A City Pool & Sauna
Key ring board for Helsinki's Yrjonkatu swimming pool and sauna includes a minature clocks to mark the entry time for each pool goer - anyone staying longer than the one and half hours is charged extra. Or at least they were - the practice of limiting the customer time in the pool hasn't been used since the 90's. The board serves multiple purposes. The number of missing keyrings provides a visual snapshot of how many people are currently in the building. And because each key relates to a specific locker it is possible for the attendant to 'partner up' pool goers to have neighbouring lockers, increasing the likelyhood of social interaction or in the case of males on the prowl, something more. Unlikely? On men only night? Yeah right.
Last year we interviewed a Brighton cafe worker to understand the role of the cafe played in the community. In effect they used long tables with shared seating and strategic placement of incoming customers to encourage social interaction, though whether it worked or not is another matter. The extent to which customer default preferences and automation limit serendipity - chance or weighted-serendipity - the stuff that seems like chance, but ultimately is part of someone else's match-making plans (like making a bet on weighted dice). Seating on planes, trains classrooms and in shared taxis. One of the perks of the (bored) job.
Tangent of the day: contexts in which access to resources whether bandwidth, seating, expertise or a safe space to rest is is retro-actively limited, or when limited access is opened up. The role of technology in making more efficient use of previously allocated resources and the extent to which we adjust to that efficiency simply by consuming more.
And the pool & sauna? Four Euro twenty buys you entry, goggles recommended, use of swimming costume optional. As you leave, the brisk Helsinki winter air threatens the undried head.
Writing from Helsinki | February 14, 2007 | Permalink
From Noise to Signal
Someone somewhere values that niche thing you know so much about, enough enough for a friend to ask a friend to buy a book in London and bring it to Helsinki. This issue of understanding what has value echoes a challenge we face during field studies: given that the value of what is recorded is often apparent after returning from the field how do you know what to document?
The answer is a valid reason for doing at least some of this kind of research in-house. When you out-source qualitative research the subcontractor is paid to present signals and filter out noise. But some of that noise does in fact have value, it just doesn't have value at the time of the report writing, or is not apparent to the report writers. Recording all photo/video/metadata is both impractical - too much data processing, boring - a trained monkey could do it, and morally dubious - how to protect the privacy of the people who feature in your data collection?
Writing from Helsinki | November 14, 2006 | Permalink
Snow Falling on Asphalt
In the Helsinki mothership today followed by the World Wireless Research Forum in Heidelberg for the rest of the week.
And the photos? Light snow flurries atop of Helsinki's Hotel Torni.
Writing from Helsinki | November 13, 2006 | Permalink
Connecting the Unconnected
Earlier this week I attended the Nokia Technology Media Briefing in Helsinki. I recommend Bob Iannucci's talk entitled Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow [1MB] and the accompanying podcast - he's a eloquent speaker. The second slide of his presentation highlights how far the telephone industry has come shows how far we still have to go to offer a simple, enjoyable user experience.
My contribution to the event? A presentation entitled Connecting the Unconnected [2MB] that introduced some of the field research methods we've been using; points to why pretty much everyone on the planet can appreciate the benefits of having access to a mobile telephone (personal, convenient synchronous and asynchronous communication, um, naturally) and introduces findings from a recent field study in Uganda and Indonesia into Shared Phone use. I'll expand on couple of points of the presentation in the coming weeks - in particular the practice of pooling resources to buy air time; the on-foot delivery of messages sent to phone kiosks - something that we've termed step messaging; and my personal favourite sente - the informal practice of sending money as airtime that effectively enables the owner of a mobile phone to offer basic ATM services (slides 37 to 40). All examples of innovation through necessity.
I'll post an annotated version of the presentation here at some point.
Visits to the Espoo mothership are always a chance to reconnect the remotely connected - spend face time with internal research clients, in-depth discussions on the implications of field studies and an opportunity to working out where next to focus our efforts. It's fair to say 2007 is lining up to be an interesting year, not that we've been sitting on our hands in '06. The speed at which research turns to actions shouldn't surprise me but it does - all credit to the development teams that make it happen.
Tomorrow I'll be waking up to the sound of Cairo, the exploratory research team rolls on.
Writing from Helsinki | October 5, 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 | September 21, 2006 | 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
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 | | Comments (0) | 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 | Comments (0) | 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 | Comments (0) | 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 | | Comments (0) | Permalink
Activities Watched
Writing from Helsinki | September 11, 2006 | Comments (0) | 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
Study Prep
All day workshop to figure out what to focus on in an upcoming concept validation study. Someone was thoughtful enough to bring sweets from China and in the course of a few hours we work through the different flavours. Everyone has something to show and tell and share. Package turns up and are opened and artifacts from far away are passed around the room. (How) can such simple objects excite and inspire?
The project team is preparing for the study from home bases in Tokyo, Helsinki, Beijing, Hyderabad & Calabasas and if it all goes to plan, meeting in 6 weeks time at the research site. Mutual understanding and common goals should make working at a distance a minor inconvenience. The questions to ask is whether there is sufficient mutual understanding and common goals?
Writing from Helsinki | February 14, 2006 | Permalink
Passing Through
This afternoon's desk is in a cafe situated in Oulu airport departures hall. It is slowly filling up with waiting passengers, and most people have chosen seats clustered within viewing distance of a moderately sized plasma screen. The winter Olympics are on and the pace and flow of commentary to the events is well suited to ambient viewing - first snowboarding, then skiing, then curling. The curling is strangely hypnotic and so devoid of stress, that I wonder about its uses in therapy. A short list of departures and arrivals is displayed on two chunky TV screens situated to the right of the plasma display so that an eager passenger wishing to track the Finnish Olympic team and current flights status information can do so with a minimum of eye movement.
To call this building a departures hall is stretching it a little - the space is small and doubles up for arrivals and everything else an airport has to offer. Flights within Finland are generally a pleasant experience and the atmosphere is muted and calm. Outside is crispy white, below freezing. Almost everyone here appears to be traveling alone.
Yesterday's flight to Oulu left Helsinki at one minute to midnight. Would more or less people book this flight than one that departs the next day a mere two minutes later? How important is the departure time in deciding what flight/bus/coach to book? (How) do transport companies massage the departure times e.g. consistently leave later than scheduled to account for this? And how does the relative importance of timing change depending on the user's context?
Remembering that the departure gate for JAL flights from Hokkaido's Chitose Airport to Tokyo Narita passengers can purchase train tickets for use in Tokyo before they depart. A simple example of understanding the flow of tasks of their users, co-ordination and the will-power to make it happen.
Writing from Oulu | February 13, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Everything Not Quite There
Flight arrives in Oulu 1:15am Monday.
Luggage is in Helsinki (probably).
Long queue for transport to get somewhere warm.
Sub-zero conditions.
No taxis to be seen.
Welcome to Oulu.
Writing from Oulu | | Permalink
Toungue / Key
The human ability to see faces in everyday objects is well documented. Admittedly this is a little Domokunesque, but face-like none the less. I wonder to what extent this was the result of deliberate design choices? The red of the key makes it a target for grabbing, but could be interpreted as a toungue. Can the design of the keys be stretched into themed toungues?
Most of the hotel room keys in Finland I've come across have been VingCards - plastic, durable, boring. After 3 weeks on the road its pleasant to carry something more natural in my back pocket, even if it is only veneer.
Writing from Tampere | September 1, 2005 | Permalink
Browse the Future Perfect archives by date or keyword