Howdy! Welcome to this week’s Whiteboard Roundup.
It’s been a heck of a week. I’ve been absolutely inundated with messages and emails of support and love, following last week’s post about the future of The User Story.
I have so much to share. Once I feel more comfortable about where everyone in the team will be heading next, I’ll be stretching my writing fingers a little bit more.
(By the way, if you’re looking for a Customer Success Manager, UX Designer, Senior Product Strategist or Lead Researcher, then please get in touch because my team are going to be rapidly snatched up)
For now though, I’m still finding some really fun and interesting product- and design-related links for your Friday reading. Enjoy!
Cheers.
Tom Haczewski
The User Story
News
The Rabbit R1 is also a bit rubbish
I wrote a few months ago about the really exciting Rabbit R1, an AI-powered gadget that, using an LAM (Large Action Model), can actually do things that you need it to do, rather than just talk about it (like ChatGPT).
Then I wrote a few weeks ago about the Humane AI Pin being, basically, utterly crap.
Well, it turns out the Rabbit R1 isn’t much better. It’s been panned by several reviewers, it overheats, hallucinates, gets responses dead wrong, has basically no features, and the battery lasts about as long as your coffee will take to cool down and taste like engine oil.
So I might have cancelled my preorder. I might be an early adopter of technology, and I’m interested and excited by new developments, but I don’t need a useless bit of plastic in my life right now.
I think this is the problem with physical MVPs. With digital experiences, it’s (in theory, at least) easy to build an MVP because you can pick a problem in the world and solve it brilliantly, with very little technology, and then scale it outwards.
With physical products, this can be the case if the use case is narrow. The problem with AI gadgets is that the promise is typically far, far wider.
These things are designed to be an entire assistant to your life. It’ll do anything you want, wherever you want it.
That’s huge. And this is why I’m more excited about the Limitless AI pendant. It’s got a really tight scope, doesn’t promise that it’ll replace your phone, and is far cheaper so it’s a lower barrier to entry. Honestly, I think the folks at Limitless are playing this one really well, and it’s worth having a look at if you fancy something that will quietly track your offline meetings, log your todo items and random thoughts, and has some rather clever privacy functionality too.
Anyway, check out some of the reviews of the Rabbit R1 here:
The Verge - An unfinished, unhelpful AI gadget
TechRadar - A beautiful mess that nobody needs
Mashable - I can’t believe this bunny took my money
We should have more wall games
I really enjoyed these felt wall tiles by Felt Right, especially the ones that are literal GAMES. This is the kind of smile-inducing, relatively cost-effective novelty that can brighten up spaces and get people interacting with our environment too.
I’d love to play a weeks-long game of chess with others in an office, when I’m passing it on the way to the kitchen. And what a cool idea for a games room for kids, or even on a children’s ward or play area.
Does design have an ego problem?
I hate ego. The best designers are those who can set aside their personal feelings about the things they’re working on, and look at it as the work. It’s an object which has a function, and you, as its creator, are there to facilitate it’s development. When ego creeps in, we overspeak about aspects of the work as ‘craft’ and become defensive, let our biases take control of our decision-making, and reduce the possibility of objective critique.
The fear of judgement perpetuates us all but it seems to be pervasive to an extraordinary extent within the creative industries. It’s something that holds us back as a community and leads us to revere the individual creator and contributor where we know that products and designs improve when effective collaboration is allowed to flourish. That’s exceptionally difficult when we throw our entire heart and soul into our creations.
So I really enjoyed this thought piece by Matt Algiah on It’s Nice That. I’d love to know your thoughts on where ego sits within our work and how we can encourage humility and humbleness within design.
Thanks for reading.
I don’t want to criticise, but I don’t think we’re all doing a good enough job of manifesting nicer weather.
As you’re here to the end, here’s my thought for the week to leave you on:
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
- Maya Angelou
See you next time, friends!