Hey!
I am an UX Designer in the San Francisco bay area; so what else is new! haha.
Aside from being the luckiest designer to have had a significant hand in building a successful startup, GrandCentral, which was aquired shortly by Google. I am back in the real world now, doing real work again. Ahh, I welcome the scent of the world outside of Google.
So, who is exactly this Chopstix guy?
In short, an analog designer for a digital world.
It's all about the Approach... Fisker's Electric Cars.
The approach to Hybrid/Electric cars for the mass market has pretty much been designs that are very "pedestrian". The current offerings all seem to be cut from the same fabric; the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight as well as the upcoming Chevrolet Volt all seem to have the same overall shape but with different headlight and grill treatments. The other common approach is that Toyota and Ford have been doing is creating hybrid versions of their gasoline models; Camry hybrid or Ford Fusion hybrid. All these designs seem very plain and not very inspiring. Of course there are people who really don't mind screaming to the whole world that they are doing mankind a favor by driving one of the aforementioned cookie cutter cars, but there is an audience that just wants a really cool car that doesnt scream "I'm an environmentalist". This is where Fisker and Tesla come into the picture, although their current offerings are somewhat pricy to the average car buyer; but wouldn't the Aston Martin DB9 driver want to be green if they can while keeping up with appearances? Sometimes your Prada just clashes with the Prius a little too much, and you don't have a family to haul around; so you don't really need a Camry or Fusion.If the current BIG automakers can start designing cars like the Fisker Karma, I can really see a shift into more widespread acceptance of hybrids or even full electric cars. BMW? Mercedes? Anyone?
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Dim Sum Marketing
For as long as I can remember, Americans generally have a stereotype about Asian cuisine, especially Chinese cuisine. Dim sum as most of you know is much more than your average Asian dumpling sitting in soup. Aside from the generally accepted shrimp dumplings and rice noodles; for the more adventurous there is Beef tripe, duck's feet and the quintessential chicken's feet. Yes, FEET. In case you are wondering, there is a more poetic name for the steamed chicken's feet that you often see pushed around in the dim sum carts; however I've been quite perplexed as to why hasn't anybody bothered to properly translate the name? The Cantonese usually call the braised brown chicken's feet served at many dim sum restaurants "Fung Jao" which for better or worse translates to "Phoenix Claw." I personally think "Phoenix Claw" is a great name, masking the fact that what you are really eating are chicken's feet. In case you're wondering what's chicken's feet in Cantonese... It's "Gai Guek," which refers to an entirely different dish altogether. Gai Guek is just blanched chicken's feet. So why all this chicken's feet explaination? Well this weekend I found the most interesting translation to date. See for yourself in the photo.
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Sometimes there is only one solution
Over the years I've seen countless HTML, Java script, and CSS workarounds for IE6 browser issues. It seemed that for whatever reason, Microsoft's Windows friendly browsers were always the last remaining obstacle to creating both usable and visually rewarding experiences on the internet; this is not an isolated incident for IE6, it was true of all it's predecessors, that came before it.
The real question is, "why don't people upgrade?"
In my situation, I use IE6 for testing what "doesn't work" in IE6! But, from personal experiences, yes I have a Windows box that I occasionally use, is that Microsoft does not make the IE upgrade process very friendly. I can point to an experience last year where my PC kept telling me there was a serious security flaw, unless I upgraded to IE7! The truth of the matter is that Microsoft for whatever reason, back in the days of the browser wars, decided that their browser was going to be integral in their OS, hence things are technically supposed to go haywire if your browser isn't updated. And incase you're wondering,"What if I've decided that Firefox is my default browser on my PC?", you have to upgrade too. Sad, but true.
Question: So what does cheap PC's and scaring people into taking their chances and not upgrading lead to?
Check for yourself: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Answer: At least two years before a product becomes obsolete. As you can see as recent as last year, IE6 still had almost 20% usage!
So, today to my surprise, Twitter displayed this delightful banner urging for my PC to upgrade. I probably won't as this is my test system, but its nice that people are taking a stance on finally slaying this IE6 dragon.
Check out the IE6 must Die Movement on Twitter. http://twibbon.com/Join/IE6-Must-Die
The real question is, "why don't people upgrade?"
In my situation, I use IE6 for testing what "doesn't work" in IE6! But, from personal experiences, yes I have a Windows box that I occasionally use, is that Microsoft does not make the IE upgrade process very friendly. I can point to an experience last year where my PC kept telling me there was a serious security flaw, unless I upgraded to IE7! The truth of the matter is that Microsoft for whatever reason, back in the days of the browser wars, decided that their browser was going to be integral in their OS, hence things are technically supposed to go haywire if your browser isn't updated. And incase you're wondering,"What if I've decided that Firefox is my default browser on my PC?", you have to upgrade too. Sad, but true.
Question: So what does cheap PC's and scaring people into taking their chances and not upgrading lead to?
Check for yourself: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Answer: At least two years before a product becomes obsolete. As you can see as recent as last year, IE6 still had almost 20% usage!
So, today to my surprise, Twitter displayed this delightful banner urging for my PC to upgrade. I probably won't as this is my test system, but its nice that people are taking a stance on finally slaying this IE6 dragon.
Check out the IE6 must Die Movement on Twitter. http://twibbon.com/Join/IE6-Must-Die
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