Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
The ubiquitous presence of cell phones in emerging economies has brought about a wide range of cell phone-based services for low-income groups. Often times, the success of such technologies highly depends on its adaptation to the needs and habits of…
Over the past few years there’s been a lot of discussion around whether an experience can be designed. But it seems, writes Jordan Julien in UX Magazine, like everyone’s just getting hung up on semantics; an experience can be designed,…
Exploring mobile-only Internet use: results of a training study in urban South Africa Using an ethnographic action research approach, the study by Jonathan Donner (Microsoft Research India) and Shikoh Gitau and Gary Marsden (University of Cape Town) explores the challenges,…
By 2020, Chinese consumers will join the ranks of the world’s choosiest and most sophisticated consumers. In the March 2012 report “Meet the 2020 Chinese Consumer” Yuval Atsmon, Max Magni, Lihua Li and Wenkan Liao of McKinsey China contemplate the…
“Anthropology, Development and ICTs: Slums, Youth and the Mobile Internet in Urban India” is the title of a research paper by Nimmi Rangaswamy and Edward Cutrell of Microsoft Research India. Abstract In this paper we present results from an anthropological…
In November last year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published the short (free) report “The consumerization of IT- The next-generation CIO“. The “consumerization of ITâ€â€”defined as the use of technologies that can easily be provisioned by non-technologists—is a hot topic among CIOs these…
A report, recently published by UNDP, on mobile technologies and human development, “Mobile Technologies and Empowerment: Enhancing Human Development through Participation and Innovationâ€, does a good job of summarizing the many ways in which mobile technologies are being used successfully…
This report by Hani Eskandar (ITU), Barbara- Chiara Ubaldi (OECD) and Vyacheslav Cherkasov (UN-DESA) highlights the critical potential of mobile technologies for improved public governance, as well as for economic and social progress in achieving the internationally agreed development goals…
The argument of this pamphlet, written by Charles Leadbeater for IPPR (the Institute for Public Policy Research, the UK’s leading progressive thinktank) is that we should jettison the assumption that humans are selfish, first and foremost. Instead, we should start…
Facebook Timeline is an exemplary bit of interaction design that does little to advance the timeline formally. Yet it might alter the nature of human memory itself. A Domus Magazine design report from Palo Alto by Dan Hill. “It’s a…
On International Women’s Day, the GSMA mWomen Programme released a study called “Striving and Surviving – Exploring the Lives of Women at the Base of the Pyramid,” reports MobileActive.org. Drawn from 2,500 interviews with women (aged 16-64 in both rural…
When it comes to health, consumers’ complex and contradictory behaviour makes observational research highly valuable, says Ipsos Mori director Oliver Sweet. “Observation allows researchers to look at healthy behaviours that are often hard to articulate, such as the emotion attached…
The Design Yearbook 2011 of ARUP — the global firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists that Experientia collaborated with on the Low2No project in Helsinki — is a gorgeous overview of the power of (sustainable) design in…
Nir Eyal continues his article series on Techcrunch (see also “Habits are the new viral“) with a short essay on manufacturing desire. “Companies increasingly find that their economic value is a function of the strength of the habits they create.…
The Transition Companion: making your community more resilient in uncertain times by Rob Hopkins Chelsea Green Pub Co, November 2011 320 pages Abstract In 2008, the bestselling The Transition Handbook suggested a model for a community-led response to peak oil…
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Random House, February 2012 400 pages Abstract In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to…
The Life 2.0 project is a EU funded project that aims at supporting elderly people’s independent life through a platform of geographical positioning and social networking services. The project, which involves 13 core partners in 5 European member states, started…
Trying out Windows 8 on the desktop gives a strange feeling, writes Matthew Baxter-Reynolds on The Guardian’s Technology Blog. There’s a solid update to Windows 7, and then there’s a strange interface which jumps context. Plus you can’t join a…
MobileActive has posted an in-depth new case study that focuses on evaluating mobile health interventions. Written by Kate Otto, the case study looks at testing the efficacy of using mobile phones in health care in Ethiopia. A team of researchers…
Austin Center for Design today published a new book focused on the role of design in social entrepreneurship. Titled Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, the book is presented as a handbook for teaching, learning, and doing meaningful disruptive design work.…