Design insights. 10.12

Design: 

• Rethinking design and (dis)ability. Sara Hendren makes a convincing argument that we need to stop drawing a line between assistive technology and technology- because all technology is assistive. 
• Microsoft debuts an unusual hinge solution for it's latest laptop/tablet devices. 
• In counter-intuitive product news: Amazon has a physical data storage solution for all the information going into their cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS). It gets shipped back and forth via FedEx and has uses a Kindle as a "living" shipping label.

Camera Technology: 

• A new type of camera, formed from an array of smaller cameras (16 to start) to produce high quality images through computational assistance. It got a lot of press this week- this was the article we saw that had the most interesting coverage, with some images of the internals. 
• DJI (best known for high-end consumer drones) is expanding their product line by making standalone cameras - maybe in response to GoPro making it publicly known that they're working on drones. It's an odd but now common circularity of non-competitors turning into competitors as the market opportunities created by one company but enabled the technology of another are made clear.

Designing Space: 

• Pizza Hut's odd original architecture has more staying power than you might expect, albeit not in the hands of Pizza Hut. 

Energy: 

• Recycling is far from being a clear winner when it comes to knowing where to spend our money and efforts to fight climate change and improve the environment. Reducing air travel has a much bigger impact, with far fewer cumulative actions required. 
• Given how energy intensive animal products are on a per-calorie basis, it's an obvious candidate for the kind of reduction efforts that yield positive environmental impacts. Given how much cuisine all over the world is wedded to animal products, it's a huge behavioral challenge. Enter promising animal products without the animals company Impossible Foods- which just picked up $108 M from the Gates Foundation. 
• Looking at the limits of Lithium-ion batteries and energy density of various fuel sources. 
• Smith Electric Vehicles is on the verge of bankruptcy after $32 M from the U.S. Department of Energy. Maybe it's time for Tesla to try their hand at making trucks. 

More next week. 

Design Insights 10.05

Design: 

• Matte finishes are becoming more popular for car paint jobs. Will we be leaving the shiny aluminum / gloss plastic age of consumer electronics soon too?  
• Elegant shaving and beauty product startup Walker & Company raised a $24M investment round. According to investors, they've achieved remarkable sales results and customer retention, largely through word of mouth, in part because they are developing products for people of color that have largely been ignored by the big corporations in the consumer packaged goods space. 
• Tiny design studio Lapka was acquired by Airbnb. They were best known for beautiful, somewhat strange looking sensors (including ones for measuring radiation levels). While it seems like an unlikely acquisition, we think it might be one of the few "tech co acquires design firm" deals to really work out well in the end. The fact that Airbnb was founded by design school grads makes their odds of understanding how to integrate Lapka at least a bit better than the average. 
• Fairphone has been showing off it's latest product model. They make easy to upgrade/repair smartphones that with supply chain transparency and fair labor/sourcing practices. We think they're one of the most interesting and underrated consumer electronics companies around. 

Archiving: 

• Digital fabrication tools and imaging technologies help to preserve (albeit in another form) cultural works destroyed by war. 
• What is gained, lost and bargained for in our personal digital archives as we put our experiences online day after day. 

Solutions from Down the Supply Chain: 

• A slaughterhouse that comes to the pasture, instead of the animal being transported. 
• An unusual story of a business being purchased by a vendor who wasn't getting paid on time- they spotted an opportunity to use their experience to help a struggling business and keep a well-liked coffee shop alive in the community. Maybe not a typical B-school case study, but a good example of how a more human approach to business can yield positive outcomes for multiple parties. 

Big Business: 

• It looks like Amazon is fighting dirty, locking out Apple and Google from selling streaming TV products on their site. 

Design Insights 9.28

Design: 

• Many "smart home" technologies are a minefield for users in their relationships to each other and their living spaces. The technology piece is there, but much of what's been developed fails the social side and requires more technology literacy than the average person knows, or wants to know about. 
• Speaking of technology literacy, Buzzfeed nails the tech product review for the latest iPhone by (surprise) writing the review from the perspective and use cases of a real person. It presents the product in the context of our lives, not the other way around. It still covers the nitty gritty product differences, but in a way that shows why we should or shouldn't care. More of this please. 
• Formlabs unveiled their latest 3D printer this past week, the Form 2. It's a big step forward in the ease of use and reliability of desktop digital fabrication tools, and a raising of the bar on what user expectations for more affordable machines will be going forward. 
• Cloud based solid modeling software got a big boost this week, with OnShape announcing collecting $80M from investors. We have some mixed views on CAD modeling moving to cloud completely, but it's certainly a trend that finally has some real traction.

Roadmapping the Future: 

• Foreboding news, the first withdrawal from the "doomsday seed vault" has been made. 
• Quirky was supposed to be the future of inventing, pairing the wisdom of crowds with design, manufacturing + distribution know-how. After raising around $185M, they stumbled and finally filed for bankruptcy. What went wrong? Ben Einstein from BoltVC has a take on the matter, and there's a lot in it that we agree with. Well worth the read.
• Amazon, Apple, and others have been predicting a future where we talk to our devices more than tap or swipe them. Wired discusses the audio interface layer. The field of UI/UX, when used to describe how we engage with our little (and big) screens, is going to be especially shaken up by our devices shifting to audio input as the default instead of our fingers. Will English majors, storytellers and comedians have their tech moment, helping to build systems that celebrate the word instead of the pixel? 

Machines for Moving: 

• It's not the first cargo scooter design by any means, but with the rise of same-day delivery and on demand errands, vehicles like the Trefor Tripl could be a common sight on city streets in the near future. 
• Clearpath Robotics is showing off their latest robot, this time for warehouse applications (many of their previous machines have been for off-road contexts). The need for warehousing / fulfillment solutions that reduce labor are only going up as e-commerce gets wider and deeper, and it's drawing legitimate competitors to pioneers like Kiva Systems. Notably, Harvest Automation, which had been focused on ag-tech robotics has added warehouse robotics and seems to be focusing marketing efforts on moving packages instead of plants. Inevitably this competition will drive down costs- we don't think it will be long before similar machines are stocking shelves at your local big box retailers too. 

Bias and Brains: 

• Tips on how to get more diversity on your team when hiring.