Ian Fitzpatrick writes, collects and shares things here.
Some of these things have to do with brands, some of them have to do with buildings and places or machines or computers (which are, you know, machines, too). Each of them has to do with people, and the ways in which we respond to the stimuli around us.
Facebook: ianfitzpatrick
Flickr: hvyset
Foursquare: ianfitzpatrick
Last.FM: hvyset
LinkedIn: Ian Fitzpatrick
Skype: iandfitzpatrick
Tumblr: heavyset
Twitter: @ianfitzpatrick
Vimeo: Ian Fitzpatrick
I think it is fatal to specialize. And all kinds of things show us that and that the more diverse we are in what we can do the better. But I don’t think that you can dispose of the constructive and inventive things that America is doing—and say oh we aren’t doing anything anymore and we are living off of what the poor Chinese do. It is more complicated than that.
Read the full post...Categorized as: People and Spaces, Quotations Published Dec 15.09
via Pruned, a Dutch endeavor called Waterpleinen – a now-commissioned set of public spaces that serve both as locales for community gathering/play and stormwater repositories. From the Waterpleinen site:
Most of the year the Watersquare will be dry. It is only during heavy rainfall that the square will be filled with water. Streams, brooklets and ponds will emerge, kids can play in and around the water. In winter it is even possible to skate on the ice! The rainwater of the Watersquare can also serve as a grey-water system for the surrounding houses.
It’s a remarkable concept for mixed-use space (see these diagrams). The below video conveys the idea even better (and yet-still-better if you happen to speak Dutch).
Link: Waterpleinen on Pruned Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Dec 15.09
GOOD has a blurb today on a pilot program in San Francisco that is utilizing wireless parking meters equipped with sensors that can identify vacant and occupied spaces. Here’s the demo:
I wonder what Donald Shoup would have to say about this. Could these sensors drive the kind of elastic-pricing parking policy that Dr. Shoup espouses? From a 2008 interview on the TransLib blog:
So long as cities continue to require ample off-street parking at every site, people will never be weaned from expecting free parking. And unless cities begin to charge performance-based prices for curb parking, reducing or eliminating off-street parking requirements will not be politically possible. So I would argue that getting the price of curb parking right is a precondition to weaning people away from expecting free parking everywhere. Therefore, I would also argue that Parking Benefit Districts with revenue return to finance added local public services will create the political demand for more sensible parking prices.
Link: Wireless Parking on GOOD Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Dec 14.09
via CScout, another great utility designed to enable, among other things, urban exploration.
PicTranslator is a point & shoot app for the iPhone that promises to translate signage and other text content from 20+ foreign languages into English. Check out the demo below:
While I can imagine all manner of applications for the app, the ability to explore unfamiliar spaces with the ability to rapidly orient and guide oneself is chief among them. Very cool stuff.
Link: Point & Shoot Foreign Language Translator on CScout Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Dec 11.09
Via Jeff Howard over at Design for Service, a post from Katherine Alsop that explores queuing theory in the context of service efficiency as applied to a supermarket checkout.
It’s a fantastic, well-authored post with implications across a broad range of user experiences, and I’d be loathe to try to explain it in any detail – particularly as Katherine does such an eloquent job – and queuing theory is a generally well-worn and accepted area of study. That said, I thought this to a particularly succinct assessment of the false promise of multiple queues:
The main issues associated with the single queue are that customers may consider the queue too long and decide not to purchase anything, or they may join the queue, then leave if they think it is not progressing fast enough. Having several shorter queues may appear as a faster means of getting served, but queueing theory would suggest that this is not true.
Link: How Not to Re-design a Supermarket Checkout on Katherine Alsop Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Dec 11.09
Angie Waller posted a collection of her photos a few weeks back that demonstrate a range of playground/playset designs in socialist / non-socialist locales.
I’m not altogether certain that it’s the most objective view on the topic, but the collection is certainly demonstrative of variations in our notions of play (and environments that encourage and shape that notion).
Link: Socialist vs. Non Socialist on CouchProjects Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Oct 26.09
Folks were much agog this week as the above video made the rounds – first at New Scientist, and subsequently picked up over at Beyond the Beyond and elsewhere.
Lost in some the dialogue was that both the video and the discussion surrounding it focused not on ’seeing through walls’, as implied by the title, but rather around corners. This is, to be sure, a semantic point – and one that does little to diminish the wow factor of seeing around corners via augmented reality. Still, I was drawn in by the promise of X-Ray-Spex – not, of course, the folks who brought us the seminal ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours’, but rather the idea of peering through the myriad walls that stand between us and those things we covet (or might covet, if only we could see them).
Read the full post...Categorized as: Notes on Things Seen, People and Spaces Published Oct 21.09
Note: This is the first in a series of posts that explore trends at the intersection of human behavior and technology that might emerge over the next three years from the convergence of other, established trends.
The Macrotrend:
The normalization of social behaviors on the web, in combination with the ability to centralize human networks via [...]
Categorized as: People and Spaces, Things I Have Written Published Oct 09.09
This research facility, enigmatically-named Nunnmps, was designed by Cheungvogl and is planned for development outside Chicago. The elevated, stilt-resting structure is designed to maximize the privacy necessary for the research carried out within.
Spooky.
Link: Nunnmps by Cheungvogl on archiCentral Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Oct 08.09
The WikiCity project is concerned with the real-time mapping of city dynamics. This mapping however is not limited to representing the city but instead becomes instantly an instrument for city inhabitants to base their actions and decisions upon in a better informed manner. In this way the real-time map changes the city context as well as that altered context changes the real-time map accordingly. This with the ultimate aim of leading to an overall increased efficiency and sustainability in making use of the city environment.
Link: Connecting the Tangible and the Virtual Realm of a City on GEO Informatic Categorized as: Links, People and Spaces Published Jul 20.09
Over the weekend, Russell Davies had a great, albeit short, post on the notion of ambient speech, including this gem of an explanation:
I used to think that what you wanted from Ambient Speech was the rhythm of conversation but that you didn’t need the meaning, like Charlie Brown’s teacher. But I was awake in a hotel [...]
Categorized as: Notes on Things Seen, People and Spaces Published Apr 08.09
Perhaps you’ve already tripped across this elsewhere, but Michael Bojkowski of linefeed created the gorgeous video below, exploring the city of London from a typographic perspective. He refers to it as 15 minutes of your life you’ll never get back, although I’d beg to differ.
I’ve no pressing interest in typography, although I’ve tremendous admiration for [...]
Read the full post...Categorized as: Notes on Things Seen, People and Spaces Published Mar 23.09
Much-maligned here (and elsewhere), it seems that amidst the reports of $100 homes, Detroit is poised for renaissance. Via PSFK:
Detroit has been in economic decline for some time now, and the current recession has made things even worse – or into an opportunity, depending how you look at it. At this point in Detriot, you [...]
Categorized as: Notes on Things Seen, People and Spaces Published Jan 30.09
The image below shows one of a series of sculptures placed around London to promote Rimmel’s Quick Dry Nail Polish (click image to view full-size), and illustrates the power of simple spectacle quite well, I think. (found via Ad Goodness)
It’s a not quite the long wow, but very much a curiosity that requires little explanation.
My [...]
Categorized as: Notes on Things Seen, People and Spaces
Dan Hill, head of research for the Sydney office of Arup, uses City of Sound for in-depth, thought-provoking explorations of urban informatics and the ways in which they help people engage cities.
A blog written by Christian Verschaeren of Emakina, with a focus on trends in consumer engagement via (but not limited to) advertising. Hysterical in tone, sublimely detailed at times.