remarkable

Collection of thoughts about research, design and something else.

[alessandracanella]

This is an unprecedented study which combines UK and US data to investigate the relationship between design skills and economic outcomes, focusing explicitly on productivity and innovation. It finds that where design skills are used, they contribute significantly to the wealth of the nation, greater productivity and more innovation. But it also provides a stark warning about the potential impact of underinvesting in these skills, and the need to better prepare for the economic, technological and political changes ahead.

[alessandracanella]

To make this kind of transformation happen you need people at the top who understand that it’s not just about doing better digital projects, adopting the latest new technology, having a Twitter account or even automating your existing business processes or bringing in some technical experts. It’s about completely changing the way you think and work as a leader, and the way your whole organisation works (including, in some cases, considering whether the organisation needs to exist at all in its current form). Digital leadership means embedding digital thinking and ways of working throughout the entire organisation. It means relentlessly focusing on making things better for users, at every level in the organisation. It means fostering an open, collaborative and responsive culture. It means wholeheartedly embracing and celebrating experiments, change and failure. It means showing boldness, empathy and humility while working at a much faster pace than most large organisations like the civil service has been used to or is capable of.

https://doteveryone.org.uk/blog/2017/02/being-an-effective-leader-in-a-digital-age-is-abou/#sthash.aVTSEIWi.dpuf

[alessandracanella]

MindLab adopts a twin-track approach – one that focuses on specific projects, as well as a broader push to drive cultural change.

https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/welcome-to-mindlab/

[alessandracanella]

Firstly, any innovation is based on assumptions about the current situation, what’s possible and what will work locally.  Secondly, good innovation draws on people’s real-life expertise at all stages to build solutions that work for them. Thirdly, breakthrough innovation comes from the application of new thinking to long-standing problems.  Fourthly, good innovation stems from trying things out at a small scale and making mistakes early to reduce the risk of failure at a larger scale. And finally, thinking about scale and designing for implementation is necessary from the start.

https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/powered-by-the-people/

[alessandracanella]

Tech Trends 2017

frog looks ahead with 15 #techtrends that will make a lasting impact on technology, businesses, and our world.

[alessandracanella]

Fjord Trends 2017

description

KEY TRENDS

01. EPHEMERAL STORIES 

02. SHINY API PEOPLE

03. BLURRED REALITY

04. ME MYSELF AND AI 

01. EPHEMERAL STORIES And then content became king. Brands became content publishers. And being always plugged-in, consumers were always ‘on’.As a result of this hyperconnected lifestyle, we now live in a content saturation era. [...] When conventional brand storytelling is dead, success will depend on putting people at the core of everything you do.

02. SHINY API PEOPLE At FedEx, emotional intelligence training for new managers strengthened its people-first leadership – an important building block for an organization to become truly innovative across organization. Netflix’s focus on fostering innovation has helped it secure more than 81.5 million subscribers. All staff are actively encouraged to think like business innovators, and a culture of creativity, self-discipline, freedom and responsibility reinforces this. [...] Upscaling the principles and practises of innovation across the entire organization is now critical. 

03. BLURRED REALITY Consumers had access to a wide variety of devices, from mobile-based systems, such as Gear VR, Google Daydream and Cardboard – to full-featured, tethered head-mounted displays like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. And many interesting VR applications emerged.The National Autistic Society in the U.K. enabled users to understand better what it’s like to be an autistic child. Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, launched Mars Experience Bus, an immersive school bus on which children explore the red planet’s surface via VR. Fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff deployed VR and AR as part of her 2016 fall show. AR applications weren’t just limited to the consumer marketplace, however. In manufacturing, several striking innovations hit the shop floor. German elevator manufacturer thyssenkrupp armed its field repair workers with Microsoft HoloLens goggles to see what went wrong and how to fix faults, using IoT connected elevator equipment. The future of how people interact with their computers will center around VR and AR experiences seamlessly integrated into our daily life. Alibaba in China, for example, has just launched a virtual shopping experience which allows you to buy products in New York department store Macy’s, thousands of miles away.

04. ME MYSELF AND AI Expectations of a more human experience will naturally grow as more of us allow chatbots into our personal space. People are imperfect and AI-enabled services need to be cleverly crafted to both receive emotional input and respond in an emotionally intelligent way. IBM’s Watson Bluemix platform already offers a text tone analyser and personality analysis through its natural language processor. Meanwhile, the emotional wellbeing app Empath and real time emotional intelligence solution Cogito’s technologies both offer voice analysis that can detect and interpret our emotional state, not only by voice inflection but also by the pattern and rhythm in which we say things.

[alessandracanella]

Relocation struggles and successes, part 6. #isitjustme? (at Clerkenwell)

[alessandracanella]

Relocation struggles and successes, part 5. (at Clerkenwell)

[alessandracanella]

How One Florida City Is Reinventing Itself With UX Design

"Like great companies, great cities need to think about user experience."

"Instead of running around to the Department of Planning, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Public Works, a citizen will only need to visit the Department of Doing to get the information they need and have the right points of contact within the city. […] The Department of Doing is an extension of what Lyons calls a "modular" government structure, meaning that the city reorients its processes around specific user outcomes, whether that's opening a business or finding where a public pool is located.”

[alessandracanella]

Relocation struggles and successes, part 5.

[alessandracanella]

Building on the concepts of economic and human capital, our report proposes a more expansive capital-based model of poverty and decision-making, encompassing environmental, social, character and cognitive capital (Figure 1). For example, an individual may use their social capital (e.g., trusted social connections) to identify labour market opportunities; but being low in environmental capital (e.g., overcrowded housing) may reduce opportunities for parents to talk with their child in ways that build their human capital (e.g., speech development).

http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/uncategorized/poverty-and-decision-making-how-behavioural-science-can-improve-opportunity-in-the-uk/

[alessandracanella]

I’m in the process of trying to get a loan to buy my first home in Italy. 

Yesterday I got a quotation online and I got a good one from the bank I already have an account with. I contacted them because I wanted to have more details, understand what the process would be like - e.g. would I be able to complete the process fully online?

Waking up, the morning after, I got 7 emails from them: they are all pre-formatted and they are giving me contradictory information, such as “Yay you can get the loan - I’m sorry you are not eligible”. And they were sent out all together, at 07:45am. I replied to one of these, asking to be contacted for clarifications, and I attached my new English phone number.

5 hours later, I get a new email by the bank. They didn’t mention at all to the 7-emails-problem, they said they tried to contact me but I never answered. Guess what! They were calling my Italian number and they are not allowed to call non-Italian numbers.

This bank payoff is “Banking made easier”. 

How can a service be this bad? How can a CRM not support properly the customer service of a bank - in particular when related to such a complex service? I mean, it’s a loan, I’m going to owe you money forever, it is not a free prepaid card. On top of that, stop using beautiful payoff when you can’t keep the promise.

[alessandracanella]

Relocation struggles and successes, part 4. (presso London Borough of Islington)

[alessandracanella]

Drawing n.3 of "Relocation struggles and successes” 

[alessandracanella]

Drawing n.2 of "Relocation struggles and successes” 

[alessandracanella]

I wanted to find a way to collect memories about me moving to London and at the same time making it enjoyable for others to check what I have been going through lately. So here it is...

Drawing n.1 of "Relocation struggles and successes” 

[alessandracanella]

These kids love playing Pokemon Go in the hospital

Kids in a children's hospital are getting out of their rooms, and active thanks to Pokemon Go, the game that has taken the country by storm.

Once again I’m fascinated by how products and services take a different path from the designed one - and it happens that is actually a better one.

That’s the case of Pokemon Go, that helps kids in hospitals be more active and engage with other patients.