Visualisation

Today we had a really good session with Phillip Joe on Visualisation. I had read his report for the Design Council back in second year of my undergrad, and back then I had found what he was saying really valuable, and so I always tried to implement some of the ideas in my work. It was great to get a chance to get hands on with the methods, and participate in the exercises, as there's nothing better than learning by doing. The discussions our group were having whilst drawing were really active, dynamic and playful.

In his talk, he mentioned how visualisation can be used for whatever you need to communicate, and that it's good for making things tangible and shareable. It's also about storytelling, and progressing ideas through visual thinking. He mentioned 5 stages to remember;

• Visualise early
• Iterate often
• Visualise just enough
• Visualise neutrally
• Be aware of the the responses to different types.

He referenced 3 books in his talk, which I had a brief look at, and hopefully I'll get a chance to have a further browse. They were The Back of the Napkin, Marks and Meaning, and VizAbility.

The value in drawing with stickmen

Whilst watching the videos of Scott Kim from MetaDesign I was reminded of the interview with Bill Verplank from Designing Interactions. I discussed this with Phillip over lunch, as I feel it can be very engaging to watch someone as they explain an idea, and sketch it out at the same time. Sometimes I feel that when explaining an idea after it is drawn it becomes more difficult. I questioned if he knew of any examples of interactive sketching tools, to allow for real time conversations. Although he thought there were some being developed, he further explained how visualisation is predominantly for a conversation between people, and that it is a way of "unpacking" or "encoding" ideas. I tended to agree with him, and a good point that Gus made was that there's nothing better than a pencil and a bit of paper to show someone an idea. He also said that when you are explaining the visual to someone else, it is important that you work out what the major points you want to get across are, and then tell them.

I also mentioned that I was interested in how to communicate research, and particularly to designers. He told me about the company Sonic Rim, who are a design research firm. From the services they offer, they do seem like the type of environment I feel I would be most at home in. One of the methods that seems to be coming up a lot at the moment it participatory design.

Phillip showed a short presentation on the work he had been doing with Microsoft along these lines, with the velcro modelling. The toolkit could elicit some insights by allowing the users to present their ideas in a physical and flexible way. A really good point he made was that "users find it difficult to imagine out-with what they already know". If you ask them to design something for Microsoft, the chances are they will make something which looks like a laptop.

Design for Social Inclusion

Whilst doing a bit of research into the group project I found a few interesting articles and initiatives. The Public Sphere Project talks about using technology for social engagement of the aged.

I also came across the concept of Telecentres, which revolves around the idea of bringing people in a community together to a physical, public space, which allows them to access information, predominantly through digital means. Whilst looking into them I found this report on the sustainability of telecentres and how to help them adapt and evolve in a changing world. They generally seem to be in countries outside the UK although I feel there may be some relevant information which could relate in how to design inclusively.

Lastly I looked at a how the issue of social inclusion was dealt with by the Best e-Europe Practices (beep) Project. Sometimes I find it a bit difficult looking at initiatives and strategies, as they seem to say what needs to be done without providing real solutions. I suppose this is an issue for a design ethnographer, in that we need to decide how much we look at ideas and solutions, and how much of that is left to designers to work out from our findings.

Mobile Social Interaction

I've been having some further thoughts on my essay and third semester project. Generally still looking at possibilities for mobile interactions.

On the nytimes.com I found this article, in which Jan Chipchase discusses how mobile phones could aid in ending global poverty. In the article it explains how through human-centred research they are finding out insights, particularly in regards to how people are adapting phones to suit their needs. In response to the questioning of wide spread technology, he explains how communication is a right, and how some "people once believed that people in other cultures might not benefit from having books either."

I've also looked at Nokia Resarch Africa, or NoRA, the video showing the Music Project in Nairobi. It presents a way of helping to develop opportunities within a fairly disadvantaged community.

I feel Nokia's Data Gathering is a good example of a design solution created through mobile interaction technology. The mobile data collection "helps to improve the operations and service provided by public and private organisations." It appears to have a lot of benefits over other methods, such as laptops, PDA's and paper.

I also briefly looked at other examples of mobile phone projects having an impact on the Third World on textually.org. A particularly interesting piece, was how people in South Africa could use texting to find out information on AIDS, and it became advantageous as it was discreet.

I think what is most appealing to me, and what I hope to try and tackle in the essay, is how the findings and insights from these approaches are or might be considered by such a large company. I suppose this gets back to the idea of how the research could actually inform design.

Also, how a company can help with social and economic issues in a country, in a moral way, when they are predominantly driven by profit?

Structuring Creativity

This week in DLPSI we were given the task of exploring a speculative product for Apple. We were divided into six groups, and then each group was given a new technology to base the product/service on. My group's technology was the ability to control a computer with the mind. A pretty frightening thought if you ask me.

Over the two and a half days we employed a series of methods, using various tools, to generate ideas and explore the concept further. These were,

• Edward de Bono's "6 thinking hats"
• Brainstorming and Mind Mapping
• Physical Modeling and Prototyping
• Evaluation Screening
• Stakeholder Profiling
• Ethical Profiling
• Intellectual Property

Most of the tools were useful, particularly in provoking discussions and leading into new ideas. Our group's idea "material mind", was a device which would allow people to engage, share and explore their thoughts. It involved the user wearing a wristband that could read their mind and display their thoughts via a three dimensional visualisation.  

Physical modeling

To look further into creativity and innovation I've been reading Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation. I've just finished the first persona - The Anthropologist, which was particularly interesting to me as an Ethnographer in the making. However I felt it was relevant to this project as well, mainly the idea of adopting and switching between various roles. It is suggested that the key factor for innovation success is "when you gather several roles together and blend them into a multidisciplinary team."

Alienation through technology

For our group project this semester in DE we have been discussing ideas and looking to focus our research. We all agree that often technology can alienate individuals or even entire communities. We feel that design has the potential to prevent this alienation, and we hope to look at how people interact with publicly-cited information in order to inform this.

Through looking at and understanding peoples needs and actual requirements, we feel that a design could help prevent this alienation. We are under the opinion that it would be a good idea to concentrate on the elderly as a group. We feel that as a group they are often not taken into consideration when new technology is produced. We also feel they will have a good insight into the community aspect of the project, and there will be a lot of areas to look in to. 

I got a bit ahead of myself and started thinking about how we might present the research. I remembered the paper by the RED group at the Design Council I looked at last year when I was researching how to present my findings. I feel their booklet on ageing is a really good example of how to tell and present the stories of the people we spend time with.

Nokia Open Studios

I've been doing some more research into my essay and ideas for the third semester project. On Jan Chipchase's blog I found the presentation entitled Nokia Open Studios.

It illustrates how they engaged a community in the design process. The broader study was the exploration of "the impact of mobile connectivity within the context of global urbanisation".

The research was done in partnership with Younghee Jung, and the full paper can be found here. I think it is particularly interesting to see the emotional links people have with mobile phones, often the participants wanted their mobile to symbolise something about their personality. Also there were examples of the people presenting a need for the phone to solve problems they have or include functions they desire.

 

The video above shows Younghee Jung talking about the Nokia Open Studios project at the Lift08 conference.