Phone, PDA Customisation Norms
Nail shop in Bankgok that has extended its services at the bequest of customers to include customising mobile phones. Somewhat surprisingly PDAs also go for the bling treatment. And their design inspiration? Harajuku.
Writing from Tokyo | March 26, 2007 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Thai Nail Shop Norms
Writing from Tokyo | March 25, 2007 | Permalink
Colour Coordination
Colour coordination to the point that it feels like a theme park. Thai Air.
Writing from Bangkok | March 21, 2007 | Permalink
Rules, Exceptions
Height rules for travelling on Bangkok's Sky Train: 140cm or less - free only on children's day, 90cm or less - free everyday.
And the exceptions to the exceptions?
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Tips Over Time
Beads of a sap-like substance forming on the tips of wheat grass.
The crop is harvested once per week, and blended into a variety of drinks for the Glow cafe at the Bangkok Metropolitan. And if you happen to be in that part of town they also do a decent steamed fish soup with wild rice.
Writing from Bangkok | | Comments (1) | Permalink
Natural Glow
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Smoking Makes Your Teeth Go Bad
Mentally quite affective - the package design is simply not something you want to have lying around on a cafe table. But why stop there? Packaging with abrasive surfaces, increasingly unpleasant odors...
Thanks to our local guides, Nad & Yu for making our stay that much easier.
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Experiences Reconnected
The smell of Playdoh triggered strong childhood memories.
We're already heading down the trail of cradle-to-grave-rich-meta-data. How will information about your past experiences - be called upon to enhance elements of your next experience?
Whilst experience-data mining has the potential to be highly accurate, my guess is someone out there will find a way to apply that data in crude and, from the consumer's perspective ulimately unnecessary ways. Part of the 'value' derived from recalling this childhood Playdoh experience is that it's a rare occurance. What consideration will marketing company X have for the subtleties of your past memories?
Get ready for the truly invasive sensory equivalent of spam.
Writing from Bangkok | March 19, 2007 | Permalink
Status Brace
Fake or non-functional bejeweled braces bought by teenage girls from a street market in one of the poorer districts of Bangkok.
Whilst we didn't get an opportunity to ask any gem-grinning consumers about this product my assumption is that purchase motivation is driven by a mixture of decoration, experimentation, and status - showing off that one's parents can afford to pay for this kind of dental care. 39 Baht (0.9 Euro)
buys you a brace for upper or lower rows.
From a humidly sweaty night trying to understand the flow of a Bangkok street market.
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Texture, Colour Norms
Tokyo's subway above, Bangkok's Sky Train and the London Underground, below.
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Information Positioning
Taxi license plate posted on the left and right passenger doors supporting information recall. Related to the risk of forgetting and then having to retrieve belongings from the taxi, and perceptions of passenger safety?
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Humour Disconnected
Humour that requires translation is not humour.
Whether global connectivity enables a shared base understanding that makes humour, well, more universally humourous. Or whether it helps define the boundaries of whether you are in or out of [this] culture?
Writing from Bangkok | March 18, 2007 | Permalink
Brutal Walks
Event sponsorship and the sensorial touchpoints - in this instance funky tasting snacks in the hands of punters that become integrated into the experience, of Bangkok International Fashion Week.
Of note beyond the catwalk? Bouncing around in the media scrum and watching people watching people watch people. We slink in and my colleagues at least quietly, elegantly slink out.
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Shoe(less) Norms
As with Japan its common to take off your shoes entering a Thai apartment. A foowear behaviour extending into this workplace - a library worker pads around the stripped floor of the Thai Creative and Design Center building prior to opening.
Given that this is a space trodden by members of the shoes-wearing public to what extent does this behaviour assume that there hasn't been much shoes wearing traffic since it was last cleaned? (How) will her behaviour change as the building infrastructure and worn materials are incresingly able to gather information on the things they interact with? For example? - exactly who has walked where in this building, the type of footwear they were wearning, and the (bacterially tranmissive) stuff they have come in contact with prior to being here.
Who is motivated by what reasons to 'raise awareness' of the issue germ transmission in public spaces? (and then of course provide a 'solution' to meet the 'need'). And how might architects and urban planners redesign human flows through buildings to contain or affect the flow of the stuff we carry on the soles of our feet?
A full day of workshops with local designers, followed by a night conducting street research. For once I'm happy to not be out there during the midday heat (35 degrees yesterday) and happily bouncing off the creative energy of the team.
Writing from Bangkok | March 17, 2007 | Permalink
Respect For, Sponsored By
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Thai Sticker Graph
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Street Freshness Norms
Juices are all freshly squeezed, whereas condensed milk for a street cappuccino (using however freshly ground beans).
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Bike Brands We Know & Love
Writing from Bangkok | | Permalink
Stinkin' Links
Touch down Bangkok. Today's driver is straight out of, well, Taxi - gloved hands wrapped around a steering wheel with enough ribbed rubber grip to be subliminal advertising for a major brand of condoms, and a spoiler to that never gets a chance to, well, spoil. A fast set of wheels is largely cosmetic in a city with one to many traffic cops and legendary traffic jams.
Ah yes, stinkin' links? The TED presentations are now correctly linked (thanks Tom) as PowerPoint or PDF [4MB]
Adrenaline does strange things to people, apparently.
Writing from Bangkok | March 16, 2007 | Permalink
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