WavyBrainy

“Wired” is a must read for netizens, so we took note of its contest to design a kegerator for its San Francisco office. The design was crowdsourced from readers, a “few” items were donated, but the out-of-project budget was only $200. The PR, reader involvement, and not-to-mention the undying adoration of beer drinkers, was foamy beyond belief. See Wired’s how-to kegerator video, and check out the Beer Robot while you’re at it. Maybe these guys have a problem..

Sooner or later someone will visit your website, click on a link, and get the dreaded “Error 404 ‘your site was programmed by drunken monkeys’ Page Not Found” message. It turns out that designing friendly and funny Error 404 pages has become a cottage industry. Mepholio.com and 10steps.sg have cataloged some of the best and most beautiful. We think these pages are great PR, but most of them don’t include any additional tools, e.g. a search function that actually help users find the non Error 404 page they’re looking for.

Infographic created by CNN during President Obama's March 24, 2009, press conference.

Infographics, contrary to urban legend, were not invented by USA Today. One of the most famous infographics created by Charle’s Minard in 1885 depicts the failure and eventual retreat of Napolean’s army in Russia by correlating time, temperature, and mortality rates. (For stunning contemporary examples, visit visualcomplexity.com) Infographics allow us to visualize hundreds and even hundreds of thousand of data points, so we can see patterns, extract information and make decisions. Cloud navigation found on many blogs and websites shows key words that represent content. In turn the size of the word may communicate popularity or the amount of underlying content. This allows us to understand very quickly what a site is about without a single click of the mouse. Aside from keeping innovative designers off the dole for the near future, infographics are a survival mechanism that keeps us from drowning in a sea of data. Use them!

1. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte

I remember Ideopia’s first business phone, playing with numbers and their corresponding letters on the keypad, hoping on hope to hit a dirty word, e.g. 1-800-BITCHNADS, the phone company wouldn’t catch. Now these hybrid numbers are usability nightmares that simply annoy customers.

1. They have to ‘translate’ letters to numbers.

2. International customers have different letters or none at all.

3. On PDAs, Blackberries and cell phones, it’s cumbersome to switch between a number and a letter.

4. Mobile phones now have expanded Qwerty keyboards that don’t adhere to a manufacturing standard, and thus have letters that correspond to numbers in ways you never intended.

Dutch competition produces fonts that rock.

I say whoever designs the best typeface wins. No more nukes. Just heated debates about descenders and serifs. It certainly works for the Dutch. Look at the gorgeous fonts designed by Peter Verheul to “present the Dutch government to society.” I hear Verheul is taking suggestions for new names for Rijksoverheid Sans and Rijksoverheid Serif, so diplomats sipping champagne can pronounce the names of his inventions without gargling their pate.

Source: Design Workplan

JacksonPollock.org is a cool web toy from interactive guru John Maeda that lets you paint in the style of Jackson Pollock. Hours and hours of fun without the paint splatters on your linen suit. See weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY for more on Maeda’s ideas.

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When I hallucinated bears in the night about bears roaming my room like every other little boy, I hollered for my
mom. If I had only had a Baby Seal Taser. This baby packs a 195 volt
wallop, more than enough to cinge a grizzly or down a would-be
attacker. Please note that the taser is not for zapping Baby Seals, it
just looks like one, at least a Disney incarnation of one. To operate,
flip open the tail and press the button. It’s easy, effective, if you
don’t buy one for your five-year-old today, you’re a horrible parent. If anyone has anything to contribute about the real purpose of this product, please enlighten us. Thanks to Sara S. for the tip.

Before you frame your DNA and hang it in the den, make sure you think ahead to possible uses in paternity tests, sleuthing and identity theft. Otherwise, this is the perfect gift for the 2007 hipster, or those who want to memorialize themselves into eternity without cryogenic intervention.

A modern spin on the traditional personal portrait, a unique DNA genetic fingerprint is custom printed on canvas in your choice of nine different color palettes. A kit is provided to collect a painless saliva sample using a cotton-tip swab. Create a print from your child or pet’s DNA. The result is a piece that can never be replicated and is as unique as you-no two prints will ever be the same.  TheMOMAstore