Innovate or be Disrupted

I’ve never shopped around for thermostats, nor do I know anyone else who has. However it sure seems that if there was previously a “must-have” thermostat out there, it would have made news before Nest Labs launched their product, the Nest Learning Thermostat, a few months ago.

If you didn’t know, the Co-Founders of Nest Labs previously worked at Apple on the iPod and iPhone. They’ve stated that their experience has shown that every detail matters – physical design, user interface, usability, packaging and marketing.

Their product is elegant, functional and has a purpose to help people save money.

Over a week ago, I read that Honeywell International is suing Nest Labs for infringement of seven thermostat tech patents. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

Now, of course, I think companies have a right to defend their patents. But all of the infringement lawsuits going on between big companies are just sad (Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google… the list goes on). It’s a patent arms race to see who can stockpile the most.

The situation between Honeywell and Nest Labs is slightly different. Honeywell International has been around since 1906 and Nest Labs is a startup. It’s probably very difficult to consider oneself an “inventor” these days, but that is kind of what startups are.

Invention today is often tackling new problems or re-inventing the products and industries that are stagnant. That is what Nest Labs has done. They identified a stale product and completely re-defined it. Except for the most discerning, I suspect homeowners could care less about thermostats, or in the least only think about how distracting they look on their walls.

Although the latest Honeywell model does have some modern technology, it just doesn’t have the elegance of the Nest Thermostat. Honeywell had plenty of time to innovate, but didn’t. They didn’t design from a fresh perspective, only an incremental one.

Nest Labs has provided an option to have an eye-catching piece of gadgetry that supports an “eco-friendy” lifestyle and just might save some cash on the energy bill. Even with the question of “Did we need a new thermostat?” the Nest Learning Thermostat is the type of product that the gadget-minded wants to have.

Similarly, the Apple iPod wasn’t the first portable digital music player when it was released in 2001. I had previously owned a Diamond Rio PMP300 MP3 player around 1998. It was a piece of plastic junk that held about 12 MP3s. It and every other portable music player was left behind after the iPod launch. Everyone just wanted one, including me, even if it had less features.

The catchy term in Silicon Valley for re-invention is “disruption“. Startups often aim to disrupt a product or service that is tired. Bonus points if the objective is to do one thing and do it well.

What Nest Labs has done should be seen as an inspiration – not just for independent inventors, but all companies and industries that are complacent with their products and services, those that take no risks. This is your wake up call to innovate.

Nest Lab’s position that Honeywell’s lawsuit is simply a strategy to stifle competition comes as no surprise and I hope that they prevail. I know I’ve been jonesing for their product since its introduction — now I just have to order one.

Dieter Rams weighs in on THE BLACK CUBE – a “Perfect” Product

I heard that a Dieter Rams exhibit recently opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). I was happy to discover that the exhibit, titled “LESS AND MORE – The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams“, runs until February 2012. Phew, now I just have to remember to go!

In looking around for info, I ran across an interesting post over at Swiss Miss and followed the trail to THE BLACK CUBE project.  The project looks to have been an interesting study by a group of designers to create the “perfect product”. They invited other designers and artists to participate and/or provide comment.

Below is a video of Dieter Rams weighing in. He opens with the proclamation that “The term ‘design’ is worn out and has lost its attraction.” He offers up some opinion on ‘The Black Cube’ briefly making reference to his 10 design principles, which I wrote about last year when the topic of comparing Apple Sr. VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive‘s work to that of Dieter Rams was all the rage.

But I digress.

Rams concludes his thoughts on design impact with a question: “Do we have a chance to improve the world, to make it more humane, to make it more ethical? We do!“

CUBE Dieter Rams (www.the-black-cube.com) from Andreas Unteidig on Vimeo.

The Story Of Eames Furniture – Interview with Marilyn and John Neuhart

The Story of Eames Furniture: Marilyn Neuhart with John Neuhart – Interview from Gestalten on Vimeo.

Not sure how I missed this exclusive interview with Marilyn Neuhart, author of “The Story of Eames Furniture“, and her husband John. It’s an amazing invitation to their close experience working in the Eames office for nearly 30 years, closely with Charles and Ray Eames.

Someday, I’ll get my dream chair, the Eames Lounge Chair, check out the attention to detail and reverence in manufacturing this classic piece of furniture.

“Ethnographers are a kind of somewhat exotic breed of scientists” – Victoria Bellotti

Tech Evangelist, Blogger and Social Media Master Robert Scoble had a chance to visit what he referred to as the “first church of technology“, PARC, the innovative lab behind much of the technology that we use every day.  He conducted four great interviews in his signature style.  I was most interested in his talk with Victoria Bellotti.

“Ethnographers are a kind of somewhat exotic breed of scientists, we study people.” – Victoria Bellotti.

Bellotti, who manages PARC’s Socio-Technical and Interaction Research team at PARC, studies people to understand their practices, problems, and requirements for future technology, and designs and analyzes human-centered systems, focusing on user experience.

She explains how ethnographers analyze data to determine how technology can help, or get in the way, of tasks being studied. The research helps to build successful products and services or address problems. This sounds particularly useful for technology-centered business ventures that are clients of PARC’s Opportunity Discovery research and strategic investment targeting program.

Scoble mentions that this practice is missing from most start-ups, but notes that it is part of larger companies such Microsoft Research and Facebook. Bellotti agreed, adding that most startups learn as they go along and some entrepreneurs do [this] by nature – look at people and ask lots of questions.

Below is Scoble’s video interview with Bellotti. You can see additional interview topics: “Future of Networking“, “Ubiquitous Computing Research” and “Keeping our Cloud Computing Safe” and read about the rest of his PARC visit on his blog.

#thatswhatshesaid

Thank you Ignite Social  Media.  I love all of your clever social media badges; it’s hard to pick a favorite!  I just wish I had seen you at SXSW for the stickerbook!

What happened to the Web Design Community?

If you’ve been around the Internet since the beginning, you would wholeheartedly agree with Vitaly Friedman over at Smashing Magazine. With all of the technology changes, something else has changed – the design community.  Could be the over expanding shape of the information landscape, could be that the first batches of web designers are getting older, could be that younger designers have adopted whole new means of communication – definitely all of the above and more.

Vitaly raises important issues and makes some solid recommendations about how to re-engage in the web design community.  If you care about web design, make the time to read his article.

Animatable – A Promising new CSS3 Animation Tool

A first look at Animatable from Andy Clarke on Vimeo.

Animatable is a promising new CSS3 tool to create animations deployable across Webkit browsers on any platform or device – this means web browsers and mobile devices such as Android, BlackBerry and iPhones!