The most dangerous cost is the cost closest to zero. The most dangerous concept is cheap. The cost close to zero easily becomes invisible. We don’t see it so we don’t think it exists, and that makes us consume with abandon, that makes us waste at will. That which is cheap—or, worse still, free—is nearly… Read More »
Words: Whether it is text or voice, words are how a digital designer primarily thinks. The best designers spend enough time to choose the right word because the right words drive the right actions. Code: Words without code are print. Without good code there can be no Web and the best code is lean. Visual:… Read More »
Many organizations have not really adapted to the Web but rather have made the Web adapt to them and their print processes, their print thinking and their print culture. The characteristics of a print culture are: You are creating a fixed, contained, physical thing. It is much more efficient to publish one large thing than… Read More »
COVID-19 has exposed many organizations as being unable to react quickly enough. When a pandemic has the potential to grow exponentially, decisions that can mitigate against its growth need to be made very quickly. Information that loss of smell was a key symptom for COVID-19 began to emerge in March 2020, yet many governmental and… Read More »
A unique strength of the Web over all other communications channels is its ability to efficiently collect, analyze, organize and publish user-generated content. The combination of digital technology and the wisdom of the crowds is a powerful, revolutionary force. A perfect example of this is a symptom-tracking app launched by researchers at King’s College London… Read More »
Has the Web helped or hindered in dealing with COVID-19? That sounds like a crazy question. Surely, unequivocally, the Web has helped. Just like print opened up the world to new ideas, right? “During the first century after Gutenberg’s invention, print did as much to perpetuate blatant errors as it did to spread enlightened truth,”… Read More »
A specific strength of the Toyota culture is to come up with innovative ways to visualize problems. This is a particularly critical skill when it comes to digital because digital is a reduced sense environment. It’s very hard to get a ‘feel’ for digital problems. Usually, everything is mediated through a small, cold screen. Toyota… Read More »
The Top Tasks data helped focus the conversation in Toyota about quality and reliability. In a company that is obsessed by quality, it became natural to ask: What is a quality digital experience? How do you measure digital quality? To get the answer to these questions, Toyota went back to its roots. “The whole digital… Read More »
I remember once hearing about how Toyota launched in the US. The US car manufacturers were certain it was going to fail because it had a very thinly dispersed dealer and service network. What these manufacturers missed was that Toyota didn’t need a dealer or service center every 30 miles because its cars didn’t break… Read More »
A company I helped found launched an online community back in the late Nineties. We got substantial funding and at one stage had more than 50 people working on designing and promoting it. We opened up lots of forums and discussion boards. What we learned very quickly was that without moderation, a great many discussions… Read More »