Uzbekistan Archives
Positioning & Time Keeping
Dec 21, 2007
There is but one time in China - 8am is, well, 8am from Beijing to Urumqi and beyond. despite spanning the geographic equivalent of several time zones. The net result in a city such as Urumqi lives to form of dual time keeping - state-run organisations such as train stations, airports, and post offices run on the official time, whilst retail outlets, restaurants and pretty much everything else is in tune to local daylight hours.
For interface designers: whether and how to support official and unofficial times?
Other ways that people tweak time? The relatively common practice of trying to 'buy time' by setting one’s watch or alarm clock a few minutes ahead of the actual time; inter-city drivers trying to talk up the time it takes to travel between two points to talk up an all inclusive fare; setting meeting’s ahead of time to account for late arriver's.
It will be interested to see how the widespread availability of personal positioning data will affect the future perfect of time keeping - you’ll know it takes 12 hours to travel by taxi from Ashgabat and Bukhara because you draw on the last ten years of automatically logged data against current local weather and road conditions supplied by the driver and negotiate accordingly. In a world of published accurate positioning we’re all bit players of a giant time and motion study. Opportunities, opportunities. But for whom?
Tashkent today, Seoul tomorrow, then home. The stuff that makes us tick, eh?
Photos of the ever changing Urumqi skyline, above
Moments of Truth
Dec 21, 2007
Feedback form, Tashkent Palace Hotel.
Eau de Toilette Naming Conventions
Dec 21, 2007
What’s in a name?
These Uzbekistan Eau de Toilette names drawn from popular male mythology Mafia Don, Super Cosa Nostra; Big Boss; Super King; Secret Service; the Matrix; status objects Mercedes; Pure Cigar; Euro (but no US Dollar - how the mighty have fallen); and eclectic 2Bone that I’m pretty sure is pronounced two be one rather than to bone, although you never know; and the delightfully named Walking Barry.
Of note: apart from a token nod to the French with Parfum D’or, Marquis all names are English. Nothing in Uzbek/Russian/Tajik.
Simple Pleasures
Dec 15, 2007
Walking the final few meters towards the Uzbekistan side of the border I was pulled aside by a weathered Tajikistan criminal detective and questioned. His gentle English lilt was friendly but if, like me you have a love/hate relationship with fractured border crossings it was a conversation I’d preferred to avoid. After ten minutes of reiterating itineraries he nodded past his countries border. Elation. So much emotion tied into such a simple gesture: the nod.
That moment when you walk into or out of a space when you scan the room identify a person in it and, eyes remaining on the recipient momentarily lift your head. You probably take it for granted but in that split second you’ve reaffirmed their existence, carefully negotiated your right to be in that space, and created a ready platform for further communication if required.
When it’s done right, a positive response to the nod is one of life’s reassuring comforts. You nod. I am.
There are numerous variants to the nod. Whilst seldom taken as derogative, if your presence implies effort on behalf of the recipient the response is likely to be a slower, more drawn out weary nod. If your presence is unexpected a surprised recipient may respond with a reflex nod an action that can leave both parties feeling a bit dirty - like walking in on someone in a restaurant bathroom just as they are rising from the toilet seat (sorry whomever you are, use the lock next time). The directional nod is both an acknowledgment of presence and, depending what the head and eyes do next, provides clues as what to do or where to go next. The art of nodding is obviously something they teach at dive-bar school, since it's the favoured non-verbal communication of dive-bartenders the world over. In fact given high standard of nodding encountered on my travels its surprising that nodding classes are not formally taught the world over. You do need to remain aware of cultural differences, for example the Japanese enjoy a variant of the nod that is part nod part bow. But yes, a nod can cut through the sound of busy Tashkent night club, and create a bond with the other person queuing for a discounted XBox on Oxford Street.
As with most important things in life, timing is everything. Nod too early and the recipient won’t have time take in your presence leading to the aforementioned reflex response, nod too late and people will assume you have the social skills of a horny rhino. Nod when you arrive, when new people arrive, consider it for when you leave.
Related: the practice amongst younger males of sizing someone up by their footwear choices.
The Joy of (Soviet Era) UI
Dec 11, 2007
Wedding Rituals
Dec 09, 2007
Petrol Station, Simplified
Dec 09, 2007
Common enough practice in countries with high numbers of motorbikes such as in Vietnam though not too much cross-cultural variation in how the product is displayed.
A Justifiable Fear
Dec 09, 2007
Unpopular/popular culture when taken out of context.
An Appetite Whet
Dec 09, 2007
The restaurant owner is welcoming and her eyes to the only remaining empty table in a room that has few.
In front of me three generations of the owner’s family have occupied the bulk of the seats and they’re ordering liberally. During the course of the evening the youngest daughters skip to and fro between the family meal and an impromptu sewing circle situated across the room. Screens have been set up to offer two of the tables a degree of privacy - positioned to restrict their line-of-sight to a television placed at the edge of a kitchen counter and beyond that to the working kitchen. With minimal local programming and music concert DVDs in such ready supply DVD-TV is the ambient background to everyday life - fulfilling a role that for many was previously played by radio. The TV shows a tastefully bleach blonde lady crooning to an live audience of thousands - a genre that my de-calibrated cultural radar places somewhere between the Bermuda triangle of Sayed Makawi and Nusfat Ali Khan and Samantha Fox. On the only remaining table three heavyset gents still wearing their leather overcoats and bushy hats have polished off the main course and have moved onto a 40% proof dessert.
As the owner passes the menu her smile literally lights up the room - reflections from a mouth lined with enough gold teeth to simultaneously impress a possie of south central homeboys and the guests of a upscale Dharavi wedding - not that you're ever likely to find either group in same place at the same time. There only needs to be a slight overlap of understanding for the end result to look the same, even if the cultural relevance and the path to the end result is radically different.
My spoken Uzbek is basic and my ability to read the Cyrillic menu non-existent. She points, I nod and over time the food arrives. The menu reminds me of the challenges of localisation. It’s just a matter of translation, right? Except that language is highly political - as part of the process of re-asserting its Uz-ness Uzbekistan is moving away from (Russian) Cyrillic and returning to a roman script. The languages that are supported in your product are a reflection of where your brand sits in the ever changing political landscape and not all cultures and national boundaries are as stable as yours.
Goulash with wild rice and coriander arrives. There’s nothing like crossing a desert to whet the appetite, especially when the road conditions are less than stellar and you’ve spent a good part of the day nervously aquaplaning towards oncoming traffic. An early start to the day and the monotony of the engine induce a desire to doze but this is more than offset by the psychological need to keep one eye on the road. And what a road - Khiva to Bukhara skirts the Turkmenistan border before slicing through the Kyzylkum Desert. The really eager can continue their 'plane beyond Bukhara to the Friendship Bridge that crosses into Afghanistan before hitting Mazar-e-Sharif. A journey for another day perhaps.
An elderly holy man enters the restaurant, hobbling from table to table arm outstretched for alms. A small denomination note is handed to him by one person from each of the tables, somehow fulfilling the social contract that says its OK for one person to give on behalf of others. What’s the difference between too much and not enough? I’d like to think that somewhere there’s a social networking site that has mastered the subtleties of this kind of giving, but in the current land grab I doubt it.
Enough writing for today - time to accept the invitation of dessert.
And Monocle has a lite reportage of Tajikistan.
Edible Mobile
Dec 08, 2007
Based on the design of the 1100 no less. From a local Bukhara grocery store.
Freshness
Dec 08, 2007
The extent to which the freshness of a product can be communicated by revealing what's below the surface. The extent to which the process of revealing, speeds up the decaying process.
Kind of similar - the motivations of early-adopters to adopt something new, becomes the reason for the same people to reject that same thing later on.
Display Norms
Dec 08, 2007
A multitude of parked cars with their boot's open in this Khiva marketplace - each one filled with still-flippin' fresh fish.
Things That Go Together
Dec 08, 2007
Cigarettes and seeds are often sold together here in Uzbekistan. Both dry goods, and both where consumption is highly ritualised.
The desire for designers/marketing to create goods and services that become so ingrained in our everyday practices that they become, well, everyday rituals. The positive and negative aspects of those rituals.
Airport Sushi
Dec 07, 2007
Slice of baguette, margarine and ikura served up in the domestic departure lounge. Breakfast by any other name.
Fairground Chair Railing Colour Norms
Dec 06, 2007
Uzbekistan seems to have a distinct colour palette. That, and an omnipresence of fairgrounds.
Particularly Fibered Glass
Dec 06, 2007
Textures of a Taxi
Dec 05, 2007
Hand sewn flooring, and not a carpet in sight.
Recycling Detail, Value
Dec 05, 2007
Knowing exactly what can be recycled and its value - different types of bottles hung on the shutters of a recycling shop.
Biggest Mistakes
Dec 04, 2007
Make it through immigration with communication reduced to a nod of the head and a surly smile. The first words directed at me after disembarking are from a customs officer staring intently at two properly-hopefully completed declarations forms “you just made the biggest mistake of your life”.
Followed by a smile. A typo corrected. Welcome to Uzbekistan.
Long haul, customs and humour don't mix well.
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