The Rebound Effect is a significant problem in energy policy and sustainable design: if new devices are more energy efficient, will users simply use them more, or leave them on for longer? (A kind of Jevons’ Paradox). This UK Energy Research Centre report (PDF, 5 […]
Cyclepathology
A lot of architectures of control / design with intent examples are trying to enforce what I’ve termed ‘access, use or occupation based on user characteristics’. Not all designs are especially successful at achieving that target behaviour: users will not always be persuaded, or will […]
Seminar, 27th May
I’ll be giving a brief seminar at Brunel on Tuesday 27th May, in advance of presenting at Persuasive 2008 – it’s a bit of a practice/rehearsal, to be honest…
links for 2008-05-20
Berkeley Path Gallery More ‘desire paths’ – thanks to Ariel Guersenzvaig (http://interacciones.org ) for the tip (tags: desirepaths Berkeley architecturesofcontrol, desire paths interaction use usemark) Metaverse Territories Mixed realities (tags: metaverse SecondLife architecture architecturesofcontrol, design reality) CFP: The Psychology of Facebook This looks to be […]
Ann Thorpe: Can artefacts be activists?
Ann Thorpe, author of the intriguing-sounding Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability – is pursuing an interesting investigation into design activism: Some of the basic issues around design activism include: # isn’t all design activism? # how much design should be activist — aren’t designers supposed to […]
Best bitter
Bitrex, the world’s most bitter substance, is what’s known as a taste aversive – added to products which might seem tasty to humans (especially children) to persuade them not to drink them, or to spit out what they’ve already drunk. It’s a similar idea to […]
One-way turn of the screw
One-way screws, such as the above (image from Designing Against Vandalism, ed. Jane Sykes, The Design Council, London, 1979) are an interesting alternative to the usual array of tamper-proof ‘security fasteners’ (which usually require a special tool to fit and remove). There’s a very interesting […]
links for 2008-05-28
Cities and Ambition “I’d always considered ambition a good thing, but I realize now that was because I’d always implicitly understood it to mean ambition in the areas I cared about. When you list everything ambitious people are ambitious about, it’s not so pretty.” (tags: […]
User-Centred Design for Sustainable Behaviour
TU Delft’s Renee Wever and Jasper van Kuijk (who runs the insightful Uselog product usability blog), together with NTNU’s Casper Boks, have produced a very interesting paper, ‘User-Centred Design for Sustainable Behaviour’ [PDF, 400 kb] for the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering (indeed, probably in […]
Un-hiding an affordance
These (pretty shallow) steps in Dawlish, Devon, have been labelled as such, presumably because without this, some visitors wouldn’t notice, and would run, cycle or wheelchair down them and hurt themselves or others. Painting a white line along the edge is a common way of […]
links for 2008-05-29
Uselog – product usability weblog (tags: blog design usability interaction interactiondesign delft) The Skateboard, The City, and Socio-Spatial Censorship via http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/ : “Skateboarders have encountered a politics of space similar to the experiences of the homeless… [they] occupy urban space without engaging in economic activity […]
links for 2008-05-30
Living Streets Creating better streets and public spaces for people on foot (tags: urban urbanism spatial architecture pedestrians livingstreets) Tripping over the barrier Emergent behaviour… Thanks to Max Kashner for sending me this! (tags: barrier art protection emergent behaviour unintended interaction interactiondesign gallery museum) Canadian […]