nzeldes 
One of the first scientific facts you learn as a child is that snowflakes, those lovely art creations of nature, have a six-fold symmetry. And they do; the properties of water molecules see to that. Hence the standard symbol for snow (and freezing, and cold in general). One of the much later facts you learn … Read more
Sure thing, Form should follow Function… but some designers haven’t heard of that. Like the Sony designers responsible for the two weird design choices below. Round knobs are round because they need to be gripped and rotated… an optimal design for our opposable-thumb grip. But the radio below has a round knob whose function is … Read more
The intense pressure of natural selection has given us many magnificent examples of optimized design in nature. Here is a lovely case: the dentition of Heterodontus Portusjacksoni, the Port Jackson shark. I saw these jaws at a nature museum and just had to snap a photo… This shark has unusual teeth – none of the … Read more
I came upon this well-meaning sign at a university guest house. Can’t fault its call for responsible behavior, but what were they thinking when they created it? It never ceases to amaze me how little attention people pay to creating text that is easy to read. You see PowerPoint slides with red text on a … Read more
Children in Oregon can enjoy giant redwood forests… but here in the holy land a semi-arid climate and millennia of human abuse force us to make do with less. Still, the humble grasses, weeds, wildflowers and thorny shrubs that we do have make an exuberant comeback every spring; and they remind me of an unforgettable … Read more
Those depressing multi-story parking structures are an unavoidable part of a driver’s life… and they can get quite annoying when you need to find your way out of one. Sure, there are signs. Here, for example, is one garage that takes no chances on our missing the exit, and advertises it bilingually and redundantly: The … Read more
A friend pointed me at this image, which seems to have gone viral online: Now, this is pretty hilarious as a joke, but there are some serious comments it brings to mind. First, the “normal” laundry instructions use icons instead of words, but unless you’re a laundry expert these convey no universally obvious meaning … Read more
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (1906-1992) was one of the legendary pioneers of computing in the 20th century; among other achievements she had written the first compiler. Here is a well-known photo of her with some colleagues at the console of a Univac-1 computer back in 1957. And whenever I see this photo, I am reminded … Read more
Something weird is happening to car designers. Back in the mid-seventies there was one car in my home town that someone had imported from the US, and I remember how futuristic it looked to us then. Photo source: Wikimedia Commons. This was the remarkably innovative AMC Pacer, and it had those huge wrap-around windows that … Read more
Back then we had the Palm Pilot. It had a gray lo-res screen and minimal capabilities. No wireless, no GPS, no games, just basic PDA funcfions. Compared to the android phone I use now it was like a stone ax. And yet, that old Palm had a key attribute that is long lost: simplicity of … Read more
