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Further, Faster
Today we're comfortable with the rapid dissemination of information and ideas from one side of the globe to the other. What's in Tokyo today can be in Tehran tomorrow and vice versa.
When physical things reach a certain size - being pocketable seems about right, their ability to be picked up and moved around increases considerably. All things being equal small objects much like ideas, travel further, travel faster. They are put into bags, pockets and inevitably are introduced to people in far off lands. And if those people in far off lands like and value them enough, the container ships follow.
Thoughts for today: Which of today's large objects are likely to minaturise to the point of of being pocketable? What features and functionality are you likely to find added to today's already-pocketable objects? What activities and consequent behaviours do these new features and products enable? Think adoption and adaptation of trends.
And the photos? Livestrong bracelets from Delhi (above) and Accra (below). Not given as an example of the adoption of Livestrong and everything it stands for, but rather an example of an object as a vehicle for personal decoration + fashion + status. Both, incidentally likely to be locally manufactured.
Objects below a certain size tend to be clustered (keys) and/or contained (credit cards). As pocketable objects continue to minaturise - what is the affect on their speed of distribution? The speed of adoption? The speed of trends?
Writing from Tokyo | January 30, 2008 | Permalink
Display Norms
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Three Out of Four
Three out of four wheels removed - the point at which its better to simply start over. From Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Writing from Tokyo | January 27, 2008 | Permalink
Behaviours Encouraged
Taxi drivers in Japan can work exceedingly long hours - and its not uncommon to find drivers asleep on the reclined seat, with the engine/heating/air-con idling hour after hour.
Writing from Tokyo | January 26, 2008 | Permalink
On Beeping & Being
Research from Microsoft Research India's Jonathan Donner that explores the practice of beeping - making intentional missed calls. The paper draws on field research from Rwanda in 2004, categorising three different types of beeping: call back beeps; pre-negotiated instrumental beeps; and relational beeps, and discusses the rules that define the what, why and how. Related publications here.
Reacting to prevelance of this informal practice carrier's such as MTN have introduced the Call Me service - where the user can send one of four pre-defined text message for free Please Call me, Can’t talk now. Please text me, I’ve missed you. Please call me! and It’s important. Please call me!. Given the myriad of ways that a beep can be interpreted which is a better, for whom and in what contexts?
Its probably more efficient for the carrier to send a pre-defined text message (small bits of asynchronous data) than to tie up an exchange trying to connect a call in real time (a synchronous connection), so this new service could be a win/win.
Our own research has come across forms of beeping from Helsinki teens to Indian housewives - typically, initially driven by a desire to save money. And neither is the practice restricted to telecommunications - one Chinese interviewee remembered when the default Chinese postal system was pay-on-delivery and the sender could include a short messages written on the outside of the letter. The receiver could read the message but reject the letter.
Thought for today: for every communication channel - what can be communicated for free? And on open hardware platforms whether this communication can be automatically translated into something more meaningful to the receiver? And how this affects the business model.
Photos: textures from our recent Ghana field study.
Writing from Tokyo | January 22, 2008 | Permalink
Opting Out, Opting In
Tokens at the check-out of a Tokyo supermarket - placing one in the basket indicates that the customer does not wish to have plastic bags placed in their basket as they clear the check-out. Opting out can add points to the customer's reward card.
What if tokens were used as an opt-in to request bags? Given that queuing customers can simply ask the cashier, and is in many cultures part of the check-out ritual - would the supermarket use tokens?
Bearing in mind the cost of bags are typically covered by the supermarket, to what extent would having a token introduce the idea of scarcity - and by doing so 'legitimise' the idea of paying money for something that was once 'free'? What other free (or intangible goods) could this apply to? And when the stack of tokens is depleted, does this imply that the goods are not longer available?
For the supermarket - the cost benefit of maintaining tokens versus the financial, environmental impact, and dealing with requests for bags when the cashier is dealing with the next customer?
Related: Bag design norms in Brazil supermarkets.
Writing from Sangenjaya | January 21, 2008 | Permalink
The Freshness of Contact Information II
The replacement cycle of sex-trade advertising in a public phone box in London. Compare to the Yellow Arrow sticker (previous entry) to what extent can we be sure that the contact information and the service it represents is still current? The design and contextual understanding that helps evaluate the 'freshness' of the advertising/links, in particular the frequency by which phone boxes are cleaned of fly-posted advertisements. The speed at which legal/authorised and illegal/unauthorised advertising is removed, and by whom? The opportunities that the differential in time creates, and for whom?
Related: phone box advertising norms in São Paulo, Bangkok and London, and the non-phone box advertising of sex services in Tokyo.
And after almost six weeks straight on the road safely back in Tokyo. Two weeks to get the body-clock into some sort of rhythm before it it all kicks off again.
Writing from Tokyo | January 20, 2008 | Permalink
The Freshness of Contact Information I
A sticker from yellowarrow.net on the Design Forum shop in Helsinki. Sending a text message to the code printed on the sticker retrieves information about that space that someone has posted to the yellowarrow site.
The notable aspect of this is not the crude geo-annotation of public spaces, but rather the developer's assumption that sufficient numbers of people would be willing to use this service to access user-generated opinions about that space, whilst knowing little or nothing about the individual who generated the link. Risk versus reward.
Unsurprisingly the yellowarrow site doesn't appear to have been updated since its launch in 2005.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Mobile Phone Recycling, Reuse
The New York Times published an article last weekend covering mobile phone repairing and recycling that touches on the the work of Collective Good and Green Phone in putting used phones into new hands. It's also worth mentioning the work of artist Chris Jordan's exhibition Running the Numbers which highlighting the estimated 426,000 phones retired in the USA every day.
To what extent do 'buy one get three free' offers increase the likelihood that the phone ends up in the bin sooner rather than later? It's free right, you can just get another one...
Related research on Repair Cultures here [PowerPoint, 4MB],
Writing from Helsinki | January 17, 2008 | Permalink
Squaring the Whole
The extent that you can de-code this advertisement. The extent that local Tajiks can do the same.
From the local press in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
Getting Away With X
Cigar stuffed into and blocking a cigarette-sized ashtray hole.
Equivalents: dumping personal rubbish in the convenience store bins - a common behaviour in Japan; storing large (movie) files on a network drive; driving with snow-chains on asphalt.
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
Acceptable Behaviours, Traces, Interpretations
Red dye from Mumbai above, blood from slaughtered sheep from Urumqi, below.
The traces/bi-products of activities, the social acceptability of those activities, the extent to which an activity is accurately identified. For example - mistaking dye for blood, or blood for dye.
Writing from Helsinki | January 15, 2008 | Permalink
Transitions, Modalities, Adoption Opportunities
A common feature in many Chinese cities is the heavy curtain found at the entrance of department stores and subways, shielding the interior against the bitter winter cold. Designs range from semi-transparent PVC strips, to heavy fabrics, sometimes including push/pull information as you would find on a door. Top three photos from Urumqi and the entrance to Tokyo Midtown below.
For interaction designers. In any given culture the characteristics of common transitions: whether no, one or two hands are needed to pass through; whether objects that are carried shift during the transition; the frequency with which the transitions occur; whether objects attached to clothing is at risk of damage or snagging; the risks associated with the transition such as bumping into someone on the other side; and whether tasks need to be put on hold during the transition?
Considering technology adoption: the cultural differences in the pros and cons of new technologies over the existing solution. For example? Users of Bluetooth headsets not having to interrupt a conversation to negotiate the curtain in a Chinese department store or the same for a US car driver exiting their vehicle. The latter example is particularly interesting because it marks a transition between a semi-private and a public space - creating an opportunity for behaviours that are acceptable in (semi) private (the car) to leak over into the public arena, with the task (talking to a remote person) being the bridge.
For every new product: activities that act as bridges between what is socially acceptable in one space, leaking over to another. Does the increased exposure result in a greater social acceptance?
There was a time when wearing a headphone in public was novel. Bluetooth headsets are a recent invention but with an evolution of styles, cost, and size they have become acceptable in a broad range of contexts. Are we likely to see an explosion of head mounted displays next?
Writing from Helsinki | January 13, 2008 | Permalink
Transitions
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
Transitions II
Writing from Helsinki | | Permalink
Taste Expectations Based on Colour, Texture
Writing from Helsinki | January 12, 2008 | Permalink
In the Name of the/a Father
What is revealed with new and widespread access to more granular data?
Guardian article about twins separated at birth, put up for adoption, who meet later in life unaware of their biological origins and marry. The money quote from Dr Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society at the University of Sheffield "about 3.5% of children are not their father's children, with the number rising to as much as 20% in socio-economically deprived areas."
With a rise in DNA testing - the increased likelihood that the paternally misled will discover their biological origins. The extent that increased awareness challenges/re-enforces social norms such as monogamy, marriage. The extent that the increased awareness affects males (who have taken it for granted they are the paternal father) vs females (who have an inkling that it might be otherwise). Extrapolate a generation's access to this data. Start backdating.
Writing from London | | Permalink
Speed of Change
For any thing associated with a spatial position, how to notify users/customers of a new location? In a world of rapidly duplicable products (think 3D copiers) and services the ability to redirect to multiple new locations. In a world where time is a negotiable variable, the ability to redirect to different moments in time.
Writing from Soho | January 10, 2008 | Permalink
Death Notice
Continuing on the death notices theme, from The Straits Times, Singapore.
Writing from Marble Arch | | Permalink
Death Notice Norms
Obituary posters on the streets of Accra - highlighting the deceased, name, nickname, age, extended family and chief mourners (above), and death notice from Chalus, Iran (below). Whether the information on the poster is, or needs to be accurate? 110 year old called to glory above.
What does the prioritisation of information that appears on these posters tell us about local values in Ghana? What information is missing compared to a similar notice in your own culture? You have these posters in your culture right?
Next time you have the opportunity to pick up a non-local newspaper check out the obits. Personal favourite: the contrast between the size of Chinese families in mainland China after the one child policy kicked in vs. the Chinese diaspora - its not uncommon to see 60+ names listed under the extended family of mourners.
Related: the cost differentiation between types of use in a Accra toilet - updated to reflect first hand experiences of one-time Accra resident Ethan
Writing from Tokyo | January 8, 2008 | Permalink
Thoughts & Action
The inner workings of the process revealed.
Vehicles typically share the road with pedestrians in the Tokyo suburbs - with fleshy humans separated from the metal beasts by little more than a white (or sometimes yellow or blue) line, much like the one above. For every country a geometry.
Related: blue and yellow lines to navigate Se station, Sao Paolo.
Heading to Europe today. Anyone with good furniture store recommendations for London & Helsinki - please ping me.
Writing from Shimo Kitazawa | | Permalink
More, Sustainable, Cities
Readers with an interest in exploring urban sustainability may want to visit Systems, Cities and Sustainable Mobility hosted by David Muyres et al at the Pasadena Arts Center. The program is here, and if you like what you see register here.
I’ll be presenting material from recent research in a slot titled Co-ordination in the Future Urban that will explore how just-in-time co-ordination of people, sensor rich objects and services will challenge today's notions of infrastructure, ownership, time and privacy. It's a journey that has led us to, and learn from communities in mega cities like Cairo, Chongqing and Tokyo and one that I fully expect to be shaped from conversations in Pasadena.
Photos of the rapidly changing skyline of Xiamen (above), the village-in-a-city living of Dharavi, Mumbai (below).
Writing from Tokyo | January 6, 2008 | Permalink
Younghee @ LIFT
Continuing on the theme of presentations - Tokyo design studio colleague Younghee Jung will be presenting at the LIFT Conference Geneva in early February. Her talk will include material about a method we've been exploring - setting up 'open studios' in communities like Dharavi and Jacarezihno.
The full conference program is here and registration here. Those of you with a penchant for fast descents will want to pack your mountain gear and sweet-talk one of the LIFT team to catching a train out to the slopes.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
(Short Term) Memory Aids
Ever been in a situation where your phone or laptop battery was about to die? What did you do next? A common strategy for the risk-averse is to make a hard copy backup of just enough information needed for the next tasks - an address, phone number, reference number.
And what if anything does this have to do with the poor quality key fob display (below) sold in an Urumqi market for a few Euro cents? It's a fairly typical don't-expect-it-too-last-too-long electronic gadget. It's also an unintentional precursor to a new class of object that you'll wonder how you did without, another small thing with a big future. The post-it or thumb drive of its time.
Take a display, preferably something persistent and with minimal power consumption, just enough resolution to display an address is enough to get started. Throw in a mechanism to synchronise data from your other connected stuff. The bill of materials is cheap. Sponsored versions where the default image is the advertising de jour, will be cheap enough to hand to a stranger.
Secondary and tertiary displays - optimised to support your (short term) memory. That account number you need to quote every time you call up tech support? Just where you want it. That appointment you're on your way to? Address and contact details automatically copied across. A trickle of pertinent information pulled from your life stream updating as your day evolves.
Related: charging from Soweto to Delhi to Tokyo.
Side note: Japanese mobile phone consumer's are more likely to pop into a convenience store if their battery dies - such is the benefit of having a power connector that is standardised across handsets - a phone feature defined by the operator for most products sold though its network.
Writing from Mishuku | January 4, 2008 | Permalink
Brand-Less
The practice of removing obvious traces of a brand from product to distance oneself from values it represents. Covered up Burton board, above.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Define Socially Acceptable
A sign-of-the-times moment from the Caravan Cafe - an upscale organic restaurant in the Tashkent suburbs: a lady walks in alone and sits at the only available table, perpendicular to my own. The two remaining tables in this cozy venue are occupied by couples having what most people would describe as romantic dinners.
Upon sitting, the lady immediately takes out her mobile phone, a RAZR variant and makes a relatively short call. Task completed she starts to play with her phone browses a number of songs and upon finding what she was looking for, plays it through the speakers. On full volume. Yes, a bit tinny, but on full blast it manages to drown out the restaurant's own sound system. Patrons shift on their seats, glance repeatedly over.
We've seen the growth of mobile phone boom boxing across the globe from Cairo to Helsinki to Shanghai (though admittedly not so much here in Japan where consideration for others often trumps one's own enjoyment). People using music to help define and strengthen their peer group, carving a space out of the urban environment.
Back to our lady. Is playing loud music at her table simply ostentatious see-what-a-fancy-phone-I-have projecting status? Or perhaps an extreme example of projecting personal values and identity through the choice of music? A defensive move using music to keep the single male on the other table at bay? Or she's simply having fun?
After ten minutes her friend arrives, she silences her phone and they disappear into snow storm outside. Let a thousand Radio Raheem's bloom.
Writing from Mishuku | January 3, 2008 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Squat Conversion
Squat toilet converted to sitting. Snodeck, Naeba.
Writing from Naeba | January 2, 2008 | Permalink
Storage vs Display Norms
Storage lockers for snowboards and skis in the Prince hotel Naeba above, and a display case in Entebbe, Uganda below.
Writing from Naeba | | Permalink
Meta Data Frames
Straight forward way to get meta data into people's photos - in Naeba - a popular ski/snowboarding resort close to Tokyo.
Writing from Naeba | | Permalink
Sign Symmetry
Writing from Naeba | | Permalink
Brand Extension
Miffy is widely used in advertising in Japan from banks to ski schools. Can't quite imagine Miffy on a snowboard.
Writing from Naeba | | Permalink
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