Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Richard Heinberg, author of The End of Growth, gave the keynote address at the ‘Seoul Youth Hub Conference 2013, Reshaping the Way We Live’, held in Seoul, Korea from 6 to 8 November 2013. The conference was co-hosted with 8 youth-led organizations working for transforming…
The more our data is used to determine our needs and desires, the less chance there is for serendipity, writes Bronwen Clune. Are we willing to make this concession in the name of progress? “Tracking, data mining and collaborative filtering are now the way things…
Mapping Design Research Edited by Simon Grand and Wolfgang Jonas Birkhauser 2012, 256 pages [Amazon link] [Sample chapter] An authoritative and scientifically based collection of 18 international texts since 1960 that mirrors and analyses the principal developmental phases of design research and scientific research. The…
Designing with Data The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and ARUP have released Designing with Data: Shaping Our Future Cities, a new report that explores the massive potential role that data could have in the planning and design of our buildings and cities, reports…
Connect: Design for an Empathic Society by Sabine Wildevuur, Dick van Dijk, Thomas Hammer-Jakobson, Mie Bjerre, Anne Äyväri and Jesper Lund BIS Publishers, 2014 216 pages [Amazon link] Abstract The prospects are clear: we will probably live longer. The number of people aged 65 and…
In this age of ubiquitous computing, what exactly are we doing to our bodies, asks Avinash Rajagopal in a highly recommended piece in Metropolis Magazine: “Today, our ï¬ngers are furiously swiping and typing, our shoulders are hunched, our spines are curved, our necks are either…
All technology is assistive technology, argues Sara Hendren in a long and very insightful article. “Honestly – what technology are you using that’s not assistive? Your smartphone? Your eyeglasses? Headphones? And those three examples alone are assisting you in multiple registers: They’re enabling or augmenting…
In today’s crowded and competitive energy markets, many product manufacturers fall short in their marketing, writes Andy Beck, Executive Vice President of Makovsky’s energy and sustainability practice. “They’re forgetting a vital principle: that we motivate behavior by understanding and addressing the desires of the end-user…
With 96 percent of the world connected, organizations are using mobile phones to deliver, via texts, water, energy, financial services, health care, even education. “The number of such initiatives seems likely to increase. “The development community is eager to learn more about how to use…
The more confusing the bill, the more likely it is to be disputed, the less likely it is to be paid. So, from not only an image perspective, but a practical, financial one as well, Illinois-based electric company ComEd realized their bills needed better design.…
The mobile-born generation will drive a radical rethinking of office productivity, writes Paul Holland, a general partner at Foundation Capital, “Fast-forward a few years and we’ll see a new workplace with workstations akin to air traffic control centers powered by multiple touch-, swipe- and voice-enabled…
Devices once only in the hands of doctors, such as heart or blood pressure monitors, are now in the pockets of consumers, putting them in charge of their health and making medical care more accessible. Consumers are also increasingly armed with “wellness†apps — simpler…
Journalism and anthropology both purport to observe and analyse human behaviour and experience, albeit in different ways and over extremely divergent timescales. And they both serve up their findings to the wider world in order to give it greater understanding of itself – and of…
Experientia team in final four, with community-minded concept The fundamental idea of the entry, the ENGAGE community noticeboard concept, is worth special mention. Transparent information is used to encourage people to adapt to more eco-efficient ways of living and working. Experientia continues to grow its…
“Dashboards of the past are littered with physical buttons that can never change, forever ingrained into them. The [Tesla] Model S, by contrast, has a fully upgradeable dash that’s software driven. We started with a blank slate—17†of glass, which is the centerpiece of the…
The user-centred approach is moving into finance, as banks increasingly connect to their customers’ needs and wants. As part of this trend, global banking and financial services company UniCredit Bank collaborated with user experience consultancy, Experientia, to create a user-friendly, people-centred ATM – the BancoSmart. Click on…
Le banche stanno cercando sempre più di entrare in sintonia con le esigenze ed i desideri dei propri clienti, innovando i propri prodotti e servizi secondo una approccio centrato sull’utente. Per dare concretezza a questo principio, UniCredit ha deciso di collaborare con Experientia con l’obiettivo…
In the article “Interaction Design, After Ivrea” Stefano Mirti reflects on the history of the renowned Interaction Design Institute Ivrea and what was born out of it after the school closed. The article, which is published in the November issue of Ottagono, features Experientia as…
Michael Ohler, Phil Samuel and Mark McMurray of BMGI argue in Industry Week that focusing on human behavior and personal experiences can help you discover unmet customer needs and gain a deeper understanding of your customer. “Ethnography does not start with a hypothesis or a…
Changing Behaviours: On the Rise of the Psychological State by Rhys Jones, Jessica Pykett and Mark Whitehead Edward Elgar Publishers 2013, 240 pages [Amazon link] Abstract Changing Behaviours charts the emergence of the behaviour change agenda in UK based public policy making since the late…
Stakeholder Engagement for Service Design is the title of the first Swedish PhD thesis in service design. In the dissertation defended last week at Linköping University, Fabian Segelström wanted to find out how service designers go about to create an understanding of customers and others…
Putting People First has been following the work of Alice E. Marwick for a while, first when she published her PhD dissertation, then when her book “Status Update” came out. Now the New York Times has published Walter Kirn’s extensive but not so positive review…
Smart Citizens Edited by Drew Hemment and Anthony Townsend Future Everything 2013, 96 pages This publication aims to shift the debate on the future of cities towards the central place of citizens, and of decentralised, open urban infrastructures. It provides a global perspective on how…
Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman Crown October 2013, 384 pages [Amazon link] Abstract In Social, renowned psychologist Matthew Lieberman explores groundbreaking research in social neuroscience revealing that our need to connect with other people is even more fundamental,…
Smarter Than You Think How Technology Is Changing Our Minds For the Better by Clive Thompson and Jeff Cummings Penguin Press September 2013, 352 pages [Penguin Press link – Amazon link] Abstract How technology boosts our cognitive abilities — making us smarter, more productive, and…
Long New York Times piece where writers in a variety of genres tell us what new technologies mean for storytelling. Contributions by Margaret Atwood, Charles Yu, Marisha Pessl, Tom McCarthy, Rainbow Rowell, Dana Spiotta, Frederick Forsyth, Douglas Coupland, Tracy K. Smith, Emily Giffin, Ander Monson,…
The App Generation How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World Howard Gardner and Katie Davis Yale University Press October 2013, 256 pages [Yale University Press link – Amazon link] Abstract No one has failed to notice that the current generation…
Speculative Everything Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming By Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby MIT Press Jan 2014, 200 pages [Amazon link] Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind…
Below a selection of pieces from The Guardian’s sustainable living hub: The power of behavioural design: looking beyond nudging Christoph Burmester – 10 September 2013 Beyond nudging lies the world of applied behavioural science or, alternatively, the domain of behavioural design. Combining behavioural science with…
Service design is an approach to innovating both private and public sector services that places the user at the heart of the development process. Service design is concerned with the customer experience and ensuring optimal interactions between the service provider and the service user through…
UX design explained for advertisers: “Here is where the world of communication and the world of computing starts to merge in intent. Systems are to be used. Products are to be experienced. Users and consumers are the rulers. Technology, if it has to gain acceptance…
Brian Pagán describes four common UX myths and how to “bust” them: UX is too soft; it’s not based on anything Anyone can do UX UX is too expensive UX is just interaction design In synthesis: “UX knowledge and methods come from centuries of academic…
Only projects that work with existing education systems will improve learning and cut poverty, says Niall Winters of the London Knowledge Lab at the University of London, and he argues for a user-centred approach (rather than a technology-centric one) that is focused on understanding teachers’…
Last year, I posted about the very interesting PhD dissertation by Alice E. Marwick (downloadable here). Based on ethnographic research of the San Francisco technology scene, she explains how social media’s technologies are based on status-seeking techniques that encourage people to apply free-market principles to…
Freedom vs Necessity in International Relations Human-Centred Approaches to Security and Development by David Chandler Zed Books Ltd 224 pages, 2013 [Amazon link] Human-centred understandings of the world have become increasingly dominant over the last two decades. Indeed, it is rare to read any analysis…
UX STRAT, the first every user experience strategy conference, took place in September in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center. Pabini Gabriel-Petit was there and she published a first chapter – dealing mainly with logistics and conference experience – in a three-part…
Christine Outram left the architecture profession because, she says, architects “don’t listen to people“. “The truth is, most of you don’t try. You rely on rules of thumb and pattern books, but you rarely do in-depth ethnographic research. You might sit at the building site…
In a ten part video series, Copenhagenize Design Co explores the top 10 design elements that make Copenhagen a bicycle-friendly city. The embedded video highlights the big picture. The overall design of the bicycle infrastructure network as a key element in encouraging Citizen Cyclists to…
Alexa Curtis recently attended EPIC, the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference, a truly international gathering of ethnographers, anthropologists, strategists, designers, and others who are committed to understanding audiences in order to inform appropriate solutions. Unlike past years, there was no explicit theme to which submissions…
Essay: The Nature of the BEast: What Behavioral Economics Is Not 10/16/13 Matthew Darling, Saugato Datta, and Sendhil Mullainathan People are complex; they defy easy summary. Like Walt Whitman, we all contain multitudes. As a discipline, economics has been successful in part because it has…