Category Tourism
We are globalised, but have no real intimacy with the rest of the world [The Guardian]
With globalisation, most anticipate an inter-connected world with greater understanding of multiple cultures more than ever before. Martin Jacques, a senior visiting research fellow at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore, argues in The Guardian that this assumption is at…
Ethnographic study on shopping in Paris airports
Aeroports de Paris presents the first ethnographic study about men’s buying behaviour in an airport. This unprecedented survey was carried out in January 2006. In an airport environment, a man travelling on his own becomes a true shopper: He is…
What Ikea could teach Alitalia [Business Week]
Design Continuum CEO Gianfranco Zaccai imagines an airline that strives to provide an overwhelmingly positive customer experience I recently visited Boston’s new Ikea store with my two young children. A few days later, I flew to Italy on my usual…
Historic city of Bath to host wireless experiment [Reuters | CNN]
Britain’s historic city of Bath is to host an experiment in advanced wireless computer technology that could provide the blueprint for developing the world’s next generation of mobile phones and lap-tops. Called Cityware, the project will see 30 volunteers using…
Swisscom presents ICT usage vision for 2015
Swisscom’s Vision 2015 highlights the most probable future with respect to developments and usage of ICT. Taking into consideration both technological and societal trends, Swisscom developed a number of storylines covering different aspects of the every-day life in order to…
Experience design and national parks
During the Fall semester of 2005, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design teamed with MAYA Design to do a long-distance academic collaboration. Students were given the Strategic Plan 2001-2005 of the National Park Service and were asked to develop…
Australian qualitative research results in 35 mobile phone product ideas
Backpackers in Australia often wish to organise group activities, but have few collaboration methods available and only a trickle of communication is possible between them as they move. They regularly explore unfamiliar locations quickly, but have only basic resources to…
Campers want electronic creature comforts [The Indy Star]
The wilderness isn’t what it used to be. Today’s campers come equipped not just with bug spray and burgers, but cell phones, computers, televisions and video games. As electronic gadgets have become more portable, Americans have begun toting them everywhere…
Participatory design, branding and ethics (as applied in Barcelona)
In a blog that talks about participatory design and how users can contribute to the design of services, we cannot sidestep the ethical issue. Often people’s creativity and cultural contributions are used against their own interests. In a long and…
Green petite cars tempt tourists in southern Spain [BBC]
The narrow, cobbled streets of Cordoba in southern Spain are no place for a car, but Alfredo Romeo, a Spanish entrepreneur wanted to change that and set up a business with “blobjectsâ€, electric hire cars that are proving popular with…
Context
Context-based Research Group was established in 1999, the goal was simple – to help marketers and product designers do better work through the power of ethnography. Margaret’s Walking Stick is Context’s perpetual anthropology / ethnography education project. Each month contains…
Sun, sand and too much sizzle – a Mediterranean meltdown could mean tourist trauma [WWF]
Global warming could mean hard times ahead for the Mediterranean, including its all important tourism industry, according to a report commissioned by WWF. Read full story
Venice goes mobile with Wi-Fi walking tours [Metropolis Magazine]
A collaboration between the Department of Urban Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Architecture Venice (IUAV), the project uses video-equipped cell phones, PDAs, and location-based technology to deliver multimedia walking tours of lesser-known Venetian neighborhoods.…
A city with drive [The Independent]
Stephen Bayley takes a pit stop in Turin, and finds the hometown of Fiat is fuelled by fast cars and fabulous food. Read full story