The WDR (World Design Rankings) aim to provide additional data and insights to industry professionals regarding the state of the design industry. WDR ranks all of the participating countries based on the number of designers that have received the A' Design Award. The rankings aim to provide a snapshot of the design potential of countries worldwide by highlighting their creative strengths, design weaknesses and available opportunities.

The "Design Business Insights" section provides the ranking of countries based on their success in diverse design fields and creative categories. Using the "Design Business Insights" section, design enthusiasts are able to discover leading countries in relation to specific design sectors and get answers to questions along the lines of "Which country is best in industrial design" and"Which country is best in interior design?".

This year, nine new countries were included in the rankings: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Kenya, Tanzania, Liechtenstein, Armenia, Cameroon and Swaziland.

To provide some insight into some of the projects that contributed to the World Design Rankings, we've put together a list of some of our favorite winning submissions: 

Only Right Here Knife holder by Alan Saga

Ajorí Cruet. Condiment container by Carlos Jimenez Perez & Pilar Balsalobre

Boomerang Telephone by Valentino Chow

Drops Coffee Table by Jeffrey A Day

KEZA Chilled cheese trolley by Patrick Sarran

ANGLE Bookshelf by Selami Gündüzeri

Tre Modular Concrete Tile Series by Next Ship – Levi Fignar

Memento Letter opener by Bryan Leung

Makedo Toolkit Cardboard Construction System by Paul Justin

Datelite Calendar Controlled Lamp by Cody Moore

Bench for BLM Group Bench by Enrico Azzimonti

Ampathy Vibration speaker by Hyungjun KOO, Hyunsu PARK

To help your country get a higher ranking,  submit your work to the A' Design Awards here.

Last month Primate Labs, a company behind an iPhone performance benchmarking app, conducted tests on several models of iPhones and made a discovery: After the most recent software updates, they found that older iPhones were spontaneously dialing down their processor speeds--under the instruction of software.

When the story broke, outrage ensued, the chief accusation being that Apple was throttling older iPhones in order to prompt users into buying the latest model. In response, Apple stated that "we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades." Their explanation was that the subpar performance of older batteries might cause the phone to unexpectedly shut down, and by throttling the processor, Apple only sought to prevent this.

That didn't stop eight class-action lawsuits being filed against the company, and perhaps a loss of consumer goodwill. 

In a rare act of public contrition Apple has released a statement on the matter, and here are the concrete changes they are implementing:

To address our customers' concerns, to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions, we've decided to take the following steps:

- Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.

- Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone's battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.

Has the damage been done, in terms of Apple's long-term reputation? I doubt it, and suspect it has more to do with people needing to find things to be outraged about on Twitter, and that this will shortly be forgotten. (Anyone remember "Bendgate?")

E/V Nautilus, an underwater exploration organization, was using a Hercules remotely-operated vehicle to catch a crab when they stumbled upon this guy:

The frilled tentacles of the Halitrephes maasi jelly came into view at 1225m in the Revillagigedo Archipelago off Baja California, Mexico. Radial canals that move nutrients through the jelly's bell form a starburst pattern that reflects the lights of ROV Hercules with bright splashes of yellow and pink--but without our lights this gelatinous beauty drifts unseen in the dark.

If the crab was smart, he'd have enlisted the help of the jellyfish to avoid capture. "Goddammit, that Hercules thing is coming back around…hey Halitrephes! Do a brother a solid, swim around in front of that thing to distract it while I ghost these motherf*ckers."

ForeFlight is seeking an enthusiastic, experienced, and creative graphic designer to join our marketing team who is equally comfortable working in print and digital to support a variety of sales, advertising, event, and content marketing activities. This is a unique opportunity for the right candidate to be part of a dynamic sales, marketing and content team at a company that is widely heralded for its sophisticated brand and attention to user experience and interaction design. This position will be responsible for concepting and designing assets including, but not limited to, print and digital brochures, sales sheets, white papers, emails, presentations, print and digital ads, print and digital signage, exhibit graphics, web pages, infographics, graphics for video, and social media content.

In Tianjin, China is this massive Tianjin Binhai Library, designed by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV and the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute.

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

The massive structure is some 363,000 square feet and houses over a million books.

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

The sphere you see in the center of the space is an auditorium.

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

The structure is intended to serve not only as a library, but as a social and cultural community center.

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

The five-level building contains extensive educational facilities, arrayed along the edges of the interior and accessible through the main atrium space. The public program is supported by subterranean service spaces, book storage, and a large archive.

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

One thing you've got to be wondering is how the heck the patrons access those books on the upper tiers. 

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

The designers came up with a clever way to do this, but, disappointingly, the idea could not be realized due to time constraints:

The library is MVRDV's most rapid fast-track project to date. It took just three years from the first sketch to the opening….

The tight construction schedule forced one essential part of the concept to be dropped: access to the upper bookshelves from rooms placed behind the atrium. This change was made locally and against MVRDV's advice and rendered access to the upper shelves currently impossible. The full vision for the library may be realised in the future, but until then perforated aluminium plates printed to represent books on the upper shelves.

Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Fake upper books aside, it's still a magnificent structure!

Via PetaPixel

If you were looking for a place to crash in Eskridge, Kansas last year, you'd have been able to stay at Matthew and Leigh Ann Fulkerson's "Subterra" home listed on AirBNB.

It's no ordinary home, being both subterranean and located in a former Atlas E missile silo. 

But the Fulkersons have decked the place out, turning the Launch Control Room into a living room…

…turning the Generator Room into a party space…

…and fitting a massive country kitchen and dining hall into the space.

They've even kept the original launch control desk.

Alas, as of this month the Fulkersons are no longer taking reservations due to a "pending real estate transaction." I assume that means they're selling the space, and it does appear they're moving on to bigger and better things. They've launched a GoFundMe campaign…to develop an Atlas F missile silo. 

Apparently, that's a thing.

Ever wonder what's going on behind that wall when you see this sign?

We lionize the artist and the designer. But few of us ever consider the men and women behind the scenes at a museum, who must deal with packing and unpacking their famous and weirdly-shaped creations, and who must clean them, inspect them, move them around and hang them. For every Rothko you've ever appreciated, there's a group of folks wearing gloves who hung it with a level. Dig that Warhol? Thank the gal who just vacuumed the frame off.

The Museum of Modern Art gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse at these unsung folk in "Shipping & Receiving:"

A couple of random things that jumped out at me:

Why am I not surprised to see a Festool Systainer here.

I thought it was a little crazy that they allow these rolling metal steps so close to the paintings.

It also seems a little nutty to me that the placards are still attached with double-sided tape that rips the paint off of the wall every time it's removed.

I am really digging the design of the drawers behind her. Anyone recognize them?

I headed up to the Mid-Manhattan Library with the boy so we could stock up on books our local branch doesn't have. After a bit the boy decided he needed a bathroom and the librarian suggested going up to the ones on the third floor as they were cleaner. We did, and while the boy disappeared into the bathroom I wandered into a department of the library I never knew existed.

The New York Public Library Picture Collection has pictures of all sorts, and after consulting with a librarian I was directed to a folder of "Furni - Man"--that's Furniture Manufacturing. My boy returned and sat down to read and I examined the folder.

Most of the pictures were about caning chairs but not all. There were some cool pictures of the Thonet factory on Long Island and also a picture of what I think is an itinerant London chair caner. However this file only contained the images they had that were available to take out.

A further conversation with the very helpful librarian revealed that they also had another folder on the same topic of pictures that did not circulate--ones that were old and out of copyright. It's from that batch where these images come from. For now I just want to call your attention to a single image of the lot (larger version down at the bottom of this entry):

The picture is of an English workshop circa 1869. Notice the saw bench. When Chris Schwarz first started writing extensively about saw benches, I mentioned to him that I thought they were also used for mortising. I had read it somewhere but for the life of me I could not figure out where. And I still haven't figured out where I read it. But on the right in the picture we have someone sitting down and chopping mortises on his saw/mortise bench.

Sitting down for smaller mortises gives you a great way of clamping the work while still being able to move it around quickly. And standing up, with your foot or knee on the work puts much larger pieces at a better angle for a long sweeping blow of a mallet. Are the two benches in the picture alike? Not exactly, but the cutout in the bench used for mortising suggests it could also be used for sawing.

The picture is from an article in an 1869 issue of "Illustrated London News" of the workshop at the "Guard's Institute" in London. I don't know why there was a woodshop there but you can see by the windows and the hats the men are wearing that this is not a typical production shop.

I only spent about a half hour in the picture collection. I didn't look at any more material. The catalog suggests a lot more topics to look through. This is where they keep all their images that don't go into the rare book collections. It's also an amazing and wonderful thing that the library is perfectly happy to hand over this unique material (easily stolen or damaged) to any bozo that asks for it. Even me.

N.B. There is actually a copy of the image for sale on Amazon and the preview is a lot better than the image I was able to take in the library. But this doesn't invalidate anything I have previously written. Without the library to collate and present the information I would never have found it. The archives of the "Illustrated London News" are online but you need to access it from a library, so back I have to go to the NYPL.

___________________

This "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.

GE Appliance’s Industrial Design Organization is a collaboration of Industrial and Interaction Designers, Consumer Insights Researchers, R&D Engineers, User Experience Research Specialists, and Model Makers. Interns are given the freedom and responsibility to contribute to the design team and experience every phase of the product development cycle through production launch. A good part of our energetic creativity comes from being located in Louisville, KY.

Led all surfacing work on a three person team - bodywork completed from sketch to full scale fiberglass in 3 weeks. Chief Designer Dwayne Jackson responsible for design and sketches. Frank Asztalos responsible for product graphics and paint scheme.

Introduction

Selecting the right manufacturing technology for a particular application can be hard, even to the most experienced designers. With rapid developments in digital manufacturing technologies, like 3D printing, the potential benefits for designers can easily be overlooked without sufficient knowledge of the subject.

The purpose of this article is to identify how 3D printing is positioned in the current manufacturing landscape and compare it against CNC machining. After reading, you should be able to quickly assess whether to use 3D printing or CNC machining for your custom parts.

Classification of manufacturing techniques

Most manufacturing technologies can be categorized into one of 3 groups. At the simplest level, these groups can be defined as:

— Formative manufacturing: best suited for high volume production of the same part, requiring a large initial investment in tooling (molds), but then able to produce parts at a very low unit price.

— Subtractive manufacturing (e.g. CNC): best suited for parts with relatively simple geometries, produced at low to mid volumes.

— Additive manufacturing (or 3D printing): best suited for low volume, complex designs that formative or subtractive methods are unable to produce. Common usage is for unique, one-off rapid prototypes or end-use parts.

A schematic comparison of how formative (top), subtractive (center) and additive (bottom) manufacturing techniques produce parts

Cost and part geometry are often the governing factors behind the selection a particular method of manufacturing. The figure below gives some general insight into how the cost per part varies based on the size of production (assuming the geometry can be produced with each technology).

The total number of required parts is a key design consideration when selecting a manufacturing technology

In this article, we will focus on short production runs (relative low number of parts). This is the area where Additive and Subtractive manufacturing are particularly price competitive.

Note: Recent developments in 3D printing have lead to some form of economies of scale (such as Carbon and HP's MJF). However, these technologies still need time to mature, so for simplicity are not discussed in this article.

3D Printing vs. CNC Machining 

When choosing between CNC and 3D printing, there are a few simple guidelines that can be applied to the decision making process.

As a general rule of thumb:

"Parts with relatively simple geometries, that can be manufactured with limited effort through a subtractive process, should generally be CNC machined."

Switching to 3D printing makes sense in the following cases:

— Prototyping: For very small volumes or single part production. In these cases, 3D printing is generally more price competitive than CNC, especially for plastics.

— Complex geometries: When subtractive methods are not able to produce the part, due to its complexity (for example for topology-optimized geometries).

— Speed: When a fast turn-around time is critical; 3D printed parts can be ready for delivery within 24h.

— Specific Materials: When materials are required that cannot be easily machined, like metal superalloys or flexible TPU.

To summarize:

"CNC offers greater dimensional accuracy and produces parts with better mechanical properties than 3D printing, but this usually comes at a higher cost for low volumes, more design restrictions and at slower turn-around times."

If high volumes are needed (100's or more), neither CNC nor 3D printing are likely to be a suitable options. In these cases, traditional forming technologies, such as investment casting or injection molding, are more economically viable due to the mechanisms of economies of scale.

Recommended process reference table

For quick reference, use the table below. In this simplification it is assumed that all technologies are able to produce the parts in question. When this is not the case, 3D printing is generally the preferred method of manufacturing.

Process Characteristics

Dimensional accuracy

CNC machining offers tight tolerance, excellent repeatability and relatively few size restrictions: very large to very small parts can be accurately CNC machined.

Different 3D printing systems offer different dimensional accuracy and industrial machines can produce parts with very good tolerances and repeatability, comparable to CNC. Since parts are fabricated one layer at a time, layer lines might be visible, especially at curved surfaces. The maximum part size is relatively small, as 3D printing processing often require close environmental control.

Materials

Common CNC materials

Plastics: ABS, Nylon, Polycarbonate, PEEK

Metals: Aluminum, Stainless Steel, Titanium, Brass

CNC materials are suitable for a wide range of industrial applications. Metals and plastics (thermoplastics or acrylics) are most commonly used, but other materials are also available, such as softwoods and hardwoods, modeling foams and machining wax.

+ Large selection of well-established, common engineering materials available.

+ Well-understood mechanical properties (fully isotropic).

- Very hard or very soft materials (such metal superalloys and flexible TPU) are difficult to machine and increase the cost significantly.

Common 3D printing materials

Plastics: Nylon, PLA, ABS, ULTEM, ASA, TPU, Resins

Metals: Aluminum, Stainless Steel, Titanium

In the past, 3D printing was predominately used for plastics, but now metal 3D printing is becoming a standard manufacturing process for many industries (for example, aerospace). Other available 3D printing materials include composites, ceramics, wax and sand.

A comprehensive list of 3D printing materials and their associated properties can be found in this publicly available Material Index.

+ Wide variety of materials with very large range of physical properties.

+ Materials that are difficult to machine (such flexible TPU and metal superalloys) can be 3D printed.

- May have lesser mechanical properties compared to CNC parts (they are typically not fully isotropic).

Case study: prototyping a plastic enclosure

Low-cost enclosure prototypes 3D printed in FDM

Electronic enclosures are commonly prototyped during the development of electrical appliances. To accelerate this development and allow for a large number of design iterations, fast lead times and low cost are the main selection criteria.

Enclosures often have snap fits, living hinges or other interlocking joints and fasteners. All these features are relatively difficult to CNC machine, but can be easily 3D printed with FDM or SLS and tested for form, fit and function. CNC is excellent though for creating enclosures with press fits (or other interference fits), due to its higher dimensional accuracy.

CNC and SLS are recommended for prototypes of high accuracy, but desktop FDM offers much shorter lead time at significantly lower cost. Since mechanical performance is not the main criterion here, the benefits of CNC and SLS are usually not worth the extra cost and time. If a metal enclosure is required, CNC machining is the recommended solution.

Case study: manufacturing metal brackets and components

Metal components with simple geometry manufactured with CNC machining and powder coated

Metal brackets and mechanical components are commonly used to bear high loads and operate at elevated temperatures. In this case, dimensional accuracy and excellent material properties are the main objectives.

If the model has a simple geometry (like the components of the image above), then CNC is the most cost competitive option, offering great accuracy and excellent material properties..

When the geometric complexity increases or when more "exotic" materials are required, metal 3D printing must be considered. Components optimized for weight and strength have organic structures that are very difficult and costly to machine.

SLM/DMLS and Binder Jetting are currently the two main metal 3D printing processes. New, low-cost extrusion-based metal 3D printing systems are planned for release in 2018.

Topology optimised brackets manufactured in Titanium with SLM. Courtesy: Formula Student Team TU Delft

Conclusions

The guidelines and tables of this article should give the reader a basic understanding and reference for choosing between CNC machining and 3D printing.

If you want to learn more specifically about producing custom metal parts, the Metal Kit is available for free download and covers the key aspects of metal manufacturing for short run, custom parts.

*****

3D Hubs is the world's largest network of manufacturing services. With production facilities connected in over 140 countries, the 3D Hubs online platform helps you find the fastest and most price competitive manufacturing solution near you. Founded in 2013, the network has since produced more than 1,000,000 parts locally, making it the global leader in distributed manufacturing.

As fans of the old Batman TV show know, the Caped Crusader and Commissioner Gordon often contacted each other using a special hotline. Each of them had a red phone with no dial, and for some reason Commissioner Gordon kept his inside a cake display on his desk.

"I can't enjoy my coffee unless I know that phone is protected from dust."

Emergency hotlines exist in real life, of course, intended to connect countries that have the potential to go to war and to defuse potentially catastrophic misunderstandings. But what do these hotlines physically look like?

The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum would have you believe that the Moscow-Washington hotline actually did look like the Bat Phone:

By User: Piotrus - Own work, CC BY 3.0

However, that's actually just a representative prop. In actuality, the hotline first set up between the two countries--prompted by the Cuban Missile Crisis, during which time delays in communication brought both countries dangerously close to a nuclear war--looked like this:

It was stored inside a wooden cabinet, not a cake display. Here's a better look at the actual machine that was inside:

As you can see it's not a telephone form factor at all, but a teleprinter. That's because the device was designed for written communication, with the thinking being that speech could be misinterpreted, whereas written statements would be more deliberate. (Those growing up under the current U.S. administration may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when world leaders carefully considered statements they were putting into text.)

Anyways, what you see above is the American design, four of which were sent to Moscow. Moscow also sent four East-German-built teleprinters to Washington with the Cyrillic alphabet on the keys. Here's what that machine looked like:

By Austin Mills (austinmills) - CC BY-SA 2.0

Nowadays we've done away with teleprinters, and international hotlines are simply a computer network and software. But in the case of North Korea and South Korea's recently-re-established hotline, it's still housed in a purpose-built cabinet. Here's what it looks like:

As you can see, it runs Windows.

The console's sparse interface elements are color-coded green and red. We're not sure what the functions are, but we assume that as long as they're talking on the green phone, everything's good!

If you're obsessed with keeping your kicks clean, here's the invention for you. The folks at Japanese design brand ONFAdd noticed that in inclement weather, sneakerheads perhaps caught unawares by the rain were improvising protective solutions. Here we see what look to be shopping bags and blue tape:

They thus created these rubber, roughly USD $10/pair "Rain Socks:"

The company claims they're durable. "They have undergone processing using a natural rubber material called latex of elasticity [which is] applied to the sole part," the company writes. "Even if you use them over and over, they will not get worn out much because the sole part is thicker."

As the rubber stretches, these are one-size-fits-all affairs, but the designers say they work best on U.S. size 7 and up.

They're holding a Kickstarter for these, and at press time they were at $7,821 of a $10,030 goal, with 49 days left to pledge.

As designers we're supposed to be good with geometry, so let's see if you can figure this out. From puzzle designer Jin-hoo Ahn comes this three-piece one called "Bitten Biscuits," which won a Jury Honorable Mention at the IPP Design Competition (International Puzzle Party) in Kyoto, Japan in 2016:

The idea is that you can arrange these three pieces in such a way as to create a symmetrical shape. (Actually there are two possible symmetrical shapes.) Do you think you can do it?

Obviously you could trace the images above using software and play with them that way. But if you'd like to support Ahn's work, the puzzles are for sale here ($10 for the acrylic version, $17 for wood).

If you can't figure it out, a YouTube puzzle channel (is there anything that doesn't have a channel on YouTube) breaks it down for you below:

Bould Design is growing and we are looking for an exceptional designer to join our award winning San Mateo studio on a full-time basis. As a part of our team, you will collaborate on all phases of the design process from conceptualization to production. We offer an intense, yet informal environment for focused, highly motivated designers.

Mobility as a service is a great idea. The problem is that a lot of people think it's a great idea. What I mean is, let's say I ride a Citibike over to the supermarket and park it in a dock, where there are a bunch of other bikes. It's not an unusual event that by the time I'm done shopping, all of the bikes are gone.

Eindhoven-based car-sharing service Amber provides BMW's electric i3s and not bikes. And to get around the distribution problem, they've hired a small army of students to locate their cars each night, wherever they're parked, and drive those cars back to within walking range of where their customers will likely need them the next morning.

Alas, those students' jobs will be short-lived. Amber is launching autonomous cars that behave differently from how we typically think of robocars: During the day they are ordinary automobiles, 100% piloted by the driver using them. But at night, when the cars are empty and there's little traffic, they'll turn themselves on and slowly drive themselves, along bus lanes only, back to their centralized distribution points.

"Autonomous driving is crucial for the future of mobility," Amber CEO Steven Nelemans said in a press release. "If we want to be able to offer a mobility service that's more efficient, convenient, and affordable than car ownership itself, we need autonomous cars in order to make sure that people have access to mobility at all times."

Surprisingly, these cars will be on the road this year, in a matter of months. "Autonomous driving is not as far in the future as you might think," Nelemans said. "We're a small company, which means that we can achieve this faster than many others can."

They say these are for picnics and the beach, but we think they're idea for the office. The PortoVino Crossbody Bag is a handsome leather number--that can be filled with booze and dispensed directly from a tap hidden in the side. It comes with a BPA-free plastic pouch that you fill up with your rotgut of choice, then place into the insulated inner pocket. Lifting a flap on the side of the bag reveals a tap, so you can pour whenever your boss ain't looking.

They also sell a Purse variant, for those in the market for something more feminine:

I do think they could round out the product line by making a more rugged version for those operating heavy machinery.

To kick off the New Year, frog's team has put together a comprehensive list of 12 tech trends we can expect to reign supreme in 2018, ranging from a shift in the way designers approach medical devices to more expressive hardware designs:

Gonzalo Garcia-Perate

Algorithm Hall of Fame

From banking to dating apps, algorithms power our world. Google's PageRank algorithm, one of the most celebrated pieces of software in computing history, has dramatically changed both the way we access and how we value information. It has become such a profound part of our lives, it's catapulted the company's name into our everyday vocabulary. Don't believe it? Google it.

Algorithms have become celebrities for their public achievements. IBM's Deep Blue came to fame when it beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. More recently, Watson, their AI platform, shot to stardom for beating the biggest winners from the TV show Jeopardy!, a game that relies on natural language understanding and knowledge of popular culture. Looking forward, this recognition will manifest in everyday behaviors. Soon, we'll make purchasing decisions based on the specific algorithms underpinning our favorite products and services. The AI systems behind a company's products and services will inform our financial, healthcare or transport choices.

Likely candidates for new entries to the Algorithm Hall of Fame? The first system that wins the race for full Level 5 Autonomous Driving Cars. The intelligent trading platform that makes global universal basic income a possibility. The machine learning system that revolutionizes cancer diagnostics and makes prevention possible. No matter what comes next, it's only a matter of time before these gain more attention for their contributions to society.

—Gonzalo Garcia-Perate, Principal Solutions Architect

Machines Before Medicine

The next big thing in preventative medicine may be not be medicine at all, and it's unlikely to come in a pill bottle. Instead, digestible robots will become your body's advocate, patrolling for illness to keep you healthy from the inside, before you may even become aware there's a problem. All the while, it will inform personalized, targeted, intelligent advice to help you get healthier. Trained to detect and treat different medical issues, edible health robots will also travel through the bloodstream to deliver important nutrients.

Similarly, digital therapeutics, or 'Digiceuticals' as it's also called, is a growing health discipline and treatment option that uses digital and connected-health technologies. Many who suffer from conditions like arthritis, migraines and depression will benefit from these digital alternatives to traditional medicine.

A digital approach may also be the next generation of addiction treatment and rehabilitation, especially to fight the growing opioid epidemic. Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids every day, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Digital therapeutics could get addiction rehabilitation into the hands of people who need it most—those who could not otherwise afford treatment.

—Tingyu Chen, Interaction Designer & Jona Moore, Executive Technology Director

Shopping Gets Contextual

There's an incredible amount to gain by bringing more contextual guidance into our shopping experiences. Imagine a grocery store that offered a helpful nudge in the right direction in the form of recipe recommendations and meal plans based on which aisle you were browsing and your stored preferences. Or, say the store had an app that tracked your purchases to help you keep more food from ending up in the trash. Signature moments like these will bring value initially by saving customers time and cost, but they also open the door to scaling these savings to broader economic and environmental levels that stand to impact everyone.

Businesses are already feeling the pressure of bringing new value to their brick-and-mortar locations. Ecommerce and personalized subscription services continue to challenge traditional retail models. Now, companies will look to combining user data with new technologies like augmented reality and machine learning systems to help customers better engage with products both in their stores and in the world-at-large.

Still, companies will have to respect the threshhold between helpful advice and being overly enthusiastic with messaging. Forcing a hard sale and coming off as pushy—especially at the wrong moment of time for an individual user—can put the relationship between a customer and brand at risk.

—Madhavi Rao, Senior Strategist & Toshi Mogi, AVP Strategy and Innovation

Sam Haddaway

Hardware Gets Even Warmer

In 2017, our hardware got a little warmer. New Google Homes and Amazon Echos launched with bases wrapped in fabric, better reflecting the cozy living spaces they're designed to be invited into by customers. We also saw softer hues on devices such as the Nest thermostat and rounded corners on Samsung and LG phones.

Looking ahead to 2018, hardware will start to become more expressive. As our devices continue to hold a critical place in how we live our daily lives, consumers will demand options that fit their style seamlessly and aid in self-expression. Soon, our gadgets will be merged into our fashion choices. Products will be made in brighter, more vibrant colors, with materials that are soft to the touch or that feature prints and graphics we are proud to wear in style.

Meanwhile, even the virtual personal assistants embedded into our hardware are getting warmer. To increase adoption and personalize these experiences, virtual assistants are becoming friendlier, more human and more in-tune with our preferences. Gone are the days of cold, robotic voices and phrases that feel generic to all users—your bots' personalities will soon uniquely complement you.

—Sam Haddaway, Strategist

Kristina Phillips

Great Digital Artists Steal

With augmented reality (AR), any work of art has the potential to become a collaboration. Now's your chance to add your finishing touches to the statue of David by Michelangelo, without being removed from the premises by a museum security guard. Michelangelo's interpretation of the human body will be constantly updated in different augmented layers for the foreseeable future. As more people use AR to contribute their own digital overlays to their physical environments, the question now is: who owns what we see?

AR is still wild territory, with behemoth media companies vying to use this new technology to provide content for the masses. But ownership in the physical world doesn't apply in the digital one. Enter a new age in contemporary art, one where people can express themselves collaboratively in the digital and physical realm. Think mixed-media taken to a whole new dimension, one where people not only have access to public art, but the expectation they can add their own signature without leaving a mark.

For businesses using AR, this means consumers will expect a level of collaboration, designing alternate experiences in tandem with brands and creators…with or without their permission.

—Kristina Phillips, Strategist

A Crypto Democracy

Blockchain is no longer just for currency exchange; it's a new platform for civic engagement. Because it changes how votes are collected and minimizes the risk of fraud or manipulation, blockchain technology may be what helps more voices get heard in government matters and policy decisions. By the 2018 midterm elections, we may just see an end to paper ballots altogether.

The public sector will also benefit from blockchain applications, including helping to manage taxes, registrations—even healthcare operations. Activists will continue to deploy blockchain in unlikely ways to service specific needs. Take, for example, the Bail Bloc app. Known as the "cryptocurrency scheme against bail," the app invites its users to convert their unused power into funds to help those who can't afford to get out of jail.

And business isn't backing away from blockchain anytime soon, especially for certain sectors. Even as the cannabis industry gains momentum legally, conventional banking options are still out of reach. Today, nearly 75 percent of all cannabis businesses operate without bank accounts. Many are turning to blockchain to bring transparency and accountability to their transactions instead. While they may be pioneers now, more traditional industries will soon follow suit.

—Sally Darby, Strategist & Kristina Phillips, Strategist

Seth Mach

Immersive Experiences for All

Augmented reality (AR) adds a surreal layer to the real world, while virtual reality (VR) can transport us to entirely new ones altogether. Until now, however, these worlds have been relatively lonely places, designed for us to explore on our own.

So far, the biggest barrier to mainstream adoption of immersive technologies is that using them has historically been a solitary experience. Personal smartphones and fully immersive headsets don't allow multiple users to share the same views, and these systems are not currently designed to interact with one another. Now, the focus will be on helping us see these new worlds together.

The next stage in AR and VR adoption is to develop the accepted hardware and interactions that will help the internet extend into the environments around us. It will introduce new standards of engagement between users, as well as between users and their devices. This expansion into immersive storytelling, education, gameplay and entertainment will have incredible design implications, both in the digital world and in physical spaces. Soon, instead of being lone travelers on our augmented and virtual journeys, we'll have friends along for the ride.

—Seth Mach, Visual Designer

Justine Lee

Inclusivity Goes Mainstream

The future of designing to advance the human experience will require a more comprehensive look at, well, the human experience. Not every one of us have the same abilities or the same needs, but everything from the way our cities are planned to the design of most of our products and services assumes that we do. Going forward, it won't be enough to design for some people, or even for most. The real challenge will be to design for all.

More industries are heading in this direction. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made a touching commitment on the company's behalf to design their products to be more accessible to all people, a matter close to his heart having fathered a son born with cerebral palsy. Retailers like Target and Tommy Hilfiger are expanding on their own previous commitments to accessible design, making clothing and goods that suit people of different abilities.

At first, perhaps the biggest challenge for organizations looking to honor inclusivity will be knowing where to start. With a clear focus on empathetic, human-centered design, more businesses will be able to share their best offerings with more customers.

—Justine Lee, Knowledge Manager

AI Disrupts Design

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing everything, and the Design industry is no exception. As AI enters our design toolkit, the opportunities are exponential and unknown. Well-established heuristics, design language systems and user interface toolkits will make it possible to train AI to learn the basic principles of designing a great digital product. Some time-consuming design processes will increasingly be automated, others may become obsolete.

With the help of AI, datasets become rich sources for innovation. Design-forward companies like Airbnb and Netflix have long been integrating AI into their products and services to personalize experiences. Photography platform EyeEm is using machines to assess image data by training AI to define qualities like 'beautiful.' By deploying AI across all phases of a project, designers can take a much broader and more meaningful perspective on their creations.

Meanwhile, as AI becomes embedded into our products and services, designers are tasked not just with creating machines for humans, but creating machines that are human-like. In the process, we're dissecting what it means to actually be human ourselves. As more consumers demand their AI not just have a personality, but a charismatic one that they want in their lives, we enter into an unprecedented level of intimacy between human and machine. To succeed in this world will require a human-centered touch.

—Matteo Penzo, Executive Technology Director & Viral Shah, Senior Strategist

Harry West

Lo-Fi Data, Hi-Fi Experiences

Looking forward, the way we think about capturing data will change. Along with rich, high-fidelity datasets that reveal a lot about users, there will be a need for a new class of data rich in something else: anonymity. Low-fidelity audio data capture will focus on the quality of a conversation, not the subject matter. With location and heat-mapping sensors, we'll be able to draw conclusions about people's behavior, but not who's behaving. Sensors that capture low-fidelity images enable us to know someone's there, but not who it is.

We all know big data is big business. It's why our smartphones measure nearly every aspect of our existence, from how far we walk to how long we sleep. It's why sensors are embedded in our devices and installed in our spaces to track our movement, then connect to the web to enable smart services. The trouble is they measure too much and collect unnecessary, potentially intrusive information. Concerns around privacy and security are inhibiting the development of data-driven experiences. Enter instead a focus on low-fidelity inputs: collecting the data that is needed and only the data that is needed. Sensors certified and branded as "Lo-Fi" will be welcome everywhere and trusted by all.

—Harry West, CEO

Radical Vehicle Redesign 

Your current car will be the last internal combustion engine (ICE) car you ever buy. For those who buy new cars, your next car purchase is likely to be an electric vehicle (EV). Those who buy used cars will buy their first used EV within just a few short years. The economics are about to flip, making the purchase, maintenance and ownership of ICE cars more expensive than EVs. Car makers are lining up to meet demand. Interestingly, the secondhand value of ICE cars may plummet as owning one becomes uneconomical compared with EVs, further rewarding early adopters of EVs as they palm off their ICE cars.

And your EV may well be the last car you ever own, if you even have cause to purchase a vehicle at all. Uber turns 10 in 2018, and has now given more than 5 billion rides. It's given rise to multiple competitors and even impacted the way we think of transportation.

Yet, despite technological advances and a boom in car-sharing, vehicles look the same as they did 10 years ago and business models remain unchanged. On the near horizon are autonomous cars, which stand to further disrupt the way we commute. Soon, we'll see cars and entire business models redesigned to reflect these massive shifts.

—Tim Morey, VP Strategy & Sam Haddaway, Strategist

Sheldon Pacotti

Social Media Grows Up

Social media's reputation has taken a beating recently. Critics condemn with increasing alarm its role in empowering bad actors who slander, harass, and spread misinformation—not to mention the massive proliferation of bots trained to do both. From national security probes to multiple studies on social media's impact on mental health, it's clear we as a society are taking a closer look at what social media is. Now is the time to determine what it could be.

Managed, purposeful platforms already provide a strong countercurrent to the status quo. True collaboration is happening in communities as diverse as physicians' social networks and neighborhood networks like Kansas City's Nextdoor, which create places for pooling efforts and solving problems. Governments, too, are learning to harness the medium's strengths. For example, crowdsourcing experiments like New York's 311 Online have inspired the startup Cityflag to build an app that could make participatory government available to any city willing to give it a try.

As scrutiny and regulation increases, users will become more savvy and willing to make these public spaces safe for sharing, learning and connecting. We'll move away from seeing them as just a stage for flaunting our likes and dislikes toward using them as vehicles for empathy and positive action.

—Sheldon Pacotti, Senior Solution Architect

*******

This post was originally published by frog.

Bandit9 is a bespoke motorcycle design/build firm that makes no bones about where their inspiration comes from: "Sci-fi films and comics," the company writes. Take a look at their latest creation, the Odyssey:

Bandit9 brings you to the edge of motorcycle design. By bending time, space and reality. To explore an unknown future. To inspire and to advance. By ignoring convention, tradition and the voices that hinder progress.

Fearless in design. Perfect in craft. The Odyssey's iconic form steals your gaze and seduces you to ride. The Odyssey is the signature Bandit9; a leap into the future of motorcycles.

The unibody is made from 904L steel, the seat with memory foam covered in Italian leather, and performance components from aeronautic materials designed for competition. All machined with precision down to nanometers.

If you're wondering how the rider doesn't just slide off, the memory foam seat depresses under his or her weight.

The company is only making nine of these, on commission. So yes, this is one of those "If you have to ask how much it costs, you probably can't afford it" vehicles.