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ChittahChattah Quickies
Wednesday May 07th 2008, 9:36 pm by Steve Portigal
  • Nathan Myhrvold left Microsoft and struck out on his own, he set himself an unusual goal. He wanted to see whether the kind of insight that leads to invention could be engineered. He formed a company called Intellectual Ventures


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Rage With The Machine
Tuesday May 06th 2008, 1:14 pm by Dan Soltzberg

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Biodiesel-fueled coupe made from old semi truck, Half Moon Bay, California



lawnmower-race-sequence.jpgLawnmower Races, Half Moon Bay, California

I went to a huge auto and machine show recently at a small airfield down the coast from San Francisco. I really love this kind of stuff, but my machine lust was battling thoughts of carbon footprints, sustainability and global economics that made it a little difficult to see the event as entirely wholesome.

Living in and trying to navigate this consumption/sustainability paradox is the conundrum of the day for anyone who loves things.

Nokia’s Jan Chipchase gave a talk at Adaptive Path a couple of weeks ago, and showed a model of the Remade mobile phone concept. The Remade is produced almost entirely by upcycling, a Cradle to Cradle concept whereby potential trash is transformed into something valuable and useful.

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Appearance model, Remade mobile phone concept, Nokia. (picture from PhoneMag.com)

The extruded aluminum body of the Remade model seemed really tough, and made me think about what it would be like if products were built so well that they rarely broke.

Would that be the most sustainable approach to the object cycle—making things that lasted, and using them for as long as they lasted?

It’s a complex picture: there’s technological evolution constantly rendering our stuff obsolete, there’s the need for producers to continue to produce and sell what they make, and then there’s that crow/magpie thing—our persistent desire to add new objects to whatever we already have sequestered in our nests.

Thinking about a system this complex always leads to big questions. Here are some of mine for this round:


  • What is the relationship between remaking how objects are produced and shifting cultural attitudes toward consumption?

  • Can producers profitably focus on business models that take advantage of long use (for example by focusing more on post-purchase relationships and less on product replacement)?

  • Can it ever be as cool, sexy, and fun as buying new things to use our things for years and years, so that they acquire a patina, shape themselves to our bodies and our personalities, and bear scars that tell stories?

Or will that leave something fundamental in our natures (our crow-selves??) unsatisfied?



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Monday May 05th 2008, 9:40 pm by Steve Portigal


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ChittahChattah Quickies
Thursday May 01st 2008, 9:37 pm by Steve Portigal
  • The first tote boards were manufactured for the horse racing industry by the American Totalizator Company.
  • The history of the automatic totalizator
  • Straus made a fortune in royalties out of his invention, the American totalizator, a complicated (1,500,000 moving parts) electrical device which automatically calculates the odds in pari-mutuel betting.
  • We need a family tree visualization to make any sense of this, but it seems that the Totalizator has a space in the history of computing.


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ChittahChattah Quickies
Wednesday April 30th 2008, 9:39 pm by Steve Portigal
  • This is so great. Boarding pass with the agent circles already printed on ‘em. As Jasper points out, wouldn’t be it better to design the boarding pass so it’s readable rather than reuse a workaround?


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Worldwide Food Shortage Reaches Silicon Valley?
Wednesday April 30th 2008, 8:54 am by Dan Soltzberg

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Ben and Jerry’s, San Jose, California, 8:45 pm



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Tuesday April 29th 2008, 9:43 pm by Steve Portigal


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The Donut World Tour, in progress
Tuesday April 29th 2008, 5:14 pm by Steve Portigal

Without donuts being part of the plan when I travel, they seem to show up with some regularity. While Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts seek to provide a consistent experience across geographies, there are also very unique experiences available in the very same category. The notion of donut is rather broad and is reinterpreted in some engaging ways. There’s something about the pure pleasure of a donut that also invites a fun approach to all aspects of the experience: the flavors, the environment, the presentation, the messaging.

Here’s a few I’ve documented. Please leave recommendations for other donuts-shops-to-experience in the comments.

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Randy’s Donuts, LA (Amazing site, donuts are pretty good)

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Voodoo Doughnuts, Portland, OR: Rex Diablo and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (fun to choose, less to eat)

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Murciano in The Marais, Paris (the best thing I’ve ever eaten)

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Fractured Prune, Washington D.C. (didn’t get to try it)

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Roti Donat, Bali, Indonesia (definitely not good)

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Mister Donut sign and exterior, Taipei, Taiwan

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Mister Donut Simpsons promotion, Kyoto, Japan (I don’t remember what I got but it was good!)



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Mundane is the new fun
Thursday April 24th 2008, 3:19 pm by Steve Portigal


IxDA SF
Originally uploaded by blackbeltjones.



Last night we attended an IxDA-SF presentation of Matt Jones on “Playfulness in Design”. No full summary to share (although maybe Matt will post the slides eventually) but one great line was the statement that “Mundane is the new fun” which refers to the little interventions of joy that are being added to everyday life, providing a new veneer of experience on top of behaviors that were once only necessary for survival.

This was one of the themes of Virginia Postrel’s Substance of Style (with its legendary discussions of the broad range of choice now available for toilet brushes). It’s also something that I’ve seen a lot of in Japan. Here’s one quick example:
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This vacuum cleaner is fun: it is presented like a futuristic robot, available in at least 3 novel colors, and is styled in a notable way. This isn’t about making the chore of vacuuming fun, but about acknowledging fun as an ingredient can always be fun, from the purchase moment to the instant the vacuum is grabbed and turned on. Check out this elephant-robot for urinal cleaning as another example of fun. As a one-off, this is taking drudgery and distracting you with cuteness, but put together across so many product categories, brands, signage, TV advertisements and beyond, the notion of the constant layer of fun is so visible in Japan.

Matt is right at calling out the trend, and you can look to the Japanese as lead users of this trend.



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Chipotle: Different and Better?
Thursday April 24th 2008, 12:52 pm by Steve Portigal

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Ode To A Burrito is a Fast Company profile of Chipotle Mexican Grill and iconoclastic founder and CEO Steve Ells.

Chipotle has achieved these impressive stats by spurning fast-food orthodoxy….Chipotle also avoids the frills that pad other chains’ bottom lines. “Desserts and other sides are all profit for these chains,” says industry analyst Clark Wolf. “The whole infrastructure’s already there, so they can make a 90% margin on extras.” But founder and CEO Steve Ells staunchly refuses to expand his menu beyond four options (burrito, burrito bowl, taco, salad). “We want to do just a few things better than everyone else,” Ells says. “We just do things we think are right.”

Could you open a movie theater without popcorn, focusing instead on the core few things that enable the desired experience (this is a bad metaphor since of course popcorn is readily seen as intrinsic to a movie experience, in-home or in the theater)? Is Ells throwing away money for an idea that is meaningless or does he have a holistic Jobs-like vision that drives decisions like this (his name is Steve…)?

Elsewhere the article refers to fans of the chain and describes the growth and financial success the company is showing. But what do you think? Is this company run by a brilliant visionary?



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Tuesday April 22nd 2008, 9:41 pm by Steve Portigal


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From Here to There: Design Research Symposium
Tuesday April 22nd 2008, 4:43 pm by Steve Portigal

Recently I was invited to ASU in Tempe, AZ, to participate in a Design Research Symposium called From Here To There, a reference (I think) to moving from questions to answers (or, perhaps, more questions).

I was pleased to be part of such a great lineup of speakers:

  • Dennis Doordan, Editor, Design Issues
  • Laura DeWitt, Research Director, laga Innovation Group
  • Dan Formosa, Smart Design Worldwide
  • Matthew Jordan, Director of Research and Interaction Design, Insight Product Development
  • David Alan Kopec - “DAK”, Associate Professor of Design, Newschool of Architecture and Design
  • Steve Portigal, Principal, Portigal Consulting
  • Meg Portillo, Chair of the Department of Interior Design, University of Florida
  • Altay Sendil, Design Researcher, IDEO
  • Jason Severs, Principal Designer, frog design
  • Susan Winchip, Professor of Interior and Environmental Design, Illinois State University
  • Matt Zabel, Human Factors and Design Research Manager, Brooks Stevens

We heard from people in academia and people in consulting practices, and we learned about culture, education, methodology, a day-in-the-life of a professional design researcher, quantitative approaches, and a lot more.

I gave a plenary address that built on Practicing Noticing Stuff and Telling Stories. The bulk of the talk was different examples of cultural norms and/or design requirements revealed through observations and photographs. Some of those pictures have appeared on this All This ChittahChattah. In a great bit of small-worldness, one of the students in attendance was the very person who had explained (in a previous blog post here) just what was going on in one of my Hong Kong pictures.

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Steve talks about poo

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About

I also ran an in-depth workshop on interviewing techniques. In our training work, we’re often using this same material in professional settings where our clients have a little or a lot of experience in using interviewing and observation as a method for gathering insights so it made for a point of contrast to have the discussion with people who are in student mode and who have had very few applied experiences with design research. I’m appreciative of these opportunities to teach a range of people with different skills levels and backgrounds as I think it keeps the material sharp and our approach always fresh.

A smattering of other conference images:
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Questions, answers, and dialog

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The Incredible Jason Severs

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DAK

It was a great event, a good group, well organized, and good interactions. There’s a rumor that the talks may be podcast eventually. I’ll update this post if that happens. Meanwhile, you can see more photos from the weekend here.



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Monday April 21st 2008, 9:40 pm by Steve Portigal


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Hold Everything
Monday April 21st 2008, 1:55 pm by Dan Soltzberg

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Ice Cream Cone Holder, Ben & Jerry’s, San Jose, CA

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Plates on Bumper, Taco Truck, San Francisco, CA

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Toilet and Sapporo Can, Bar, location unknown



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Products with (fake) benefits
Monday April 21st 2008, 12:05 pm by Steve Portigal

Years ago on the Simpsons, the family home is destroyed by fire. An insurance agent appears on the scene and the following exchange ensues…

Agent: Any valuables in the house?
Homer: Well, the Picasso, my collection of classic cars…
Agent: Sorry, this policy only covers actual losses, not made-up stuff.
Homer: [miffed] Well that’s just great!

I had a similar reaction when I saw the recent newspaper advertisements for
SOYJOY Nutrition Bars

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The details:
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The Soyjoy site is thick with links to scientific articles that explain the role of soy in disease prevention and the like, but the site (as does the ad) leads with these much softer and (I believe) unreal benefits. But how appealing it is to imagine that eating some product would increase your optimism? Indeed, in preparing this post I had to think for a minute (and look on their site to check myself) about whether or not it is or could be true.

We don’t expect that Red Bull will really give us wings, other than metaphorically. Here Soyjoy is making literal promises, though, as they describe how we, the eater, will feel. Even if we decide intellectually that it’s just advertising, what is the power of association they’ve created, without having to deliver? Where does our culture (and our legal system) draw the line about what claims must be provably true and what claims are so speculative that there is no expectation of belief?



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Sunday April 20th 2008, 9:33 pm by Steve Portigal
  • The NYT reports that the use of the term “My” to preface various websites/URLs/online features is significantly on the rise. But I thought this happened 10 years ago, when My Yahoo et. al appeared.


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Postcards from the road: PHX to PDX
Sunday April 20th 2008, 11:35 am by Steve Portigal

It’s been a busy-yet-fun few days on the road, from giving a plenary presentation and workshop at ASU’s Design Research Symposium (more to come, whenever I get my pictures - Hi, Greg!), to meetings, dinner with colleagues, and helping a client synthesize fieldwork data from China and Russia into product concepts. Here are some images I captured along the way:

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Font problems @ Sky Harbor Airport, April, 2008

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No carry-on tires, Sky Harbor Airport, April, 2008

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Well, Tempe, AZ, April, 2008

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Pay Here, Tempe, AZ, April, 2008

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Fear God, Tempe, AZ, April, 2008

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Disengaged Citrus, Tempe, AZ, April, 2008

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Life imitates The Simpsons, Tempe, AZ, April, 2008

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Busy license plate, Tempe, AZ, April, 2008

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Crepes To Go, Portland, OR, April, 2008

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Font Era #1, Portland, OR, April, 2008

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Font Era #2, Portland, OR, April, 2008

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Dog Paintings, Portland, OR, April, 2008

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Sign upon sign, Portland, OR, April, 2008

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Lift party, Portland, OR, April, 2008



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Friday April 18th 2008, 9:40 pm by Steve Portigal


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The Google cliche
Friday April 18th 2008, 1:07 pm by Steve Portigal

It used to be that you could take notice at the outset of a poor essay or speech when it began with the dictionary definition for the central topic. The Simpsons referenced this at least once

Homer: “What is a wedding? Websters defines it as a process of removing weeds from ones garden.”

But now lazy bloggers and NPR journalists are pretending to channel the zeitgeist by using the number of Google hits for their term as a proxy for cultural relevance. When the numbers are over 1,000,000, how meaningful is this? It’s simply a cheap cliche.

Full disclosure: I’ve probably done both of these and will probably do them both again. In the interest of always trying to tell better stories, I will attempt not to, however.



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The Tat That Brings Kids Back!
Friday April 18th 2008, 11:43 am by Steve Portigal

Safety Tat is a product based on the parental practice of writing a phone number inside a diaper or on a backpack.

It can happen anywhere—at an amusement park, zoo, school field trip, or even your local shopping mall. Your attention shifts for a moment, and suddenly your child or loved one has wandered out of sight.

So put the odds in your favor for a safe return, with SafetyTat. Designed by a graphics professional and Mom of three kids, SafetyTat is a fun and colorful kids temporary safety tattoo that’s uniquely personalized with your cell phone number.

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See also Forehead Advertising.

Thanks, CPT!



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Loss of context
Friday April 18th 2008, 8:01 am by Steve Portigal

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From What I’ve Learned: Vint Cerf (”creator of the Internet”) in the latest Esquire magazine (italics mine)

There was a first “Oh, no!” moment. That was the first time I saw spam pop up. It could have been as early as ‘79. A digital-equipment corporation sent a note around announcing a job opening, and we all blew up, saying, This is not for advertising! This is for serious work!

(Update: link to article here)

It’s not A digital-equipment corporation (and really, who speaks like that?) It’s Digital Equipment Corporation, aka DEC, aka Digital.

One letter changes the details of the story somewhat (I suppose it’s not crucial to know who sent this first spam), enough to make it clear that the copy editor had no context about the era in technology and business that Cerf was talking about.

I’m reminded of the challenges with interviews transcribed using an overseas service:

Male: It keeps searching and then it is–

Female: So what did it come up with?

Male: Well, I did come up with tickets.

Female: Get out, you are kidding me. I should go, where is this at? In Denver?

Male: Denver, yeah. In the Betsey Center.

Female: Okay, well try and find me some tickets in Tampa.

I’m pretty sure the Betsey Center is actually The Pepsi Center.



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ChittahChattah Quickies
Thursday April 17th 2008, 9:39 pm by Steve Portigal


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ChittahChattah Quickies
Sunday April 13th 2008, 9:36 pm by Steve Portigal


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ChittahChattah Quickies
Friday April 11th 2008, 9:37 pm by Steve Portigal


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Do This Don’