This Weeks Reading
A Fleet of Networked Mushroom Farms Is Spreading Across New York
By Brian Kahn, via Earther
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK—Between the pasta and deli counters in the middle of a Whole Foods is the last place you’d expect to find a contraption that simultaneously evokes a rave and a forest floor, let alone a brand-new way of farming. Yet Smallhold’s Minifarm is all of these things…
When disparate approaches unite
When designing for the circular economy, we must bring different groups together and combine the seemingly contradictory.
By Holly Bybee and Lauren Yarmuth
Today’s most intractable challenges require collaboration across companies and industries. Solutions can’t be achieved in isolation, and the best ideas will come when leaders join forces to drive progress…
The Difference Between Good and Great Designers
To talk about what makes designers great, we first have to talk about what design is.
By Alex Palmer
On a fundamental level, design is meant to show the intent that exists behind an action or an object in a clear way. Great design strips away all possible interpretations of intent, leaving only one. Great design is unambiguous, meaning that it’s not open to more than one interpretation. For any design to be great, everyone should be able to understand its intent, regardless of their background, experience, and taste. I’m sure that you can imagine how achieving that level of clarity can be incredibly difficult…
The Power of Experience Mapping
By Jared Spool
Somewhere in the depths of Netflix, there’s a team whose primary responsibility is to make sure the bits move quickly. As Netflix serves its customers by streaming video, they ensure that video data leaves the server in a prompt and efficient manner…