creatures of habit

"A simple change to the design of the gallon milk jug, adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco, seems made for the times. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less.
What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out." (nytimes)

even though this milk jug redesign (created by greenblue) is meeting a lot of consumer resistance, walmart isn't backing down. instead they are doing something very smart; retraining their customers on how to pour milk.

people are used to the way they do things. people for the most part aren't willing to relearn simple habits such as unplugging outlets when they are not in use or carpooling to work. and people are DEFINITELY not willing to relearn how to pour milk.

but that is precisely what we need to do. we need to relearn how to do things. our habits are what got us into this mess in the first place.

this redesign is one of the first of many to come in the future:

"The redesign of the gallon milk jug, experts say, is an example of the changes likely to play out in the American economy over the next two decades. In an era of soaring global demand and higher costs for energy and materials, virtually every aspect of the economy needs to be re-examined, they say, and many products must be redesigned for greater efficiency."

and that my friends is where we come in. we are the "re-designers" of products, services, strategy, technology and everything else that society is dependent on. so lets go out there and redesign some awesome shit shall we?

the power of design...again.

they should have done this a long time ago. it may have been cheaper for airlines to have gone with their earlier, less fuel-efficient models before, but now they are paying the price and it aint cheap no more. if they had been investing more in fuel efficient models rather than just "dabbling" in it for the past few years instead of just going with what they knew they would have saved themselves so much money, time, effort, and headache its unbelievable. This "comfort in the familiar" phenomenon that is known to be the ultimate innovation killer in the design world and at this point will cost airlines millions if not billions. i think the airlines' mentality as well as america's as a whole is best summed up in this comic:
we gotta start doing things differently. the first step is design.

simple, yet awesome.