Pajaratorio - since 2005

Results reflect the working environment?

2012-02-14T09:22:00.000+02:00

Sometimes it can be difficult to justify why nice functional environment is important for designers.

At those moments you can discuss whether a top musician would be expected to enjoy a karaoke bar or further - to do work in such.

If you don't make mistakes, you don't succeed

2012-02-07T10:26:00.000+02:00

While ago I wrote about the negative impact a fear of mistakes can create in services. Another major issue with fear of mistakes is it's impact on creativity.

Creative work is usually done in the crossroad of freedom of creative thinking and limiting factors like time and budget. There is clearly a need for both, but like in the post about the facit and explicit communication, the weaker one needs to be supported.

Schedules and budgets as resources are easy to measure and are monitored by managers that usually have a strong background on economy or engineering. Creativity and new ways of thinking can present themselves even as a threat. Typical manager role avoids uncertainty and wants to keep track of the process. Already letting other disciplines follow their process that inherently includes phases of uncertainty requires trust and tolerance for uncertainty.

When all risks are removed and processes optimized it can lead to reverting to old solutions and way of thinking which means that creative process has failed before it even started.
Another risk is that if an organization develops a culture with strong sense of "right" and "wrong", important and revolutionary opinions may never be said aloud.

Creating something new includes always risks. If there is no room for risks, creating something new might be the wrong way. If organization has a strategy to develop something new, the strategy should surely enable new explorations by not limiting thinking of talented individuals.

How to benefit of a cross functional organization

2012-02-02T10:03:00.000+02:00

If organization wants to learn from other domains, it first requires accepting that the other disciplines are not doing it Wrong - just differently.

Hannu Leimun veistos Auringon lapsi (2010)

What's your true profession?

2012-01-26T22:33:00.000+02:00

A persons profession might actually be what the person Want's to be good at.

During my time in Nokia I witnessed how experience and competence were repeatedly ignored when organizations were reshaped according to new strategies. Further, when this was understood, there was a strict guidance to ensure that recruits had proper education, which led to overlook the experience.

People really can make up their experience or credibility and talk themselves into almost any job and learn while doing, like the fake doctors also have shown. Fact is that a person might turn out to be incompetent despite the long list of experiences, but on the other hand person can be extremely skilled, but totally lack the motivation for the job.

Despite the idea of crafting ones career might sound awkward for Finnish ears it should be considered. It is proven to be a clear weakness in the competition between Finnish and foreign applicants e.g. in Nokia and has lead to less competent people doing the work with better accent.

Developing a new career without years of training sounds unorthodox for some, but it can be seen also as a huge possibility. This thinking does not corner people into their slots, but opens new possibilities, keeps the motivation up and creates cross discipline innovations.

What really matters, is whether a person wants to learn and grow to a new profession and from employer point of view, is the person interested in the right aspects of the role with potential to learn.

Time, management and how to optimize those two?

2012-01-23T20:37:00.000+02:00

Difference of managerial and creative work is

that the first is done in meetings and the latter in between.

Tacit or explicit communication for you organization? -Choose both!

2012-01-03T09:54:00.000+02:00

I started to read legendary manual How to Adapt to the Mountain by Jimmy Odén. On first pages Oden reminds how mountaineering skills are divided to tangible and measurable knowhow and to abstract part that he calls mountain sense. According to Odén, mountain sense can be learned slowly through experience, evaluation and reflection.

Odéns duality reminded me not only about organization psychology, but also of my ancient post that compared challenges of free skiing and design process.
Also competences in the office have dual nature, divided similarly to explicit and tacit know how.
As organizations have their mountain tops as goals, the most tangible means are naturally seen the most obvious to get there. -The abstract and non measurable traits of competences can get overlooked although it might lead to compromising the innovation.

Then, how to nurture competences to promote innovation?

One example comes from the discussions we had while making the new sitting arrangements in our office.
It was acknowledged that two types of communication is needed to get creative organization working effectively. The first one being obviously the communication required to make progress in your tasks. Second being the communication that supports the values, learning and openness in the company.

The solution here is to support the primarily the latter - tacit - communication goal, although it might sound controversial. Rationale is that this effort is not on the cognitive level and should come effortlessly - almost unconsciously. Further, mutual learning, shared values and general openness enhances competences and creates good motivation to deliver the innovation - giving good base for the first - explicit - communication goal.

Keeping finnish industries competitive by design thinking - Herrmans

2011-12-28T13:43:00.003+02:00

As a bicyclist I was thrilled to see a Finnish bicycle part manufacturer Herrmans seeking for a industrial designer the other year.
Not only that at some point I had spotted that the company might use some design thinking, but in the end because my good friend and extremely talented designer Mikael Heikkilä got the position.

I have been eagerly waiting to see the results of his design efforts and it really starts to have an effect on the brand previously known for OEM manufacturer.

I just replaced original Specialized grips with these Endorfin 3D grips.
I love the tiny detail and the caring thinking in how he has marked the left and right as well as the up directions. Marking these directions means that I can push them with ease and confidence to the bar and that just makes me feel good. -A feeling that is sometimes hard to justify in the R&D meetings, but makes a significant effect on the customer.

Design story - Gässling underwear

2011-12-12T21:44:00.001+02:00

Marketing sometimes fails to deliver the original design intent to the customer. Since the contradiction between design and marketing has been intriguing me, I was really exited when I had the chance to discuss with Joakim how a garment that now supports a whole new underwear brand Gässling was designed and is now marketed.

I wish all the best for Joakim and I just checked that you can still order some treats for christmas ;)

The name
In short, Gässling is a Swedish underwear brand that makes premium eco underwear for style conscious men. From the very beginning we wanted to create a brand based on Swedish values that was primarily focused on an international market.

We knew that we wanted to use organic cotton and that they should be manufactured in a responsible manner and we needed a brand name that could reflect this as well as look Swedish. The name should fulfill these criteria; be Swedish but not look strange in English, speak of nature, have a local connection to Malmö where we’re based and to be easy to remember.

We started to analyse different traits of nature and eventually we got hooked on the goose. We thought it was a good animal for us because there are lots of geese in Malmö and it has very sympathetic traits. For instance if a goose gets injured during flight, another goose will stay behind until it gets better or dies. It took about 1.5 months and a lot of debating to come up with the name Gässling, which means gosling in Swedish (goose baby).

The product
It’s usually said that in order to break into a saturated market your product need to outperform the competition tenfold.
I wouldn’t say that our underwear is ten times better than other underwear but we have done our very utmost to create some killer garments. We tried to list all available pain points and address them one at a time. Some details that are worth mentioning are that we don’t have a care instruction tag inside, but they are instead printed for better comfort. The waistband is covered in fabric for a smooth feel and there are no seams in the back or sides of the garment to make it as clean as possible.
Our second - more aspirational product is the first ever (as far as I know) tight fitting boxer with an openable waistband. To give it an extra exclusive look we used fabric covered buttons that were all custom made to match the color of the main fabric.

What’s next
We have now been online a few days and even though we are still very far from sold out we can see that the main traffic is coming from outside of Sweden and predominately from the US. This tells us that we probably made some correct decisions when creating the brand. Now we need to turn those page views into purchases but if we succeed with that is another story.

Introducing oneself

2011-11-29T09:51:00.001+02:00

Sitting in a meeting - listening what people have done and how experienced they are. Does it feel waste of time for you?

Listening people introducing themselves as experienced and noteworthy in meetings or seminars feels more or less useless. Instead of retrospectives, it would be more interesting to hear what people have on their desks right now or what are they interested in. That information might tell more about the personality of the person. But the personality is unfortunately sometimes our best kept secret. That might be the reason to rely on list of experiences.
The fact is that a person might turn out to be incompetent despite the long list of experiences. Next time you introduce yourself, make a decision do you want to turn this into your advantage or play it safe ;)

GrapePeople held an training that I participated for facilitation of creative work and they had a nice idea to do the introduction by telling a short story or incident from that morning or from the way to work. Even that can tell more about the person and the way of thinking. -Try that next time you facilitate a meeting.

Negative criticism = Opportunity to engage

2011-11-25T12:43:00.001+02:00

While learning about contemporary marketing theories and consumer goods touch points from Hanne, I ran into this video where Avinash Kaushik from Google discusses how seizing negative critisism can be turned into opportunity.

What we have learned is that customer can become even more loyal when errors are corrected promptly and smoothly. Having a personal presence in social media can be a huge asset.
Instead of being worried about having negative content on the web, one can have negative content AND show how well complaints are taken care of and criticism is used to develop the service.

Use the link for the right spot (1m42s), or watch the whole clip.
Winning the Zero Moment of Truth - Ratings and Reviews: Word of MOT

There is a side track here also. You might remember the Talisker case. -The story took new turns after my post.
It actually makes a good example here, since we you all could already know how things are if their media policy would include the presence in the blogs..

Work of Art?

2011-11-24T07:55:00.001+02:00

Valio (Finnish dairy producer) has a ongoing campaign where famous Finnish artists designed prints on milk jugs standing on Finnish tables.

Finnish design legend Eero Aarnio was also asked to do his magic. I was pretty disappointed when the result turned out to be just an add for his previous designer furniture and not much else.

This makes me wonder about the situation when somebody in Valio has realized that the delivery was something else than ordered and how could it be rejected..

Complaining makes you fail?

2011-10-27T11:01:00.001+03:00

Somebody starts complaining and hesitating in the middle of action. Wanting others to know that there lies a risk in the activity. And more the complaint is overlooked, the louder it gets.

I remember a trip to Chamonix, which ended up me wondering that do I really complain. I though I was just making notions on the circumstances.
Complaining and negativitity spread from people to others. Although the intention might be neutral, the effect might be that somebody else starts focusing on cold feet insteads of good skiing.

Hesitation and negativitity grow from fear. A fear that something is getting worse and not having control over it. -Withdrawing while still able might feel like the rational thing to do.

Working in organizational environment and extreme sports have much in common in this. Going to the mountain and making strategic decisions contain risks. In both cases the missunderstood fear can lead to not getting the run planned or failing in business. Sometimes even to fall of mighty organizations.
-Do we have the skills? What do other think if I can't?
-Are we strong enough? Can we make it in time?
-Do we have the right gear? Have we covered all the risks?
-Am I able to take care of myself? Is this getting worse?

Both in organizational environment as well as in extreme sports there are times that you to make leaps of fait. Have the confidence on yourself and on what you are doing.

There are three good anti-dozes for fear:
Experience creates confidence, that all the challenges can be tackled and all the needed skills and gear is with you.
Positivity makes you focus on the solutions - not the problems and make sure you don't spread the hesitation to others.
Finally, if there is a fear behind a complaint, treat it as such and discuss through to diminish it.
-Monsters are as frightening even if they are put under the bed.

In both environments, not keeping noise about real problems can be lethal too. Good question is that how to recognice the serious stuff? -Mutual trust maybe?

Better service through accepting mistakes?

2011-10-13T08:28:00.001+03:00

Just like people reveal their fundamental characteristics under stress, so do services. Giving feedback to service provider creates a conflict that reveals how well the service culture is understood and cultivated in a company.

Being passionate about services I usually tell if there is something wrong - because I care. Regular customer do not usually care - they just change company. Giving feedback has offered a front row seat in observing how is feedback taken. Companies operate through individuals and their defence mechanisms usually determine how feedback is received. -This is where service culture steps in.

If a company does not take a stand on 1) how feedback should be received, 2) how and within what limits the situation is settled and 3) how the feedback is eventually processed, the employee falls back on ones own defenses or in best case builds on the self confidence, wits and positivity.

Katja Okkonen writes in Helsingin Sanomat about poor service in the article Saitko surkeaa palvelua? Tästä se johtuu. She points out that following rules and regulations diligently and being afraid of mistakes often creates poor user experiences:
-Tuulikki Juusela calls finnish culture a culture of regulations, which could be interpreted as bureaucracy. Hiding behind rules and regulations has become common and common sense is used less and less.
- It is easy for me to agree when Juusela assumes that finnish people have gained a significant fear of mistakes. We are highly cautious for our manager or coworker to give negative feedback. Current economical turbulence has also made the fear of losing one's work very real. When customer gives negative feedback, the fear of mistake and fear of losing one's work is combined and that can create a strong need to be right.
-Janne Löytänä has written that the best way to receive negative feedback is to response promptly and personally. Löytänä further reminds that compensation is actually cheap marketing for a company. If a company is able to turn negative experience to a satisfactory, the customer becomes a 15 times more loyal than a regular customer - and that must create a lot of good reputation.
-While Juusela mentions that Finland is a true self service culture with all possible technical innovations to support it, Camilla Reinboth takes another perspective reminding that engineering culture might also lead thinking that errors in product can be fixed when they occur. With services employees need to know how to deal with mistakes before they occur.

Egolocical thinking as a strategy; Patagonia and Basecamp Oulanka

2011-10-08T14:42:00.000+03:00

Some might say that Patagonia is crazy company when launching a campaign with the motto "Don't Buy This Shirt Unless You Need It".

For me, it made read through their values and find out that Patagonia is one of the leading companies in the world really finding ways to produce it's outdoor gear in the most ecological way possible.

Outdoor lovers use enormous amounts of different kind of synthetic fibres, plastics and composite products. It's about time that there are some leaders in making our consumption leaner so that we will not destroy our environment while enjoying it.

Another good example of ecological thinking in nature travel is Basecamp Oulanka in Kuusamo. They arrange a range of wilderness activities from extreme adventures to well-being holidays - all with high environmental, social and economical standards.
Seeing what modern wilderness tourism has done to many areas of Finnish Lapland, doing things really in the original way and minimizing operational footprint in every way is a refreshing, delightful and not a bit less fun.

Buy a Patagonia - if you really need one, and go to Kuusamo to enjoy some real experiences!

The moment of choosing a strategy

2011-10-03T21:31:00.001+03:00

CityDeal launched itself in Finland about a year ago. It has offered quite good bargains of quality products and services, but now it seems that the revenue expectation has contradicted with the growth and the offers include items that would be more suitable for TV store.

This clearly presents a critical moment in how CityDeal builds it's customer base and who do they focus their marketing. -At least I will delete my account in near future if this starts to be another channel for the crap available from TV store.

Consumer complaint case: Talisker whisky with a fly

2011-09-23T19:53:00.000+03:00

When I poured a glass of Talisker whisky last autumn and found a partly dissolved fly from my glass, I had a romantic vision about small distillery and scotts and I though that I'd better inform the guys in Talisker that some part of their process is not bulletproof.

After a long search for contact information I managed to get an email address through discussion group in Talisker Facebook group and I sent my mail with these pictures.
After three months of email discussion with Diageo (owner of Talisker) I was requested to send the sample with the fly AND the remaining bottle to UK to be studied.

I have to say that all the romance about Scotland and small scottish distilleries being proud of their products vanished: Diageo representative quite clearly implied that I had put the fly into my glass to hoax a replacement bottle. Any kind replacement was not even discussed, although I would have been happy for that in the beginning.

Conclusion: When you find a fly in your Talisker whiskey - don't even bother to complain.

Final report

Dear Perttu *******,

Thank you for raising your concern with regards to a fly in your 70cl bottle of Talisker. We have received a 4cl sub sample along with the bottle that you had sent back to our Technical Centre for investigation. On receipt we noted that the bottle was 40% full and the 4cl sub sample contained a fly, there was no labelling on the sub sample. We have now completed analysis with the following results: The strength measured = 45.8% (Label strength indicated 45.8%) Higher alcohol congener analysis indicated that the sample in the bottle was a genuine sample of Talisker. Higher alcohol congener analysis indicated that the sub-sample was a genuine sample of Talisker. Sensory assessment found the sample to be similar in character to the control sample of Talisker with no off notes or tainting detected. The sub sample was filtered and was found to contain a fly measuring 2.6mm in length. Conclusions: The sample was filtered and was found to contain a fly measuring 2.6mm in length. As the sample was received open it is not possible to determine when the fly entered the sample. We would like to thank you for taking the time to return these samples to us for analysis, although we cannot ascertain at what point in our process the fly could have entered the product, due to the bottle being received open. The pictures initially provided also showed the fly was in the drinking glass and not in the bottle, again we do not have any evidence to support the claim of the fly in the bottle. Unfortunately we will have to close this concern as we have do not have any conclusive evidence to support the claim.

Kind Regards,
Customer Account Manager

To complete the story I paste here also my response.
It's quite easy to see how Diageo could have solved this smoothly and hard to imagine why they decided not to pursue user satisfaction.

I was waiting for further comments from you, but thanks for informing that you agree with my species identification.

I wouldn't have needed to ask you that though. I saw it carefully enough to know that it was not part of Finnish fauna.

I actually thought that you guys care and my input would help somehow the quality of your products. I'm quite shocked that you think I went through all the trouble just to hoax you.

I also want to remind you that I asked three times that do you really need also the bottle or would the sample be enough. And you requested to have also the bottle, causing me even higher shipping cost. -In future I suggest that you tell the policy in early phase and save a bit of customers nerves and your reputation.

It is understandable that manufacturing processes have flaws. But when policies and communication have flaws or intentional difficulties, that is totally something else than understandable.

After your latest mail, I'm relatively pissed off and I'm going to publish your response on my blog.
On the meantime, I assume that you send me back the 40% of the bottle that was left. -Not that I'd drink it, but still it's mine to pour into the sewer.

Sincerely,
Perttu *******

Couple of weeks after this I received a delivery. It was quite sad moment, but mostly because I felt so bad for the company I felt so strongly before. -Somehow the whisky just wasn't that good anymore..

Meaningful feedback resulting as motivation?

2011-08-24T09:12:00.007+03:00

Finland is a country of self service. Where this is most imminent, is cafes and restaurants. Mostly, you need to get your orders yourself and even clean the table afterwards. In a bit better places you might get service, but often it's poor or unmotivated.

Despite few exceptions it seems that service is clearly better in cultures where waiters salary consists mostly of tips. For long I considered tip based salary somewhat bad deal, but I have changed my mind.

Compared to fixed salary, tip based salary creates immediate feedback channel between customer satisfaction and waiters behavior. Furthermore, the feedback is truly meaningful to the waiter. Skilled waiters can even make a career and climb up the ladder to better places with better tips.

The experience of the profession becomes this way totally different than in Finland, where common understanding is that anybody can be a waiter resulting in that nobody actually wants to do it nor be proud of ones profession.

How to train people incompetent

2011-08-17T19:52:00.002+03:00

"Uusavuton" is a finnish term for younger generations who don't know how to make food or clean the house. Newly incompetent might be the direct translation. (According to natives, english does not have the term, since all UK and US kids are anyway like this. ;)

I happened to read two articles below and those made me do a following conclusion:
Finnish society and individuals are over achieving in fulfilling all regulations and creating a bunch of new details to follow. At the same time there is urgent need to support new entrepreneurship. We excel in byrocracy - when we should excel in enabling creativity and business.

Unfortunately articles are only in finnish :/
Taloussanomat: Keittiö, jossa ei saa leipoa – ja muut hullut kiellot
Gradutakuu: Opittu avuttomuus

User observation for better breakfast?

2011-08-09T22:54:00.000+03:00

For a moment I was sure that I was a subject in a user study:

I was balancing on my left foot, with two plates on my left hand, trying to push slider door open with my right foot to place the milk jar from my right hand into the fridge. All this while the waiter observed.

Unfortunately this was not user study - they were happy with their service.

Exped Airpillow - instant classic

2011-07-30T10:40:00.004+03:00

When hiking or traveling my weak spot is the pillow. Having a poor sleep can ruin a lot. After trying many versions from regular ones to high end down -versions I can say that I know guite a lot of pillows.

Exped has made a good job in ensuring excellent sleep in winter conditions with their Downmat. Now I dare to say that they have made a iconic travel pillow:
Airpillow M is extremely small, lightweight, has comfortable surface and is easy to fill and empty. Also it looks good. Only down side is that it's so popular it's hard to find at least in Finland. I found mine in Scandinavian Outdoor Store :)

Aging in style

2011-07-27T19:12:00.002+03:00

I love products that age with style.
In fact I might not be the most careful user of products, since I want them to look that they've been used. Especially outdoor gear looks a bit newbie if it's brand new.

When I unscrewed these worn lock pedals I felt slightly sad, but on the other hand happy to be able to look what they've gone through.

If you try to find a material that ages with style - go with aluminum, but be careful not to overdo the finish since the phase between glossy surface and worn out style might be nasty.

Graphics work: theme for a homescreen clock

2011-07-23T15:43:00.001+03:00

My strengths are on the product and services concepts and not so much on the graphical design. Despite the tendency I sometimes have artistic urges to fulfill.

Not so long ago, we realized a co-operation possibility with my ingenious colleague, who has coded a clock/timer application to Ovi Store on his spare time. I had a vision to work with fonts covered by paint or dirt and he could use a theme for his application. As in design work generally - there was a feeling of magic in bring this -this time artistic- vision alive. Theme builds on the Symbian Anna software refresh.

Here's the preview of the theme, but you can as well download the whole application to your smartphone to get a better picture :)

Enhancing creativity and innovatio by doing mistakes

2011-07-16T18:27:00.002+03:00

Have you ever felt that the success is must and you cannot fail? Did you feel stressed?

Most (if not all) people do feel stressed if failure is not an option. What we know about stress is that it limits the our creativity and our capability to see possibilities instead of threats. If your resources are low and solution is needed instantly - isn't it quite obvious that you try something that has been tried before and works for sure?

In organizations where jobs are in danger, showing that projects run smoothly and mistakes do not happen can feel important. Unfortunately this kind of thinking leads into several problems.
Organization stops learning from each other, ability to create new innovations drops and information of ongoing crisis or failures of larger scale can be buried. -And we need to remember that this happens in ALL levels of organization. -We all have somebody to report ;)

Sam Swaminathan tells a story in www.managementexchange.com how one organization was changed by celebrating the Mistake of the Month.

Personalization using product printing and modelling interface

2011-07-12T16:33:00.002+03:00

Nervous System is a magnificent company. They manage to combine three highly appealing trends and form beautiful products as end result.
1) Personalization: Enabling user to modify the design or make completely unique design to make product truly personal via intuitive user interfaces.
2) Biomimicry: Combining nature and digital by basing the designs on patterns found in nature. If you think about it Now - there's no better foundation to build algorithmically formed designs.
3) Using 3D printing as manufacturing method to accomplish all this.

Check some of their videos or try their modelers and enjoy :)

Growing a Hyphae Lamp from Nervous System on Vimeo.

Industrial design - fighting against windmills

2011-07-04T13:13:00.001+03:00

Old colleague of mine left the company to continue her PhD in an academic project in metal industry. The main problem is the old one - how to get users needs and opinions better into consideration in product development.

The same issue continues to puzzle in all branches where R&D plays a role in success or failure of products. I see this area as area where industrial designers operate. We are supposed to be the answer to the very problem! -Why have we failed?

Industrial designers have learned the methods of user centered design, we can conduct user studies and usability studies, we can recognize behaviors and see the parts which could be improved. We can even improve service processes. Why majority of the industrial designers skip most of this and work only on trends, forms, surfaces and finishes?
-Could it in the end be the lack of competence?
-Could it be the strict organization models?
-Credibility in the eyes of management?
-One possibility is our own ambitions. Every industrial designer wanting to be a "Star Designer" - drawing masterpieces with just intuition.
-Or could the reason be the lack of terms and definitions for a industrial designer that not only makes an artistic interpretation of the actual product, but also finds and uses the user data to create a product proposition to this foundation?
-In the end, it might be just a matter of education and knowledge in the company management.

I have described the work of industrial designer as fighting against windmills. The management is slow, stubborn and resists change. All the little pieces of change and true needs of user that we can fight to the products are all little victories! -It's just to decide that which mills you want to fight against and by which means :)

Stupid users

2011-06-17T11:17:00.002+03:00

The title might feel pompous.
After I add my motto; Never underestimate the stupidity of a human being - It surely sounds even worse.

My excuse is that I admit my stupidity also as a designer. We tend to overlook the challenges users have in their interaction with our designs. The issue is the same, the important thing is that we study the issue - what ever the point of view may be.
Demystifying Usability has some good thinking on How to deal with Stupid Users.

The main points to remember are:
1. Users who have trouble with designs and feel stupid lack a key behavior required in using most interfaces: Discovery and Exploration.
2. Users who struggle with interfaces and feel of incompetent do not notice or use features.
3. Users who struggle with designs that do not feel intuitive are not comfortable with interface elements that are too different.
4.Users who do not make interface design distinctions ignore complex or multi-step tasks.
5. Users that lack the confidence with computers have a thinner comfort barrier and a general helplessness.

How to lose leadership?

2011-05-14T18:19:00.001+03:00

A friend of mine updated her status with wise words about not caring too much about the talk that goes on behind our back when we stand alone in the front line.

If you are few steps ahead of your peers or time, it might mean that you are leading. You usually have lot of people who are talking and shouting behind your back. All it takes at that point is to believe in what you are doing and enable people to follow you.

But what happens if you start listening the critics around, miss the focus or lose your belief? Sometimes it results in stress, pressure and hasty decisions in seizing funding or canceling projects.
-Decisions need to be made, but it is always good to analyze that what is my decisions really based on; peer pressure or analyzing the environment.

Following video is about gaining leadership, but to maintainit, leader needs the ability to trust your followers when they start to develop their own moves. -Unfortunately that is something what managers in big companies sometimes forget..

The third truth

2011-04-04T12:59:00.000+03:00

The efforts to save Euro after the elderly bachelors along the Mediterranean have bankrupted the nearly whole EU is a hot topic. Hot topic also for the reason that anti EU discussion has raised it's head also in Finland.

In these discussions it's not our politicians who make the decisions, but abstract things like EU and Brussels, that have impersonated. People feel that they've lost their control and don't understand what is happening.

When doing decisions for other people it is natural to think how this law/system would be the best for the general audience and in theory. A lot of the decision making is not fixed into everyday situations, but instead in ideals and the Third Truth. -The truth we assume is the "right thing" for the general opinion, but might not be right for the creators of legislation nor for the people.

Similar kind of behavior is visible in how culture is formed inside a group of people, nation or in religions. Even yellow press is a huge player on creating a third truth in their way of writing things in passive "A bank was robbed". -But in this case it has an active abstract actor; EU.

I don't blame people talking about EU like it was a person doing decisions. -In a way, EU is an impersonation of that Third Truth.

Design for errors

2011-01-21T23:27:00.002+02:00

Example of Nielsens usability principle "design for errors" emerges in this "there I fixed it" -type of improvement of attached traditional finnish craftmanship.

Another good principle of "keep it simple" has failed in this case and there is some reported cases, when somebody has carefully closed the door behind - and locked a poor soul into the hut. Then again the repair (red string going inside the door) is kind of simple too ;)

Powerpoint organizations

2011-01-18T10:04:00.000+02:00

2003 Columbia space shuttle was hit by a 760g piece of insulation with life threatening result. The threat was analyzed and presented to managers for decision making. Decision was to take shuttle down as planned. Seven lives were lost.

Data visualization specialist Edward Tufte analyzed the slide that was used to communicate the threat and pointed out several reasons why Power Point is a wrong tool to communicate complex information for decision making.

Similarly, PowerPoint can be dramatically wrong tool for creating organizations compared to any nodal presentation.
A human way to use PowerPoint is to pursue harmony, balance and clarity. This can result as over simplifying organizations into boxes with arbitrary amount of size eventually linked with solid or dotted lines.
After a few years of continuous experience of organizational changes, I claim that boxes don't discuss and further, cross discipline UX specialist don't belong to any boxes.

Conclusion is that, if you want to "use UX professionals in all levels of your organization", but you don't want to increase your headcount, stop lying to yourself and admit that your organization will not be a UX driven one. -Possibility that a rationally thinking manager in resource pressure would create a PowerPoint box for cross disciplinary UX specialists is expected to be quite low.

Facebook now showing clearly what information is shared to applications

2011-01-17T12:02:00.001+02:00

Facebook changed the way they present the information shared to 3rd parties through applications.

Now the information shared to 3rd parties is listed in clear language and creates a feeling of trust through it's transparency.

Extra effort caused by elimination of disposable packages

2010-11-20T19:12:00.001+02:00

Although elimination of disposable packages in eg. Scandic hotel chain has been a great action for environment, some challenges that originally influenced to the very trend remain.

One of those is cleaning. Especially anything related to toiletries should deserve extra attention. Unfortunately this is often overlooked by maids, as well as the people who make the cleaning contracts.

Xbox Live credit card hoax disquised as Automatic Renewal

2010-11-18T21:58:00.000+02:00

I spotted an interesting line from my credit card bill, which said Xbox live 19,90.

This was clearly unauthorized charging since I paid extra attention to my choice of Live membership and payment method after warnings from my colleague who had previously experienced continuous charging of credit card.

I decided to remove my card data as once from my xbox. -Unfortunately this move had been thought at Microsoft headquarters. Removal was not possible to do on the xbox!! Instead the prompt asked to visit http://www.xbox.com/support for membership info and how to turn of automatical renewal...

At this point I can give you a hint. It's nowhere near there. You might get a better start from the address https://live.xbox.com. -The end result is not any better, but least that's wehere it is supposed to be..

The guidance what you'll in the end find is useless:

Ok, lets find that billing information then manually...
You'll probably find several errors from the system:

But if you hit the right spot, you'll find your billing information:

There it is finally; "Cancel my service".
-But let's first think for a moment that which service it was you wanted to cancel.......

Ok, here we go. Thumbs up everybody!!

Still not possible. -It Really is made impossible to cancel the automatic renewal and charging from the credit card!

Time for some conclusions:

I consider this a criminal credit card hoax, with the difference that this is done globally, diguised as legitimate and sealed with the human lazyness and self accusations. -And definitely not good businness on the long run.

Next: Calls to Consumer Agency and Microsoft.

Improving UX design by managerial decisions?

2010-11-16T21:21:00.000+02:00

Original build of Kenwood kMix hand mixer had a power cord that could be rolled around the base of the mixer allowing a perfect fit to the table stand.

I fell in love with this feature and bought the mixer. The disappointment was huge when I found out that some "UX aware manager had clearly improved the design" by extending the cord for any of the usual reasons and simultaneously ruined the design.

I don't believe in the democracy of expertese.

Suddenly everything stops

2010-11-03T14:57:00.000+02:00

Imagine that you rush into your hotel room with you hands full and drop your keycard to the floor when trying to shovel it into the main light switch while the door is closing behind you.

Suddenly you get a feeling that there's no rush and the best thing to do is crawl on the floor in total blackness.
-Further you can't avoid thinking that this was not considered, when the brilliant idea of key card operating main switch was introduced to hotel businnes.

Light treatment

2010-10-28T08:03:00.001+03:00

When the winter begins, the thirst for light is immense. It doesn't really matter how you get it, but if This method works, I'm a happy camper.

Oulu based Valkee is studying and manufacturing bright light treatment device that deliveres the light more directly to the brain, saves eyes, allows user to move around while treatment and makes the treatment significantly shorter.

The main issue here is that it's really hard to believe this method is really working. You can evaluate the idea next time you turn your face towards the sun. -Is it your eyes or the tissue behind those, that enjoys the sun.

Design for not-in-use

2010-10-26T08:34:00.001+03:00

This soda maker shows an perfect example how some products are designed without the thinking that how they actually are used.

When do you actually see your newly purchased OBH soda maker looking like this? -The machine stays unused 99% of the time looking like it's literally missing parts. Only time you actually keep the bottle attached to the machine is when you make the soda. And that's actually when all other functions (like attaching the bottle instead of good looks) are critical components in creation of the user experience.

Feature improvement?

2010-09-22T23:12:00.000+03:00

Apple shows an example, how to take a hit like a man and turn it into a success.

There is a new feature in the new iPod Shuffle:

You remember the last years model - which didn't have buttons, only voice UI.

This is solved then - even without seeing the figures.
-Let's see what happens on the touch phones area - are HW buttons getting even fewer or will there be new rise of user control.

Why satisfy to ultimate performance?

2010-08-27T19:17:00.000+03:00

When analysing how to make a design for young women, that delivers the message about the ultimate performance - one usually get's lost.

Why is it so natural to express the performance and qualities for men? -Just draw the headlines on the paper and make it look functional piece.

Is it really in our DNA so strongly?
-We see a good pair of tits and we have a positive attitude on the content.
-Girls see amazing shoulders and they are open for a guy to tell more of himself..

Designing for women can be close to trying to hit a girl. You need to make your stand, claim your opinions, prove your usefullness, act according to expectations, be transparent on your deliveries and be -last but not least- adorable.

What is expected from a (junior) industrial designer?

2010-08-25T09:32:00.000+03:00

Michael Roller presented an interesting slide on his blog Strategic Aesthetics about what industry expects from a newbie industrial designer. And I cannot say that I would disagree..
His whole study is available here.

Special coffee automate - automated poor service?

2010-04-30T08:40:00.001+03:00

What's the point in having a machine for special coffees?

Usually coffee shop staff do not know what kind of coffee they are selling from the device.
What IS know in this equation, is the higher quality expectation when customer orders special coffee. -And for this expectation regular coffee shop answers by ignorance - selling a product they have no control over (not even quality control)?!

Why do they even bother, when they would have perfectly ok coffee on the pot to serve - with normal expectation level? -Maybe the disappointment would be lower..

Photo frame out of office supplies

2010-02-08T15:24:00.003+02:00

Crafted small photo 'frames' out of old prints and Post Its. There's nothing you can't do while you have a fresh supply of Post Its and ducktape ;)

Plastic bag seal generation 2

2010-02-01T14:22:00.000+02:00

Remember those red little plastic demons, that ensure you will starve, before granting you the access to you carrots? I say no more of those.
Pirkka carrots have used a similar kind of plastic tape seal in a way that it forms handles to pull the two sides apart. Also the piece of paper that is used to create the handles features the best before date.
How convenient with only a small change! -Although, in my opinion this has been pending a little too long to fix such a simple but highly annoying problem.

Recloseable paper packaging

2010-01-17T17:24:00.001+02:00

This is my regular ice-cream purchase from my next door shop. -It's not that I would like Dajm That much, but I buy it because of it's packaging.
It's unbelievable to see the amount of plastic waste in my bin nowadays. Everything comes in plastic, like ice-cream. That is, if you don't want to use the old fashioned paper-wrap that is super ecological, but a mightmare to reclose.
This package on the other hand, is paper and is easy to close tightly after taking some :)
-Can it really be that plastic is cheaper or why the vast majority of ice-creams are encased by plastic?

And you thought statistics about social media are boring - not this time

2009-11-02T15:14:00.000+02:00

If you are interested about the growth of social media, check this.
Socialnomics has made a video about the statistics of social media - and my hands go all goosebumped :P

Product features creating the user experience?

2009-10-30T20:21:00.003+02:00

I was reading UXelements -blog, and that reminded me of one of my favorite Top Gear clip (below).

What the reviewer has is what so many corporate people (that design and build products) lack, he is passionate about the product (in this case cars).
This is what makes this review so funny and accurate, it shows so much of what is going on in product development where the essence of a product gets lost behind menus and ridicules decisions.

Note that the tone changes around 10 mins, but the beginning is the best part from the UX point of view ;D

Is the first Encore already too much?

2009-10-21T16:38:00.001+03:00

This is a sight which makes me shake my head every time I see it.
-I really don't want any 'encore' to happen to my work papers..

Designed by: DESIGNER

2009-10-11T19:13:00.001+03:00

Designers name starts to be almost as important investment as the design itself. This means that the Name is sometimes brutally forced into the design. This also creates contradiction to the designer. First option is to keep design clear and expect that a sticker will emerge and other one is to promote your own brand but possibly compromise the design into some extent.
Personally I don't like any kind of stickers, nor this kind of 'design features'. I'd rather keep the design clear and let it speak instead of milled letters..
In the picture you can see Origo light - designed by Eero Aarnio as you can clearly see..

Biodegradable plastic bags

2009-10-09T19:21:00.001+03:00

I'm a fan of biodegradable plastic bags. Carrying my groceries home in such should basicly make biodegradable trashbags obsolete.
But there is a twist. Which might be because both bags are a manufactured in same company. Why cut down the sales of another milking cow, he you can have two. -The reason is that shops might end up Not having plastic bags available, which don't do a proper job either in holding up in one piece till you are home, nor containing your waste in it.
It is somewhat understandable that these bags need to decompose in relatively short period, but does it need to be under a week?! You would expect to have some plastic left when you carry you waste outside..
I made a bit of a field study on this and it seems that 3 months is the shortest period anybody considered the plastic should start decomposing. And most of the people don't work on their own composter..

Report a problem - Google style

2009-10-09T14:02:00.000+03:00

Google has realized it. Keeping something up to date or in order requires continuous feedback. And for continuous feedback, reporting needs to be simple and Effortless.
-See the video from Google to see how they have succeeded to implement these two drivers.

Difficulty of simple

2009-10-06T14:58:00.000+03:00

All complicated innovationsa are already done,
the simple ones are yet to be discovered.

Against matrix organizations - Idealist Group

2009-10-02T09:51:00.000+03:00

The anticipation what I had earlier about matrix organizations was that it helps in concentrating to the actual work. Having the full support from the other direction and you creating results to other direction. -Unfortunately it wasn't quite like that. As Jaakko Kievari below desrcibes, a lot of time goes into reporting to both ends, what you have been doing and selling your ideas to continue again your meetings interrupted effert to create something.
I hope all the good for Jaakko's new interesting company called IDEALIST GROUP.

Yritysten arjessa ideointi on usein heikoilla. "Ei ole niin vähäpätöistä asiaa, ettei se kiireessä ohita ideointia. Todella paljon energiasta jää kiinni rutiineihin. Matriiseissa iso osa ajasta menee sen hoitamiseen, että kerrot toisille, mitä teet", sanoo Jaakko Kievari, joka viisi viime vuotta työskenteli Nokia Software & Services yksikössä.

Jussi Jalkanen, Ajattele. Optio, 17.9.09.

Ravintokoodi.fi - try to sign in

2009-09-21T22:41:00.000+03:00

I signed myself to Ravintokoodi.fi few months ago. I thought that it's a great service.

Not that there is anything wrong (quite the opposite) with the content, but after few months of trying it seems just annoying just because they didn't know how to make the sign in.

1) If all social web services (with confidential content) use cookies and allow Keep me signed in, why doesn't this obsolete service containing only my nutrition details?!
2) At least it could hold the username in place - after all I don't have a slightest clue how this service wanted it..
3) And finally, why do I need to go to a different site (www.pirkka.fi) to reset my password?!.
3.1) It would be nice if the link went straight to appropriate password reseting page instead of www.pirkka.fi mainapge to start the quest from.

Coffee cups

2009-09-15T15:13:00.000+03:00

The world does not need a another coffee cup - but it does want another cup of coffee.

Christel Vaenerberg, Creative director, Iittala group

Send a postcard with your own photo from your mobile phone - Posti/Itella

2009-09-09T21:39:00.000+03:00

Sending a postcard with your own photo from your mobile phone sounds like a great idea. -Heard about it from my friend and rushed into Posti (or Itella) site to download the Mobile Postcard (Mobiilipostikortti) application.
There's so many things wrong in the application that it's unbelievable that somewhere there is a Symbian coder, who is so unaware of basic principles.
You need to know about hidden and visible drives on your mobile to find your photos and know how to change seccurity settings to avoid question about wheather application can access your data. -And finally, there's no preview the picture you are sending - at any point. -Not even thumbnails in the folder view. Which I managed to get visible only that one time I took the pictures below :/

-My god XP

How to connect Bluetooth device

2009-09-07T18:38:00.000+03:00

I'm currently having my honeymoon moment on my sofa with my brand new wireless keyboard.
I cannot remember when I was this much exited. -After all, I think that consuming is buying possibilities. And this product enables so much for me =) Keyboard, integrated mouse, music controls, zooming, shortcuts and what's best. -The setup was filled with grace!

Check out the second bullet in the picture below: "Using your keyboard, type in the passkey. Passkey 3777"
You have the keyboard, other product provides the code - do you need to make it more complicated?

You could think finding number 51 would be a piece of case

2009-08-11T16:26:00.002+03:00

You could think finding number 51 would be a piece of case.
But in this case there has definitely been 'something else' in the designers mind. -Standard paper size and/or some readymade mechanics might be the good guesses..
Definitely this is as far from user oriented design you can go. Infact it almost feels like it is deliberate internal joke, which ended into production..

*update 17.4.2010*
Now compare to This one:

Flight patterns by Charlie McCarthy

2009-08-03T19:45:00.003+03:00

I'm back from holidays. And in these cases I usually refer that first week after holidays, you should not work/think too hard to avoid injuries ;)
For htat reason an enjoyable video from Vimeo by Charlie McCarthy =)

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

Art critics

2009-07-21T12:36:00.005+03:00

In the optimal situation art critics open up the backgrounds of the piece and the artist for the simple minded viewer. Sometimes they go deeper into the art than the artist would have ever anticipated. Sometimes they just tell a story of critics own life - or how limited it is.

As an example you can see below a part of Lost in Yellow by Nina Roos and a caption of introduction by Pia Timberg. Both loaned without permission, in the name of art criticism.

The installation concists of three oil paintings made on polycarbonate plates. All three plates present a yellow silhuet female figure. Figure is leaning forward, like out of the painting. There is also something weird in the figure. Behind the figure to both sides, there is paddle like forms sticking out and the figure seems to be holding some kind of sticks in her hands. Her ball shaped wide skirt makes annotations to past. To the time already lost, but still present in the form of this painting.

I might be biased to study this piece, but as I could easily spot the brand label from the "skirt" I first got interested is the bike Honda or Kawasaki and secondary what was the painting all about. But i have to recon, I just couldn't get past this critic to really think about it..

New H1N1 influenza spread graph by WHO

2009-07-06T19:13:00.003+03:00

Earlier I have been complaining about the spread graphs released by WHO.
WHO illustrates A(H1N1) spreading - 3.6.09
Influenza A(H1N1) spread rate graph - 9.5.09

WHO has now released a new 'interactive timeline of all cases' worth visiting.

.

Oulu city sculptures -tool

2009-07-05T14:08:00.001+03:00

Outdoor sculptures of Oulu city can be found easily from this tool.

Sculptures: "Välitä" and "Viesti"

2009-07-05T13:31:00.004+03:00

These two sculptures are located in Oulu, in the the beginning of road where a great proportion of Nokia phones are being designed. Knowing this, the names Välitä = care and Viesti =message/relay can produce more interpretations.

Anni Rapinoja 2005, Concrete

Välitä

Viesti

Sculptures under the topic Art - "Päivänvarjo"

2009-07-05T13:06:00.006+03:00

I thought to ease my life and collect photos about interesting or nice scupltures from my hard drive to here alittle by little.
Heres the first one right next to my apartment in Oulu.

Päivänvarjo, Jaakko Pernu 2001 Wood, 620 x 720 x 850 cm

Photo tagging - a simple application needed

2009-07-04T19:15:00.004+03:00

One thing what I have been looking for is the easy way of tagging pictures, instead of moving items into specific folders to be able to find photos later. By tagging I can add two totally different tags, like Art and Oulu into same photo, and by doing that, find the photo among art references and among the pictures of Oulu city.

Picasa provides rather simple possibility to edit and search IPTC tags. Few days ago I was glad to hear that even my favorite viewer IrfanView also provides a possibility to view and edit IPTC data of .jpg files with just a few klicks. -It could be easier, but it's sufficient.

The surprising thing is that applications use this powerfull and potentially delightfully simple tagging system so little or create a complicated system around it..
Somebody interested in creating a nice little viewer with intuitive and effective tagging possibilities would pobably make a huge impact on the scene!

Photo albums ease of use

2009-06-28T14:17:00.003+03:00

So far I have been force to use Flickr web albums because of its appealing simple looks and UI. When lookin photos, you don't want anything extra to bee visible. Difference between Picasa and Flickr is evident at least to my eyes.

Not that selection of webgallery for an Average Joe would be based on one single interaction, but still this is something to consider: In my default PC viewer(IrfanView) next picture is selected by simply using arrow keys. Also Facebook and Picasa has the same functionality. When using Flickr I have to use my mouse to click a small thumbnail to get next picture..
-So of to Picasa I go, thaks for great time Flickr. Disadvantages in this change are the looks and complexity of Picasa but advantages are simple and intuitive use and the fact that now I have all my stuff behind one Google account :)

Realistic marketing

2009-06-28T12:10:00.001+03:00

There's a healthy dose of realism in the marketing slogan of this regional newspaper: "Take a good fire starter with you."

Good guidance can patch bad design - into some extent

2009-06-18T18:43:00.002+03:00

Bar Balls in Kajaani earns a honorary mention of this explanation how to get the hand dryer working. But the thing is that the design should either implicate the place of the sensor or the sensor should have been placed else where..

This carefully made guidance also tells a clear story how big problems products can create for the users and companies on service branch.

Celebrating tacit knowledge through service design

2009-06-07T10:36:00.002+03:00

Even a simple service product or infrastructure -like rail transport- forms an information system including hidden knowledge and inbuilt need for learning.
It took me some 15 years of intensive railroad usage to learn that after the announcement "Train leaves from gate 2", there is exactly 3 minutes time. Today, after 18 years, I learned that there is a yellow color coding in the timetable posters for leaving trains in opposite to arriving.

These information bits are examples of tacit knowledge, which would be useful if know, but is either difficult or considered less important to communicate. In modern world, consumers do not necessarily have time or will to start learning. -Experience should be readily available in full extent.

One task for service design is to find ways to communicate these service and company specific information bits, celebrate those and build a better brand and user experience through those.

-After all, you would like the customer to see your product as excellent as you see it, wouldn't you?

Tivoli

2009-06-04T00:04:00.001+03:00

This is one cornerstone for a ~30m high ferris-wheel. Some how it was comforting to see this After we took the ride.
-Scenery over Oulu was nice though.

WHO illustrates A(H1N1) spreading

2009-06-03T18:07:00.003+03:00

WHO has taken new actions to improve the understanding of A(H1N1) influenza. They have created an interactive illustration about the spread.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/history_map/InfluenzaAH1N1_maps.html

-I cannot help but thinkin why in earth they made it this difficult?! And what's wrong in a regular line-diagram like the one I made earlier.

Recycle your Ariel

2009-05-13T18:39:00.002+03:00

I saw this on my parents garden last weekend (you remember Laihia and the stingyness). My father had recycled a washing liquid bottle as a feeding automate for birds. Don't know about style, but a delightful sight anyway ;D

Influenza A(H1N1) spread rate graph

2009-05-09T21:25:00.006+03:00

Since this time next week I should be drinking my first strawberry margharita in Mexico I have been quite interested about the spreading of H1N1 (swine influenza).
Since I didn't find a graph about the issue, I made my own. -I'll be updating this at least for next week. After that there's no point since I might my right there on the spot..

The graph is based on the information on WHO Influenza A(H1N1) site.

Update 10.5.09
Since I have the data -thanks to WHO- here's a graph about the H1N1 cases in three main countries.

New VR website - keeping the good shortcut to mobile web

2009-05-07T20:45:00.006+03:00

VR -public railways of Finland is my all time favorite topic.. This time it was a pleasure to see a new fresh website design they have.

At first use I didn't head into any problems. I was even pleased to see that they had kept the link for the mobile-optimized webite in top left corner, where it is convenient to select in case of mobile browsing. Basically there is only two good ways to provide mobile web access:
- I appreciate most the approach that does not guide you directly to mobile website, but gives you an uncompromized experience with a freedom to choose visely if you wish.
- Second good approach is the one that Facebook is using. Guide user directly to mobile website and offer always a possibility to change into normal view, through a link at the bottom of the page.

Even the purchase of the tickets seemed to work better. Still there migt be the risk that you have start all over again if there is no places available.. ..don't want to try that again ;)

How much does Nordea value private customers

2009-04-14T20:59:00.006+03:00

Web page design follows the same rules of placement priorization and click counts as mobile UI design does. For a bank web page, a netbank access might be the Most used feature for Most of the customers - which would mean that it should be highly visible and require only one click..

Todays example is from Nordea. If you try to find a netbank access from the front page of Nordea banking services, you can easily evaluate how important a private customer really is for Nordea.

Really. -Do find the right link from the first pic!

The second picture illustrates further, just How important you are..

Screenshots: Nordea website 14.4.2009

*Edit 15.4.2009*
As Nordea pointed out today, the site I'm referring is the business site as .com end should have told me.. Following picture illustrates how web access in private banking site (.fi) is shown. It still requires two actions..

iPod engravings cutting down the sales?

2009-02-21T18:21:00.003+02:00

Already ten days ago I made an entry to Facebook that how difficult can it be to buy an iPod..

This time I didn't want to buy a black or aluminium, so I ended up having 7 more color to choose from. I some what decided that it should be the red. The red was only available through Apple store because it was a (RED) product buying from the webstore makes no problem but the webstore provided free engaving...

For me, born in the most stingy place in Finland it was way too hard to overlook the fact that I could get an FREE ENGRAVING, but didn't have a slightest idea what it should say!
For me it took ten days to figure out that it is perfectly alright to leave it without engraving. Finally I placed my order. And now I also have a bunch of interesting engravings for iPods in my notebook ;D

For more examples of engravings.

Quest after Jalas boots

2009-02-08T20:43:00.006+02:00

I made a post earlier how my Jalas boots started to break in pieces after years of hard use. -It's only now when I realized that I really need to get those new boots.

I went to Jalas website, and tried to find the boots I've had. Result was that I lost my nerves with the product search and tried the product listing. List wasn't much better either. I know there's been good strive on marketing and R&D, but thistime the graphics designer should look into mirror. -Put a clear pictures of different shoe styles so that you can find your boots. And if you don't have photo to use, draw one.

"Do not ice-fish on the football field"

2009-02-01T14:25:00.000+02:00

Probably one of the few places where a note like this is possible is Ukko-Halla in Hyrynsalmi.
Preparations for the annual snow football world championships is in contradiction with ice-fishers interests.

It would be interesting to know what kind of contradictions arise when the place is preparing for swamp football championships on summer..

BoConcept - conditions on delivery times and on items purchaced

2009-01-18T11:41:00.010+02:00

1) After assembling tens of BoConcept pieces I understood how to manage a low priced-quality-brand.
2) After waiting my stools for 5 months my understanding got deeper.
3) After ccomparing my stools to the ones I ordered, I realized that I have been fucked up.
4) After sales manager informed me yesterday, that there's no way to get the stools in original design, I decided that Bo Concept is not a kind of company I want to be dealing with..
____________
Update:
BoConcept contacted 23rd Jan and denied they had any responsibility for this issue. -According to them the retailer should have known that the item is changed, and the original design should not be to be seen.

-Another story is that, was it during the 5 months that I waited these stools, when they found out that original design had problems, created a backup plan and shipped the orders?
Case closed. -Just need a little chat with the retailer.
____________

What do you think, can these item be considered as the same?
Original pictures from the store (solid wood):

The ones I received after paying over 100€/pc (mdf):

iTunes - billing errors (and improvements on DRM)

2009-01-14T21:00:00.010+02:00

I've enjoyed using iTunes a lot and a happy news is that the music will be finally DRM free!

But I also spotted an annoying problem. If I happen to press Buy -button twice -or three times as I once did - it seems that I also get billed three times!

I'm sure nobody wants to buy same track several times and that the case wouldn't be hard to block. So the conclusion would be that it is left there to gain few dollars more.
Now I'm interested to see if billing really goes like this and will update this entry accordingly. -But anyhow having these doubts and worries in users minds isn't actually the best promotion for any kind of service.
____________
Update 1) 15.1.09
Yes, as I assumed 29,70€ charged instead of 9,90.
I have been Reporting a problem now for two weeks, without UI indicating that reporting feature would be working. -Next step is that I try to find some human contact from www.apple.fi

Update 2) An hour later
I managed to complete reporting after some search after a drop down menu mentioned in Apple support:To report an accidental purchase:
1. Locate the item in your Purchase history
2. Click the "Report a Problem" link
3. Select "I inadvertently purchased this item" from the drop down menu
4. Enter notes explaining the situation in the Comments section
Our support agents will review your request and get back to you as quickly as possible.

Update 3) (16.1.09)
During the same night I had received a corrective email from Apple. That was prompt!
The content was bit of an US. style service jargon, but still it pleaes:
Thank you for being valued iTunes customer and have a wonderful weekend, Perttu____________
Does it come to your mind pushing the Report a problem text here (pic)?! -At least I thought problem was marked already and pushed Done-button. -Well now I'm waiting for somebody to contact..

New Topic - Favorites

2009-01-11T09:42:00.002+02:00

With this post I'm launching a new Topic to the right hand side menu.
Favorites will include many items from highlights but present more clearly my favorites.

In this case I want to recon that despite the somewhat artificial taste of Rainbow Strawberry jam, it's the best jam I've ever used on my delicate pancakes!

Christmas came again

2009-01-11T09:34:00.001+02:00

Now I see the reason for the americans calling this a holiday Season.. Slightly before christmas I bought the best rally game available (and possibly ever made) Sega Rally and the christmas was early. (for X360 Colin McRay rally is available only as Dirt - waste of money I would say)
But, using those tiny controller sticks but an idea of force feedback wheel into my head. And I just had to go to the city..

The force feedback wheel makes the steering much harder, especially correction moves need much more effort and speed compared to sticks. But who said driving a WRC would be an easy job. Luckily I'm steadily gaining my usual speed back. -Great purchase!

Also I started a modification work on the controller. Despite the plasticy feeling the designers have done fairly good job on the usability and ergonomics side. You can hold wheel in your lap or on top of the stool or even attach it securely to the table. -How ever it could be smaller, and it could provide some features to make it conveniently storable.
-My choise seems to rely on removing excess plastic parts and turning one Ikea stool into a small WRC cockpit ;)

Hilarious MacBook parody

2009-01-08T10:43:00.000+02:00

Added feature for dog flex

2009-01-03T23:17:00.001+02:00

Carrying a poop-bag is supposed to be a natural and daily job for a dog owner. -Why not to ad a hook or holder for the poop-bag and get rid of tying or occupying the other hand? Even the ergonomy and balance would support adding a loop to the lowest point of the flex.

80's style christmas decorations - for the bold ones

2009-01-01T10:15:00.001+02:00

I guess colorfull christmas lights have been a global hit in 80's? Fortunately the illumination boom has settled and colors generally been tuned down in Finland and for sure not reached disproportionate scale like american youTube video Wizards of Winter illustrates.
How ever, I have never spotted these color lights made out of fur before. -Definitely a future collector item! =)

Creating value out of thin air

2008-12-31T17:23:00.001+02:00

Not that I have anything against washing my hands with normal soaps, but this foam stuff provided by Lindström makes me choose my coffee places according to it's availability!

The foam form also decreases it's consumption and impact to the nature.
Unfortunately the positive green effect is on later builds destroyed by removing the mechanical lever and making the container battery powered.

Trend of adding more and more electronics and batteries to simple gadgets is really unfortunate and saddening. The more sustainable way would be to make robust enough constructions and provide good aftersales support.

Perfect combination - Tsokka

2008-12-22T15:13:00.003+02:00

Sometimes nature and technology create a perfection.
Tsokka, Pyhä.

I have to say that Tsokka is a refreshing exception on the Lappish service scene. (Not the typical ripping your money on your holiday) Really good food, great selection of drinks and dedicated staff.

Hating wet weather - no wonder!

2008-12-20T12:57:00.005+02:00

Found one possible reason for me hating these current wet weathers.
My dear old boots seem to be in the end of their journey. These boots have walked on Copacabana, hiked on the Scotland highland, been carried on a tray by security woman in Tokyo airport and in almost every other place I've been in last 7 years -year around.
Since I'm from Laihia, I should understand that these are still in perfectly good shape othervice than the soles, and repair these or at least start using these only on dry weather. Or propose these to the Museum of stingyness in Laihia, where there's bunch of interesting items that has been used to the very end. But these are bit too normal for the museum, so I'll drop them to the bin with good consciousness. But for certain, my next boots will also be made by Jalas!

Todays work challenge

2008-12-12T13:43:00.000+02:00

Adapting to high altitudes, before weekends downhill.

Ceramics

2008-12-09T22:00:00.000+02:00

Since our design school was a bit stingy to arrange courses in ceramics, I've tried to fill the gap on my own time.
This piece is roller bearing inspirated bowl for Fazer's Green balls (my christmas time favorite).
It's all about learning the basics, but I just love the fact that my sketch book is filling with ideas far quicker than I'm able to try anything in real life :)

Directional indicators doing their job too well

2008-12-09T21:58:00.000+02:00

Is there a standard which is defining that turn signal lights have to be so bright that they will blind you every time you wait at traffic lights?
It's like car industry version of tv add, which will blow your mind after tight concentration of a movie like "NOLLA SATA SATA, MITEN VOIN AUTTAA"!!! Luckily they tuned it down to the level of normal adds. And why is it necessary to have higher volume on adds than on actual tv content - really?

Legos - after long time

2008-11-21T09:10:00.011+02:00

The christmas came early this year. I ended up to toy shelves and bought a box of technic Legos.

It seems that the prices have gone down, which is nice :) Competitive pricing is necessity for Lego, after they have lost the competitive edge what they used to have 15 years ago. Now after some years and seeing some rationalizing actions in companies it is interesting to see how profitability crisis in Lego has affected to the product itself.
-First disappointment was the package. No change of peeking in and looking all the interesting new parts. This one was glued closed. To open the box, I had to brake the front. Although this probably saves several cents, I personally would have considered different direction. One of the problems with legos is that you might want to keep them safe and possibly in boxes. In this respect the old boxes were more trustworthy.
Update 1) Actually markings on the package led me tear away the Hinge of the package. The tape which was closing the package on the front wa not marked clearly. And attached illustration about the rip seal was lightly dubious.
-Another eye catching thing was that instead of separating different sized part into pits on a box, the package included several plastic bags, including various parts, possibly coming from different plants or lines, but including parts not considered to belong with each other.
-But the best part is that there's a huge amount of new parts which I wanted to create already when I was ten (still dreaming to be a lego designer some day;)

This also creates a sociological test. -For kids, building legos is considered to be way more constructive than playing video games. When a grown man leaves battle on the tv-screen and starts to play with legos as recreation it will be interesting to see how people around value the change.
Update 2) Legos are not considered important for grown person, thus building those is considered as escapism in a relationhip ;)

Guitar Hero goes cycling

2008-11-19T18:17:00.002+02:00

There are times that even a open minded guy like me feels himself like old fart. There is a possibility that you've felt it already when you saw somebody playing Guitar Hero.You know the game, where a player is trying to press right buttons in right order based on music. -Despite of the fact that it's super popular it somehow reminds me of of late Spede Pasanen.
After seeing this video we can share the feeling of being old farts. Oh my what new-school keeps bringing to us; Bike Hero!

Improved Google Reader for mobiles

2008-11-09T19:15:00.000+02:00

I'm actually not sure did Google update the whole mobile reader or is the browser on my Nokia 5800 able to use the site better than N95-8GB.
Anyway it looks like the whole format has been made for iPhone, since the layout and button graphics are identical.
Anyway, the best thing is that now mobile reader comes with full features, not only with long list of random feeds. =)

Minimalism in presentation

2008-11-07T21:48:00.003+02:00

I have to admit that I love the minimalistic presentation of finnish people. The tendency is to keep it in mere minimum and the actual issue. When mediterrainean (or swedish) culture collides with ours, it's usually getting annoying to have conversations about the topic, just to spend some time around bending some facts.

Timer for engine heating

2008-11-04T19:55:00.003+02:00

Time to plug your Toyota into winter-AC.
My first encounter with my current heating timer was filled with amaze. Is this the most perfect example of design and mechanics not working together or is this the example of what happens when R&D hasn't used any UX-input.

Is it really so that nobody figured that I most probably want to toggle the power for NEXT few hours, and not for the past.
Secondary scenario would be that I come from work at afternoon, and want to set the heating on for the next morning. This would mean that the mysterious opening should be a bit wider, to reach times at the range of 15 hours. Now the hours available for settingare between 18-24 hours.

Pohjanmaa - or how do you call it?

2008-10-22T20:25:00.001+03:00

I was reading a Blue1 Dream magazine where there was the attached story about a costume from my neighbourhood, Pohjanmaa.
The problem is how to translate it to english.. Direct translation would be bottom-land. Many people call the area like in the article, as east botnia, or even use the swedish word österbotten (as it was any easier to get), both meaning "east bottom". This refers to the time when Finland was part Sweden, and Pohjanmaa was the old sea bottom on eastern side of the bay. This is a similar type of geocraphical relict as East Indian Islands in Caribian.
I often use the phrase west coast, which might be more easy to comprehend without the knowledge about the finnish history.

Facebook jamming emails with nonsense

2008-10-18T10:17:00.005+03:00

I'm a regular user of Facebook and rather untrendly consider it as a good service. I have been complaining earlier about the security issues in article Contradictions and safety in Facebook. Fortunately they made some changes and provided more options as article Facebook makes improvements for privacy describes, but unfortunately there is too many options now. There is basicly three levels of friends in Facebook users, friends who you keep contact to also other vice, friends that you want to maintain but are not so close to you and then the ones that you wish to add, because you know them, but don't want to open your life to. -Why not make ready made options based on these three groups?

Another thing which is bugging me (and probably millions of others), is that I need to have a dedicated email account to direct the amazing amount of spam which coming from Facebook when my friend comments on my picture or changes his status.
-Why can't I turn of this function if I already visit the service twice a day and have the update RSS feed coming to my intranet page?!
-I would imagine that that kind of mass posting is already doing something for global use of data transfer statistics ;D

CORRECTION: There actually is an option to turn off the email notifications. Actually 2 pages of option where to choose the occasions you wish to be notified. (See PIC) -How PC can you go?

It's smelling like winter

2008-10-09T14:18:00.003+03:00

Nice sun shiny autumn is turning into winter. First morning frost was visible this morning.

Portable navigation

2008-09-30T16:55:00.003+03:00

I follow a blog called Strange maps after being somewhat map-addict. Today I found a article originally from Ananova; World's first sat nav - from 1920.

A great item! =) -I let the picture do the speaking.
The Plus Fours Routefinder is currently shown at British Library in London, along many other similar products, which just quite didn't rock the markets the way their inventors wanted..

Chocolate -out of the- box experience

2008-09-27T16:51:00.001+03:00

High quality chocolates are often packed into a cardboard boxes. The orientation of the chocolate bar might be a relevant factor in paper packaging, but box offers a possibility to improve the user experience.
These boxes are often opened from the bottom. And after the opening, the bar lays on the premium looking folio -upside down.
Manufacturer could turn the bar around, thus facing up for customers delight and to show the high quality surface of the chocolade instead of the bottom..