Random observations and thoughts

[theseenandunseen]

Light a medium to be explored in product design?

Recently at Smart, we had Carla Diana in town visiting from our NYC studio. It was great to hear what she’s been up to and thinking about and it prompted an interesting conversation around light. She has been exploring using light to communicate mood in products (http://smartinteractionlab.com/lumi-project-experiments/) and it got us talking about how it was a bit of an untapped medium. Light is a very diverse medium, you can control colour, brightness, shape, diffusion, time on and off etc. All these variables can be used in design to communicate things. As the technology of LED’s and the tools used to control light develop we believe it will become more prominent in design. There are very few examples of it being used right now although the breathing light on macs as they sleep is a classic. It will be curious to see how we standardize light to communicate certain things and what becomes the norm, as with touch screens a couple of years back. A couple of days later after this chat, I found myself staring up at the Sagrada Familia watching a mind blowing light projection show created by http://www.momentfactory.com/en. It was one of those experiences where everyone around me and myself had their mouths open in a amazement. The light just added another level to what is a truly astounding building. And it just reinforced for me how light can be such an emotive and communicative tool, it’s just waiting to be explored by product designers.

http://vimeo.com/49960413

[theseenandunseen]

A small brain dump on millenials

Some thoughts and ideas I want to look into:

Millenials in Europe

There is so much literature on millenials in the states, but very little on Europe. What are the differences are the values different? If the values differ why? Also how do they vary from country to country?

I sense that the aspiration and entitlement are less in Europe. Europe is not famed for being the land of opportunity, and I think values in general about life and family may change these aspirations. 

I'm curious to probe into what's out there in regards to info, but also maybe conduct a very crude study using my limited network to see what's going on.

Working class millenials

Again it feels like most reports and articles on millenials are based on the middle class. But what about the other classes? The working class for example. Are their attitudes the same? Did they have the same tensions when they started working? Do they have the same aspirations?

Given that this demographic of millenials has been working for maybe 5 years longer than the demographic most studies focus on, it would be interesting to see how working life has affected their values, and if they changed?

Brand strategy and authenticity 

I've been reading quite a few reports helping companies target millenials. There's an ironic tension in the advice. I believe one of the core values for millenials is authenticity, yet the reports are telling companies to change in order to target millenials thus loosing their authenticity..

Maybe that's a catch 22 for brands and companies, or maybe there is a balance that needs to be met.

I want to look into this particular millenial attitude and contrast it with some reports out there to investigate the idea further.

Lots of to dos....

[theseenandunseen]

Can Designers learn from El Buli?

I recently went to an exhibtion on Ferran Adria and his restaurant El Buli. It was an excellent exhibition and I came away feeling like El Buli was a moment in creative history that I would have loved to have experienced. The vision, the passion, the openness to experimentation and innovation were all things that struck my mind.

When you talk to people who have eaten at places like El Buli or the Fat Duck they're eyes light up with magic and enthusiasm as they recall the experience. It's an experience that seems to stay with them, part never to be forgotten. As we designers strive to create ultimate user experiences, how can we take inspiration from these restaurants?

Make it beautiful

The food is beautiful, it is as visual as it is flavorful. It adds to the experience, the feeling of care and attention to detail put into the food makes you feel special. A great visual aesthetic really does add to the experience.

Tell a great story

Quality and authentic are two words often seen in companies brand statements. This applies to the food created in the restaurant too. A great deal of time and effort is spent seeking out the absolute best ingredients and knowing the story of the ingredients and effort to source them adds to the depth of the experience.

Create surprise

It's often the surprises that stay in the mind. Surprise and delight are wonderful things to feel and it's an amazing thing to experience especially when it is intentional. The food that Ferran Adria and others create often has the element of surprise. They play with our minds, present things in provocative ways, deceive us. What we experience is unbelievable and that's what stays with us.

How can we design experiences with these surprises?

Play with the senses

It's not simply about how the food tastes, these chefs evoke all our senses. The more senses we stimulate the stronger the experience. Look beyond the main medium, how can you create experiences with other senses. How can you build on that core experience?

Sounds of the Sea by Heston Blumethal. This dish evokes all the senses (Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell, Touch) to take us to the sea.

Design experiences to be felt

The goal of many of these dishes is to create an experience, but it's more than that. They are designed to make you feel something, they're designed for you to close your eyes and be transported back to a childhood memory or to a place. There's depth to the experience, they are trying to make you feel.

How can emotion be designed into the experiences we create?

I find myself reading so many design blogs and articles, sometimes it's great to look out of the field your in to parallels for inspiration. Look to the extremes and see what you can take from that.

[theseenandunseen]

"Old school" communities

I live up in a neighborhood called Gracia in Barcelona. Gracia was once a small village outside of Barcelona, but was swallowed up as the city grew. However one of the nicest things about Gracia is that it still feels like a village, the architecture is different and there is a very strong sense of community.

As you walk around there are many friendly familiar faces, it's common to see families to bump into each other on the street and chat or for a young guy to walk past an old guy on a bench and call out his name asking how he is or wishing him a good day. It's a really nice place to live and despite the modernizing world they've still managed to maintain this sense of community.

Right now the area has a festival going on, where residence of different streets come together and create elaborate "worlds" in their street and compete against each other for the prize for the best street. Each street also has a stage and there are many concerts and performances going on through out the district adding to the festival vibe. Right now life is about living on the street, just walking around absorbing what's going on, bumping into people and chatting.

It feels like a very unique event and it's nice to see the power of a physical community. Despite the economic crisis and rising unemployment there is a buoyant atmosphere in the air. The festival has created a place for people to come together and simply enjoy life and being social. It's also incredibly diverse, a community that includes everyone from baby to grandparent and in between.

In or technology driven, social media world community is such an integral part to how we live our daily lives (facebook, twitter....), it's nice to feel part of something, supported and connected. Let's not forget the power of actual physical communities, you can't feel more involved than when your physically in it and it's great!

[theseenandunseen]

When I was a Kid

Discovered this the other day. 

The site itself is pretty cool (Medium), an idea created by the founders of twitter as a platform for us to document our lives. Not sure if this is particularly revolutionary thinking but the set up is very nice.

However the thing that caught my eye was the link above. Curious looking back on photo's of kids how much simpler life was. Got me thinking what pictures are out there today, actually a blog of the two would be a cool compare and contrast project.

How will the complexity in children's lives affect them as they grow up? This is something that fascinates me, part of me hopes they will rebel and seek out the simplicity that the kids in these photos had. 

Time will tell

[theseenandunseen]

The Two Layers of Empathy

I think empathy is a great trait to have, it makes you compassionate and also helps you connect with people.

As a design researcher I think it is one of the key tools you have to use, always putting yourself in other people's shoes to understand how they feel and where they are coming from.

I think you can put empathy in two layers, the first is relatively easy for people to access, understand and feel the second more challenging.

The first to me is when you hear someone's story or problem and imagine yourself in their shoes and how you would feel, thus helping you connect emotionally with them. But what if how you feel isn't how they are feeling? What if they react differently in that situation?

This is the second layer and takes a lot more understanding and discipline to get to. Instead of thinking "how would I feel?" you need to ask yourself "what are they feeling? and why are they feeling that?". Getting that understanding can be challenging to do, but if you manage it, it can really help you understand a person and problem.

This thinking can help when trying to understand a different cultural point of view. Sometimes I find people's reactions or emotions to problems or situations just don't make sense to me, but when I try and understand their culture and attitudes and relate it to how they are reacting I understand the picture a lot more clearly.

This idea is something I want to try and keep in my mind as I listen to people's reactions to things.

[theseenandunseen]

Zach Lieberman

I was lucky to watch a presentation by Zach yesterday, it was incredibly inspiring and my first exposure to Open Code.

Essentially Zach works on digital interactive art?? He seems particularly interested with drawing and mapping our movements to create digital imagery or exaggerating our movements.

He presented some really inspirational work, eye writer being the most "emotional" in way. He mentioned that he searches for the open mouth moment, creating experiences that cause peoples mouths to open subconsciously with amazement. He also mentioned the "granny test" when the elderly participate and play it also suggests you've got it right.

I would love to make experiences at the level he achieves, the work he does I believe is what design should strive for and eye writer encompasses this as it is really improving someone's life. 

Interaction design can be so intangible, flat and passive at times he makes it a truly immersive experience, I hope this is the future of interaction design and not just more touch screens.

[theseenandunseen]

Millenials in the work place

A little slow in places and very design centric but a little video from IDEO getting people, both millenials and other generations to give advice on the skills millenials need in the work place.

Some interesting ideas hidden in there:

"commitment to delivery, not just ideas"

"learning how to get a long with different kinds of people"

"get good at communicating"

"a bit more empathy, a bit more listening, a bit more humility"

"have confidence to be wrong and take criticism well"

It's interesting how the advice hints at some of the attitudes that millenials face have and how people perceive them. I guess what's interesting about this subject is there is a lot of negative press around it. There is a lot of writing about why  millenials are hard to work with or how they will struggle int he workplace, but what makes them good?

Optimism, ambition, ideas, opinion, ability to absorb vast amounts of information and learn maybe just a few. 

The commitment to delivery comment got me thinking about why this generations skills are at times soft. Is it because we are exposed to so much information through the internet, twitter etc that by the time we've learnt one thing there are 10 more interesting things to discover out there? Perhaps this bombardment of information and communication doesn't allow us the time to dive deep and execute things. 

Although that thought can be countered too, when you look at the emerging artisan craft where it is almost solely about execution and doing with your hands. 

[theseenandunseen]

Interesting new ev solution spotted on the Barcelona streets. First off how did they park it there?! The Spanish have some unique "parking techniques". Currently it's a service targeted at tourists but if it was scaled up would it be relevant to residents? The fact that it's sponsored by endesa (a Spanish electricity provider) would imply it may. Is there a need? And what infrastructure will be needed for success?

[theseenandunseen]

Emotion, objects and experiences

I'm currently doing some research into pregnancy and the birth process, a very emotional experience.

I'm using multiple tools to try and uncover insights and opportunities in the space. What I'm finding is many of these tools I'm using miss the emotional side of the experience and I keep on having to remind myself to throw that lens of thinking onto the problem.

I believe that emotion will be where the true value of a new design or experience in this space will lie. 

It's such an intangible thing to uncover and design for, and a challenge to explicitly pull out of people. You always get a strange look when you ask how does this product make you feel? How can someone feel something about a potato peeler for example? But you do, subconsciously you have an emotional response for example if you compare a traditional potato peeler to an oxo potato peeler, what is the difference in your emotion or feeling?

When I see the oxo one, perhaps I find the black slightly intimidating, the grip looks friendly and approachable, it looks considered, sophisticated, tactile, functional.

I look at the regular peeler and I feel like less care has been put into it's creation, it's utilitarian, it's simple, uncomfortable, slightly dangerous.

Well that's a vague attempt at capturing what I mean.

Even once you've identified the emotions associated from a product or experience how to do you translate these into design actionable solutions.

There are tools out there to help uncover these insights, for example I saw a technique using an image bank and asking people to say what they feel when they see the image to establish their emotional values, but how can we find quick tools to integrate this into our design process.

Ultimately when you have two similar products, interfaces, experiences it's going to be your subconscious emotional response that makes you choose between them if there are no other things that set them apart. As a designer I believe it's important to try and uncover this response so that we can design solutions that truly resonate with peoples needs, desires and feelings.

In this case when dealing with such an emotionally complex subject (pregnancy) it becomes even more important.

[theseenandunseen]

Google Fiber

Anyone seen google fiber yesterday?

I find this latest release fascinating. This is a big deal I think, although maybe providing internet isn't such a sexy piece of news so we wont see much about it, who knows?

First off, yes I do find it a little intimidating that google is taking over the world but I'm pretty impressed at what they've done.

The most impressive thing I think is how they've entered a completely new space or newish space. That is a big challenge for a company that size, and also a trend that I'm noticing more and more. As the world changes, markets get competitive... companies are having to completely change their game and move into places they have never been before. One of the biggest challenges is that they aren't experts there and even when they employ experts managing them with in the culture of the company is challenging. Google or obviously known for being innovative, but it would be interesting to hear about what internal changes etc they had to go through to execute such a project.

It also being google has some innovative elements to the service, essentially it's a crowd sourced thing and also they have really considered touch points. Having physical centers in the community and working with the community (cafes, schools, hospitals) to role out the service but also give things back. I really like how something intangible has a physical element to it in the actual community.

Curious to see what happens as the service to role out. 

[theseenandunseen]

Just walked through a temporary shopping space (10 "stores"). I liked how organised and linear it was, as if I was walking down a street full of stores. What I find curious is that they are all selling the same product, this can't make sense why not sell where you don't have competition? Presumably for support and look out, maybe a coop or maybe working for someone not on the street? I love how innovative these illegitimate things can be. Here the problem is running away with your goods when the police are seen. The solution a sheet with the corners tied so all you have to do is grab one string and know all your goods will be with you as you run. The same is applied with thieves, no matter what barrier you put in front of them they will come up with a solution to get past it. Consistent innovators.... Another interesting element to this image is the demographic. In this case entirely black. In poorer economies of Barcelona the ethnicity of the people are highly polarised. As a general rule Pakistani people provided basic groceries, Chinese people wholesale clothing, middle eastern people own restaurants and so on... I'm curious to know how this came about and the heritage behind it. Will these industries diversify as we move into second and third generation families? As these demographics change and become wealthier perhaps new ethnic groups will take over.

[theseenandunseen]

Cultures and Brainstorming

I recently participated in a brainstorming session at workshop on design research and found myself working with a range of people from different backgrounds and countries.

When brainstorming early ideas and experiences it's very important to keep an open mind and leave ideas raw for others to build up on. Not taking an idea to far in your mind before sharing requires discipline as does being open, something that I know I need to practice at times. But it's interesting to see how people's cultural attitudes can change a brainstorm.

I was working with a German guy, and well (no offense to German's here) but he was fulfilling his stereotype through the way he brainstormed. He found it very hard to be open to out there ideas or would criticize the idea in terms of practicality, all the solutions he presented were also incredibly practical. You could tell he was struggling and even when encouraged to "think out of the box" still couldn't help but be practical.

Maybe certain countries are better at brainstorming than others. In fact maybe it's a reason why innovation is such a big thing in the States, they have the right cultural frame of mind. The attitude that you're entitled to the American dream and opportunities can maybe mean that people believe in crazy ideas more. The practicalities of the idea aren't as relevant because you are entitled to opportunity.

When organizing workshops and brainstorms, it's probably a good idea to be sensitive to this, pay more attention to the people who have trouble allowing themselves to think out of the box and nurture and encourage them to do so.

Do you fulfill your countries stereotypical attitudes when participating in brainstorms? 

[theseenandunseen]

Interesting to see how foursquare is being used for opportunistic advertising in airports.

[theseenandunseen]

Categories

There must be something human nature where we feel the need to categorize things, presumably to help us organize and process things in our heads. I wonder what part of our hunter gatherer brain this stems from?

In design I feel catergorires are both good and bad. They can both open up and close solutions.

During synthesis I think categories are great, spotting patterns and putting insights into buckets can really help understand the problem and also highlight the gaps. Also they help constrain the challenge, which help focus the design effort.

I've been doing a bit of reading on service design recently and have been asked to pull out examples of interesting services and service designs. I've been debating with a colleague the past two days about whether this is a service or isn't, is it UX instead, or just a product or is it system design... The conclusion the boundaries are blurred but even though we both acknowledge this we feel compelled to still try and categorize our examples. 

Categorizing the solution obviously constrains the options but I wonder if it forms a mental block in our heads that at times can hinder the ideal solution. If we are working on a ID project the solution will be physical, if we are working on an interaction project then the solution will be a digital interface. But what if we took a step back and looked at the problem and identified all the solutions, maybe we don't need that physical thing and maybe a great piece of communication design is the best solution. Working in varied multi-disciplined teams helps achieve this, and I hope to be able to work more in those types of teams to drive for the ultimate solution to the problem presented.

Maybe for clients being an experience designer is too vague, it encompasses too much. But as designer I believe that's how we need to think at the beginning of a project. We have multiple tools to design an experience (ID, Engineering, UX, Interaction, Communication, Architecture, Retail, Service....) but ultimately the thinking process is very similar. So when it comes to design disciplines, lets disregard all the categories and names and come together to simply design great experiences.

[theseenandunseen]

Traditional services a point of inspiration?

I've lived in Barcelona for about 2 years now. Over the time I've lived here I have heard two sounds on the streets that has taken me a while to figure out what they are. 

The first sound I heard was the sound of metal being tapped, you hear this most days on the narrow streets of Barcelona. Turns out this is the sound of people selling gas canisters for peoples apartments. It's interesting to see a "modern" product being sold through such a traditional manner, there is something very nice about things you need being brought to you in person. (Although having a gas mains would probably be nicer....)

The second sound has literally taken me two years to figure out what it is for, and I don't know how they are connected but from time to time I've heard a high pitch pan pipe. What service would the whistle of a pan pipe be selling you ask? The answer... knife sharpening! There are a bunch of guys who go around the city with sharpening blocks that they hook up to their moped to sharpen peoples knifes. Although yesterday I saw someone using a foot powered one. I love this sort of thing, this for me is what makes Spain so friendly. It's such a personal service that has been happening for years if not centuries, it hasn't changed and it is still being used. The guy comes around every couple of weeks and sharpens your knifes, the same person every time. Over time a relationship is built along with trust and there is such a craft to the service provided. As things and services get commercialized and often simply sold online we loose this personal interaction.

In away you can argue that some of these services do try to be personal, for example amazon recommends things specifically for me based on my tastes, but it's not personal. It's an algorithm that does this, it's missing the human element.

As designers begin to design entire experiences and services maybe we should look to the past for inspiration on how to create great personal experiences.

[theseenandunseen]

Services in Spain

Services in Spain from my personal experiences are normally pretty poor. 

One thing I find really interesting is how large international brands services differ from country to country. When I first moved here, I defaulted to service providers I knew (banking, mobile phone etc) expecting a similar service to the one I had experienced in the UK. It's amazing how different it is, you are essentially paying companies to take your money with very little return. Dealing with any of these companies is like a big fight that everyone living here has experienced at some point.

Having experienced the same "product" somewhere else it is very hard to accept, why am I getting less here? Why is this company so uncooperative. It doesn't seem right, or fair that in the UK I get so much more. In away I feel that these companies are tarnishing their brand with such poor service offerings, but since everyone is offering the same limited things it doesn't seem to matter. There is a huge opportunity for companies to set themselves apart from their competitors by offering an average to good service. Unfortunately I don't see the motivation, people have no choice here they need phones and bank accounts etc so they have to work with what they have, which unfortunately for the consumer is very much in the companies favor. 

When you get down to a personal level and talk to an individual the service is normally pretty good (not restaurants), Spanish people are naturally chatty and friendly and it makes day to day transactions great, they also suffer the same problems with companies so there is some empathy when they deal with you. 

I'm curious to know what is needed to change how these companies provide services. Brands have a terrible reputation here, it feels like they need to change but right now they have the power and not the consumer so there is no motivation. Will social media and the way we are interacting with brands cause this to happen over time?