Predictability, Margins of Error, Quality of Life
Think about your daily commute - how accurately can you predict your time of arrival? To the minute? 5 minutes? Within an hour? And in what ways does being able to accurately predict where you will be when effect you and the people around you?
After graduating from college I lived for a number of years in Stoke Newington - a Williamsburgesque neighbourhood in north London made marginally more affordable by not being connected to the Underground network. Transport into central London meant getting on a bike or catching one of the iconic 73 Routemaster busses, with public transport putting the traveler at the mercy of road works and the then frequent IRA bomb scares*. A journey into town might take 35 minutes or then again an hour.
*For a number of years millions of UK citizens were affected IRA transport disruptions and in turn were forced to think about what their government was doing on their behalf outside the cosy confines of the ‘mainland’. In its own little way, changing the predictability of the daily commute bought the war in Northern Ireland home. Flyers in the US may well be experiences a similar pause for thought every time they take their shoes off going through TSA security.
Commuter travel in Tokyo is a very different story - public transport is both frequent and arrives on time (not that I'm unduly affected by it - its a city that is easy to get around on a bicycle). If a train is more than a couple of minutes late Japan Rail issues an apology and on arrival at the destination a queue may form at the station-master’s office to pick up an official late-note. Blaming public transport is not a viable excuse in Tokyo. Predictability encourages just-in-time behaviours and frees up time that can then be put to other uses. The flip side of this - not knowing the time of arrival puts the onus on travelers to maintain awareness of their current surroundings, keep abreast of the ongoing status of the transport as well as juggle destination related parameters - such as keeping colleagues or clients abreast of arrival times. If you have a job where being on time is a necessary component of functioning effectively then the ability to accurately predict where you will be when is also valued. Its a simple proposition - people tend to be willing to pay for stuff they value.
And yes the ability to successfully move millions of passengers, as in the photo of the Tokyo rush hour above, increases the flow of people to the point is literally and figuratively swept along by the crowd.
We are of course in the midst of significant shifts in the way we perceive time, location, and the world around us. Real time status updates are available from an ever wider variety of sources whether its knowing when a bus will arrive to parcel being delivered and yes, the mobile phone is playing an expanding role in supporting both micro-coordination and maintaining awareness of those things we, well, wish to maintain awareness of. Lateness is increasingly relative - when the people and things we coordinate with have sufficient awareness of your whereabouts they are more likely to mitigate the consequences of lateness by using the time for other valued pursuits. For some the concept of being late or early is a twentieth century notion.
But technology is far from neutral and affects us in different ways (the photo above is of a gender segregated queue for a bus in Tehran). What are the implications for being ‘late’ in business or social contexts? Or, bearing in mind societal stereotypes for way finding or map reading - what does it mean if as a woman you turn up late for a meeting compared to a man? Employers or employees? Brazilians or Germans? In the near near future your geo-location is just another parameter to decide to share with others.
Or at least that's the theory. Because many consumers won't fully appreciate what about their location is being shared and with whom - hidden behind deliberately opaque business models or poorly designed interfaces. Or quite simply they won't have a choice about whether to use the technology or not. Which is where the astute and empathic designer comes in - you have the power and with power comes responsibility.
Been playing around with Dopplr these past few days and whilst its too early to judge whether it will become a valued tool for the long distance traveler the signs are there: it requires minimal setup and ongoing maintenance to derive real value, and has a pleasantly neutral weather-forecast approach to informing members who is roughly where and when.
And why these photos from train stations around the world? The photo above is from Seoul Station taken during a study on Mobile TV early adopters [related essay]. Would-be passengers are relaxed and watching a sports event, trains and departure platforms have been announced well in advance of departure so they can switch their attention to other more leisurely activities. The photo below is of passengers in London's Waterloo Station, with only five minutes before the train is scheduled departure the platform has yet to be announced and fellow passengers spend their time intently staring at the screens.
Any (service) design students out there looking for a thesis project? Design a service utilizing mobile devices that helps passengers know where to be when. What would a station or an airport look like if everyone maintained an absolute awareness of their here-now, and there-next?
Writing from Heathrow | April 5, 2007 | Permalink
Mobile TV, Personal Experiences
Learn ten things you didn't know about Mobile TV in this essay.
A summary? Its all about a personal experiences; home use is surprisingly popular; watching is a small part of the whole; up to 4 people can view a mobile TV at the same time but the act of sharing changes what it means to be a phone; why accessories are a struggle; design content for changing user postures; immersion is possible but is it desireable?; interactive experiences require interaction which is difficult if the user is not holding the device; everything you wanted to know about very personal media consumption but were afraid to ask; and finally what, how and why people watch in secret.
You can download a new presentation on Mobile TV entitled Mobile TV, Personal Experiences here [4MB PowerPoint].
Want more? A paper co-authored with my colleagues Cui Yanqing and Younghee Jung (pictured in Seoul above) entitled Personal Television: A Qualitative Study of Mobile TV Users in South Korea can be downloaded here [0.2 MB PDF]. And the previously published presentation entitled An Anatomy of Mobile TV Use Cases can be downloaded from here [7MB, PowerPoint]
Related research as always, here.
Writing from Tokyo | November 20, 2006 | Permalink
Bacterial Paranoia And Device Handling
What are the cultural differences in attitudes towards cleanliness?
Some cultures have an inherently high awareness (or paranoia depending on your perspective) of bacteria and its perceived consequences. These photos are taken in carrier shops in Seoul, South Korea - where you can irradiate, air-brush, wipe and scent your phone.
How might this affect device usage? For starters: the extent to which devices are shared; where objects are placed when not used; the likelihood that a protective cover will be placed over a phone - all of which affect device interaction.
Related: cleaning swab for telephone in a Seattle hotel room.
Writing from Tokyo | | Permalink
Personal TV
A mobile phone user sits alone watching live baseball whilst sitting in Komazawa Koen, Tokyo.
One of the surprising findings of a recent research study we did in South Korea was the extent to which Mobile TV was used in the home. Given the competition in the home from large screens, good audio, high definition and known content why would anyone watch mobile TV in the home space?
Its turns out that people really value control over the watching experience. No need to negociate with other family members over control of the remote or control of the sofa. Curled up in bed with a hot cup of cocoa. Of course. Want to multi-task whilst you're instant messaging/downloading/doing homework? Why Not? Extrapolate this contol over the experience to contexts in and outside the home. The key benefit from Mobile TV is not mobility- very few people will watch whilst actively on the move - its that the experience is personal. Its time to start thinking about Personal TV.
Picked up in a recently published summary of Mobile TV research published by Dr Shani Orgad. Plus a few slides from the South Korea study can be downloaded from here with a full paper due once a suitable venue to publish is found.
In the big scheme of things does a more personal experience for you imply a more impersonal experience for the rest of us? Are your personal experiences socially connecting? Or do they cut you off from everyone except your media?
Writing from Heidelberg | November 13, 2006 | Permalink
Anatomy of Mobile TV Use Cases
The slides for yesterday's presentation on An Anatomy of Mobile TV Use Cases at the Annenberg Center for Communication can now be downloaded from here [7MB].
The presentation draws on a 2005 qualitative study into commercial S-DMB Mobile TV in Seoul, South Korea by Younghee Jung, Cui Yanqing and myself. These slides concentrate on only one aspect of the study - the three main use cases that were documented and explored - evening commuting, macro breaks and home use. Actually we uncovered a compelling fourth use case, but we'll wait until a full research paper is published before revealing what it is.
A summary? Researchers and designers often talk about use cases but to what extent do the details of the experience need to be communicated to the project team (and in what formats) in order for these scenarios to be useful? What are the elements of the experience that can make or break whether new services move beyond early adopters? The devil is in the details.
Thanks to Mizuto Ito for hosting and to HyeRyoung Ok for carrying the discussion.
Writing from Los Angeles | September 22, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
A Slightly More Universal Remote?
Photo of a remote controller taken in a room of a short-stay hotel in Seoul. It controls the TV, DVD, air conditioner and lights. Whilst people are prone to complain about having too many remote controls cluttering up the living room cramming everything on one remote controller is a far from optimal solution (though perhaps better in a hotel context).
Every so often someone pushes the mobile phone as a remote controller for anything from slide show presentations to toy cars and robots (via Bluetooth) to TV (via IR) to topping up parking meters (via SMS) to setting PVRs (via the net). By and large the mobile phone user interface offers a very poor and limited remote control experience - just about OK as an emergency backup but not something you want to use every day.
Which is why the Nintendo Revolution controller could be interesting. Take a generation of people who are adept at navigating and moving and thinking in 3D (though they most likely wouldn't describe it those terms), add the convenience of having a controller lying around and what do you have?
The real revolution may come from what happens away from the Revolution.
Thanks Younghee for the sunday Korean to English UI translation services.
Writing from Tokyo | March 11, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Sterile Environments
Sterilisation pad for phone handset. Some what surprising to find in the USA but similar bacteria killing tools common in Korea and to a lesser extent, China.
How much does this meet a need? And with which users will this create a need?
Writing from Seattle | March 2, 2006 | Comments (4) | Permalink
Out of the Box Experiences
The lady in the photo above on the subway in Seoul, South Korea. Her out of the box experience taking place standing in a moving carriage with harsh lighting and with limits on the amount of two-handed interaction (that this is her first experience is assumed - based on what she was carrying, her interaction with the packaging and the context - but I didn't actually speak with her).
Product designers and marketing departments often talk about the out of the box experience - that unique moment when the consumer first takes their product out of their packaging. The money has been paid and the benefits of owning the product have yet to be realised. The hopes "will I really be able to plug it into my TV?", fears "will it really do what I want it to do?", and aspirations "I'm gonna get fit and lead a healthy lifestyle now I have a Suunto heart monitor" going through the consumer's mind.
To what extent do out of the box experiences happen whilst out and about? On the bus, in the subway, sitting with mates in McDonalds? Is it possible to have multiple or layered out of the box experiences - one on the hoof and one later in the comfort of a home space? And how to design for this?
How will social trends and technologies change the dynamics of future the out of the box experiences? Enhancing the positives? Minimising the negatives?
Writing from Brighton | February 7, 2006 | Permalink
Drawing on User's Prior Experience?
Above, wireless ordering device from a restaurant in Beijing loosely based on mobile phone user interface. Below, push button fixed line phone spotted in Seoul adopts rotary dialler for key pad layout.
Lazy design or smart design?
Update: Reader Jeff Howards points to an article on the original AT&T TouchTone Keypad Layouts [PDF 632k]
Writing from Tokyo | January 18, 2006 | Permalink
Smart People, Dumb People
This person is smart. She owns a mobile phone and she's using public infrastructure to make a phone call. But why? A mobile phone lets her communicate when she likes, with whom she likes, from where she likes, pretty much how she likes (ok, as long as its voice call or text message).
Whilst the mobile phone offers the key benefits of personal, convenient, synchronous and asynchronous communication people often opt to use and will go out of their way to use public infrastructure because its simply cheaper. Some of you are reading this and thinking 'so what?' But if you work in the telecoms industry (which a number readers of this site do) you are likely to be out of touch with most people's reality. When is the last time you looked at your phone bill? Most people consider the cost of a call, of sending a message weighing up the pros and cons of the available alternatives. Economists call this utility maximisation. Utility maximisation is most obvious in highly price sensitive markets such as India, China and Mongolia (photo below shows privately operated public phone kiosk in Ulaan Bataar) but in the study of communication habits, you can find it in any part of the globe.
We found a subtler form of this behaviour in a study of public call offices (PCOs) and STD booths in India. A STD shop (photo below) is often made up of a couple of phones on the counter, with additional phone booths somewhere inside the establishment. The phone booths offer a higher degree of privacy and some form of seating yet in many cases customers opt to use the phones on the counter. Why? They are opting for convenience over privacy. Their conversations can be overheard, the noise from the street will flow into the conversation but it simply doesn't matter compared to the money that can be saved.
Lessons? Owning a device is not the same as use; carrying a device is not the same as understanding what it does; carrying a device will not necessarily lead to use; and when use occurs it will not necessarily be what you expect it to be. When a mobile phone is primarily used as a phone book to facilitate kiosk phone calls, how does this change the way the product should be designed?
And who are the dumb people in this equation? We are if we assume that people will not try to make the most of what they've got.
Writing from Tokyo | January 15, 2006 | Comments (4) | Permalink
The Power of Not Charging
Next to my desk at work I have a fine collection of photos of power sockets from homes and offices around the world - the result of rummaging around under desks, peering behind cabinets and following cables to their source. In user studies I'm always intrigued to see how people tackle the problem of keeping their mobile phone charged - after all a phone without power is largely useless as a tool for solving life's little emergencies, and above everything else this is the reason that people consider the phone a mobile essential.
It is possible that technologies such as bistable displays will means that devices will have functionality without power, but for now our daily/weekly rituals include remembering to charge, and once charged - remembering to take the object when next leaving home. But does it need to be this way?
In the near term usage patterns will change when the two or so hours it currently takes to charge your laptop/phone/iPod is shortened to 10 or 20 seconds. That's a sufficiently short time to be able to pause a conversation and top up power if it were applied to a communication device, for example using fuel cell or capacitive charging.
The challenge of keeping electrical devices powered up can be tackled from a number of different directions. It's possible to make a mobile phone which has sufficient power to last as long as the device itself. The obvious (but wrong) starting point is a massive battery/fuel cell pack - it would make the product impractical to carry and the consumer market impossibly small. The opposite approach has potential - shortening the lifetime of a mobile phone to last as long as today's battery life. This is not as far fetched as it may first seem considering use cases around mobile phones bought from vending machines, a method for storing personal data off the device, combined with a system for recycling and re-circulating 'used' products to new users. As with most tasks (except entertainment and bodily functions) delegation is another solution - simply delegate the act of remembering to charge a device to someone or something else. Asimo needs something to do whilst you're sleeping right?
Usage patterns are currently constrained (or in some ways anchored) by the need to leave a device in a fixed location for a length of time. As that length of time is drastically shortened, or indeed eliminated our current notions of how we charge objects will all seem rather quaint.
Writing from Shibuya, back of | January 12, 2006 | Comments (3) | Permalink
National Priorities
Every culture has an equivilent to this, its just a matter of figuring out what it is.
Above, Bird Flu street sign in Hue, Vietnam.
Below North Korean spy hotline on subway in Seoul, South Korea.
Writing from Hue | December 27, 2005 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Cleanliness (Not Godliness)
Not come across this kind of infrastructure outside Asia Pacific: public phone charging station in Chengdu airport includes a small sterilisation pad (just above the red cables, inside the machine). On my travels Seoul appears to be the world capital of cleanliness paranoia - mobile phones shops such as Phone & Fun and member's clubs such as TTL have cleaning stations where you can wipe down, air-blast and sterlise your mobile phone.
What cultural differences are there in attitudes to cleanliness? Practical differences like dealing with dirt, access to clean water, the affects of extreme humidity, dust, animals living on-site or diseases? How does the perception of cleanliness of an environment affect use of infrastructure or personal objects and devices?
And lastly, just because the infrastructure is there does not mean it is being used, is used effectively, is understood, or is on a practical level, necessary.
Writing from Tokyo | December 23, 2005 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Physical Manifestations
Print club stickers from Seoul.
What other spaces are adorned by the content they help create?
If you could embed additional information in each of these images what would you want to embed?
And vice versa - as someone coming across these photos what questions would you want answered?
What are the different needs between the user(s), the provider, and the consumer(s) of this information?
If these photos were all digital what would the service/space it look like?
Given that all this can be digital why isn't it?
Writing from Seoul | November 28, 2005 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Where People Carry Mobile Phones
Where do you carry your mobile phone? And how will this change if the phone were to adopt some of the functionality associated with other objects that you carry such as money and personal identity? (Both payment and ticketing are already available on handsets in Japan).
We've been conducting a series of studies to understand where people carry mobile phones and other mobile essentials. The original research was driven by a need to know to what extent people notice incoming communication and to what extent this was affected by where the device was carried. After all - the usefulness of a mobile phone is diminished if the user fails to notice that someone is calling. (For the record, we assume that the user wants control over whether or not to be notified in the first place - 24/7 connectivity is a discussion topic for later perhaps?) If you observe customers in a cafe for an hour one of the most frequent behaviours related to mobile phones, especially for women, is checking whether they have missed any incoming communication. User data on device location can support product designers for example helping them decide defaults speaker volume or lanyard placement.
My colleague Fumiko Ichikawa is today presenting the first fruit of this research in a paper entitled Where's the Phone - a Study of Mobile Phone Location in Public Spaces (download pdf) at the Mobility 2005 conference in Guangzhou, China. This paper draws on data from the first 3 studies - Helsinki, New York and Milan. Whilst I was not present in the original study in Helsinki I managed to take part in the follow-ups studies including cultures as diverse as the US, Italy, South Korea, Japan, China and India. In the future we'll be publishing data for these other cultures and explore the issues related to the full range of mobile essentials (the paper above focusses on the mobile phone).
Where people carry things today is interesting enough. The ultimate goal of this design research is to predict how the primary carrying location might change according to issues like new features and form factors. (New form factors will be enabled by technologlical advances such as minaturisation, flexible components or new charging methods). The fun part is figuring how this will collide with and influence future social and cultural trends.
And finally, if you're wondering whether I travel the world just to run these studies the answer is no - the team tends to run the street surveys in conjunction with more in-depth user studies that are already going on - its a good way to utilize assistant down time, meet hundreds of local mobile phone users and get a feel for a culture.
Writing from Tokyo | November 17, 2005 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Where To Stay When You Run a User Study
The location of where we stay on exploratory user studies can have a big impact on what we learn, the effectiveness of the team working together and being able to gather data we need to get. The preferred options are not as obvious as might first seem.
Pre-trip, one of the first tasks is to figure out what the optimum location will be to run user studies. If the study participants are likely to be traveling around by subway, in what part of the city are they located and where is a good axis point? Personally I prefer to be situated in a pedestrian-friendly location since it makes ad-hoc capturing of observational data that much easier. One method we use to find suitable ad-hoc study participants is to ride a bicycle around the city. Hotels usually allow bike parking near to the staff entrance and getting there is a good excuse to interact with and interview hotel staff members. (try and take a peek inside the security office if you get a chance - they are often located around the back of the building and security people can have interesting perspectives on human behaviour). From recent memory, the Hudson is particularly bike unfriendly.
Booking the flights my travel agent by default books a company recommended hotel usually located to be near to local company offices, airports or manufacturing sites and whilst comfortable are usually pretty lousy as a base for conducting user research (a pleasant exception is the Nikko Hotel here in San Francisco).
The research team tends to spend a lot of time coming and going from the hotel so the difference between a five minute walk and a 15 minute walk to where you do what you got to do - like breakfast meetings or other working space, can result in unproductive hour every day. Sometimes the walk time is good for gathering data, and getting a bit of exercise but I prefer to be given the choice of when and where. If you are hiring assistants paying their hotel even if they live in the city that you are researching has a number of benefits, not least of which is that they can sync and work to the rhythm of the rest of the research crew.
Wi-Fi and high speed internet access is not a necessity given the alternatives that are available, and I would argue that internet access is a distraction. One of the reasons for traveling to a location is to submerge ourselves in the local culture and going online to read up on what is happening back home can take you away from that mind-space.
On a recent road-trip study in the US $19.99 motels were fine for what essentially amounted to a decent night's sleep and a shower. Different rest stops have different demographics and are a possible source of ad-hoc participants.
Booking a suite in the major hotels or is usually cost effective - since longer studies require a space that can function as a mobile office. It's not uncommon for cleaning staff to be freaked out by furniture re-arranging and the removal of what ever was hanging on the walls to be replaced by maps of the city and participant profiles. The space afforded by a suite is good for generating a data wall as the study progresses. The data wall is useful for sharing incoming data with the team, highlighting particular aspects, and noting down and sharing ideas and concepts. I recommend the Canon i90 mobile printer with Bluetooth adapter - wireless printing saves a lot of hassle.
At this point you might be thinking that it's better to stay in the home of the study participants. We've done home stay its good for certain studies. However I wouldn't recommend entering into this arrangement lightly. It can be tricky when you factor in the modern moral, legal, ethical, professional requirements, the need be awake from before participants get up to after they go to bed. A colleague rightly reminded me that anthropologists have been living amongst the people they study for months or even years at a time - it's true, but I'm not sure they had to jump through the legal hoops we do. I once had to excuse myself from an overnight stay due a combination of the inability to stay awake (severe jetlag) and the home sleeping arrangements (guest-researchers get to sleep on the living room sofa). Even if you stay with participants, double book a hotel room - its useful for storing equipment and as an emergency backup for team members.
My final recommendation is to consider the short stay hotels if you are looking for a place for a couple of nights. They are often conveniently located next to stations, check-in is pared down to a bare minimum - great when you are tired, they often have an emphasis on good bathing facilities and they tend to be quite functional. In Korea I stayed in one for a couple of nights which included high-speed internet access - I'm not sure what the most likely use cases were but imagine it was to play Star Craft or something similar. Minor downsides to short stay hotels include no hanging space for clothes, dim lighting, can't walk around the building with recording equipment (the whole hotel is considered a private space), and can be noisy early mornings and at weekends. They don't come with breakfast. And because they are often cash businesses you have to remember to request a receipt. Processing the expense claim is fun.
I'm aware of the relative luxury of having these options and if it comes down to it - its possible to run user research by kipping on the floor of a friend (thanks SB).
Writing from San Francisco | November 7, 2005 | Comments (4) | Permalink
Surprise, Delight
Picked up a iRiver U10 on last trip to Korea. The purchasing experience in the iRiver shop was pretty good and included a demonstration by a knowledgeable member of staff. The device plays video (along with about a dozen other features), which is relatively easy proposition for consumers to understand. It is presented in an optional stand which for me had considerable 'come play with me' emotional pull, followed by delight in the way that the device ejected from the stand, and the puckered mammal face, above.
A few downsides on the out-of-the-box-experience. Everything in the package - cables, device, individual straps and even an 8 page manual came in a separate box within the box which was complete overkill. The boxes were desiged so it wasn't clear what was inside each one. The install CD design (just the design, not the software on it) was a complete rip of Apple iPod installer CD. And the box included a sticker informing the purchaser not to throw away the box without checking the bottom of the box packaging for a hidden pouch. Adding the pouch was clearly an afterthought followed by badly corrective design.
Writing from Seoul | November 1, 2005 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Side Effects of Transparency
Seoul central station has transparent waste bins.
I presume, like in Tokyo it is part of government 'anti-terrorist' measures. Any readers from South Korea know whether the bins in Seoul station have always been like this? Anyway, a side effect is it makes it easier to identify what categories of objects are recycled in which bin by seeing what others have thrown away. But it presumably makes it less likely to throw socially sensitive objects - such as personal correspondence, adult literature or things that should be recycled elsewhere.
Writing from Seoul | October 22, 2005 | Comments (3) | Permalink
Simple Pleasures II
This morning's office is a second story coffee shop - empty save for 5 clubbers sobering up after a night out in somewhere between Sinchon-dong and Hasu-dong. They're kicking back, shoes off, feet up on sofas smoking, texting, reading, chatting, Korean mixed with a smattering of English - maybe partly because I'm within earshot, but more likely because that's where the language is coming from. Resisted the temptation to ad-hoc interview.
During yesterday's contextual interview with a high school student the odd English word crept into his dialog - the end result sounds something like chatatahkaikakahtaikakathathaoakat multi-tasking ahataahhagikdkdiggtintgiadagfasdfoiasdfagoig. Appreciate the little things and the big picture takes care of itself.
Writing from Seoul | October 1, 2005 | Permalink
Momentum, Underground
Study is picking up pace - all the prep work is paying off. Finally spending some time on the streets and underground - Seoul is very much a city that moves by subway. It feels good to be surrounded by people - listening to, and adjusting footsteps to the local rhythm. I sometimes wonder what its like to follow our team for a day. We could be hustlers, pickpockets, undercover somethings maybe? Always trying to see things from a different angle. Getting ahead of people, falling behind, moving from carriage to carriage. Engaging, disengaging. A visit to the main railway station - signage and infrastructure noted. What is the real user experience of doing y? Did I really see what I think I saw? Double takes. And the occasional surprise when the footage is reviewed.
Yes it all looks good online and in the brochure - what would you expect? And the reality? The pre-home out of the box experience, the niggles, the set-up, the broken promises. We start with dumb questions (well they were smart in an earlier iteration). Progress is asking less dumb questions. And we still have a few days to move up the smart-question-scale, then our opportunity for asking is gone.
To be closer to collaboration partners staying in guesthouse rather than downtown hotel. Room comes with American Forces Network which appears to be aimed at 16 year olds. Oh - it is? Upside of staying here? After 3 days of an ear & throat infection, finally getting energy back. Tomorrow should start with a pre-breakfast hike to the summit of an admittedly modest hill for the local view of the Seoul skyline.
Writing from Seoul | September 29, 2005 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Shortening the path
Coffee cup includes search term on local search engine. Less to type and presumably easier to remember than a URL. Any other benefits, drawbacks? Apart from AOL Keywords haven't seen much keyword advertising - any other examples you can point me to?
Writing from Seoul | September 28, 2005 | Permalink
Sublime happiness
The person who takes you the last leg of the journey often turns into the first local subject of the day. Sit in the front of the taxi - I can't verbally communicate with the driver (my Korean is non-existent) but there's more to explore. When did glove boxes stop containing gloves? Is this an extended battery option, or a regular part of the design?
On arrival the hotel suite slowly turns into mission control. Don't need full sized fridge. Do need more table and wall hanging space. Do need 10 more power sockets to charge the equipment. And do need to set everything up before we head out for our first excursion in the city.
Happiness is a timezone close to home
Sublime happiness would be somewhere decent to swim/run in the morning.
Writing from Seoul | September 23, 2005 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Captive, wanting to be free
If there isn't a law about advertising to captive audiences there should be - one hour waiting to clear customs watching an endless loop of Samsung Mobile and Korea Tourist Board advertising. Perhaps this is what augmented reality could come in - overlaying advertising spots with white walls and calm? But if Samsung made the head mounted display that you used to augment reality would it have a built in non-filter to still allow Samsung adverts? Sometimes it all comes down to money and what the consumer is willing to pay, or not pay as the case may be.
Spending just over a week in Korea to run the first half of a user study, then tag with a colleague who will take over and debrief a week later. I know what I know, but have a day or so to figure out some of what I don't yet know. Takes a fair bit of energy to understand how to work in and gather appropriate data from a new environment. Where do people hang out? What are condusive environments for observing xyz? What will interest the folks back home? The primary study is all set to go, the side studies - typically the stuff that becomes the value-added will emerge after a few days. Value added can be anything from a blinder of an off-topic interview to stumbling on a sub-culture that intentionally or otherwise relates to stuff happening in other parts of the world. Joining up the global dots. One of my favourites side themes is asking about what people lose or leave behind in an environment, the implications of that loss and how they recover if at all.
Writing from Seoul | | Comments (1) | Permalink
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