Frameworks for Inquiry @frameworksforinquiry - Tumblr Blog

"If computers are everywhere, they better stay out of the way, and that means designing them so that the people being shared by the computers remain serene and in control."

THE COMING AGE OF CALM TECHNOLOGY

#calm technology

Aldo Van Eyck’s Playgrounds (1947 – 1978)

#Aldo Van Eyck #Design #urban design

Super lucky to have Rama Gheerawo, author of Creative Leadership, in class with us (virtually) today. We talked about the importance of empathy, clarity, and creativity in leadership — and how to advocate for these values in a world that often tells us we need to move fast and lead through a false-sense of dominance. We laughed a lot, and I left feeling calm, confident, and inspired.

Another amazing guest in Doug Powell's Design Leadership course here at WashU, with another great summary from my classmate Matt.

#UX Design #Rama Gheerawo #Design

Today in education.

TA’ing for Laurel Schwulst’s Visual Principles for the Screen course.

#MDes #whole earth catalog

“you’re never going to escape the permanent underclass unless you can pick the right line-height for UI text vs body copy”

#ux #design discourse #typography

Today Phil Gilbert, former Head of Design at IBM, spoke to our Design Leadership course about his new book Irresistible Change, his time in the industry, and the role of designers in 2026. We learned a lot — notably about designing for trust, communicating discernment, and the importance of how our pedagogy translates to the market — and left feeling inspired by our futures as designers. Shoutout to our professor Doug Powell for bringing Phil (virtually) in and to my classmate Matt for the incredible visual summary.

#MDes #UX #UX Design #IBM #WashU

"One of the first lessons I learned ... is that our users aren’t sitting at desks with stable WiFi and ultra-wide monitors. They’re often in fields with spotty reception, using quick breaks to catch up on bookkeeping on their phone, or trying to make financial plans after a 14-hour day of taxing labor. This reality shapes everything we do.

From field research to design partnerships: building software alongside the farmers and ranchers who use it.

#design #responsible design #ambrook #UX design

Via Akaash Gupta on X:

IKEA’s adult furniture optimizes for “Scandinavian minimalism,” which in practice means beige rectangles at fourteen price points. The kids section optimizes for emotional response under strict physical constraints. One produces KALLAX. The other produces a lamp that strangers instinctively pet.

That giraffe is from IKEA’s GREJSIMOJS collection, which launched this month. Twenty designers collaborated on 33 pieces with one rule: every item has to make people smile. The designer, Marta Krupińska, said every person who walked past her desk in Älmhult patted the giraffe prototype on the head. Adults. In a corporate office. Petting a lamp.

This tells you everything about how constraint drives design quality. Children’s products face the strictest safety testing IKEA runs. Rounded edges, non-toxic materials, no cables, no small parts. The giraffe is battery-operated, auto-shuts off after 15 minutes, and costs $39. The designer said she had to redesign it multiple times to meet safety requirements, and each constraint forced a better solution.

The GREJSIMOJS collection came directly from IKEA’s Play Report research showing parents want to play more with their kids but lack the space and inspiration. So IKEA built a 33-piece product line around a behavioral insight rather than a style trend. Cat-shaped storage bins. A stool with antlers. A dog-shaped dimmable table lamp. The entire line starts at $5 and £1 from every UK sale goes to the Baby Bank Alliance.

#design #IKEA #ux research #furniture design

I'm learning Figma and looking for any opportunities to practice and build things. My default schedule felt bland, so I spent some time building this out. Loosely inspired Massimo Vignelli's Stendig Calendar with a palette from Otl Aicher's designs for the 1972 Munich Olympics.

#by me #figma #massimo vignelli #otl aicher

A Return to the Blog

I've let this sit stagnant for too long, partially due to a big life change. I started grad school this fall in the new MDes for HCI and Emerging Technology program at WashU!

It's kept me busy, to say the least, but it has also made me realize that I want (need) a place to keep exploring design, dumping ideas, sharing inspiration, and documenting my learning/making /exploring. Semester two just kicked off, and I've got a lot to back log that I'm excited to share.

#MDes

“Accessibility is the right thing to do.

And not just the right thing; it’s profoundly the right thing to do, because the one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives.

How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing our job a little better?”

#Steve Krug #Don’t Make Me Think #Web Design #UX #reading

".. when their users were presented with a custom loading animation in the Facebook iOS app (left) they blamed the app for the delay. But when users were shown the iOS system spinner (right), they were more likely to blame the system itself." from The psychology of waiting, loading animations, and Facebook

#UX #UX Design

Another good thrift day. I’ll need to spend some time with Google Translate to figure out who did these covers.

#Thrift

Emil Ruder's iconic die Zeitung -ZZZZZZZZZing! poster via the Katherine Small Gallery newsletter

#design #Emil Ruder

Laying the groundwork for its 10-year Smart City Initiative, Kansas City, Mo., starts in with a ‘smart’ public transit project.

"The KC Streetcar has served as “a laboratory” of sorts for implementing technology that supports smart city innovations, said Kansas City CIO Bob Bennett. ... Along the KC Streetcar route, smart city sensors collect data used to deliver basic city services more efficiently. Various agencies such as the KC Streetcar Authority, Kansas City Power and Light, the Kansas City mayor’s office and others work together to maintain these sensors. Some sensors can detect traffic flow and adjust lighting to facilitate travel." read more at here

#Urban Planning #Smart Cities #Kansas City