not modified
not frozen
not preserved
not processed
not dyed
not concentrated
no MSG
no hormones
no sugar added
no artificial flavoring
no fragrance

Funny, don’t the ingredients start that way? We are paying more for companies to do less to our products. We are paying a premium to eat, wash, and wear healthy – when that’s how food starts!

Is it any wonder consumers don’t trust food producers?

Touch sensitive light controls are very cool - you simply run your finger across a panel and behold the glow. It’s a great way to increase reliability: it eliminates the need for moving parts and the resulting gaps where dirt, water, or air can penetrate and corrode the fixture. But try to turn the light on in the winter when you’re wearing gloves: darkness.

US Air’s short-hop propeller planes have such touch sensitive switches. When it’s 70 degrees outside (or 90 inside, as there’s no A/C) the switches are fine, but in the winter the cabin is dark: nobody can operate the switches with gloves on.
When designing anything, ask: Where has the user just been? What are they wearing? Does this change by season?
The same problem would prevent gloved laborers from operating a touchpad on a laptop. Other glove wearers: medical professionals, food service personel, artisans, athletes, and toll collectors.

Everyone thinks they’re unique. More than 50% of us think we’re above average in intelligence, looks, and wit. Then there are businesses and their products:

“There are 345,000,000 Google matches for ‘ultimate’. ‘Best’ is way behind at 300,000,000, while finest only can score 119,000,000. Unique gets 664 million.” (Seth Godin)

It’s usually a turn-off to call your product by these names, or add meaningless taglines like “Great”. Perhaps there’s one exception: Fantastik. (more…)

Maybe most of your clients aren’t college students who have all day to setup petitions and community groups berating your latest innovations… but here’s what would happen if they were: (more…)

Cherished recipes are like great stories, passed from generation to generation and friend to neighbor. Like legends, there is no one true version of any dish - each artist adds their own angle, a bit from their heritage or a compromise for their diet or religious restrictions.

Enter AllRecipes.com - not just a database of dishes, but a community of cooks.

One thing the site does really well: when you rate a dish you also leave a comment. This is important because “1 of 5″ isn’t as telling as “needs less allspice” - if you saw 1 of 5, you’d skip it, but now you reduce the allspice and enjoy an otherwise great recipe.

AllRecipes guides users to give specific information, and that creates rich content. How specific are the ratings you collect?