Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips I am again disappointed in job titles, but at least I learn some new lingo. Architecture = Design (noun) Architect (noun, person) = Designer (noun, person) Solutions Architect = Solutions Designer (well, that else would you design but a solution?) Then we have the verb form… to architect =  to design (verb) […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We give new titles to an old profession. Back in the last decade of the prior century, I met several people at work who had one skill: They could read a product catalog. They would read the catalogs from DEC, Sun, IBM, and even Dell. They would proclaim, “Look what is out […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips If a system designed to last a few months last 12 years, is that a success or a failure? A recent story hailed the success of the NASA Mars rover. The rover was “designed” to last a few months, but is still going after 12 years. Wow! What a great design and […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Go to the optimum, then back off a quarter turn on the knob. There you are. One principle of technology and systems in general is not to operate at the extreme. Go to the extreme, but move back just a bit towards the ordinary. Odd things occur at the extremes. This behavior […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips A great idea is merely a requirement; it is not a design. The thinker of the great idea is important, but so is everyone else involved in the endeavor. Allow me to start with a blunt statement: Steve Jobs did not design the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and nothing else that […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips We often state that we can’t do something. We rarely finish that statement with a reason. The reason usually leads to a solution. Several years ago I was working on a project where we were building a small gadget. The user was to take the gadget outdoors (backyard) and attach it to […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips I point back to a classic but little-known work on instructing people how to do something. Way back in time in the mid-1980s (yes, I am that old), I stumbled onto a book written by Edmond H. Weiss titled How to Write a Usable User Manual. I thought it was a basic […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips The napkin or envelope is still one of the best tools for the engineer or manager or fill-in-the-blank. I have a(n old-fashioned) laptop computer, a smartphone, and a tablet – and I still write notes on a napkin. Yes, I am old, that is part of the explanation. Yet, there is something […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips There is a wrong way and a right way to place a door to a public restroom. Why is this so difficult? This is a bit of an odd blog post, but here goes. I am fed up with poor public restroom architecture. There is a right and wrong way for the […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Once again I attempt to make a million dollars be creating a three-letter acronym – DIN. Some 30 years ago (yes, I am that old), I was pouring myself a cup of coffee at work. On the bulletin board in front of me was an article cut from the newspaper (see ANOTHER […]

[Read more →]