Adam Little @ CIID

Where do new ideas come from? This film is about design strategists and how they identify the right ideas. It was produced by the global innovation consultancy Continuum.

Not unlike some of what we are doing here at CIID…

Via Interaction Design Umeå

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A quick update — we are halfway through our second Industry Project which is also our last course at CIID. I can not really go into much detail about this project, but it is two weeks long and so far we have found ourselves conducting quite a bit of user research. We first needed to speak with “young people” so Nunzia (my classmate) and I went to a Danish Højskole, a kind of school that many Danish people spend a year at before they go to university. We chatted with 4 different 20-year-olds and talked mostly about how their different communication channels (SMS, phone, Facebook, email, etc.) are used for different purposes. We led our conversations around certain themes such as privacy, planning social events, and being in emergency situations. Unsurprisingly, since 1/3 of Denmark’s population is on Facebook, these conversations always went back to Facebook.

Part of this project requires us to project 2-4 years in the future, so we needed to think about what emerging needs these young people will have as they mature. To gain a perspective on this, Nunzia and I paid a visit to a nearby park that is quite popular with mothers and their young children. We spoke with two women who were in their early thirties and each had a toddler. Our converstations here were less about communication and the themes mentioned above, and more about their daily routines.

I can’t say that we learned anything completely new from talking to either of these groups, but it has given us plenty of stories that we can use as inspiration and evidence as we begin to create our own concepts. Not to mention, every time we go out to interview random strangers like this, it gets a little bit easier.

Up until very recently, Hollywood was still releasing films in which main characters did not have mobile phones. And the fact that these characters did not have mobile phones was evident because there was always some pivotal scene in which two people could not get in touch with each other, or someone was running late or an ambulance could not be called. This drove me crazy. I recently thought it would be an interesting exercise to re-edit these films, or slightly older films, as if the characters did have mobile phones. What classic movie scenes could be totally negated? Would it make these scenes less universal?

Anyway, I was reminded of this scene from Saved by the Bell which is probably one of the earliest film/tv examples of a social dilemma happening around a mobile phone (YouTube, you never cease to amaze me).

By the way, if you grew up outside of the US and someone mentions a “Zack Morris phone”, this is what they meant:

Remember Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell and his big ass cell phone? Well, anyone with an old ass phone that is lacking todays features has a Zack Morris Phone
Sorry I couldnt get that video you sent me, I have a Zack Morris Phone

- Urban Dictionary

Copenhagen's networked bus stops

At many of the bus stops in Copenhagen is a count down timer to when the next bus will arrive. Actually, I don’t know how this works. But it’s awesome. Why is this only the first city I lived in that does this?

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Define
- Decide what issue you are trying to resolve.
- Agree on who the audience is.
- Prioritize this project in terms of urgency.
- Determine what will make this project successful.
- Establish a glossary of terms.

Research
- Review the history of the issue; remember any existing obstacles.
- Collect examples of other attempts to solve the same issue.
- Note the project supporters, investors, and critics.
- Talk to end-users, that brings the most fruitful ideas for later design
- Take into account thought leaders opinion

Ideate
- Identify the needs and motivations of your end-users (needfinding)
- Generate as many ideas as possible to serve these identified needs
- Log your brainstorming session.
- Do not judge or debate ideas.
- During brainstorming, have one conversation at a time

Prototype
- Combine, expand, and refine ideas.
- Create multiple drafts.
- Seek feedback from a diverse group of people, include your end users.
- Present a selection of ideas to the client.
- Reserve judgment and maintain neutrality.

Choose
- Review the objective.
- Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas.
- Remember: the most practical solution isn’t always the best.
- Select the powerful ideas.

Implement
- Assign tasks.
- Execute.
- Deliver to client.

Learn
- Gather feedback from the consumer.
- Determine if the solution met its goals.
- Discuss what could be improved.
- Measure success; collect data.
- Document.

This future vision from Samsung takes the form of a commercial, focusing on specific products for the home that are offered by Samsung. Unlike the last video I posted which uses three short scenarios, System Hauzen follows a single narrative of a family going about their day. Unforunately this narrative is broken and becomes a cheap infomercial when the actors address the camera/audience, and especially by saying things like “this is the future…”.

But what’s most striking about this video is how creepy this ethnically ambiguous family is! A comment on the video’s YouTube page compared it to Horizons at Disney World’s Epcot Center, a future vision built in the 80s. System Hauzen is so campy, cliche and borderline anti-utopian that it immediately becomes a parady of itself.

I will continue to post videos related to future visions and scenarios, one of the domains of my final project

SMS Your Drinks - drink delivery service

Caribbian is a bar in Copenhagen that offers a unique service - they deliver cocktails! Three things that Copenhagen has a plethora of are green parks, cargo bicycles and people drinking outdoors. This service brings all of those together through the use of mobile phones. Just text your drink order to the number above (i.e. 2 liters of frozen margaritas) and then find the delivery man who arrives on a cargo bicycle throughout the day at the city’s most popular parks.

No matter how nicely I asked my pizza delivery man in Philadelphia to deliver some beer with my food, he just would not do it. So not only does this service highlight how awesome Denmark is, it is a nice example of mobile technology as a business use in an urban setting.

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project