Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Régine Debatty of we-make-money-not-art just posted about the A1 Lounge in Vienna, a new store concept EOOS created for mobile phone company Mobilkom Austria. “The most tangible thing in the mobile phone business is the signed contract – a sheet of paper. The services you…
Nokia has updated its “culture of mobility” online magazine with a feature on mobile imaging. It is in their words, “an exploration of the creation, and creatives, behind the trend that’s reinventing the media landscape.”
Vodafone is initiating a new way of communicating itself to its customers. The most obvious aspects of this image repositioning are, initially, a change to the design of the Vodafone logo and a new Vodafone communication platform, with the now famous question ‘How are you?’…
Much of the critical work on the Razr, Motorola’s half-inch-thick, ultralight cell phone was done at a downtown Chicago innovation lab known as Moto City — rather than solely in the company’s sprawling traditional research and development facility in suburban Libertyville, Ill. […] Innovation…
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Nokia Research Center announced a research collaboration to advance the state of the art in mobile computing and communications technologies. CSAIL and Nokia will establish a new research facility – the…
I have no idea how recent this is, but here are about ten web pages with what IBM has to say on user-centred design. “User-Centered Design is a well established process that has been widely adopted by many organizations to deliver products that meet users’…
The current issue of Business Week has devoted an extensive feature to Dr. Stefano Marzano, CEO and Creative Director of Philips Design. “Marzano’s passion lies in humanising technology. His goal is to make homes and offices less cluttered with bulky gadgets, while still retaining a…
Business Week just published a review on Tom Kelley’s new book “The Ten Faces of Innovation” (see also my earlier post). Though critical of the fact that all insights are filtered through only one design consultancy, IDEO, the reviewer praises the book for its capacity…
Motofuture is a (broadband optimised) site where Motorola presents its vision of the future. Through a series of of people-based future scenarios the company introduces its prototypes of products and services. The site was design by Digit and features a certain Bill Hammond, a retired…
The Guardian has a fascinating and slightly depressing article about the multi-million-pound industry intent on turning teenagers and toddlers into passionate consumers. British child is familiar with up to 400 brand names by the time they reach the age of 10. Researchers report that kids…
Two Dutch telcos – KPN and Scarlet – have introduced mobile phones specially made for young children, reports The Register. “On Wednesday, national carrier KPN will unveil a kid phone – iKids – with a built in GPS receiver, which remains working even when the…
Not just industrial jobs are under threat from China, India and other emerging economies, but also jobs in knowledge-based industries as these countries combine growth in low-skill, low-wage manufacturing with an expanding presence in innovative, hi-tech sectors. This was the warning in two EU reports…
This week’s column by Joanna Glasner of Wired News includes input from an assortment of experts who share their views on top contenders to be the technologies of tomorrow. Interestingly, Ian Pearson, futurist at British Telecommunications, focuses on simplicity and mobile socialisation as major…
This week WestPoint Home presented smart bedding and other interactive furnishings to store buyers at its showroom in New York. One new product will be available next month: a Cinderella-theme coverlet that lights up like Broadway and makes the sound of a fairy godmother’s wand…
The New York Times reports that Illy, the Italian coffee, has opened a new Galleria Illy in SoHo. It’s a coffee themeland in this temporary experience featuring an art gallery, library, classrooms and espresso bar. Visitors can thumb through hundreds of volumes about coffee, turn…
“The burgeoning field of strategic design is splitting up into an artful and a scientific design approach. Hard, explicit skills give the scientific agencies the upper hand in becoming innovation partners for global business. That is why design agencies need to…Show it and Tell it.”…
“Perspectives on Design and Strategy: Points of view from the 2005 Institute of Design Strategy Conference”, published by the Institute of Design, IIT offers interviews with several contributors on the subject of how design in starting to appear in general business strategy and what that…
A dramatic transformation is occurring within the design industry. Front runners among strategic design agencies are working in increasingly complex projects and are starting to redefine their role and services in relation to corporate clients. This development is taking place along with an increased demand…
It’s not for people, but is definitely is “experience design”: Farmers have teamed up with scientists to create a farm where the cows choose when they want to be milked using automated booths. The parlour, developed in Holland, is already in use in more than…
Can China move 400 million people to its cities without wreaking environmental havoc? Eco-urban designer William McDonough says yes—and Beijing is listening. Beijing is now orchestrating an industrial revolution, hoping to telescope into a few decades what it took Western countries a century or two…
The Workshop on Digital Inclusion and Participation in Brussels on 23 September 2005 aimed at setting the scene for the EU’s i2010 ambitions: an inclusive information society that provides high quality public services and promotes quality of life. It involved representatives from civil society, industry,…
The upgraded digital divide: are we developing new technologies faster than consumers can use them? TiVos and Treos and BlackBerrys. Wi-Fi and HDTV and plasma screens. Picture phones, digital cameras, iPods and now iPod cell phones. Complexity among consumer technology products has never been greater…
Can anyone find a way to make your constantly beeping and dinging computer leave you alone and let you work? A long story in the New York Times Magazine explores HCI, the study of office work and the nascent field of interruption science. Read full…
Today we launched the website of Experientia, the new experience design company founded by business specialist Pierpaolo Perotto, usability expert Michele Visciola, user experience strategist Jan-Christoph Zoels and communication strategist Mark Vanderbeeken. The site contains plenty of information on who we are, our approach and…
The October 2006 issue of “new value by One Design”, the quarterly magazine of Philips Design, looks at design leadership, design as a tool for visualising the future, and senior management visions on the future of design at Philips. Read web edition of the magazine
“Strange that Inform.com, the latest online newsreader, didn’t include its own much-promoted launch in today’s inaugural Lead Story headlines. It didn’t make its own business or tech sections either. Not even entertainment. Remarkable editorial restraint, I’d say, for a startup that touts itself as the…
Dave Iverson of San Francisco public radio station KQED interviews Tom Kelley, the general manager of IDEO, about his new book The Ten Faces of Innovation. The 45 minute interview focuses on how to encourage and recognise daily innovation and creativity, assessing what tools, talents,…
“The experience economy: the evaluation of emerging market opportunities for growing your business” is the title of an e-book presentation by e-Strategic Research, inc, the California based market research consultancy. The e-report offers a synthesis of theory and practice as it relates to marketing strategy…
As companies seek a better understanding of their customers, designers explore more user-centred methods and educators introduce social issues into the curriculum, the time is right for inclusive design. That was the encouraging message to emerge from the third Include conference held at the Royal…
By affecting how people think and act and by connecting an organisation to its constituents’ values, design can enhance performance. In this article for the Design Management Journal, Roger Sametz and Andrew Maydoney of Sametz Blackstone Associates (a strategic communications practice) present a model…
In what would be the largest project of its kind, the Missouri Department of Transportation is finalising a contract to monitor thousands of cell phones, using their movements to map real-time traffic conditions statewide on all 5,500 miles of major roads. It’s just one of…
Cell phones made up 74.6 percent of all African phone subscriptions last year, says the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union. Cell phone subscriptions jumped 67 percent south of the Sahara in 2004, compared with 10 percent in cell-phone-saturated Western Europe, according to Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese…
Voices in Your Hand is a humanitarian project, sponsored by Philips Electronics, to create a simple, voice-email handset and cheap audio services to help urban shantytowns and isolated rural areas in the developing world, overcoming illiteracy or minority languages. The project is now in a…
From strategy, brand and innovation to product, service and experience Businesses fifteen years ago referred to everything as product, and the focus was on how to make those products robust. A new life insurance policy was referred to as a product, as was software and…
The theme of this doctoral dissertation, entitled “Making Sense – Design for Well-being” is the design of IT artefacts for increased well-being in the home. The goal of this publication, written by Sara Ilstedt Hjelm at KTH, Sweden, was to provide a better understanding of…
The growing role of wireless communication in international economic development was the focus of a major research workshop organised by the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication. The October 7-8, 2005 gathering of the world’s leading global communication researchers included participants from India, Kenya, Indonesia,…
Experientia takes part in an international creativity workshop on “toys for children’s rehabilitation” in Yerevan, Armenia. The symposium, workshop and exhibition, which will take place from 20 November to 3 December, is a joined organisation of Studio-College of the National Aesthetics Center, the Soros Foundation’s…
The Isreali Design Center, Israel’s first museum dedicated to design will open in Holon by 2008. A series of conferences exploring the role of design in society and raising awareness for the forthcoming museum have been planned. The first conference, organised by Prof. Erzi Tarazi…
According to an IBM UX fact sheet, the user experience designer creates a design that satisfies the business, market and user requirements received from market planning and user experience research, while at the same time incorporating the feedback received from user experience evaluation. IBM then…
Two recent Australian reports investigate how children and teens relate to internet and mobile devices. kidsonline@home – Internet use in Australian homes [April 2005] NetAlert and the Australian Broadcasting Authority recognised a need to capture behaviours and attitudes associated with Internet use in the home,…