Shapesifter

My (super low-budget) emergency triangle signage at the...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:32:14 +0200

My (super low-budget) emergency triangle signage at the 2009 Car Art festival in Delft. Custom typeface by Lotte Nijman.

Project backpocket Sketches and prototype (paper, rubber band...

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:32:12 +0200

Project backpocket

Sketches and prototype (paper, rubber band and staples) for a minimal wallet I’m working on intermittently. I’m sick of my thick wallet, so I’m aiming to make somthing that is highly usable, but stays as close in dimensions to a stack of bank cards and bills.

The goal: a wallet I can put in my backpocket and not notice it’s there.

C.V. experiment I thought I’d try something different from...

Fri, 08 May 2009 14:59:00 +0200

C.V. experiment

I thought I’d try something different from the standard A4 with a dull summary of positions.

Four timelines represent the most important parts of my life so far: Work, Education, Activism and Fun. The years get wider towards the present as those say more about who I am now than when I just started university.

PDF in English or Dutch.

A seasonal project I’m working on :) See...

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:18:22 +0200

A seasonal project I’m working on :)

See www.eastr-ecc.org!

Of ebooks, iPods and weblogs

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:55:00 +0100

The web has been abuzz the last few weeks with Amazon’s release of the new Kindle 2 and – to a lesser extent – with its would be competitors like the Plastic Logic reader.

In the printed press, this saturday’s The Economist asked “Is this the iPod moment?”

I don’t think so. Not quite yet. Steve Jobs famously dismissed the notion of an ebook reader as hopeless because “people just don’t read anymore.” He may be right when talkin about books, but how about other written content? I follow a bucketload of blogs and other news-feeds through RSS, I subscribe to a daily newspaper and when I take the train to work each day, I pick up a free copy of Metro. I read my ass off, and many do so with me.

But it seems to me the keyword here is convenience. The value in a printed paper is that it’s quick, skimmable, guaranteed up-to-date, and reads comfortably anytime, anywhere. My RSS feeds are also quick, skimmable and guaranteed up-to-date, but my laptop is hardly comfortable to read long articles on – let alone anytime, anywhere.

An epaper device could deliver this beautifully. But this needs a move away from a focus on books. Books I get for my birthday. Books go into my well-filled bookcase to impress friends and family when they visit. Books have lasting value for me, which justifies printing them on dead trees.

Magazines, papers and blog posts don’t have that same value, but I would love to be able to mix and match those different sources into a sort of personal daily paper to take into the train with me. With local news from my trusted Dutch daily, science news from The Guardian, technology and business from The Economist, design articles from selected blogs and so on.

I’d pay for that. I’d pay for the device, and I’d pay for (partial) subscriptions to news and analysis. I think many would do so with me. That would make an ‘iPod moment’.

So Amazon, forget the books. Plastic Logic, make a smaller, consumer-version of your reader; I’m not gonna lug a letter-sized device around with me all the time.

And Steve, help me out here?

On reading and e-books

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:21:43 +0100

On reading and e-books:

John Siracusa writes in depth about why e-books aren’t working, but why they might someday soon. A good read, not in the least as a broader story about new technology adoption and product/service design.

Subject to stagnation

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:13:35 +0100

I’m currently reading Subject to Change, the book from Adaptive path. Good Reading. It doesn’t do wonders for your faith in certain politicians, though.

Here in the Netherlands, the government is seriously botching the introduction of RFID public transport passes, while the entire country hates the very idea. Our ‘old’ paper system has tons of advantages over the new contraption. At the same time, one of our ministers is hell-bent on getting the train system to work towards a no-timetable system where there would just be a train ‘every 10 minutes or so’.

That last idea may have some merit, and it could actually be an example of setting an experiential goal and transforming your organisation to deliver it. But most train-travellers are commuters, taking the same train every day. I’m sure there’s a lot more to be gained by making that train ride better in stead of focussing on what trains you can take.

(news links in Dutch, sorry)

Liquid Wood.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:02:33 +0100

Liquid Wood.:

“Mixing lignin with natural fibres and some natural additive produces a fibre composite that can be made into mouldings, plates or slabs on conventional plastics processing machines.”

Via delicious.

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:42:00 +0100

Via delicious.

Beautiful prison cages. These sportdomes for Dutch prisons from...

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:44:00 +0100

Beautiful prison cages.

These sportdomes for Dutch prisons from customr are stunning. Light and airy, they are not what you expect at a penitentiary.

Beauty as a signaling strategy

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:25:00 +0100

Beauty as a signaling strategy:

“Ordinary products are almost never beautiful. Austere products might be, but only when real effort is expended to make them that way.”

Playstation Chair The Ree chair doesn’t only look nice,...

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:19:46 +0100

Playstation Chair

The Ree chair doesn’t only look nice, the seat and back are made from 100% recycled Playstation 2 plastic. Now that’s just plain cool. Found via the SolidWorks podcast, who have an interview up with the designer, Christopher Pett from Pli Design.

Nice Package! IKEA has always been good at frugal packaging....

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:01:00 +0100

Nice Package!

IKEA has always been good at frugal packaging. They control every aspect of their products, and they take every opportunity to reduce cost. In the IVAR shelving unit I bought today, the plugs that hold op the shelves are packaged inside those shelves. You don’t see the holes post-assembly and this way there’s no need for packaging at all. Nice!

Buying a vacuum cleaner should be easier

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:32:00 +0100

Buying a vacuum cleaner sucks. Why on Earth are there so many models? They really only do one thing and they spend most of their lives in a closet anyway. A different type of electronics store might make the process a whole lot less annoying…

I simply wanted one that’s cheap, does the job and has proven to be reliable. You know, a good one. But the store has dozens of them, and no less than 5 or so per price range.

Reminded of Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice, I’d rather go to a different kind of store: one with only one or two models per price range, plus maybe an utterly irrational ‘cool’ option just for the fun of it. The selection would be based on test by Consumer Reports and similar organisations and the expertise of the store. Clear infographics and other documentation in the store justifies the selection. A wiki-like website could give customers the opportunity to suggest other products or criteria.

You’d need less floor space, less stock and less time is wasted by employees going through all the 27 options with every customer. You might even build a community of costumers loyal to your store.

Plus it might prevent me from feeling I should have picked that other one…

ID pioneer on the brink of bankruptcy

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:15:00 +0100

ID pioneer on the brink of bankruptcy:

It’s sad to see Wedgwood, one of the founding fathers of Industrial Design, near total collapse – unable to keep up-to-date after its initial burst of innovation.

A Digg for design

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:26:00 +0100

A Digg for design:

Recently launched social news site undrln.com is a bit heavy on the webdesign/interactive side of things, but I think it has the potential to become a cool resource for product designers as well.

Royal Dutch Design FAIL The Dutch queen’s airplane – our...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:30:00 +0100

Royal Dutch Design FAIL

The Dutch queen’s airplane – our ‘Airforce 1’ if you will – is a much-praised Fokker model, as you would expect from a county that bills itself as a leading design nation.

But that paint scheme…

Hello world

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:05:00 +0100

Hey there, my name is Bob van Vliet, a recent product design graduate from the Delft University of Technology (in the Netherlands). Although I have a fun first job, it’s rather different than university of course – so I decided I need a place to write about design-related things on my mind. A blog seemed like a good idea to force some coherence and order upon otherwise random thoughts.

And who knows, some of it may be interesting for the outside world ;-).

If you want to know more about me, check out my portfolio on Flickr, or the business stuff over at LinkedIn.