RCA Design Interactions: Tribal Futures project

Whilst reading the Putting People First blog this afternoon I saw this post, which led me to the Matt Jones' blog, Magical Nihilsm. Here he described his involvement in the "Tribal Futures" project with the RCA's Design Interactions course, in collaboration with Vodaphone's user experience group. 

The brief they were set asked them to:

“…focus in on the mundane and the extremes of our behaviour in groups and propose design interventions to support, subvert and celebrate our tribal connections. We encourage you to extrapolate the current trends in mobile, social and other technologies in terms of their failures as well as successes, and examine what technologies intended and unintended consequences might be.”

I was pleased to see that an ex classmate of mine, Alison, got a mention. Her Waltz of the Orange Men described the flows of movement she observed whilst following the council's recycling removal men. It was really interesting to see the insights she found from observing their work, including their reliance on each other to work effectively.

Waltz of the Orange Men from Design Interactions

I think this has given me some inspiration of where to go next with my project. I know I need to focus in on an area, but it is encouraging to see the insights that can come from something that appears mundane at first. I'm not sure if I want to focus in on group behaviour in public space, or this idea of individuals and disconnectedness. 

Focus, focus, focus

At the moment all I can think of is words...

urban, space, design, society, people, city, sound, media, social, interaction, art, environment, globalisation, culture, architecture, existence, mobile, connections, communication, place, community, technology, context, flow, simplicity, complexity...

I'm struggling to find the focus for my project, everything I look at interests me and sends me off in another direction. I know I need to narrow down, otherwise I will be going round this loop forever. I feel like I need to grab hold of one bit of inspiration. I found this image here from Robin Howie, which I feel captures some of what I'm thinking about. A Dialogue with Public Space "transforms the public landscape into a conversation."

Via Picacool

Any ideas or suggestions from anyone on how to find focus on the project would be much appreciated. I'm sure I'll get there, I just hope that it's soon.

Essay thoughts

For our first assessment we have the task of critically reviewing a fieldwork based user research, which has been published by a company or organisation.

I have not looked too thoroughly into the actual company yet, however by looking at the blog Putting People First for my blog review, I have been thinking about the area or theme to focus on.

I want to look into what it is that people actually want technology to do for them. I could explore this in relation to devices such as mobile phones, the Internet, interactive services and home entertainment etc.

I think sometimes there are so many applications and possibilities in today's society, that the genuine needs of people become lost in the design. Often people are often given too much information to handle, and in the end services and products become overcomplicated.

I am still looking at this very generally at the moment. I saw this book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum the other day, which I am keen to get soon, as it looks quite relevant.