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Forms of Identity

Shacks on a Kyotera market street have the owners mobile phone number or name and phone number scrawled above the door. Here there are no signs for street names, no building numbers.

When a phone number and not say, a postal address is the primary means of remote idenification what does it mean to lose a SIM card? For your phone battery to run out? To have no phone credit? To lend your phone to someone else? Or as in the photo above, for the phone number to change? Why do the Kyotera dwellers not include instant messenger contact names, fax numbers or email addresses? Or for that matter ID card numbers or car licence plates? What is it that makes a phone number suitable for writing above the door?

Consider all this in the context of the other objects that are owned and used. How does mobile phone ownership affect status within the community? Are some phone numbers more or less desireable than others? And bearing all this in mind how important is it to have just the right phone model?

Writing from Tokyo | July 31, 2006 | Permalink

Ease of Sorting Items for Recycling

Does 7 plus or minus 2 apply here?

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Catering for Exceptions

It makes sense to design for the norms. What is the cost of catering for exceptional cases such as adapting a rectangular display case to cope with an excessively long-horned animal? Which cultures are likely to have to cope with what kind of exceptions? Once societal changes such as an aging demographic or rates of obesity are considered when do exceptions become the rule?

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Street Refill

Ink refilling services in Ho Chi Minh City above and Delhi below.

Writing from Tokyo | July 29, 2006 | Permalink

Delivery Options

Centralized post boxes for a rural Hawaiian community - to pick up mail residents drive to this location and pick up mail.

Although it's a public service its not a million miles from the commercial example of splitting a package of cigarettes and selling them individually. Simply a matter of figuring out what aspects of the activity - in this case mail delivery, should be completed by whom.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Mobility Is Relative II

A mobile and wireless phone kiosk in Kamapala draws its power from a car battery (in the red box, photo below). Despite its bicyclesque design they were not particularly mobile - one or more tyres were often flat and they remained tethered in one place for the duration of the day.

However this design does support fine tuning the position where the telephony service is offered compared to fixed infrastructure. In what situations is mobilty is a drawback? For example, if to operate a 'street tax' has to be paid to work a particular pitch (I've got no evidence of this actually happening but bear with me) it would be easier to move non-payers away. Also easier for others to enter the marketplace and offer a similar service in close proximity.

And the country names painted on the phones? Simply a way of identifying which is which.

Spent half a sweaty sunday on the back of a boda boda trying to track down the bicycle repair factory, only to find it shut. Fond memories.

Writing from Tokyo | July 28, 2006 | Permalink

Mobility Is Relative I

Mobile phone also usable as a modem - owned and actively used by our local guide in Kampala.

Sort of related: White Phone Kiosks in Ulan Bataar.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Under the Flyover

The Garrido Boxing gym taken during a São Paulo how the-city-wakes-up session, which eventually morphed into trying to figure out how-people-utilise-the-space-under-flyovers.

Related photos here.

Writing from Tokyo | July 27, 2006 | Permalink

Copycat Behaviours

Copycat behaviour of two friends riding the Xiamen to Gyulangyu Island ferry.

To what extent are our own behaviours rooted by the behaviour of our peers? Or, bearing in mind they are not all equal, to what extent are our behaviours rooted by the behaviour of strangers?

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Design, Over Design

Elevator features (top of photo) originally designed for elevator attendants: knowing what floors have people waiting; and knowing the relative position of the other floors. Elevator attendants have largely but not completely disappeared from Japanese retail environments - seeing this makes me wonder to what extent their behaviours were a reaction to what the other elevator attendants where doing.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Motivations for Warning

From Kampala golf course.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Smaller. Happier?

Re-sellers catering for highly price sensitive customers whether its cigarettes sold individually (Sao Paulo, above), shampoo & soap powder and tobacco (Delhi, below) or small units of call time in the Philippines. To what extent can what elements of goods and services be broken down into smaller parts? If manufacturers are unable or unwilling to directly cater to this market themselves what design elements support secondary markets? What are the limits of this approach?

Why does the Sao Paulo shop not offer a service to pair up customers who cannot afford to buy the sole consumption rights to a cigarette? Why is there not an aftermarket for second or even third hand smoke & nicoteen? What are the limits indeed.

Writing from Tokyo | July 26, 2006 | Permalink

Context & Unintended Understanding

Writing from Dallas | | Permalink

Consistency vs. Redundancy

Writing from Dallas | July 24, 2006 | Permalink

Density & Flow & Use of Spaces

An hour spent people watching at Sé Metro station. What if anything, is unique about the São Paulo context?

Limited undertaking of activities such as reading, text messaging, and listening to music whilst waiting for or riding transport; the density of people at 16:00 on a friday; that the train pictured is pulling out of the station with many passengers still on the platform; separate platforms to enter and leave the train; that in culture with a high perceived risk of theft a number of bags are carried on people's backs - essentially out of sight.

Engaging in tasks such as listening to music or reading send a signal to others that your senses are othewise engaged. What can be undertaken without drawing attention to the fact that a task is being carried out? What strategies do people use to avoid detection? How do these strategies change according to the context?

Sad to leave São Paulo, but good to be heading home to enjoy the Tokyo summer.

Writing from Sé | July 23, 2006 | Permalink

Features That Make a Service

A photo processing shop owner leans into a photo booth to adjust a customer's poise before taking a ID card photo.

A photo booth without an in built camera seems counter-intuitive but that's simply a lack of imagination on our behalf. The physical presence of the booth signals to customers what service is on offer; it re-enforces the idea of a minimum level of quality (though naturally this will depend on the camera that is used to take the actual photo); the proprietor can easily upgrade the camera; and the camera can be used in other contexts not just for taking ID card photos.

In some ways this shop is ahead of its time - it enables a setting for customers to use their own widely available tools to create. There's no evidence that this happens here, but with the widespread adoption of personal content creation tools I consider it only a matter of time - todays high end cameras will be tomorrow's mass market both in terms of perception of image quality and after effects that are possible. Shop's like this will still perform a valuable role in the creation process - a providing a suitable ambience, backdrop, props, printing and naturally guideance on poise, but many consumers will choose to utilise their own tools.

A photo booth without an in-built camera. Whatever next?

Related research from Fujian Province, Lhasa and New Orleans.

Writing from Sé | | Permalink

Placement

Why are the stickers advertising the services of Mika, Karla, Pati, Juliana, Kakau and Sheilinha (and/or their pimp) placed on the phone body and handset and not in the infrastructurre of the booth itself? Why stickers and not cards that are popular in places like London or Berlin?

There's a Hugler Sao Paulo phone model in there somewhere.

Writing from Perdizes | | Comments (2) | Permalink

The Speed of Subcultures

A saturday night of Sao Paulo subcultures.

A Paulista uses his mobile phone to video the smoking, oh all right then - smokin' wheelspin from a muscle car in a downtown backstreet (above); climbers abseil down from the Sumare bridge onto the motorway traffic island; and bathroom covered with S&M club flyers in a Consolacao dive bar (below).

The first activity starts out legal but can drift into a grey legal territory. Whilst the abseiling is being clamped down by the new mayor it's not as if it's not obvious to passing traffic and the police did not intervene whilst I was there.

Thought for today? The blurring of legal, non-legal and illegal activities depending on context. The change in the legal status as laws play catch-up with what's happening on the ground. And on a slightly different tack - the speed at which sub-cultures are disseminated, absorbed and re-appropriated for local contexts.

Writing from Consolacao | | Permalink

Icons, Rituals

The role of faith, religious icons, rituals in everyday life, from Sao Paulo above, and Old Delhi below.

For everything I believe in there are more people who believe in something else. The same goes for the rest of you.

Writing from Consolacao | | Permalink

Lateral Thinking Required

Writing from Jardins | | Permalink

Inverse Textures

Writing from Jardins | | Permalink

Context & Understanding

Sao Paulo is very much a city of flyovers and underpasses, that latter being the focus of yesterday's street research.

This refrigerator has been converted to a novel use. What is it currently used for?

Photos contain some clues but I don't reckon any of you will get it.

Update: The following photo shows its recycled use - as equipment in an under-the-flyover gym.

Writing from Bela Vista | July 22, 2006 | Comments (14) | Permalink

Heighten

Writing from São Bento | July 21, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink

Touching Bases

A few days in the Sao Paulo to wrap up this trip to Brazil. In a world of dense urban spaces it doesn't get much more dense-urban than this.

The city is going through a heat-wave of sorts - the violence between Police and local gangs has escalated with police stations and government buildings being attacked. I'm tempted to say that it there is an Escape from New York edge to the city, but for the locals its business as usual.

Tonight's driver has promised a Paulista's view of the city, lets see if he delivers.

Writing from Perdizes | | Permalink

Lines That

How do you know whether a line is designed to be followed? Or when it marks the border between two states?

Writing from Kobrasol, back of | | Permalink

Traces Of

The point at which traces fade (above), the extent to which traces are enhanced (below).

Writing from Campeche | | Permalink

The Passion Of

Our home for the last few nights has been located in Campeche a small surfing community nestled on Brasil's South Atlantic coast. It's somewhat of a relief to move out of Kobrasol - both in terms of creating a mental and physical distance between ourselves and the environment that we have spent the last 8 days researching, but also because we were situated in a dense urban sprawl with so much natural beauty nearby.

I'd like to say that I awoke this morning to the sound of crashing waves, but despite our stones-throw proximity to the sea the reality is far more mundane - at dawn a nearby rooster belted its lungs out. This was followed by 10 minutes of what sounded like someone quickly and repeatedly exhaling air through their nose but in fact turned out to be a combination of a vocal bird and the vivid imagination of lying in a beta-state. Local fowl aside, the distinct lack of distractions makes Campeche a good space to discuss, discuss and discuss again the focus of our research.

The hotel lies sandwiched between the beach and a road that runs the coast. At night the noise from a local football game drifts over nearby wasteland: the squeak of rubber on asphalt; the sounds of the ball being flipped, tipped, nudged and occasional kicked (this is after all Brazil not Hackney Marshes), and when a goal goes in a acknowledgements from spectators and soon-to-be-players. The pitch has been set up directly under one of the sodium street lights and is book-ended by barricades constructed out of old furniture, boxes and salvaged wood, its design? - to reduce the amount of time chasing wayward balls. The pitch itself is 15 meters long and exactly one road-width wide enabling a skillful player to use the kerb for quick one-twos. The goal, constructed from more salvaged wood is backed by a sack that at first glance is designed as a net but from further observation is really there to lend authority to the playing experience and to make it easier to distinguish whether the ball has passed between the posts. Each goal is less than 1 by half a meter and this small size helps explains why despite the skill of the players and the fact that they are playing 3 on 3 more goals are not scored. We're in the middle of a mild winter here in Brazil and the dress code is t-shirts, shorts and by and large, beat up skate shoes. The choice of footwear is somewhat surprising given that shoe shops here stock large amounts of futbal shoes, but skate culture is also pretty prevalent. The first team to score two in a row, wins and the losing team is replaced by three pairs of fresh legs. Logic dictates that at this pace the winner's will eventually have to retire worn out by the constant barrage. But for the duration of my stay one, skillful team remains on the pitch.

Three nights in a row they have been playing here, maybe they are here every night. It's always a pleasure to witness the passion with which people do what they do whether its cricket on the streets of India, basketball in China or, like tonight, street football in Brazil.

Writing from Campeche | | Permalink

Location Based Advertising

Some skate parks have better views than others.

Writing from Kobrasol, back of | July 20, 2006 | Permalink

Local Norms

Riot police escorting the referees from the pitch.

Writing from Florianopolis, Outskirts of | July 19, 2006 | Permalink

When Legacy Works

A photo processing shop utilising the same bag-like form for processing digital prints as for physical films. The digital prints are stored on a computer but the final prints are delivered using the same 'infrastructure'. There may well be a better way, but the process is understood by both consumers and shop workers.

Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink

Bench

The permanence of different forms of advertising media.

Writing from Kobrasol, back of | | Permalink

Traces of Enjoyment

Car parking lot on the beach front close to Kobrasol. Wanted to check out the Brazillian custom car culture up close but the weather and sleep patterns have made it one research topic too far.

Writing from Kobrasol, back of | | Permalink

Secondary Activities

The photo above was taken at a football match in the suburbs of Florianopolis - it captures the moment between a ball going in the back of the visiting side's net, and official confirmation of the score. If you look closely to will see two fans holding radios and another two with headsets running up to their ear (I don't know whether the headset was connected to a radio or a mobile phone - it wasn't the really the right context to ask). The stadium didn't have a score board - when the first goal went in the fans that were not jumping up and down in excitement were glued to the radio broadcast - the opposing team were naturally contesting the goal and its possible that it would be dis-allowed. In this stadium the live radio commentary provided the definitive version of what's going on down on the pitch.

Product and service designers like to think of their creations being the sole focus of the user's attention but the reality is that we increasingly live in a multi-tasking world. As devices become smaller there is more potential for them to be carried in a wider range of situations. Consider the difference between a device that requires two hands vs. one handed use vs. no handed use. The supporting role implies a degree of comfort with the object that is carried - it is considered sufficient to carry that device 'merely' to enhance the experience of other activities.

What level of interaction and sensory engagement does your service need to be understood or enjoyed? Why? How is designing for a supporting role different from designing for the primary activities? How to support switching between primary and non-primary tasks?

Writing from Florianopolis, Outskirts of | July 18, 2006 | Permalink

Early Mornings, Threatening Postures

The research team has decamped to the coastal town of Kobrasol and for me at least the jetlag is a chance to experience the city in the early hours. I quite like the extra time and space that is afforded by empty streets - documenting the details of infrastructure is often easier when there's no one around and the first light the dawn when it eventually arrives can be truly beautiful to behold.

But there's a flipside to walking the streets at night - some cultures are safer than others. In Tokyo you can go anywhere at any time no problem. Kampala has a lot of guns but they are mostly for show. Here in Brazil our interview participants have already touched upon murders, muggings and a first-person account of a kidnapping. The local architecture is all about the perception of security and people's carrying styles and behaviours reflect a very real threat on the streets.

During intensive data collection sessions it's common to keep the camera in the hand to reduce the time it takes to set up and shoot. To minimize the effect that a visible camera has on people the camera is usually held out of sight - at arms length tucked behind a leg, but even if its in a bag the fingers is on a trigger. Here in Kobrasol and during the early hours the camera handling rules are changed - the camera either needs to be kept out of sight 'I don't have anything of value', untouched 'I'm not holding a concealed weapon' or obvious and in plain sight 'I'm taking a photo'.

At 4am it's socially acceptable to step off the pavement to give someone a 2 meter clearance as they walk by. Keep your hands in plain view and walk on.

Writing from Kobrasol | July 16, 2006 | Comments (3) | Permalink

Wrap, Dry

Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink

Wrap, Own

By default beer bottles are served in a plastic wrapping adorned with advertising.

For all the effort that goes into presenting products or information in a particular way, what is required to take visual, mental ownership?

Writing from Kobrasol | | Comments (2) | Permalink

Norms

Cuba libre served in the stands.

Writing from Kobrasol | July 15, 2006 | Permalink

The Power of Information & Misinformation

On the way to the stadium two way streets are funneled into one direction to cope with volume of traffic - signage and road markings delineating road rules overturned for an event geared around the football seasons. We are in Brazil after all. On the approach to the stadium hustlers try to sell tickets at prices you'll only be able to confirm are inflated only once you reach the end of the ticket queue. They have a business model based, from the user's perspective, on misinformation and scarcity. Today however it is raining, tickets are plentiful and there is no queue.

Access to price and availability information is the difference between success and failure for these ticket touts but parallels can be found everywhere, including handset and service design. It's no surprise that consumers who sign up for a monthly call plan that covers talk-time, messages and data like to make the most of what they have paid for. Without roll-over you lose what you don't use. But going over pre-set limits often results in disproportionate penalties. Teens and other highly price-sensitive users often make the most of their remaining time by lending or gifting remaining credit amongst their peer group. But for most consumers this level of micro-management takes too much effort.

But why is it too much effort? Accurate information is available and it's easy to present it in a format that users' understand. The answer is of course quite simple - when time is money, timely information is king.

The broader design questions are - who stands to gain from providing what information or misinformation to whom? How does the power of whom has timely access to information shift by the widespread availability of personal and convenient communication devices?

What services are enabled by that shift?

The score? Despite the body language of the crowd above, two-nil to the home team.

Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink

Knowing What is, What is Not

The clarity that comes from proximity. The extent to which filters are whole or are by-passable.

Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink

Recognition

Writing from Kobrasol | July 14, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink

Form(al) Defaults

Writing from Florianopolis | July 13, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink

Securing Possessions

Straps attached to each chair restricting the range of distribution in a hotel restaurant in Florianopolis Brazil (above) and a restaurant in Bejing below. To what extent are the differences in approach cultural? To what extent context dependent? How are the spaces used differently?

How do you keep the posessions you carry that are not worn secure when you are in a restaurant? If your culture doesn't by default offer additional chair security? Why not?

Writing from Florianopolis | | Permalink

A Message To Our Guests

Hotel elevator (above)- children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult. Hotel flyer (below) - article 227 paragraph 4 - "the law will punish and abuse serverely, the violence and the child's sexual exploration of the adolescent".

Writing from Florianopolis | July 12, 2006 | Permalink

So New It's...

Still covered signs at the check-in counter of TAM Airlines - the moment between delivery, installation and use.

Varig appears to be cancelling a lot of flights out of Sao Paulo.

Writing from São Paulo | July 11, 2006 | Permalink

Checking In

A while back interviewed a homeless gentleman who essentially lived under the public eye - he wore very visible headphones even when he wasn't listening to music - making it easeir to avoid social interaction in contexts where he had very little control.

I've got a long series of flights coming up. How do you prepare for (40+) hours in the company of strangers?

Writing from Tokyo | July 10, 2006 | Permalink

Negative Body Language

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Checking Out

No difference between self-checking out of a hospital using hospital ID card in Tokyo (above) or a self-checking out of a country - US Visit receipt in Seattle (below) or is there?

And no, the top photo was not taken in a beer-serving hospital, just getting some tucker after the event.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Signs Articulating Cultural Norms.

The widest selection of Do Not ... signs for sale in Tokyu Hands are Do Not Use Your Mobile Phone, No Smoking and No Cameras. What does it say about Japanese society that they did not sell any signs for No Spitting, No Explosives, No Cooking or No Begging?

Custom sign painter's shop in Kampala below, similar services on offer in Ho Chi Minh City, Pokara, Nepal.

And finally - a reminder of the importance of context in understanding by thinking about signs in a Delhi marketplace.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Selection Criteria

How does a consumer know whether the acid is good or not?

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Attention To Detail II

Writing from Harajuku | July 9, 2006 | Permalink

Attention To Detail I

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Cultural Norms

Headline from local Kampala newspaper.

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Cape Town Builders Have More Fun

Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink

Motivations for Customisation

Customisation of a fishing boat hulll in Kansensero Uganda and of stop signs on the back of auto-rickshaws in Delhi.