Maybe I should have said better taste, less filling.
If you’re a frequent Design Matters reader, you probably noticed the new design we rolled out yesterday. It’s been 4 years since we first launched Design Matters as Lenovo’s first blog. It’s hard to member exactly what other things we were working on way back in 2006. It’s been a great experience for me. I’ve learned a lot about social media, and certainly have grown as a blogger, but the design of the blog has never changed. I participated highly in the original design to ensure it had the right look and feel out of the gate. I knew that future readers would be very interested in ThinkPad and what made design tick at Lenovo. The blog design needed to connect to that audience. In retrospect, I think we did a good job, but it’s hard to not reach for improvements. Designers just can’t stop designing.
The new design adds some important social media links and usability features to a new comments bar. It’s now very easy to share a blog either with Twitter or Facebook and stay connected with your followers and friends. Bookmarking a favorite blog for future reference is a simple click away. You can also finally print a specific blog without burning up your printer with a zillion unwanted pages. This has driven me crazy since the beginning.
I love the tiny icons on the comment bar that help you select what you want to accomplish
The right hand column now includes thumbnail images related to past posts, my Twitter feed, and the Lenovo Youtube and Picasa feeds. These are very useful for keeping aware of what Lenovo is serving up in the digital world. My Tweets are primarily about what I call the #designoftheday or new blog postings. I rarely have much else to say on Twitter.
We also updated the appearance to visually tie all the blogs together via a synergistic design thread. Originally the mastheads had been created one off as needed basis. We finally got the time to step back, take a deep breath, and rethink them all at once. It’s important to rethink things every so often in the context of the big picture. The new mastheads have consistant typography, color palette and medium grey thematic imagery. Spots of color punch up the overall look.
Sampling of a few of the new masthead designs currently in use, more are coming
I really like the nerd glasses metaphor for Matt Kohut’s blog, Inside the Box. It just seems to fit with the “computer enthusiast” moniker. Does anyone else remember the classic Are you a nurd? poster published by National Lampoon in the early 80’s? No offense Matt, we still love you.
Hope you enjoy the changes we made. Let me know if you have suggestions on how to make it even better.
Today is World Industrial Design Day. Industrial designers from around the globe should be celebrating in the streets. Seriously, it’s great to see the focus on using design talent for such important causes. Here are the details directly from the ICSID website:
In celebration of World Industrial Design Day on 29 June 2010, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) invites designers from around the globe to initiate events reflecting this year’s theme:
“Industrial Design: Humane solutions for a resilient world”
This topic was selected to facilitate collaboration within the industrial design community with the goal of producing tangible solutions to world problems.
“This theme stems from the immense response received from our recent ‘Uniting Designers in Disaster’ initiative launched on Facebook on 22 January in light of the disaster in Haiti and conveys the important role industrial design can play in global issues,” stated President Mark Breitenberg.
While the theme for WIDD 2010 calls on the design community to contribute their knowledge and skill, this day of observance is significant in fostering a global understanding of industrial design and all that it encompasses.
Kansas backroads haven’t changed much since I lived there 30 years ago. Thanks to David Rush for the photo.
This must be the year of the podcast. I just finished another one where I was interviewed about my design education/background, what I did at IBM, and what I do at Lenovo. My design educational roots stretch back to studying architecture in Oklahoma and ultimately industrial design at the University Kansas, where I graduated in the early 80’s. Yes, they have a basketball team too. Karel Vredenburg conducted the interview last Friday. Karel is responsible for driving the visual and interaction/user experience design of IBM software, hardware, websites, and services. He also leads the development of IBM’s user experience design processes, methods, assets, and tools, for their deployment company-wide. I first met Karel back in the early days of UCD at IBM. You can read more about him here.
I thought my Design Matters readers would find the content interesting. You can give it a listen here.
I just got word from Industrie Forum Design Hannover that the ThinkPad USB secure hard drive we designed has been honored witih a 2010 design award. This year 778 products were awarded from a total field of 2,486 submissions. Entrants from 39 different countries, competed for the coveted iF product design award. I love this product and consider this a great honor for my design team and Lenovo. You can read a detailed blog I wrote previously about the design of the hard drive here. Congratulations to everyone involved!
For those of you who don’t already know, I decided to join the world of Twitter. This new tool will give me a chance to share my brief thoughts on design to a even broader audience. So far I’ve written 4 design related tweets. If you are so inclined you can follow me here.
It’s not often that we give the public a sneak peek at a forthcoming ThinkPad. Typically we’ve kept our cards pretty close to the vest on this topic. I personally like the updates we have made so much I just can’t resist breaking the rules. Here is a short video we made that shows a few of my favorite design features and the thinking that went into creating them.
Later this month is World Industrial Design day as sponsored by ICSID. This recognition was first established in 2007 as a way to draw attention to the importance of the profession at it’s contribution to society.
Here is an excerpt from the ICSID site describing the recognition:
World Industrial Design Day (WIDD) is an international day of observance in recognition of the profession of industrial design. First declared on June 29, 2007 on the occasion of Icsid’s 50th anniversary, World Industrial Design Day has been established as an occasion to mark the development and evolution of industrial design throughout the course of its history.
World Industrial Design Day is a special project introduced by Icsid with the aim to promote solidarity and collaboration amongst designers through a collective appreciation and recognition of industrial design, its evolution over the years, as well as its progression into the future. Furthermore, World Industrial Design Day seeks to highlight the contribution designers and academics have made to the discipline of industrial design relative to the study of design theory, research, and practice, as well as providing a window of opportunity to address key issues such as the safeguarding and protection of intellectual property.
Through a series of international events on June 29, World Industrial Design Day provides designers and like-minded design enthusiasts from a wide spectrum of professions with a channel to engage with one another. This is an opportunity to accentuate industrial design’s role in improving the economic, social, cultural and environmental quality of life around the world. Consequently, it is an affirmative step towards fostering a global understanding of design and all that it encompasses.
As a professional designer, I am thrilled to see such continued recognition and support for design. Lets all make design matter.
Lenovo has just announced a partnership with the non-profit Center for Severe Weather Research to power advanced levels in tornado and severe weather research. More than 50 Think branded PC’s including ThinkPad W700’s, W500’s and X200’s will be deployed to power the largest tornado field research project of its kind. That’s right field research. Can you imagine a vehicle designed to chase tornadoes bristling with high tech doppler antennas and a fleet of onboard ThinkPad’s? Well here it is.
Doppler on Wheels Fitted with ThinkPad
Having grown up in Oklahoma and Kansas, the heart of “Tornado alley” I am very familiar with the power and wrath that can be dished out by a tornado. When I was in college, a friend of mine rode out a massive tornado by seeking shelter within the “walk- in” beer cooler at the local convenience store. He crouched on the floor of the cooler while the dozen or so glass doors wildly slapped open and closed as the tornado passed. Beer cans, gravel, and dust swirled through the air as the storm leveled the entire structure. The only thing left standing was the beer cooler and it’s contents. Fortunately, he was not without cold refreshment following the ordeal.
Notebooks.com has a really interesting article on this topic where you can learn even more about this pioneering partnership and the storm-defying hardware. I can think of no other notebook computer that could better stand up to this kind of rugged field use. Here’s to ThinkPad and the Lenovo role in helping to better understand these devastating storms.
Steve Hamm’s new book The Race for Perfect is finally released. The book builds and expands on the cover story BusinessWeek Magazine article that Steve co-authored about the design and development of the Lenovo ThinkPad X300. I finally managed to carve out enough time to read my copy of the book. Unfortunately it’s been hard for me to squeeze in reading something other than e-mails lately. The book did not disappoint me, it’s both entertaining and an accurate portrayal of the Kodachi story. It also goes beyond the X300 story to include a detailed history of portable computing. Yes, there was life before ThinkPad.
Of course I instantly scanned the index looking for Kodachi references and possible embarrassing David Hill quotes. After all, I did interviews on a monthly basis with Steve for well over a year and a half. Who knows what I might have told him in the heat of passion that ended up in print. I am pleased to report that Steve did a great job protecting me from myself, and more importantly telling a great story. I may have a bit of “cultural backwater” explaining to do the next time I head back to my hometown Bartlesville, Oklahoma, but the portrayal is certainly not without substance. Sorry but you will have to read the book to totally understand this reference. For the “backwater” record, Bartlesville is the home of the Price Tower, the only true skyscraper ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but I must admit that cultural milestone was a very long time ago in Bartlesville history.
In my opinion Steve has written a great book. It’s a very informative chronicle of portable computing and the rich technology and design history that accompanies it. His writing style is engaging and the story is easy to follow. The early history of how ThinkPad was born is still fascinating to me. Congrats to my friends Richard Sapper for his design vision and Tom Hardy for his corporate perseverance. It was truly a pleasure working with Steve on this historic endeavour. My sincere congratulations to him for this accomplishment. I recommend that all fans of portable computing and especially ThinkPad design enthusiasts check it out. This one is a must read.
As Steve points out in his book , the race for perfect is never really over. We continue to strive to create the ultimate ThinkPad. Who knows, maybe Steve is already working on his next book.
The votes are in, tabulated, and results posted for the Cooper-Hewitt’s People’s Design Award. This years winner was the Zon Hearing Aid. Congratulations! Instead of an unattractive necessity, the Zon looks more like a luxury fashion accessory. I think this is a great breakthrough for the hearing aid industry. Most hearing aids usually look more like a displaced clump of ear wax rather than a design jewel.
The ThinkPad X300 came in 14th, a very respectable showing. It was the highest ranked computer nominee by a very wide margin. The closest computer was the MacBook Air which came in 56th, maybe it would have done better with a few more ports and features. The X300 notably received more votes than the Obama for president logo, the iPhone, Converse All Stars, and one of my favorites, the Fender Telecaster electric guitar.
Thanks to all who voted for the X300, and congratulations again to the Zon Hearing Aid. Well done.
The Lenovo IdeaCentre B510
The Lenovo IdeaPad U160
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Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Diary 2
