Butterfly Minded

This week in DIR we critiqued the list of research proposals we had come up with by putting them through a framework. The point Tom made about the sheets being a form of knowledge management was useful. As he said, a mind map can be a good way of brainstorming, but is less useful at recording the ideas. A week later the data might not still make sense. Even if filling in the sheets can be tedious at times.

Our group went through the sheets and seemed to gravitate towards the community swap shop idea. Although some of the other ideas that might be just as good are rejected, Tom said that these can be put away in a box of "future projects". This could be useful for me as I often find that during a project I come across other really interesting subjects, and I have to refrain from going off on a tangent. Catriona described this likely trait in ethnographers as being "butterfly minded". I suppose it's my habitually curious nature that led me to study design ethnography in the first place.

I'm still not sure if it's a strength or weakness yet. I like the fact that I am inquisitive and try to learn about everything, and when researching a subject I look around for all the connections and related material. However sometimes I feel it might prevent me from understanding a specific subject in any depth, and at other times it will lead me away from the route I should be following.

A day in the life of a mobile phone

Over the last week or so we have been working on a mini project where we have had to develop an account of a day in the life of a mobile phone. As I would be away for a large proportion of the project I really had to manage the project to a fairly strict time schedule.

I decided to attempt a cultural probe, where I gave two participants a notebook and pen and asked them to record their mobile phone usage. I also conducted some observations, primarily in pubic spaces. I also set the research aims, although on reflection I maybe didn't specify these well enough and they could have been more precise.

Once I had collected all the data I used a grounded theory approach to analyse the data, where I went through the information and picked out various concepts. I then grouped these into categories, which I gave titles, and then based my ideas on them. 

For my poster I presented the outcomes through the following narrative account from the perspective of a phone. It was interesting to try and write this way, as usually I would illustrate it through a different means, and I'm not too sure how successful it is. 

This morning I started the day with my alarm. My owner silenced me several times before getting up. I’ve been on all night incase someone wants to get in contact. The first thing my owner does is send a text message to their partner to say good morning. Later they look at my clock and realise how late they are for work. Quickly they put me into my pouch to protect me, and then into their bag for the journey. Once on the train they take me out and check through the messages. They realise they haven't replied to a friend and send an apology. They agree to meet later this evening. They then plug in some earphones and listen to my music for the rest of the journey. At the 11am meeting at work they realise they forgot to put me on silent. Slight embarrassment as their mum phones and the ringtone is loud. During the meeting they text their mum to say they will phone back later. At lunchtime they show a work colleague one of the photos in my albums. It will probably never be seen again. They phone their mum and realise the call was about a trivial matter. They don't reply to the message from their partner, they are annoyed about something. I sit in their bag the rest of the afternoon, they are unaware of the messages I receive. I will let them know the next time they pick me up. It's time to leave work and my owner looks at me and realises the missed correspondences. They get back in touch with them all on the train ride home. I spend the rest of the evening in their pocket. They go out to meet friends. They use me at various times to find out where other people are. On the walk home they check their pocket to make sure I'm there. The alleyway is dark and they're glad I'm there in case anything happens. I do know a taxi number but they don't use it tonight. Back at home they phone their partner. They're no longer annoyed. They say goodnight, and I go back on charge.

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.

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."

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.