Web
Review Roundup IV
Once again we continue our periodic web review
retrospective, where we take
a look back at many of the websites featured in past
newsletters…
01/12/02 – NPD RESEARCH
CANDY
In
this issue, we reviewed the websites of two consultants who have
amassed a tremendous amount of information on their respective
websites [Read
original review]:
1
– Gateways to Knowledge
Link:
http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/index.shtml
Produced by Goldense Group, Inc.,
“Gateways” hasn’t changed much, and has, in fact, gotten bigger.
GTK maintains several databases of lists and links to upcoming
conferences and seminars, numerous bibliographies and links to
periodicals and books, links to many types of services,
professional associations, technology providers and much more.
2 –
Product Development Forum
Link:
http://www.npd-solutions.com/pdforum.html
Again, not much has changed here,
and that’s a good thing. This site continues to act like a
mini-encyclopedia of NPD process knowledge. PDF houses hundreds
of articles, a very comprehensive glossary of product
development vocabulary, and excellent overviews of innumerable
tools and techniques.
02/21/02 – THE
OUTSOURCING INSTITUTE
Link:
http://www.outsourcing.com
While focused principally on outsourcing that involves IT and
business processes like HR, rather than product development, the OI
website is a solid resource for researching the ins and outs of
making any kind of outsourcing successful. On the site you will find
numerous articles, reports and links, all split up amongst three
sections - one each for "buyers," "providers" and "influencers".
Membership registration is required for much of the content, but
there is a good amount for public viewing as well.
[Read original review]
03/29/02 – LEARNING TO
DEVELOP
Link:
http://www.learningtodevelop.com
This is a website promoting the use of “Lean” principles in the
aerospace industry, and the url listed above even borrows from the
title of the Lean Enterprise Institute's value stream mapping
guidebook, “Learning to See" (www.lean.org). In short, the website
provides a simple overview of how Aerojet is applying the concepts
of value stream analysis to product development activity. Of
particular interest may be their Value Information Pull System
(VIPS), a downloadable PowerPoint presentation describing their
methodology, and a survey on waste in product development, although
it appears to be a remnant from June 2003, indicating this website
may not be currently maintained. [Read original review]
04/30/02 – BAD DESIGNS
Link: http://www.baddesigns.com
"Bad designs" is one of our favorite websites that we’ve featured.
Like a lot of blogs out there, this website seems to be one man’s
passionate crusade against poor ergonomics. "Bad Designs" very
simply takes real world examples from any area imaginable - consumer
goods, tools and devices, vending machine interfaces and even
traffic stops - to point out bad designs, what problems they
present, and even to suggest potential design alternatives, some of
them quite clever. [Read original review]
06/27/02 – WHO’S ON
FIRST
Link: http://www.usfirst.com
I
don’t know his “Q” rating, but Dean Kamen is my candidate for
highest profile celebrity engineer of the modern age. For better or
worse, history books will picture him atop a Segway, the legacy of
which is still to be determined. When hearing Dean speak at a
Microsoft event, I was intrigued about how he said he waived his
speaking fee for the right to plug FIRST, a robotics competition
designed to cultivate the next generation of engineers, which many
statistics show to be a shrinking group. Do you hate unintentionally
vapid role models like Britney and Marky Mark? If the answer is yes,
and you have the capacity to do so, you might want to get involved
with something like FIRST. [Read
original review]
07/25/02
– HOW STUFF WORKS
Link:
http://www.howstuffworks.com
Incorporated in 1999, HowStuffWorks is a media company consisting of
websites, books, periodicals and syndicated content all of which
present well illustrated guides and explanations about how anything
you can think of works. The link above will take you to their main
site, which was listed as one of 2002’s "50 best websites" by Time
Magazine. The sheer volume of information here is impressive. [Read
original review]
