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Presentation Links
A number of links from last week's west coast presentations: Context, Adrenaline, Design hosted by Irene Au at Google; and Seat Covers & Service Design at Stanford hosted by Carissa Carter of the Product Design Program and part of the David Liu Memorial Lecture Series. Residents of that silicon valley (and possibly also this silicon valley) should consider attending other sessions in a series that includes Janine Benyus, Sara Beckman and Rich Silverstein.
Most of the material was taken from A Path, Adapted [4MB PowerPoint].
The seat covers in question came from a study into the future of urban spaces. The original post is here, and related material from the same study from Chongqing, Mumbai and Rio.
Some of you interested in the nitty gritty of life on the road should point your browsers to today's office which, as you might expect describes that day's office.
An essay on the illiteracy research can be found here, its a bit of a slog and has been condensed into this download [6MB PowerPoint] and Future Perfect posts here. Vid-heads will no-doubt prefer to watch this LIFT conference video out of their peripheral vision whilst they multi-task with more important things.
A whole bunch of additional emerging markets research+ has now moved to here, since you may well have also struggled with downloading presentations from research.nokia.com, a page that I currently have limited control over, and am hesitant to put more effort into.
Thanks to both sets of audiences for entering into the spirit of the occasion.
Writing from Tokyo | September 30, 2007 | Permalink
Format / Textual Literacy
A gentle reminder of human limitations during the drive up to SFO this morning - radio advertising urging listeners to "call 1-800-MEOW, thats 1-800-M-E-O-W", where meow was spelt out letter by letter. What level of literacy can be assumed? Why does 1-800-gonorrhea get so few callers? To what extent does the word act as an effective fllter for those in the know. Like? 1-800-Auberdine
Writing from San Francisco | September 28, 2007 | Permalink
Small Print / Large Print
"All occupants will be photographed" in a San Francisco taxi. The point at which you become aware you are under surveillance and at that point, what you can(not) do about it.
As a rentable public / private space - people get up to relatively interesting things in Taxis - and as societal attitudes to things like privacy evolve, is it ripe for change? For example? Taking the same 'small print' thinking in the taxi to other domains: "Conversations are monitored to provide better service" i.e. we record and sort-of anonymise your conversations using the taxi-ad-platform to serve up more relevant advertising.
Related: Taxis are interesting environments in that they are often treated as a temporary private space - in which people can relax and objects are likely to spread out within the natural boundaries of the environment. When combined with other parameters such as: people using taxi's whilst tired or impaired e.g. drunk/high; the likelihood of using the mobile phone in the taxi; placing objects on the seat/out of sight after use; and a pressured sequence of tasks at the end of the journey such as thinking what to do next on arrival at the destination and paying the driver, help explain why mobile phones are often left in taxis. Taken from this post on carrying behaviours.
Writing from San Francisco | | Permalink
Open Shut, Case For
In an age where passive consumers are increasingly becoming active producers - the extent that they value and use open platforms such as the N95 above? The extent that they merely value the idea of open? i.e. they don't exploit that openness. Where does the shifting line between open and closed stand? And for whom?
Now read the same paragraph loosly replacing open with democracy.
San Francisco's looking might fine this evening, and an early end to the day means for yours truly an unlimited potential to catch up on sleep.
Writing from San Francisco | September 27, 2007 | Permalink
Target Acquisition
"Hits produce bright colours and circles"
"Colours indicate the hits in different zones"
"Eliminate the need for a spotting scope"
Simple lo-fi method of showing target acquisition - the use of under-the-surface colours in this Inglewood shooting range. And whether using a 12-gauge at close range, you actually need to know?
Ducking for cover in our present imperfect age of remote sensing and OTH radar, the criteria that are used to understand whether a target was successfully 'acquired'. To what extent can remote-target-martyrs carry decoy proof-of-death? We live in an increasingly asymmetric world.
What's a bunch of tree-huggers doing in shooting range? Firstly you'd be surprised at the number of dating couples havin' a pop. Secondly, popular culture desensitizes gun culture, reality re-sensitizes. Next stop, emergency wards.
Cheers to the LA crew for the lo-down & making away from home feel like home.
Writing from Inglewood | September 26, 2007 | Permalink
Rational Clusters
Writing from Inglewood | | Permalink
Expected / Unexpected Action / Reaction
Writing from Santa Monica | September 25, 2007 | Permalink
Queue Jumpers
Primary parking spaces for alternative fuel vehicles - at the Ambrose in Santa Monica.
Thought for the day: for access to parking spaces, or any other resource or service - what criteria push you up or pull you down the list? The extent that the priority / inverse-reverse criteria are transparent? And, considering no one likes to be told they are just a little less, transparent to whom? The extent that transparency changes behaviour?
Writing from Santa Monica | | Permalink
Personalised? Tampered With?
Passing through Heathrow earlier this month I found myself being screened by a trainee baggage checker who, pointing to a decorative sticker on my laptop asked “Why did you tamper with this?” Yeah, admittedly the decoration is from a roll of gaffer tape more often associated with holding things together and yeah, its pretty bland as far as decoration goes, but it shifts it from just another corporate laptop to something that is a tad more personal.
There are a number of reasons why humans personalise things not least that it is a reflection or their personal or group identity - I'm into sk8ing so is my possie; creating a talking point I see you went to Izu? I was thinking about going there next week..; to matching their current mood "its Monday morning I'll put together a bleep-bleep tracklist to ease me into the day". In a study on carrying behaviours a few years back [PDF, 0.4MB] we noted similarities between the personalisation motivations of Shanghai school kids and San Francisco bicycle messengers - the former personalising their identical electronic calculators, the latter their 2-way radios - their primary, and simple motivation being that when everything looks the same it is eaiser to identify your widget from the rest.
My Bangalore design studio colleague Jan Blom has carried out extensive research in this field once more of it is in the public domain I'll return to this topic.
A mixed jumble of thoughts before heading out into today's Tokyo heat: for any given thing what is the motivation for, and likelihood of personalisation and why? In what contexts will your notions of acceptable levels and types of personalisation be called into question? And if, as with the example of airport security the motivation in defining the boundary between personalisation / tampering is that the origin of the object can be ascertained and verified to be 'clean' to what extent does this push us towards a situation where for the sake of an easier life, we gravitate to things that are obviously not 'tampered with'? Are you willing to give up personalised objects for the sake of getting on a plane? How about a subway? Or bus? Or convenience store?
We live in a world where things are and will increasingly be monitored and logged. In the future you will not only perceive mass-production object A-1 as being indistinguishable from mass-production object A-2, but your hunch will be verifiable by scanning the metrics that are important for you. The ability to accurately verifiy changes in things shifts our notions of what constitutes personalisation and ultimately, perhaps our notions of ownership. Why do you need to 'own' object A-1, when A-2 or A-2Billion is available at a moment's notice? And what are the physical and other characteristics that made A-1 a little more you, that can now be transferred to object A-2, also at a moment's notice? In many ways we are already at the point for online services and are moving in that direction with networked objects. At some point you and the way you do that thing you do - walking, reading, breathing, whatever, is just another parameter. Try explaining your deviations from the norm next time you head through airport+ security.
How this plays out in a nano-tech-imbibed world is a topic for another day.
For those of your living across the pond, I'll be giving a couple of talks on the 27th September on the broad theme of design research: Seat Covers & Service Design will be presented at Stanford University hosted by Carissa Carter & the d-school (with a more accomplished set of speakers from the same series here). Students tend to be a pleasantly critical bunch and I hope this is no different. And earlier in the day a Google Tech Talk entitled Context, Adrenaline, Design kindly hosted by Irene Au and the Google UX team.
Airport security permitting, see you on the other side.
Photos? A small op from last year - body scars just being another form of personalisation.
Writing from Tokyo | September 24, 2007 | Permalink
Emergency Telecom
The dis/advantages of labelling infrastructure used for emergency telecom with signage indicating it's used for emergency telecommunications? The dis/advantages of mislabelling objects in public spaces.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Encouraging Behaviours
Dog toilet in Helsinki. Two small observations: the design elements that encourage dog owners to bring their pets to this space; that some have thrown plastic bags of dog waste into the pit.
Writing from Sakura Shinmachi | | Permalink
An Open Invitation to Riot
"Under security camera surveillance"
"Please do not get into mischief"
Writing from Midtown | September 21, 2007 | Permalink
Behavioural U-Turns
Today's movie goers are penalised for recording segments of movie on their mobile phone. How long before movie goers are rewarded by the movie studios and theatres for that same basic recording-what-I-see behaviour?
Why? Because the act of recording denotes a level of interest, and that things of interest will eventually be monetized via the auspices of benefiting consumers. How? Take digital fingerprinting of audio or video content to create a link between pre-movie advertising or in-movie product placement and a consumer's piqued level of engagement. Extrapolate a life-time of how that content was shared and with whom, and the myriad of ways you can extract what you and your peer group researched about whether to buy, actually bought, and usage experiences afterwards.
On one level the world around you (and your stuff) is just a series of macros waiting to happen. What are the opportunities of that macro being triggered? And for whom? From a cultural perspective how does it change the format of what is consumed?
The photo? Taken in a cinema in Xiamen - where one of the customers was casually folding his tripod as he left the cinema.
Writing from Tokyo | September 19, 2007 | Permalink
A Human Scale
Had a wander through the recently completed Tokyo MidTown this weekend - and whilst it is a shopping mall / office complex and the mere thought of wanton consumption makes me want to doze, the space and the way it enables visual and actual interaction with its surrounding neighbourhoods is, for Tokyo, impressive. And so so different from the techno-utopia that is Roppongi Hills.
A subtle cultural assumption evident in the local signage - that a pet is by default caged, and indeed cage-able. And to jump forward a little - extrapolate to the 'caged' equivalent of autonomous or semi-autonomously moving objects.
Yesterday was Respect for the Aged day here in Japan - so how better to celebrate than to take in the mountains for a day? Many visitors to Japan assume the density associated with places like Shibuya is pervasive, and whilst its possible to travel 60 clicks straight without encountering so much as a field it doesn't really take much to get away from it all. One for you keen cyclists out there: follow the 76 down from Sagamiko - it takes 6 hours to ride a decent pace. Oh, plus 2 hours of hiking - the recent typhoon rains have bitten serious chunks out of the road so there are significant stretches of carrying your gear over rock falls and even the odd downed power cable. Landslide upside? Perfect solitude on the mountain roads that survived the downpour. Downside? It slid for a reason. A truly human scale.
Writing from Midtown | September 18, 2007 | Permalink
Tensions That
Tensions that hold an object in a fixed place. The degree to which that tension leverages the itself, the properties of the objects around it.
Digital equivalents? Software algorithms for market trading
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Naming, Wearing Strategies
It's not that the slippers are named - it's that the builders remove their outdoor shoes and wear slippers inside the building site.
And anti-slip gloves strapped to the feet of the step ladder? Floors laid, new apartment taking shape, wouldn't want to scratch it before the clients move in,
Writing from Sangenjaya, back of | September 16, 2007 | Permalink
Tiger Marks
Plasterboard reverse side logos.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Meta Tarred & Feathered
The ability to present and overlay crime statistics on a map is nothing new - highlighting not only the geographic and time clustering of violent crimes such as assault with a hand gun but also insurance fraud, library theft, or the heinous unlawful use of recorded sound.
Given the mis-match between actual crimes committed and the perception of whether a crime is likely to occur, to what extent does access to official crime data and related reporting of those crimes in the media+ affect a personal and popular perception of one person, neighbourhood or culture compared to another? Japan is generally seen as a safe society - street crime and theft against property is by most measures low and this is the stuff that affects daily quality of life. There is crime here - it's just not that visible, or at least not yet.
What happens when you combine crime statistics, criminal records, the ability to track a person, the ability to annotate and overlay information in real time? That nice man in the shop? Convicted pedophile. The flirty lady? Insurance fraud. Her in the zimmer? Persistent jaywalker. Suspicious guy with the scar and the limp? An officer injured in line of duty. With the resources available to some governments this scenario is already real. But in the hands of the billions it changes our perception of the world around us to the point where Tokyo doesn't seem quite so safe, and NYC realises its further down the you-gotta-be-tough-in-this-city-to-survive rankings than, well, most cities in China. But more than that it changes the popular perception of whether its important that you're a convicted felon. Does it matter that that Ms Zimmer first smoked then walked the jay?
When everyone in the business class lounge is a professional liar, adulterer or fraudster you can start to feel right at home. And then maybe you'll also get a little business done.
Related: the real impact of a bomb on a London bus, and cashless transactions in Tokyo.
Writing from Tokyo | September 14, 2007 | Permalink
View From
How long before search engine names start appearing on graphiti cameras?
Writing from Tokyo | September 13, 2007 | Permalink
Deferring to the Authority of the Sign
“Parents please ask your children to touch the jewelry” placed on this Marino glass stall in Brighton’s North Laines. “If I tell the children directly their parents get offended because I’m challenging their authority”
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Triggering Responses
In Japan it is far more likely that a paper notices is wrapped and around handlebars - easily torn off, in China for bike saddles are often annotated with chalk messages. Is it OK to place a sticker on someone’s bike? In what context? Why? And by whom?
And for better or for worse, applying the same set of social rules to the online space - what is an acceptable level of intrusion in your webmail inbox, your hard drive, your address book?. In what context? Why? And by whom?
Writing from Tokyo | September 12, 2007 | Permalink
Getting Punters Through the Door
"Interesting People Quite Often"
Writing from Roppongi Hills | | Permalink
Making Money by Working the Street
Commercialisation of the street-urban space is nothing new - visual narcotics sticker in O'Hare above, and a gallery paying homage to/ripping off (mostly) Banksy graffiti in Brighton below.
How does this space play out when combined with: technologies such as QR bar codes, RFID and more sophisticated image/shape recognition; and the ability to make real time micro-payments?
Forget big ad campaigns and 20 meter bill boards - the highly contextual niches of the physical world is where its at. Or at least until gestures, actions and emotions can be turned into search strings and macros.
To what extent is this already here? DHL barcoded sticker on the inside of a bank window - also from Brighton.
Writing from Tokyo | September 11, 2007 | Permalink
Globalised / Localised Formats
An intriguing moment during last night's Tokyo Pecha Kucha #45 was a slide by Mark (grinning center of photo above) showing the number of cities that are currently holding Pecha Kucha nights - 81 and counting. Which raises the question why - what is it about the Pecha Kucha nights that makes the format relatively popular?
Yes there is the format itself - 20 slides at 20 seconds per slide, but as anyone who has attended in Tokyo can attest its way, way more that that: the density of people, the failure of the air-con to kick in, the ability to drink and chat in a conducive environment, that what you see might contain but doesn't rely on cool, the democracy of the format - that a well known must work to the same time limits as the unknown. And that ultimately no matter how good or bad someone is they will be gone in 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
Which raises the question of where it goes from here? As the format memes its way across the globe where is the boundary between an acceptable level of localisation and a dilution to far? And as its increasingly picked up by the mainstream will it flourish of fizzle?
To view the full sized photo above click on it, then save the image - the pop up doesn't support scrolling.
Highlight? The last few slides of Notcho's Workshop - showing the results of kids workshops where they were making toys and instruments. Our heroes, who are they?
Writing from Roppongi Hills | | Permalink
Lasts 26 Hours, Good For The Kidney
The slides from tonight's Tokyo Pecha Kucha #45 presentation titled The Promise - Lessons for Service Design from the Packaging of Libido Enhancers in China can be downloaded from here [PowerPoint, 3MB].
The photos were taken during a morning walk in a suburb of Chongqing - and document products for sale on a street market stall selling mostly male libido enhancers. Its neighbourhood can be characterised as faded deindustrialised - with many of the predominantly 45 year old+ laid off workers hanging out playing mahjong and drinking tea.
The market stall is interesting for a number of reasons: the mere presence of this stall in a public space sandwiched between a lady selling flowers and a gent selling traditional Chinese medicines suggests that the social stigma associated with buying this kind of product in other cultures does not equally apply here; that it is indicative of the shifting and more open sexual landscape in modern China; members of the community can easily survey the person buying the products - and whilst I don't have the data to make an accurate prediction about who the supposed 'beneficiary' of the product is I would guess in many cases it is not the regular spouse - prostitution being relatively common in China; the effort that has gone into the packaging design; the outlandish and tandential claims such as "Superior Viagra, Lasts for 216 hours, Good for the Kidney" or "Erect From Half a Tablet, Doubles Your Size"; and the cultural notions for what makes for a better/longer/firmer experience - with references to both USA and Spain.
Finally the one product apparently designed for use by women but suggestively labelled with a warning to men "Do Not Induce Under Age Ladies". All in all a rich set of cultural artifacts.
Incidentally - the crowd in the background of the photos are not customers, merely curious by-standers.
The PowerPoint page notes include lite English commentry on each of the slides. And no, this isn't part of any formal research programme, merely observations from time off.
Thanks to CY for the on the ground negotiation & cultural translation, KM for the EN-JA.
Related: prickly cigarette packaging in Thailand+; bangle and milk from the bag packaging in India; the psychology of milk from the bottle in Tokyo; cigarettes in Xiamen; and the original research on trust and the risk of fakes in Chengdu.
Cheers to Mark Dytham & Atsuko Miyawaki+ for hosting.
Writing from Roppongi Hills | September 10, 2007 | Permalink
Spaces Used For
A Tokyoite reclines on his motorbike to make a call.
Style of seating, ambient city volume, risk of theft, weather conditions.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Lack of Precision as Art Form
Writing from Tokyo | September 9, 2007 | Permalink
Your Lack of Corrective Action, Triggers Response
The top row of buttons in this DC hotel elevator from left to right: cancel call, emergency call button, and a key hole for turning off the alarm. What does the prime top-left positioning of the call cancel button say about the frequency with which users accidentally press the alarm button?
How long does it take for a false alarm button presser to realise that the wrong button has been pressed? What does this say about the likely first response of the, hmm, first responders when the alarm is initially pressed?
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Spaces Designated For
Charging station at from O’Hare. Of interest: minimal visual awareness of what else is going on in the airport compared to say, phone booths; the duration and immersion of the tasks people are engaged in the context of catching their flight.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Figuring Out When to Sleep / Pace of Life
Sitting in O'Hare - waiting to catch the ANA flight back to Tokyo.
There's a personal++ toll from being two weeks on the road and in the skies - not least of which is adjusting rolling times zones - the ability to function, communicate clearly is that much harder when you're body clock is somewhere over Siberia or the Atlantic - that moment when a question comes from the audience and the mind urges sleep.
A week ago today I was rushing to catch a connection in what I thought was Stockholm airport, by chance bumping into Mr. NFC Janne Jalkanen trying to make the same flight. After a fair bit of huffing and puffing we reach the gate.
"Getting stuck in Copenhagen would be a bitch on a Friday night"
"We're in Stockholm"
"Oh"
There's a message there somewhere.
Today's solution for re-syncing with Japan's GMT+9? - stay up all night and crash on the plane. Cheers to the DC crew for taking it to the early hours. Mucho appreciated.
Writing from Chicago | September 8, 2007 | Permalink
Support For
Unusual to see dog bowls in the fixed infrastructure outside a hotel.
Writing from Queenstown | | Permalink
Interface Expectations, Broader Implications
TV and game controllers in the Palomar Hotel, DC. How long before motion/accellerometer/+ sensor devices such as the Nintendo num-chucks start making an appearance in younger demographic / boutique hotels? Given the controllers-slipping-from-the-hand-breakage issues, and the need to have enough room to swing a 'chuck, is it likely that Wii controllers will be excluded from hotels.
Interested in generational differences between gamers and non-gamers? Read up on John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade's The Kids Are Alright - How Games are Changing Our Kids for the Better and related resources here.
Writing from Queenstown | | Permalink
Subtle Shifts in Object Placement
Advertising for Blackberry comparing the thickness and functionality of a wallet to the said device.
Why do so many American males carry their mobile phone on their belt? Why do so few American males carry their wallet attached to their belt? How does the position of the mobile phone shift when phone functionality includes a variety of payment options? How does the position of the wallet shift when phone functionality includes a variety of payment options? And from a security stand point - assuming someone was trying to scan/hack what is on your phone or in your wallet, how does the method of attack and likelyhood of success change according to these shifts in behaviour?
Related: Where people carry phones and why.
Writing from Queenstown | September 6, 2007 | Permalink
While (You) Wait
While who waits? What scope for a place mat that provides personalised information depending on whom is sitting at the table? Indeed, what role for place mats in a world where the 'controlled' decomposition of food is measured in seconds not hours or days?
Writing from Queenstown | September 5, 2007 | Permalink
Local vs. National News Ratio Norms
And whether it matters in a world with content on demand.
Today's breakfast involves feeding quarters into newspaper vending machines and scanning the local press.
Writing from Queenstown | September 4, 2007 | Permalink
A String Waiting to Happen
Still not used to the extent to which person names are displayed in public spaces in the US of A. The cultural and contextual acceptability of displaying customer names, photos today, and in a world of words (and faces) can easily be turned into search strings, macros. Oh the opportunity.
And then the reaction to the opportunity.
Related: the public posting of death notices in Chalus, Iran.
Writing from Baltimore | | Permalink
Today's Office
Airport - Airplane - Airport - Airplane - Airport - Hire Car - Hotel.
Half-way there, half-way home.
Writing from Baltimore | | Permalink
Flush
Writing from Baltimore | | Permalink
Btn Stncl
Writing from Baltimore | | Permalink
Define Flexible
Writing from Baltimore | | Permalink
PK #45
Tokyo based readers may be interested in an upcoming presentation drawing on research-lite that will weave together: the packaging of libido enhancers from street markets in China; how humans rationalise buying fakes; and the implications for anyone doing service design. The where? Pecha Kucha 45 @ Tokyo SuperDuluxe. The when? September 10th.
Writing from Chicago | | Permalink
Clustering, Sorting, Obscuring
The extent that humans cluster objects below a certain size and of a similar purpose; the means of personalisation. Given that these are house keys and this is in the UK where breaking and entering is not uncommon - to what extent will the owner want to disguise which key belongs to which property? Move all this over into the digital domain where links are that much more apparent - how will the owner of the keys create sufficiently obscure references that mentally link the key with the corresponding key hole?
Related: personal cultural radar.
Writing from Brighton | September 3, 2007 | Permalink
Acceptable Boundaries of Change
How does our appreciation and the 'value' of colour coordination change when objects and surfaces that can change colour, shape or texture? In what contexts will the door owner wish to maintain a blue door? What are the advantages to temporarily changing it to something else? Given the role of shapes and colours in helping us orientate the world around us, to what extent will extreme shifts in either be governed by local laws? How will the scale of acceptable shifts differ according the culture? Or neighbourhood? This is door is located in the North Laines Conservation Area - with its own rules for acceptable changes.
Related: cultural sense of scale from the security guard strike in South Africa.
Writing from Brighton | | Permalink
Height Required
Notions of what makes a viable climbing wall.
Writing from Baltimore | | Permalink
Signs For, Against
Smoking has recently been banned from pubs in the UK - a disruption leading to desired new behaviours - people move outside to smoke/have less opportunity to smoke, and externalities - people take their drink when they go outside to smoke - creating a licencing headache for the pub owner and a literal headache for the neighbours.
And the gent? A non-smoker following his smokin' mates outside the pub.
Writing from Brighton | September 2, 2007 | Permalink
Behaviours Encouraging Behaviours
Related: the future of reflective toilet moments in Tokyo; supporting different modes of use in Taipei and the consequences of walking through the wrong toilet door in Iran.
Writing from Brighton | | Permalink
Sshit
Writing from Brighton | | Permalink
Yes It Is
Writing from Brighton | September 1, 2007 | Permalink
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