Something personal that I probably shouldn't share on social-networking.

Just relax.

Calm down and let the emotion from the Casey Anthony Trial wear off for a moment.

Breathe-in, breathe-out. Inhale, exhale.

Now let's talk logic instead of emotion.

In the Black community, when we see these headlines plastered all over our televisions, newspapers, et cetera -- it makes an incredible impact.

Personally, while my six-year-old niece was missing because she'd been kidnapped, seeing hundreds and hundreds of headlines about Natalee Holloway and Elizabeth Smart, while tragic, rubbed me the wrong way (to put it mildly). It was very insulting, even. That's not my niece pictured above by the way -- it was just a ploy to get you to read this. And it worked. Keep reading...

My family had an incredibly frustrating time with our unsuccessful attempts at garnering attention even from the local media regarding our missing child. Meanwhile, not only did the national news pay strict attention to the aforementioned missing little girls, but also, we stood by while the local media paid similar attention to similar cases yet ignoring ours.

Why would the media be so selective? (humor me)

And they say, "but, Matthew! That's apples to oranges! these are two separate and unrelated cases!" And, I agree: this is very true in lots of people's minds.

The question I pose in this entry is: why is it that Caylee Anthony gets more attention than Nixzmary Brown? What does this say about our society? Who is considered precious and who is expendable?

Let's just say, for instance, that your children were murdered but across the street children were being murdered and the media surrounded those stories -- how would you feel? Slighted? Maybe, even just a little bit?

This is why it's difficult for me to understand the outrage involved with this Casey Anthony case. Not that it's not tragic, but what about us? Why is it not tragic until Caylee Anthony dies?

Your responses to this post (even if anonymous) would be greatly appreciated.


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reDesign And Reason

In case you haven't already seen it in the last couple of days, the new portfolio web site (done in HTML5) is now online; check it out: DesignAndReason.com



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Happy Nelson Mandela Day

just imagine...

Google has used its wit to outsmart the world once again. Google Latitude (being released today) enables users to locate their friends and vice versa via their location on Google Maps Mobile.

This is such a dumb idea.

of course, I don't mean dumb in the sense that it should not have been done, but dumb in the sense that someone should have already released this by now as it is not a result of some break-through technological advance, but rather, this is what happens when the technology is available for long enough and people begin to think.

"What else can we do with this?"

Bruce Mau's Massive Change discusses the power we as humans (specifically as designers) now have. Technology has facilitated an array of options which seem to be endless. In effect, since we have yet to discover the full range of what may be accomplished through existing technology, we are not yet fully aware of our capabilities.

"Now that we can make anything, what will we make?"

Just imagine how many lives might have been save had someone thought of this application years ago? Take, for example, James Kim, an editor of C-Net.com (a web site which provides expert reviews of modern technology), who died from exposure and hypothermia while trying to retrieve help for his family after their car was buried in snow during a road trip. Kim’s death could have certainly been prevented had he received a signal on his cellular phone and been able to contact the appropriate local authorities for help. Furthermore, had his cell phone been equipped with Google Latitude, certainly his death would not have occurred from being lost in the cold.

Ironically, only a few weeks after Kim’s death, C-Net.com released survey results that indicated the general public’s distrust of location based software in cellular phones largely due to the pervasive fear of being watched by “Big Brother” regardless of the palpable dangers that surfaced during Kim’s disappearance and death. Also, most cellular phones are already equipped with software enabling users to be located during emergencies while the device is turned on (even if there is no service signal available). This indicates that the fear of being located by a mobile communication device is merely perceptual; users have been located by their cellular phones before this feature was advertised as a technological breakthrough.

Design can save lives...

Technology provides us with possibilities and allows us to imagine; design utilizes both possibilities and imagination so that we may make our lives easier through new ways of navigating, communicating, interacting, sharing, learning, teaching, dating, and expressing emotion. My only hope is that this technology becomes more affordable and lasts longer than a year or so. This new era brings forth positive change and maturation... dream.

Cell Phones & Society

[1]
Convenience: The “Smart” Phone
Recent findings from a British study show storing contact information on cell phones decreases people’s ability (while reducing the need) to remember telephone numbers. Moreover, nearly one-quarter of the survey’s participants could not remember their own telephone number. While today’s advanced cell phones, also called Smart Phones, can allow time for us to prepare and focus on arguably more important issues by eliminating the need to retain or recall seemingly less important details (such as the correct spelling of colleagues’ last names) it can also facilitate a culture of thoughtless robots or, as suggested in Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt’s book, “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.”

The question arises: What impact does this impose on society? During a lecture given to the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts, Jesse James Garrett (co-founder and President of Adaptive Path, an experience design firm based in San Francisco, and author of The Elements of User Experience) discussed the dangers of not letting people think for themselves. Interactive designers’ primary goal is to eliminate all potential frustration during the product's operation through usability optimization. That is: the more intuitive the software, the more useful, usable, and desirable. However, Garrett raised concerns regarding designers' devaluation of utilizing the human brain. Therefore, essentially, interactive designers are doing society a great disservice by creating intuitively designed presentations.

This notion suggests that users should be encouraged to “think for themselves” through the use of rigid, non-intuitive technology - in effect, forcing users to frequently refer to the Help menu. This would further the original problem by creating more confusion when trying to accomplish quotidian tasks. Having to search through the Help menu’s index of articles while simply trying to pay an electric bill online does not make the user more intelligent or benefit society in any way. Intuitive interactive presentations eliminate dual objectives: meaning, the user should not need to first view a tutorial in order to learn how to pay their electric bill online - they should simply pay the electric bill online.

[2]
Connectivity + Privacy
Engineers have long been stricken with the task of making things work better, faster, and more efficiently. Cellular phones are synonymous with losing their service provider’s signal due to the user's location, extreme weather conditions, and, other times, absolutely nothing at all. Police and medical reports frequently cite a cell phone’s lack of service as a factor in cases of preventable physical attacks or worsened injuries. James Kim, editor of C-Net.com (web site which provides expert reviews of modern technology), died from exposure and hypothermia while trying to retrieve help for his family after their car was buried in snow during a road trip. Kim’s death could have certainly been prevented had he received a signal on his cellular phone and been able to contact the appropriate local authorities for help.

Ironically, only a few weeks after Kim’s death, C-Net.com released survey results that indicated the general public’s distrust of location based software in cellular phones largely due to the pervasive fear of being watched by “Big Brother” regardless of the palpable dangers that surfaced during Kim’s disappearance and death. Also, most cellular phones are already equipped with software enabling users to be located during emergencies while the device is turned on (even if there is no service signal available). This indicates that the fear of being located by a mobile communication device is merely perceptual; users have been located by their cellular phones before this feature was advertised as a technological breakthrough.

[3]
Proposed Solutions
Steps should be taken to inform the public of not only the dangers of intuitively designed applications and location-based cellular phone software but also the unclear advantages as well. While advertising has made its attempts and is usually fairly unsuccessful, other forms of media can be utilized such as interviews/debates with experts, case studies, documentaries, and published research to clearly articulate both concepts.