Designing with Purpose

Bill Buxton, a software design specialist at Microsoft, talks about product design and innovation.

He asks creative folks to think about focusing efforts on improving the human experience, and not just creating the next whiz-bang technology. He describe "renaissance teams" composed of computer scientists, social scientists and industrial designers.

Today's question: where have you found greater purpose in design recently?

Read more at Technology Review:
Designs with a Deeper Purpose - Technology Review

Unsubscribing, and the Power of Guilt

I tried out Groupon a while back, while I was checking out different services for local online coupons. Finding myself just deleting the daily emails, I decided to just unsubscribe to help keep my inbox empty.

When I unsubscribed, I stumbled upon a clever idea for getting folks to resubscribe:

 

Now, I'm not normally a cruel person, but could *you* resist punishing Derrick? 

I didn't think so.

His coworker then proceeds to berate and attack him:

Poor Derrick, lying on the floor, suffering. Don't you feel badly for punishing him? Just a little? 

Wouldn't you feel better if you... resubscribed? 

Yeah, I didn't either, but still very creative.

If you feel Derrick still hasn't suffered enough, you can give him his just desserts here:

• http://www.groupon.com/washington-dc/unsubscribed