minimalsites.com - Minimal Web Design Gallery and Minimalist Community

Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing:

Design is not limited to fancy new gadgets. Our family just bought a new washing machine and dryer. We didn’t have a very good one so we spent a little time looking at them. It turns out that the Americans make washers and dryers all wrong. The Europeans make them much better - but they take twice as long to do clothes! It turns out that they wash them with about a quarter as much water and your clothes end up with a lot less detergent on them. Most important, they don’t trash your clothes. They use a lot less soap, a lot less water, but they come out much cleaner, much softer, and they last a lot longer.

We spent some time in our family talking about what’s the trade-off we want to make. We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family. Did we care most about getting our wash done in an hour versus an hour and a half? Or did we care most about our clothes feeling really soft and lasting longer? Did we care about using a quarter of the water? We spent about two weeks talking about this every night at the dinner table. We’d get around to that old washer-dryer discussion. And the talk was about design.

We ended up opting for these Miele appliances, made in Germany. They’re too expensive, but that’s just because nobody buys them in this country. They are really wonderfully made and one of the few products we’ve bought over the last few years that we’re all really happy about. These guys really thought the process through. They did such a great job designing these washers and dryers. I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years.

I was recently reminded of this 1996 interview with Steve Jobs in Wired Magazine by my friend Scott Jackson. It’s a great interview and an interesting look back from a historical perspective but it was this answer, to the very last question, “Is there anything well designed today that inspires you?”, that struck me. Though I have read this interview and quotes from it many times since first published, this time it got me thinking about some things in a way I had not fleshed out before.

First, why are we all not, as individuals, as families, as a society, putting the same amount of thought and consideration into everything we purchase? What if, before every major purchase, we examined what our real needs were and we had discussions about it around the dinner table with the people we love who would be affected by the decision? What are the advantages, the tradeoffs, the things we care about, and the things we don’t? In the context I set forth here on this site, I am arguing that you should put at least this much thought into a purchase that in many cases will be over a thousand dollars and something you will likely have to live with for two to three years. Why not apply this method to everything else?

Second, can you imagine what the world would be like, or would look like, if we all did this? It would be an entirely different place. Companies that thrive on mediocrity, commoditization, and appealing to the lowest common denominator simply would not be able to thrive and likely not exist. If we all raised our expectations and deepened our considerations then corporations would have to compete on the basis of quality and design and not price (or at least far less so).

Third, if we should all put this much care into what we consume, I would argue (hope) that we should put this much care, if not more, into what we produce.

I’m certainly not a model citizen here but I can tell you that I care a great deal. Sharp eyed readers may have noticed that I make slight edits and wording changes to most of the things I post. Sometimes I do this within minutes of posting them. I also have been known to re-read a post that is weeks old and make slight and subtle changes even though no one will notice but me. Why? Two reasons:

1. I care.

2. I once had a teacher in a creative writing class convince me that, when it comes to art, nothing is ever finished or absolved from the potential to change or improve. If I see something that I made that I think could be improved I do so, no matter the time or audience.

Inspired by the structure of leafs New York City based industrial designer Alvaro Uribe created the Plum Stool. An eye-catching organic and natural furniture piece.

Plum is part of a study into the concepts of lightness, structure and material. Made of carbon fiber, with a weight of only 300 grams, and due to its bended structure almost indestructible.

The Walled Garden - Neven Mrgan’s tumbl:

Aren’t the benefits of a closed, carefully managed garden clearly visible? The experience is controlled, so it tells a story - one which may not emerge from a democratic, anything-goes process (or do you think this sort of slow and deliberate story would emerge in a busy American city in the year 2010?) Charging for admission means that the place can be maintained, improved, and marketed. There are downsides to this, of course — maybe the management makes boneheaded decisions now and then. Maybe you think that vine maple would look better a little to the left — maybe you’re even right

More required reading.

AJ Jacobs: My colossal task burden | Life and style | The Guardian :

I’m going to recapture my attention span. I pledge to go cold turkey from multitasking for a month. Only single tasks. Uni-tasking. And, just as important, I’ll stick with each task for more than my average 30 seconds. I’ll be the most focused man in the world.

AJ Jacobs sets out to spend 30 days reforming is multitasking ways. Required reading. (via Kottke)

Jon Gordon is the current Social Media and Mobile Editor for Minnesota Public Radio News. You can follow his work on the MPR NewsQ Facebook page or on Twitter.

I became a fan of his work as the former host of American Public Media’s Future Tense, a radio show about technology and how it shapes our lives. I am now proud to call Jon a friend and have watched with interest his move from someone originally skeptical of the iPad to someone who is a fan. I thought a brief interview about this change would be something fun and informative to share here.

I got the impression you were skeptical about the iPad at first and if it would be something that is truly useful. You recently mentioned that not only do you use it but you love it, limitations and all. What changed?

I’m skeptical about every new gadget that comes along. For the iPad, I was worried that it would be a kludgy first generation device and that it would be sort of a portal to a world of unwelcome, new spending — you know, magazine subscriptions, movies, apps. I also had a hard time imagining where it would fit in my computing life between smart phones, laptops, and desktops. But here’s the deal: the next generation will be lots better but this iPad feels fairly refined; I have spent some money to feed the iPad with content but most of what I do is free; and the iPad found a place amongst all those other devices — it’s become the check-the-Internet-while-watching-TV device and respond-to-emails-while-still-in-bed device and the squeeee-I-don’t-have-to-worry-much-about-battery-life device. Is the iPad a necessity? No, but it’s nice. Not perfect (implementation of Safari stinks, Google apps kid of icky, lack of multitasking, ease with which you can do the wrong thing when you touch the screen) but hey, we’re all flawed.

What are the things you mainly use it for?

I’m not using it for lots of new things, really. It’s just easier to do some of my email, Internet surfing and other stuff on the iPad. Strangely I also use it to take a break from my work desktop. I set it beside my Windows 7 box and use it as sort of a you’ve-got-mail! thingy — when I hear it chime, I get to leave the keyboard, slide back in my chair, and use a touch interface to do a little email. Seems odd but I appreciate spreading my computing time to different devices. I would never write a message as long as this one on the iPad (I have no external keyboard for it) but for quick replies it’s great.

Has it replaced any other device you would otherwise use or significantly reduced your usage of a laptop or desktop?

Laptop, definitely. Using that a lot less.

What are your favorite/most used apps on the iPad? Any third party apps that you recommend?

Let’s see. iBooks, Instapaper, Kayak Flights, NewsRack, Urbanspoon, and yes, Solitaire. It’s the only game in town.

Question for my own personal data, do you mainly use it in portrait or landscape orientation?

Depends on the app I guess. But when I first pick it up to mess around, it’s usually portrait.

I love pasta meals and, as being a visual designer, icon like illustrations and infographics. I fell in love with the The Geometry of Pasta book.

The Geometry of Pasta, with recipes of Top Michelin starred chef Jacob Kennedy, shows you “how to develop an instinct for matching pasta and sauce. We explain how to team up pasta with sauce to maximise taste and texture and to turn you from an average into a great pasta cook.”

This cookbook is not like the average cookbook. You won’t find any photos of a steaming plates of fine pasta. Instead you find nice illustrations by Caz Hildebrand, creative partner at Here Design, of pasta shapes, arranged in bold and simple patterns printed in black and white.

The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains:

chrisbowler:

Author Nicholas Carr in an article in Wired.

On the Net, we face many information faucets, all going full blast. Our little thimble overflows as we rush from tap to tap. We transfer only a small jumble of drops from different faucets, not a continuous, coherent stream.

A fascinating — and frightening — reinforcement of what we are all coming to know. The article focuses on web pages littered with links, images, and video, but I would assume that computers with a multitude of applications has a similar affect on our work.

And so we ask the Internet to keep interrupting us in ever more varied ways. We willingly accept the loss of concentration and focus, the fragmentation of our attention, and the thinning of our thoughts in return for the wealth of compelling, or at least diverting, information we receive. We rarely stop to think that it might actually make more sense just to tune it all out.

Man, that really hits home.

Wow. What more can I add? Go read the full article. Certainly cause to pause for reflection. Also, I want to mention that Mr. Bowler is one of my personal heroes when it comes to his ability to firewall his time and attention. Therefore, if this hit home with him just think about the nightmares it will give the rest of us.