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October meeting / World Usability day
we had a small, but good crowd today at our monthly meeting. Thanks Modis for the pizza and locale!
We talked about World Usability Day 2009 (Nov 12) and what we could do in Charlotte. The theme this year is designing for a sustainable world. Some things discussed were:
- Daniel McCormick's functional art
- the Toyota Prius interface that gives you instant feedback about your MPG and (i believe, Greg or someone correct me if i'm wrong) how much you are affecting the planet
- how do we make sustainability easy, and accessible
- green products need to work. John C brought up the energy efficient dryer that takes 2 dry cycles to actually dry the clothes, so its not actually saving energy since it takes twice as long.
- Matt suggested we think globally and act locally, ie what can we actually affect in Charlotte. Possibly bus transportation routes? or recycle bins uptown?
It sounded like we were leaning towards setting up a few stations around Uptown (Trade&Tryon, the Green....) and either bringing recycle bins/compost bins or at the very least somehow counting the trash that is disposed of during the lunch hour (12-1ish) so that we can see how much could be recycled if there was a city-wide initiative to not only have trash cans on the corners, but also recycle/compost bins. We can gather real data, and possibly present to the city.
Obviously if you have other ideas of things we can do Nov 12 around designing for sustainability, leave the comments!
We talked about World Usability Day 2009 (Nov 12) and what we could do in Charlotte. The theme this year is designing for a sustainable world. Some things discussed were:
- Daniel McCormick's functional art
- the Toyota Prius interface that gives you instant feedback about your MPG and (i believe, Greg or someone correct me if i'm wrong) how much you are affecting the planet
- how do we make sustainability easy, and accessible
- green products need to work. John C brought up the energy efficient dryer that takes 2 dry cycles to actually dry the clothes, so its not actually saving energy since it takes twice as long.
- Matt suggested we think globally and act locally, ie what can we actually affect in Charlotte. Possibly bus transportation routes? or recycle bins uptown?
It sounded like we were leaning towards setting up a few stations around Uptown (Trade&Tryon, the Green....) and either bringing recycle bins/compost bins or at the very least somehow counting the trash that is disposed of during the lunch hour (12-1ish) so that we can see how much could be recycled if there was a city-wide initiative to not only have trash cans on the corners, but also recycle/compost bins. We can gather real data, and possibly present to the city.
Obviously if you have other ideas of things we can do Nov 12 around designing for sustainability, leave the comments!
Comment
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Comment by Ben Ullman on October 20, 2009 at 9:10am -
I was thinking the same thing that Carter(?) mentioned... the idea of sustainablility is at odds with our consumer culture of constantly upgrading to the newest styles, accessories, furnishings and gadgets... it's a tough nut to crack.
Related: HFI is having an essay contest which seeks answers to the question: How can the User Experience Community support the future of sustainability?
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Comment by Lynn Marentette on October 16, 2009 at 10:54am
- Maybe create a smart-mob for this?
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Comment by Greg on October 8, 2009 at 8:47am - Thanks for the summary. Perhaps we should find a single trash bin near a park or outdoor greenspace where we can all eat and observe the recycle behavior. Somewhere like this : http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&encType=1&sp=Point.pw47k387wnvq_Trash%20Can%20to%20Observe____
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