Design_at_the_edge

Hydroptere: extreme self-actualisation

  Hydroptere 
  Originally uploaded by egral

The Mail on Sunday included an article We have lift off: The quickest yacht in the world. Extract here:
Is it a boat? is it a plane? No - it's something in between, that also happens to be very, very fast. Ian Stafford goes flying on the quickest yacht in the world
"This is not a boat, nor a plane either. This is a magical flying carpet,2 says Alain Thébault, the man behind the Hydroptère, the world's fastest yacht.
There's magic in the air even as we cast off from the Breton port of La Trinité-sur-Mer, overlooked by the ancient stones of Carnac, France's own Stonehenge.
There's a flurry of strenuous hoisting and winding as the wind balloons the sails. The craft begins to accelerate.
It cuts the waves faster and faster, the nose begins to lift… and then we're flying.
It just keeps on going faster.
The only sound from the sea beneath is the single hydrofoil blade cutting through the waves like a sword.
Its far end shimmers underwater; thunderclouds of spray fill the air in its wake.
Hydroptère throws up more water than a hundred jet-skis, but in total silence – except when the crew whoop for joy.
This extraordinary trimaran is the result of 20 years of research, engineering and design, plus substantial backing from Swiss banker Thierry Lombard.
It's a yacht made from carbon fibre and titanium that rises up on to "wings".
Instead of ploughing through the waves, it glides over them.
Once up to speed, only one of two hydrofoils at the end of each outer keel actually touches the sea. The drag is almost negligible. This is why it has already set two world speed records, over a nautical mile and 500m, and why it'll continue to redefine yachting speeds as we know them this summer. Watch out for the reports.
and the article ends
Hydroptère is a personal obsession, a life's work born of one man's dream – but now that it's on the verge of breaking every record that matters, there are plenty of potential buyers.
Does Thébault know how much the project has cost? "No," he replies.
"With all the adjustments and innovations it's very difficult to say. I'd say many millions of euros."
Would he ever sell? "We have had a few people approach us, but I have not even waited for a price, nor offered one, and discussions never take place."
Why not? Thébault smiles and lets out another whoop of joy as Hydroptère nudges past 40 knots again and the Quiberon peninsula flashes by.
"There are some things in life no amount of money can ever buy," he explains, with a broad grin. "You cannot put a price on living a dream."

If we refer to Maslow we can see that the yacht is all about the satisfaction of Alain Thébault's need for self-actualisation. He is incredibly fortunate to have, since 2006, sponsorship from Swiss banker Thierry Lombard. As the official site puts it

Born in 1962, under the sign of Virgo, half-mad or half-wise depending on the tides, Alain Thébault once had a dream: creating a flying boat. In the sailing world, there are many Ulysses. Sailors are cunning people who know how to make it through the tempest and to use a bit of cunning with the technical and human elements in order to survive. But Alain Thébault is the only living Icarus among the oceanic skippers. He possesses a fever for invention, a scorn for danger and the need to burn himself under every sun. The skipper of l’Hydroptère, the “flying boat”, is a misunderstood person who likes nothing better than rile the crowds who doubt him. He is also a determined man who would fall 10 times and get back up 100 times. Finally, he is an agitator who has burnt his wings many times by provoking the anger in the political and business spheres.
Pilote d’un rêve (Piloting a Dream), Alain Thébault,
Flammarion  March 2005, Libération

Maslow can play out at two extremes- 

a utilitarian view:

“If the only tool we have is a hammer then we tend to see every problem as a nail.”

Or a symbolic one:

“Excellence is the result of

caring more than others think is wise;

risking more than others think is safe;

dreaming more than others think is feasible and expecting more than other people think is possible.”

[draft]

Design Pyramid

  SF07Looney05 
  Originally uploaded by Thor Cat

About ten years ago I got really frustrated that so many new product development projects were failing to make it through the funnel; one design house we worked with had been commissioned to work on 21 projects, only one of which made it to market and most of them failing well into the capability phase.

To utilise a rich soup of tacit and explicit knowledge I worked with a couple of collaborators to develop tools for the new millennium (I can say that now, but originally it was to address our dis-functional team working and the low hit rate of successful new projects).

The Design Pyramid evolved from a discussion about satisfying consumer needs and how Maslow had researched an put forward the hypothesis of a hierarchy of needs. We consulted his work and came up with this:

We realised we could translate the levels into understanding the consumer experience of the total product by answering a simple question: "What are they looking for?":

Starting at the lowest level we can express "What are they looking for?" in terms of the consumer's experiences and demands, for instance:

I want it when and where I need it       [function]

I want to be able to rely on it              [reliability]

I want it to be simple and easy to use   [engagement]

I want to like it and relate to it            [personality]

I want it to say something about me       [icon]

… and I want to love it!

We can begin to develop a deeper understanding of how our total product/service is satisfying or exceeding consumer expectations by looking at each level of the experience and the contribution made by the technology, packaging system and  communication.

We may unearth some really interesting consumer insights tand begin to map them onto the Consumer Experience face.

We can then look at how the consumer experience is constrained or enabled by the other faces.

As we discover the possibilities of new and different technologies we can look at the enablers and constraints that they may offer. We can look at how we wrap the technology in a useful and pleasing form or packaging system.

Also we can look at the affect of existing or new communication channels and the way we exploit them, with the affordances of the other pyramid faces, etc.

We can also ask ourselves "What is an excellent product?" which enables us to explore the mapping of excellence versus what is available now, identifying the gaps between them.

So using Design Space ensures the team, in a clear and practical manner, understands, evaluates and optimises the relationship between the Consumer Experience, Technology, Packaging System and Communication in order to define a portfolio of opportunities for closing the gap between the current product and an excellent product. Services can be approached in a similar manner.

Although Maslow originally asserted that people satisfied their lower level needs, starting at the lowest level, before moving up, it has become apparent that individuals actually make quite complex trade-offs across levels.

If we deconstruct the hierarchy and think of it as three sets or spheres of needs:

then we get a better perspective of the consumers trade-offs going on between the material and social needs and the needs of personal growth. We reach a decision by consciously or unconsciously  making trade-offs  between our various needs and wants, so we can regard our needs - material, social and personal growth - as overlapping and interacting:

Hence the in spite of reviews that heap praise on product Y for having more features and performance than product X (more than meets people's material expectations)... droves of consumers actually buy X because it more than meets their social and personal expectations. This also makes it pretty difficult for the producer of Y to change direction and put together an offer that the consumer finds attractive and authentic and more particularly do it again and again - think RAZR. (NOTE: the producer needs to change as well as the product stream!)

Using Design Pyramid helps uncover the gap between what the experience the consumer may want and need compared with what we actually offer; and then allows us to look for gap-closing ideas, concepts, prototypes, stories, etc., using Design Space to ensure we are exploring the maximum amount of territory to optimise our solutions.

[draft]

Return on Insights: Better by (total) design?

  Sunset Behind the Imagination! Pyramid 
  Originally uploaded by Jason Pratt

Over at the Red Dot website there is a summary of a recent presentation by design and business expert Professor Dr. Peter Zec  “Return on Ideas – Better by design”. I'm repeating a fairly long extract here:

The main message of the talk:

“Design serves to give form to good ideas and is indispensable in distinguishing oneself on the global market”.

Zec moreover stated that “Design is of extraordinary importance for the economic success of a company. Luckily, many companies have come to realize this—a progress that can be credited in part to the increasing prominence of design competitions such as the red dot design award”. Referring to case studies, Prof. Zec showed that most businesses belong to one of two types: companies that have recognized the added value they can gain through design, and companies who continue trying to forgo the integration of design, and who eventually fail on an international level for that reason.

In the past, many good ideas became successful only through design. “The best idea is useless if it isn't well executed”, according to Zec. As an example he mentioned the Apple iPod: The idea of offering music files in a portable form was not new. Yet it wasn't until the idea was realized with the ground breaking design of lead designer Jonathan Ive and the bold strategy of CEO Steve Jobs that it became a worldwide success. This confirms, so Zec, that “investing in innovative ideas pays”.

However, selling good design relies on the appropriate and targeted communication of the design concept. “Good communication is indispensable for business. Often, good design is not even recognized because it doesn't speak the language of the entrepreneurs. Thus, a design concept only sells if it is well formulated. For that to happen, the concept must plan for as much integrative communication as possible in addition to ensuring that design factors into all decisive company processes.

Having belonged to groups that over the years entered various design competitions I feel that they are measuring sticks for the excellence, or otherwise, of one's entry but only in terms of the wisdom of the judging panel at that moment in time, and may not reflect what the actual users feel about the artefact.  The best prize my team won was  a special prize at the behest of the  chairman of the panel , who  sent individual prizes to each member for creating an enabling process that underpinned most of the other candidates for the official prizes. That meant more to us than the real thing... we felt it was authentic!
Having made that point Peter Zec does make some good points about that design needs to cover more than just the product itself.
As our work moved from being locally informed to regional and ultimately global... in response to the accelerating changes in the world about us... we realised that the soft tools (tools for thinking, for taking 'things' apart and reassembling them) were woefully inadequate. We created, modified or appropriated some tools that would reflect a new way of working which hadn't fully emerged at that time (has it yet?) .

All these tools are relevant to facilitating the integration of design behaviours into the strategic DNA of an organisation. Of particular relevance here is the Design Pyramid. Let us define 'product' as the result of the innovation process... a work product in the form of a product or service...

The Design Pyramid helps us to build a vision for closing the gap between what is out there now and an excellent product; it provides us with a definition of the innovation opportunity in terms of consumer insights and first ideas for technology, external form and communication. It connects (brand) strategy to the total product. Design Pyramid facilitates active exploration of two questions:

What does the consumer need and want?

and, Does the product deliver on its promise?
or more expansively:
Where are we?
Who is it for?
What do they need?
What do they want?
How could it be better?

Peter Zec talks of the importance of Return on Ideas.; my experience is that Return on Insights yields  a more strong sustainable advantage. Insights may be difficult to recognise, but are worth the effort. Apple's insight that potential music entertainment users would like to have their music collection at hand wherever they were, at home, on the move or in a far off place. That insight has been worth a great deal to both iPod users and Apple itself.. they have shared in the value created. Sony et al have created better MP3 players, completely missing the point that it is the ease of creating, mainatining and listening to an individual's music collection that makes the iPod (+iTunes+iTunes Music Store+industry permission) a winner. A stand-alone product doesn't stand a chance!

To quote Phil Dusenberry of BBDO talking about great insights when creating advertising:

 

"That's the power of great insights. Insights, not ideas. There's a difference. Ideas, valuable though they may be, are a dime a dozen in business. That's certainly the case at ad agencies, where even the mailroom people spit out ideas as if they were candy from a Pez dispenser. Insight is much rarer -- and therefore more precious. In the advertising business, a good idea can inspire a great commercial. But a good insight can fuel a thousand ideas, a thousand commercials. The notion of the New York Miracle was an insight, and the six spots took on a life of their own. We got people feeling good about New York again as a city of possibilities. Tourists came back in droves.

In a business world bedeviled with the problems of differentiating yourself from the crowd, moving the needle and selling enough stuff to have a measurable impact, telling the world you've arrived, fighting off or attacking the competition, and establishing or improving an image, insights are essential. They're as essential to the budding entrepreneur as they are to the master marketers at Nike. Insights are what will let you stay in business, build market share, open new income streams, cement relationships with old customers, and attract new ones.

When you're in search of an idea, big or small, there is a singular moment when insight rears its lovely head. The moment may pass in an instant, it may sail over you unnoticed, or it may smack you in your frontal lobe."
Another example on the centenary year of the Model T is blogged by sig here:

"Buick and the Dodge brothers had some "ideas" when they followed the crowd and added engines to their "coaches".

Henry Ford had an insight when he grasped the "individual transportation for the masses", then acted upon it as he installed the first moving assembly line at his Highland Park plant in 1913, lowering the time-to-produce a T Ford from 70 to 7 hours in half a year enabling "anybody" to purchase a car. His car.

Then he doubled the daily pay and installed a profit sharing scheme -  creating a potential customer base as well (especially if it spread to other companies as well - as it would)."

So life is getting even more challenging.. but the challenge is that we need to do things differently....because, as Abraham Maslow put it

"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

 

and that is one of the reasons why there are three more tools at our disposal enabling us to connect Steve to Jonathan... strategy to design project; to recognise the sort of project we are tackling; and the journey we will all need to go on to prevent a descent into mediocrity. To quote Phil Dusenberry again:

There's no point in having an insight if you can't protect it from being radically altered by compromise, or rejected by a client who doesn't get it, or stripped of its original insightfulness by committee groupthink. The way to keep your insights out of the clutches of the people who try to reduce the insight to something familiar, or the copycats, is to build relationships.

And what happens when we build unfamiliar relationships?

Helen Storey, started her career a fashion designer, now heads a foundation that bears her name. The Helen Storey Foundation is a not-for-profit arts organization promoting creativity and innovation. It intentionally spreads a global net to collaborate with diverse practitioners – both new and established. The team, led by Helen Storey and Caroline Coates, is agile and open, able to bring together ideas and minds to create truly innovative artworks and more recently, new ways of learning..

One exploratory project elicited this response

Picture link.

"Lever Faberge became involved in this project because it aims to unravel and explore the world of creativity - something that lies at the heart of our business. We constantly innovate and expect our people to drive sustained innovation, but where do these ideas come from and how are they nurtured? In interacting with Helen and Rachel Hazell on Amygdala, we have been able to directly ask ourselves these questions. The answers, for many individuals, have been surprising and they have illuminated insights into how people work best, where they need to go to be most creative and in which environment are they most creative. All this has come from working on Amygdala. She has turned into our oracle"

- Alistair Creamer

Helen Storey, at a workshop in which I took part, said

“The world I now inhabit is dominated by conversation and creative collisions, some I seek out, others just happen. The ideas that hold most meaning for me are ones which have potential for positive social impact and that take me and others into some kind of deep and trusting exploration.”

This makes for an alarming journey if we are not prepared for change , or prepared to change ourselves. Are we ready to undertake that (Design) Journey?

Picture uploaded   by Express Monorail. Used with thanks under CC.

The Gold Matrix revisited

red
Originally uploaded by johnmaeda

Rich Gold drew this cartoon matrix to show the 4 creative hats of creativity he had worn during his career, described in his book Plenitude. He describes the behaviours of people who live in each quadrant and probes the differences between them. But it is interesting to look at how they drive forward innovative thinking. Patrons of artists have to believe in what the artist may create...As Gold puts it "an artist paints a painting, stares at it, and says ' isn't it beautiful, it expresses my inner vision perfectly'".

But users of, and customers for the output of designers take a different viewpoint.

The designer paints a painting, stares at it, then turns it around to the audience and asks 'do you like it? No? then I'll change it.' When it works, when the designer can home in on an audience's wave length, it is an amazing and beautiful trick."

I was looking at back at the design technologies we introduced that enabled interactions using digits- fingers, pens/pencils that are embodied in tools like Visionmaker, PortfolioWall and the iPhone or iPod Touch. and began to muse on the Whitworth Art Gallery exhibition Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson that I realised could have acted as a provocation for these innovations. Her work Deep Contact created on videodisc between 1984 and 1989.

allows the user to explore the sequences on the piece arranged in a branching tree-like structure.

The artist's erotic twist is to involve the viewer through the tactility of the interface; this is interesting as people when they are sketching or writing use different tools that draw different lines- pen (fountain ball-point rollerball), pencil (HB, 6H), brush (round, flat)- and also give different feedback, which can be modified by the media under the tool (paper, canvas, etc).

A designed interface that does not consider the users and how they lay down a mark will struggle to become accepted. Tablet PC's I believe are struggling with this aspect as we are moving from "poking" to writing and the interaction of the surface of the media and the stick is very different from our habitual experiences... we need to move from a functional device to a useful application that is worth investing time and attention.....and it takes time and effort to build a new habit. In my case I guess I might struggle for years... the beauty of a tablet separate from a PC is that you can attach a surface to change the feedback to suit one's style.. brings other problems like removing the mark from the end of the tool.

Hmmm..... Maslow might help us look at more than just functionality

Pictur uploaded by A.M. Kuchling. Used with thanks under CC.

Moving the application of technology expressed in an artwork to a successful designed work that has a balance of usefulness in functional and aesthetic terms is a journey around Rich Gold's matrix:

It is the interaction of Art, Science, Engineering and Design that achieves devices like the iPod; there is strategic design of the whole system, tactical (iterative) design of the iPod itself based on an artistic expression of its shape which is a packaging system for miniaturisation technologies engineered at reasonable cost from pioneering scientific discoveries

It is worth pondering on the quote in Wired

"Undoubtedly the greatest strength -- and arguably the greatest achievement -- of Jonathan Ive and the Apple design team is that they are never, ever satisfied," said Alice Rawsthorn, then director of London's Design Museum, [now design critic at IHT] in an e-mail. "No sooner has one great new product been completed than, rather than rest on their laurels, they pick it apart and work out how to make it much, much better."

Picture from Apple...link. This isn't evoking the bottom of the Design Pyramid. What would Maslow say?

City Walls may be great for elites to exert control

Chester 2006: Chester Wall
Originally uploaded by orangeacid

Bruce Nassbaum has written here

"Look around and you see people putting up silos around social media. Invitation-only social networks like doostang.com and customized corporate vitual worlds are blossoming. FaceBook folks are putting digital "doors" on their pages, controlling who can enter and for what purpose.

Is the golden age of truly open social networking in decline, as the young race to hide their youthful digital discretions and the rest of us tire of communicating with the masses and return to our own social/economic/political circles?

Yes, I know Twitter is very hot and runs counter to this trend. Yet, something is happening at the same time. Walls are going up. Something is cooking."

I remember working in a company division that was going from a local, country-based organisation to a European-based one. It involved all departments along the value-chain from development through manufacturing and marketing to logistics and suppliers. One of the technology enablers for this change project was the first version of Lotus Notes, enabling groups to set up their own communication and database for each project and interest group. At the same time we were trying to rein in costs so the travel budget was cut.

Picture uploaded by DMBFreakNo41. Used with thanks under CC.

In a matter of months we went from a set of local innovation projects that involved interested countries who would meet regularly in centres around Europe to swap information on progress and discuss how they could contribute or lead part of the action to a city state mentality where if you were on the periphery of a project and it was not obvious you should be in the list of people who could access the particularly Notes Conference as we called them.. you were out. Whereas I would meet people from, say, Italy in my local (British) canteen and be able to join in the lunchtime discussion and offer the services of my group to help with their current problem, I now found out by accident when visiting a supplier who might mention the Italian job they were involved in. I would come back to base, phone around the italian company and eventually convince someone to put me on the authorisation for the Notes Conference. Eventually people gave up and projects increasingly went wrong which encouraged people to be less open but feel more in control; totally opposite to the intention of the technology, reorganisation and common sense.

It is almost as if the elite club of those who are in start looking in and exclude those on the outside. Also the perceived uncertainties of being open to (almost) anyone can be very great and without facilitation and moderation the reason for wanting to be in can be seen to be of less value than staying out, and avoiding the possibilty of conversations that might be less than useful. It reminds me of the model that Matt Taylor created for the knowledge management process here

and which helped me reframe my thinking about how Notes applications should be redesigned, which meant thinking about the overall innovation ecosystem.

Perhaps we should think of physical analogies to FaceBook, etc. Why do we go to social spaces like this?

Picture Uploaded by wonderferret. Used with thanks under CC.

We arrive at a pub or club hoping to have a drink, nibbles, company, enjoy some good conversation, learn something interesting, share something. If its not working out we can slide into another conversation or even go elsewhere. We might even find people come with us to hopefully discover something more interesting somewhere else......or they might choose not to take up the invite as they can't see the point

Does the system we use on the web help hinder or enhance this, what are the downsides? My gut feel is the systems are not complete enough to serve as a platform. A good pub is likely to have something or someone who is larger than life to act as a Strange Attractor - 'something unique that is also compelling'.

There is also a bit of bio chemistry of space that is necessary ..what Rich Gold called Wet Space (hopefully in his book 'Plenitude' just published,my copy not arrived yet; just arrived..no its not!).. In Rich's words:

"What is a “wet space”? Well this room ( in which Gold was delivering lecture) is a wet space. You can smell, touch, feel each other; Pheromones and hormones are swirling; Very “mammal” - pack formations, leaders; Lots of gossip."

Social applications are not Wet Spaces but are what Rich called Damp Spaces..and maybe  occasionally Dry Space.... in his words:

"Dampness is new, only since the telegraph (though I get arguments). You are alone in your room; But you are connected via mediating technologies to one or more other people. Hence it has both wet and dry properties......

Damp spaces are “prophylactic” in that they don’t allow everything through. This makes them MORE and not less valuable than wet spaces. The communicative act itself becomes more designed and can actually become art. "

So where does this leave us with respect to social networks? Like being in a pub, the users want to be in control of themselves and who they socialise with. They don't expect the pub owner to tell people at one end of the bar who they have heard about at the other end. When the social space owner decides to broadcast everything heard to anyone they run the risk of everybody uprooting and moving to another pub where descretion is the norm. Webbed social applications need to remember how damp they need to be to attract and retain customers- its the total experience that counts.

The interesting thing is "Do we have two or more personas, say one for work projects and one for private activities? Or do we just decide to be 'me'"

Martin Varsavsky has some thoughts on social networks here and his site is an example of openness?

The Timesonline article Lecturers intrude in MySpace includes:

".... prospective undergraduates feel underwhelmed by efforts to communicate with them via online technology such as MySpace and YouTube, according to a survey of sixth-formers by Ipsos MORI. Students regard the virtual world as a place for entertainment, socialising and information-gathering. “[Young people] seem to take the view: ‘This is our space - don’t invade it’,” says Charles Hutchings, market research manager for the Joint Information Systems Committee that commissioned the survey. Students have an “inability to see how things like online social networking can tie in with learning”, he says."

At the end of the day it seems that context is important -same as it ever was...same as it ever was.

I guess my context is I am interested in how we design more innovative innovation networks;  but hang on Rich Gold stated

"Design is the most successful social science ever created."

[since writing this Bramble this interesting blog from Dave Pollard has appeared]

The asymptotic bridge of satisfaction

millau bridge
Originally uploaded by sunny-drunk

Here are some thoughts about the difference between the pursuit of excellence and the search for perfection in discovering artefacts, both as developers of new offers and as customers.
I wrote recently about Geoffrey Wilde, Rolls-Royce engineer responsible for far-reaching innovations in the design of aero-engines, who influenced my personal career development. I remember, after he had proposed the brilliant concept of the three-shaft engine, he showed me something like 13 other 3-shaft layouts that the configuration that became the RB211 in the Lockheed Tristar was chosen from. The calculations showed that many of the concepts were, on paper, much superior to the one chosen. But, when the technological uncertaintities were factored in the likelihood of getting the engine to work in a reasonable timescale and cost far exceeded the potential benefits. In fact it is only now, 40 years later, that some of the principles are being seriously suggested for the Taranis programme extension into greener technologies, known as EFE- environmentally friendly engine.

So why the asymptotic bridge? Well all those years ago in the Stress Office was a poster of a suspension bridge that swept across a bay and almost touched down on the other bank; it was an analogy to the calculation methodologies, we were using that enabled us to calculate stress distributions, were accurate enough mathematical models to approach the correct values of stress at given points within the structure being analysed, but not on the surface. By massively increasing calculation time we could get closer to the surface but never to it! So we always had to extrapolate. We therefore checked our assumptions using physical photoelastic models that we also model mathematically, but as the plastic material exhibited different physical properties to metal we introduced other assumptions. The pursuit of the right answer (=perfection) could become a never ending game of chasing one's tail as we might introduce unknown pertubations from the "truth" that ensured we would get the wrong answer (according to Middleton's Law); the timescale becomes protracted and people get fed up of waiting and make their own arrangements.. such as buying elsewhere! Not a very satisfactory conclusion, in fact it can be extremely de-motivating for the team of developers.

Looking at it from the customer's point of view Barry Schwartz has also talked of the frustration of the pursuit of the perfect choice, enabled by the incredible range of "stuff" we have to choose from. For instance there are an average of 17,000 goods on offer in the average British supermarket.

Infinite choice is paralyzing, Schwartz argues, and exhausting to the human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, who and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too much choice undermines happiness. Here is video of his TEDtalk.

A key slide is the plot of subjective state versus number of choices

picture uploaded by Jesper Rønn-Jensen. Used with thanks under CC.

Schwartz talks of two basic types of potential consumer:

The Maximisers: People whose aim in life is to get the best. How do you know if you got the best? You actually need to look at every possibility by making an exhaustive search. There is virtually no area where maximizing makes sense. And if they keep looking after they have chosen they can really make themselves feel uncertain!

The Satisficers: Who believe that selecting a “good enough” option (instead of maximizing) helps cut through the problem of choice. o they do a good sweep through what is on offer, go through the options and when they get to one that from their point of view "does the job" they stop searching.

The key for innovators and developers is to focus on what their target consumer is trying to get done and then make sure they provide the simplest feature set that provides the requisite affordance(s).

Reading the article "Apple's iPhone comes with a ring of overconfidence" in today's Sunday Times, especially the rivals section shows that none of them deliver perfectly on everything they could do but the iPhone seems to deliver "the simple life. It ends with the author, Tony Dunmore writing

"Nine months after first playing with the iPhone, I’m still entirely smitten. I’m willing to forgive its failings and I’m not alone – Apple claims the iPhone customer satisfaction rating is higher than with any previous product.

But there is a serious threat, and it doesn’t come from Nokia, Samsung or Sony Ericsson – it’s from Apple itself. By launching the iPod Touch MP3 player with wi-fi, which although not a mobile does feature the same magical user interface and web browsing functions as the iPhone and does not require you to switch to a hefty phone contract, Apple may have unwittingly cannibalised its own market."

which may not necessarily be true because it might be that some of us want a swiss army knife whilst others of us want a set of simple tools so the market may segment and Apple pick up a fair share in both. So when we develop new products we need to really understand our potential users and provide what they are looking for in the simplest package for each bundle of "jobs to be done"

So its this

[link]

or simply this

[link]

Doing a consumer experience face of the Design Pyramid might help us a great deal, asymptotically, to analyse our gaps.

(For more on the challenges of designing the Millau Bridge read page 6 onward of this.

Beyond the box

iPhone Unboxing Photo
Originally uploaded by iLounge

We talked of the 3 spheres of needs here. From the point of view of the consumer/customer/user the artifact will affect him or her depending on the context. A phone for material needs will be incredibly basic perhaps with only one button "phone home". If we are looking at social needs than an easy to compile and use address book is essential; For personal growth we are wanting to give ourselves a boost and to say something about us as well.

Creative Man talks about material needs relating to mass production in the industrial age which was superceded by the Dream Society in which stories about the artifacts ascended to give meaning to them. The Creative Age is about self-actualisation and the rise of user-configurable items made from kits of parts... embracing activities from configuring, stencilling and assembling IKEA furniture through kits of precut objects for greetings cards, to kit cars etc. Of course in our new model of reality all stses exist together and the context of our situation determines what sphere is ascendant. It is fascinating to see the mismatch between the advertisements for new phones and the world phone users live in. For instance, this weekend Vodafone present their new Samsung exclusive:

"Imagine style you can measure

Competing at an ultra-slim 12.1mm, the Samsung U700 boasts enhanced 3G capabilities with HDSPA, for a superfast internet experience. Plus a 3.2 Megapixel camera, music player and Bluetooth in a premium chrome finish."

Contrast that with iPhone:

Picture uploaded on by Ri©K™. Used with thanks under CC.

or.....

which convey a very different message addressing the spheres with aplomb.

Mapping the experience

Originally uploaded by Dushaun

It is fascinating how there is a difference in the response of people who want to use and people who want to "move" the iPhone

The consumer experience can be mapped against Maslow in a similar way to this. The developer needs to map how he/she wants to enhance the experience for the consumer and so is a user too, but of modus operandi of the iPhone.

So we can get 2 responses that are both, in their way right. In the Daily Telegraph, 12/7/07 Claudine Beaumont writes in iMad about the iPhone

"The iPhone is a byword for simplicity and intuitiveness, with uncluttered menus and ease of use. Motorola, take note.

One of the iPhone's most impressive features is the Safari browser, which offers all the benefits of the desktop version, optimised for handheld use. The touchscreen technology that allows you to zoom into a story or image is excellent, magnifying and rendering pages with pin-sharp perfection. ........

While it lacks the GPS functionality of, say, Nokia's N95, the iPhone does have Google Maps. As a music player, it provides the same accessible interface we've come to expect from the iPod. CoverFlow, which allows you to flick through album art by running your finger across the screen, looks great on this device, and because the iPhone syncs with iTunes, transferring your playlists is a cinch.....

What really lets the iPhone down (apart from its lack of 3G) is the stingy 2MP camera, which just about suffices in perfect conditions but is otherwise poor. As a photo viewer, though, the iPhone excels, and you can use your fingers to "pinch" images and zoom in and out, flipping the handset to view them in landscape or portrait.

Call quality is very good, comparable to many of the other mobiles we've tested at The Digital Life.

It's the little touches that really make the iPhone stand out from the crowd - the solid feel, the sleek styling, the neat use of animated icons - which manage to convey a lightness of touch and an attention to detail."

And Claudine Beaumont ends with

"But our verdict? Don't get one yet - wait for the second-generation iPhone, which should feature an improved camera, 3G support and, fingers crossed, instant messaging. The iPhone can only get better."

We can contrast that article with the blog from Artur Bergman at O'Reilly Radar in iPhoneDevCamp

What was evident at this past weekend's iPhoneDevCamp, was the sheer energy displayed by the close to 400 attendees. Organised by Raven Zachary -- one of the authors of O'Reilly's iPhone hacks -- and Chris Messina, it was hosted in Adobe's plush San Francisco office. Sitting at rows of desks were developers and designers gathering together to overcome the limitations of the iPhone.

.........

The Apple developer documentation site has a promise of an ability for your web app to integrate with the iPhone. Or rather, it documents the brave invention of the "mailto:" URI scheme and the promise of a broken implementation of the 7 year old RFC 2806 spec of the "tel:" scheme . Most offensive is, however, Apple's claim to integrate with Google Maps, which means Safari intercepts requests to "http://maps.google.com/" and sends them to the Google Maps application. No other high-end phone manufacturer even comes close to this level of arrogance.

So we have one (user view) that says "it does it", and another view that says "it pretends to do it!"

Now as we know from the Wizard of Oz story the consumer (Dorothy et al) believed in the Wizard at the Castle even though it was really only a human like themselves.

"I am Oz, the great and terrible," said the little man, in a trembling voice. "But don't strike me-please don't- and I'll do anything you want me to"

The point being that from Claudine, the consumer's, point of view iPhone has Google Maps; from Artur's pov it is a con. But in the short term as long as Claudine is happy then 'perception is reality'. In the future the screen may fall down in a way that the consumer feels the experience isn't good enough then Oz will be exposed. Bill Buxton introduced this metaphor to me.. it is in his book starting p.238.

So it took 3 years for the iPod to be an overnight success so we'll see how many it takes iPhone.... and what is success? and for whom? Claudine of course, which may mean Artur has to be happy too!

This is why Maslow's needs hierarchy turned into a Design Pyramid shown here. The tools to create applications can be said to be a technology issue, one of the enablers for improving the consumer experience.. by closing the gap between actual and expected; and between latent needs and solution paths and schemes driven by Insights. Design Space talks of opportunities and constraints which also opens up the range of possibilites to explore and with Design Pyramid facilitates a Design Journey to winning products, services and experiences.

Get Organised with Objects of Desire?

5584_MVC-003X
Originally uploaded by IC Pod

I really like my Palm Vx PDA... it was my 3rd attempt at finding a pocket device that was useful to me- at an emotional level as well as functional. Technology Review  May/June 2007 print edition has a photoessay "Objects of Desire: Famous industrial designers talk about iconic pieces of technology.

Described in the May/June 2007 print edition one of the Objects is the 1999, Palm V
"If I had to pick one product as the best of the last 20 years, it would be the Palm V," says Duarte [Matias Duarte, vice president of experience design at L.A. mobile-communications firm Helio]. "It has the three essential attributes of design: substance, style, and sim­plicity. It set the essential feature set for a PDA. Its metallic case had no exposed screws or fasteners. The hardware and software set were part of one experience. Its leather cover and metallic body really made it a fashionable accessory item you could create an emotional relationship with. Before the Palm V, you were happy if you could get a device with the right feature set. If it was always easy to use, you were ecstatic. Style was unusual. Once an object reaches technological maturity, it becomes about an aesthetic feature set. In the consumer electronics industry, we're constantly riding that wave."

My attempt No. (1) was exemplified by the Psion 3c

165x85x22 mm, weighing 10 oz. it more or less fitted in my jacket pocket... well I carried it everywhere, in the same manner that I carried my Time Manager.

134x205x25 mm, weight 14 oz. Lovely tactile feel in (Royal) Navy leather; can toss it from hand to hand on the move... fun. As Lotus Notes was introduced into the organisation we worked with a Notes apps supplier and TMI International to bring in a software version.. where we could fill our leather folder with Key Area, Tasks, Actions, etc. and make them visible to our colleagues through a Notes Server... it worked ok for 4-5 of us in close proximity but failed to stick across a network (pre-WWW and almost pre-internet).

We tried the Psion next but not until the 3c version. We synchronised it with the first of the laptops we were experimenting with so we could have basic names and addresses on both and a txt files transferred from Psion to PC. We were using All-in-One as an email system and Lotus apps. This helped at a personal level but few people wanted the (relatively small amount of) hastle.

We looked at the first Palm weighing in at 5.7 oz, 120x80x18 mm

but as we couldn't play with one we decided to go for the Psion V.

100x73x27mm 7.8 0z.

As our corporate IT system was stressed to the limit as we lurched through from local to regional infrastucture it became difficult to get the synchronisation software to work and I guess I was the only owner of one!

Then the Palm V (designed by IDEO) arrived and I got one.......

Wow! The software to sync the pda was simple to install and when I put the wee beastie into the docking station I pressed one button and it got on with it.. and as we, by this time, had moved to Outlook the address book was always in step. At home I sync'd with the Palm addressbook app for the PC, so that was an added bonus.

I met a professor at a conference... he pulled out his Palm and said "snap!". I showed him an app. I had downloaded for monthly, weekly and Daily appointments and to-do's; he showed the predictive text app and we swapped via infra-red and went on our separate ways!

Other people saw the style, watched my quick demo and rushed off to get their own!

We had a winner, good looks, good functionality, did what it did well.

So the Palm was so much easier to use and sync with the PC and was much better on aesthetics and so the Psion disappeared. A few years later the pda generation seemed to fade as mobile phones vied for attention. I still like my Palm Vx and I also like my Nokia..... but I connected my Nokia to my Laptop many years ago, so do I need the pda?

In 2004 the V&A Museum published David Redhead's book "Electric Dreams- Designing for the Digital Age". He devotes one chapter to the Rise and Fall of the PDA, which makes interesting reading.

So half way through 2007 I look at p 95 and read that "Irene McWilliam, Professor of Computer Related Design at the Royal College of Art, is one commentator who believes the PDA is on the verge of obsolescence. She argues that the device is now caught in a deadly pincer movement between ever-more compact personal computers and ever-more versatile mobile phones.

So, with my Palm V battery dead and my personal organiser cover needing recharging with blank paper and the iPhone about to launch I think " Simplicity, connectedness, intuitive, aesthetics, convergence, systems experiences, desire, stories "...... Oh and have a told you the story about the Palm V case for my Palm? I received it at the CRAVE conference in San Francisco.

A year later at a conference on Inclusive Design at the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the RCA in London Bruce Nussbaum was on stage and waved his "Craved" Palm as an example of a great product... I waved my Palm from the audience and he called out "Were you there? Lets talk after" and that's how I got to meet him. I also met Michael Schrage at CRAVE but that's another story.

Inside Voice- still deciding on my next handset

Inside Voice
Originally uploaded by powerbooktrance.

There is a great deal of discussion about Motorola's RAZR and its initial success; followed by lack of interest in the next generation of Motorola's offerings.. I wrote here and Bruce Nussbaum for instance posts

"Carl Icahn, who is constantly called "the corporate raider turned shareholder activist" is battling Motorola CEO Ed Zander to get a seat on the board of directors and use the company's cash to buy back stock--including his own Motorola stock. Zander and Motorola are vulnerable to this squeeze because of the sharp decline in the profits derived from the great selling Razr cellphone. Motorola has been cutting its price all year, especially in emerging markets, and is losing market share to rivals Nokia and Samsung. All this before Apple launches its iPhone.

What does this have to do with design? After all, the ultra-slm Razr is a design marvel, attracting millions of people around the world to its fashionable, stylish colors and light, thin form. It took quite a lot of engineering and plain old industrial design to create the Razr.

But the Razr turns out to be bad design, really bad design, because it has an awful user-interface. I personally know nearly a dozen people who truly hate their Razrs, including a number of top designers. People have a very hard time with just the basic features, such as phone numbers, texting, sending photos, even hearing well. There are lots of consumer complaints. The truth is, despite its terrific outside, the Razr runs on an old, homeground operating system
that Motorola is only now updating."  (latest Carl Icahn did not get his seat!)

I asked a student group recently if any of them had RAZR phones... a good proportion raised their hands; when I asked what they thought of them. They raised problems of robustness with hinges being a particular focus of doubt. Also many did not progress on from making calls and txts. The following week I asked who had a Nokia... about the same number as last week raised their hands. What did they think of them... They thought they were cool... liked the ease of use and some mentioned the style. Several showed me photo albums and movies they had made recently capturing interesting events in their lives. One guy wanted to take me over to a PC on the University network to show me his Lifeblog of the project research he had done for his team and... but we'd better get back to the student workshop I am facilitating as we are discussing the Design Pyramid.

We went onto the Nokia website, grabbed some statements on their purpose and built the  brand communication face:

Looking at the Nokia phone

We can ask people about their actual experience of use and tabulate their feedback against the consumer experience side. The Nokia information on their site describes the 7280 this way

Key Features

Subtle and sleek rotator to access features in a unique way

Slide it open to reveal the beauty of the mirror finish

Voice-activated user interface for a more personal touch

Cunningly hidden integrated VGA camera for a touch of mystery

Internal handsfree speaker to communicate in a whole new way

Explore your flair for creativity and send your creations via MMS

Unique Design Exuding Mystery 

Answer and end calls in true style with the active slide

Smoothly slides open to reveal the cunningly hidden camera

Unique red glow display screen exudes mystery and excitement

Complete your look with the stylish protective carrying bags and straps

Crafted for Glamour 

Stand out like a flame in the darkness with the unique rotator (no number keys, only select, send, end, and 2 soft keys)

Breathtaking display supports up to 65,536 colors within 104 x 208 pixels

Share Vivid Moments 

Share the excitement of your evening via SMS and MMS with AMR voice clips

Capture the Splendor 

Capture the night's most compelling moments with the Integrated VGA Camera

Connectivity and Data Transfer 

HSCSD and EGPRS for high-speed data connectivity

GPRS for convenient 'always on' browsing

Bluetooth wireless technology

Infrared

XHTML browser

Nokia PC Suite

So we can see that the Nokia team are addressing the higher levels of Maslow to increase the symbolic functions. We can establish what the consumer actually experience and think of the phone.

Obviously it would be interesting to do the same for the RAZR and the equivalent Nokia will give us something like this

 

The gap shows that the functionality and iconic scores are similar but the reliability scores are higher for Nokia as they take this seriously and it is reflected in consumer feedback. Because the user interface is not a barrier to use people engage with the Nokia much more easily creating a halo effect that spills over into personality and iconic properties. It is interesting how the external form reflects the actual consumer perceived quality of the Nokia but the RAZR raises expectations during the buying touchpoint and then dashes them in use.

So we can see from the gap analysis  what we need to work on using the other pyramid faces to discuss and record group targets and learning. We can now be systematic about addressing our users' barriers to a great experience. Now it will be interesting to plot the iPhone experience in order to understand Apple's offer! What is the platform for success? Steve and Jonathan have really led their team to concentrate on solving gaps.. will the consumer agree?

photo uploaded on by marble2. Used with thanks under CC.

Finally, the success of the venture depends on more than the consumer experience which is where Design Space comes into its own.

Wrestling with pyramids

tillich-maslow
Originally uploaded by IC Pod.

Abraham Maslow researched and created his hierarchy of needs using his observations of work practice. He said until we had sufficient of a layer we did not ascend to the next level of the hierarchy. As Virginia Postrel has shown this is not actually true in our modern day (and non-USA) circumstances. There seems to be something much richer driving us especially at the higher levels.

Paul Tillich, existential philosopher postulates that an Individual has three options in life……...

1.Participation

Primary Focus:

Submerges self into social group

Positive by-products: 

Sense of personal security & social comfort

Danger: 

Dissolution of one's own sense of self

Over-conformance to norms and fads

"keeping up with the Jones's"

Weakening of one's belief in your impact on world

[Maslow refers to self-realisation as self-actualisation.]

2.Individualisation

Primary Focus: 

Reach ones potential and improve one's lot in life

(financial, familial or social)

Positive outcomes:

Personal heroism to successful entrepreneurship

Potential by-products:

Loneliness, alienation

Frustration, wariness of others

Other outcomes:

Restless, desire for more,

Need to prove oneself

Have to win to maintain self-respect

Driven belief: greater self-realisation is round corner.

3.Self-Realisation

Primary Focus:

Iinterdependence

Spirit maintained and enhanced by integrating into a world that exists

Holistic rather than mechanistic

[Niels Bohrs said properties of particles can only be defined as they interact with other systems]

As we move up Maslow's Hierarchy we are moving from utilitarian functions to symbolic ones enabling us to make meaning of our artefacts within our cultural contexts. Paul du Gay's circuit of culture model, explained in "Doing Cultural Studies", helps us towards understanding the role of artefacts in making meaning.

Maslow's hierarchy has been "improved" by additional layers over the years since his death. First a Cognitive layer was added below Self-actualisation and then more layers were added and these extras were used to inform the DoCoMo's i-mode (Japan) innovation process. This leads to:

The layers are defined as:

Transcendence: To help others find self-fulfillment and realise their potential

Self-actualisation: To find self-fulfillment, realise one’s potential

Aesthetic: Symmetry, order, beauty

Cognitive: To know, understand, explore

Esteem: To achieve, be competent, gain approval, recognition

Belonging and love: To affiliate with others, be accepted

Safety/security: Out of danger

Physiological: Hunger, thirst, bodily comforts

Whilst very useful in interpreting our motivation and behaviour I have erred on the simple side keeping to the original 5 layers as the newer layers tend to be enabled by a product or a service rather than being feature specific , i.e. I don't know how someone will actually make meaning of the features I provide but I hope that they will enable emergent behaviour. At the functional end I can make sure the user benefits from more efficient stain removal, cooler drinks, smoother acceleration, clearer menus, etc.

Imagine- Design Pyramid- How well are we doing?

Imagine- Design Pyramid- How well are we doing?
Originally uploaded by IC Pod.

Some of my early blogs discussed using Maslow Hierarchy of Needs as a scaffold for creating better and hopefully optimal (at that point in time) customer/consumer/user experiences of a product or service. The reason we adopted the model was to help innovation teams decompose the experience into more meaningfu