Forethink Design

1984(George Orwell,1948) is now top 1 in Amazon book bestseller again. Because I just binge The Stranger Things from Netflix, it seems all 80ies memory flash back for me. Personally, not my favorite decade, but any way it is my teenager time. So all negative of 80ies is coming back again? May be, may be not. Absolutely, I hate to watch all Trump's stuff. It is an 80ies monster from a upside down world. Here is a link for 1984. Try an audible as well. please. This classic novel is getting even greater. Strongly, recommended. Book link: http://amzn.to/2je5LI3 "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten." "뉴스피크(NewSpeak)가 우리의 사고를 좁히는 목적이라는 ...

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Probably, we all at least once play a doctor with a Stethoscope. But not many using one in daily work life. It is old tool but relatively new tool. The stethoscope was invented in France in 1816 by René Laennec. In 60ies, David Liitman, a M.D., reinvent it which is reputed for its acoustic performances in auscultation. Later 3M acquired the company but still the brand name is 3M-Littmann stethoscope. It is still a perfect gift for graduating M.D. students.     3M-Littmann Stethoscope. Click image to see product page  In 21c, of course, there is a digital version. You can use your own headset(3.5mm plug) for auscultation. It has audio filter and audio amplifier. But disappointingly, it still doesn't have a heater. So still nice doctor should warm it before hearing.    Digital Stethoscope. Click image to see product page 3M-Littman Stethoscope Digital Stethoscope  Thinklabs

It is really annoying to see a bad design claims good design. Recently, I was able to see some interesting examples of pedestrian crosswalk designs with using LED lightings to make crosswalks bright at night. http://www.etnews.com/201002090064 In Germany, city installs traffic lights in pavements to protect smart phone users who doesn't look around before crossing. Another design project placed a bright LED doors on both sides of the crosswalk. I believe these design can be stupid solution. Because there is a high risk of not being able to see the pedestrians by drivers. Vice versa there is a risk that pedestrians will not be able to see the approaching cars. Too bright objects darken the surroundings. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/04/26/german-city-installs-traffic-lights-in-pavements-to-protect-text/  In Finland, where I live, Finnish have a little reflector on coat in winter. I think is a much better solution. Usually, the individual's self-help ...

It may be an interesting case of crime suspect marketing. Softlips lip balm is enjoying u nexpected product placement in South Korea. Used by Jay Y. Lee, vice chairman of Samsung at a National Assembly hearing. His putting blam on his lip was exposed to multi millions in Korea through live TV broadcasting. Suddenly, it becomes famous after that hearing. Because it has slim form factor, it would be easy to bring it in a suit pocket. But my recommendation is Blistex. : ) It doesn't looks like a lipstick. It looks like more a medical ointment package. Yes, It is "Masculine". Softlips Balm Blistex lip balm

Hey hey... Many things happened for me and nothing for this blog. But it seems it is still interesting to talk about design. I did't forget my passion for good design. Make this blog alive is my 2017 resolution. See you often.

I love ice cream. More specifically I love italian style gelato. Gustimo is a gelato store where I can get best gelato in Korea. Not only tastes great, style of gellato displaying is fascionating. Couple of hours a go, I bought a small cup of gellato. It was just 30 min before closing store. I could observe all 4 guys were doing something on gellato (Photo on top). They arrange gellato with scoop. Push it to front end and put some original ingredient on it. Otherwise usual ice cream bulk drum is consumed from top. As you can see, there is big difference in displaying. Gellato on right picture looks fresh, clean and beautiful texture by design intention. Ice cream on left picture looks like a colored cement. Looks good and tastes great. I can't stop loving it.

Inflation of gas price is incredible. So nowadays I'm using self-service gas station where I can save 10 cents for every gallon. Self-service at gas station is not popular yet in Korea. As you know, if gasoline car eats diesel, it will kill your engine. (If you have no idea about that.. Pls. remember it). In case of my car needs gasoline which is coded as yellow. In Korea, all gasoline nozzle is colored in yellow and diesel is green (One pump can be used for both type of gas). Even though I had not been used gas pump while I'm driving, it is easy to recognize. But there is still a chance for an error. Sometimes new gas service man makes confusion with car type. Because most of all SUV in Korea has diesel engine usually but all imported SUV is gasoline engine usually. But it seems different in every country. Often red is used for premium quality branded gasoline. In many cases, pump machine has a color of the company brand. Ex. Esso gas station use white for Regular, blue for Ex...

I'm a wine lover. I love have chatting with my friends and drinking good wine. "Cavas Submarinas" seem just a good Chilean wine. But I noticed the name has something special. Good wine need time and place to be matured. Dungeon or underground has been great place for preserving wine for years. But in case of "Cavas Submarinas", they dump wine boxes into sea and scuba-diver will harvest it later. Of course, dumped location should be a secret because it is open water. I guess the dump place is quiet underwater and temperature will be consistent forever. No electricity or guard is needed of course. Just like finding a treasure of sunken ship, it will be great fun. In terms of tasting, it is a Pinot noir, fruity and med body. I would like to recommend it for your dinner. In perspective of business model, it can be interesting. Space is limited at dry land. Keeping temp and guarding is not an easy job at all. Preserving wine needs long time. It might be able to retur...

Karmen is king of nerds. Pentagon sponsored his project to make innovative prosthetic arm for people who lost a arm or arms. Please play the video from link. It is really beautiful machine. It just looks like a Jedi arm for Luke Skywalker who lost his arm from battle with Vader. Karmen shows us how team work of ingenuity can improve human life. It reminds me that improving life should be top priority for design. Link: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/video?id=221 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen http://www.dekaresearch.com/

Wheel chair was too big for trunk. But this car 'Sephia' from KIA (Hyundai motors) is not that small car. Wheelbase of this model is around 2500mm. Do we need to make more folding & compact wheel chair? or to let car designers think about wheel chair size rather than size of Golf bag or Ski? Apparently, the driver of car and the driver of wheel chair had a hard time with it.

Is it time for touch interface? I would say yes for my job security. I think I can make a carreer plan based on touch interface for another 5 years at least. Look at this. It is studio of CNN situation room for 2008 US presidential election. Yesterday was Super Tuesday. Every new visualization technique have been introduced at election time. This time CNN show off big size touch panel. It is not that big. All corners are touchable and display amazing quality of photo, map and graphs. It seems familiar. Probably one from Jeff Han's multi touch technology. Yes, it is big iPhone. CNN's election board is fantastic. You can manipulate all complex election information with just some touches. Camera man just need to zoom in/out while two guys are talking about it and simulate it on screen. Graph can be simulated by scenario and you can understand why and how a region is bonded with election information. I believe all school and conference room of companies need that soon. Reference ht...

I just got a brand new PC from my company. It is HP Compaq8510W. I don't know why but HP still uses Compaq for notePC brand name. On palm rest, there are 3 sticker labels. NVDIA, INTEL and HP... OK, I understand marketing guys want to show off their brand. But please stop it. At least, please make it easy to remove. I used my hair dryer and nail. First and second was easy. But NVIDIA's label was really sticky. Do you think it help brand recognition? Actually it might cause small problem with palmrest usability. These stickers are supposed to be removed after opening the box. Actually, some...many people just let it go and never remove it until the PC die or return. Even some of my friend wants to keep it and think it is decorative. But I'm pretty sure that stickers are never rendered in original design. Otherwise I saw new Apple Macbook Air at same day. Probably that's why I'm complaining about it.

Yes, I believe we need ethic. Ethic for usability is a core value. But with same knowlege about usability, you can do horrible anti-usability or less-horrible but still dirty job for your big boss. It is tempting when you know what people do in a typical way, you can predict and may utilize it for making more money. But if you exploit and don't share benefit with user as usability expert, you are in hell of usability. Some stupid design is actually designed for more making money. Actually it is stupid because it is short sighted for short term revenue. You can make a report how much money you could make a money from better design or you can make a report how much money you made from stupid annoying design. Why I'm sure about it? Why I'm sure usability-abuse will be ultimate failure for your business? Because user is smart enough. You have to have love for user. That's 1st principle. Example. At front page of Yahoo.com, if you click an interesting news article, you will...

I changed this video link to new 1 year old baby. S/he can control image browsing on iPhone. Interestingly can control speed for it. This is 2 years old baby Anna and she is playing with iPhone. It's quite awesome because she can't speak well yet nor read English but can do iPhone. Probably she can control TV set and DVD for watching Nemo. S/he is one of 5 percentile which cropped population by UI designer who usually focus on major population who can buy that product. What is easy? Yes, if 2 year old baby can do that it is definitely easy. Otherwise how about elderly citizen? Dean Kamen (Inventor of Segway) told us about his experience with 81 years old lady who did test run Segway. "I can't drive any more but need to go glocery store.","I can drive this (Segway)". What is needed for making easy interface? Good simple logic, Continuity... But how can it make Anna smile when she find music player? As once Spock said "Logic is only start of wisdom...

Robot get a new job. This is traffic guide robot at front of Kyungbu highway Seoul gate. He has white handsome face, blue uniform of police officer and red lighting wands. So drivers are supposed to be more careful when driving into tollgate. It is installed with new wireless paying system. But a scarecrow is only good for stupid sparrows. Smart sparrow will ignore it soon. It is certainly another annoying new invention. How much time is needed to be familiar with the robot for drivers?

For today's dinner, I decided to go a department store. Usually B1 floor is food court and fresh food market in Korea (Japan as well). You can choose a packaged food from a variety of small shops by shopping around together. Every time I hit the floor. I could see long line up at front of a Chinese food store where sell Shanghainese big Dimsum. It is really popular 20~30 people are waiting. It is quite unusual. OK, why not? I decide to stand in end of line ....and waited for 30min for my turn. Observation: 1. Long line attracts people. Many customers asked what it is and how it is. It attracts people who never tasted it before including myself. 2. After long line up, customer want to have more. For example, I just want to try one but bought 4. One lady in front of me tried to buy dozen but refused. I have to hate her... 3. Actually there are 2 kind of Dimsum. Because spicy Dimsum is more popular, you may get standard Dimsum easily. But it seems no one know about it. And I have to...

Sony GPS CS1 is a simple location tracking module. It helps to match a photo with place where the photo is taken at. I can browse tracks where I travelled on Google Earth or Cyworld map service as well. It's fun! You can make a content for a real SPIME . But besides of accuracy problem, there are some problem with this. It can provide information about a place.. But it can't provide heading direction (Direction of point view). And if it is possible altitude information will be useful as well. And still GPS information such as "N37,32,54/E126,54,56.8" is not familiar with me. It should be "Near Hapjeung rotary heading west".

This is Mr. Pizza truck (Pizza restaurant brand). Driver's photo ID, name and company call number is printed on back of the truck. It is company policy to promote good public image as good driving manner. If you have any problem with this truck, you can call the company and complain about it. Anyway, the driver guy is not smiling in picture so I wonder he was a volunteer or not. And if you can read his name, you are too close to this truck...

Cyworld.com is one of my favorite site and I never sleep without clicking in it. One day, I found it is under service maintenance work. I think it is probably regular maintenance or major system upgrade. Anyway, I could guess the maintenance manager has quite good humor sense. Please check A. It provide current time(KST), remaining time, web cam which shows an IT guy(wearing coat in June) and excuse of maintenance (Blur blur ~~). Bottom part is more fun. C is suggesting you to run a free anti-virus program. D is showing a tip for getting a well sleep. You may follow demonstration by Cyworld avatar or click to see a video. At E, you may select a game for killing time. You may buy it for your mini blog later. I think it could be very negative but changed to positive experience now.