field notes

I’ve been describing what I call the “mobile imperative” for a few years now. The mobile user experience is not an add-on. We need to deliver websites that will hold up for a few years’ time, that should work on today’s devices and those we haven’t yet seen.

On your way home from work, you stop at the store to pick up some more milk. As you’re walking back to your car, reflexively your iPhone appears in your hand and you swipe through a pile of emails. A clever subject line catches your attention. But what’s this? Who could possibly read this mouse type email content?! You fumble the milk as you try to pinch the screen, almost walking into another car leaving the parking lot. Forget this! You’re at your car and delete the message before you ever had a chance to see what it said.

Walk around the floor of a big orthopedic conference like AAOS and you could easily think you’ve wandered into the hardware aisle at Home Depot. Rows of metal screws, mallets, drills and electric saws are neatly arrayed on display stands. It’s a reminder of just how manual and physically demanding surgery can be.

Just north of Silicon Valley and just south of Napa, Fruition Sciences is using real-time sensors to monitor the hydration levels of grape vines. Farmers in dryer climates like California are quickly adopting this technology to create perfectly hydrated grapes and save thousands of gallons of water per year.

I hesitated, then showed him my legs. Ever since I was a kid I’ve hated the little pocket of fat on the inside of each knee. “What about these?”

If you Google “uncomplicate your life” you’ll get over 2,200,000 results; change the search to “simplify your life” you get 11,100,000. These numbers suggest a yearning for an easier way, but also that most believe the answer to “complicated” is to simplify.  But is this really true?