Sculptures: "Välitä" and "Viesti"

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ;)