This picture sums up the innovation imperative very nicely...
They are stating that If you really know your customers; create products and services that meet their needs, delighting their senses then you are well on the way to making sure that they will keep coming back to you.
Little Springs describe themselves as:
"Specializing in the practice of user-centered design for the mobile industry, Little Springs Design understands the needs of your business and customers. We bring our knowledge of the user, their needs in design, and the potentials of technology to you."
Chapter 1 of Electric Dreams: designing for the digital age, written by David Redhead in 2004, opens with a quote from Tim Brown of IDEO:
"Once design was about designing objects. Now it's about anticipating behaviours. Designers need to be film directors rather than sculptors."
Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge, founder of IDEO, was published late 2006 with an introduction by Gillian Crampton Smith. She says, in a section called Designing for Everyday Life:
"Twenty years ago, when personal computers were first becoming popular, they were mostly used as professional tools, or games machines for teenagers........
We've come to a stage when computer technology needs to be designed as part of everyday culture, so that it's beautiful and intriguing, so that it has emotive as well as functional qualities.....
It [the book] describes the challenges designers face in making this powerful technology fit easily into people's everyday lives , rather than forcing their lives to fit the dictates of technology."
which just reinforces what the headline picture describes... but how to do it for everyday objects and activities?
The good news is technology enables us to collect and share information; to interact around it and derive more interesting insights that can drive our innovation endeavours.
The other bit of good news is we can probably make a start with what we know and design activities to uncover what we need to know, and don't already know, thus planning activities that close that gap.
An interesting development last night was a radio discussion on the Chris Evans Drivetime show of the arrangement between the BBC and Nintendo to ensure availability of the iPlayer on the Wii box. In the blog
Wii
becomes home of online video there is an explanation of why the Nintendo box came first when conventional logic might favour the Xbox or Playstation. Read the blog for a fuller explanation that starts
"According to the Beeb's Erik Huggers it's because Sony and Microsoft wanted to "control" the iPlayer.
He said: 'If you want to get on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only.' ......
What's more interesting is that the BBC's work with Nintendo has gone a step closer to achieving what many companies are working at - namely, bridging the gap between the web and the TV."
On the programme Erik Huggers explained that there are 2.5m Wii consoles in UK many belonging to people that are not hard core gamers, spreading across the ages from young to old, so it was a profile more likely to be interested in the iPlayer's benefits. Nintendo will make a small one off charge for the iPlayer channel subscription.
The iPlayer is also available on the iPhone Touch and iPhone, discussed here, which is intriguing given the claims and counter-claims about closed and open systems.. maybe there is another layer called closed and open thinking? Or even closed and open behaviour?
In other words really knowing your customers; creating products and services that meet their needs, delighting their senses so you are well on the way to making sure that they will keep coming back to you.
Picture uploaded by emsef. Used with thanks under CC.
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