Category: Blog

I met Subhi Saadeh, Combinate’s host, at the Injectables Summit conference last September in Boston. He later invited me to be a guest on the podcast. We recorded it on January 23. We spoke about many things, including usability of medical product such as injection devices. And baseball. Here’s a link.

The 4th edition of Baseball Field Guide is now available. Major League Baseball implemented a lot of changes to the rules this year. Their goal is to speed up the game while adding more on-field action (a.k.a.more base hits.) Co-written and co-illustrated with Paul Hamburger, we use the best principles of information design to explain...Continue reading

ChipChat is streamed live from Washington DC every Thursday night (or is it almost every Thursday night?) from 9:30 to 11:00 Eastern time at rippedradionetwork.com. Hosts Chip and Tez talk about many things going on in the world, free-form. Topics tend to focus on politics and sports, but the topics are by no means limited....Continue reading

Journalist Catherine Tse featured me in her article on inclusive design, How to Design Products for Disability Inclusion, which was posted on the Natural Habitat website (May 2022). The article discusses a bit of my background, and mainly the overall importance of considering everybody when designing. There’s also a huge financial opportunity: “People with disabilities...Continue reading

Ever wonder about the sociopolitical implications of your kitchen blender? Here’s a conversation with Lee Moreau and Sloan Leo on The Futures Archive podcast.

On December 9 I spoke about design at the Medical Design & Manufacturing convention at the Javits Center in Manhattan. I participated in a panel discussion hosted by Michael Wiklund, with co-panelists John Gatzemeyer and Tor Alden. It was mid-Covid, with NYC seeing another spike in cases, and while the convention itself wasn’t packed we...Continue reading

We’ve been shooting new episodes of Condé Nast / Epicurious Well Equipped series every two months, one each on two consecutive days. In the six newest episodes not mentioned previously, I test gadgets for sandwiches, cutting, brunch, nut cracking, “As Seen On TV,” and vintage. This vintage Ice Pet ice shaver worked pretty well. It...Continue reading

In this September 2021 episode of Mark Bergin’s Design Exec Club’s Better Futures SPOTLIGHT podcast, Mark and I speak about the need for design evolution, calling for exploration over validation, understanding the work behind usability, ‘soul’ design, and the magic of asking questions.

Here’s the cover article I wrote for the August 2021 issue of Premier Guitar magazine, discussing basic principles of tube amplifier operation. The tubes, transformers, speakers and other components consume the large majority of power, converting it into heat, not sound. Less than 1% of the power going into a tube amplifier exits as sound....Continue reading

Someone on the Epicurious team had the idea to use gadgets from the Shark Tank series as a theme. There are many that were featured on the show. The problem was that most were never put into production. Others were no longer available and could only be found used on ebay. But the team managed...Continue reading

I’ve been the host of Epicurious’ Well Equipped series for two years, and lately we’ve been shooting just about two episodes a month. Each episode is shot in a day, and (as I keep mentioning) all improvised. If I seem to not like a significant number of the gadgets tested, remember that the Epicurious team...Continue reading

Shot on two consecutive days, February 17 and 18 2021, at Condé Nast’s studios in the World Trade Center in NYC, here are the edited versions. 5 Fruit Kitchen Gadgets Tested by Design Expert 5 Vegetable Kitchen Gadgets Tested By Design Expert

For some previous episodes of Well Equipped we shot two videos in one day. That was becoming hectic, so we have lately been shooting two videos on successive days. Kicking off this year are reviews of cake and breakfast gadgets. As usual, the Epicurious team finds some odd gadgets to try out. We review them...Continue reading

Here’s a link to an interview I had on Sports Radio “The Zone” 1150AM, 102.7FM in Texas, with Jason Kyle Wickens.

This episode of the BBC’s The Food Chain features Scott Jarvie, Gavin Reay and me. Host Emily Thomas discusses various aspects of the design of kitchen gadgets. Talk centers on what goes into a design, considerations of design for a wide audience, and what we should or should not be designing. The online version of...Continue reading

More fun with the Condé Nast / Epicurious gang as host of the Well Equipped series. Episode 9, this time exploring salad gadgets: 5 Salad Kitchen Gadgets Improved By Design Expert | Well Equipped | Epicurious

Thanks Theresa Christine Johnson for the Dieline article Packaging the Pill: The History of Birth Control Packaging Design and the shout-out mentioning Martha Davis, Larry Lambelet at Ortho-McNeil and me in the development of the DialPak III birth control system, 20+ years ago. After spending time with many women identified as most-at-risk birth control users,...Continue reading

GovComms, a podcast for government communicators produced by contentgroup in Canberra, Australia, explores the future of government communications. Host David Pembroke holds conversations with innovators around the world. I was invited to be the guest on Episode 73: Embracing Complexity, posted August 17 2020. In it we discuss creative approaches to innovation and the importance of understanding the full width...Continue reading

As a follow-up to my Fast Company article on masks a few days earlier, I discussed masks and eyewear fogging with Elizabeth Segran for her April 7 2020 article. Surgical masks are intended to be worn in hospitals. Even in that environment eyewear will fog, caused by exhaled breath leaking around the bridge of the...

Another video shot for Epicurious’ Well Equipped series. This one on avocado gadgets. As before, and as obvious, no script or rehearsal. The Epicurious team finds the gadgets and springs them on me to evaluate. Epicurious: 5 Avocado Kitchen Gadgets Improved By Design This is Episode 8 of Season 1, and the most recent video...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I led a research team investigating the design of N95 masks. Masks are essential for for protecting healthcare workers and all of us in general. But masks aren’t foolproof. That’s because many of them are poorly designed. More here: Fast Company: Why masks aren’t better at protecting us from virusesContinue reading

Life on Wheels, a documentary film by David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge, expertly covers the transformation taking place in transportation. The film includes interviews with a number of experts in the field. I’m honored to be included among the interviewees. The film can be seen on Amazon Prime, or see the Life on Wheel...Continue reading

In Game 6 of the World Series last night confusion erupted over Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner being called out on a run to first base and advance to second after the throw to first was dropped. He seemed to be safe and okay to advance. The problem: the rules of Major League Baseball state that...Continue reading

  Epicurious posted the fifth video in the Well Equipped YouTube series. It’s seafood gadgets for this one: 5 Seafood Gadgets Improved By Design Expert. Here’s the premise for the series: the Epicurious team selects an array of kitchen gadgets, usually odd kitchen gadgets. They then spring them on me to try out and comment,...Continue reading

Epicurious posted the third Well Equipped video on YouTube, 5 Peeling Kitchen Gadgets. Like the other two, with gadgets chosen by the Epicurious team, and shot (obviously) without a rehearsal. 5 Peeling Kitchen Gadgets Improved by Design