Aug
24
Friends of Inharrime, a nonprofit supporting youth education and nutrition in Mozambique, asked the Skills for Change community for five ways to improve their website design.
Mar
16
I awoke this morning to find a number of articles praising an artist’s concept for a national high-speed rail network. This is a bad idea.
Very few rail projects make economic sense. I studied city light rail projects in graduate school and found most installed systems have failed to meet projected ridership or return on investment. Heavy rail systems made money, but much of that was from the sale of land the rail companies acquired through US homesteading programs, which are no longer available. Rail also has a way of building discrimination into our communities as only some portions of the community benefit from convenient routes and others are excluded.
Like other rail projects, high speed rail sounds exciting and futuristic, but the routes would likely be frustrating.
So, what did I recommend in graduate school and what do I recommend today?
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Nov
19
My response to the Quora question, “”What does the Instagram for Video decision look like to you through the lens of JTBD?”
I’ve begun following the Jobs-To-Be-Done discussion on Quora. I’ve been interested in the topic since I first began learning about Focus Purposes of Breakthrough Thinking and the #jtbd offshoot of Clayton Christensen’s Innosight design consultancy.
Sep
14
Originally published September 14, 2001 for USC Writing 140. References are to two full page advertisements cut from the pages of GQ Magazine.
As a graphic designer assembles an advertisement for print, numerous details must be taken into consideration in order to ensure a powerful impact upon the reader. The fonts, white space, copy, and images must all be intermingled to emphasize corporate brand. Each aspect of an advertisement has a direct impact upon the readers who view it, influencing how a given product and its producer are evaluated. Much as consumers are enticed to purchase Michael Jordan’s shoes because of the enchanting feeling aroused through the experience of sharing a trait with a global icon, so, too, is a consumer likely to select a product advertised as being essential to an environment the consumer yearns to experience.
