Friday, April 10, 2015

This Week in EID - Episode 49



We followed the new format for the weekly scheduling again.  I don’t think we are going to keep to this 100%, but it makes for a nice mix of topics.

For innovation Monday, I shared one of my favorite kinds of innovation – social entrepreneurship.  In this case, an example of affordable housing in LA that considers environmental design and user scenario modeling. Not just cost minimization, but probably minimizing costs anyway BECAUSE it is more effective.

Science Tuesday covered a way to increase our lifting strength without technology, simply by helping the user coordinate their muscle contractions more smoothly and efficiently.  And the “suit” isn’t one of those Alien movie robotic monstrosities, it is just cloth.

Our design topic for Monday was medical devices.  I revisited some medical errors that we have known about for years and marveled at how we are still facing them today.  When errors cause this much financial damage and heartache, you would think someone would have fixed them by now.

Then finally, I hope I provoked some real thought with my post on Amazon Dash.  If you haven’t heard about it yet, please read my post.  If you are considering getting one, DEFINITELY read my post first. The behavioral design effects are so subtle that they are insidious.  Black hat design at its best (worst).