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I’m Arun Venkatesan, and this is the arun.is newsletter, where I share my current obsessions, inspiration from around the web, behind-the-scenes content, and more.
In this week’s issue:
- What's new
- Thoughtless acts?
- Two recommendations from around the web
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What's new
It has been a while! After the last newsletter issue, we went on a holiday to Oaxaca, Mexico. The family needed some time away, and the trip fulfilled its promise. Unfortunately, we caught COVID along the way (our first time), throwing off all our plans as my wife and I shared childcare duties.
I put nearly everything on hold as we focused on getting everyone back to normal. I've been slowly catching back up to my old habits.
Since the last issue of this newsletter, I published a new blog post. The sensory experience of making coffee is one part photo essay and one part review. I first wrote about my foray into coffee in another newsletter issue. A year later, I've settled into a delightful ritual and found my ideal setup, which the post discusses in depth.
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I've begun a little freelance project with the makers of indie software that I've enjoyed recently. I can't say much yet, but be on the lookout next month.
Also, after all the soul searching, I've begun more serious conversations and interviews with folks about what I'll do next in my career!
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Thoughtless acts?
A month ago, I read User Friendly (worth reading, by the way). The book reminded me of "thoughtless acts." These are the myriad alternate uses we find for objects around us — a car roof acting as a coffee table, a backpack used as a pillow on grass, a street sign turned into a bike rack.
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I was first introduced to the idea when attending one of Naoto Fukasawa's talks in San Francisco. He practices "design without thought," in which observations of how we use products are harnessed in the design of new ones. (If you are interested in Naoto, Wallpaper published an interview this week).
The best example is his wall-mounted CD player for Muji. The power cord doubles as a pull switch, much like a fan. Then, when the CD player starts, the movement of the CD again mimics the fan.
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I have a small collection of books from Naoto's Design Without Thought workshops. These events mixed designers from different companies into teams. Together, they would channel the "without thought" idea when creating a concept around a central theme.
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So, User Friendly mentioned Jane Fulton Suri's (one of Naoto's coworkers at IDEO) book, thoughtless acts?. I quickly bought a used copy. It's mostly a string of photographs of people using products in the real world. The book follows the pictures with explanations of the topic and how designers can use observation as part of their process.
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Since reading the book, I began seeing how we bend the world around us. Even in software, we all find novel uses for things. These uses can inform future products. Next time you are out and about, I challenge you to spot an example of using something in an unintended way.
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Recommendations
Before I let you go, I have some recommendations from around the web.
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Amy Wibowo
My first recommendation this time is a person, Amy Wibowo. She was one of my first interviewers when I was looking for a job out of college. I still remember my experience because she was a fantastic interviewer. She approached the experience like a peer and teacher, guiding me when I got stuck and bouncing ideas back and forth. I left the interview with a ton of respect and began following her.
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Segmented Displays
The second is a video about segmented displays. Even though these ubiquitous items are all around me, I never stopped to think about the different designs and how they may have developed. This video is both entertaining and educational.
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That's it for this issue. As always, this is my personal email, so feel free to respond directly.
Stay curious,
Arun Venkatesan
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