Ambidextrous Blog

Join us at Ambidextrous, Info Session this Friday

2009-09-29T00:01:57Z

Come learn about Stanford’s student-run design magazine and how you can become part

of the leadership team or get involved as a writer/photographer/editor/production person!

AMBIDEXTROUS

Stanford University’s Journal of Design

Information Session

Fri Oct 2 12:15PM@ d.school

Ambi on Facebook

2009-08-22T17:22:25Z

Happy Bday Amanda’s Fresh Food

2009-07-25T22:02:19Z

Ambidextrous profiled Amanda West in our Fall 2006 Picking Things Up issue (”Creating a Healthy America, One Hamburger at a Time” by Angie Heile). At that time she was just in the planning stages for a feel good fast food restaurant experience.

Her vision has become a reality. Now it’s celebrating it’s 1st birthday! Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food Restaurant is in Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue serving burgers and baked french fries and apple fries.

Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food Restaurant in Berkeley celebrates its anniversary from noon to 8 p.m. July 25. Highlights of the daylong celebration include free food, entertainment and raffle prizes. The free bite lineup includes organic cookies, noon-2 p.m.; baked fries, 2-4 p.m.; organic apple fries, 4-6 p.m.; and freshly made sodas, 6-8 p.m. The restaurant is at 2122 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. 510-548-2122.

It’s a result of applying design thinking to the fast food/dining experience. From the article:

West’s simple plan to feed Americans better burgers reminds designers of the compromises struck between what’s best for the people who use their products and what most people really want in their hearts: the same old junk they’re already grown to love.

Check out the full article Creating a Healthy America, One Burger at a Time here.

Ambidextrous is Stanford University’s Journal of Design.

4 Design Thinking Lessons from Douglas Engelbart

2009-07-22T20:10:19Z

The Tech Museum of Innovation will host a book launch party Wednesday evening for The Engelbart Hypothesis by Valerie Landau and Eileen Clegg in conversation with Douglas Engelbart.

Ambidextrous Co-Editor-in-Chief Bjoern Hartmann sat down with Douglas Engelbart for a Point of View article for AMBIDEXTROUS Issue #6 The Future. In What Would Douglas Engelbart Do?, Bjoern captures four lessons we can glean from on of our favorite visionaries:

First off, be stubborn. Very stubborn. His adviser at Berkeley told him that he was wasting his time. For more than a decade, Engelbart couldn’t find reliable financial support. He kept his project afloat with fringe grants for “wildhaired guys” because he was convinced that his ideas were important. The time it takes to convince others of your ideas is measured in years—so plan for the long haul.

Second, experiment. A lot. The mouse was not a fluke. The Augment group devised chorded keyboards, nosecontrolled pointers, foot pedals, and knee controllers. They partnered with Herman Miller to develop experimental workstation furniture that you would straddle like a horse. Some innovations stuck, many did not. Expect failures—if nothing else, they make for entertaining anecdotes.

Third, put yourself out on the line. In 1968, Engelbart staged the “mother of all demos.” He introduced his mousecontrolled workstation to an audience of a thousand engineers in San Francisco by using it live. During the demonstration Engelbart brought up a data and video link with team member Bill Paxton in Menlo Park and showed how the two could remotely collaborate on a document in real time. Nothing like it had been done with computers before. It was a high-risk plan, but it paid off with immediate public recognition.

Finally, and, maybe most importantly, bite off more than you can chew. Improving the collective IQ of mankind was a larger-than-life goal. But for Engelbart it meant he never ran out of intermediate steps to accomplish. His most successful innovations were born out of necessity— they were the means needed to augment collaborative intelligence. Having a bigger picture helped him to solve the real-world problems at hand—and then move forward towards the next challenge.

Check out the full article of What Would Douglas Engelbart Do?.

Ambidextrous is Stanford University’s Journal of Design.

Just Out of This World

2009-07-21T04:55:16Z

Image credit: NASA.

In recognition of today’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing please enjoy these Ambi articles on Outer Space and NASA.

Ethnographer Janet Vertesi captures the choreography of NASA scientists. From the newest issue of AMBIDEXTROUS, she recounts how NASA scientists get down and do the Rover Dance. Robots in Space…and the Scientists that Mimic Them.

“Sharing common ground on Mars and a common body language on Earth helps team members to manage their differences and agree what the rover should do every day.”
Social psychologist Susannah Paletz shares her perspective from helping NASA design work environments with another article from newest issue of AMBIDEXTROUS, “Space,”Organizational Pressures within NASA Run High. She writes of normalization of variance and ignoring dissent.

“NASA management focused so much on schedule that they did not listen to the engineers and their safety concerns. In trying to see the forest, management missed the trees.”
In Issue 6 “The Future” co-editor-in-chief Bjoern Hartmann gathers Don Davis’ 1970s fantastic drawings of futuristic imagined space colonies in Let’s Build Suburbs in Space

“In the 1970s, just a few years after the first moon landing, space colonies were eagerly anticipated as the wave of the future. As NASA’s space settlement archive still boasts: ‘We have the ability to live in space, therefore we will.’ Artist Don Davis produced a series of concept images of human space habitats for the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA, during those early enthusiast years. His renderings show bucolic scenes of (artificial) nature inside gigantic, mile-long spacecrafts rotating in orbit.”

Ambidextrous’ Issue 11 Launch Party Photos

2009-06-28T07:17:44Z

This past Thursday we celebrated the launch of Issue 11 at the Nokia Research Center.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our Issue 11 “Space” launch party at Nokia this past Thursday. It was wonderful to see both long-time supporters and new faces yesterday — we always enjoy seeing the Ambidextrous community grow!

Check out our pictures from the party on Flickr!

If your don’t have a copy of “Space” already, you can still buy one online. You can also support us by subscribing to ensure we have future launch parties, and sharing issues with your friends, family and co-workers. Follow us on Twitter and join our fan group on Facebook for the latest updates and news.

Ambidextrous Issue 11 Launch Party 6/25

2009-06-20T20:33:43Z

Come talk about: Robots in Space * Getting Lost * White Space * Holodeck * Origami * Designer Workspaces * Prelinger Library * Coziness

There will be tasty treats to snack on, food for thought to munch on, and the best company the Bay Area’s design community has to offer.

The AMBIDEXTROUS launch party will be at the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto from 6-9pm. RSVP now!

Check out the Issue 11 “Space” digital preview!

2009-06-12T20:56:10Z

Issue 11 is hot off the press, and we’ve launched a digital version of the issue as well, for our readers to preview the issue.

Of course, don’t forget the wonderful advantages of our beautiful printed version, and sign up for a subscription today!

A big thank you to our beloved Ambidextrous community for your continual support, and for spreading the word.

World Beard and Moustache Championships

2009-05-22T15:57:57Z

The 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships is scheduled for this Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska. You still have time to book your flights.

Frequent Ambi contributor Hugh Musick talked to Phil Olsen, the self-appointed captain of Beard Team USA in the Ambidextrous Spring 2008 Developing Issue in an Thinking article entitled The Hair of Their Chinny Chin Chins. Phil talks about his personal approach:

I prefer boldness over extravagance. My full beard has grown practically untrimmed for years. I mold it into a bold, solid, symmetrical shape that I think makes a statement. more

Good luck to Phil and Beard Team USA!

21 Principles of Innovation

2009-05-05T18:37:40Z

Diego Rodriguez of the d.school and IDEO has started a list of 21 Principles of Innovation on his Metacool blog. He’s posting them one-by-one and is currently at 11 of 21:

Experience the world instead of talking about experiencing the world >
See and hear with the mind of a child >
Always ask: “How do we want people to feel after they experience this?” >
Prototype as if you are right. Listen as if you are wrong. >
Anything can be prototyped. You can prototype with anything. >
Live life at the intersection >
Develop a taste for the many flavors of innovation >
Most new ideas aren’t >
Killing good ideas is a good idea >
Baby steps often lead to big leaps >
Everyone needs time to innovate >
- 21. …

I have money down on “Preserving Ambiguity” for one of the remaining 10 items (and hope the list of 21 is actually 20).