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China

Living in China: Beijing, Shanghai increase salaries

Despite the severest economic crisis in decades, Beijing and Shanghai continued to significantly increase workers’ salaries last year, according to official statistics. In Beijing, workers earned on an average 44,715 yuan ($6,570) last year, 4,848 yuan more, or a 12 percent increase, than in 2007, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. In Shanghai, the average monthly salary last year was 3,292 yuan, a 400-yuan, or 13.8-percent, jump from 2007, according to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau announcement […]

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Design

Robert Fabricant’s “Behavior is our Medium” keynote at IxDA | Interaction ‘09 Conference

Robert Fabricant talks about Interaction Design as a practice beyond just computing technology. He gives examples of Interaction Design as far back as ancient history, all the way to a humanitarian project underway today. He shows that Interaction Design’s primary medium is behavior, extending far past the high technology world into the realm of human behavior and relationships […]

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Design Innovation Inspiration

Don Norman’s “The three ways that good design makes you happy” talk at TED

In this talk from 2003, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy […]

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China Information Technology

Internet in China: super-fast connections in Shanghai by 2009

Internet 50 or 100 times faster than current speeds will be available in Shanghai in 2009 and cover 10 million families nationwide by 2010, government officials said recently. The technology, called 3TNET, will be available in the Yangtze River Delta region soon. Previously, thousands of families tested it in Shanghai’s Changning District and Pudong New Area, said the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the local government […]

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Consumer Behavior Design

“Help Me! A New Approach to Support Interactions”: Doug Bolin’s talk at IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference

In his talk at IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference, Doug Bolin briefly introduces a new conceptual framework for designing and delivering dynamic, personalized support interactions. Then a case study will concretely illustrate how the framework can be applied in an online setting […]

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China Design Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Shanghai jobs jump by 20 percent

A total of 281,000 jobs were created in Shanghai in the second quarter of 2008, while the number of job hunters reached 299,000, a report released recently shows. The jobs were provided by 22,000 companies, according to the analysis of the city’s human resources by the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau. Compared with the same period last year, job supply has increased 20.7 percent, the report said…

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China Consumer Behavior Information Technology Innovation Trend Watching

Chinese People and Their Mobile Phones: Market Increases on a Large Scale, Driven by Demand

CCID Consulting, China’s leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, recently released its article on mobile phone market increasing in large scale. From data by CCID Consulting, the sales volume in China’s mobile market is 150 million units in 2007, which is 24.1% more than that of 2006. If black-market mobiles from smuggling, unregistered brands and other illegal products are counted, the number exceeded 200 million in 2007. The China mobile market has started development on a large scale driven by market demand and technology renovation

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China Economics Trend Watching

Investing in China: Most of world’s top companies invest in China

Almost 480 of the Fortune 500 companies have invested in China during the past 30 years, said Du Ying, deputy minister in charge of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. From 1978 to 2007, China’s total use of foreign investment exceeded 760 billion U.S. dollars, the largest amount among developing countries and the second largest worldwide, said Du at a national economic conference recently…

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Design Information Technology Innovation Software

“User Interface Design in an Agile Environment”: Jeff White and Jim Unger’s talk at IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference

In their talk at IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference, they describe their experience with the merger of user centered design into agile (team) development practice as manifest in a one day design studio […]

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Design Information Technology Innovation Trend Watching

“The Design Eco-System”: Bill Buxton’s Keynote at IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference

Bill Buxton, in his keynote during for the opening of IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference, asks us: “How Can We Design Great Products if we don’t First Design our Environment?” Great ideas are not enough. In many ways, they are the easy part of design. The hard part is seeing those great ideas through to reality […]