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While the notion of invisible or boring design isn’t new — after allDieter Rams’ 10th principleis: good design is as little design as possible — designing for simplicity still seems to be difficult. As designers and creative people, it’s easy to get caught up in the magic of making and the minutia of details. Making something simple is hard, and it takes discipline. Our goal as designers is to inspire feelings of satisfaction or delight by meeting a need or solving a problem....

Waze, the developers of the first social driving-navigation app, has launched a new feature that brings user-generated voice alerts to drivers, helping to avoid hazardous roads. In case you’re not up to speed, theWazeapp offers voice guided turn by turn navigation, real-time traffic conditions, speed traps and possible hazards, collected from the Waze community of drivers. The entire concept of the network is built on the“help a brother out” attitude and wouldn’t be of any value without the support of its well engaged user-base....

A new UK-based startup is aiming to help firms unlock innovation and harness creativity with a new online tool that captures and develops ideas from across the company. Wazokulaunched last week, and the company is specifically targeting SMEs and departments from within larger enterprises. The startup is already working with a number of European companies, such astelco Muzicall,Huddleand Italian consultancySynistema. The cloud-based platform lets users submit ideas which are then shared with others in the company who can vote on the idea(s), post comments and provide their own feedback to further develop the ideas....

We all want EVs that charge in 5 minutes, but don’t bet on it They’re coming, but it’s unclear when Hope is near A few weeks ago,UK newspaper The Guardian ran a storywhich must be music to the ears of even the least anxious EV driver: a company has developed EV batteries that can fully charge in just five minutes. [Read:How much does it cost to buy, own, and run an EV?...

The news that Skype is being acquired by Microsoft forover eight billion dollarshas taken over the news mediaaround the world. Every single technology pundit has weighed in on the matter, and even the most casual computer user has an opinion on the deal. But what do those average people think of the move for Microsoft? They likely don’t have a long view of Microsoft’s, often spotty, acquisition history. And they might not know that this is the company’s largest acquisition ever....