Shell Global Scenarios to 2025 and 2050
The newest scenarios from Shell, the company that has been trendsetting the use of scenarios in strategic planning. Go to website
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
Category Methods
Made in Europe: Italy seeks renaissance of industry [International Herald Tribune]
Many of the largest European economies are casting about for a blueprint to remain competitive in the 21st century, as the forces of globalisation and technology shift the fault lines of economic power across the globe. Read full story
Thumbs up for easy use [International Herald Tribune]
While we in the real world labor over the small screens of our mobile devices, trying to figure out which menu button gets to our contact list and which key makes an exclamation mark, researchers and sociologists in assorted…
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea moves to Milan
In October 2005, the Interaction Design Institute will leave Ivrea and move to the new premises of Domus Academy in Via Watt in Milan. Read full story
Philips Design research projects
Aside from the many (sometimes older) projects, the website showing Philips’ design research projects also contains an interesting movie on foresight (Delphi movie). It seems that the most recent projects are under “Smart Connections”. Go to website
Sensors and pixels everywhere
Anatole Gershman, global director of research at Accenture Technology Laboratories, interviewed about Accenture’s vision for the future of technology, which includes interactive grocery carts and the ability for your wardrobe to communicate with stores. Read full story
A back-to-basics mobile launched [BBC]
Vodafone is launching a back-to-basics mobile phone in response to customer demand for simplicity. Read full story
Office culture [Financial Times]
“So how do you feel about e-mail?” asks Simon Roberts, a social anthropologist. “How has it changed your workload?” This is not what social anthropologists are usually expected to ask: they observe courtship rituals, try to interpret ancient chants,…
Korea’s plan for key future technologies and their implications
Between 15 and 20 years into the future, Korean people’s long-time wish of living longer and healthier lives will come true and Korea will enter an era of space travel by completing the development of manned spaceship. Such predictions came…
A creativity lab for Taiwan [Business Week]
The Industrial Technology Research Institute thinks it has a way to turn the country into an innovator, rather than just an improver. Read full story
The cellphone that does everything imaginable, at least sort of [The New York Times]
Samsung’s new phone for Sprint can take two-megapixel photos, scan in business cards, record 90-minute videos, play TV shows and even transcribe dictated speech. But how well? Read full story
A case study on Yahoo! usability
Yahoo’s multiple business units, each containing decentralised user experience teams, have a natural tendency to design different solutions to similar problems. Left unchecked, these differences would weaken the Yahoo! brand and produce a less usable network of products. This case…
Microsoft’s social computing symposium 2005
The Social Computing Symposium 2005, sponsored by Microsoft Research, will take place April 24-26 in Redmond, Washington. The goal for this event is to foster an awareness of research and innovation in social technologies, and create new lines of communication…
Can Europe survive? [Red Herring]
Europe gave the world Linux, GSM, and the web, but got little of the fortune and less of the glory. To get what it is due, some old world ways will have to change. Read full story
Can ‘Made in Europe’ survive? [International Herald Tribune]
While luxury products still benefit from a “Made in France” label, more mundane industries are vulnerable to foreign competition. Read full story
Neil Gershenfeld on the coming digital revolution in the world of manufactured physical goods
First we experienced the digital revolution in computation. Then we experienced it in communications. And now, according to Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, the digital revolution is moving into surprising new territory: the world of…
User Experience Magazine
User Experience Magazine is the global publication of the UPA, Usability Professional Association. It comes out three times a year and is written in the easy reading style of Interactions Magazine. Go to website
It’s a flat world, after all [The New York Times]
In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail for India, going west. He had the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. He never did find India, but he called the people he met “Indians” and came home and reported to his…
Revenge of the right brain [Wired Magazine]
Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age – ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion. Read full story
It’s not just a phone, it’s an adventure [The New York Times]
Larry Azlin, a software engineer in El Cerrito, Calif., considers himself one of the lucky ones. His aging clamshell cellphone, a Motorola V60, seems to work just fine. But once he gives it some thought, it occurs to him…