The Medium is the Message

Marshall McLuhan - The Medium is the Massage

I found this book again whilst I was in Edinburgh doing a more extended period of observation at Waverly. Not too sure where this idea is going, but maybe just something to mull over for a while.

"All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered."

Being Human

Yesterday afternoon we met with Richard Harper, a senior researcher at Microsoft, as well as attending the public lecture he gave in the evening titled Changing Humans. 

It was interesting to hear him talk about understanding how people think, and how this can be aided by developing an understanding of how you think yourself. He related this to the conversations between designers and non designers, and said that it can involve creating a common ground together.

I liked the point he made when describing communication as a human act, as in some environments it can be interpreted as an exchange of data, with humans seen as machines. However he also stressed that neither of these are necessarily wrong, but are simply a different viewpoint.

I thought about this a bit more while we were discussing reflection, and reflective writing with Jonathan Baldwin in the first session of the Designing Innovative Research module. When describing the action of making a cup of tea or brushing your teeth most people will go through the process in a systematic way. We were encouraged to question why you do certain things in order to evaluated and reflect on the action i.e. why do you have a cup of tea? I though back to what Richard Harper had said and realised that often when people make a cup of tea or coffee, they are not doing it because they are thirsty and need a drink, but it is like a performance. They do it to take a break, gain comfort, or even to make a social gesture. People don't go for coffee to drink coffee; they go to have a chat.

I think I would like to relate this to my ideas for my 3rd semester project, and particularly the social interaction aspect of design.

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.

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?

Simplicity

Something else which I thought about whilst in London was the notion of simplicity. I saw the film Powers of 10 by Charles and Ray Eames in the Design Cities exhibition, and it struck me as a fairly perfect piece of information design. It manages to communicate a complex subject through an animation, which is simple, understandable and interesting.

Powers of 10 - from YouTube

I think I will take another look at some of John Maeda's work as well, he's moved from MIT to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). I think it is important in ethnography to try and make complex information understandable, particularly when communicating research findings for instance.

This also started me thinking about the role of technology today and how it can transform how we behave, for example the introduction of the walkman shaped the way in which we listen to music. I feel today people sometimes rely on technology too much. Don't get me wrong I like to see evolution in technology, just as long as it enhances rather than complicates. 

I hope that I can explore this deeper this year, potentially through projects but also through further reading.