Last year however, American Apparel teamed up with Lookbook.nu, an online site where everyday people can upload their “look”- people vote, you gain style credit, and your photo can end up on Lookbook’s homepage. In a sort of online contest, American Apparel and Lookbook asked the site’s members to submit styles featuring American Apparel clothing and the winning “looks” would be featured in a book available free in stores an online to customers.

After sifting through entries, the company chose 132 looks from 77 Lookbook members. The irony? All the winning looks are more tasteful, subdued, and less sexy than their usual adds. When asked why the change in direction, The American Apparel Press Team responded, “Maybe this is better categorized as a resource than as an ad. What we liked about it is that it’s 77 people who each have their own sense of style showing how they like to wear American Apparel. Our photographers and designers see the garments in one way and sometimes the customers and fans see it a totally different way. The book has both. That’s a big reason why we’re giving it away at the stores and we hope people take it and get inspired or interested in pieces they wouldn’t have considered before.”

Interestingly enough, the brand has also started to use the looks in their adds and they say that they will continue to use crowdsourcing as a means to engage customers. So for now American Apparel has a new look and I guess its true what they say- the people have spoken.

To see the Lookbook in its entirety visit the American Apparel site.

For those of you who don’t know, Wearstler is a brilliant interior designer known for her luxurious take on interiors as well as luxury lifestyle. Wearstler uses a strict color palette, clean graphic lines, and adds a swanky, glamorous, old Hollywood feel to her work.  Her style is often dubbed as “Maximalism”- a mix of styles, something different, she is in a class of her own.

As I was sifting through Kelly’s book, this one (she has three) solely dedicated to pictures of herself in her Beverly Hills mansion- I couldn’t help but notice that Wearstler seemed to be playing a part. Clad in high fashion evening gowns, a face full of makeup, she seemed more like a model posing rather than the actual designer. I did some and found out that Wearstler is in fact both model and interior designer. Kelly studied interior and graphic design at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston but soon after graduating she moved to Los Angeles hoping that, “there might be something to do in the movie businesses.” Kelly had luck in LA and quickly landed work both on and off set (including a cover in Playboy) but she soon realized that her passion and heart belonged in design.

Today, she has her own business, Kelly Wearstler Interior Design. She has designed both commercial and residential properties all over the world and is also the namesake and creator of several product lines including a boutique at Bergdorf Goodman. Kelly continues to innovate the interior design world, pushing boundaries, and working hard. She has proven that her success has come from a myriad of places and I can proudly say that we had a lovely date on Friday evening.

While the ticket prices are predicted to go lower than their current price tag of $200K, it is foreseen that the general public will soon have the opportunity enjoy the experience of weightlessness. Getting the public engaged and updated on the progresses however, is certainly one challenge that needs to be addressed now. The role of education in doing so is extremely important in order to prepare the next generation for the future’s new travel destinations. If people and the private sector are going to play key roles in the future of the private space travel, it is crucial for them to be well informed about the hurdles and the benefits of the space travel. This will in turn lead to better engagement by a larger population and will culture a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators who understand the challenges and complexities of living and working in this new environment. 

Credit: Virgin Galactic

I recently attended the Next generation of Suborbital Researchers Conference in Boulder, Colorado and I’d like to share some observations that I found very interesting. Firstly, the involvement of the female researchers in this conference, was notably higher than any other professional conference I had been to in the field of space studies. It appears that there is going to be a shift in the male dominated field of Aerospace.

There was also a tremendous amount of attention and time centered around education and the future of suborbital flights. Teachers, professors, and government workers seem to all agree that the K-12 and university institutions need to be more involved in the future of suborbital research and it is the space sector’s role to be more open with their present material, future plans, as well as be willing to get involved in all layers and stages of the education.

T use of social networking sites to publish and engage people was one of the great ideas that was discussed in the conference. The initiative to involve the public by use of social media was brought to out attention by the Planetary Institute- an organization that runs different projects to involve public in their missions. 

An example of this is the mars express visual monitoring camera. European Space Agency’s operation center began a blog in August 2008 to invite the public to process the images received by the camera. They asked the public to take the raw images and process them further. What was important in this initiative though, was the trust created between the space institutions and the general public. It was the first time that data was provided to public as well as the first time public involvement was used in the creation of the final work. Within a few hours someone responded to the post and sent this image back:

This view of Venus is processed by an amateur, Mattias Malmer from 78 Mariner 10 frames captured through orange and ultraviolet filters.

On October 2008 Richaerd Garriet, the game designer and entrepreneur took his first flight with the Space Adventure to the ISS for his 12-day travel in space. Since the flight, Garriet has been giving talks and lectures in number of conferences and has shared his journey to researchers and people in industry. One great innovation by him is the Sports in Space website where people can play different sports on different planets. The interactive design of the game is a great tool to teach people how certain actions vary under different gravitational conditions. 

http://www.challenger.org/sportsinspace/

Whether you dream about playing football in space or simply gaze at the blue planet from the window of the spaceship, the sky is the limit. So, buckle your seatbelt, we’re on the root to an exciting time in the history of flight.

References:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/virgin-galactic/

http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/imaging/data.html

http://www.challenger.org/sportsinspace/

I Need these things…

Tic-Tac Toast

Because regular toast is just boring. Just think of possibilities: peanut butter versus jelly, Tuna versus Mayonnaise, hummus versus Baba-Ganoush. Competition + food= the ultimate combination.

Pick Your Nose Party Cups

Because its finally socially acceptable to pick your nose in public- plus these cups are a cheaper alternative to plastic surgery.

Egg-White Separator

Because despite how handy I am in the kitchen, I can never successfully separate the whites from the yolk.

Pizza Boss 3000

Because The food Network and HGTV are my favourite channels.

The Ex Knife Set

Because I have made some pretty bad choices in my day.

If my desire says anything, there is clearly a market for the kitchiest of kitchen accessories.

Justifiable purchases? I know so.

Months after eating at El Bulli my thoughts and perspectives on the meal are still changing: Certain taste memories are extremely vivid and seem to get stronger, others are bizarrely still changing. It has also been fascinating to compare and contrast my experience there with other innovative culinary experiences. I recently dined at what for me was the best vegetarian meal of my life at Ubuntu in Napa Valley (they have their own farm), the most delicate, thoughtful and multi-element sushi I have ever eaten at O Ya in Boston (they must have over 100 ingredients they use over and above the fish), the best hand crafted cocktails, flatbread pizzas and locavore comfort food at Nopa in San fran (they also have an amazing selection of small batch rums) and the best service at Blue Hill in NYC (the farm fresh ingredents, impeccable techniques and quirky wines also make this one of the best restos in the US). What is both refreshing and exciting is the vast array of what I will call “creative culinary platforms” that continue to emerge, each with its own soul and a visionary like Feran Adria.

and so the meal continued…

RAZOR CLAM SASHIMI, LEMON FOAM & BABY SEAWEED SALAD

It took a few minutes to recover from the eccentricities of the previous course: South American Lulo Fruit, Cocoa Infusion, Yogurt Cream. We go from crazy to classic. Simple, beautifully presented raw razor clams with a warm lemon foam and a mixture of 6 different types of seaweed on the side. We could be on a fishing boat as we pop razor clams with a squeeze of lemon and some of the seaweed caught in the nets but here we are at the world’s most famous three star restaurant. This dish has great textural variation and carries a theme of discovery in the distinct rare forms of seaweed that each carry a distinctive bite. This plate is almost a perfect edible facsimile of the ocean and about as Catalonian as you can get. The fresh razor clams both sweet and briny contrasting with the lemon foam that is less jarring and intense than the standard squeeze of lemon.

RAW WALNUT RISOTTO, BRAISED ENDIVE, WALNUT OIL

We go from land to sea and back to land again with one of the most creative rissotos I have ever eaten – made with raw, immature walnut pieces instead of cooked rice in a creamy Parmesan laced sauce and drizzled with walnut oil. This is what happens when nuts and risotto marry. In this case, the nuts are naturally al dente, mimicking the classic Italian risotto in a new way. It’ snot that this tastes any better or worse than a perfect risotto, it’s the imagination it took to dream it up that is amazing. Like the raw almonds used in a previous course, this dish is both seasonal, local, imaginative and confounding. The flavours are rich and comforting at the same time.

ABALONE, JAMON FAT, BABY BLACK TRUMPET MUSHROOMS, SEAWEED & CILANTRO SPROUTS

This course may have been my favourite for it’s rich and intense flavours, textural variation, powerful umami and surprising mouth feel. Pieces of meaty Abalone (a Cantonese delicacy popular in Hong Kong) are interpersed with warm, melt in your mouth, pieces of Jamon d’iberico fat (think lardo) topped with baby black trumpet mushrooms, an intense dark jus made with what tasted like real stock and topped with tiny cilantro sprouts. This may be Ell Bulli’s version of surf n’ turf, ironically with the sea element (Abalone) being meatier and the land element (Jamon fat) being both visually and texturally softer and close to the classical sea element. The mushrooms oull it all together by representing the same terreir where the iberico pigs roam and the same flavour spectrum and colour of the Abalone. The baby cilantro sprouts add a tiny element of freshness and surprise. The other intersting thing about this dish si that both the Abalone and the Jamon are two of the world’s most famous preserved foods with both being classic “umami” based foods. For a Chinese pallet that welcomes and almost demands unique textural variations and bite this dish could win a culinary gold medal. A week after eating it, I still have powerful memories of it and cravings to eat it again.

SEARED SEA CUCUMBER, POACHED RHUBARB, MENTAIKO SAUCE

This dish continues the textural parade and as with many other dishes, is limited to a small number of ingredients. Courses at El Bulli are not broad fusion mash-ups but well constructed architectures of 2, 3 or 4 ingredients impeccably sourced. With so few ingredients, perfection in both sourcing and preparation is critical. One might wonder how El Bulli creates so much surprise, joy and gastatory stimulation with so few ingredients and yet this is a perfect illustration of their genius. Nowhere to hide, no tricks, no shortcuts. Even their use of gastro science techiniques while serving to enhance the delivery of flavours is one of many tools in the arsenal. The most interesting thing, course after course, is the immense thought and experimentation that they have obviously taken in determining which ingredients should go together and how. This is where the 6 months spent at the El Bulli workshop in Barcelona become most apparent and it continues to explain why El Bulli continues to be ahead of other 3 star resturants. This dish combines seared sea cucumbers which have a similar bite and flavour to squid with a more complete taste profile. Instead of a squeeze of lemon, the kitchen pairs them with little nuggets of lightly poached rhubarb – a perfect acidic offset and

RAW OYSTER, RABBIT BRAIN, SEA ANEMONE IN A WARM OYSTER JUICE BROTH

This has to be one of the most unique dishes from any chef anywhere in recent memory. Originally conceived at the El Bulli workshop in 2008 this dish was brought in 2009, presumably because of what it says about the creative team at El Bulli. This is surf and turf reinvented. Inspired by other versions many of us have experience: Veal with Tuna sauce from Italy, Scallops and oxtail, kobe beef and langoustines, bluefin tuna and foie gras at Aqua when Michael Mina was in his pre franchise phase. It starts with the textural slightly jelly like consistency of sea anemone (who knew it was edible) combined with raw osters (creamy ones like a kumamoto from BC) and even creamier rabbit brain that looks and feels like an oyster but is richer and buttery like foie gras.

EXPLODING POLENTA GNOCCHI, PARMESAN CREAM, COFFEE POWDER, FRIED CAPERS

When I think about gnocchi I think about potatoes and a soft bite but this version brings together ultra soft polenta pockets that pop open when eaten. The texture of the polenta combines with a savoury parmesan cream, fried crispy salty capers and a small amount of coffee powder that build a nutty roasted layer of flavor. Creamy, rich. surprising, certainly a little Italian – Turin meets parma. It’s almost as if this dish emanated from one of Adria’s weekend jaunts to Italy?

SUCKLING PIG TAIL WITH CANTALOUPE & TOFU CUBES IN JAMON BROTH

This dish represents the mount everest of Umami, the salty savoury flavour found in foods such as soy sauce, anchovies, parmesan cheese and of course Jamon Iberico. A late meal play off of Prosciutto and melon with a host of interesting textures. Warm salty broth made from cured Jamon Iberico with small pieces of sweet juicy melon and creamy tofu sits next to the spanish version of peking duck – ultra crisp pig skin that also has a chewy finish. This is porcine heaven!

PALLET CLEANSER OF WATER LILLY, CASHEW CREAM DROPS & EDIBLE FLOWERS

Many months later this dish still confounds me. While it was certainly cleansing in a menthhol meets medicinal balinese fashion, it was completely foreign and not what I would call pleasurable. Sort of gourmet mouthwash with small pelets of cashew cream that reminded me of health food store toothpaste. The dish reminded me of the lobby at the Four Seasons resort near Ubud in Bali that has a small pond on the roof and a host of water based flowers. Exceptionally posititive memories but not something I ever thought I would eat.

The meal was finally over. What will dessert hold?

Yes, 3D is kind of fun.  At the Samsung and LG booths I tried out some of the 3D TVs they had there.  It reminded me of Jaws 3D, which was the first 3D movie I can remember watching.  The problem is, it reminded me of Jaws 3D.  Is it just me, or has the 3D experience not really improved since 1983?  It’s not like watching a truly 3-dimensional environment – the “3D” effect is usually only heightened for certain parts, like Jaws jumping out at you or Pinocchio’s nose growing out towards you.

As for e-Readers, most of the e-Readers seemed very me-too-ish – nothing too compelling.  One device that stood out in terms of physical design was Plastic Logic’s Que Reader.  But upon seeing a demo from one of the reps there, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed.

And, so, I had been dragging my feet on a blog post that, after a few weeks, seemed silly to try to write anyway.

Then on January 27^th, 2010, a Cupertino company made a small product announcement.

Fast-forward a few more weeks and I now realize that the blog post I had been delaying can now be written.  In hindsight, what was interesting about CES 2010 was not anything that I saw there – it was what I didn’t see there.  Sure there was a lot of cool gadgets.  3D TVs may even become mainstream someday (I sure hope the 3D watching experience improves, though).  And there’s almost no doubt that all TVs will be web-connected appliances in the near future.   But no one had anything that made everyone pause and say, “whoa… I think the game just changed.”

To me, that’s just what Apple has done with the announcement of the iPad.  On the one hand, there isn’t really anything about the iPad that people weren’t expecting in terms of features, capabilities, or performance.  It’s a honkin’ big iPod Touch.  In fact, some said it was underwhelming.

But, for whatever reason, the announcement of the iPad has signaled the start of something.  While the iPad may appear to be less-than-revolutionary and does things that most people pretty much expected it would do months ago, it appears to me that it has, indeed, changed the game.

The iPad announcement has made tablet and mobile computing relevant and exciting.  If I recall correctly, Microsoft, HP, and Lenovo, all had tablet computing announcements of some sort at CES.  But they weren’t really buzz-worthy announcements.  In fact, most people seemed to react to those announcements with “I can’t wait to see what Apple is going to announce.”

But now, an entire category and changing consumer behavior are expected to be introduced.  While Bill Gates had been talking about tablet computing being the next big thing for years (he predicted it would be the most popular form of PC within 5 years… back in 2001), Apple’s announcement seems to have convinced many people of the possibility.

We now see computer and consumer electronics makers scrambling to make devices to compete with the iPad.

And while most analysts don’t seem to believe that the iPad is a Kindle killer, Amazon is already feeling the sting as the iBookstore is (indirectly) forcing Amazon to play ball with publishers on eBook pricing.  And at least one analyst thinks Amazon’s share of e-book sales will fall from 90% to 35% in 5 years as a result of competition from Apple and Google.

Magazines and newspapers may have new life with the iPad (and the entire category of slate/tablet devices).

I’m not saying the iPad is a revolutionary device that will have its competitors playing catch up for years like the original iPod.  And although tablet computing is hardly new, the iPad has created a whole new category, experience, and usage that people appear to be ready to receive.  On the one hand, it doesn’t seem to be anything special.  On the other hand, it’s the 2010 CES story that I should have been writing about.  But didn’t. Because it wasn’t.

What’s your take on the iPad?  Revolutionary device?  Savior to the publishing world?  A new way to consume all media?  The tip of the iceberg that is portable computing?  An overgrown iPod and nothing more?

Stanford’s D-School has a very interesting interface design course. Unlike most computer interface design classes, which are constrained by the keyboard, mouse, and screen, the course explore ‘beyond-desktop’ interface design. The course, called tangible user interfaces, or “TUI” for short, combines theory with a design studio. Students not only study design theories, but also build prototypes of their designs. The idea is to not just talk about ideas, but also really design something new. Only by turning an idea into concrete form can students see the possibilities of their ideas. It helps student to think about the physical affordances of interfaces and translate them to the digital world.

The Royal College of Art in London also provides a unique joint two-year double Masters with The Imperial College London.  All graduates of this program receive an MA from the RCA and an MSc plus a Diploma from The Imperial College London. It is a fascinating program where students in the first year develop basic skills, and in the second year, students complete two long self-initiated projects; a group project and a solo project. I really like project-based approaches to learning. During the first year students elect into one of three learning strands:

Design for Manufacturing: DFM is core IDE territory and is about delivering innovative products to the market that work.
Experimental Design: EXP is for design innovation at a fundamental level, which may incorporate the exploration of new technologies, new product categories or new contexts.
Design Enterprise: DE is about the commercial elements around a product – the effective design and launch proposal of a new business venture, system or service.

So what are the best design schools? I’ve written a lot about the best business schools, here’s what I think about design schools. I’ll start with US schools. I’ll include the best US schools for product design as well as specialties like transportation, fashion and advertising etc

Rhode Island School of Design – this is the top school, a good balance between art and design. Most prestige and Rhode Island is nice;
Cranbrook – treats design very seriously, good theoretical training and applying the highest standard;
University of Cincinnati- solid and affordable, great co-op program, well respected;
Art Center College of Design- rigorous program, great reputation, good alumni network, strong in industrial design, photography and transportation too;
Cleveland Institute of Art- relatively inexpensive, very friendly and caring faculty, doesn’t have the brand names like others;
College for Creative Studies- highly networked and mostly within the auto industry;
Columbus College of Art and Design- great value for money;
Academy of Art College- advertising design school as its core, emphasis on practical skills. San Francisco is popular choice for designers;
Pratt- more of an art school than design school. Great network because of the NY thing.  Strong ID and interactive dept. Good graduate programs;
Parsons – great fashion, illustration and interior design programs. NY for fashion, that’s makes sense. Good network too;
Rochester Institute of Technology – a lot of emphasis on functional training with the latest tools;
Savannah – advertising and digital arts are their strengths.

So, Facebook is evolving.

With emphasis on at least 3 core web services – search, chat and the upcoming email – Facebook is getting more serious about functions that Google, among others, are doing well at providing. It makes sense. So here are some quick thoughts on what 400 million users are experiencing on Facebook these days:

A bigger search bar, center stage.

Why it’s good for Facebook:

Keeps users in the site; search is clearly important, if it’s done well people may use it. Facebook controls not all but a lot of social capital on the web. Social search has obvious value for them (and us), but will it be enough? Not quite. Then… wait for it…. Bing! At least it’s trying now. With a lot of help from Microsoft meaningful search results can surface from within the Facebook wall.

Why it’s lame:

Integrated search is not executed well at all. Maybe I just don’t know about the secret and strategic plan to roll out reasonable usability at a snail’s pace? The search results don’t integrate with the Bing-driven web results that remain a click away from the sidebar. Google is always atop my browser, one click or keystroke away (F6 for those who don’t know). Why would I switch? Un. Bloody. Likely. Here’s a free tip for you, Facebook: if you can’t solve the true integration challenge, simply try placing Bing results right next to social results. Make that more visible right off the bat and some of us might actually intend on typing something into your search box rather than doing so accidentally. (But as of course that’s unlikely to happen, because we’ve got F6.)

Slightly more accessible chat.

Why it’s good:

Keeps users in the site; chatter is constant. Lots of people sign into this feature already. Maybe now the rest of us who don’t use it a lot will think of turning it on now and again. You know, because your chat box isn’t only available from the bottom-right anymore (a location also known as “the last place a person in the western world naturally directs their eyes towards”)

What’s missing:

3rd party email service integration, Facebook content integration, voice and video chat. Lots of work to do here, but doable, and potentially very useful. What else is missing? My objectivity. At some point in this post I began addressing Facebook as “you”. Ha.

Upcoming email service.

Why it’s good:

While they won’t likely get my business in this area, if rolled out properly they could get a lot of newcomers rockin’ the …@fbmail.com or ….@fb.com – if they could somehow pry that domain from the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Why you’ll wait for version 2:

Facebook will probably push social context down our throats, ignoring that email experience that do not need to evolve into a frenzy of likes and threaded rambling. After all, Google provides Wave for that. If my email procedures get just 5% less efficient, a huge time-suck will ensue. I can’t risk that. This’ll be a tough one for Facebook to generate conversion from, but new adoption is another story.

Ready? Set? Now race to the middle!

In a way, as Google gets more serious about the social game and Facebook moves towards the domains of the Mountain View Machine, we’re looking at a race to the middle that will have some very interesting outcomes, and perhaps some friendly ones as well. Clever mashups are already around; check out Threadsy. Some cool integration there. Now if only it was executed by the data sources themselves, in collaboration with each other. Imagine if Google and Facebook innovated together? Unlikely, I know. But the economies of scale could be there for their servers appetites. Lotta pictures on that site. And growing. Okay okay, enough economic rationale. It’s complex and they are fighting for glory. One is focused on implicit results and the other, explicit. And yes, the fight is too good for now. Like most of us, I enjoy watching it. I also find value in multiple services. I enjoy many benefits from several cloud services, and as for the drawbacks, I try to minimize my encounters with them. I like that the industry is busy and competitive because it’ll make result in better products, ones of better value. Mistakes along then way, for sure. But reasonable competition for the masses. I like that they’re trying.

Trying… and killing it out there… here are some recent stats… go to Facebook the source.

More than 400 million active users

50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

More than 35 million users update their status each day

More than 60 million status updates posted each day

More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month

More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week

More than 3.5 million events created each month

More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook

More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook

More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day

Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

HCI is about people, interactions and system interfaces. First, people do what people are good at, such as observation, interpreting, determining what is important, and making the final decisions. There are situations where human decisions need to be assisted by data visualizations. Secondly, the computer does what it is good at, which is repetitive tasks and routine. Finally, collectively, people will make better decisions or influence each other on their decisions. But neither people (individual or communities) nor computers are forced to do what the other does better. HCI strives to integrate the two so they can compliment each other to achieve more productivity.

There are quite a few challenges in applying universal design in the context of HCI in order to provide the formative insight needed to design interactive products that can be experienced by the mass in different contexts. The distinctive characteristics of these products may be identified by briefly considering the changes in the socio-technical paradigm; from the early days of computing to the 21st century human interfaces intended to provide a gateway into the world of distributed information paradigm; the scope and context of use of the computer (hard to define what a computer is these days, what is the computing power needed in order to be called a computer),;as it becomes a mediating tool for increasing different types of human (both business and personal) activities.

In another short 5-10 years, mini or micro computing devices will be everywhere as medical and consumer devices becoming mass. While HCI is still in its infancy, some HCI practitioners are trying to break away from common conception of an “average” user interacting with a laptop in the office to get work done, and to engage in a conscious effort to develop new understanding, methodologies and tools, in order to understand the following:

How emerging new distributed computational paradigms will create new challenges for HCI designs? How do we research behavior that does not exist today?
How new interaction /interface design can be effectively used to serve an increasing range of system-mediated human activities?
When does interactions / interface design cross the line and becoming service design? Interactive artifacts are now being introduced into service settings in a larger degree.
How new visceral interactions that are driven by interactive paradigms rather than user needs emerge, beyond the imagination of the novice users?
What are the emerging threats to privacy that force us to rethink some fundamental concepts in HCI when attackers, ranging from the curious to the highly malicious, might abuse or subvert the system?

Being the dean of a design school is no easy job today. Design schools are struggling to serve three masters: the student, the industry and society. The last one is a new one as generally designers have now come to a consensus that designs for social change is a part of the design agenda. With limited time and resources, design educators need to define a strategy for the D-schools’ future. Is it to teach the person/artist to create?  Or about training craftsmen (both traditionally and with software tools) to supply to the industry? Or to develop thinkers to be able to solve wicked problems?

Three Things They Don’t Teach You In Design Schools

Design education is becoming so broad that educators are finding it difficult to balance breath and depth, not deep enough in some areas and not general enough to cover the ever-expanding design practices. I am afraid we have not come to a conclusion as to what design education should be like and are simply continuing to train the design thinkers of tomorrow in the techniques and tools from the past.

Here are three lessons from industrial design on engineering desirability that are borrowed from sociology. After all, industrial design is about getting humans to buy, use and love products. If you sent your ID designers to talk to the dating experts (generally not free), here’s what you’ll get:

1/ A few mmms here and there can make a big difference. According to the Journal of Psychopharmacology, when we’re drunk, guys look cuter because we don’t notice the asymmetry of their face. The biological explanation: A symmetric guy is less likely to have genetic defects and makes a better mate. Male or female, the sex appeal lies mainly in face shape. One example according to paleontologists, the dimensions of the region between the mouth and the eyebrows are crucial in determining how attractive a man’s face appears to the opposite sex. For product design, there is specific asymmetry that determines the attractiveness of a product, and they may not comply with human factors or ergonomic principles, but what’s more important? An attractive boyfriend or an ergonomic boyfriend? Not sure if people know it, your nose should be part of foreplay, not only in sex but also in product design and marketing.

2/ The power of smell. Smell is a relatively new element outside of the personal care and cosmetic industry. Here’s an example from the work of the Smell and Taste Research Foundation based out of Chicago, the blend of lavender and pumpkin turns guys on. Do you remember the smell of leather (real leather) in a new car, it didn’t last very long but it felt so good. My favorite is the smell from an Abercrombie store. Every time I bought something, the smell is there and that reminds me of my fun college days.  I wonder why my iTouch, MacBook, Blackberry or Canon Powershot don’t have any smells on them; particularly because it is something I carry all the time. Wouldn’t it be great if my Blackberry had a unique smell that corresponded to and changed according to who was on the other end of the line? Another million-dollar idea here.

3/ Colours are always sexy. Why aren’t your products colourful? According to research, men are attractive to women who wear a particular colour and find them more desirable. Pantone can make us more desirable to the opposite sex (email me and I will design your personal colour mood board). These are cultural specific naturally. Why red for Valentine’s Day? That’s a colour associate with romance and the primal instincts that links the color to sex. That’s also the reason why the butts of some animals turn red when they are ready to mate. Look at the red colour interior of Bugatti Veyron! It is not just about using colours, but using it strategically.

Here’s a simple test, have your girlfriend or boyfriend try on different colours of sweaters from J.Crew and you will see why he/she looks particular attractive in certain colours. There is research to show which colours work better when creating desirability. But 90% of products out there were not designed with that in mind. More often than not, someone randomly decides on what colour should be used. If you want your product to be sexy, spend more time with the Pantone guide and your customers. Colours can always add magic.