The 31.5 Guy Podcast
by Rounak Bose
Design isn't just for designers. Join host Rounak Bose as he leads a life of design, to help you, lead a well-designed life. The 31.5 Guy Podcast is an ever-growing collection of tit-bits, to help you better understand the intricacies of good design and a good life. New episodes every week.
Episodes
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100 - Feature Creep in Product Design
The more the merrier right? The more the better! Well, not in product design, as far as feature addition is concerned. It is not worthwhile to add features just because adding them is convenient for the team, or because internal stakeholders want some feature in there - all about this and more in...
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99 - Quick decisions with the Yes/No Rule
All decisions in life can be summarised into a flowchart-like system. If you ask a few questions in succession, based on the “yes” and “no” answers that you receive, you’ll be able to make an educated and well-thought out decision, that not only doesn’t disregard associated risks, but also takes...
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98 - Book Review: The Infinite Game
We cannot choose the game. Neither can we choose the rules of the game. We can only choose how we play. We can choose whether to move ahead with a finite mindset, or an infinite one - all this and more in this review of the book, The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek. Please rate & review this…
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97 - The Power of SWOT analysis
In the words of Gretchen Rubin, "If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough." Similarly, if you have no clue about your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities, or your threats, you'd be ill-positioned in not only all events concerning your professional life, but also the more...
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96 - The Selection Bias in Design
If you surveyed the subscribers of a science magazine, and generalised their responses to an overall population, all science-minded perspectives would be over-represented in the analysis and consequently in the results too! All about this, and more, in this episode, based on an excerpt from the...
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95 - Know Where You Belong
Where would you position yourself on the psychographic landscape? Where would you position your parents? Where would you like to be ideally positioned? How can you reach that position? Well now, what's stopping you? Get to know where you belong! All about socio-cultural segmentation in this…
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94 - Errors - Slips, Mistakes & Lapses
Chernobyl? Human error. But - is it really? Yes, humans did commit the error. But if the design did not have inherent flaws, maybe the human errors wouldn't happen. So it's not human error - it's design error. All about different kinds of design errors in this episode based on an excerpt from the...
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93 - Book Review: Deep Work
A compelling case fir cultivating intense focus, and immediately actionable steps - that is what you receive when you subscribe to the "Deep Work" philosophy of leading your professional life to the success that it deserves. Rules for focused success in a distracted world, presented to you by Cal...
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92 - Is it really worth Trusting someone?
There's a very common conundrum in game theory - whether or not you should trust someone, mapped to what the consequences are if you do trust, or don't trust, or put yourself first. It's a very fascinating dilemma indeed - does trust always breed treachery? All about this and more, in this…
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91 - Apple Retail Stores - An Entry Point case study
When you enter an Apple retail store, you feel like you've entered a palace full of glass and premium feels all around you. But why? Is it just the brand image of Apple? Or is it the line-up of brilliant gadgets in there? Or is there something else? All this and more in this episode based on an...
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90 - Faith is replacing Knowledge
We all know speed equals distance by time. But when a sniper calculates the speed of a bullet, they take into account wind speed, temperature, altitude, angle of the shot, and sometimes even, the rotation of the earth! We don't need to know all these for a paintball fight, but in reality, this...
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89 - Dunning-Kruger Effect in our Lives
The most incompetent people, tend to be the most confident - until of course the reality takes them on the grandest roller-coaster of their lives. The Dunning-Kruger effect, as it is called, affects not only the least competent, but also the highly competent ones - all this and more in this…
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88 - Book Review: This is Marketing
"It's not for you" - we are clearly not supposed to say that to anyone. But if you want to succeed, you must. Because in doing so, not only are your showing immense respect for those people who have been the target recipients of your product, but also those who have not - because then clearly you...
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87 - How come everyone had an iPod?
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" - not just in your life, but in the life of products as well. This is also exactly why some ideas take strong hold, and become trend-setters; while others bloom briefly before soon disappearing - all this and more…
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86 - The Product Development Cycle - a brief overview
Each and every product out there, progresses through basic sequential stages of creation. Once you understand and use effective strategies for each stage, you as a designer can maximise your product's probability for success - all about this and more in this episode, based on an excerpt from the...
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85 - The Long-Tail model for economic transformations
"The internet is the world's largest library. It's just that all the books are on the floor." At first glance, you'd think the best-selling 20% of the products on sale in the internet are the ones that generate 80% of the revenue. In terms of profit, that might hold true, but when it comes to the...
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84 - Learning preferences through Desire Lines
Those worn out paths where people naturally walk, those beaten paths that trail off the sidewalk, those shortcuts to reach your destination faster - not just in landscape design, but in usable web and application design too; all about Desire Lines in this episode, based on an excerpt from the...
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83 - Book Review: The 4-hour Work Week
"Do not read this book unless you want a new way of living" - that's how strong Tim's advices are to anyone who wants to escape the monotonous 9-to-5 and join the group of elite productivity experts called that "new rich". All this and more in this book review episode, based on The 4-hour Work...
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82 - How do Mistakes happen?
In 1990, James Reason illustrated the causes and effects of human errors using what is popularly known as the Swiss cheese model. In the ideal error-free world, a block of cheese has no holes. But the reality is different - all about it in this episode based on an excerpt from The Decision Book…
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81 - Depth of Processing - improving Recall
Rote learning, learning by heart, mugging it all up, gulping down pages after pages of notes - that might get the job done in the short term, but that will only be superficial. You would not be scratching even just the surface of your brain's processing power. That is why you need to maximise…
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80 - The Drexler-Sibbet model for Teamwork
It's magical to be a part of a team that just clicks! There's no hard feelings, there's complete trust and openness, and efficiency is at its peak. But this is almost a mythical entity that we're talking about here. In reality - most teams are just groups of people. So how do you transform a…
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79 - Defensible Spaces in Environment Design
We all need the environment that we live in, to deter crime. And for that very reason, we need markers, surveillance, and signs of ownership - three main pillars of defensible spaces. All about these in this episode, based on an excerpt from the Universal Principles of Design. Please rate &…
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78 - Book Review: Invisible Cities
"The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a deserted island." These words by Jeanette Winterson perfectly embody the powerful spell that Italo Calvino casts through his masterpiece, Invisible Cities - and this episode is a humble attempt at reviewing this vintage jewel. Please rate &...
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77 - Perfection is Impossible
Your market conditions, timing, customer research, funding, team, vision, motivation - none of these matter much when it comes to executing the "perfect" project. In the end, you can only have it good and fast, or good and cheap, or fast and cheap. Good, fast and cheap - that would've been…
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76 - Solving problems through Crowd Intelligence
More often that not, the average responses of a group to a certain class of problems are better than any individual response from that group - such is the power of a prominent principle, called crowd intelligence - all about it, in this episode, based on an excerpt from the Universal Principles…
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75 - How to optimise Results
You don't need to start panicking as the deadline of your project comes closer. There is no need to believe in the myth that the printer or the photo-copier is going to break down the day before the presentation. The result-optimisation model is the one-stop solution to your...
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74 - The Cost-Benefit Design principle
How do you assess the financial return associated with adding new features into your product design? How do you understand if you're adding value for your users, or taking away? How do you make sure that your design isn't poor? Well, one very important way is cost-benefit - all about it in this...
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73 - Book Review: Rocket Surgery Made Easy
As vastly important as DIY usability-testing is, and as simple and straightforward as its processes can be, it's surprisingly unfortunate how tiny a fraction of people actually get it done. Moreover, it doesn't always have to be in-person - remote-testing can get the job done too. All this and...
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72 - Changing our own Point of View
Homogeneous teams don't function very well - because, everyone has the same point of view, all the time! If you cannot change your point of view, depending on the needs of the situation, it will become very problematic to understand what the correct approach to a task would be. And that is...
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71 - Convergent Design & its significance
What does a hot-air balloon, a jellyfish, a rocket, a squid, a hang-glider, a stingray, an albatross, and a bat have in common? Why are they even grouped together? It's all about convergence. Learn more about it, and how you can apply it to your work as a designer, in this episode based on an...
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70 - Situational Leadership - Hersey-Blanchard model
From employees in development, to developed employees, the path is not linear. More often than not, the level of expertise increases. But, there occur very high fluctuations in the employee morale and motivation. And it's at these very junctures, that leadership is needed. Not just an absolute...
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69 - Design by Committee
A dictatorship is not always wrong. Similarly, a democratic path is not always the best to pursue. In design processes, likewise, the sole-designer-says-the-final-word way is not always the best idea. Similarly, clouding a project with stakeholder buy-in, is sometimes not the correct way to go.…
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68 - Book Review: Influence
"Weapons of influence" - that's what everyones is armed with in today's world. Reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity - these 6 principles are foundational pillars to help you not only become a skilled persuader, but also to defend yourself…
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67 - The magic of Cognitive Dissonance
Our minds work in funny ways. Many of us have high morals, we live up to strong beliefs. Yet, if we dig deep, we'd probably find that many of our actions are in stark contrast to what we believe in. Even though we know being a couch-potato is wrong, many of us still become one. This is where a...
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66 - The importance of Control levels
How would you save a document in a word processor? Novice users would go to the Menu bar, click on the 'File' option, go down the drop-down menu, and click on 'Save'. More proficient users would instead just hit Control+S or Command+S on the keyboard, and be done with the exact same job. Both...
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65 - Have no fear, FOMO is here!
From its birth in 1996 by Dr. Dan Herman till today, there's very few people who don't know about FOMO. Yet there's very few people who can overcome it, more few who know how it's leveraged, and only about a handful of people know how they can leverage it in a proper and ethical way to make this...
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64 - Contour Biases in design
A pointed kettle and a round kettle are placed on the kitchen counter. They are grey in colour, of the same height and width and breadth. They have the same metallic glossy finish, and the same black handle. The handle on the pointed one is at a sharp right angle, and it's a straight piece of...
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63 - Book Review: Achieving Authentic Success
Take charge and make a difference. Live your life with a sense of significance. Embrace problems, adjust to obstacles. Passionately pursue your personal mission. Gain balance in all aspects. Resolve challenges and conflicts. Never give up. And always focus on universal principles. All this and…
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62 - The Rumsfeld matrix for Risk-analysis
Risk is what remains after we think we've thought of everything - it pays to be able to brainstorm all kinds of risks. And what better way to do that than through categorising different classes of risks based on knowns and unknowns? Presenting the Rumsfeld matrix - based on an excerpt from the...
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61 - Constraints in Design - priceless!
Why do people keep wearing masks the wrong way all the time - some wear it on their chin, some on their neck, and some dangle it from one ear. Some even cover just the lips and keep their nose poking out. Well, there's no constraint on these activities of any kind. Basically, if you can think…
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60 - Chase the Right Goal with the John Whitmore model
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it"- Michelangelo. Before sprinting forward with your shiny new ambition, first evaluate and validate the correctness of the goal. Choose the correct goal to pursue with the…
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59 - The Law of Similarity & power of Consistency
To indicate and reinforce the relatedness of elements, or to indicate and reinforce the differences among elements, you would need similarity, and the lack of similarity respectively. And to enable people to efficiently transfer knowledge to new contexts, learn new things quickly, and focus...
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58 - Book Review: Thoughts on Design
"Even if it's true that the average man seems most comfortable with the commonplace and familiar, it is equally true that catering to bad taste, which we so readily attribute to the average reader, merely perpetuates that mediocrity and denies the reader one of the most easily accessible means…
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57 - Know thy image - the Johari window
It is hard to perfectly understand all facets of our own personality. But, we can become aware about those faces of our personalities that we portray to the outside world. But, how? Well, look out the Johari window, and the view might be an eye-opener, on your path to self-awareness. This episode...
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56 - Confirmation bias - stay aware!
Debates and design research require adequate data, most definitely, but what data we choose to present, and what we ignore, is up to us. And that is where the poison of the confirmation bias creeps in. It is worthwhile to remember that we often favour information that confirms a pre-conjured…
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55 - Know thyself - the Uffe Elbæk model
You might feel you're a hardworking person who has achieved a lot owing to all the sacrifices you've done in life. A friend might see you as a lazy person, who gets really lucky when it comes to achievements. This isn't wrong to have. But, it's a mistake if you did not try to find out all...
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54 - The Principle of Common Fate
In video games, simplifying playability by making it clear who is being controlled and how to control them is perhaps the most important - and this is done often by making the names and controller icons move with the players - resulting in the viewers perceiving those otherwise separate entities…
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53 - Book Review: E-myth revisited
From entrepreneurial infancy to the adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective - this gem of a book by Michael Gerber, claims to be the guiding light of all businesses that succeed. If you want to apply the lessons of franchising, to any business, this book is a must-read...
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52 - How to Buy Anything
We need to make purchase decisions almost every day of our life - but they need not be nerve-wracking, no matter how big the purchase is. Establish a research strategy and stick to it, lower your expectations from the fancy purchase you're about to make, don't worry yourself to hypertension, and…
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51 - The Cathedral Effect in Design
There is a very prominent and strong relationship between the perceived height of a ceiling, and cognition. Abstract thinking and creativity do not generally flourish in the same working environments as those that promote concrete, focused and detail-oriented thinking. From supermarkets to…
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About this show
Design isn't just for designers. Join host Rounak Bose as he leads a life of design, to help you, lead a well-designed life. The 31.5 Guy Podcast is an ever-growing collection of tit-bits, to help you better understand the intricacies of good design and a good life. New episodes every week.
Hosted by
Rounak Bose