On Doing http://www.on-doing.com On the applied arts and its related science Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:18:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3-alpha en electronics http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/electronics/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/electronics/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:18:14 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/electronics/ What is design to do with?

Everything?

In the past three weeks, I’ve traveled the learning curve of electronics with a lot of joy, with an indescribable sense of naivety and with the feeling that is very important to my future career development. However, I feel that could be said almost of anything regarding design.

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/electronics/feed/ It’s coming to an end http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/its-coming-to-an-end/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/its-coming-to-an-end/#comments Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:17:54 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/little-stories/its-coming-to-an-end/ I’ve been here in the US for a little more than two months. It’s been a new and shocking experience in many senses. But my first quarter is about to end. I will be here for six quarters, but three of them will be devoted to the thesis. I know what they talk about now when they say prototype, need-finding, human factors, framework.

image link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Augmented_sixth_example.png

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/its-coming-to-an-end/feed/ Designer-Client interaction http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/designer-client-interaction/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/designer-client-interaction/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:28:14 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/designer-client-interaction/ This quarter I took a very interesting class called Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction, dictated by Scott Klemmer here at Stanford. It basically showed us how to build and, above all, how to test an interaction. It is supposed to be about the relation between a human and a machine…but sometimes I thought we were talking about human-human interaction.

image link: http://www.russianspy.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/putin_indonesia.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/designer-client-interaction/feed/ Transition technologies http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/transition-technologies/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/transition-technologies/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:28:07 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/transition-technologies/ Even inside the same discipline, technology does not advances on a par. The digital filming techniques, by instance, have revolutionized the movie industry. However, in many places, we continue to see those movies through an analogical device, with a film and a source of light.

image link: http://www.playthings.com/articles/blog/390000439/20080821/rabbit_turtle.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/transition-technologies/feed/ Intuitive and rhetoric http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/intuitive-and-rhetoric/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/intuitive-and-rhetoric/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:01:11 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/intuitive-and-rhetoric/ I think Stanford is doing a good job in trying to take a process out of the chaos of design work.  Observation, insights, design actions, brainstormin, etc. However, as in any other synthesis effort, those things that are hard to talk-about are being left outside. I can easily think of two that are, in my opinion, pillars of design work. I mentioned them in the title of this post.

image link: http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/4/4a/Plato-raphael.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/intuitive-and-rhetoric/feed/ Android http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/android/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/android/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:25:26 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/android/ I’ve been reading some stuff about the G1 phone because I wanted to buy an Iphone and I can’t because I don’t have a SSN…besides, it’s been sometime since I’m kind of pissed off by Apple, with all their nineteenth century business model disguised as trendy stuff. They do built great things but…why all this obsolete protection?

image link: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrismaker/LEGOTIC-Hand/hand12.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/android/feed/ Every answer http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/every-answer/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/every-answer/#comments Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:24:51 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/every-answer/ Recently I interviewed the CEO of a big company, and even though he’s a very nice guy, I was surprised by how he had a very sure answer for everything.

image link: http://blog.nbc.com/ross_blog/Captain%20Answer%20LOGO.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/every-answer/feed/ Reflect http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/reflect/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/reflect/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:18:32 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/reflect/ We are supposed to, every week, write these reflections for 313. The idea is to sit down and just think, about something related to design, and then to post it here. I did so a couple of times already, although it is sometimes hard, specially because there is always a “forming” to be done, which doesn’t have necessarily to do with thinking.

image link: http://www.etcracingprograms.com/images/videos/wheel%20images/forming-panel.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/reflect/feed/ Design with words, maybe before them http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/design-with-words-maybe-before-them/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/design-with-words-maybe-before-them/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:50:41 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/design-with-words-maybe-before-them/ Once, some time ago, I heard a history about greek ships. Before Archimedes, the general thought was that the ships floated because the material they were made of, wood; floats. So, wood and ship were so close together as concepts, that thinking about a metal ship not only was considered absurd but illogical. Metal doesn’t floats.

In ancient Greece, when you said “to ploion” (greek for a ship), you were saying “wooden ship”, not just “ship”.

Image: http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/clipart/Greeks/images/Greek%20ship_jpg.jpg

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]]> http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/design-with-words-maybe-before-them/feed/ Our place in the wor(ld(k). Please don’t turn into a maniac. http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/our-place-in-the-worldk-please-dont-turn-into-a-maniac/ http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/our-place-in-the-worldk-please-dont-turn-into-a-maniac/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:26:41 +0000 martinalonso http://www.on-doing.com/centernotes/our-place-in-the-worldk-please-dont-turn-into-a-maniac/ I’ve been thinking about these three weeks, trying to figure out how my future life as a professional will be. I don’t like to think of me as a “designer” rather than a plain person (I’ve always disliked being called an “architect” right after my graduation, and so I will continue to do after my graduation from this program. I can’t think of me as something different from the rest just for what I do for living and enjoying). I don’t like to think that I know things that nobody does. In fact, I do think that everything that I know that is not known by everybody (or at least not easily knowable by anybody) is banal knowledge…that is almost a description of a guy that can’t but fill his head out of many little surface-things, while knowing nothing much of any of them.

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