Cost Optimisation
When the plane touches down theres usually one or two travellers who take off the battery cover, pop out the SIM card and replace it with a SIM from the local carrier. In wealthier markets to what extent will reductions in roaming charges reduce the practice of SIM card swapping? For more price sensitive consumers - whether students in Helsinki or increasingly the bulk of consumers in emerging markets what cost differential is sufficient to maintain multiple SIM cards?
Photo from a study in Brazil last year.
Writing from Tokyo | February 13, 2007 | Permalink
Demarkation of Segregation
Physical barrier on a Kobrasol bus deliniating who has paid and who has not, in the above photos. Male only queue for a Tehran bus in photos below - the female only queue was for the back half of the bus, and yes with equal number of seats in both halves.
At what part of the (service) process to sort/filter/segregate? Motivation for segregation? Implications of segregation on the objects/people being segregated?
Writing from Tokyo | November 9, 2006 | Permalink
Clues to Where People Sit
From a jetlag induced early morning street walk through Brazil's Kobrasol.
Writing from Tokyo | September 8, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Features That Make a Service
A photo processing shop owner leans into a photo booth to adjust a customer's poise before taking a ID card photo.
A photo booth without an in built camera seems counter-intuitive but that's simply a lack of imagination on our behalf. The physical presence of the booth signals to customers what service is on offer; it re-enforces the idea of a minimum level of quality (though naturally this will depend on the camera that is used to take the actual photo); the proprietor can easily upgrade the camera; and the camera can be used in other contexts not just for taking ID card photos.
In some ways this shop is ahead of its time - it enables a setting for customers to use their own widely available tools to create. There's no evidence that this happens here, but with the widespread adoption of personal content creation tools I consider it only a matter of time - todays high end cameras will be tomorrow's mass market both in terms of perception of image quality and after effects that are possible. Shop's like this will still perform a valuable role in the creation process - a providing a suitable ambience, backdrop, props, printing and naturally guideance on poise, but many consumers will choose to utilise their own tools.
A photo booth without an in-built camera. Whatever next?
Related research from Fujian Province, Lhasa and New Orleans.
Writing from Sé | July 23, 2006 | Permalink
When Legacy Works
A photo processing shop utilising the same bag-like form for processing digital prints as for physical films. The digital prints are stored on a computer but the final prints are delivered using the same 'infrastructure'. There may well be a better way, but the process is understood by both consumers and shop workers.
Writing from Kobrasol | July 19, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Bench
The permanence of different forms of advertising media.
Writing from Kobrasol, back of | | Permalink
Traces of Enjoyment
Car parking lot on the beach front close to Kobrasol. Wanted to check out the Brazillian custom car culture up close but the weather and sleep patterns have made it one research topic too far.
Writing from Kobrasol, back of | | Comments (0) | Permalink
Early Mornings, Threatening Postures
The research team has decamped to the coastal town of Kobrasol and for me at least the jetlag is a chance to experience the city in the early hours. I quite like the extra time and space that is afforded by empty streets - documenting the details of infrastructure is often easier when there's no one around and the first light the dawn when it eventually arrives can be truly beautiful to behold.
But there's a flipside to walking the streets at night - some cultures are safer than others. In Tokyo you can go anywhere at any time no problem. Kampala has a lot of guns but they are mostly for show. Here in Brazil our interview participants have already touched upon murders, muggings and a first-person account of a kidnapping. The local architecture is all about the perception of security and people's carrying styles and behaviours reflect a very real threat on the streets.
During intensive data collection sessions it's common to keep the camera in the hand to reduce the time it takes to set up and shoot. To minimize the effect that a visible camera has on people the camera is usually held out of sight - at arms length tucked behind a leg, but even if its in a bag the fingers is on a trigger. Here in Kobrasol and during the early hours the camera handling rules are changed - the camera either needs to be kept out of sight 'I don't have anything of value', untouched 'I'm not holding a concealed weapon' or obvious and in plain sight 'I'm taking a photo'.
At 4am it's socially acceptable to step off the pavement to give someone a 2 meter clearance as they walk by. Keep your hands in plain view and walk on.
Writing from Kobrasol | July 16, 2006 | Comments (3) | Permalink
Wrap, Dry
Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink
Wrap, Own
By default beer bottles are served in a plastic wrapping adorned with advertising.
For all the effort that goes into presenting products or information in a particular way, what is required to take visual, mental ownership?
Writing from Kobrasol | | Comments (2) | Permalink
Norms
Cuba libre served in the stands.
Writing from Kobrasol | July 15, 2006 | Permalink
The Power of Information & Misinformation
On the way to the stadium two way streets are funneled into one direction to cope with volume of traffic - signage and road markings delineating road rules overturned for an event geared around the football seasons. We are in Brazil after all. On the approach to the stadium hustlers try to sell tickets at prices you'll only be able to confirm are inflated only once you reach the end of the ticket queue. They have a business model based, from the user's perspective, on misinformation and scarcity. Today however it is raining, tickets are plentiful and there is no queue.
Access to price and availability information is the difference between success and failure for these ticket touts but parallels can be found everywhere, including handset and service design. It's no surprise that consumers who sign up for a monthly call plan that covers talk-time, messages and data like to make the most of what they have paid for. Without roll-over you lose what you don't use. But going over pre-set limits often results in disproportionate penalties. Teens and other highly price-sensitive users often make the most of their remaining time by lending or gifting remaining credit amongst their peer group. But for most consumers this level of micro-management takes too much effort.
But why is it too much effort? Accurate information is available and it's easy to present it in a format that users' understand. The answer is of course quite simple - when time is money, timely information is king.
The broader design questions are - who stands to gain from providing what information or misinformation to whom? How does the power of whom has timely access to information shift by the widespread availability of personal and convenient communication devices?
What services are enabled by that shift?
The score? Despite the body language of the crowd above, two-nil to the home team.
Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink
Knowing What is, What is Not
The clarity that comes from proximity. The extent to which filters are whole or are by-passable.
Writing from Kobrasol | | Permalink
Recognition
Writing from Kobrasol | July 14, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
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