"What is beautiful to you?

I was recently interviewed by a German magazine regarding the beautiful objects that I own ... I realized that ownership ceases to make things beautiful.

As I look for designed objects in my studio that "signify beauty" I find many examples, yet none of them are entirely beautiful to me. I find beauty in freshness and fragility -- two qualities that the modern designed object is not allowed to possess. Once an object is acquired, it eventually becomes stale in your apartment; were an object to be crafted as to break upon the slightest touch, it could not be sold. For these reasons I find my beauty in nature, where every item has a purpose and a life cycle that is perfectly natural.

The moth: On a walk around my home, I saw this beautiful white moth dying on the paved road. The contrast between the whiteness of nature, and the darkness of manmade materials -- combined with the two deaths -- one of the moth, the other of the ground that lay beneath the pavement. This complex, yet simple moment of the lightness of life to soon vanish into the dark ... rendered in a black and white palette represents the kind of beauty that cannot be owned, but only experienced."

"Today I recognized that a good leader is someone that stands for the strengths of her people. When a collective is under attack, she is a shield to protect her people and also a spear to advance the vision forward.

In movies we often see two scenarios: 1) the leader is surrounded by her soldiers as a wall of protection; or 2) the leader is the one that is the first to rush into battle. In the first scenario, the concept is to "protect the leader so that she may survive"; in the second scenario the concept is to "lead the people in the way forward risking her own mind and body." The former method makes sense from a rational standpoint: if the leader is destroyed early on, then there is nobody to lead.

In a sense, the latter method posits a continuous emergence of new leaders such that when the leader at the front is possibly wiped out, that among those that follow there shall be new leaders that naturally emerge to push the front forward even when the original leader is gone. As a child I grew up primarily watching movies where leaders behave in a Type 2 fashion. It's amazing how the kind of movies you watch as a child influence really do influence your adult life behavior :-)

In summary, a Type 2 leader is inevitably the most unprotected person on the planet and is arguably not as smart as a Type 1 leader that is oppositely the most protected person around. A Type 2 leader leads with passion -- which to her followers can be quite a thrill; a Type 1 leader leads with their mind -- which makes much more sense but doesn't make as good of a movie. A Type 2 leader is confident in herself, and not concerned for her well-being. By nature of her passion, she is dangerous to her team as she inspires them to follow her into battle; a Type 1 leader thinks her position out carefully, and is willing to see the team around her take successive hits as team members are moved around strategically by the leader to score the all important winning of the war.

Hmmm. I thought about this once, haven't I? Ah yes, two years ago now. Here it is. It was then that I began to believe that the Type 1 approach was important to consider. Strange how two years later I am re-engaged by the excitement of a Type 2 approach. It must be my Netflix queue. I believe that my only recourse is to Do Both.. Darn. It's never simple, is it? "

bento.

bento is a japanese lunch box. check the links below for a specific history. i guess there are specific rules on how to pack one, but i find the best way is to learn about japanese cooking and look at bento blogs. color, arrangement, and variety are the most important elements to consider when packing a bento. a bento should be visually appealing and flavors should complement each other yet provide enough variety and nutrition that a person feels satisfied (not stuffed) after eating it.

prepare good bento items as part of dinner and keep the season in mind when creating menus. good bento items are things that taste good after sitting overnight and when eaten at room temperature. simmered vegetables, stir fries, meats and fish cooked in miso or other seasonings, and mixed rice dishes are examples of good bento foods. while i tend to lean more towards using japanese foods, pretty much any type of food can be packed in a bento style.

color.

i use color to decide what to put into my bento; a variety of color means a variety of nutrition. i start with something brown and something white (usually meat and rice). then i include at least 2 of the following colors: green, yellow, and orange. for accent, i include at least 1 of the following colors: red, pink, and purple. use small portions to avoid too much of one color. some items have two colors, for instance salmon is both brown and pink, shrimp is pink and white, pork can be red and brown, and donburi and stir fry are many colors. use colorful garnishes like umeboshi, furikake, nori flakes, and bonito flakes for accent. you can include 2 items that are the same color or different shades of the same color as long as they have different shapes, like asparagus (dark green, hard, smooth) and chinese cabbage (light green, soft, leafy).

arrangement.

i also use color as a guideline for arrangement. when arranged well, a colorful bento can even compensate for lack of decorative ability. seperate bright colored items by placing them around neutral colored items. colorful items can go next to other colorful items that are complementary (warm colors next to cool colors). green is a cool color and goes well next to warm colors like orange or yellow. pink is a gentle color and goes well with yellow and white, but is generally overpowered by orange and brown. purple does not look good next to orange, but works well with brown and green. dark and light colors go well together, as do bright and muted colors. separate items that are similar colors by putting them in different compartments or on opposite ends of the same compartment.

another guideline for arrangement is the nature of the food itself. you don’t want the wrong flavors mixing into each other. vinegared foods should be placed in a foil cup or on a lettuce leaf. foods with sauces should be separated with a lettuce leaf or a plastic divider, or placed next to rice or other foods that complement the sauce. for instance, place teriyaki over rice or next to hijiki. soy egg or simmered vegetables (that aren’t green) can go next to ohitashi. place fruit in a paper cup, on plastic, or on a plastic seperator.

i’ve posted links on the sidebar under “bento inspiration” to other bento sites that illustrate arrangment (there’s also a fun virtual bento game linked below). when looking at japanese bento sites, even if you can’t read what’s in the bento box pictured, you can generally tell the nature of the food by how it is placed with other items. the best english language resource for bento examples and recipes is Naomi Kijima’s book “Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go”, linked under cookbooks.

variety.

when looking at other bento blogs or books, you’ll notice many different bento boxes are used for one person. using different shaped bento boxes encourages different arrangements and adds variety to the lunch. basic shapes are the half moon, oval, square, and rectangle. smaller containers can also be added for extra side dishes that don’t fit into the main box.

when purchasing a japanese bento box, as a westerner, it is important to note that food portions in japan are smaller than food portions in the west. consider the size of the bento when you buy. most bento boxes are around 6″ long and 3.5″ wide. my oval one is 5 x 3.5 x 7″ (deep). sometimes, i’m really hungry and my bento just isn’t enough. a side container with a little bit extra, like a salad, onigiri, a sandwich, or a slice of banana bread or zucchini bread, is ideal for days like that. for side containers, i use reusable disposable plasticware available in most grocery stores.

another option for larger appetites is to use a larger bento box. some of the larger bentos available are fancy laquerware which, while pretty, isn’t my ideal choice for day to day use. i found the best large size bento box at my local asian grocery, uwajimaya, a line of plasticware called lock&lock. the containers are square, rectangle, and round, and some even come with dividers. they also make side dish containers in different colors. the products seem oriented towards bento, and they are very inexpensive compared to nicer bento boxes ($4.50 for a larger box with 2 removable compartments).

advantages.

bento and japanese cooking make it easy to integrate different flavors depending on your preference, as well the variety provides good nutrition and an enjoyable lunch experience. i enjoy cooking japanese food because i can use the same base set of ingredients and there is ample variety to keep it interesting. i particularly enjoy packing bento because it provides an aesthetic relationship to food and allows for a productive creative outlet. and for some reason, food in a bento seems to taste better… maybe cuz it’s made with love. ;D

'borrowed from http://phreshp0rk.wordpress.com/about-bento/'

By Luca Mascaro
Published: June 4, 2007

On a quiet spring morning, one of our clients—the director of a small firm with ten employees—called our office and wanted to see me the very same day to discuss a new project. When we met in the afternoon, he told me his firm needed a new Web site for the launch of their latest product, which they would promote—and, hopefully, sell—only on the Web. The site was to include communications tools for interacting with customers, Help, and a blog on which they’d announce new versions of the product.

Nothing strange so far. The firm meant to invest, as it had previously done, in user-centered design, online promotion, and development by my firm and two other partners. However, toward the end of the meeting, the director told me that everything must be online in three weeks’ time for a fair, and the whole site must be completed on a budget of less than $15,000.

Many firms and professionals who work internationally in user-centered design would not have taken up the challenge. In addition to the project’s limited budget, time is vital during the design phase. Typically, the more time you have, the better the solution you are likely to devise, because you can metabolize more ideas and reflect at length on more user interface and interaction design issues.

Unfortunately, though, the Southern European market comprises mainly small firms who use the Web to support their traditional businesses and, therefore, have neither the budget nor the time for ideally conceived projects. So I accepted the engagement—and my partners are still furious with me.

The site was online after three weeks. Though the project was not perfect, it turned out well. How did we manage this, considering that we followed all of the usual design phases? Our success was primarily the result of four factors that we were able to exploit and manage during the design project, which enabled us to make design decisions quickly and move on with great agility.

1—The best designer for a project is one who knows the product domain.

To carefully weigh any design decision, you need to consider all of the goals, tasks, functions, information, and the context that should factor in the shaping of a Web site. On an ideal project, you could deliberate upon these elements for weeks. Neglecting some of them could lead to the wrong design decision, which would likely entail changes at a later stage of the project.

However, you can more quickly understand a problem that you need to solve when you involve one or more users in defining the problem, because the users already know the domain and the best way of working from past experience. Therefore, we requested that someone from our client's team—who had a better understanding of users’ needs—be present on our premises throughout the entire design stage. Thus, we were able ask him questions directly, at any time, and involve him in making decisions.

2—All activities in a UCD process are useful, but some more useful than others.

In the process of user-centered design, many activities can help us reach a better understanding and enable us to achieve a more efficient design. Nevertheless, depending on the product you are designing, some of these activities matter more than others—at least as regards efficiently reaching usability goals. In our experience, performing just 30–40% of these activities substantially ensures the usability of 70–80% of the product, while the remaining activities merely add polish.

On an agile project—when time is limited—it is, therefore, vital to know how to identify the activities on which to concentrate your efforts. But such decisions are not obvious, because they are not based on objective information. You have to rely solely on the team’s experience. You reach decisions according to each member’s know-how.

3—Do fast paper prototyping, then quickly test your prototype on friends and relatives.

Running usability tests with users is always helpful, but if you must complete a project very quickly, you cannot aim at achieving the highest quality in all aspects of the product’s design. Most significantly, you do not have enough leeway to do in-depth preparation for usability tests. Usability tests thus become a means of helping you make design decisions rather than verifying the stability of a particular release. So you throw together a usability test on the spot, then you perform the test with whomever is available, because there is no time to select users from among those the site is targeted toward. Finally, you use the test results to help you choose from among several design solutions rather than to find usability problems.

Some people might object that targeted users and random users might use a site differently. This is true, but usability tests with any type of users usually reveal both mistakes and simpler, more elegant solutions.

4—The ability to explain a design efficiently is vital to the success of a project.

One of the most important aspects of the work of designers do on a project is their ability to explain their choices and the reasoning that led to given design solutions—both to their clients and to other member of a product team. Clear communication is vital to the smooth progress of a project, as even a single misunderstanding or communication glitch can lead to mistakes during implementation.

In the situation I’ve described, the only solution was to work in a single space with all of the members of the team, involving everyone at each stage of the design. Working in this way, everyone knew immediately how we’d arrived at each design decision, and they felt responsible for and committed to the goals of the project.

In this case, we did detailed design on paper—about half of the design—and the common parts of the design on a whiteboard. Doing so enabled all of the team members to contribute to and iteratively refine the design, because it was always before their eyes. Sharing the same space also enabled the project manager to quickly track each aspect of the project and thus to schedule design and implementation concurrently, which made it possible to finish the project within a few weeks.

Drawing lessons from my experience with this kind of agile approach, I can state that its advantage is certainly the ability to produce a satisfying result despite time and budget constraints—even though the result is not perfect and will certainly need refinement later on. Another advantage of this kind of project is that both our team and our client’s team got to know each other better and learned how to exploit each person’s know-how, improving the overall ability of the design team.

In Praise of Resource Constrains

IBM discovered decades ago that adding programmers to a software project that was late did not help. Indeed, progress slowed even more. The "resource-driven mindset," sometimes known as "throw more money at the problem," is limited, the authors argue. Yet this mindset has so dominated the research agenda that it has clouded our consideration of many situations in which scarce resources (precisely because they are scarce) are desirable, potentially leading to breakthrough performance. Resource constraints fuel innovation in two ways: through entrepreneurial, social-network approaches to securing the missing funds or the required personnel, and because teams often produce better results as a direct result of the constraints. The human mind is most productive when restricted, the authors maintain. Limited — or better focused — by specific rules and constraints, we are more likely to recognize an unexpected idea. Witness the outcome of a Cold War-era race between General Electric and BMW teams to design adequately cooled jet engines. The U.S. team had a virtual blank check, used the most advanced materials and spent nearly twice as much as the Manhattan Project did. The German team, which had significantly less funding at its disposal, came up with a simple yet elegant design principle that remains in use to this day.

Michael Gibbert is an assistant professor of management at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy). Martin Hoegl is a professor of leadership and human resource management at WHU — Otto Beisheim School of Management (Koblenz, Germany). Liisa Välikangas is a professor of innovation management at the Helsinki School of Economics (Fi