Design Obsessed!

After reading the first chapter of the Design book, i have become somewhat obsessed with how things are designed, keeping vigil on the flaws that (inadvertently) make our lives more difficult than they need to be.

A few things that have compromised World Order:

• My light switch is located behind the door, which is just silly
• Tab key should be on both sides of the keyboard
• Information architecture in general (website design and word and image placement...many, many bad examples out there!)
• A browser that will go unnamed...the "back" and "forward" button are practically invisible with no words to indicate they do what they do! And the buttons are so "design-oriented" that they lose all practical qualities
• The SFSU parking lot! A labyrinth and a nightmare!
• Why do LCD projectors have a leg slightly off-center? Can anyone answer this? There has to be a logical reason!

I am sure i will come up with more, but it is a good (albeit irking) excercise to keep these senses honed to maintain an evolution in the world of design. Look forward to the next chapters!

My Whole New Mind

This book is very timely for me. Well, not actually, as I have been thinking about the right brainishness of the world and in particular, my world for a while now. You cannot help it #1 living in San Francisco where everyone is an "designer" or "artist" or some type of creative type and #2 the current sea change in the world we live in (and #2a the ITEC program). I have always considered myself a linear-verbal-Left-Directed type, focused more on words than on images. I cannot draw for the life of me, my mind gets in the way, have tried playing music, but again, i think too much.

This book has made the Right-directed aspect of the world more accessible. It has also allowed me to realize that maybe i am more R-directed than i give myself credit for (but at the same time points out that i could always achieve more!).

Having grown up in the US school system and having attended a large state university, i am used to fact memorization and multiple choice tests where stories don't matter as much as the right answer. Our school system (with that in mind) does not encourage many of the R-directed skills Pink discusses.

Having studied psychology for six years, Empathy was the only part that I really felt confident that I possessed. However, Storytelling, Design, Symphony and Play are the "senses" that jump out the most for me as needing to work on.

I am grateful for the portfolio sections and will continue to come back to them. And when I do...i will draw out graphs and illustrations, tell stories, make up games and see how it all fits together with everything!

R-Dave-L