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2010-10-03T11:45:00.001+02:00

I'd like to watch this, it comes highly recommended and looks really interesting when you see things like this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7929938/Foxconn-faces-fresh...

Kids are the best design-thinkers

2010-10-01T18:07:00.001+02:00

Tim Brown's TED talk was all about how play is a key ingredient for creativity to flourish. One of the great ways he demonstrated this was by asking the audience to draw a 30 second sketch of the person next to them. Of course everybody was embarrassed by their efforts, at how ugly or strange they made their neighbor look. The point being that if you do this experiment with kids, they don't feel the slightest embarrassment. They don't have the pre-conceptions or societal constructs that we become constrained by as we get older. They have no fear of failure.

The video clip above is from a recent documentary on the BBC - one of the 'Imagine' series with Alan Yentob. This episode - 'Art is Child's Play' was all about how artists - the creative purists of society, strive to maintain a child-like innocence in their art. I forget the name of the artist (can't find the full vid online), but one of them was talking about how being true to your art, especially in today's world, is a case of trying to shut your ears to all the voices that are telling you to do something different, that it won't sell, that you're stealing ideas, that you should do what your client likes...

I had another reason to think about this today. My wife told me how Isaac (5) had commented on a workman breaking up the pavement. I guess he'd seen a pneumatic drill on Bob the Builder, so he asked why the guy didn't use 'a drill thing' to make it quicker. My wife said it might be because those things are so noisy that they don't really use them any more (you don't seem to see them in Holland where we live, but I think that's more likely because the streets are mostly un-mortared bricks lying on sand). So Isaac thought, and then asked why they don't use some sort of thing to stop them being so noisy, like a tent. On the face of it, that sounds kind of stupid, and not the kind of suggestion that 'grown-ups' would make. But why not? Even if the tent idea doesn't end up being feasible, there are probably other spin-off ideas that could end up reducing noise pollution from building sites. I'm sure there are inventions waiting to happen there. The most entrepreneurial thing he said though, which I am sure would impress Peter Jones, was about potential names for this thing (I was discussing it with him at this point). He didn't like the idea of calling it a 'Pneumatic drill sound tent' or similar because it was too narrow an application (not his words). He thought it should have a more generic name, so that it could be applied to other noise reduction problems. I'm obviously biased, but that seems pretty smart to me. Did I mention he's 5? It must be my wife's genes...

So a huge part of design, or 'design-thinking' - which is debated to much at the moment, is bringing a creative, open-minded and questioning approach to business or societal problems. I don't think it means that designers should think they can suddenly solve all business problems (a great article on Core77 about this and the 'T-shaped designer'), but it does mean bringing something that traditional business strategists might not have - the ability to ask the dumb questions, to make the crazy suggestions which might lead to something big. Richard Saul Wurman was talking at the 'Why Design Now' conference today (I was watching the live stream). He says rather than selling knowledge, he sells ignorance. No-one knows everything, every problem is different. The best quality to have is an acceptance that you are ignorant, and able to lay fresh eyes on the problem space. We grown-ups like to think we know a lot, but maybe we'd be better off focusing on how little we know.

When we are no longer children, we are already dead. - Brancusi

Testing

2010-10-01T18:05:00.001+02:00

New to this posterous game.

Design-Driven Innovation

2010-09-29T20:30:00.001+02:00

How to create innovations that customers do not expect, but that they eventually love? How to create products and services, that are so distinct from those that dominate the market and so inevitable that make people passionate?

Design-Driven Innovation unveils how leaders such as Apple, Nintendo, Alessi, Whole Foods Market build an unbeatable and sustainable competitive advantage through innovations that do not come from the market but that create new markets. These leaders compete through products and services that have a radical new meaning: those that convey a completely new reason for customers to buy them. The cases, data and stories in the book show how to create this new vision and how to successfully propose it to customers. A strategy and a process that leverage the rich and multifaceted network of a firm outsiders, looking beyond customers to those "interpreters"– such as scientists, customers, suppliers, intermediaries, designers, artists - who deeply understand and shape the markets they work in.

via designdriveninnovation.com

Another book for my christmas list. Actually I don't have a christmas list, which is why I don't end up getting what I want. No offense (if my ludicrous chance someone I know reads this), but I like books on design, innovation, photography and stuff, not socks or shower gel.

A better approach to Terms & conditions?

2010-09-29T19:52:00.001+02:00

Terms & conditions are the most ridiculous thing. Every now and again my iPhone asks me to accept a new set of T&C's before i download a free app - which in itself seems ludicrous. I happened to notice the last time that I was viewing page 1 of 59. 59 pages of legal garbage. Imagine how long the team of people (who charge their time by the minute on chess clocks) took to draw this up and get it approved. I wonder how many people actually reads even the first line. I wonder how many read past the first page.

I really don't know much about legal issues, but in my limited experience legal judgements seem to usually come down to what is 'reasonable'. I'm sure there have been cases where people have technically been in breach of the T&C's, but the legal verdict was sympathetic to the fact that people could never reasonably be expected to have read all the small-print anyway. If that is the case, then its pretty ridiculous that everyone has to go through this rigmarole of supposedly legally accepting a contract which they've got no knowledge or understanding of. Shouldn't it be a legal requirement that you must have read and understood everything in order for it to be legally binding? I seem to remember on the PS3 they make an attempt to ensure that happens - you have to scroll to the bottom of the text before you can click 'Accept', having not read a word of it of course.

Everyone does it, its just the way it is. The exceptions are when we're buying a house or signing an employment contract, but in those cases the implications are much closer to 'home' and we usually have an expert helping us understand the salient points. For the rest of the legal stuff we accept every day, we just hope it never comes back to bite us - but it obviously does sometimes. Does anyone know what my legal rights are if Flickr decides it can't afford to keep all my photos any more? No doubt their T&Cs completely absolve them from any legal recourse if things go pear-shaped. Anyway, that's not a great example, and Flickr is probably one of the best example of a service that respects copyright issues for ordinary people through Creative Commons etc.

Anyway, with the whole T&C's thing in general, there must be a better way - at least of informing people a little bit better. If you are going to read an article, its nice to scan an abstract first. I'm sure its not just a lack of loving attention that makes T&C's so ugly and uninviting - it's not in the interests of the legal dudes to make it easier to understand, because more people would have a 'WTF?!' moment and decide not to accept them! But if there was a kind of 'Key points' or summary approach it would be much nicer from a brand > customer relationship point of view. Why not start with something like 'You own all the content, but if it gets deleted by accident you can't sue us, sorry.', followed by a 'Read more about content ownership' link.

From a (UX) design point of view, T&C's is not something that designers think a lot about. It's probably last on the list, and is tedious and very uninteresting. But, it is pretty important and has a large ethical aspect to it. If people understood more clearly what they were accepting, they might challenge them more - a good thing!

Creativity and partnerships

2010-09-23T22:18:00.001+02:00

The human mind depends on narrative, characters, and concrete action, while the idea of interdependence easily dissolves into abstraction.

http://www.slate.com/id/2267004/pagenum/all/

Crack-stop princess

2010-08-25T17:55:00.000+02:00

Isaac just informed me his new name is 'mental radiator'. Rosa followed up with her new moniker 'crack-stop princess'.

Swimming

2010-07-25T17:54:00.000+02:00

First swim at the pool, and a quote of the day to rival isaac's midget diss: Rosa: "hmm nice swimming mummy, but yer boobs are falling out."

She is 3. What have we created.

Thriller

2010-07-24T17:53:00.000+02:00

The start of Michael jackson's thriller... Rosa: 'aah, a wolf playing the drums'.

Babies and dollies

2010-07-16T17:52:00.000+02:00

What do you like best, babies or dollies Rosa?
Rosa: they're the same

Delete my dinner

2010-06-22T17:49:00.000+02:00

Isaac: mummy, delete my dinner.

That really says it all, he would if he could.

Robin hood

2010-06-05T17:45:00.000+02:00

Rosa's song: "robin hood, robin hood, pooing in the cellar"

Cool grandad

2010-05-05T17:43:00.000+02:00

Rosa to grandad: you're pretty. And quite cool.

Pussycat

2010-04-30T17:38:00.000+02:00

Rosa: Daddy, I'm gonna stroke you like a pussycat after lunch.

Boys

2010-04-05T17:38:00.000+02:00

Rosa [plaintive tone] Daddy I want to play in the sandpit, but there's boys in it

Exasperated

2010-04-05T17:37:00.000+02:00

Isaac [exasperated tone]: why is everybody Dutch??!

Banged my ear on a shell

2010-04-02T17:36:00.000+02:00

Isaac was saying 'OW' in that 'I'm going to say this louder until someone responds. When clare finally responded it turned out he'd fallen and banged his ear on a shell. Now that is a weird accident.

Princesses

2010-04-02T17:34:00.000+02:00

I said to Isaac that it might be a baby boy arriving soon. He said 'i hope so cos I don't want two of them messing about with princesses do i'

Baby grown-ups

2010-03-20T17:34:00.000+01:00

In a shop, I saw a midget walk past. I was praying Isaac didn't see and cause embarassment. "Daddy I saw a baby grownup." he yelled, running through the shop. I made it worse by laughing a lot.

You're a duck

2010-03-13T17:33:00.000+01:00

I just used Isaac's globe and the light in his room to explain day and night. He seemed to pretty much understand it. I asked Rosa if she understood. Her response: "You're a duck."

Pregnant wife speak

2010-03-13T17:30:00.000+01:00

I didn't plan it till afterwards

Weird excuse

2010-02-21T20:18:00.001+01:00

Isaac just came down stairs when he was supposed to be in bed. He walked in and Clare said 'what are you doing down here'. 'I can't stop smiling', he said.

Midnight wee

2010-02-15T02:00:00.002+01:00

I'd been out playing squash, so I didn't see the kids before bed. When I got home, Clare went out. Then I forgot to put Rosa on the loo, so when I went up she'd wet the bed. She can't quite make it through till midnight, never mind the next morning. She's totally unconcerned about this, so probably good not to make a big deal about it.

Anyway, I put her on the loo in her totally out of it slumber state. She sat there and lolled her head, eventually looking at me through bleary eyes in the bright bathroom light. 'My Daddy wears that cardigan', she said. 'I am your Daddy', I said. I could have asked her why she wasn't more concerned that there was a strange man putting her on the loo in the middle of the night dressed in her Daddy's 'cardigan' - its a rather cool tracksuit top actually. 'Oh yeah' she said, realising it was me - she was still about 75% asleep. She lolled over again, and then said 'Daddy you're here' with a blissful smile. That's about as good as it gets as a Dad I think. She then topped it off by waking up to about 50% and proudly announcing that she'd eaten all of her dinner, and her lunch.

Coffee apple

2010-01-29T09:52:00.002+01:00

Scruffy hair pt 2

2010-01-19T13:14:00.002+01:00

Rosa: Look at you Daddy, with your silly scruffy hair sticking out of your head.

Slap 'for real'

2010-01-11T17:17:00.002+01:00

Old news, but has to be recorded. Over xmas we stayed with Lucy and Noah. Noah is 5. At one point (well, most of the time) Isaac and Noah were fighting. Rosa said something like 'Noah is hurting Ikey isnt he'. 'Yes he is a bit, I replied.' 'Shall I slap him?' said Rosa? I laughed, and then Rosa jumped off her chair and said 'I'm gonna slap him, FOR REAL' before dashing across the room, somersaulting over the sofa head first and then piling into Noah. GIRL POWER! I think I said that to her actually, occasionally she uses it (incorrectly) in sentences.

Comic timing

2010-01-10T08:17:00.001+01:00

They were both refusing to eat their dinner as usual. I finally got cross and said 'you're going to have to grow up, when the baby arrives there will not be time to feed you two like babies!!! You'll have to do it yourselves. Isaac looked at me and burst into tears. I immediately felt bad and hoped that they weren't going to get worried that the new baby would change everything. 'what's wrong Ikey?!' we both asked. There was a big pause while he caught his breath from the big sobs..... 'i bit my tongue' he wailed.

Baby predictions

2009-12-31T22:21:00.001+01:00

Jamie: 4
Clare: 3
Rich: 2
Simon: 2 with current wife
Liz: 2

Bizarre Rosa

2009-12-25T21:51:00.001+01:00

Eating her crumpet dinner, Rosa suddenly said 'exercise dinner' and proceeded to try and pass her plate behind her back. WHAT?! Later she continued this theme by seeing a boat and saying 'exercise boat'. It was unclear what the relevance was with the boat one.

Living at home forever

2009-12-17T18:37:00.001+01:00

Isaac: Mummy, when I grow up and have my own children will I still live here with you?
Clare: well you'll probably want to live somewhere else then.
Isaac: [bursts into tears] I want to stay here for ever!!!

We'll show you this in 15 years Isaac...

Scruffy hair

2009-11-26T19:01:00.001+01:00

Jamie: it's a really good tiger isn't it Rosa, even the hair. (about her painting)
Rosa: what that scruffy hair, like yours? Isaac & rosa: Hahahahahahaha

My bum is a bit lopsided

2009-11-25T19:53:00.002+01:00

"My bum is a bit lopsided" - Unrelated to anything, just Isaac's wacky thoughts.

"Where do your eyes go?" - meaning where does the back of your eyes connect to!

"I'm pleased I had an injection daddy, I like having injections." - after having his flu jab

Isaac: "Do magic paintbrushes exist daddy?"
Jamie: "No, it would be good though wouldn't it, you could paint all the toys you wanted and they'd be real!"
Isaac: "Yeah but you'd have to help me, otherwise I'd paint a scribble and it would be real."

Twinky

2009-11-13T19:32:00.001+01:00

Rosa: ikey look at my twinky
Isaac: your twinky looks like a teeny tiny bum bum

Fighting

2009-10-27T21:54:00.001+01:00

Jamie: so you liked fighting with Adam then Isaac?
Isaac: yes!
Jamie: did you as well Rosa?
Rosa: No, cos pink is my best colour.

Master chef

2009-10-25T22:49:00.001+01:00

Isaac went nuts when I got him out of the bath. He was very tired and angry and when I told him to get on with it and put his pj's on he screamed 'you can Never watch master chef!!!'. ouch, he knows how to hit where it hurts.

Brains

2009-10-03T18:50:00.002+02:00

Isaac: Without our brains we can't think.
Jamie: Clever, how did you know that.
Isaac: No-one told me, I just know it. My brains are a little bit bigger than yours Daddy. I think a little bit bigger than you do.

Dinner shenanigans

2009-10-03T18:45:00.001+02:00

Get down (from the table) JB style

Picked the apples

2009-10-03T18:37:00.001+02:00

Made the pie

2009-09-17T19:12:00.001+02:00

Cheese bites

2009-09-05T14:02:00.001+02:00

My daughter Loves cheese

2009-09-05T14:01:00.001+02:00

Propulsion

2009-08-20T09:29:00.001+02:00

I was taking Isaac to school this morning on the bike, and he cleverly observed: "We just use legs instead of petrol don't we." Seemed like a clever observation for a youngun! We've discussed that cars use petrol, but he made the parallel with leg propulsion himself.

Fart

2009-07-17T23:41:00.001+02:00

Jamie: [FART]. That was Mummy.
Isaac: No it wasn't, you do bigger farts than Mummy.

Jam

2009-06-13T13:11:00.001+02:00

Monkeys and shakespeare

2009-06-13T13:10:00.001+02:00

Rosa (2) by total fluke, just wrote 'table' with magnetic letters!

Yesterday in the garden centre

2009-05-31T08:40:00.002+02:00

Isaac: Daddy, look - mussels!
Jamie: Oh, wow - how did you know they were mussels?
Isaac: Well, they certainly look like mussels.
Jamie: That's clever, how did you know that?
Isaac: [ponders] Hmmm, I don't really know.

Clare had told him moments before that they were mussels.

Monkeys and shakespeare

2009-05-19T18:23:00.001+02:00

Rosa (2) by total fluke, just wrote 'table' with magnetic letters!

The edge

2009-04-24T11:38:00.001+02:00

Hogsback

2009-04-24T11:35:00.001+02:00

Long st, cape town

2009-04-13T18:16:00.001+02:00

Part 1 of journey!

2009-04-11T09:33:00.001+02:00

Deck

2009-04-05T18:41:00.001+02:00

Knackered

Lots of stones

2009-03-27T19:23:00.001+01:00

Must move

Spelling practice

2009-03-26T19:30:00.001+01:00

Stag boob creature

2009-03-20T20:59:00.001+01:00

Relief sculpture in our local boozer

Teamwork pt 3

2009-03-09T08:04:00.001+01:00

Teamwork pt 2

2009-03-09T08:00:00.001+01:00

Teamwork pt 1

2009-03-09T07:56:00.001+01:00

Fine dining

2009-03-07T13:20:00.001+01:00

The next charlotte church

2009-03-01T10:54:00.001+01:00

Being a parent

2009-02-28T18:14:00.000+01:00

If you're not one, enjoy it.

Swedish Noddy!

2009-02-28T18:12:00.001+01:00

Swedish Noddy!

2009-02-27T07:53:00.000+01:00

An evening snack

2009-02-23T20:58:00.001+01:00

9pm. Rosa here as well.

Bikers

2009-02-22T12:43:00.001+01:00

isaac enjoyed crashing into other people a lot. Rosa had a brief go and immediately headed for the exit. Weirdly the exit gap was bigger than the bike.

Wall-E !

2009-02-21T14:00:00.001+01:00

Sushi lunch

2009-02-21T13:57:00.001+01:00

Light be lemon

2009-02-17T08:46:00.001+01:00

Whatever that means

Treacle sponge

2009-02-08T20:03:00.001+01:00

Winter clothes!

2009-02-08T12:12:00.001+01:00

Ba ba ba aaah

2009-02-08T12:11:00.001+01:00

Isaac's first sleepover

2009-02-07T12:03:00.003+01:00

Isaac stayed over at a friends house last night, when we got up this morning at 7am, me having gone to bed at 1am:

Jamie: Rosa do you want to watch Jungle Book?
Rosa: No, its scary.
Jamie: Do you want to watch Peter Pan?
Rosa: No I dont want to watch nuffing, where's all my friends gone?

Now we're off in to town to buy Clare's birthday present, whatever that may turn out to be...

Growing up!

2009-02-07T11:37:00.001+01:00

High heels and a bra

Morning telly

2009-01-30T07:58:00.001+01:00

Teletubbies is ok

2009-01-26T22:23:00.002+01:00

Rosa: Mummy I want to watch TV.
Clare: No not now Rosa, we've got friends here now.
Rosa: But I want to watch Teletubbies, that will be ok.

I guess you had to have seen her face to realise how cute that little episode was.

Oliebollen!

2009-01-10T15:47:00.002+01:00

Ro-Ro

2008-12-27T23:53:00.002+01:00

Grandma: Rudolph the rednosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw him, you would even...
Rosa: No, don't do that.

[Rosa has some sort of weird aversion to people singing songs. Except for certain songs at certain times. teddy bears picnic usually goes down well.]

Dressing gowns

2008-12-01T08:11:00.001+01:00

By Granny

Gym dinner

2008-11-30T18:19:00.001+01:00

Jigsaw!

2008-11-30T11:57:00.001+01:00

Love

2008-11-29T22:07:00.002+01:00

Jamie: "I love you Rosa."
Rosa: "I love you Daddy, and I love Grandad, and I love Granny, and I love egg."

2008-11-29T15:54:00.001+01:00

2008-11-29T15:37:00.001+01:00

2008-11-29T15:36:00.001+01:00

2008-11-27T20:10:00.001+01:00

Big

2008-11-27T20:06:00.001+01:00

Xmas tree

Supermarket Scoot!

2008-11-22T18:34:00.000+01:00

Rosa's 2nd birthday

2008-11-19T08:02:00.001+01:00

Doll's house!

Quotes

2008-11-17T08:16:00.001+01:00

Rosa: Sinterklaas is too loud, maybe go home.

Isaac: Rosa doesn't get it does she Daddy. Neither do I.

Edward lego hands

2008-11-09T23:11:00.001+01:00

Beach cuddle

2008-11-08T11:29:00.001+01:00

Bye bye train

2008-11-04T09:01:00.001+01:00

I made bread

2008-11-02T00:34:00.001+01:00

Yummy

Indian on ballabike!

2008-10-27T20:59:00.001+01:00

I bought a trumpet!

2008-10-26T17:25:00.001+01:00

It sounds bad

2008-10-26T14:57:00.001+01:00

2008-10-26T14:54:00.001+01:00

Crayons

2008-10-26T14:52:00.001+01:00

Cute hat

2008-10-25T14:44:00.001+02:00

Dream

2008-10-25T08:39:00.003+02:00

Isaac: Daddy, I had a clever dream
Jamie: Oh, what was it about?
Isaac: It was about myself!