Tetley's Nails It

If you drink tea, you are familiar with the method of plopping your wet tea bag against the side of the mug to drain it. No more! Tetley's has a drawstring tea bag that eliminates the need for wet plopping! It's fantabulous!

This is what the packaging looks like. I'm not certain if these are available stateside yet.

And here, from the package, are the step-by-step directions for using the drawstring bag. Pretty clever!

Make Dinner FUN with Face Plates!

As we enter the New Year, many of us are fighting the same battles--especially with our kids at dinner time. Even good eaters can have their less-zealous moments. These plates from Fred & Friends will make mealtime a LOT more fun!

Basic foods are transformed into elements of design: noodles for hair, ketchup for rosy cheeks, fruit for earrings. Everything works with these plates! Do yourself a favor and grab a set, and avoid the hair-pulling at dinnertime...because while kids should eat as they're told, parents need to stay sane, too.

Happy New Year!

Baby Roll Asleep

I'm flabbergasted. Does it seem to work? Yes. Did Baby Roll Asleep miss an incredible opportunity to cross-promote with Swiffer? Maybe.

Ritz Packaging Fail

There was a surprise in our Ritz box today--the box looked a little more . . . er . . . pregnant, than usual. This is why. The final tube somehow folded in half as it entered the box on the assembly line, and ended up smashed into 50% of the space it usually gets. And it fit. So, I guess Ritz are at least 50% air. Which makes me glad I used a coupon.

Sushi Lovers Rejoice!

Part of what's so appealing about eating sushi is it's appearance. I crave the cute little compact, colorful bites of deliciousness, and now with Rice Cube, I can make food have a similar appeal at home! Jazzed to try this one out! If you have, let us know how it went.

Reason #100 to Love a Dyson Animal

If you have a pet, and you do not have a Dyson Animal vacuum, let me share this with you: it is really worth all that money. Yes, the vacuum is over SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. But, really, I have never seen a more intuitive, durable, or functional machine.

This morning after eradicating the ten tons of dog hair from my house, I noticed a slight decrease in suction. What? A decrease in suction? Surely not! Dyson says I'll never lose suction! I listened to the vacuum and thought, that sounds like something's blocked.

Turned it off, looked at where the attachment hose meets to machine, followed the purple tabs, and voila! The hose trap popped off the bottom, revealing a small Lego man trapped inside. Now, if Dyson hadn't made such a wonderful machine that really, honestly requires no user manual, my house would never be this clean again -- and that poor little Lego man would've been trapped for eternity in dog hair.

Pioneers of American Industrial Design

Often when people hear the term "Industrial Design" they think of factories and machines.  Those things result from design, but Industrial Design is actually the discipline of solving problems through the design of objects.  It's a strange and wonderful merging of art, engineering, business, and research.  It's a unique field full of wonderfully unique individuals.  The masters of my discipline are being honored by the US Postal Service with lovely iconic images that showcase the simple beauty of designing useful objects.

P-Tree Gives you Permission to Pee

The P-Tree by Dutch designers Aandeboom is fascinating.  Drunken revelers can now pee on trees without worry - although having permission might take all the fun out of it.  The P-Tree is simple:  strap the rota-molded urinal to a tree, tie it into septic or drainage, and viola!  Instant potty.  The only question I have left for Aandeboom is, what about the ladies?

The Things Users Won't Tell You

Let's cut right to the chase - companies want to know what you want to buy. They really, really want to know. They email you surveys, they print feedback sweepstakes on your receipts, and they pay market researchers a LOTTA money to tell them what you want. And you tell them! You're genuinely thrilled to let them know what you're thinking! You want them to know what you want to buy too!

So what's the problem with all of that? Why does it seem so hard to find exactly what you want on the shelf? Because, honestly, you can't tell them what you want. And they're pretty silly to keep asking! For the average user the majority of any experience doesn't register in the conscious mind. The subconscious processes much of what we see, hear, touch and smell - and only the highlights are big enough to catch our full attention.
What companies could really use is insight into unarticulated needs. These are the things you won't tell them, but you'll recognize instantly when your attention is drawn to it. Take the photo above for example. When surveyed, the owner of this refrigerator was asked "can you store wine in your refrigerator" and responded "yes" with no qualifications. Upon direct observation of the user's fridge, it was obvious that wine bottle storage was not being adequately addressed.

The user isn't going to tell you what they need, but it's right there waiting to be observed through ethnographic documentation. Traditionally, ethnography demands a rigorous period of immersion into a culture for observation. The same principles can be applied to observation research on a smaller scale. Forget the focus groups. Forget the surveys. Take the plunge and get right inside the user's world - the answers are there waiting for you.

Orville's New Bag Needs No Bowl

The Orville Redenbacher's Pop Up Bowl is pretty neato. Click through to watch the video - unfortunately they don't have one available to embed. The bag unfolds and expands similarly to other popcorn bags. Once it pops up, you tear off one edge and end up with a bowl-like package suitable for snacking. Beats coating your knuckles with shiny goodness when reaching deep into the greasy salty sides of a regular bag for the last kernels...

Who Needs a Burger Press?

Grilling season is upon us, and I've been meaning to look into burger presses. Not necessarily because I want one, but because I've been wondering who does? I'm more the type to be lulled into a stress free zone by patting out my burgers systematically, and I haven't as yet desired a machine to do it for me. But the fact remains that there are a LOT of these little devices on the market in many forms - so here's the run-down:Williams Sonoma is all over the idea of perfectly formed burgers. They've got round ones, square ones, and pleasing heavy cast tools all around. The pass-through design seems to make sense as patties drop straight through after you press them.
Crate & Barrel has also been working the burger angle, although their presses make a bit less sense. The presses are virtually burger molds, with not much opportunity to extricate the patties intact...may explain why they're on clearance at this time!
There's also a lot of professional grade equipment on the market, and an affordable option is Weston's Burger Express. It's spring loaded, making it easy to remove the burger intact off of the raised platform after you press it. And you get to set your desired thickness. As with most presses, the use of waxed paper is encouraged to make production perfect.

What I'd like to see next is a press that allows you to customize - who says we all want the same burger size? Or maybe something that cranks out the burgers like a potato slicer? Or a patty sized cookie gun? There's definitely room for improvement here. I now understand the appeal - users describe deep satisfaction with consistent thickness, shape, and ease of production. But I think a better product awaits - after all if you're in the market for a burger press, you're seeking perfection.

Sodastream, now with more Fizz!

The latest Sodastream model has some bells and whistles that'll hit the sweet spot for many consumers. The Fizz boasts the revolutionary "FizzChip" which tells you when you're running low on gas and lets you set your perfect customized gas level. If you like to set it and forget it, and don't want to be surprised when you run outta gas, this model is for you. The older models, still well worth the money, only provide for manual adjustment of the gas-i-ness, which takes a little practice. Watch and learn - the gas is gonna getcha!

The Flip is Over!

I'm both surprised and not surprised that Cisco is shutting down Flip. The designer in me is frankly shocked - that they're willing to throw away the wealth of good brand faith that Flip has earned in such a short time. The strategist in me says, why on earth did Cisco buy Flip in the first place? It's a shame that the great PD that went into the original Flip will die with this company - although the ID work was outsourced, so maybe not so much. Smart Design was responsible for the ground breaking user interface, and for much of the population this technology is still relevant. Yes, smart phones abound, but much of the population can't afford those - the Flip brought simple video capture to those who couldn't afford more expensive products, or who had limited familiarity with computers. It was one of the first video cameras that almost all users could understand how to download.

Why's it going away then? Well, a product line (and a company for that matter) have to be loved to succeed - you have to fight for your brand these days, and have the vision to lead it. Cisco doesn't have that vision for consumer products and frankly they shouldn't have tried to buy it like a commodity. While it makes sense for their bottom line to drop Flip now, it's a waste of brand potential. Overall it's sad that the original Flip owners sold to a bidder worth $40B who would never really have much stake in a $40M company.

Apple Patents a Stylus for iPad

For those of us who love a pen on paper, the iPad is going to get a little more attractive. Apple has filed a patent for a stylus that includes an accelerometer, to pick up all the nuances of putting pen to pad. Interestingly, while Jobs has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a stylus in the past, Gates has advocated for the idea for some time:

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, made this observation last year when he said students needed a pen to be able to interact with a tablet in a school setting. Mr. Gates said the iPad was good for reading, but not necessarily for creating.

I have to say I agree with him. Looking forward to trying it out one day!

Mobi-Mats Take You There

Who isn't familiar with the hot-as-hell sand shuffle? Trying to walk quickly while your flops fling sand and fly off your feet, with the ten bags you're carrying cutting into your shoulders and your common sense screaming Get Off This Sand NOW!!!! Mobi-mats change this entire experience. Now you can stroll or roll(handicap friendly!) down to the cooler parts of the sand, with no damage to the beaches....LOVE IT!!For more on the beach mats in particular, check out their parks&recs site. The mats can also be found on mobile airstrips and anywhere else you need a walkway in a heartbeat. Check out the construction detail - how often have you thought about using woven solutions?

Brabantia Continues to Reinvigorate Basics

Some of you may be familiar with Brabantia trashcans, commonly found at BB&B. Williams Sonoma is now promoting a new ironing board by Brabantia, and I like what I see. They continue to reinvigorate products that many companies write off as low-margin or commodities. The design features on this ironing board make it a product worth owning.

Part Two: Tools that Help You ENJOY Cooking!

I hear you! You need an excuse to buy more stuff for your kitchen! I'm ready and able to enable...
Cookie scoops, like these classic stainless steel beauties from Norpro, will change your feelings about baking cookies. We all love cookies, but making 24-48 little balls is not the most gratifying task. The scoops keep your hands free, fill the sheet pan in 2 minutes, and perfectly portion the dough for even, round cookies.
Keeping with the stainless theme, shallow metal prep bowls like these by WINCO have more uses than you can imagine. They aren't deep like mixing bowls, but generously sized and shallow to make mixing pasta, salad, meatloaf, and everything else a breeze. Plus, they're a bargain from restaurant supply stores.If you've never tried keeping your spices in a drawer, it'll change your world. You can read all the labels at once and quickly find and replace what you're looking for. I'm still waiting for more stylish options to emerge, but for now these by Dial provide the best fit for existing drawers and bottles.
This is the best can opener I've ever used. And I've tested, cut up, and redesigned dozens of them over the years. This one locks in place for secure use and compact storage and it NEVER slips. Yet again, OXO transforms a frustrating task into a pleasurable one.Treat your self to an attractive oil cruet like this one from Mario Batali's line. Too often our counters are crowded with bulky oil bottles for cooking. Grab a couple of cruets, color coded or labeled, and transform your countertop into a sleek cook's station.

Catch up on Part One here!

Shameful Marketing Ploy or Fashion Genius?

Yep. Denim Diapers. You really are seeing that. My gut reaction is to sink this product, but I'm trying to take a step back into the target's mindset. There are lots of people who let their kids run around in just a diaper all day - I may not be one of them, but this product doesn't appeal to me. Maybe it will appeal to them?

Kenmore follows Chevy

Remember when Chevy said they'd launch 10 new cars in 20 months and everyone was amazed when they did it? They reaped the rewards too with double the web traffic, 98% dealer participation and a huge jump in sales. Kenmore is hoping to achieve the same thing - only they're launching 450 new products in 2010.

Granted, most corporations of their size can and do launch hundreds of new products each year, but Kenmore isn't just branching into new markets. They seem to be launching a top-to-bottom rebrand, with every product tweaked at least a little. Some products even seem to be new thinking - I'm super excited to start seeing some reviews on the Dishwashers, Clothes Washers and Dryers. They seem to offer some new features that required some new tools and assembly lines - a huge commitment on Kenmore's production scale.

Marketwatch covers the story in lots of detail, and though it does mentions "clean modern style" about a hundred times, there seems to be some good thinking here. Hopefully there are a bunch of American designers who finally got their hands on these products that have such a huge impact on day to day life - maybe they'll snatch the ball out everyone else's hands, much like Chevy did with the American Revolution, the 7th most recalled car campaign ever.

What is TRASH, really?

My son put two and two together the other day and asked me, "Mommy, where does the trash GO?" Good question. I explained what I do know about the modern trash system, and he seemed fine with that. Later on he asked me who lives at the "landfill." My earlier explanation must have conjured up images of a town on top of a giant mountain of landfill, in an awful country called Trashland, where people don't throw anything away because they live with it all.

Well, the sad truth is that place does exist, here and there hidden in areas people don't visit on purpose. There are some people who have to live with the refuse the rest of us create, often in poorer parts of the world. That's such a depressing thought that it really motivates me on a daily basis to do the right thing. After a decade in product development, privileged to the dirty secrets behind making, selling and trashing the things we use, this is the bottom line:

Don't bring it into your home: buy less, avoid packaging and bags, use refillable systems and concentrates, make your own when possible (cleaning products for example), provide restaurants with your own containers for leftovers or takeout (recycling is imperfect, do it but don't rely on it - reducing is the best policy!)

Don't let it leave your home: reuse anything durable (get creative, list things you need and things you have and see what matches!), compost, garbage disposal, use as many glass, metal, ceramic, and wood products as you can (especially food storage containers like my favorite Pyrex shown below)