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Ahead of the Curve
The functionality that can be squeezed into an an ear-mounted device. Today. In 10 years time.
The pros and cons of attached to vs. embedded in the body. Possibilities for interaction. The ease at which the device functionality or presence is discoverable by other people. The consequences of each.
And the model? One of our talented local ground crew.
Writing from Rio | July 29, 2007 | Permalink
Reductive Design
Kettle spout. Its physical elegance unfortunately not matched by its functionality.
Writing from Rio | | Permalink
Rio, Home
The team touches down in Rio to be confronted with a pleasantly empty airport. Whilst you might equate this with a waltz through customs, it turns out that the kit that makes up our mobile office needs to be declared and it takes an hour form filling before we are allowed to escape into arrivals. What’s another hour added to a day and a half’s travel? Our camaraderie is high sustained gallows humour, the anticipation of impending personal bathing facilities, and gallows humour based on our need for personal bathing facilities.
Meetings with the ground team are scheduled for the following morning leaving us with enough time between ablutions and dozing off to stretch legs in the neighbourhood and stock up on supplies.
The preparation of this field study has been an impressive example of other people’s resourcefulness and adaptability, and an element of luck. Luck - a member of our ground crew recruited via Future Perfect turns out to be natural for this kind of work. BV, take a bow.
Our home for the next ten days is the top floor of an apartment block centrally located in Rio, with enough room to comfortably house the four-strong Nokia team and be used as an field office for the 12 strong ground crew. The apartment is split over two floors the upper dominated by a deck with a 300 degree view of the city and its coastline. The one and possibly only benefit to jetlag is enjoying the calm the early hours, an opportunity to review, think and write and take in the sun rising over Rio.
That’s not strictly true - I’ll soon be vacating the deck for my yoga practicing collegue. Personal moments require personal space.
Time to make a proper start to the working day.
Writing from Rio | July 28, 2007 | Permalink
un-lucky 13
Haven't stayed in a building with a 13th floor for a while.
Local equivalents? Chinese and Korean elevators missing variants of the 4th floor - the word four sounds too much like death.
The role of superstition in the design process; the inherent support for superstitious rituals in the product or service that is produced; the superstitious rituals that evolve through use. As the range of tasks carried out though personal communication devices increases - the extent that superstitious rituals shift to involving those devices. Examples? The blessing of a new car by a monk at the local shrine. Designers using following particular practices to get into the flow.
Writing from Rio | July 27, 2007 | Permalink
Survival Strategies
A Tokyo design team colleague's cocooning strategy during our DC stopover. Tokyo > Rio? 37 hours door to door
The US immigration authorities cunningly slowed the entry-into-the-US and luggage check-out/check-in process down to a crawl so that our 6 hour stop over is reduced to only 4 hours of usable time. Smart. Obviously indebted.
How does this compare with other immigration processes around the world? Tokyo Narita can take a good 40 minutes for non-residents arriving during a busy period, down to 15 minutes for resident card holders with priority luggage.
Kampala can take anything up to half a day, depending on who is (not) working when. Arrivees can theoretically pick up a visa on arrival - though funnily enough it depends on there being someone actually manning the immigration booth. The lesson - if you can get it in advance, get it in advance. I had it in advance.
A country with unexpectedly smooth immigration procedures? China - from airplane door to sitting in airport taxi is in the region of 20 - 25 minutes .
Writing from Washington DC | July 24, 2007 | Permalink
Local Formats
Traditional standing flower bouquets outside Saturday's Swagger store opening in Harajuku - the stand+bouquet+sign format can be found at the opening of anything from shoe stores to ramen restaurants.
But how did it evolve into this particular format? The desire for Gigglyroy, Shibuya Nuts, Mad Foot, DJ Hasabe et al. to communicate to other members of the community (and each other) that they stand, if not behind Swagger, close enough to be in the photograph.
The that fact that street brands wish to be associated with the bouquet-flower-at-shop-opening format in the first place. Drawing on a rich cultural heretige vs not following the herd, speaks volumes about the immediacy and universal appreciation of tangible media, tradition, peer pressure and a desire to show communicate strong social ties.
A 200 meter queue of punters shepherded by q-ushers waiting to enter the store. One of the sweeter aspects of the iPhone, Harry Potter, ++ coverage was the commentary and assumption about people's willingness to queue to be amongst the first to experience the new. Here in Omotesando it's simply JAQiT - it's Just Another Queue in Tokyo.
Writing from Omotesando, back of | July 23, 2007 | Permalink
Curbing Anti-Social Mobility
The first step, to contain anti-social activities - a sign discouraging smoking whilst walking in Harajuku.
Writing from Harajuku | | Permalink
Blue Rinse
A familiar sight in the (toilet-bowl-using) world over.
But it could and ultimately will, be so much more.
Expat discussions about toilets in Japan tend to center around technologies: under seat lighting to support more accurate target acquisition i.e. taking a half-drunken midnight pee; bacteria neutralising porcelain for when you miss anyway, chaps; a range of audio options; heated seats to counter a lack of central heating in most Japanese homes; fans to extract odor; air jets & a fine mist to cool and help cope with the intense Japanese summer heat; and the needless complexity of wireless remote control user interfaces. Which is all uninteresting enough - because ultimately it's the real time analysis of what we excrete that can and will have the biggest impact on everyday life.
I had the pleasure a while back to listen to Roger Ibars talk about reflective moments - those momentary pauses in the flow of everyday tasks that provide an opportunity to, well, reflect and gauge your current status. And as Roger reminded, glancing at the colour of pee is one of those moments. Simply consider the range of what can be tested from urine & stool samples to understand what can be monitored and fed back. And there-in lies the challenge for tomorrows Toto engineers & scientists - what information to feedback (to whom) and in what format?
Which is why the light blue rinse that you see above is an indicator of what is, ahem, yet to pass. The colour of the liquid in the toilet bowl will be the most commonly used mechanism to feedback relatively minor but good-to-know status updates about the state of your body, a simply chemical adaptation of what many of you already do today. (The critical stuff will sent directly to your doctor/insurance company, so that they can break the news to you gently, unless of course you think you can handle staring down at a blood red toilet bowl).
Given human limitations - whether its remembering which colours are associated with what, to our ability to effectively distinguish between colours, what are the other parameters can will be put into play by tomorrows porcelain experience designers?
Where does this lead to in the future perfect? Lower insurance premiums for your employer when they install (and allow the remote monitoring of) your [insurance company] sponsored washroom. Automated devices travelling the sewage systems monitoring dye pigmentation by sewage outlets of the stars? That you are willing to walk an extra three blocks to use a unmonitored public toilet.
Is this a technological 'advance' that applies to everyone equally? Reflecting on the colour of pee is more of a male behaviour - the standing posture supports reflection and it is usually a singular event - it is, after all difficult to multi-task whilst maintaining accuracy. But in part women are more likely to wipe before rising off the bowl - and the tissue obscures the colour of the liquid. Or will the dual ply, become just another feedback mechanism?
Writing from Shimo Kitazawa | | Permalink
Sunday Graf
Writing from Omotesando, back of | | Permalink
Inter-face
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | | Permalink
Hands Free
Writing from Shibuya | | Permalink
Protection From...
From Shibuya above, and Istanbul below.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Granting & Denying Authority
Who has the right to deny or grant access to this park bench? And what are the costs, to whom, if it is still used?
Hop, skip and jump ahead to a world of small, widely distributed, and digitally connected physical infrastructures - how to communicate whether something is out of order? Again, who will have the right to grant or deny access? How will this be communicated? And given the differences in personal, cultural and contextual attitudes to dis-respecting/respecting authority what will it take so that like this park bench, it cannot be ignored?
In an world of personal ubiquitous communication devices, geopositioning and distributed reputations, what would it take to identify, commission and 'deputise' a nearby person to have the authority to enforce the 'out of usedness' of infrastructure? How to communicate this new authority? And how will enterprising locals on the ground game the system to first threaten and then protect the infrastructure in question?
So much to look forward to.
Incidentally this bench is one of three typically used by the numerous long term homeless gents living in my local park - a row of blue tarp sits about 10 meters from where this was taken. A bench to the left includes a small stack of manga signalling a sense of ownership over the bench space.
Writing from Komazawa Koen | July 22, 2007 | Permalink
Butcher's Assistant
Advertising poster for UT - the format is interesting in that wall space will be at a premium for many of its intended audience.
Writing from Komazawa Koen | | Permalink
A Length, Extended
An example of current fashion subtly pushing technology norms.
How? If you're the kind of person that keeps your music player in your low-slung-jean pockets (Shibuya gent, above right) your headphones cable needs to stretch further. And if it long enough to connect then its more likely to pull out normal during use.
The replacement cycle for headphones vs low-slung jeans?
Lo-fi wireless connectivity such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wibree makes it easier to distribute technology that is connected by cable, around the person. The extent to which wireless connectivity positively affects some urban tribes more than others? And the reverse: the extent that the freedom to place an object in a wider range locations makes it easier to lose stuff. For example? Which demographic is more likely to misplace objects? Same question but based on context?
Writing from Shibuya, back of | July 21, 2007 | Permalink
A Status, Updated, regardless
Here in Japan a number of vending machines accept payment via SUICA travel card. With the card held in proximity to the vending machine card reader the total credit remaining on the card 1380 Yen is displayed on the vending machine's display.
In a world where ever more objects and surfaces can be utilized by service designers to provide feedback, what information can or should be fed back? Which people (or remote/automated monitoring devices) will also be able to observe this information? To what extent do or should users of the service have the ability to control what or how it is displayed?
Its a particularly tricky question to answer when the users/customers of a service come from a wide range of different cultural backgrounds - in an airport say, because of differing cultural notions of what is considered private, and what is OK to share with all and sundry. My particular bugbear is the US Visit check-out vending machine that clearly displays the departing visitor/would-be-terrorist's full name writ large for anyone within a few meters to see.
Yes, but who would consider their name to be selectively made public? Same question for a middle name? OK then - age? Weight? Bank balance? etc
Half the Tokyo design studio heads to Rio next Monday, with an unfortunate six hour stop over in Washington DC sandwiched between two 12 hour flights.
Writing from Tokyo | July 20, 2007 | Permalink
Yes/No Norms
Ergonomically-interesting enough a Japanese person wishing to make a gesture for either yes or no is likely to move their entire arm to mimic the circle or cross.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Behaviours Encouraged
Spent far too long in one of Tokyo's Swedish theme parks last Sunday.
This row of hooks is next to the in-store restaurant - yes its convenient, but lets face it a customer with hands free is more likely to spend more right? But in a culture where its not uncommon to see people leaving bags, coats, mobile phones and digital cameras on tables unattended what else are customers likely to hang here? How to encourage the hanging of bags rather than coats?
Not a million miles from this unintentional effort in Bangkok.
Writing from Tokyo | July 19, 2007 | Permalink
Wishful Thinking
A keypad with a key labelled BS? Click to enlarge photo - button is right hand side, third key from bottom.
Most Japanese users of this phone are unlikely to understand its unintended meaning.
Writing from Shibuya, back of | July 18, 2007 | Permalink
Little Things
The little things that combined with other little things create the realisation that you are home.
Intense rains require trains.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Placement, Perception & Actual Risk
The placement of objects when they are not used. The perceived risk that those objects will be damaged or can damage other objects should they fall, blow away, etc vs. the actual risk of that happening. And the changes to perception and actual risk in a city that has been side-swiped by both a decent earthquake and typhoon in the last week.
For any given context, the type and likelihood of unusual events.
Writing from Naka Meguro | | Permalink
Textures of a (Niche)
The niche-of-a-niche bar is, quite simply, something that Tokyo does well.
But why? What are the inherent properties of a city that support the defining of cultural tastes in ever-smaller chunks - nichification?
What are the lessons for our ever-more-granular digital lifestyles?
Writing from Shimo Kitazawa | July 17, 2007 | Permalink
Kumon
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | | Permalink
Orientation
Writing from Tokyo | July 13, 2007 | Permalink
Morning Glory
Manage to catch a particularly virulent dose of permaphuck on the flight home.
Writing from Skies over | July 10, 2007 | Permalink
Modal UI
Light sequences on an extension cable used to communicate its various modes.
Classy. Unusable.
Writing from Mumbai | July 9, 2007 | Permalink
Experiences by the Meter
Within minutes the view from the love seat has already paid for the price of admission - the sights and sounds of the Mumbai suburbs crawl and drawl by.
Massive segments of 3 meter diameter drainage pipes sit perpendicular to the road, spanning the trench that will, at some point will become their home. As we drive by each segment reveals itself as if choices in a competition: in the first young kids sit facing one another across the curve - a Sistine’s worth of chalk scrawled handiwork on the oxidised surface; a gaggle of ladies using the second as a sheltered bridge to cross to the other side; the third has squatting workmen smoking bidi’s; and in the last a horse stands tethered, sheltered from the rain unnaturally out of reach of anything edible. A flash-back to my last meal before shipping out here - horse-meat sashimi making the rounds on a Tokyo conveyor belt. Flash forward to the wholeness that will come from arriving home.
Urban modes of transport might sound the same on paper - a bus is a bus is a bus right? Except that every locale offers up something unique whether taxi meters that track the separate fare of up to four separate passengers in Tehran, or payment barriers a third of the way down the bus in Florianopolis.
One might expect a taxi driver plying his trade in the heart of Bollywood to offer a decent soundtrack to the city – but despite the speaker stacks found on many a rear-dash, we had hardly any tunes in two weeks of hopping around the city. The one minor exception – a young driver who was cajoled by my female companions into using his Sony Ericsson wedged between the dash and the windshield into boom box. Decent enough audio, until that point three songs later when he started worrying about the music player draining his battery. The simple act of power management, no?
A 40 minute ride to the outskirts of the city leaves plenty of time to mull the numerous design tweaks and compromises that make the Mumbai taxi experience what it is.
Most obvious is that the fare meter sits outside the cab above the left side wheel arch – an odd choice for a right-hand drive country - the driver is required to first lean across the passenger seat, stick his arm out of the window and lean over the meter every time he wishes to start and stop the fare. The display of the meter is optimally angled for passengers sitting in the back seat and the end of each ride the driver is required to shimmy his butt across the front seat to get a better view.
The meter is not illuminated so most cabs have a bare 10 watt bulb mount welded to the top inside-left corner of the windshield (pictured above) – positioned in such a way to minimize the chance of being smashed, but also so that it barely throws enough light on the meter to make a difference. Not that reading the fare is the end of the story – a conversion table is required to calculate the meter amount into today’s rupees. If you ever get hustled by a driver who is missing a conversion table Hutch provides a text message service to covert the meter reading. Some readers may enjoy perusing the local mobile phone services offered to Indian subscribers, including a section on devotional services here.
In one ride a car cigarette lighter was draped over the rear view mirror – at first glance to pray to the gods Cavanders and Jaisalmer. However as the journey progressed the clues to its real purpose revealed themselves: a packet of Chandan Agarbatti in the foot well; the subtle hue of ash residue on the front seat; and a small incense holder welded to the dash.
In another sign of devotion a plastic model of Ganesh obscures the speedometer – something that would be considered a problem in many cultures, just not here: going above the speed limit is be challenge for 25 year old Padminis even if the potholes and back to back traffic jams allowed it. The speedometer is in good company – the fuel, amp and temperature gauges also don't work.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Microplex Experiences
And hand pushing the entrance door to a unlicensed movie theatre in Dharavi, Mumbai - the movie playing can be seen through the peep hole. Similarly styled service offerings can be found in the back streets of Chinese cities such as Chengdu. What are the similarities/difference between Chinese and Indian microplexes?
In Dharavi 5 Rupees (10 Euro cents) buys you sitting space on blanket covered floor; those in the front ‘row’ are required to lie down to see the screen; in the company of a male-only audience - packed even in the middle of the day. The schedule is drawn from a huge selection from world’s most vibrant cinema culture.
In Chengdu 2 - 3 Yuan (20 - 30 Euro cents) buys you: a seat on a wooden bench in the company of male manual workers; a cup of green tea, and the latest Chinese action movies shown on an over sized TV. Punters who are unhappy with this particular action movie can pop next door to a competing cinema to watch a different action movie.
Oh, and just because its unlicensed doesn't mean it’s untouched - someone, somewhere will be receiving a kickback to 'allow' it to operate.
Writing from Mumbai | July 6, 2007 | Permalink
A Cover for Covers
Additional protection from the monsoon rains - a splash proof phone, in a protective case, in a plastic bag. Justifiable paranoia for a business tool that may well have cost a month's wages, carried by a person who will at some point be soaked to the bone.
Kind of reminds me the economics of economics, the politics of politics, or even the experience of experience design.
Which reminds me, who is the poster child for poster children?
Writing from Mumbai | | Comments (3) | Permalink
Friday Pop Quiz: A xxxxxxx of Data
Your opportunity to attain the acknowledgement of your peers and win a little on a balmy Mumbai friday afternoon.
I'm looking for a word to describe that sweet spot in the field study process when you know you've found the thing you've been looking for even if you can't yet articulate it, but prior to the long dark descent into information overload.
Right now were there, and the only thing thats missing is a word to describe it.
A couple of small local goodies shipped to the person who comes up with the best answer. Competition entries in the comments, below.
Writing from Mumbai | | Comments (12) | Permalink
Evil Warded
How to ward off digital evil spirits?
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Repair, Retire
Fly poster advertising "Boys Wanted for Mobile Repair"
Too old by what age?
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Retail Light Switch Norms
Regret, if there is such a thing is not having enough time to document light switch arrays in the local retail outlets. What, if anything is interesting about these wall mounted wonders?
Typically placed close to the entrance the light switch array stands within easy reach of the proprietor, usually found perched on a stool handling the cash register. The information architecture of the switches (and occasionally also power plugs) bears no resemblance to the layout of the lighting in the store itself but is rather is a cross between the creative frustrations of the electrician and a twisted sense of status of the owner.
A modest example from Dharavi above, more flamboyant to follow if I have time to pull 'em from the archive.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Define Freedom, Fighter, Freedom Fighter
Then pay their pensions.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Priorities
The proximity of faith related icons to the money, the act of completing a transaction, or simply in proximity to an oft repeated task - using the cash register?
And the chai delivery order book below. Faith that customers with a tab will pay?
Writing from Mumbai | | Comments (0) | Permalink
Bangle Packaging Norms
Context misunderstood.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Kohl / Kajal Packaging Norms
On a market stall in a primarily Muslim community.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Hit Me
What drink do you associate with a hit of salt? Tequila? Neat vodka? A soda water?
Salt and soda water? At least two explanations why locally, it is being served this way: useful way to replenish salt lost through sweating; salt helps reduce the heavily carbonated water.
Salt rimmed neat vodka, from a night out in Mumbai, below.
Bonus question - what food do you associate with a slither of lime? Indeed.
Writing from Mumbai | July 5, 2007 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Today’s Office
Today’s office is in a neighbourhood of Mumbai’s Dhavari, on a day the monsoon really starts to kick in.
The father of the family picks us up at a landmark restaurant, hand-shakes for greetings, and motions us to tail him. For a good ten minutes we walk, skip and wade our way through the back alleys that house the bulk of Dharavi’s residents – weaving between dense two story housing, ladder-steep staircases, buckets put out to catch clean water pelting down from the sky and the occasional resident lathered with a sachet’s worth of shampoo positioning themselves under the urban waterfalls.
He eventually leads us through a ground floor doorway into his home, a room of no more than 6 square meters, where we are greeted by the lady of the house. She gently restrains the energy of one of his two daughters, whilst their second - little more than a baby sleeps contentedly on a blanket laid out on the floor behind the door.
The seating arrangements are surprisingly simple for such a tight space - everyone sits with their backs to the wall, everyone except our erstwhile guide who squats between the kitchen and bathroom - in effect the only space big enough to house his light frame. The only remaining white space - a patch of floor in the center of the room is bordered by wayward feet, and its there that the microphone sits, its red light occasionally flickering as the audio is written to memory. “Since we don’t have a perfect memory, and because everything you say is important to us, with your permission we would like to record this session…” so there it sits, the mouse in the room.
How to ensure participants feel comfortable with our presence? With the presence of our technology: small but never-the-less protruding microphones; flashing lights; consent forms; interchangeable lenses; pens; paper?
The ebb and flow of the interview is conducted in Hindi leaving me with plenty of time to think about the everyday rituals conducted in this 1 room family home. What do we expect to learn from being here? Are we there yet? And what is still missing to help us on our way?
The view from the frame of the doorway: the colourful hood of a plastic cape pulled tight over the face of a young lady crouching in the alley as she scrubs the household pots; man bent-double hobbles past, supported by a soaked child protecting him with an umbrella; kids walk into view, stand and stare, seemingly unaware of their temporal beauty and their place in these surroundings. Monsoon rain is a playground sent from the sky. If you’re a kid, its proof there’s a god.
A neighbour motions me to brave the rain and cross the alley, introduces herself with in a gentle Mumlish lilt of and encourages me to take a portrait her son. He stands, only just sheltered from the downpour and faces the camera. Formalities aside, his mother offers a chai and minutes later, when I’m back with the team in the interviewee’s home, the chai arrives in a small aluminum tea pot.
Our plan is to return for a follow up interview. Mental note to self print a photo of her son. Whether, and how to go beyond making people feel comfortable with our presence? Whether and how to evolve the relationship between one of interviewer interviewee.
Every field study comes with its own set of unique challenges and exploring and pushing what we already know helps us move from here to somewhere out there. How to meaningfully engage with close knit and sometimes defensive communities in the relatively short time that we have, and do it in such a way that benefits the individuals involved, the community and our employer? How to ensure the health and safety of an expanded team of 18, working during the monsoon in one of the world’s poorest urban centers?
Just when you think the rains can’t get any harder, its turns it up a notch. The rains remind me of a wiry kick boxer I used to see training in my Daikanyama dojo, able to churn out a consistent flurry of blows from a physique that simply couldn’t contain that much energy. And just when you thought he couldn’t turn out anything more, he would start with big body shots.
By the time we leave, the open sewers that run along many of the alley ways have flooded, their contents spilled into the stream that now makes up our path. The risk of infection wading through knee deep water is very real but it’s currently the least of our worries - the uneven river bed, including the open sewer provides numerous opportunities to gouge and sprain legs and feet.
Home is the safety of a lodge. A hot cup of tea and the liberal use of Dettol awaits.
Writing from Mumbai | July 2, 2007 | Permalink
Designs on Participation
How to engage with the local community in design?
Rent a photo studio for ten days, fly-post a competition, offer daily prizes, meticulously document winners posing with said designs, and invite the best of the best to an award ceremony.
A process worth writing up in due course.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
Wall To Car Wall
Every inside surface of the taxi carpeted, except for the floor.
Writing from Mumbai | | Permalink
The Price of Privacy
Using local contact numbers during the field research lowers the communication barrier for would-be participants – and the arrival in a new city heralds in a new, temporary 10 digit identity (otherwise known as a phone number) for each member of the team. Within a day of activating the Hutch SIM card the barrage of spam starts - both text messages and automated calling (Interaction Voice Response).
Locals in the know send a text message to opt out, a process that, according to Hutch’s automated response takes at least three days to activate: “We respect your privacy. Please give us 72 hours to include your number on our Do Not Disturb list. Thank you” and an unspecified amount of time this to filter through to the companies that already have you on their disturb list.
The revenue generated by selling your privacy in the first place vs. the risk of losing you as a customer.
The inertia of changing utility suppliers - whether it's for water, gas, electricity or personal connectivity. Disruptions - legal frameworks /emerging technologies that reduce/increase the inertia.
Writing from Mumbai | July 1, 2007 | Permalink
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