by Dwayne Phillips A reminder of a basic from systems engineering. There are several baselines we use most of the time regardless of intent or realization. I once worked in an organization that (1) flew machines and (2) practiced systems engineering. One of the favorite phrases of persons there is the title of this post: […]
Entries Tagged as 'Design'
Eye’n Fly’n and Buy’n
September 6th, 2018 · No Comments
Tags: Baseline · Design · General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Systems
What was the Purpose of…?
August 2nd, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Take care lest we forget the purpose of an endeavor. It is easy to lose our way. The numbers prove it (well, pretty much): these shoes from Nike help us to run more efficiently, i.e., same distance and speed, and more, with less energy consumed. Wow! I need these for my running! […]
Bigger People, Smaller Seats
March 8th, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I wonder what smart people are doing. They must have something happening behind the scenes because smart people can’t be this stupid. I recently sat in an airliner for about 20 hours during a couple days time. In my past, I did this frequently, but not so much lately. A couple […]
Tags: Analysis · Design · Stupid
The Circle and the Blank
February 8th, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The user interface and the user experience seem to be based on two, quite simple things. I love to look at the photos on the Analog Dreams posts in tumblr. Those big, beautiful round knobs. I owned a lot of the things shown in the photos, and there was something magical about […]
Tags: Design · General Systems Thinking · Magic
Write the User Manual First
September 4th, 2017 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I review an old, and seemingly forgotten, technique for building systems in which we fully describe what a system will be and do. Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away… Maybe not that long ago, but still…there was a technique for building systems wherein we wrote the user manual […]
Tags: Communication · Design · Expectations · Requirements
The Present and the Future
March 16th, 2017 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Here we are in the present. We can decide how we create the future. Things are the way they are because they got that way. Let’s try that again…The present is a natural result of all past circumstances. There are people, capabilities, technology, budget, outside forces, and a host of other things […]
Tags: Choose · Design · Excuses · Expectations
Two Workspaces per Person
November 21st, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I work in groups of persons; sometimes I work alone. Why don’t I have a workspace for each of these types of work? This is a silly request; I realize that. This request, however, reflects reality and it would certainly improve productivity. I want two work spaces for myself. One is […]
Tags: Communication · Design · Work
Bad Design—Instructions Required (lots of instructions)
October 3rd, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips One indication of a bad design are lots of instructions on how to do a simple task. I live in Reston, Virginia. We have an (somewhat or other) urban core or something called the Reston Town Center. It has parking garages. The management company, to the consternation or many locals, has decided […]
Tags: Design
The Free Solution
September 15th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Designers design solutions. The most despised solution a designer can design is often the one that is free. Designers design solutions to problems. In today’s employment vocabulary, designers are called Solutions Architects. (I find that title an insult to architects and the English language, but that is just me. Anyways…) For this […]
Tags: Competence · Design · Uncategorized
Technology Triggers
July 25th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Knowing, ahead of time, when to change the design of a technology system. Consider: We have software running on different computers. We don’t have much electrical power available for computers “out in the field,” i.e., they probably run on batteries. Hence, we move heavy computations to lab computers where electrical power is […]
Tags: Choose · Design · Technology