Apologies for the the lack of posts so far this year. I can assure you it isn't a sign of a lack of interesting stuff going on. Here are some things I've been looking into and thinking about so far this year:

Kiwi FOO Camp (www,baacamp.org) organised by Nathan Torkington was a fantastic event - thanks for the invite Nathan. The content was great, many inspiring discussions, lots of energy and subsequenlty many thoughts and ideas that I will continue to post on over the next few months. Big outtakes: everyone in IT is engaged in design at some level; as designers we can learn a lot from open source communities and this has enormous potential for big design probelems like sustainability; usability, UX design, interaction design require clear context for useful discussion, even amongst experts, I was involved in a discussion where we all came at this from many angles and I think we needed to get clear on architypes to have a useful discussion on this (still plenty of opportunities; Hardware hacking is a cool thing and shows so much potential for interesting developmements.

FRONT link here is pretty cool, FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined. Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture. Lots of potential to use this technology. I can forsee a time when we will all have our local RP centres to print off the odd useful thing ot two, and maybe using different densities and textures of materials etc..

Amazon's new directions. This article in USA Today was interesting. Quote "You can rent space on Amazon's computers to run a business, or rent out its transaction capabilities to sell things and collect money, or rent pieces of its warehouses and distribution system to store and ship items — or all of the above. So, with almost no start-up costs, anyone anywhere could become a retailer".

This is a great example of a company that really understands innovation and isn't afraid to put into action. It offers potential to really change the way we think about design of business models and supply chains.

QR Codes see this article in the Japan Marketing News where the uptake has been relatively strong compared to elswhere. If you are into marketing certainly worth a try on a few campaigns.

Design Process of architect Joshua Prince-Ramus. Diego Rodriguez from Metacool posted on this video of his Joshua Prince-Ramus'd talk from TED2006. It is great to see architectural process take new directions. As Diego points out Three interesting threads are woven in to his commentary:

The notion of employing a "hyper-rational" design process in the name of creating emotionally resonant experiences and spaces.

Using a team-based design process, rather than the more traditional "star designer" model often found in architecture and industrial design.

Designing for business by using flexible spaces to enable economic viability now and in to the future.

Agree the storytelling is great.

I've been rethinking the fundamentals of interaction design methods and practice recently and I came across a news story posted on John Thackara's site that raised some really interesting points for me.

The story covers a UK surgical team that saw similarities between their surgical 'patient hand over technics' and those of a motor racing team in the pitstop, while watching motorsport on TV. The surgical team started to work with the Ferrari Racing Team to learn how to improve their own 'hand-over methods' from surgery to intensive care. This is a difficult and critical phase for surgery teams involving as many as six interventions from highly specialised personal. Precision and timing are everything. Imagine: Medical procedure designed by 'Ferrari', not a crazy idea (I think the brand could extend, see Cheskin’s Brand Extendibility Survey)

Here are some immediate thoughts that came to mind:

(1) It is great to see disciplines learning from others. And the willingness of the medical practitioners to act on the possibility of it working and at least testing the feasibility of the idea. True design innovation.

(2) These methods designed by the joint teams involved 'Interaction Design'. Other professions disciplines practice interaction design too, what do they call it? When does it become 'Interaction Design', and how/where does it differ from other professions practices? In this case, I think their goals became interaction design when the team defined a problem with the way they interacted with their technolgy and system and they set out to improve it.

(3) How did Ferrari become so good at 'Interaction Design' or designing for interaction? I have read case studies before on Peak Performance of the Williams F1 Team and how the split second timing of Pit Crews is often attributed to teamwork and practice. I think this is key, good outcomes from interaction design requires the design of really good interdisciplinary team design. Further to this, it must be practiced in-order to get better at it, and to achieve their goals. Ferrari’s race technical director that worked with the surgical team said, "It takes a long time to establish a team. We have twenty-odd people working together for four to six years to get a routine which lasts little more than four seconds. The surgical teams work round the clock, every day, with ever-changing personnel, so what they need is a formula to work to."

(4) The ultimate ‘goal’ of the race team would be something like ‘making the car go faster’ and the surgery team ‘fixing patients heart’ But the interesting thing is the total procedure to achieve those goals is made up of a series of complex stand alone methods that can be applied independently. The design of design, no situation is ever the same but there is often similarities and cross-over.

(5) It proved really valuable but it kind of happened by chance that two surgeons clicked while watching motor racing. What would it take for these problems to be addressed by design in the course of conscious problem definition?

(6) Product or a service? Hmm.

(7) It is being published in a medical Journal. So what is the relationship between medical science and interaction design? ....I'm saving that for another post.

Toyota production lines churning out houses? Well they have since 1975 but it is growing steadily. An article in the Toronto Star reports that Toyota is doing homes that are mass produced like Toyota cars. About 85 per cent of the work on the metal-frame cubicles is finished at the plant. The prefabricated cubicles, made to order for the customer, are stacked like toy blocks with a huge crane in just six hours.

Toyota is using technogy and production know-how gained from car making and applying it to houses. A 'smart key' similar to the car key you don't need to take out of your pocket to unlock your Toyota opens and closes the front door. A mechanism for reducing engine noise and tremors is installed under the floor to quiet upstairs shakes. Car paint-job skills deliver even scratch-resistant coating on walls. Imagine how they could apply the Prius technology.

I think they could do with some focus on the design, see Toyota Housing

There are two kinds of CEOs. Those who only aim to deliver numbers and others who swear that ìCustomer Experience is brandingî

Let us see what do customers experience. Read on..

Link to the article on - The Three 'Ds' of Customer Experience: Marketing: HBS Working Knowledge

QUOTE
A recent Bain & Company survey reveals just how commonly companies misread the market. We surveyed 362 firms and found that 80 percent believed they delivered a ìsuperior experienceî to their customers. But when we asked customers about their own perceptions, we found that they rated only 8 percent of companies as truly delivering a superior experience. Clearly, it is easy for leading companies to assume they're keeping customers happy; itís quite another thing to achieve that kind of customer devotion.

ENDQUOTE
Are you surprised? Arenít we ourselves customers buying things or services? How often we get a feeling that we are really buying?

We know the ground reality.

We should also know by now that it takes much much more than marketing people and wild creativity to create and sustain customer experience. We should know that it takes leadership, strategy and supporting business processes that enable talented employees.

And that is quite some hard work. It takes months.. years. It involves business transformation.

Original Post: http://purple-stream.com/blog/?p=19

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