For all our focus on teaching students to design digital and physical products, I don’t think we’re doing a good enough job of getting them to understand their process as a form of social, cultural, political, ethical, etc. agency. There is still, I think, too much emphasis on design process as some sort of mythical, mystical, essentially ineffable, act of creation.

It’s true, there’s not necessarily a business case to do this, but that is not the only thing Apple will be judged on in the decades to come. And that’s what I’m talking about here: how will future generations look back at Apple, and by extension its customers? Did we all live our lives by more than just the bottom line? Or were the late twentieth and early twenty-first century the decades in which we irrevocably decided that everything should be disposable (or even recyclable) after just two or three years?

Instagram succeeded for many good reasons, including its design, its viral qualities, its simplicity, and the fact that its engineers focused so obsessively on making sure that it works all the time. Part of its success, no doubt, is the fact that it was just in the right place, at the right time, with the right, crowd-pleasing mix of features.

‘The problem is that this is exactly what the competition are doing — they are competing with the iPad rather than solving a problem that hasn’t been solved yet. They’re always one step behind because they’re simply trying to re-create the solution that Apple has created for their vision of a touch tablet device.’

"Adaptable, minimalist interfaces." Oh. My. God.

An interview with Apple's brilliant product designer, who possesses a "fanatical care beyond the obvious stuff."

Notes on the growing importance of design in business. Good short reads.

Use a pulsating orb to "make electricity [usage] visible" and get people thinking about their energy use. Good idea!

Iconography to represent RFID and more.

Excellent videos!

Amazing projects (technological art installations) from the University of the Arts in Berlin.

"3eyes is interested in people and the way that they interact with stuff, things and each other…" ... "people should be able to conceive of the purpose of a system with minimum explanation then explore, learn and adapt it for themselves."

"The MIT Media Lab is launching a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children."

"Every key of the Optimus keyboard is a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at this very moment."

"Designers from more than 72 countries explored and visualized personal and portable timekeeping 150 years into the future."

"What if only your imagination limited what you could see outside your windows?"