this. If the user has to struggle to read it, you can be sure they won’t.

Bad Navigation
If your user does not know where they are or how to move around, they are not going to stay long.

Excessive advertisements
Aggressive pop ups, banners, flash ads and other intrusive ads annoy your visitors, make your site difficult to use and bury your message in a sea of clutter.

Music
Usually, it is best to skip the tunes, but if you must add music, be sure you provide a way for them to turn it off!

Long Downloads
Splash pages, which require you to sit through a long download and don't offer a 'skip intro' option. Especially on a dial-up connection.

Spelling errors
Misspelled words and improper punctuation, make your web look amateurish, and unfinished.

Outdated information
If your website contains timely information, you need to keep it updated regularly, or remove the old information.

Frames
Search engines have difficulty indexing framesets. Google has a difficult time knowing how to categorize documents in a frame set. Some browsers do not handle frames based pages very well and may render the website empty. Framesets unnecessarily complicate site maintenance.


Source: http://www.advancewebdesign.com