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Another set of links for your consideration in this week’s UXD Inspired Reads: Design, Economics, Prototyping, Electric Cars, Privacy, and Personal Health. Sudhakar sent in a great piece highlighting his passion for running. I also wanted to help shine a light on a topic that does not get enough attention: Depression; and the untimely and tragic passing of musician Chris Cornell.
1. How Design Identifies and Navigates Obstacles for Businesses
“By now, it’s more than apparent than ever that good design is much more than the way things look. But even the most systematic design can only get you so far when developed in a vacuum. Design creatives can’t be an afterthought towards the end of a project — their involvement is paramount from the outset. When you need to lay things out, every decision you make has an impact on the success of your product or service, which is why leading, modern companies use design to make better, more informed decisions.”
2. Designer’s Most Hated & Loved Fonts
“There was a time when you only have to choose between Arial or Times New Roman.”
3. Wolf Richter: Private Equity in the Thick of Bricks and Mortar Retail Implosion
“One of the reason so many real world retailers are hitting the wall so hard is that private equity leverage and asset stripping made them particularly vulnerable. While the losses to online retailers would have forced some downsizing regardless, the fact that so many are making desperate moves in parallel is in large measure due to the fact that the tender ministrations of their private equity overlords have made them fragile.”
4. The Value of Building Prototypes for Amazon Alexa and Google Home
“Creating great user experiences for voice applications. Having an idea for a product is a funny thing. It’s easy to imagine in your head what the experience will be, and it’s exciting to think about people using it. But there is the ‘messy middle’ of the product process, where you need to think through the specifics of each interaction, and solve all of edge cases that you never anticipated when you first had the idea.”
5. Israeli Company Demonstrates 300-Mile Electric Car Battery That Charges in 5 Minutes
“Israeli firm StoreDot claims to have a solution to the charging time dilemma with their FlashBattery. It’s a unique battery for electric cars that they claim fully charges in just five minutes and can keep a car going for up to 300 miles.”
6. Google-blessed Android infotainment system comes to the car
“Move over Android Auto: vehicles can now run Android directly as an OS.”
7. What Happens When Your Car Gets Hacked?
“Fast forward five to 10 years, and the world is going to be filled with literally tens of billions of devices that hackers can attack. We’re going to see ransomware against our cars. Our digital video recorders and web cameras will be taken over by botnets. The data that these devices collect about us will be stolen and used to commit fraud. And we’re not going to be able to secure these devices.”
8. An Hour of Running May Add 7 Hours to Your Life (from Sudhakar)
“Running may be the single most effective exercise to increase life expectancy, according to a new review and analysis of past research about exercise and premature death. The new study found that, compared to non-runners, runners tended to live about three additional years, even if they run slowly or sporadically and smoke, drink or are overweight. No other form of exercise that researchers looked at showed comparable impacts on life span.”
9. Remembering Chris Cornell, who was larger than life and louder than love
On a very somber personal note, and one that I did not want to ignore; musician Chris Cornell sadly passed away a few days back at the age of 52. For those of you music fans out there, Cornell was leader of the band Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog, and a driving force within Seattle’s grunge music movement. Over the last several years we have lost several innovative artists including David Bowie, Prince, amongst others, who affected the lives of so many through their art. He was one of my musical heroes, one whom many believed had weathered the storms, and will sorely be missed. I found this piece to be a very poignant remembrance.
The effects and damage of the prescription drug abuse epidemic inflicted throughout our country has taken many lives. The stigma of dealing with depression has been forced under the rug in our society. If you know anyone in pain, Please reach out to them, listen to them, and most importantly help them get the help they need.