Voyeuristic tendencies on social networks are easily exploitable. And LinkedIn apparently keep good track of it. They made this nifty holiday greeting. As LinkedIn allows you to see ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile?’ many people, including myself, find themselves clicking there every once and awhile. To drool over “potential future employers” or just to discover their friend has viewed their profile. This time Snow E. Man had viewed my profile.
By a twist of destiny I attended a one-day workshop for the development of an air quality measurement device. The workshop was initiated by Ed Borden (Pachube) and preceded by two other workshops held in Amsterdam and New York. Instead of endless philosophizing about the ever imminent Internet of Things (or IoT), this workshop was aimed at working a prototype. Name of the prototype: the AirQualityEgg.
Although my personal preparation was non-existent, there were folks coming from the UK, Belgium and even Spain. Really inspiring to see such enthusiasm around a theme which impacts us all.
Read MoreSome posts ago I mentioned a beautifully designed foldable bike, which I now have traced down: it is called Strida.
From Strida 1
To Strida 5
Today I came across a short demo-video of something called virtual assistants. While the term often refers to (human) assistants supporting other people by virtual means. This type of virtual assistant is completely virtual. In short it is a short of interactive FAQ armed with a plethora algorithms (machine learning, language processing) to be able to respond with a correct answer or an appropriate action.
As a designer however I wonder if this type of tool is solving the right problem. If somebody for example is unable to find a certain product on your website, isn’t this because you haven’t designed your website well enough?
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