Think Ink Studios

Electing a US President in Plain English

This is a another great video from Common Craft.
This is an example of a explanation that is deceptively simple; great storytelling and visualization techniques!

Visual Periodic Table

This is a really nice example from Visual Literacy that illustrates how to organize a large number of reference points. Click on the photo below to go to the site; then hover on any of the elements and an example of that graphic will pop-up. Nice organization and visual graphic!

Find examples of additional visual maps here

Here are the links that correspond to all the images in the graphic.

Shawn Johnson Caricature

In the spirit of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and our women's gymnastics team, here is a caricature I did of Shawn Johnson - winner of 1 gold and 3 silver medals.

Innovation and Business Models

This is from a post on Communication Nation - Alexander Osterwalder offers some tools on how to innovate your business model and why it matters. It's a good example of a presentation that although is 100+ slides, is easy to flip through, holds your attention and tells a good story. Here is a link to Alex's blog

Business Model Innovation Matters

View SlideShare presentation (tags: osterwalder alex alexander telco)

WalMart's New Milk Jug Design

This is a great post from Sam Ladner's Design Research Blog. Target would have approached it from both a form and function perspective vs. WalMart's dollars and cents utilitarian design.

The New York Times is reporting that WalMart’s new fangled milk jug is getting mixed reviews.
What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out.
The jugs have no real spout, and their unorthodox shape makes consumers feel like novices at the simple task of pouring a glass of milk. The design of the milk jug is so bad that WalMart has taken to doing in-store demonstrations of “how to pour” with this new jug.

This jug is a design flop! Right?

Well not so fast. It seems that the designers of the milk jug created it for a specific purpose: to save money. The new jugs are stackable, saving shipping costs and space. The company saves up to 70% of labour costs using these new jugs. The milk arrives at the store fresher, sometimes even the same day. This jug is a great design! Right?

The truth is somewhere in the middle. If business requirements trump user needs, this product is a winner! It saves time, energy, and most of all, money. It’s easier to ship, easier to manage, and much more efficient.

But if user needs trump business requirements, then this jug is a total flop. No one knows how to use it. They spill it. Their children can’t pour it themselves, forcing parents to spend more time to use the jug. They feel stupid when they can’t pour it correctly. Talk about crying over spilled milk! WalMart’s new milk jug off-loads all its design failings onto its users, keeping all the benefits of the new design for itself.

WalMart is famous for putting its business needs ahead of its workers and its communities. Off-loading the negative effects of this milk jug onto its consumers? That’s another in a long line of WalMart putting itself and its shareholders first.

Great design aligns business and user. There are trade-offs in every phase of product design. But not knowing what your users before making a design change makes it impossible to do this. The verdict? Not a total flop, but clearly a business-driven design. Truly great design balances the user’s needs with the business’s needs.

Inc. - Innovation: Making Inspiration Routine

Inc.com Innovation: Making Inspiration Routine has a great article by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan. It's not about brilliance. Valuable new ideas are the product of hard work and smart, disciplined processes. The article discusses how small businesses can be innovative and compete against the giant corporations like Procter & Gamble.

1. Select the Strategy
Looking for an underserved market

2. Connect to Customers
The social network as idea collector

3. Generate Ideas
Brainstorming done right

4. Select an Idea
Time to separate the good from the great

5. Prototype and Test
Bring on the customers

6. Go to Market
Cookies versus cookie dough

7. Adjust for growth
The process evolves

All pretty straightforward; however, the insights into P&G's innovative process are interesting - see the full article.

BusinessWeek's 2008 Design Idea Awards

BusinessWeek released its 2008 Design Idea Award winners, IDEO, based in Palo Alto, Calif., led the innovation/design consultancies by taking seven awards. Fuseproject came in second, with five; and Ziba and Whipsaw tied for third, with four apiece. France's Decathlon came in first among corporations, with six IDEAs to Apple's four. Denmark's Eva Solo and Motorola (MOT) won four awards each. Sony (SNE) and Samsung earned three.

Below, David Webster of IDEO talks about how the innovation firm used product, retail, and strategy design to help parts supplier Shimano help bike manufacturers attract a new audience of riders once Lance Armstrong retired.