Many people have asked for Javier’s presentation on Systems and Beauty (in Spanish only) from last weekend’s UX Spain so we’ve uploaded it to Slideshare, please feel free to download it and share it around or download the file on PDF format.

Los Sistemas y la Belleza (pdf 7 Mb)

Most of our peers have written about last weekend’s hits and misses, Daniel Torres Burriel, Fjord’s Jesús Gorriti and Arquinauta’s Karina Ibarra have pretty good insights on what went on in Salamanca during those two days. Much of the good stuff has already been covered but, from our standpoint, there are just a couple more things we’d like to add to this conversation.

According to official numbers more than 400 people attended. A good sign because it means we’re no longer the same old familiar faces. We never imagined this day would come but…yes, there ARE people out there who have no idea what El Hawaii is, nor care.

What does this mean? It means we’re no longer a familiy-business, it means we can’t hide behind one another, it means our mistakes will no longer be diluted by beer. And this is excellent news because it will make us better professionals. We’ll miss the good old days but it’s time to move on. As Alberto Knapp rightly said, “when you’re comfortable at work, it means you’re dead”.

Unfortunately, we still get bogged down by the same old rhetoric: designers vs developers, user testing vs. no user testing, Madrid vs. the rest of Spain, UX vs design, wireframes vs. no wireframes. The problem is, while we’re discussing these issues (important as they might be) we’re missing out on discussing some pretty important questions, the ones that will actually take us forward.

Are we prepared to craft products for a touch screen world? Do we know enough about industrial design, architecture, product design, universal design principles so we can create stuff that works for interactions that don’t yet exist? Are we prepared to leave the world of menus and submenus and databases to embrace more tangible spaces? (And we’re just beginning to scratch the surface here…)

The things is, while we’re dealing with our identity crises there are people out there doing great things like Paper (to name the first product that comes to mind) and changing the way we interact with things.

There’s the illusion we’re stronger because we get together and discuss things. We’re not. We’re stronger because we do. And we should never forget that. In the end, what we do defines who we are.

Edwin Land once told me…
‘Those people who can stand at the intersection
of the humanities and science, the liberal arts and technology,
that intersection, are the people who can change the world’.

Steve Jobs

Yesterday Edwin H. Land, Polaroid co-founder and the brains behind the SX-70 would have turned 103. Quite a number.

No amount of money, and no small amount of time, can buy taste.

Steve Ballmer via Marco Arment

Taste is like a language: those who know it understand you, those who don’t, never will. Taste is one of those black and white concepts: you either have it or you don’t. No middle grounds. Can you develop it? Yes. (Although aesthetic taste is something you’re born with). Does it make a difference in life? Yes. Always. Can you copy it? No. Never.

Salute Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov, Andrian Nikolayev and Papel Popovich. Pilots of Vostok mission 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Respect.

We’ve been doing a bit of reminiscing today with the Kit-Kat map of Japanese flavors divided by region and wanted to share it. This is at least two years old so there’s nothing new here but we still love it. Unfortunately, we can’t find an english version of this so, if you happen to stumble upon one, give us a shout.

Some of the cool ones:

Sweet: Berry wine, golden peach, custard pudding
Weird: Camembert cheese, soybean paste, lemon vinegar
Savory: Grilled corn, miso, sweet potato, jacket baked potato butter
Beverages: Ramune soda, Earl Grey, caramel macchiato McFlurry

If you’re like us and silly fun facts like these rock your boat you’ll enjoy this list of past and present Kit-Kat flavors (in Japan and elsewhere). Yum!

The London’s Design Museum launched a couple of days ago version 1.1 of their free Collection iPad app. In our bookcase you’ll find this app’s distant cousin from the paper world: Charlotte and Peter Fiell’s Industrial Design A-Z. Put one next to the other one of the pros is blatantly obvious. The rest though have less to do with heftiness and more to do with practicality:

• Products are searchable by date, color, material, location and manufacturer.
• You’ve got pretty good audio and video content by museum director Deyan Sudjic, museum head of learning Helen Charman, and founding director Stephen Bayley.

This app is worth downloading and revising every so often. For those just starting out, it’s  a great read alongside Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. An overview of good, solid basics on product design that give many more insights into fundamental interaction design principles than most design courses out there today.

Things worth noting about the guides:

• You can download all content beforehand so you can have it available offline whenever you want. Even maps with your favorite places.
• The content is excellent. It’s all content from Minube’s community but highly curated by Minube’s staff. So you’ll only have the best of the best.
• You can favorite places and filter information so you only see what you want to see.
• Last but not least, a pretty cool feature are the user guides. They’re available for in-app purchase and take you around specific tours around the city. The ‘best hamburgers’ in town, the ‘best gintonics’, the ‘prettiest parks’, the ‘coolest things about a certain neighborhood’, etc. Anyone can create their own and, if Minube likes it, publish it and share revenue.
• And they’re free.

This is a great step forward for Minube’s enterprise: their product is now fully portable. Paper guides? Who needs them?

We just came across another promising documentary: O’Mast. A glimpse into the craftsmanship of italian tailors. FYI: O’Mast means ‘master’ in the Neapolitan dialect and ‘the man in charge of the workshop’ in the tailoring trade.

After watching the trailer, we couldn’t help but remember a quote from one of the designers interviewed in Jason Cohn’s Eames: the Architect and the Painter.

It’s ok to be exploited as long as you’re exploited by the right master.

We believe in apprenticeships, not internships, apprenticeships. Because there’s nothing like having a master to learn more about one’s craft. Call it a role-model, a hero, whatever. Someone to look up to, someone to learn from. Someone to inspire you. And of course, someone to break free from eventually.

So pick your masters wisely because what you learn today will determine who you are tomorrow. Or at least, that’s what we believe.

You can buy the O’Mast DVD here.

I love this photo.

From left to right. George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom.

Playboy Magazine July issue, 1961. It couldn’t be anywhere else.

You can read the original article here.

It was a happy surprise then to find out that The Getty Conservation Institute has begun a project called the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative. Though it’s international, it’s primary focus will be L.A. The city was a wonderful breeding ground for both designers and architects exploring with new materials, new structures and new proposals. Their first effort will be the Eames House Conservation Project.

Here’s a short video about it: