Et par stykker af os havde i går fornøjelsen af at opleve Bill Verplank tegne og fortælle om Interaktions design ved Danmarks Designskole. I stedet for det klassiske foredrag - hvor powerpoint dominerer - var væggene dækket af papir, som Mr. Verplank  tegnede på, mens han levende fortalte om interaktion, design, metaforer og paradigmer.

Indholdet var velkendt, men formen var meget inspirererende. Herudover gav det ekstra stemning, at hovedparten af deltagerne var studerende - så der blev stillet spørgsmål uden forbehold.

Man kan finde et interview og video af Bill Verplank i den digitale version af bogen Designing Interactions fra oktober 2006. Desværre er han i denne video slet ikke så levende, som vi oplevede ham i går.

Beklager kvaliteten af billederne - iphone, tsk tsk. :)

I disse dage er vi et par stykker, som er i New York for at deltage på konferencen GAIN, som handler om design og business. Det er tre intensive dage, som forhåbentlig giver os en masse inspiration til, hvordan design og forretning kan forenes på smukkeste vis. Vi er herovre sammen med fire andre designbureuaer fra Danish Design Association, så det er en helt lille designdelegation fra Danmark.

AKQAs reception.

AKQAs lokaler.

David fra AKQA fortæller.

Første dag bød på to meget inspirerende virksomhedsbesøg og en workshop. Om formiddagen var vi hos AKQA, der er et digitalt designbureau, som har specialiseret sig i at skabe interaktive oplevelser. De er 750 mand på fem lokation rundt om i verden, som har udviklet nogle super interessante løsninger for mange af verdens største brands. De har folk inden for både user experience, strategi, design og teknisk implementering, og er på den måde en meget interessant showcase for 1508.

Vi fik en to timers gennemgang af virksomheden og deres arbejde af Creative Director Damien Claassens, der har arbejdet i Framfab København i fire år. En meget inspirerende fyr, som præsenterede nogle ret syrede Alternate Reality Games, som de havde udviklet for blandt andre McDonalds og XBox. De har også udviklet webløsninger i stor stil og rigtig mange, som både visuelt og idémæssigt har kant (se eksempelvis The Happy Factory, som de har udviklet til Coca Cola).

Board hos Mother.

Om eftermiddagen besøgte vi Mother Design. De er et designbureau, der primært arbejder med visuel identitet. Mens AKQA var meget stramt og strømlinet indrettet, så var Mother Design langt mere kaos og kreativ uorden. Grundlæggeren Michael fortalte om Mothers filosofi. De har eksempelvis ikke projektledere men alene Mothers, der plejer projekterne. Efter Michaels præsentation præsenterede seks medarbejdere nogle udvalgte projekter. Igen rigtigt inspirerende.

Mothers lokaler.

Præsentation af et Mother projekt.

Ind imellem de to virksomhedsbesøg deltog vi i et par forskellige workshops. Den mest interssante handlede om at positionere sin designvriksomhed - og hvordan man bør håndtere sine kunder. Det kommer vi til at bruge på længere sigt.

Nu venter to dage fra tidlig morgen til sen aften, hvor det er mere klassisk seminar med Tom Kelly fra IDEO, som moderator. Og han i sig selv er to dages stolesidning værd :-)

UXintensive Copenhagen, Adaptive Path

Monday I joined the first of a 4 day conference on user experience hosted by Adaptive Path’s Brandon Schauer. Each days put intensive focus on a specific subject, beeing Design Strategy this monday.

Now, Brandon Schauer didn’t reveal unknown secrets from the world of design strategy, but he delivered a professional and fluid presentation supported by this note: One of the most valuable slides in this presentation.

Serves well as inspiration…

EPIC 2008 proceedings / Capturing the Intangibilities of Virtual and Physical Spaces 

Design anthropologist at 1508, Katja Øder Schlesinger, is giving a workshop at the annual international Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (called EPIC) together with anthropologist and PhD Bettina Hauge. The aim of the workshop is to capture the field of intelligent housing as a brand new area of ethnographic research. The aim is to explore the crossings between the physical (visible) and abstract (invisible) worlds that make up a particular challenge in this field. This will be done by presenting two cases of ethnographic research that has resulted in new product development within the field of intelligent housing and by exploring a Doll’s House method, which has proven to be a helpful method in order to reveal everyday routines, needs and preferences in relation to light and light control systems at home. By playing with the Doll’s House we hope  to gain experience, create methodological reflections and to further develop the method by applying the work areas of the workshop participants.

Målet med årets New Media Days var at ”guide deltageren i udviklingen indenfor nye medier”. Overordnet må jeg sige, at konferencen kun i nogen grad levede op til denne målsætning. Mange af de indlæg jeg overværede, gennem den to dage lange konference, skuede lidt for meget bagud og havde mere fokus på status quo end den fremtidige udvikling (hvorfor er vi hvor vi er i dag? og hvordan kom vi her til?). Men i sig selv er New Media Days konceptet stærkt – det fungerer rigtigt godt som et fælles rum for inspiration og networking. Lyspunkterne er mange - særligt når man pludselig finder sig selv i en teoretisk diskussion om danske virksomheders åben/lukkethed i forhold til brugerinvolvering og markedsføring samt profitering af web 2.0. Jeg har fremhævet tre oplæg, der på den ene eller anden måde skilte sig ud fra mængden på årets konference.

‘We feel fine’
Det første oplæg jeg vil nævne er Jonathan Harris  der har udviklet konceptet: We feel fine  – en løbende on-line visualisering af klodens humør. Princippet bag We Feel Fine er, at et stykke software hele tiden scanner blogposts over hele kloden for sætninger, der inkluderer følgende ordlyd: ’I feel ’ og ’I am feeling ’. Programmet henter hele sætningen og får således også værdiladningen i sætningen fx sad, fine, happy etc.. Disse værdiladede ord samles i en database og visualiseres på forskellig måde. Ideen er sjov og konceptet omkring visualiseringen helt fantastisk – tænk at rå-data kan gøres så indbydende – men tjek det selv ud.

Et andet indslag jeg vil fremhæve var et nyt tiltag på konferencen inspireret af den japanske oplægsform: Pecha Kucha , hvor oplægsholderne fik 20 slides af hvert 20 s varighed og dermed samlet 6 min og 40 s. til at komme rundt om deres pointer. En formidlingstilgang der kan tiltale i en verden, hvor enkelt, kort og præcis formidling ofte er en mangelvare. Emnet for oplægget var unge og mediebrug, hvor seks oplægsholdere, i spændet fra den unge teenager selv, over ungdomsforskeren til reklamemanden, gav deres bud på hvordan medierne bruges i dag og i fremtiden samt hvorfor.

Branded Engagement
Morten Remmer fra bureauet Relate konkretiserede og eksemplificerede begrebet ’branded engagement’ i en on-line virkelighed. I sig selv er bevæggrunden for at arbejde med begrebet, at man som virksomhed vil knytte sine brugere/kunder tættere til sig ved at skabe et fx on-line oplevelsesrum, hvor de selv bidrager til udvikling og indhold. Dette ud fra en betragtning om en form for ’spill-over’ brandingeffekt og i sidste ende noget der kan ses på bundlinjen (enten via salg eller reklameindtægter). Eksempelvis kan nævnes on-line brandede experiences eller communities som Nike Plus  og Endomondo.com . Som eksemplerne viser, er der nogle typer af ‘branded engagement’ der ligger lige til højrebenet – det er ofte emner af kulturel karakter eller mere nicheorienterede emner med en iboende tradition for, at folk diskuterer og involverer sig  - fx sport og hobbys, design, musik, kunst, film mm. Det gør udfordringen desto større i forhold til andre produktområder som FMCG og services indenfor fx bank og forsikring. Udfordringer er der nok af, fx den måde virksomheder i dag er organiseret i forhold til traditionel en-vejs kommunikation på nettet samt i tanken om, at afgive kontrol og lade brugerne/kunderne komme helt ind til kernen af ens brand. En yderligere pointe er, at den måde ‘branded engagement’ ofte bruges på i dag, er baseret på, at brugerne kommer til dig i stedet for, at skabe oplevelsesrummet der hvor brugerne er (fx via embedded communities).

New Media Days løber af stablen i disse dage, og 800 internet-entusiaster og mediefolk er samlet i Tappehallerne for at søge inspiration og netværke. Arrangementet er som vanligt professionelt afviklet (bortset fra en del mikronfonproblemer) og med et interessant program. Ud over en veloplagt Mads Brügger som vært var dagens absolutte højdepunkt at opleve Jonathan Harris levere en visuel tour de force præsentation, da han introducerede til sine digitale værker.

Jonathan Harris er digital kunstner og undersøger fænomener som overvågning, selviscenesættelse og storytelling. Jonthan er bl.a. ophavsmand til projektet We Feel Fine, som er en internet-applikation, der hvert femte minut crawler verdens blogs for nye posts, der rummer formuleringerne ‘I feel’ og ‘I am feeling’. Resultatet er en applikation, der giver indblik i de følelser, som præger bloggere lige nu i hele verden. Med 20.000 følelser per dag, har We Feel Fine oparbejdet et massivt datamateriale, som man kan bryde ned på bl.a. lande, byer, køn og alder. Bl.a. kan man konstatere, at de mest udbredte følelser blandt Københavnere er ‘Better’ og ’Bad’.

Applikationen har et brugerinterface som er meget poetisk og lækkert designet, og det er et meget fint eksempel på, hvordan veludført design ikke bare understøtter og formidler en idé, men bliver et med ideen. Lad os få mere af det.

Mikkel 

Web 3.0 midt i red light district.

Hvis vi skal være helt ærlige, så var programmet til dette års EuroIA lidt i den tørre ende. Meeen der skal alligevel meget til før man takker nej til tur til Amsterdam, og gudskelov for det!

Konferencen var sat i smukke rammer i Tushinsk Theatre og første dag bød på indlæg så spændende som ”Content Analysis: The Hows and Whys to understanding Your Content” og ”Why Information Architects are Needed in the Kitchen”. Størst indtryk gjorde Claudia Urschbach fra BBC med sit indlæg om ”What Semantic Web and Web 3.0 Mean for IA”.

Det fantastiske ved vores branche er, at den konstant udvikler sig. Hele essensen i en Informationsarkitekts dagligdag er forandring – at skabe forandring, omstille sig til forandring og kontrollere forandring. Web 2.0 er for længst en realitet, næste udfordring er Web 3.0, også kaldet The Semantic Web.

Modsat Web 2.0, der handler om mere håndgribelige ting som sociale medier og brugergenereret indhold - kommunikation mellem mennesker - tilføjer Web 3.0 endnu en dimension til internettet, hvor computere i højere grad bidrager til mere målrettede brugeroplevelser. For at computerne kan løse nye opgaver for os, skal vi præsentere viden på en måde, som er enkel og entydig at afkode for computere - dét er semantisk web!

Tim Berners-Lee formulerede det allerede i 1998:
“The Web was designed as an information space, with the goal that it should be useful not only for human-human communication, but also that machines would be able to participate and help.”

  Nesta

De mere målrettede brugeroplevelser ligger ikke kun i intelligente søgeresultater, og ikke kun indenfor det enkelte website, men i delingen af viden på tværs af websites og applikationer. Vidensdelingen bliver mere teknisk, og kommer til at foregå mere automatisk – resultatet er en personliggørelse af hele web-oplevelsen.

Det stiller naturligvis også krav til IA’ernes viden om et nyt sæt byggeklodser (Microformats, OpenID, API osv.), der ændrer måden vi fremover konstruerer websites. Desuden skal vi for alvor til at forholde os til mobilt internet, der i øjeblikket slår alle rekorder.Tendenserne i IA faget peger således på, at fremtiden vil kræve langt flere typer specialister, hvor vi tidligere primært har set IA specialister indenfor taxonomi.

Der er allerede rigtig mange gode blogindlæg og artikler derude om Semantic Web, så google det, når du har en ledig stund.

Med på vejen får du lige et par Buzz words, der kan etablere dig som internet guru til New Media Days:
-        Ubiquitous computing
-        Linked data cloud
-        RDF, FOAF, SIOC, MOAT…

Det er ord der kan gøre en IA-chick som mig helt blød i knæene :)

‘Serious Play’ is the title of the conference I recently attended in Pasadena, California. Is the title a paradox or does it actually make sense? To me it makes perfectly sense – that is, if serious equals values like: meaningful, absorbing and valuable.

After having interviewed his kids, John Hockenberry put it like this: “Play is so fun, that it’s serious!” In my ‘post-conference’ state of mind I will add to this: since being essential to our ability to learn, create and innovate, play is serious matter!

Consequently, I will claim that play is a seriously important part of the design process. Without knowing how to play, we will lack a crucial tool for creativity and for creating anything new and truly remarkable. To create new innovative and creatively splendid ideas, products or designs you may as well take playfulness quite serious!

During the conference ‘Serious Play’ was addressed from many different angles - from speakers of different professions to performers and musicians, during the workshops and as the theme for the evening parties.

Serious versus Solemn

Artist and Pentagram partner, Paula Scher took her outset in the distinction between the serious and the solemn. She emphasized the importance of changing focus before the serious, imperfect and explorative gets stuck in popularity and moves into the comfortable and all to perfect zone of ‘solemn’. Paula Scher further argued how you need to go places that you don’t know, where you can be a fool and where you can PLAY! Because this is where you learn and grow.

Role-play and prototyping

Among the featured speakers were also Tim Brown, President and CEO at IDEO, John Maeda, President-elect at Rhode Island School of Design and Charles Elachi Director at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, all of them integrating elements of play as an essential part of their professional careers.

In his presentation Tim Brown focused on tree aspects of the design process: exploration, building and role-play. All tree being an essential part of children’s games and their way of learning through play. He emphasized that in order to explore and be playful you need to feel trust. If not, you are not likely to take creative risks. Tim Brown emphasized the counter action between playfulness and seriousness and argued that play needs to have rules in order to be constructive – especially when playing in groups.

Tim Brown showed examples of how they have integrated these elements of play in the design processes at IDEO, providing the team with tools for generating and sharing ideas, for grasping form and functionality through building and prototyping and gaining insights and empathy through role-play.

John Maeda once again inspired through his engaging playful and experimenting approach and his ability to keep an open, creative mind. His design and art installations sparkes your curiosity and make you see things from a different angle - often adding a smile on your face. An example is his human computer installation, which showed how prototyping and role-play helped his students grasp the complexity of the computer. Finally he shared with the audience his concerns about how to fit unrestricted creativity into the academic world.

Charles Elachi gave a great example of how to keep a playful attitude in a complex context. Having worked as a principal investigator on a number of research and development studies and flight projects sponsored by NASA, Charles Elachi knows the value of innovative thinking, passion and imagination, - and seing some of the solutions for launching a satellite into space and make it land safely on a foreign planet, - you can tell that experimentation and creative thinking has been put into play!

Celebrating uniqueness and curiosity

(Photo © Matthew Barney; Gladstone Gallery)

Athlete and artist, Aimee Mullins, has a different motivation for being innovative and playful in order to affect her world. Aimee Mullins had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was one year old. Being determined to live through her successes, Aimee Mullins shows how she used her obvious difference as a potential to opening up possibilities rather than constraining them. Wearing amputees she has learned to explore the fun of changing her personality – and her physical appearance.

Aimee Mullins has realized how we in childhood learn that differences are bad. Instead she encourages us to consider diversity as a quality that make us aware of our uniqueness and makes it enriching to collaborate. She asks us to see our potential and go for wild and improbable goals and to constantly practice our curiosity, - since curiosity makes us see possibilities and allow us to take risks.

Both Aimee Mullins, Tim Brown, John Maida and Charles Elaschi thus seem to agree with Paula Scher on avoiding the solemn.

The conference was great. Now go play, …seriously!

We returned from Euro IA summit last Saturday. We have been busy since then. That is the reason why we have not published our thoughts about it before now.

However there’s plenty of good reasons to spread the message: The conference this year was a great succes. Both in terms of content and quality, atmosphere, people and location there is no doubt that this was the best summit so far. The only thing to point fingers at - seen from our very narrow danish perspective - is the number of danish attendants. Last year Denmark was surprisingly well represented, this year we were very few.

Of course some presentations were more relevant to us than others, but generally speaking the professional/academic level was just perfect. I will not go through all the insights (and we did not go to all presentations), so this is just a brief note on the speakers who gave new ideas to include in our next projects.

Playful IA (Kars Alfrink)

Extremely interesting presentation on adapting ideas from game design to IA. We are currently designing a new intranet for a big danish company, and I believe we are going to adapt some of the ideas – eg. what happens when you think of an intranet as a game, with real challenges, tokens, rewards etc.? This could be a very obvious way to motivate users to participate and take ownership of the site.

How to (Really) localize an Information Architecture (Peter Van Dijck)

Peter presented a simple framework to address the questions that always arise when creating internatioal sites. It’s not that the content of the presentation was new to us, but it was the kind of presentation that inspired me to go back home to produce the 6 generic questions and slides to use at client presentations.

Service Design (Claire Rowland)

Service Design is in growing demand in Denmark. It was very interesting to hear that the same is true outside Denmark – or at least in the UK. Just like the presentation Peter gave, the most interesting part of Claires presentation was the methods and the way of presenting them to clients.

There was many other presentations that deserves to be mentioned: The Core and paths: Designing from the inside out by Are Halland and the one about the new site for Heathrow Airport by Georgio Venturi and Jonathan Culling were also excellent… and all the rest was good too…But this is all for now… :-)

Enjoy the EuroIA2008 photoset on Flickr

At the moment, we are working on some cool projects, where we are introducing some new kinds of design methods. Of course we will write about them on this blog as soon we have relevant references.

Soon you will hear a lot about our huge web project for Carlsberg, and how we have been working with the blue ocean strategy developing the design concept. You will also be filled in on an interesting identity project for the new biotech company, Symphogen that is approaching IPO status.

We are also working on a project in the field of service design, which is becoming one of our prominent areas of expertise. It’s a challenge because this business area is in progress all over. One should perhaps say beta-mode.

In England, several design firms have worked with service design for some years.  One of the good ones is Live Work manage by Lavrans Lovlie, who is really a capacity in the field of service design.

In March, the Design Management Institute is having a design conference “11th DMI European Design Management Conference” here in Copenhagen. At this conference, Lavrans Lovlie will talk about service design. Unfortunately, the crew from 1508 will not be around, because we all are going to NY on a research trip. Well… that will also be interesting, and we will do some anthropological work looking for some new projects in the field of service design :-)

By
The researching Rix