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Underground Broadcasting
We are all overground now.
Writing from Tokyo | September 30, 2006 | Permalink
Urban Assets
From Venice, CA.
Writing from Tokyo | September 29, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Who Takes Whom for a Ride?
Newspaper article on taxi cabs fleecing customers by taking indirect routes. When anyone can pinpoint their own location more people will have an opinion on the best route to travel. Will part of the-negociating-with-taxi-driver task evolve to include deciding whose route-finding technology to use?
Writing from Tokyo | September 28, 2006 | Permalink
Size Norms
Writing from Portland | | Permalink
Rebooting in a Connected World
Today's office is a series of poor design choices.
I'm sitting in a hire car in the Jones Farm Campus car park despite the 31 degree heat and the fact that I'm literally dripping with sweat - I keep the windows tightly sealed. Progress is watching the minutes slowly tick by and mounting physical discomfort. To what do I owe this sauna'ed pleasure? Why am I in here and not out there?
At six pm the car's security system had for some reason kicked highlighted by an icon of a locked-engine icon appearing on the dash board. A call to roadside assistance confirms that the car needs to be 'security reset' and that to do this means sitting for 20 minutes in the car with the windows wound shut, the key in the ignition without touching anything. So I sit and watch the minutes tick by, watch the conference delegates stream onto busses and leave, and I drip sweat. After 20+ minutes of following the instructions to the letter I turn the key in the ignition and... nothing. The engine remains locked.
In a connected and sensing world what does it mean to 'touch nothing'? Can the car (or the people the car reports to) know whether the windows are have been wound down? That the sun visor has been repositioined? Does it sense movement in the car seat? That pages of a newspaper were turned within its space? In a connected world how do you know what is not connected? Designers and system planners utilize the interconnectedness of objects to create new ways of doing things - including an out-there equivilent of CTRL-ALT-DEL to reset the car.
The complexity of this stuff is non-trivial - its going to get far worse for humans before it gets better.
The conference delegates leave shortly after 6 pm. The car park is nearly empty by 9. When the taxi arrives at 9:30 the hire car becomes someone else's problem.
Writing from Hillsboro | September 27, 2006 | Permalink
Affecting the Perception of Preference
Audience voting at the EPIC conference. To what extent does the colour of the vote (red, green or amber) affect the perception of which is most popular?
Writing from Portland | | Permalink
Product Naming Conventions
One of the delights of starting the day at midnight this past week as been to take a 3am breakfasts at Izzy's Deli on Wilshire. The diner is straight out of NYC from its oversized pastrami on rye and photos of every famous customer whose ever walked through the door. Actually I'm not it they're depicting everyone famous person whose ever walked through these doors but in the local venacular, like, whatever. The real draw for me is that the diner is highly condusive to people watching - plenty of low backed booths, options for diagonal seating and near to middle distance lines of sight. A TV is on in the background and a sports channel projects the play of the day - the volume is turned down and conversations drift over.
Izzy's is the cultural equivilent to the 24 hour bagel bakery in Dalston Market or its Brick Lane equivilents - not the physical space which is very different, but the the fact that the non-stop opening hours extends their client base beyond normal parameters pullling in a cross section of night-owl society. Club bouncers coming off shift and drunk and somewhat flirty sophmores (the volume of which suggests that a college dorm is nearby). "The guy's the biggest vagina of all time" confers a male diner to his female friends sitting behind me and to my right a gentleman in a carefully cocked hat outlines a business deal to two associates. At the counter a police officer waits for a take-out and kills time by passing pleasantries with the night manager
At some point someone decided that each dish on the menu would be associated with a person: there's Morris's cold fish plates; Jule's individually sized pizza; Rabbi Reuben's corned beef on rye and Elaine's incredible chilli. Did Maya and Ara's really put together the childrens menu? Would the chef's salad really not taste as good without the input of Emile Kay? Is the chopped liver plate put together just how Glady's liked it? And would Luba's shrimp salad really taste the same without, well, Luba? Its a high noise to signal ratio when you're trying to order breakfast.
Make a mental note to visit the next door Tehran Market during regular opening hours but never do. I'm now in Portland EPIC starts in a few hours and no sign of a local late night diner.
Writing from Portland | September 25, 2006 | Permalink
Emotional Push, Emotional Pull
Writing from Venice | September 24, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Activities That Bring People In Contact
The delination of parking spaces, and the stakeholder negotiation that goes with deciding who gets what - the chalk marks were being applied as we arrived. A simple example of an task that brings people from the local community in contact with one another. I'm reminded of living in an othordox Jewish part of Hackney - there wasn't too much interaction between neighbours until an elderly volvo driving gentleman managed to shunt 3 parked cars - mine included. The things that enduce first contact.
Writing from Venice | | Permalink
Understanding Consequences, Affecting Actions II
Related to this.
Writing from Venice | | Permalink
Damping Identities
The distance between the advertising for a service and the hosting or epicenter of that service, particularly beneficial for services which fall into legal grey areas - like online betting in the US - there have recently been a number of arrests related to online gambling sites. Given the myriad of ways in which we are 'present' - anything from actual physical presence, online avatars, phone numbers or web sites, how can authorities arrest or shut down our multiple identities? Legally binding arrest warrants (and bounties) for second life avatars?
Writing from Venice | | Permalink
Anatomy of Mobile TV Use Cases
The slides for yesterday's presentation on An Anatomy of Mobile TV Use Cases at the Annenberg Center for Communication can now be downloaded from here [7MB].
The presentation draws on a 2005 qualitative study into commercial S-DMB Mobile TV in Seoul, South Korea by Younghee Jung, Cui Yanqing and myself. These slides concentrate on only one aspect of the study - the three main use cases that were documented and explored - evening commuting, macro breaks and home use. Actually we uncovered a compelling fourth use case, but we'll wait until a full research paper is published before revealing what it is.
A summary? Researchers and designers often talk about use cases but to what extent do the details of the experience need to be communicated to the project team (and in what formats) in order for these scenarios to be useful? What are the elements of the experience that can make or break whether new services move beyond early adopters? The devil is in the details.
Thanks to Mizuto Ito for hosting and to HyeRyoung Ok for carrying the discussion.
Writing from Los Angeles | September 22, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Delivery Mechanisms
Water containers for stall holders in a market in Old Delhi - continuing this week's theme of photos from India.
Writing this from a hotel bed - outside Los Angeles is beginning to wake up. Body clock is a little skewed - waking up and raring to go at 10pm. In practical terms timezone ping pong means chirpily attend a teleconference that started at 4am (an abnormal hour by any stretch of the imagination) and then dealing with the body's fallout during presentations later in the day.
Writing from Los Angeles | September 21, 2006 | Permalink
Literacy, Communication, Design II
The Motofone is being marketed as a device that amongst other things aspires to "help bridge literacy gaps" including voice prompts to "guide the user quickly and easily through menu navigation, messaging and other functions". It's good to see illiteracy raised to the point where it becomes a marketing feature but I'm also highly aware of the non-trivial challenges that need to be overcome if they are to genuinely meet their stated aims. I've only seen the marketing blurb so I'll make an educated guess to how the feature will be implemented.
If someone can't read or write they'll understand audio prompts right? Well, not quite. Using audio prompts to read out what appears on the screen is unlikely to be the solution because it assumes a general level of technical competency - that what is read out can be comprehended by the listener. To someone without prior experience of using a mobile phone or computer what is a 'folder'? Or 'inbox'? Or 'operator settings'?
Audio prompts also assume that the phone supports the user's native language. India, for example has over 14 different official languages, and over 100's of local dialects. (It's also home to 270 million of the world's 799 million illiterate peoples so its a good case study). How many languages are supported and how do these reflect the illiterate population?
As I argued at last week's UIAH presentation, probably the biggest factor counting against the widespread adoption of this feature is one of proximate literacy - quite simply that its often easier ask someone for assistance than learn oneself. In our research we concluded that most (illiterate) mobile phone users can turn on a phone, answer an incoming call and make local calls (pre-fixes for non-local calls start to present a problem and the complexity of tasks extrapolates from there). For many people the primary motivation for owning a phone is personal and convenient communication - their motivation to spend time to work their way through and learn the meaning behind the voice prompts is likely to be fairly low if these motivations are already met. If you're a frequent visitor to Future Perfect you probably get a kick from exploring what phones are capable of, but the rest of the planet is more interested in trivial stuff like relationships and survival. The ability to answer an incoming phone call is pretty powerful in itself and we've interviewed (generally older) users whose primary goals were met by mastering this feature.
Ever tried to make your way through voice prompts when you were in a hurry? It's fun right? Now apply the same level of enthusiasm to a hurried illiterate phone user from Kolkatta, Kohima or Kharagpur. But what if you're not in a hurry? When your options are to attempt to navigate and learn the meaning of audio prompts or wait until a literate, device competent and/or friendly person is nearby then rote learn a solution which will you choose?
Closer to launch time it will be interesting to see to what extent and how these aspirant-literacy-gap-bridging features are publicized and to whom. Will the Motofone succeed as a product? Probably. Will it meet its aim to bridge literacy gaps? What do you think?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Literacy, Communication, Design Presentation
>
The slides from last week's UIAH presentation on designing for illterate users can now be downloaded from here [6MB]. The presentation draws a lot of its material from this essay on research into illiterate communication practices that weve been doing.
A synopsis? Don't frame the question by 'designing for illiterate people', think about the skills that are necessary to use the core features on a device - something which we term device competency. Consider the different types of literacy that users do have. To what extent do risks & consequences affect device exploration? Why iconic support and voice prompts can be part of a solution but are far from being the solution - instead look to a range of solutions on the device, on the network, and in user's ecosytem. The eco-system can be anything from (task or device) literacy classes to posters on walls. Last but certainly not least that it is better to solve the problem (illiteracy), than design work-around solutions for dealing with the problem (illiterate users stumped by text driven device interfaces).
Why should you be interested designing for illterate people? For selfish reasons of course - illiterate people make excellent lead users - solutions that meets their needs may well point the way to ease of use for the rest of us. I'm sure you can think of other reasons too.
The download is a somewhat condensed version of the original presentation. One slide I removed plays the devil's advocate - that textual literacy is itself a work-around for other forms of communication. At what point does human kind evolve to the point where literacy as we know it becomes redundant? A topic for another day perhaps.
Thank-you to Teemu Leinonen and Andrea Botero Cabrera for hosting the session, Media Lab students for posing questions worth answering and a lively discussion and of course to the extensive team of colleagues who made it all happen (slide 2 of the presentation since you ask).
Related illteracy research here, related presentations here. To be sent notification of new Future Perfect publications, presentations and presentation downloads send an email to info @ janchipchase dot com with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line.
Writing from Tokyo | September 20, 2006 | Permalink
Swimming Not Drowning
Playing timezone yo-yo and heading stateside today.
For those of you that prefer a tangible presence - I'll be presenting some research we did last year on Mobile TV Usage in South Korea. Design teams often uitlize use cases as a way to focus the direction of a design - this presentation will focus on the details of three use cases from the Mobile TV field study considering the elements that can make or break technology adoption in the real world.
Where? A double bill with HyeRyoung Ok on the 21st September 2006 at the Annenberg Center for Communication hosted by Mizuto Ito and on the 26th September Hillsboro, Oregon hosted by Wendy March of Intel's People & Practices Group.
And on the 25th September the Waving Not Drowning workshop at the EPIC conference will cover processes to make effective use of lots of photo data in field work. Sounds exciting doesn't it? It's basically about following a few simple rules so that you can concentrate on more interesting things - such as the content of the photos. The workshop will not be buzzword complient so feel free not to drop by if thats your thing.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Street Decoration
Writing from Tokyo | September 19, 2006 | Permalink
Objects That Support Tracking
Exchanged for bags at entrance to restaurant.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Contexts Of Use
The extent to which brands wish to project (life style orientated) contexts of use.
The actual contexts in which those brands are used.
The degree to which actual contexts of use are publicised.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Custom Car
Espoo Taxi driver adds rear door handle to make it easier to pull the door to.
Back in Tokyo tomorrow.
Writing from Espoo | September 16, 2006 | Permalink
When Sweep Becomes Blow
Traces of street cleaning machines above, whilst below a road sweeper uses a lawn blower to move dirt from nooks and crannies of the street and into the path of an oncoming street-cleaning vehicle.When did road sweepers became road blowers?
Early morning photography bought to you by GMT+9.
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
"Espresso" for Dummies
The new hotel room includes a Nespresso machine - yes the name sums it up really. It looks right, it sounds right, it behaves right - lots of steam and glug-glug-gluging, and it even smells a shade-of-right. The result is however like drinking cardboard. Quite an investment for something that could (and does) come in a sachet.
There are processes that affect the end result, and there are pseudo-processes that affect the perception of the end results. I'll wager it will be removed by the time I return.
Writing from Helsinki | | Comments (1) | Permalink
The Order in Which Services Are Cut
Four phone booths, one of which was optimised for wheelchair access.
The order in which services roled out. The order in which services are rolled back.
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
Protect & Shield
Writing from Helsinki | September 15, 2006 | Permalink
Culture & Body Language
There is something about their body language that says Chinese tourist. But what is it?
Writing from Helsinki | September 14, 2006 | Permalink
Condusive Spaces
Two days of workshops in the company of field data, friends and a space condusive to reflection.
Writing from Helsinki | September 12, 2006 | Permalink
Condusive Surfaces
A child quite happily climbs to the top and slides down this interior feature - it was touch and go whether he would slide of the edges onto concrete. Surfaces invite interaction. To what extent are designers responsible for the interactions they induce? At what age are people resonsible for their own actions and interactions? If the surface material was able to understand the interactor, how would it respond differently to different people?
Sculptured entrance to Helsinki's metro above (reverse side shown) and one of the numerous skate-grindable surfaces around Kamppi below.
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
Activities Watched
Writing from Helsinki | September 11, 2006 | Permalink
Clearing Hotel Security
The ASEM summit that is being held in Helsinki and today's hotel check-in is somewhat different to the usual. The SAS Royal is hosting the Malaysian and Singapore delegations and the lobby has been retrofitted to include an airport style security procedure - pass all bags and metal objects through the x-ray machine and walk through the screening gate. (A friend staying in a hotel with Chinese delegation later mentions a perimeter around the hotel and guards on floors - I'm experiencing security-lite). After 20 hours on the road anything that gets between me and a shower/bed/privacy is simply a nuisance so and since the security screening appears to be optional and dependent on being pulled aside I take the opportunity to waltz by and check-in. So far so good.
Except that 2 hours later trying to catch up on sleep and there is a knock at the door. The Helsinki police, the hotel manager are there - my bags need to be repacked and pass through the x-ray machine. Oh, and you'll need to leave the room to accompany the bags. Given that I'm naked and wrapped in a duvet it seems reasonable to want to get dressed - which is fine as long as the officer is present. His definition of privacy involves him turning around whilst I try to pull on my clothes in a haze of being woken from sleep + jetlag. As we exit the room 3 members of the Helsinki bomb squad accompanied by a sniffer dog walk in. Mental check of objects I've come in contact with in the last 24 hours.
Today's travel clothes include a pair of reverse-pocketed snopants which I manage to put on back to front. I and the security detail notice this as I walk through the hotel lobby and I figure somewhere a fashion diety is smiling to herself. Down here my luggage is scanned. Up there a sniffer dog sniffs. And eventually my police escort gets the radio all-clear and I'm allowed back in my room.
Last year we spent some time researching what people lose and the steps they take to recover those objects. There are a range of situations where the owner of the lost-object doesn't want to be associated with either the object or the context in which it was left. What kind of objects? Use your imagination and you'll be pretty close.
Most people carry objects (and data) that they consider to be private and it's reasonable to assume that people who check into hotels will be carrying more private objects than the average person walking on the street. Except that the x-ray machine and increased frequency of bag checks mean that the objects are less likely to remain private. Beyond the more obvious security controlled items like knives and, um, baby milk what new categories of objects will be left at home because they are less likely to remain private? To what extent does this challenge our notions of privacy?
A gentle start to the working week.
Writing from Helsinki | September 10, 2006 | Permalink
Facial Expressions are the Turn Signals of Cyclists
The options for human interaction that are possible when there is no car frame shielding you from the next person. The extent to which interaction takes place. To what extent does social engagement in these kind of contexts differ between cultures? An example of a more socially interactive daily travel? Ho Chi Minh City. When there are between 1 and 4 people perched on a moped they need something look at when they stop at the lights.
I've only had two talk-to-your-neighbour experienes in Tokyo: suit and tied foreign missionaries who head to Shibuya to spread their word and thought they could make an early start; and when I first arrived - the policeman who asked why I had stopped at a red traffic light. It's mostly acceptable for bicycles to sail through minor traffic junctions - something I've taken to heart since being here.
Are facial expressions the turn signals of cyclists? I've noticed a number of the more old skool Tokyo bike couriers using body language to warn oncoming pedestrians/traffic of their intended route. And RG - the Iro arrived, cheers.
Writing from Ginza | September 9, 2006 | Permalink
Your Culture is Now Mine
Writing from Shibuya, back of | | Permalink
Proof of Purchase, Experience, Honesty, ...
A fan clutches an admission ticket from a football match in Brazil above. A lottery was held at half time, a cue for spectators to take out their ticket stubs and try to catch the numbers read out over the stadium intercom and win a prize.
The detrius of receipts from the exit of a supermarket in Lhasa below. On leaving the supermarket the contents of bags were checked against what appeared on the receipt, which was then ripped and thrown on the floor.
Receipts that also function as a form of lottery tickets were reasonably common in China - a move by the government to encourage a culture of giving and receiving receipts with the ulterior motive of moving business to run on rather than off the books.
For any transactions, what tangible objects are produced as part of the transaction process and why? What are people's motivations for keeping hold of receipts and tickets, in what form and for how long?
During wallet mapping exercises its common for our participants to pull a few receipts from their wallet or purse - and to use the interview as an excuse to sort and throw. Reasons for keeping hold of receipts include: proof of purchase - being able to exchange at the store at a later date; the fear of being accused of shop lifting; franchised stores trying to reduce the risk of sales not going through the cash register - see examples from Seattle and Delhi; re-assurance that the right objects were bought and the right price was paid - especially for multiple-object purchases; horders who feel the need to keep a receipt for everything - and like to track the transaction minutae of their lives; the self employed who tend to systematically collect and catalogue receipts as real or potential expenses; receipts as emotional momentos of where you've been and done; and last but not least as conversation triggers to talk about what you've been and done. Bourg St Maurice train stubs? Moi? Mai oui.
Bearing in mind the reasons for keeping receipts what role is there for tangible ticket stubs in an otherwise digital transaction? What happens in the football lottery when match tickets are digital and everyone carries a personal communication device?
Writing from Tokyo | September 8, 2006 | Permalink
Clues to Where People Sit
From a jetlag induced early morning street walk through Brazil's Kobrasol.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Movement & Posture
Time out from field study preparations to sit on the other side of the lens for a change. And an unspoken dialog with the photographer who is able to guide, coax and direct from behind his camera using 'only' a range of facial expressions and subtle finger movements from his otherwise engaged hands. Always a pleasure to watch skilled people at work.
A few weeks on the road coming up, and still so much to do.
Writing from Tokyo | September 7, 2006 | Permalink
Sleep Patterns
Panda and bamboo patterned window screen, from a guesthouse in China's Fujian Province. Lying in the darkened room listening to the quiet chatter from the courtyard, the glow of the pattern was the last thing you saw at night before falling asleep.
Writing from Tokyo | September 6, 2006 | Permalink
Whose Finger on the Trigger?
This photo shows the futsal pitch next to Shibuya crossing - its nice enough but it's far from unique. Probably 10s of thousands of photos have been taken looking at the same view all shot within 1 meter of where this was taken. How are your memories of experiences shaped by other people's recordings of pretty much the same thing?
If you've ever gazed down onto that pitch you've probably either spent time in the spot where this photo was taken or one floor directly above. The hotel top floor has the best elevated view but is on route to a restaurant with a constant stream of people coming and going, and pretty bad reflectivity. The floor where this photos was taken is not open to the public but once the photographer is past the admittedly lax hotel security it offers an unhurried view, time and space to document.
How does what you decide to capture change when you have real time access to the 1,000+ geotagged photos (a small selection of Future Perfect geo-tagged photos here) taken from the same space? With sufficient processing power its possible to extrapolate views of how somewhere, something or someone will look like in the future - in essense creating a mock-up of what photos will be taken after you were there. How does it change your sense of what is original? The value you put on what was created? Or the details in the creation process? And seen from the opposite side - how does the subject of what is being documented change in response to access to photos of itself?
How long before we have sufficient creative commons content to auto-generate static movies? A Year in the Life of the Eiffel Tower is now streaming from server near you.
Writing from Tokyo | September 5, 2006 | Permalink
I Was Here, But These Are Your Experiences
Two personal experiences - a Harajuku schoolgirl-uniform-wearing-death-metal-band above, yesterday's pingmag festival in Yoyogi park below. Everyone shapes their own recollection of events not least by deciding what to capture. Apart from the picture taker, who wants to extenuate postive and/or negative aspects of these experiences? And to what end? So many people took photos of these same events. To what extent are these their and not my experiences?
Writing from Tokyo | September 4, 2006 | Permalink
To Have You To Hand
Mobile phone in female jean back pocket. Given that back trouser pockets are often perceived as a carrying 'problem area' for women and the fact that she is also carrying a handbag why is it carried there? How does the role of the phone strap change when it becomes the main part of the 'phone' that is visible when carried?
The extent to which the position of carried objects changes according to: perceived necessity and a desire to keep it within hand reach reach; and (the lack of) alternative carrying positions; convenience after finishing other activities e.g. putting the phone in the pocket is a one-handed action after a call but opening the handbag is a two-handed action. The degree to which object's move around the body and from the body to other carried objects such as bags, resting on nearby surfaces, handed around with friends or simply left charging. From a rather lively friday night out in Tokyo.
Why is where-stuff-is-carried interesting? More about Center of Gravity here.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Welcoming, Filtering, Projecting
Welcome mats of sorts - from Tokyo above, the fishing village of Kansensero and São Paulo, below. The Future Perfect of mats here.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Default Tools
Visit a suburban Tokyo station on an early saturday morning and you're likely to come across a pile or piles of puke from the night before on walkways leading to the station.
Station attendent's tool box includes a bag of sawdust.
Writing from Tokyo | September 1, 2006 | Permalink
Space Saver
Relatively common in and around Tokyo.
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | | Permalink
Iconography
One of a range of four products offering similar but slightly different user experiences. Each has an icon styled in the same manner but depicting a different position. What is it for? Why is it envrionmentally unfriendly?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Customisation, Consequences of Lack of
Belonging to a house maid, Chengdu.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Swing, Bin
From Jardins, São Paulo.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Format Affecting Message
A genuine wanted poster. Three things: the seriousness of the message affected by the style of its format; its placement; the extent to which its design make it stand out and be noticed.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
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