Design Ideas

CEP 917

• April 6, 2004
• March 1, 2004

April 6, 2004

Biohazard Symbol

• Good design
• Designed to nonverbally communicate: "Caution! Dangerous!"

images used without permission

Idea & Concept Map: Total Cost of Ownership

• Idea is good design. I created the concept map, so I'm biased.
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The total price in money, time, and resources of a choice, especially in techonology decisionmaking.
• Concept map tries to express the complexity of TCO, and to cause decisionmakers to think about "invisible" TCO impacts (e.g., burnout, churn).
  • Tries to echo the intimidating aesthetics of the biohazard symbol (e.g., density, sharp edges)
  • Decisionmakers should be cautious. Big changes are dangerous.
• http://www.netc.org/openoptions/images/jpg/map_tco.jpg

March 1, 2004

Ronald McDonald House

• Expecting my first child
• Parenting is a big stress, especially things you can't control
• Visiting our doctor at the Sparrow Medical campus
• http://www.rmhc.com/mission/rmhs/index.html
• 212 Ronald McDonald Houses in 20 countries
• Problem, solution
• Human beings are capable of great evil: rape, murder, genocide
• This is the opposite of those things: It is a great help for times of great hardship
• I hope we never need it, but I'm glad it's there

Guerrilla Theater

• Guerrilla: "a person who engages in irregular warfare especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage" (http://www.m-w.com/)
• Guerrilla theater: "dramatization of a social issue; enacted outside in a park or on the street" (http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/guerrilla+theater)
• Problem: an important message needs to reach a jaded, indifferent public
• Solution: jar people's expectations by staging something crazy and fascinating
• Example: anti-tobacco Connect television ads (http://www.thetruth.com)