Multi Material in 3d Printing

I thought this was interesting. The world of 3d printing is becoming more refined and precise day by day. Students at MIT were able to create a 3d printer that could print multiple materials in one job without stoping the process of the printer and changing cartridges.
       https://www.rt.com/usa/313858-multifab-3dprinter-ten-materials/

Gender difference in usage of bike share programs

Article from Core77 about why more men use bike share programs

Found this article on Core77 and was pretty intrigued mostly because gender tends to be a pretty common and popular issue in todays society. Though most of the article goes into why more men ride, I also found it interesting to see how far behind we (america) are in bike share programs. The Netherlands had programs like this as early as the 60's. Anyway's most of the reason of why women don't use this as much as men (in NYC at least) is mainly due to safety, as you will see in the article. 

Google Uses Google to Identify People's Questions and Give Them an Answer

People have a lot of questions about solar panels and how they can begin to use them. A clever man at Google saw this search trend and decided to help them out, by mapping them out. Check out the article and video:

http://www.core77.com/posts/40004/In-the-Future-Might-Google-Design-Products-to-Fit-Peoples-Queries

Being able to use pre-existing tools in a sustainable and innovate way to conduct research.

Evidence Based Design

Evidence Based Design: 

An emerging field of study, which utilizes observable patterns and complied evidence to inform the design practice. A relatively new field it borrows both ideas and terminology from fields such as environmental psychology,  architecture, and behavioral economics. Although it is mostly employed in an institutional setting where there is adequate build up of episode re-occurrence to derive credible data from, I think it ties into alot of what we have been reading about fostering a culture of innovation. Although it also brings to mind the dictates of a bureaucratic system of implementing change.

Here is a little break down:
Eppstien Uhen Architects: Evidence Based Design

Start Projects With Phase Zero

"Perhaps you ought to start your process a step back and find the right problem. It might be best to find the issues your clients’ client dealing with."

http://99u.com/articles/7301/start-projects-with-phase-zero

Design Research: What Is It and Why Do It?

"Design research is a vote against hunch-based reasoning. It prevents the need for endless testing, and provides a basis for evidence-based decision-making."

http://reboot.org/2012/02/19/design-research-what-is-it-and-why-do-it/

When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods

"While many user-experience research methods have their roots in scientific practice, their aims are not purely scientific and still need to be adjusted to meet stakeholder needs. This is why the characterizations of the methods here are meant as general guidelines, rather than rigid classifications."

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

This article had a great list of 20 ways to assess user experience and how to implement them into the design process.