Just take a few moments to relive an amazing old-school computer game – Mario Kart- now re-programmed in a web-version using JavaScript.
The game uses the canvas element to do most of the rendering and should work in both FF2, FF3, Opera(9.27 and beta) and Safari 3.1.1. There are a few glitches in Safari in the kart sprites, but other than that it should be playable. It’s not tested fir IE support yet, though..
I’m currently reading a book by Rolf Jensen, called “Dream Society”. In this book Rolf Jensen tries to define the future society of the western world. In the past we’ve been hunters and collectors, we’ve been through the agriculture and industrial societies. Many would agree that we at the moment are living in the information society. Rolf Jensen though, is stating that we are entering the “Dream Society” or the experience economy as it is also called.
Rolf is definitely into something here – and why shouldn’t he be – he’s one of the leading futurologists. In my opinion the dream society is not only in the beginning state. We are living it.
You can define the dream society as a society, where we’re not only buying products, we are buying stories and dreams. We want a good story to accomplish the product we’re buying. That can either be the wine where you “know” who the farmer is, a product styled by yourself or any other story attached to a product. For the same reason individualism is becoming more and more relevant in product design. Many of the “old” brands is learning this the hard way. People are no longer satisfied with a pair of jeans or shoes that everybody else is wearing. They want a story attached to it. Nike, Burton and other companies has taken this into consideration and made it possible for their consumers to style their own products and thereby attaching a story to the shoes they are wearing or the snowboard they are riding.
So why am I writing this. I’m doing it to open your eyes for the new possibilities and to get on the train before it’s left the station. I would also like to recommend this book to everybody who’s interested in design and branding.
On my recent vacation in Egypt I saw this ATM. I needed money, but I still walked around for almost an hour to find a bank that I felt looked reasonably safe and trustworthy.
A bank with an armed guard outside gave me more confidence that I wouldn’t get cheated than with the ATM shown in the picture.
How does this translate into design? First of all, the company producing the ATM has absolutely no understanding of the problems and challenges their client, the bank, has. And the bank has no understanding of their client, the person walking up to an ATM.
Just few days of channel service analysis might have saved all 3 parties (manufacturer, bank and client) from embarrasment, distrust and annoyance.
If a designer had been involved in the process, the manufacturer could have found a better solution for the banks challenges, the clients would still feel confident about the banks services and the bank would make more money.
Who should now feel cheated?
If you ever bump into the hard-pedalling ‘Espressoman’ in central Copenhagen — or if he bumps into you (scary thought) — try his divine espressos or lattes. You won’t be disappointed. Waiting for my coffee and staring at his super-heavyweight espresso-bike, I asked him what would make life easier for a biking barista. I was sure he’d opt for some lightweight gear, but no. Stable weather however, providing temperature stability to his sensible gas-driven espresso machine, was all he needed. A humble wish, but knowing the weather in DK, I guess this would take some help from above. Anyways, 10 out of 10 for the coffee. And the same for the enterprising set-up which provided me with a true service value moment.
Get behind the making of the new PRO TEC catalogue in this video. After one day and some late hours behind Photoshop we ended up with 4 pictures. Thanks to the client PRO TEC windows. The people in the windows are Fatih, Martin and Carina. Erik Zappon behind the lens – beats for every second by humanbeatbox. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C06NsnW75G4
What is good communication? Saying everything in six words, only? It’s easy, some people say.
What about using no words at all? Like Sony, in their Foam city ad. No words and still, after just one look, or rather listen-through, I recall the ad (and brand) by the subtle soundtrack. Well done!