The latest World Happiness Report gives the Scandinavian countries the top ratings. Finland first place and then Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. These countries are also world famous for being strong design societies. Can there be a relation between happiness and good design? There is some evidence to suggest that there may be a connection between happiness and good design. Research has shown that people tend to feel more positive emotions and have higher levels of well-

ChatGPT is a new kind of digital text generator that is supposed to create text and information. It has been making quite a stir in educational and academic circles because it will certainly make students' work so much easier. The essence of ChatGPT is that it sources much of the data that is available online and combines that with good literary composition. Composition that it has learned from the way people communicate with each other. So the resulting text block kind of lo

STEENSSEN products are built solidly on my three decades of designing loudspeakers and hifi electronics. My design company - DNgroup have designed series after series of speakers for Dynaudio, DALI, Scansound Podspeakers, Coin Audio, JS Speakers in Asian - and through them to Sony, and so on. However many speaker systems have traditionally been separate from television. Stereo has been the main way forward and still is for the nerds. STEENSSEN products start at a different pl

The artist and writer Wandou Ya from Taiwan has created a warm conversation about the thoughts and feelings that we women face during menopause. But Wandou Ya's brush reaches over a wider meaning of the “change of life” than just the traditional. Here is the change onwards from #MeToo, the change to a new feminism, the change to a fresher view of equality. The book is formed as a poetic collection of inspiring text and daring, sensual images. Page after page of new perspectiv

For every design award we win at DN, we crack open a bottle of good champagne. That's a tradition we have had for several years. Sometimes it is a rare event, but recently we seem to have done so every month, well for the last three months. Three GDA awards in a row, and all in different categories. I agree that three glasses of champagne in three months is not quite at an intoxicating level, but it is still great to receive recognition at that frequency. The actual projects

The Stradivari family in Italy were violin builders in the 17th and 18th century. The violins they crafted are considered some of the finest instruments ever made, and are extremely valuable collectors’ items. Many musicians are of the opinion that the quality of their Stradivarious sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it. Well we are not comparing STEENSSEN loudspeakers with these fine Italian instruments. However we have experienced intriguing events. About a month

As they move away from the "headphone generation" many couples are re-discovering that listening to music out loud together is really a major plus for their relationship. In earlier days, when radio was more widespread, whole families would listen together. Now couples are finding that they are actually bonding together in a new and indeed in a more romantic way. There is of course neuroscience to add data to this effect. Music affects three main regions of the brain — the re

We are constantly campaigning to bring back the "street" as an element of urban design. Cities and towns in times past have arranged themselves around the street with great success. Buildings on either side of about 3 storeys to create an architectural space: Enough distance between for privacy and access at the same time. A mix of uses. And you get a thriving place which is safe and most pleasant for shopping working and living. Explore more on Creating Compact Cities and BL

2019年底爆發的新冠病毒疫情延續兩年多之後最大的改變之一可說是催生「在家工作」的新生活形態。2020年初企業經營者多半視「在家工作」為危機管理的應變作為，人們對「回歸正常生活」仍心存期待，直到2021年才意識到「回歸正常生活」是不可能的，現在已經是2022年夏天，疫情仍在全球周遊，大家都心知肚明，未來必須要做的是調整個人及組織面對後疫情時代的「新日常」。 然而「新日常」說來容易，從心理層面至行為層面的改變卻是巨大的，研究人員發表了疫情期間的調查結果，實施在家工作一年之後，日本西裝業者的赤字和人們開始重視居家生活、整修廚房動手開始自己煮食帶動相關產業成長的數字有天差地別的對比。在家工作的彈性及便利讓過去必須舟車勞頓、擠車、開車、塞車上下班的員工開始期待未來能夠有更多的工作模式選擇。對於設計產業而言，有效率的運用設計思考擬定經營策略開始整頓才能迎接「後疫情時代」時代的挑戰。 丹麥DNgroup提出的雙三角錐模式，將設計團隊整頓方向從組織進入個體：重點一、組織概念：兩個四面三角、健康和諧、勞資雙贏。重點二、領導原則：積極領導、勤教嚴管、人生以服務為目