Thglimited - Heavy Industries

I wish I'd always have my camera at the ready when I see something that's "not in the manual" so that I could document my tiny everyday findings and put all these observations together in a book. Unfortunately, I do not carry my camera with me 24/7 or am just not ready to 'fire away'.

Sometimes though, I manage to catch the moment. The images below show Peter working, while being in the waiting loop of a telephone support line (his phone resting on his shoulder) and my former colleague Diego, talking to a customer, having his mobile phone neatly tucked in between his hat and ear.

People 'subconsciously' tend to adapt to their environments or find workarounds for problems that are not even identified as such. I find, that observing these behaviors is of incredible value for both engineering and design, as it often points straight at the most intuitive of solutions and I am always thinking about the kind of implications that these behaviors could have for the product development process: Should there be a piece of velcro on the back of a phone?

What kind of design ideas come to your mind looking at the above photos?

Actually, a book similar to the one that I will never write has already been published by IDEO's Jane Fulton Suri (check out this Business Week article). While her publication "Thoughtless Acts" obviously doesn't contain photos that are as good as the ones that I never took, "Thoughtless Acts" can serve both as a source of inspiration and a reminder to look at our world with curious eyes - I would suggest to buying a copy for our library.