Meaning in our Lives as Designers
Kaalo is more than a design firm; we have three categories of business: DESIGN, MANUFACTURING and INVESTMENT. All three are design-centric at their cores. Beyond our primary design services, we vertically integrate design into building and selling products, and we invest in design-related businesses globally. https://kaalo.com//kaalo-services/
The Artificial Intelligence User Interface
Technology has changed our lives at every level, in every corner of the world. In recent times, that ever-evolving tech has altered how we interact with our devices. Homes, offices and public spaces are “SMART.” Product manufacturers and service providers now offer experiences augmented by virtual and mixed reality. Artificial intelligence is fast becoming the standard, and user interfaces are catching up. https://kaalo.com//kaalo-services/
Competitive Advantage by Design
Traditional business strategies fall short of today’s highly-competitive, ever-changing landscape. How does a business not only survive, but thrive, in this environment of high customer expectations while contending with advancing technology, fragmented markets, global competition, and cost wars? The answer: intelligent business design strategies.
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Cost-effective innovation is hard work.
Well-engineered products not only function better; they offer superior user experience and cost less. Innovation and cost often conflict, and arriving at a design that is optimized on all fronts is hard work. Industrial designers and engineers can butt heads, but that is where the magic happens.
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Poor design drives away customers. Modern consumer expectations are high. We expect instant gratification with a seamless user interface laced with predictive content. Fall short, and you lose the user’s attention. In such an unforgiving environment, how do you design software? Kaalo employs smart, user-research-driven design decisions through an iterative, user-validated design process. And it works. https://kaalo.com//kaalo-services/
Knowing what to design is more important than the design itself. It’s a common misconception that design is all about aesthetics, but appearance is only a small piece of the puzzle. The key to a successful design solution is an accurate design criteria. Knowing what to design is fifty percent of the battle.
Out-design the competition
Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or a Fortune 50 large corporation, serving customers drives your business; you provide value. But that value is a moving target also offered by your competitors. Your business survival depends upon out-designing the competition.
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Smart Home, Smart Building, Smart Subdivision
In a world with a vast array of smart controls, Kaalo has had the opportunity to redefine this space. Imagine home builders integrating smart controls into the architecture of your home, connecting it to your building and neighborhood or subdivision. You control the entire network for your security, convenience and peace of mind. Security features, electronic controls and access to hundreds of cameras are all at your fingertips without any of your information passing into the cloud to be saved or used by Google or Amazon. Kaalo was entrusted with the task to make this happen for Forbes Technosys. We are proud to announce the recent rollout of SMASH, Subdivision Management & Smart Homes.
In the 1980s when 3D printing was first invented it seemed improbable that we could print actual three-dimensional, functional objects from a home printer, but that’s exactly what we can now do. With a 3D printer, you can print yourself a new case for your phone or a planter for your window sill. The novelty of printing your own sock drawers might be fun, but what does this technology mean for design and manufacturing on a larger scope?
3D printing (also called additive manufacturing or AM) is already improving the efficiency of the design process through rapid prototyping. A process that used to take months of extensive simulation and design iteration before arriving at a prototype can now happen quickly. And it allows designers to rapidly and inexpensively create multiple prototypes to test new design ideas. In this way, it speeds the design-to-prototype step of the creation process.
But if a 3D printer can create a prototype, what about the actual product? While additive manufacturing is still in its infancy with regards to massive amounts of products, it is already changing the way parts are made. AM can produce complex structures that traditional methods such as injection molding cannot — structures that are stronger and use materials more efficiently. And 3D printing processes themselves are more efficient, relying mostly on automation instead of human labor.
Another exciting aspect of 3D printing is its flexibility. Say you have a product line already in production that you want to tweak. That tweak is one click away as opposed to two or three months with traditional injection mold technology.
Right now, most experts talk about additive manufacturing for small-scale production, applicable for test markets, advertising, or trade shows. But as the capacity of 3D printers increases, they will become more realistic for large scale manufacturing.
“In the future, it is possible that all short-run part production will use 3D print,” says Dr. Paul Benning, HP fellow and 3D print chief technologist at HP Inc. “Focused product teams [will be] able to launch new products on a weekly or daily basis – only constrained by their time and imagination, no longer constrained by the capital assets needed for analog production. This agile development process for physical parts, enabled by 3D print, has the potential to radically improve and accelerate the products we will see and use in the not-too-distant future.”
As modern industry is being rewritten with tech such as the Internet of Things and machine learning, so too will additive manufacturing have a place at that table.
Sources: hbr.org, businessnewsdaily.com
Universal design (UD) embraces diversity. Each of us is unique in our abilities, influenced by age, size, physical prowess, and sensory and intellectual capability. UD aims to serve people of all cognitive and physical skills. It proactively seeks to understand how each of us, with our unique abilities, interact with our surroundings so the widest possible audience may access the product, technology or environment efficiently.
Universal design was launched in 1970 by Ronald Mace, an architect, product designer, and educator who imagined a more “usable world.” With UD, barriers must be identified and addressed during the design process so the end product is usable by the broadest possible audience. Automatic doors, pull handles on cabinets, door levers instead of knobs and ramps in public spaces make for a better experience for all users. If a potential user can find a way to use the product satisfactorily, it is good design.
Universal Design is showing up all over the world, as it aims to combine beauty with functionality for all. One such example is the Jikka House in Japan. The two women, who run the guest house and deliver meals to the elderly in their city, designed the spiral ramp bath so visitors of a variety of physical abilities can enjoy the healing waters. The minimalist, soothing blue and grey bath, which resembles the spiral of a shell, fits neatly inside its small house providing access in an aesthetically pleasing way.
But you needn’t visit a spa to experience universal design. It is being built into everyday homes so that people may “age in place” rather than move to age-restricted housing. The simple inclusion of at least one, no-step path to a no-step entry into the home and wider doorways and hallways can make all the difference. If we build houses this way to begin with, there is no need for costly, awkward retrofitting when the need arises.
Universal design extends beyond architecture into technology. Auditory maps, of the variety most of us use to navigate to an unfamiliar destination, can be extended for use by those who are visually impaired. The typical phone navigation app speaks to you, but it also assumes you can read the street signs, and they don’t work indoors. Nearby Explorer seeks to solve that problem by offering context, what developers call “electronic signage.” Places are described as the navigator approaches and passes them. Indoor Explorer does the same for indoor spaces.
Universal design endeavors to build things, from the beginning, with ease of access for all, taking into account both functionality and aesthetics. Universal Design is, according to John Spacey, “a rejection of the notion that things be designed for the ‘average’ person. Instead, things are designed for an incredibly diverse range of abilities and situations.”
Sources
Carlson, Tiffiny. (2018, Jan. 4). 5 Examples of Universal Design for Wheelchair Users From Around the World. Retrieved from https://www.spinalcord.com/blog/5-examples-of-universal-design-for-wheelchair-users-from-around-the-world.
Steinfeld and White. (2010). Beyond Accessibility To Universal Design. Retrieved from https://www.wbdg.org/design-objectives/accessible/beyond-accessibility-universal-design.
Wayne, Chris. (2018, Oct. 3). GST & Universal Design: Creating Access for the Visually Impaired. Retrieved from https://www.directionsmag.com/article/8150.
Spacey, John. (2017, April 29). 16 Examples of Universal Design. Retrieved from https://simplicable.com/new/universal-design.