Was doing some research on kung fu tea, 功夫茶 , for a project and I was somehow intrigued by how tea serving is viewed as a form of art. Service through Design or Service through Art?
In the Japanese culture, there is a proverb that states: “If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.”
There is another proverb from the Chinese culture that states: “Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.”
“Seriously, I think you should change your company name (My company is named as refruit). I don’t want to promote your company and people thinking that you are selling fruits or vegetable”
I replied, “I will consider about it” as I boot my Mac laptop.
The video above is an important segment from the BBC documentary, Do you see what I see?. It is an experiment where they learnt that language affects how we perceive colours. This intrigues me because I always assume that Red is Red. And the red I see, is the same red you saw. Apparently, it is not quite true.
Did a research on it and below are some take away.
The authors theorize that as languages evolve, they acquire new basic color terms in a strict chronological sequence; if a basic color term is found in a language, then the colors of all earlier stages should also be present.
There are quite a number of reports that claim language affects our perception of colours.
Naming of colour affects the decision making. Via Brand Strategy
…consumers tend to react positively to ambiguous names and specific, unexpected names. If Fire Engine Red is surprising to consumers, then they will react more positively to it…
…when we presented sweaters that were the color of “coke red” – consumers enjoyed thinking about the unusual color description that in fact did identify the color…
Ambiguous names do prompt additional thought which can lead to increased preference, but such effects are unlikely to compensate for a bad product.
Color Naming. A multi-lingual colour naming experiment which research on colour naming and colour categorisation within different cultures, and aims to improve the inter-cultural colour dialogue.
This site has compiled a list of speedometer design from Chevrolet, 1941 – 2011. It is quite interesting to see how the design has evolved over time to something that look like a stop watch. Trend could be one of the factors that affects how the design would turn out, but I am more keen to find out if the design of the speedometer affects how the drivers handle their car.
I noticed that my minivan’s speedometer goes to 160 mph….That means that over a third of the speedometer is almost completely superfluous…. (1) Car companies have figured out that people want to see high numbers on them because it suggests a powerful engine, so they exaggerate the figures a bit for marketing, or (2) seeing the needle at 70 mph right near the middle of the dial is better for attention to the road or psychological justification of cruising speed or something.
there are driving conditions that you might not be expecting….
If the driver of an SUV thinks they are going 40 MPH and they are actually moving at 46 MPH – life will get exciting quickly…..The solution seems to be simple – frequently glance at your speedometer.
Traffic and Transportation Psychology, a book that gives an overview of the trends in Traffic and Transport Psychology, has done a experiment on how the design of the speedometer affects the driving experience.(pg 314). Below is their findings.
Digital displays were usually responded to quickly when the task is to read a value and make a decision base on it, but they are less effective when the task is to examine their sensitivity by how well speed changes can be detected…
keeping displays as simple as possible…. speedometer with low or a medium (visual) complexity were responded to quicker when compared one with high (visual) complexity…
…circular speedometers performed better than the horizontal ones. They were responded to quicker for both tasks employed. (reading the value quickly and detect how well speed changes)
Question: If the design of the speedometer can affect how a person drives and reacts, can it apply to sport training devices (eg, track mill, nike plus)?
Above are two different recruitment posters. Although it is just a simple poster, it reflects how the company will like to communicate. The style of writing, the fonts and and the attention of detail to the design, illustrate the management style and what kind of people that they will like to engage.
If product design is the face of the company, marketing will be the voice of it. And these voices has to be well communicated as long as anyone can receive it (eg. from hand guides to labels).
