Now in its 25th year, the NOS holiday party has become an industry legend. It is our privilege to host a celebration for clients, friends, and family, while raising funds for Toys for Tots. Greeted at the door by a bagpiper and a Marine, this year’s guests joined in the dinner and dancing, and lucky raffle winners took home prizes ranging from Apple watches to Fitbits to big-screen televisions. We’re honored to bring more than 250 colleagues and friends together in the spirit of the season while supporting a worthy cause.
Studies show that our well-intended New Year’s resolutions begin to drop off only one week into the new year. We all know the guilty feeling that goes along with abandoning a goal! Entrepreneur Thomas Oppong says it doesn’t have to be that way. He offers some advice on how to lose the guilt and make your resolutions achievable.
Oppong’s recommendations:
- Choose only one or two items from your resolutions list.
- Break them down into smaller tasks, achievable on a weekly basis.
- Set deadlines; this will help you benchmark your progress and dig deep when you need to.
- Use a productivity app; impersonal reminders don’t have the emotional baggage of internal nagging.
- Celebrate incremental successes; a little reward along the way is always encouraging.
- Commit to achieving the goal; you may be committed to the goal itself, but are you committed to doing what’s necessary to get there? If not, maybe it’s not that important to you and you should consider choosing another goal.
As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Happy travels!
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‘Tis the season for joy, and Design Management Institute’s Dan Saffer offers ways to incorporate moments of joy into designs of all kinds, discussed in this video presentation. Within each product or process are little design details which Saffer terms micro-interactions. Micro-interactions enhance the user’s experience in small ways, such as a toaster which browns underdone toast just a little more, with a button labeled “just a little more.” Who wouldn’t love that?
Micro-interactions tell users that the designer thought about them, cared about them, and wanted their experience to be pleasant and satisfactory. When we, the users, feel cared about, we respond with a little spark of joy. And joy is just the kind of emotional reaction that builds bonds between a product, a brand, and a consumer – the goal of any successful business.
Wishing you joyous micro-interactions this holiday season!
Photo © Konstantin Yuganov/Fotolia
Drones, 3D printing – the past few years have seen innovations that could prove highly disruptive to the traditional supply chain. Lora Cecere, CEO of Supply Chain Insights, serves up her predictions for the 2030 supply chain in this post. The highlights include:
- Autonomous Supply Chain. Sensors, robotics, and GPS combined into an adaptive, cognitive system that automates manufacturing and warehouse management, and reduces heavy machinery downtime through sensors and connectivity.
- Safe and Secure Supply Chain. An automated chain of custody will reduce spoilage, secure hazardous shipments, and guard against fakery in everything from purses to pharmaceuticals.
- 3D Printing. Everything from spare parts to medical devices will be individualized and printed as needed.
- Learning Systems and Network of Networks. Manufacturers, shippers, and consumers will know where any customized order is in the process, at any time, in any place, thanks to supply chain systems that learn cognitively, and a network that talks to all other networks.
What do these changes mean for your business? Is your business ready for this brave new world? And where do storage systems fit into the big picture?
Photo © Sunny studio/Fotolia
Form vs. function has always been the big balancing act that designers strive for. A building, an interior, a public space – each has a unique and vital function, but in order to fulfill the function, they must attract users through good esthetics. Too often, says author Lance Hosey in this Huffington Post article, designers please only themselves rather than thinking of the end users of their buildings or spaces. The result is a design that functions poorly, and is visually appealing to only a few.
Hosey suggests that designers stop thinking of their work as “art,” and start considering it as a blend of art and science. For example, science states that natural light and fresh air support productivity and well-being. Studies point to the value of both “idea exchange” social spaces and “focused work” private spaces in the workplace. By incorporating aspects of organizational productivity and wellness science into their designs, designers can create the ideal blend of form and function.
Photo © F.C.G./Fotolia
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