Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 4)

SM: Did the design tools come about that time as well?

BK: Design tools came just a little bit earlier. I believe IDEO was the first consultancy to make a really major investment in CAD and CAM. They developed a culture of rapid prototyping, which CAD supports well. IDEO policy was such that you never came to a meeting without a prototype. It didn’t matter how ugly it looked, you had to have something in your hand. >>>

Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 3)

SM: Is that how they got the idea for the roller ball itself, or were they prototyping an existing concept?

BK: The idea for the roller ball preceded them; they were just trying to figure out how to make it work. Back in the 1960s, when Doug Engelbart was working for SRI, he built this computer which was about the size of a large office desk. He then faced the challenge of getting data into the computer, so he began to experiment with different ways of entering data. >>>

Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 2)

SM: While you were going through your career transformation, design was also transforming. I am not going to ask you to go through 20th-century design in two seconds, but what was going on with design at that time?

BK: Good, because that would take at least four seconds! Design has been meandering for about 120 years. Around 1980 it meandered to Silicon Valley. >>>

Catching Up on Readings: Hydro Alchemy

Since the last catching up list on April 26, you may have accumulated more backlog. What’s with the Yahoo-Microsoft frenzy? Here’s a quick cache of the articles since then that you may want to make sure you read: >>>

Catching Up on Readings: Bootstrap Yourself!

Amidst the ocean of content that is coming at you, readers, I am sure you find yourselves overwhelmed. Here’s a recap of some articles from this site which you may have missed, but may be worth your time: >>>

The Convergence Device Movement

Apple will be announcing earnings this week. Nokia announced last week, and their guidance was cautious.
Rim already announced an excellent quarter.

My sense is that all three companies will continue to do very well given the at large convergence device movement that is sweeping over our electronics-driven lives. Laptops will be abandoned in favor of these devices. >>>

Deal Radar 2008: Slide

Slide, founded in 2005, is Max Levchin’s second baby. Levchin, founder of PayPal, sold the online payment site to eBay for $1.5 billion, and he intends to do even better with his current venture, Slide. Slide, however, doesn’t look like a great second act to me! >>>

Deal Radar 2008: Yelp

Yelp is a popular site where users review trendy and not-so-trendy local businesses in their city. Yelp users can write reviews, read reviews, discuss topics and share their opinions and experiences with others on an endless list of topics such as restaurants, stores, hairstylists and real estate brokers. Started in 2004 in San Francisco, the site has expanded to cover cities in 37 states, with an aim to go international. >>>