The world’s most popular activities are walking and people watching, often they are a combined activity. Along the way to people watching in the urban areas, it often involves walking on sidewalks. The design of sidewalks is interesting, until 10 years ago, most sidewalks were for able bodied people as the sidewalks are raised above the road. For the United Nations Year of Disabled, many municipalities put in sidewalk cuts where the sidewalk meet the road intersection. Now all sidewalks are built with sidewalk cuts. If you people watch you can see how people use the sidewalk – some are able bodied and can step around any obstacle; some will be pushing a stroller either for kids or for groceries; some will have a small disability and the cuts are very useful; some will be on motorized vehicles to increase their mobility; but all benefit from the sidewalk cuts. It is interesting to consider for a great many years, the cut was standard for cars to access their parking garages, but it took the Year of the Disability for everyone to access the sidewalk equally.

Linking to dividend stocks, the above brings the question of how do people use the product or service of the company you own?. How they use it and how management thinks they use it can be two different things. The question sounds simple, but to get it right is actually more complex than is first seems to be. If you see products that are consistently designed right, other analysis are needed in order to make investments, but good design is a big step in the right direction.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to asking questions.