The mentality when driving is all about getting to your destination quickly. We drive five to ten miles per hour over the speed limit, knowing that the risk of a ticket is minimal. Police are too busy with many other things to pull you over for five over the speed limit. It’s too much paperwork and too much risk for the officer. The design of our streets is often about speed and not safety. Everything is encouraging drivers to go faster than the posted speed limit. As speed increases, that risk continues to increase. I don’t think we often process or even discuss how risky this behavior is. Driving is an accepted necessity, and traffic violence is largely unquestioned.

Ask for big ideas and small ideas, and say thanks for the changes made. It is true that if you ask for a big idea, you will most likely get a flat “No” as a response. That is okay. Public transit and alternative transportation must be invested in to make a livable city as the city grows. Yet, they face steep opposition. Changing anything in the environment is going to cause backlash. Many of the ways to make a city a better place for humans to be are also unpopular decisions to make. Slowing traffic down causes traffic to flow better and makes the street safer for all involved, yet achieving that takes political will.

This is where urban design has failed. Urban design got stuck. When automobiles were first beginning to take over roads, there was a lot of experimentation. There is a lot of learning going on. Governments had to come up with new laws and guidelines. This accelerated post-WWII when The US shifted into suburbs—building lots of new housing and roads. The guidelines solidified at this point.

I love the design of rotary dial telephones. Henry Dreyfuss designed many products that have become absolute classics. He focused on what is now known as human-centered design. His design process will look familiar to any current product designer. Learn, make, share, repeat.

Seek to notice what needs to be done and have the initiative to follow through. The research phase of the design process is guided by the idea that we are here to notice. Keen attention to nuances paired with deducing appropriate interventions represents foundational elements of design.

Linocut and rubber stamps are low-cost entries into the world of printmaking.

It feels rebellious. The rough, bold linocut style lets you break free from expecting perfect realism. There's a punk-rock-like freedom in rough, imperfect lines and shapes. It is very different from my day-to-day building of digital products.

Craft is critical for product designers because the quality of details directly influences how users experience a product daily. Well-crafted interfaces feel reliable and inspire confidence. But craft involves more than just meeting basic requirements - it means meticulously refining and tailoring each touchpoint users interact with.

Noticing Vol. 5: Take a break—no discussion of the newest tech trend or the top five blah blah blah. The Noticing series is all about small moments. This week’s post includes:

• The gorgeous Clyfford Still Museum is an oasis in the city. Designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works.

• A fantastic example of the missing middle in architecture.

• A visit to the Denver Art Museum. I went to see the Russells in Denver and ended up wandering The 19th Century in European and American Art Galleries

• An evening at Matter Print Shop with Rick Griffith

What are the online equivalents of your local coffee shop? Where are the places you hang out and support that aren’t the big box stores?

Sidewalk stamps update for January 2024: The design quality of these stamps is fantastic. It is a little exercise in branding. The information must be compact. There is usually space to add the year the concrete was poured. I have found a few made of metal plates placed in the concrete.

I love the visual complexity of cities. The ever-shifting variety of clutter to discover.

We can design our streets to be safe. We can use technology to enforce existing laws to make streets safer. Changing street design is hard; changing folk’s mental models is even harder. It is easier when the physical environment first changes. A great example is curb cuts. The little ramps at crosswalks with bumps. Dig into the history of those curb cuts, and you see a slow, hard-fought process.

Great design solutions emerge from deep domain expertise fused with user empathy. While solid fundamentals like visual communication, information architecture, and interaction patterns form a foundation, designers must level up their subject matter credentials to create genuinely impactful solutions.

Wanderings from this past week include a trip to History Colorado Center, our toddlers’ current favorite museum, and Matter’s annual party.