Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Behavioural change researcher Dan Lockton discusses an approach which has emerged out of some of the ethnographic work he has been doing for the Empower project, working on CarbonCulture with More Associates, where asking users questions about how and why…
All human societies are alive with the battle for influence. Every single day each of us is subject to innumerable persuasion attempts from corporations, interest groups, political parties and other organisations. Each trying to persuade us that their product, idea…
Applying Anthropology in the Global Village Edited by Christina Wasson, Mary Odell Butler and Jacqueline Copeland-Carson Left Coast Press – November 2011 – 326 pp. Hardback (978-1-61132-085-5) Paperback (978-1-61132-086-2) The realities of the globalized world have revolutionized traditional concepts of…
It’s increasingly clear that we live in collaborative times. Many of the most interesting innovations of recent years have at their heart ideas of sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, exchanging or swapping. These are age-old concepts being reinvented through…
The idea of sharing things instead of owning them goes against everything we’ve been taught as a consumeristic society. Those who have spent their lives “keeping up with the Jones’” may find it hard to suddenly relinquish their death-grip on…
Jared Spool explores the key differences between “Normals†(normal mainstream users) and tech early adopters. Instead of thinking about ‘early adopters’ and ‘normals’ as if they are two homogeneous groups, he thinks it’s better to look at the motivations that…
Far-flung families are increasingly using Skype, Apple’s FaceTime and Google chat to do things together that would otherwise require a plane ticket. “Though Skype is now eight years old, the software — and others like it, including Apple’s FaceTime and…
As design becomes more sophisticated in influencing user behavior, it’s important that we start to think critically about the ethical boundary between persuasion and outright manipulation, argues Stephen P. Anderson. “You can’t discuss a topic like seduction or what motivates…
Homesense was a research project that looked at how we might design smart homes from the bottom up, in an environment of open innovation. Using open source tools Homesense brings the open collaboration methods of online communities to physical infrastructures…
Information Marketplaces: The new economics of cities Author: Arup, The Climate Group, Accenture and Horizon, University of Nottingham Publication date: 28 November 2011 The technology-enabled city is an untapped source of sustainable growth. “Written in partnership with The Climate Group,…
Simon Jenkins writes in The Guardian that the “smart money is moving from online towards ‘live experience’.” “The new magnetism of congregation seems universal. Every online service or forum promotes an event, an invitation, a club night, something for which…
“Homage to Catalonia II” is a documentary, a research project, a story of stories about the construction of a sustainable, solidary and decentralized economy. The video, which is a project of Joana Conill, Manuel Castells and Àlex Ruiz of IN…
Aileen Lee, partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, believes that the best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users is harnessing a concept called social proof. “What is social proof? Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when…
The concept of of social labelling could lead to a subconscious change in behaviour, Guy Champniss writes in The Guardian. “By social labelling, we’re referring to the tag society gives a particular behaviour in order to make sense of it.…
Five Levers for Change: inspiring consumers to adopt sustainable behaviour is fundamental to achieving Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan. Unilever’s Five Levers for Change is a coherent set of principles, which, if applied consistently to behaviour change interventions, will increase the…
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal posted excerpts from a debate between Danah Boyd, Stewart Baker, Jeff Jarvis, and Chris Soghoian on privacy: “Privacy in the digital age means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some…
As the first baby boomers turn 65 this year, high-tech is gradually making its way into the lives – and homes – of older folks. French newspaper Le Monde looks at the tablets, sensors, foot boards and other gadgets seniors…
The RSA’s latest report, Transforming Behaviour Change: Beyond Nudge and Neuromania, argues for a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between our social challenges, our behaviours and our brains. Abstract The Government is taking behavioural science very seriously, but existing…
This bibliography – now published on Change Observer – was initiatied in early 2011 as an independent study project by Courtney Drake, a graudate student at the Yale University School of Management. It overlaps with William Drenttel’s work as a…
Games, Life and Utopia is a half-day event in Pottsdam, Germany on 11 November, that is all about gamification, serious games, learning and play. It’s a conference for service and interaction designers, for social activists, for artists, for developers and…