Experience Dining
Whats the difference between a good (dining) experience and feeling like you're part of a manufacturing/manufactured process?
Good dining: Bachi Bachi (photos) is an busy, informal, friendly 1950s themed okonomiyaki restaurant in Sakura Shin Machi, Tokyo. Sufficiently lived in, and popular with the local community.
One to avoid: themed Ninja Restaurant in Akasaka. Good food, but all guests are taken on a guided tour of the 'ninja village' by an appropriately dressed ninja prior to finding your seat. Never mind that some guests were struggling with luggage, and the tour ended up back at the entrance dispelling any sense of mystique.
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | April 24, 2005 | Permalink
@ Mo
@Mo is another concept store in Harajuku. 'Custom' FOMA P901is are placed in the context of clothing, chill-out leather sofas, tees and the ubitquitous Be@rbricks.
Its difficult to bring a custom and exclusive purchasing experience to mobile phones, which are largely the most mass of mass produced products, with a few exceptions of course.
This store leaves me cold - its all too template to be original. In a year it will be gone, but by then it will have already served its purpose.
Writing from Harajuku | April 22, 2005 | Permalink
IP Kiosks / Caller ID
Caller ID is not on your mobile phone. Caller ID is the number of your booth.
In China to prepare for a user study we are running later this year. So hire a car and driver for a day, head out of Beijing and keep going until we hit some of the smaller towns and villages.
Most semi-urban high streets include at least one IP telephone kiosk. They have an interesting dynamic - they're typically noisy and don't offer much privacy. But they are cheap, and immensely popular.
The numbered booth brings a new meaning to the term Caller ID.
Writing from Tokyo | April 18, 2005 | Permalink
Hanami, Camera Phone Watching
In Japan Hana mi - flower watching is a national event for the few days that the cherry blossom (sakura) trees bloom. It took me a while to get used to it, but to a foreigner it boils down to an excuse to sit somewhere nice with friends and colleagues and have a party. Hana mi is also a good time to reflect on the role of camera phone vs digital cameras.
Having a quiet after work stroll along the cherry blossom lined Meguro River and stopped by one of the many bridges. The world and her tokyo-mini-fit-in-the-bag-on-the-subway-sized-dog are out in groups chatting and pretty much all taking photos of the sakura.
Two things stand out from sitting and observing for half an hour.
Firstly roughly 90% of people taking photos were using camera phones. The remaining 10% either consumer digital cameras or mounted-on-tripod prosumer models which could have been digital or analog. A couple of people took with camera phone and then digital camera. This is at night and for this kind of outside use camera phone flashes still don't do it.
Secondly, that the way the shots were being lined up, the camera phone was at least treated equally with the digital camera in terms of what was expected from the photos. There were the Im-here snapshots, but also people spending a long time getting the right angle and choosing the right cherry blossom to photograph.
Hanami isnt an unplanned quick-theres-david-beckham-wheres-i-wish-i-had-a-camera moment. People will discuss and plan where and when to go, who will go early to reserve the best spot to picnic and wholl bring what food and drink.
A % of those people using camera phones also own a digital camera. Where do you keep you digital camera in your home when it is not in use? And your phone? Taking something with you when you leave home requires recollection that you own it. Recollection is all the more difficult when the object is tucked in a cupboard somewhere. Out of sight out of mind.
Camera phones already have the mind share being good enough for this kind of social event photography. The next time those people leave home the digital camera will stay in the cupboard. For digital camera manufacturers this is a one-way trend. In the longer term, for the digital camera needs to deliver better value (quality, convenience, ease of use, ...) perceptually beyond that of a camera phone.
Writing from Tokyo | April 11, 2005 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Purchase Password
Buy password? Why not?
Writing from New Delhi | April 9, 2005 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Guerilla Ethnography
Been at Doors Conference giving a three day workshop on Guerrilla Ethnography. At other conferences this would be called a user research methods workshop, but hei, this is Doors.
To be frank, none of the talks set me on fire, a few were downright dull. Upsides: many of the conversations with delegates hit the mark, in particular the perspectives from local attendees, and the CKS guys did a stupenous job.
Writing from India | April 2, 2005 | Permalink
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