Trapped in the Anglosphere
Martin Kettle thinks the UK has lost sight of next door Europe, trapped as Brits are in their Anglo-centric internet. “It is hard to recall a time when the national, not just the London, mind was less informed about…
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Category Challenges
Finland’s user-driven innovation policy
The 2010 Finnish National Innovation Strategy contains an important section on demand and user-driven innovation, with user-driven innovation being described as: “User-driven innovation makes use of information on customers, user communities and customer companies. It engages users as active participants…
Younghee Jung on design research for Nokia
Younghee Jung, manager and design researcher at the Nokia Research Centre in Bangalore, India, has been profiled again on the Nokia Conversations blog through a long interview: One of [Younghee’s] most recent projects was Nokia Open Studios. It’s a project…
Designing for the loss of control
The people at frogdesign have posted two long articles (the first one is really an essay) that we consider a recommended read: Openness or how do you design for the loss of control? Openness is the mega-trend for innovation in…
Do you own your device, or it you?
On August 12, at noon, ZDNet Australia organised a live broadcast on the future of email. The discussion delved into the issues and challenges facing email in its current state, and looked at how social media is changing the way…
The Economist on social innovation
In America and Britain governments hope that a partnership with “social entrepreneurs†can solve some of society’s most intractable problem. The Economist reports in a long article. “Social innovation†is the increasingly common shorthand for this approach to public-private partnerships.…
Innovation in Kenya’s informal economy
In Making Do: Innovation in Kenya’s Informal Economy, Steve Daniels of Brown University illuminates the dynamics of Africa’s informal economy to enhance our understanding of emerging systems of innovation. “Wandering through winding alleys dotted with makeshift worksheds, one can’t help…
Mobile youth activism around the world
A couple of years ago I wrote about Mobile Revolutions, a blog about mobile phones, youth and social change by Lisa Campbell Salazar. The blog also supported TakingITMobile, an international study on youth mobile communications that she completed as a…
Reputation managers addressing our internet footprints
In the modern digital age where seemingly everything and everyone is online, a new industry is emerging to “manage” the internet footprint that people and businesses leave online. “Reputation managers” can clean up and shape a person’s online history: burying…
Time to break the cyber-utopian myth
Who do you read and associate with online? Ethan Zuckerman argues in this Guardian video that cultural and linguistic barriers stand in the way of our using the internet to tackle global issues.
Taking co-production into the mainstream
The conventional public services delivery model does not address underlying problems that lead many to rely on public services and thus carries the seeds of its own demise, argue David Boyle, Anna Coote, Chris Sherwood and Julia Slay in a…
Questions for Microsoft Research’s Indrani Medhi
Indrani Medhi, associate researcher in the Technology For Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India, was recently rated one of the “50 smartest people in technology†in 2010 by Fortune Magazine. In an interview with Arlene Chang of the India…
Coercing people into a brave new digital world
Design consultant Martyn Perks thinks that a UK government-backed campaign to get the entire UK adult population online “threatens to make cyber slaves of us all.” “Is it not possible that some people simply don’t want to participate in this…
Social networking and public service provision
I very much enjoyed the reflection of Lee Bryant (Headshift), following the launch of the UK Government’s Big Society initiative. In it, he argues that in the past, UK politics [and not just UK, I’d say] were dominated by two…
University and Cyberspace conference videos online
A few weeks ago the Communia conference University and Cyberspace took place here in Torino, Italy, with a focus on “reshaping knowledge institutions for the networked age”. Speakers included Massimo Banzi, Joy Ito, David Orban, Bruce Sterling, and many others.…
People-focused innovation in healthcare
Philips Design has published a downloadable paper on how it uses qualitative research and design thinking to support development of solutions for the ever-changing healthcare landscape. “Our lifestyles are increasingly out of balance and we are placing our health at…
Towards a read/write urbanism
Adam Greenfield, Nokia’s head of design direction for service and user-interface design, is the author of this week’s Urban Omnibus feature. In the piece, he uses software design as a base to talk about the ways citizens call out trouble…
Habitar – Bending the urban frame
Today I received the catalogue of the Habitar exhibition, organised by LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, an exhibition centre for art, science, technology and advanced visual industries in Asturias, Spain, and curated by José Luis de Vicente with Fabien…
More videos from The Web And Beyond
All presentations from The Web and Beyond (TWAB) can now be viewed online. TWAB is the bi-annual daylong conference organised by Chi Nederland and IOP-MMI for the user experience and interaction design community. Here are some we like: People as…
Smart meters not smart enough for consumers
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy on Tuesday released results of a survey finding that energy use feedback tools are more important than smart meters in reducing consumers’ energy use. Analyzing 57 residential feedback programs since 1974, the ACEEE…