Jim Brumm: Long-Term Thinking for a Short-Sighted World

I rode the Toronto tram system on a recent trip to Toronto. I had to go from the subway to my hotel, and so thought the tram would be the best way. Unfamiliar with the city, or the tram system, I stood next to the driver to get directions of where to go.

“If you want to go there, you should get off at the next stop” he told me.

“Ok, great. That sounds good. Thank you.” I replied, as I walked to the door to get off.

The tram proceeded to blow straight through my stop.

“I thought you said that was my stop.” I said, a little miffed.

“Yeah, but you didn’t ring the bell” he replied, matter-of-factly.

Sitting in my office working on one of the few sunny Saturdays we’ve had so far, I can’t help but get a little distracted. Here’s a quick design critique of my office’s climate control system, so I can feel productive in my procrastination.

The main thing I want to bring attention to is the “Too Warm” and “Too Cool” buttons. Someone at Mistubishi Electric was getting a little too clever here. Buttons should almost always be labelled with what they do. A simple “warmer” or “cooler” probably would have made more sense.

Interface design is about reducing the friction in the interaction as much as possible.

“Increasingly, people seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is baffling—the incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration. Possibly this trend results from a mistaken belief that using a somewhat mysterious device confers an aura of power on the user.” — Niklaus Wirth

From the Programming Quotes Archive

I recently received my first vegetable basket of the year from my farm sharing program (I’ve decided to try and stop using the term “Community Supported Agriculture” because I find it a little unclear).

Besides being delicious, it’s also such a refreshing experience to feel even a little more connection to our food. Take, for example, the following excerpt from an email they recently sent out:

. . .we are blessed with a dynamic and efficient team, which includes Manuel, a foreign worker from Guatemala who is really friendly and adapting to his new environment. In these parts, May 20th is usually the date after which risks of frost have dissipated, but the day before yesterday, the mercury fell very low and affected several tomato plants we had recently planted as well as basil plants. The flea beetles, a tiny coleopteran that emerges from dormancy when the temperatures reach 18ºC, really love our asian greens and have caught us off guard and left little holes in the tender leaves. In the sheepbarn, many lambs have come this spring and we are waiting for a flock of laying hens.

The farm also encourages people to come and visit so they can see exactly where their food comes from. They’ve got a great website too (en Français).

I dropped-by my local pharmacy to buy a new pillow, but was rather flabbergasted to find every single one in a big sturdy box, with no demo models to be seen. As someone who has to be careful about my back, I found this made buying the proper pillow nearly impossible.

The simple fix would be to package them in thick plastic, so the customers can at least get a sense for them. A pillow is a piece of equipment I’ll use more than anything I own. It has to be perfect.

Far too many things are over-packaged—most of the time I want to be able to pick them up, feel them in my hand, and get a sense for how they’re made. I’m no longer satisfied with a photo of the product on the box—photography and Photoshop can make anything look good.

“With type, as with philosophy, music and food, it is better to have a little of the best than to be swamped with the derivative, the careless, the routine.”

- Robert Bringhurst in the Elements of Typographic Style.

A good lesson for everyone, and one that we can extend to many facets in life.

I’ve been working on developing the habit of never buying things on price alone. My goal is to de-commoditize my consumerism as much as possible, to work towards having less stuff, but of a higher quality.

Luxury goods are needlessly expensive. By needlessly, I mean that the price is not related to performance. The price is related to scarcity, brand and storytelling. Luxury goods are organized waste. They say, “I can afford to spend money without regard for intrinsic value.”

Premium goods, on the other hand, are expensive variants of commodity goods. Pay more, get more.

I’m not always a fan of Seth Godin, but he nails it here.