Visions of the post-pandemic home
Vitra, the German manufacturing company, published this week a "set of hypotheses" on the future of the home, as living spaces are pushed to the limits.
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
The ethnographer and the algorithm: beyond the black box
Angèle Christin argues that we can
explicitly enroll algorithms in ethnographic research, which can shed light on unexpected aspects of algorithmic systems - including their opacity. She delineates three mesolevel strategies for algorithmic ethnography.
[Book] Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms
The starkly different ways that American and French online news companies respond to audience analytics and what this means for the future of news.
Experientia participating in Swiss Smart Government Day
Experientia's partner Jan-Christoph Zoels and our Swiss collaborator Thomas Schertenleib will be leading the process workshop "Culture of participation: digital stakeholder engagement post COVID" at the upcoming Swiss Smart Government Day (8 September 2020, St. Gallen).
Security isn’t just a technology problem – it’s about design, too
While it's easy to blame the user, phishing schemes have become incredibly sophisticated and believable. So, instead of blaming the user, we want to instead bring an empathetic lens, and understand more about their needs.
The public’s role in COVID-19 vaccination
This report considers human factors in relation to future vaccines against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), drawing on insights from design thinking and the social, behavioral, and communication sciences. It provides recommendations on how to advance public understanding of, access to, and acceptance of vaccines that protect against COVID-19.
15 years of Experientia
Today is the 15th birthday of Experientia.
The first ones to thank are all our collaborators (former and current ones), but also our clients, our partners and our network for their support and commitment. We wouldn't have reached our 15 years without you.
Behavioral Covid-19 research in Italy
The Milan-based consumer and health research center EngageMinds HUB of the Università Cattolica has done some timely research on how Covid-19 has influenced the behavior of Italians.
The reports are all in Italian, so you should use a translation engine if you want to read them in full. Meanwhile here is a summary.
[Book] Smartphones: Une enquête anthropologique
Sur la base d'une enquête de terrain menée à Genève, Los Angeles et Tokyo, cet ouvrage aborde la dimension proprement anthropologique du smartphone.
Nordic lessons for people-first smart cities
While it is argued that smart city development is at an impasse, we argue that it is at a crossroads. It is possible to simultaneously develop and adopt new technologies and strengthen people's rights. This has been proven in the Nordic cities and Barcelona. The People-first vision presented in this report shows how it is possible for all cities.
[Book] Slowdown
Drawing from an incredibly rich trove of global data, this groundbreaking book reveals that human progress has been slowing down since the early 1970s. Danny Dorling uses compelling visualizations to illustrate how fertility rates, growth in GDP per person, and even the frequency of new social movements have all steadily declined over the last few generations.
[Book] How to Future
How to Future is a guidebook to futuring and arms you with tools, strategies and practices that illuminate new strategic pathways.
Reuters e-book about society after the pandemic
Humanity either learns key lessons from the pandemic, corrects course and becomes a more resilient species. Or it tears further apart and expands the divisions in society that predated Covid-19. In a new e-book on what will change, Breakingviews (a unit of Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters) takes the more optimistic view.
Smart city visions and human rights
Without consideration for all humans inhabiting cities, smart city and technological approaches have the potential to exacerbate socio-economic divisions, corporate dominance, and top-down governance.
[Book] New Laws of Robotics
AI is poised to disrupt our work and our lives. We can harness these technologies rather than fall captive to them - but only through wise regulation.
[Book] All data are local
In our data-driven society, it is too easy to assume the transparency of data. Instead, we should approach data sets with an awareness that they are created by humans and their dutiful machines, at a time, in a place, with the instruments at hand, for audiences that are conditioned to receive them, says Yanni Alexander Loukissas, Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech.
[Book] Health design thinking
Applying the principles of human-centered design to real-world health care challenges, from drug packaging to early detection of breast cancer.
MVP vs. “Minimal Desirable Product”
The MVP is a double-edged sword in that it focuses your engineering and product management priorities, but might steamroll user priorities. An MVP that misses 'desirable' will risk the unintended consequence of poor user adoption.
Post Covid, our societies will likely be more value-oriented, local and green
The world after Corona will not be the same. When the corona wave has passed, our societies will likely be more value-oriented, local and green, writes Christian Bason of the Danish Design Centre.
The changing role of home during crisis
In the first Constellation of Future Matters, the team of the Emerging Technologies Research Lab of Monash University considers various aspects, from different perspectives, of the home during crisis.
Behavioural science and the response to COVID-19: a missed opportunity?
While the role of behavioural science in the UK's handling of the pandemic has been criticised, Peter John and Gerry Stoker argue that it is important for governments to try and influence citizens' behaviour rather than rely on laws that are harder to enforce. They nevertheless explain why a different "nudging" approach ought to have been used in this case.
Why consumers are willing to share personal information on smartphones
New research from Wharton marketing professors Shiri Melumad and Robert Meyer finds that people are more willing to share deeper and more personal information when communicating on a smartphone compared with a personal computer.
Covid-19, changing social practices and the transition to sustainable production and consumption
Covid-19, changing social practices and the transition to sustainable production and consumptionby Boons, F., Browne, A., Burgess, M., Ehgartner, U., Hirth, S., Hodson, M., Holmes, H.,Hoolohan, C., MacGregor, S., McMeekin, A., Mylan, J. Oncini, F., Paterson, M., Rödl, M.,Sharmina, M., Warde, A., Welch, D., Wieser,…
Where is remote research? Ethnographic positioning in shifting spaces
Last week EPIC people gathered for a panel discussion on remote research to share guidance and inspiration as many of us take on new, remote positions. Here are some of the approaches we discussed, grouped in four themes with resources from epicpeople.org and beyond.
[Book] We Are Not Users
A call to reclaim and rethink the field of designing as a liberal art where diverse voices come together to shape the material world.
Imagining the world after coronavirus, part 5
Fifth edition of features and articles on what may lie ahead.
Human-centered innovation in a Covid-19 world
The Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly transforming our present and our future. What are researchers and designers learning that can help companies evolve their products and services to make them more robust within this fast changing context and market?
How to gain impactful insights with remote user research?
Experientia's Stefano Galeazzi and Daria Cantù explore how to conduct impactful applied qualitative research remotely, when we may not be able to conduct in-person interviews - as is the case now during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 and Social Innovation: Contactless sociability and hybrid communities of place
While some optimists think there will be a lasting positive change in our well-being model, with the quality of relationships and common goods at its centre, Manzini argues that things are not necessary going in that direction. A confrontation is required.
Videos of Interaction20
The videos of the Interaction20 conference that took place in Milan early February are starting to become available. 20 are already online, including 7 of the 9 keynotes.
Imagining the world after coronavirus, part 4
Fourth (and particularly rich) edition of features and articles on what may lie ahead.
[Paper] The Imaginary Crisis
As the Covid-19 crisis hopefully comes slowly under control, we ought to attend to a very different kind of crisis, and one which is scarcely visible: the deteriorating state of our shared social imagination.
Imagining the world after coronavirus, part 3
Third edition of features and articles on what may lie ahead. Four in English, three in Italian.
Can UX be done online? Yes AND No
Frank Spillers of Experience Dynamics reviews key UX activities and deliverables to assess online strategies for maintaining your UX process quality when online is your only option.
Covid-19 storytelling platforms
Two new initiatives - one from the US and one from Utrecht (NL)
Four possible scenarios of how the corona crisis can transform the world
How will the pandemic change the way we live and do business?
In this whitepaper the Zukunftsinstitut describes four possible scenarios of how the corona crisis can transform the world.
Imagining the world after coronavirus, part 2
Here are some more features and articles on what may lie ahead.
AnswerLab’s Guide to Remote Research
The guide includes best practices for conducting remote research, advice on creating a virtual best place to work, and selected tools for successful remote research.
Beyond empathy
In design thinking and related research, there is way too much talk about empathy. It's a fuzzy concept that subjectivizes, flattens and commoditizes the work to understand humans.
Immaginare il mondo dopo il coronavirus
L'idea di un "ritorno alla normalità non sembra più sostenibile. Ci sarà una nuova normalità che per tanti versi è molto diversa dalla vecchia normalità. E le scelte che facciamo ora - in fretta e senza pensarci troppo - avranno un impatto su quel mondo diverso in cui vivremo.