Handan Archives
The Adoption Curve is Shifting
Nov 16, 2009
Short think-piece for an upcoming issue of the Asia Design Journal...
"As much as we might imagine our designs in the hands of our constituents and customers - ready to be touched and molded to the unique circumstances of their context, they arrive with a set of assumptions of use and acceptable boundaries of use.
The design landscape is rapidly changing: the speed at which the mainstream has adopted today's social networking tools; the connectivity of people and people and things and things - means that the question of whether to opt into using something is increasingly becoming one of whether to opt into or out of society. We often talk of technology amplifying existing behaviours - whether it's enabling us to remember more, shout further or run faster - but the designs that tap into the people and things we use and value are infused with social assumptions, including assumptions around adoption.
In a socially and anti-socially connected world how to innovate in such a way that keeps our constituents in control? Is it even possible? And how does this change the skills and role of a designer in bringing creations into the world?"
Photo? That be part of the design research in Handan that helped frame the Nokia netbook Booklet 3G.
Egg Colour Norms
Nov 14, 2009
For every colour an association - orange hard boiled eggs in Kabul above, and display norms from Handan below.
Small Wheels as Sign of Urban Development
Oct 17, 2009
When you start to see small wheels around the city: prams; trolleys; rollerblades, skateboards, ... it means that the city has sufficiently asphalted surfaces to be rolled across. A signifier of urban development?
Photo: Handan, China, but echoed throughout the middle kingdom.
More Space = More Tickets for NYC Talk
Sep 24, 2009
Due to popular demand the PSFK hosted Pattern Recognition NYC talk has moved to a larger venue. The lucky few can get hold of the tickets here.
Photos: Handan, obviously.
Data Portability
May 17, 2009
A customer of China Mobile (and a member of our Handan research crew) prints a receipt detailing each and every mobile phone transaction (above), and passenger of the Tokyo subway system printing a receipt (below) - more details here. Still a-ways to go before it's all manageable.
For every system: data trails; tangible artifacts, and increasingly data portability.
Sense of Scale
Aug 28, 2008
Petrol station in Handan above - with the very large truck just visible under the bottom right hand arch, and in Ho Chi Minh City below.
For every culture - a sense of scale.
OoO Notification Limbo
Aug 18, 2008
The emails that arrive in the work inbox during the time frame just prior to going on vacation but before setting an out of office reply. With everything else that needs to be done before leaving - there's no way to respond in person, but equally there's a deeply ingrained social compulsion to provide some kind of acknowledgment.
How the social boundaries of who is notified of what continues to blur: as work email goes increasingly mobile; as there are more ways to notify; as we build up an understanding of sufficiently trusted sources of notification information.
More on status updates here.
Accessories for Down Time
Jul 18, 2008
For a Beijing manual worker – a fan, packet of fags, mobile phone.
Surprisingly Vice
Jul 17, 2008
The Pass
Jul 17, 2008
In most cultures passing money through a wall with a single removed brick would be associated with the drug trade - but not here in Handan - merely a simpler way to communicate between the street service and the workshop.
Tree Hacks II
Jul 17, 2008
Like a self-indulgent DJ playing the same record over and over, and over - more photos of a Handan cable router/tree hacks street.
Finding Flow
Jul 17, 2008
With a week's worth of home and contextual visits under our belts and an ongoing exploration of the local ecosystem we've reached that point of turning design insights into something a little more tangible. Or maybe visual - our hardware wizards are still in LA thanks to a normally swiftly issued visa applied for in trying times (state Olympic paranoia) and the general tardiness of DHL. Team members are sorely missed.
It takes time to become sufficiently comfortable with data to be able to meld it into something useful, a mental process that needs to cross references previous studies, a wealth of analyst data and the task at hand. Working on a design task takes and creates a new kind of energy and our days start earlier and end much later. Just need enough energy to make it to the plane, two more days in the Tokyo office then off on an extended summer break. Sleep is underrated.
Photos? A colleague's last night in Handan before she heads back to Beijing so we roll around town looking for somewhere a little more upscale than the usual beer and street food - and settle upon the relative glitz of a KTV joint. The spiel inside is fairly scripted, including numerous attempts to sell up services - one of the benefits (or drawback's if that's your thing) of arriving as a mixed gender group is having an easy to articulate excuse when you leave. But frankly, with a business model that is all based on reading body language and the subtle art of human persuasion, a decor that's off the wall, Chinese pop on tap, and a VIP booth that include its own classic disco floor it's a highly recommended experience for design researchers and mere mortals alike.
Smog Filters
Jul 17, 2008
Late night taxi ride to try on the way to track down aberrant yoof behaviours - the smog that descends on the city at night combines with murky neon to create a constant filter to photos. Kinda wishing I'd lugged my large format camera gear.
What Price Luck? Avoiding Unluck?
Jul 17, 2008
Three categories of phone number for sale in this rural Hebei province mobile phone shop - low price/unlucky numbers, regular price/regular numbers and higher price lucky numbers. Only 10 yuan (1 Euro) separating the ecstatically lucky from the desperately unlucky.
The importance of having the right number in Tehran, Cairo (below), Mongolia and beyond
Fully Mobile
Jul 17, 2008
Fully mobile barber’s shop mounted on a bicycle – including an electric razor that was still buzzing hours after this photo was taken. Who’s the road warrior now?
Photos above from Beijing. See also: advertising skills for sale in Urumqi and mobile sex shops in Chengdu and Xiamen.
Activities, Poise
Jul 16, 2008
Design studio colleague Josephine re-listens to the audio recording from the previous night’s interview. There’s a particular kind of middle distance stare that comes from reflecting on spoken conversations – particularly when the audio quality and headphone quality is high. Still need to figure out the right format for publishing interview recordings.
Local Patterns
Jul 16, 2008
A strangely common pattern here - with about one bike saddle in 20 sporting the fluffy leopard look. Every culture has its tartan - with deep cultural significance. And every culture has a batch load of tat sold on the cheap.
India Mobile / China Mobile
Jul 16, 2008
One of the features of the phone market in Ahmedabad were the signs displaying 'China Mobile' - the local term for cheap Chinese made phones that may or may not last the year, and whose features - 'automatically convert what you say into a woman voice', may not actually, truly, definitely work as advertised.
Thought for tonight, before catching up on lost sleep, what is and where is India Mobile?
Walletable Menus
Jul 16, 2008
How to create a presence in people's pockets, and (this being China) the pockets of the people?
Inherent Properties / Separation
Jul 16, 2008
Handle head serving as a temporary storage space for to-be-recycled products.
Natural Router / Tree Hacks
Jul 15, 2008
Trees hacked to optimise the shade for pedestrians and vehicles - creates a natural space for routing phones lines and electricity cables.
Objects When Not in Use
Jul 15, 2008
10 minutes before the next interview is scheduled to start and the dumplings still haven't arrived.
Tha' Mouse
Jul 15, 2008
Obviously the design is a nod of the head to the Pixar / Jobs / Apple axis of love/evol.
And the only Apple logo cited on the whole trip.
Egged On / Serving Norms
Jul 15, 2008
Entering an Elevator as a Social Contract
Jul 15, 2008
Welcome mat spanning the entire floor of this Handan elevator. To what extent does walking on a welcome mat imply some form of social contract? How about walking through a door? Picking up an object? In a future world of digital identification and interactable objects - walking on a mat could initiate a legal contract.
The argument extrapolated for the handles on this Xiamen commuter ferry, and a thread on welcome mats here.
Bearings, Blagged
Jul 15, 2008
One upside to the building boom in China is the ease at which you can get access to skyscraper roof tops - with nary a security guard to stand in your way. For all the staring at maps and savnav data there's nothing like getting into the elements to find your bearings and take in a whiff of the city.
A thousand stories in every building.
Curtain, Raised
Jul 15, 2008
Store curtain made from a heavy recycled materials.
The Need to Manage Expectations
Jul 15, 2008
Handan is known locally as the 'earthquake city' not because of any recent seismic events but because there are so many building that have been torn with the intention of being rebuilt - it's impossible to drive down a street without seeing at least one rubble strewn compound, that sometimes fronts the whole street. How to keep the local community sufficiently abreast of the plans for change? Given the desire by people with information to manage what is shared, when and with whom - the role and benefits of fixed content, tangible media in a world of rapidly changing digital.
Brand Honesty at the Point of Sale
Jul 14, 2008
Conversation with a booth owner in the xxx electronics market in Handan – for 2GB thumb-nail drives
Her: “The Sony is a fake”
Her: “The PNY is real – take a look at the hologram”
The assumption that you’re going to test the product before leaving the store. After purchase…
Her: “The PNY has comes with three month warranty – bring it back if you are not happy”
A fuzzy line between this and the out and out fakes in Accra and Ahmedabad. For every market – the level of consumer trust, the retailer actions that enhance that level of trust.
Shrink Wrapped Happiness (at a cost)
Jul 14, 2008
A set of sterilised crockery and cutlery is included in the cost of the service in this Uighur restaurant. 1 Yuan (0.12 Euro) buys you bacterial satisfaction since you ask.
Not sure any other culture reaches the dizzy heights of South Korea when it comes to bacterial paranoia and technical solutions to sterilise but lets see how China marches forwards.
Postures of Use
Jul 14, 2008
And levels of engagement.
Room Options
Jul 14, 2008
The three star Jinan Hotel, our home for the coming week includes the deluxe suite, suite, single rooms, standard rooms, common rooms and rooms rented by the hour – the o’clock rooms. Their paying guests for the last option? Couples wanting a bit of short stay privacy and more often than not - the local skin trade and their Wangs.
The extent that pre-marital, extramarital and other liaisons are accepted, and more importantly articulated.
Slightly Hip Translation Mistakes
Jul 14, 2008
Bless em.
Journey’s By Train
Jul 10, 2008
Whilst the team has traveled across time zones to be here, in many ways our journey starts here in the hot bustling haze of today’s on the fly office - Beijing’s West Station. The last time I passed through these hallowed halls was wrapped up to the 11’s to board a train for a mid-winter jolly in Mongolia and if the allure then was to pause and reflect purpose now is to feel our way around the challenge of designing [redacted].
The train from Beijing to Handan takes four hours, time spent in the company of a mixture of working-under-the-sun country folk, city slickers, an dormitory’s worth of university students returning home for their summer vacation. Pleasantly there’s also a couple of teens who appearance I can only describe as chemo - a rawer, punk induced Chinese variant of emo. Making sense of the fashion here is a art-form that requires an understanding of local tastes, international fashion, and knowing what international brands are currently being manufactured locally – sooner or later it shows up on the streets and back alleys. Tip for the future? That little known brand called Made in China.
A last-minute switch to an earlier morning train means we have standing-only tickets although it turns out this is no barrier to taking a seat on the over-crowded train - so friendly are the locals to the strangers in their midst that the seats designed to take two cheeks are pushed to accommodate threes and fours. It’s time to ad-hoc the local nuances of train travel: the first challenge of the day is to turn a slightly suspicious captive audience in to a captivated audience. Let the games begin.
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