Mass emails often hard to read on a mobile. Where’s the proximity thinking?

It’s amazing that the people who design mass emails don’t consider that many of those emails will be read on mobile phones. Things like newsletters, gallery announcements, sales promotions, and other emails sent simultaneously to many people usually don’t have designs that respond the type of device that they are read on. Worse yet, they often have a lot of text on each line, and even if you rotate to portrait view, you still have trouble reading them. Where’s the proximity thinking?

Cool but lame sink?

Cool but lame sink? image 1 proxthinkriver.com. IMG_0615 1100pxmax

Cool but lame sink? image 2 proxthinkriver.com. IMG_0614 1100pxmax

This hip sink is sort of like fashionable shoes that hurt.

I like being hip and cool as much as the next guy, but not so much in the bathroom.

I stayed at an Aloft Hotel in Dallas recently, and there it was, an uber-cool sink.

Cool, that is, until you try leaning on it when you’re shaving or brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth.

That’s when the sink cuts into your hand or your arm.

That’s when you know the price of being cool.

I’d like designers to relate to a wider variety of constraints. Why can’t a sink have a cool shape AND be ergonomic? This sink is like a monoculture, being mainly a geometric design, but monocultures are not very sustainable.

Where’s the ProxAwareness? Did they test this on androids or people? Did they try it themselves? They needed to honor the integrity of the hands and arms that will interface with this sink.

They needed to use the Core Idea of proximity thinking: In a situation, change elements, relationships and the proximity to better relate to each other.

Next time, they might want to ProxThink that.

“How to ProxThink That” Webinar Series Launched

We’ve launched a new webinar series, our first! Combining a conference call and online work, this interactive intro webinar will help you learn How to ProxThink That. Limited to 24 people, this interactive session may fill up quickly. It will be hosted by David Loughry, creator of proximity thinking. The first sessions will be August 25th and 26th.

You can find links to current webinars via our Eventbrite page at:
http://proxthink.eventbrite.com

As of today, here are the key event details.

What we’ll do:
1. Introduce you to the ProxThink framework and tour the site.
2. Practice generating ideas using ProxPatterns and the Growth Model. To relate to your life, we’ll practice generating ideas for social, business and community situations.
3. Q&A (Questions and Answers)

What’s included (after the session):
1. You’ll have a post-session call with David, any time within a year, for further questions or discussion (up to 15 minutes).
2. You’ll get a ProxThink website membership, which includes the power to turn off ads, space for saving ideas, and a way to track your learning.
3. You’ll be sent a printable PDF of the ProxPatterns formatted to cut out for your wallet or purse. Feel free to share this with others.

What you’ll get:
1. New perspective, new framework, mental stimulation and a quicker onramp: You’ll gain a new way of looking at the world and a new framework that gives you more options for thinking, creating, innovating, solving problems, boosting sustainability, and living. Plus there’s the mental stimulation, and a quicker onramp to learning about proximity thinking than learning it on your own.
2. New ideas and the satisfaction of helping others: We’ll develop ideas during the session for some situations you and others may face. You may benefit and possibly help others too.
3. Possibility of proxri for you: We may make public some ideas we develop, via the ProxThink River blog. For both the public ideas, and ideas only the session participants can access, you’ll have the possibility of getting proxri for them from a session participant or someone out there in the wide world.

What you’ll need:
1. A phone or a way to make voice calls via Skype. Either will do.
2. A computer. You will want at least two browser windows open at once, so the bigger the screen the better.
3. A Google account, so you can access the shared Google Doc we’ll be working on. Please know the email associated with your Google account BEFORE registering. (You can get a Google account without getting Gmail, if you want, using your existing email account.)

For current suggested pricing, and to find a date that works for you and to register, please visit:
http://proxthink.eventbrite.com

How to make an ergonomic pillow from a blanket when you are traveling.

Enjoying this post, or using it? Consider a proxri. Thank you!

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I didn’t create this innovation, but I helped trigger it through the use of two ProxPatterns. It also illustrates how it can take multiple people to innovate. I’ll tell you the story first, and then mention the proximity thinking involved.

I use an ergonomic pillow at home, but don’t travel with it. I’ve never found a hotel that offers them. I was in Denver at a hotel, needed an extra blanket, and went to the front desk. After I got the blanket, I thought, hey, it never hurts to ask, so I said, “This is going to be a crazy question, but by any chance do you have an ergonomic pillow?”

The front desk clerk said, “What’s an ergonomic pillow?” I explained it to him, and drew a shape in the air that shows the side of an ergonomic pillow. And he said, “Oh, I know what those are. Those are cool.” Then he went back into the supply room.

When he came back, he had one of those foamy blankets folded inside a pillowcase. He said “Would this help?” I said, “Yeah, maybe, thanks so much! That’s a great idea!” It wasn’t exactly the right shape, but the basic idea was born.

In the hotel room, I experimented and tweaked it. I found that with a different blanket, and a different way of folding it, I could mimic the shape and firmness of my ergonomic pillow at home.

The photo you see is after four nights of sleeping on the pillow. It was the best four nights of sleep I think I’ve had in a hotel. I thank that hotel clerk and the Drury Inn. I wonder if they encourage this kind of customer service from their staff?

Obviously, my tweaking of the clerk’s idea didn’t take any great talent. But asking him the question about whether they had ergonomic pillows was the result of two ProxPatterns I often use. One is seeking greater ProxAwareness. The other is allowing some uncertainty in asking a dumb question.

This led in turn to examples of two other ProxPatterns. The front desk clerk was seeking to honor the integrity of my request. He did this partly by ProxAwareness of the available resources. And partly by relating a wider variety of elements than normal, those elements being pillowcases and blankets. Normally, blankets don’t go inside pillowcases, but the clerk was able not only to consider it, but try it too, which is a great example of relating a variety.

Of course he didn’t consciously use those ProxPatterns. But I have found that useful and/or interesting ideas and processes often exhibit ProxPatterns.

Enjoying this post, or using it? Consider a proxri. Thank you!