Todays’ news are all about volatile gases: the iPhone will exclusively breath oxygen in the UK and Walker Crisps from now on labels its Crisp packets telling us how much CO2 has been released into the atmosphere for the production of each bag - from the growing of potatoes, over transport and preparation to packaging.

What is the connection between the two? Well, there is none really. The reporting of the Apple O2 deal can be found everywhere. The label telling us the footprint of CO2 for each bag of crisps hardly makes it.

Well this is no surprise, but yet there is an interesting observation to be made: While there are attempts to enable the individual to make a buying decision based on how environmentally friendly a product is, the carousel of gadget updates with the massive output of CO2 turns faster and faster. The iPod iPhone can be seen as only a representative - just look how regularily we update our mobile phones for newer, slimmer more potent ones.

When has the time come that a producer addresses the sticky question with our gadgets? Just a thought.

It is not uncommon to find these notices about urine detection devices in Singapore lifts. According to my (local) friend, this is a relic from the time when some rebel citizens, not happy with all the hefty fines being introduced, used the relative safety of the elevators to make themselves heard/smelled in their urge for freedom.
The more interesting question, however, is what would happen if the device was triggered. Would it stop and lock the lift, making it a temporary cell until the police picked you up? Would a piercing alarm bell notify all the regular users of this lift of the culprit? Or would it simply dispense some water and soap to clean the floor? Alas, I did not dare to find out.

Although roomy, quick and clean, the most interesting thing about Singapore’s underground system is not traveling on it, but planning your trip and purchasing your ticket (at least from an interaction design perspective). Both these steps are in fact integrated into one machine and are part of the same process:
The main interface of ticket machines consists of a screen embedded into a backlit map of the entire underground system. This map, however, not only visually aids the customer’s choice of destination, but is actually touch-sensitive. So after choosing, say, the single-ticket option from the screen on the left, customers select their destination by pressing the respective station.
If one assumes that the average traveler’s picture of the underground system is that of its standard map, then this process appears to be much more intuitive and ultimately superior to selecting a destination from a multi-page alphabetical list (as is the case in London or Berlin). This combination of selection and purchasing, however, also has its disadvantages as undecided customers may block the machines for those who know where they are heading.

Single-trip tickets are dispensed in the form of reusable plastic cards (contactless smart cards using RFID technology), for which a S$1 refundable deposit is payable (about 50 Euro cent). This approach not only saves ink and trees, but effectively eliminates any wastage resulting from used tickets, as the cards are fed back into the machine to reclaim the deposit.

It is somewhat peculiar, by the way, that I did not find any ticket machines at Changi Airport station to get my dollar back before flying home…

When taking pictures of these snazzy 24h book return terminals outside the National Library in Singapore, some lady selling t-shirts nearby noted sarcastically: “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Only slightly embarrassed, I told her that this was part of my job (cough, cough). Still amused, she was nice enough to explain to me how the system worked.
Basically, books are passed through a large rectangular slot, being identified by a barcode scanner. Once a book is identified, the customer receives two forms of feedback. One is via a text display (changing from “Ready” to “Returned” and then back again), the other is via a live video feed from inside the terminal, showing the book actually slide into the return box inside: a simple but very elegant way to give the user instant positive feedback!

Berlin winters can be notoriously cold dark and depressing (as many other places in the northern hemisphere). Families take their kids to school in the dark, and then go to work in the dark and then by the time school and work are over its dark again.

It was when watching one young family all on bikes, on one of those dark dark journeys to school, we came up with a little idea: a simple, customisable, engaging replacement for these numerous reflectors parents cover their kids with in order to make sure they can be seen by other traffic participants.

On one side the badges would be covered with super bright LEDs, which play simple individualised animations. On the underside the badges are covered with solar cells, charging capacitors.

So during the day, when at school, the badges could be turned over and laid onto the window sill catching light beams.

And once back at home the kids would have the possibility to assemble their very own animations on a PC and play the animation onto the device via a USB connection.