Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
On the 4th annual Data Protection day (28th January 2010) the European Commission announced the intention to reform the 1995 European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive 95 “Our privacy faces new challenges: behavioural advertising can use your internet history to…
Ethnographer Tricia Wang wrote an excellent and long comment on why Google is having troubles in China: While unfortunate that Google.CN may be shutting down, my ethnographic work in China revealed five things that aren’t being told in the current…
One of the projects funded by the Danish programme for user-driven innovation (English summary) is DESINOVA (see also this earlier post). DESINOVA’s purpose is to enhance innovation among service and trading companies using the methods of user-driven innovation and service…
Arup Australasia has published a three-part technical overview on its research blog of its ‘urban sensing via mobile phones’ project. The research project, in collaboration with the UTS Centre for Real-Time Information Networks, explores technical approaches to sensing the presence…
Western companies are struggling to bridge the growing gap created by the evolution of a cyberspace with Chinese characteristics. Kathrin Hille explains some of the cultural (and political) differences in today’s Financial Times. “[Chinese people] tend to roam the web…
The Danish Centre for Design Research (DCDR) is an umbrella organisation under the Danish Ministry of Culture for the design research that takes place at the Aarhus School of Architecture, The Danish Design School, Designskolen Kolding, and the Royal Danish…
The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those ages…
Interesting Google Blog article on how user research dramatically improved driving directions on Google Maps India. The research was based on the fact that street names are not commonly known in India and the typical wayfinding strategy is to ask…
Whether it’s checking market prices of crops, transferring money or simply making a call, mobile phones are transforming Africa. But, asks The Guardian, could this new technology end up bypassing the poorest? The problem apparently lies in the taxes levied…
Good, the collaborative magazine, has published its “Slow Issue” with perspectives on a smarter, better and slower future: “At its simplest, slow stands for a focus on quality, authenticity, and longevity rather than a mindless adherence to the faster and…
Yahoo Labs is beefing up its ranks of social scientists, adding highly credentialed cognitive psychologists, economists and ethnographers from top universities around the world, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. “In the last year, Yahoo Labs has bolstered its ranks of…
Microsoft’s Joe Fletcher contributed an intriguing article on software UX in India and China on the ever more interesting Johnny Holland site: “Over roughly the last 10 years, China and India have given way to a huge rise in technology…
In a two-part series, Korea’s JoongAng Daily newspaper looks at the rise of service design and the notion that modern product designers need to look well beyond the physical form of their projects. For years, the design field focused primarily…
Publishing Perspectives reports on a recent panel discussion on the African publishing industry at this year’s African Literature Week (16 – 21 November) in Oslo, Norway. [Muhtar] Bakare launched Kachifo [an independent literary publishing house in Lagos, Nigeria] in 2004,…
A new pilot programme from InterTradeIreland is aimed at assisting small and medium-sized firms, initially in the civil security sector, to innovate and meet identified but as yet unmet market needs, using ethnographic research and user-centred design approaches. The Irish…
Two articles from today’s La Stampa newspaper (translation by Mark Vanderbeeken, Experientia): Bargains without money Luca Indemni – Fabrizio Vespa “Leave your wallet at home” – that could be the slogan of the Gifts Without Money (“Regali Senza Moneta”) initiative…
Since cellphones became widely used in Kenya five years ago, they’ve become the bank card du jour. The Christian Science Monitor reports. “[In Kenya] with a mobile phone, one can pay electricity and water bills, pay for goods at the…
The Trill Centre is a project by Intel, Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA), and academic partners including Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and the National University of Ireland Galway, focused on technology research for independent living (TRIL). In essence,…
User experience strategist Steve Baty interviewed Ezio Manzini, Professor of Design at the Politecnico di Milano and one of the keynote speakers at Interaction 10, about designing for social innovation and his work with the DESIS network. “Social innovation is…
Technology has drawn us into our interconnected webs, in the office, on the street, on the park bench, to the point that we exist virtually everywhere except in the physical world, argues Adrian Higgins in the Washington Post, who writes…