all round good stuff

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does this link work...

Service envy

Have decided to blog all my scribbles that relate to my Dissertation:

Educate people
service envy- potential title
few examples: shifts from wants to needs. policy

who is my audience?
my mum, my dad, my local MP, my colleague?

Changing from a society of needs and wants...and then back to needs.
It is these needs that Service designers 'dress up' and make people want.
I am surveying the change.
How are companies 'doing it'?

Very quickly descrive how society has changed in the past twenty years.
Look at case studies.
Have one central case study and several minor ones surrounding it.
Do this so I can point out various similarities and differences.
Use them to 'crtique'

Have a strong contrast embedded in work.

Next steps:

Get a really tight, clear framework

Perhaps write an introduction , which may end up being your conclusion.
Gather materials and qoutes.
Talk to people. ordinary people. politicians. friends. workers. teachers.
Look at servie design journals
Listen to radio 4 ( every morning between 6 and 9)
Read the Guardian newspaper....mmmm
Magazines:
Prospect
Newstateman
Spectator
Private eye

Is important to be in tune with what is happening with the governement, as they decide on policies, which ultimately determine the success of service design.

website: ngadget

Tuesday Meeting

Today is the first meeting with the client for my latest project...I like to write down everything in my head so I do not forget to talk about something important.

First of all, what I have been doing since our last meeting:
findings, research, information

Discuss all ideas...be critical. be adventurous.

Corporate identity:
Who you are
What you do
How you do it

Products or services: what you make or sell
Environments: where you make or sell it
Communications: explain what you do

I want this company to go beyond making and selling a commodity to creating a brand.

No purchase is devoid of emotion, purchasing any product plays on your emotions.

I want an imaginative name.packaging. advertising. slogan.logo. typeface.colour.
marketing. tangible displays of communication. communicate vision of the company.

Materials. Colour. Texture.

Costing. Sponsorship.

Next steps.

Major Project

Notes following meeting with Course Director regarding fourth year project.

It has came upon me.... my destiny in the peculiar form of a degree show and my fourth year project.
Where to start? I want to be remembered. I want to make a difference.
Getting good at making vital decisions and quick! and sticking to them, which is probably the hardest part. Thinking about what direction I want to go in. Where is my niche?
What kind of people and communities do I want to integrate with...Practicality? Legality?
Disclosure Scotland...
Be Practical! are there opportunities for me? users available to me?
My project has to fit in and be coherent with IPD's philosophy which is of course, unlike any other product design course in the country.
I want my project to fit in amongst contemporary product design issues

• Interaction Design
• Sustainable Design
• Service Design
• Inclusive Design
• Wearable technologies

My theme has to be grounded in a practising part of product design.
Make me employable. Make people want to work with me.
Make me extremely knowledgeable and competent in one particular area.
Books to read:
Massive Change by Bruce Mau
In the Bubble by John Thackara

What problems/ opportunities am I going to explore?
The proposal I create over summer has to be contained enough that I have a strong valid direction to follow, but not so constrained that there is no room for freedom.

Justify every decision
Engage with people at every level.
What skills do I want to have?
What area to I want to excel in?
I am a thinker. But i have to be able to do STUFF. and do it GOOD.

Project split into three main categories:

• Business
• Technology ( can be an emerging technology)
• User

Investigation. takes up Semester 1 and finished just before Christmas. Should have some strong concepts to evaluate.

Development: reaching your final concept. Takes up a third- two thirds of semester 2.

Execution: your design is fixed and final. The making begins.

Read. Read. Read. Researching people techniques...go that little bit further. Create your own technique.
Gantt Chart
cost $500-$1000 (start saving up now!)
take videos and pictures of everything

generic probe for a wide range of projects.share the cost

have two versions of portraying project:
one commercial and one in depth type
online portfolio.

THINKING TOYS

Disappointing morning as the children did not turn up! They day has been arranged for next week so I need to rethink my plan of action. Mmmm...where to start? I do feel I am at the point that I need to spend an entire day with children, my prototypes and a dressing up box.
The creation of character profiles, scenarios and story boards are my next step. Also, I have a very long list of questions I want to ask children aged 3-8.

Recycling and creating a sustainable design is an issue that keeps coming to mind. My design could be made from old scraps of material..

THINKING TOYS

'Hokey Pokey'

...the name I am currently using to entitle my latest creation in response to a design brief provided by the toy store Hamleys. At the heart of my design is imagination, playfulness and interaction. I remember my little self trying on shoes 5 sizes too big and wearing random assortments of hats and scarfs. It was fun. More importantly, there was no television in front of me or electronic eqiupment in my hand. Children have to remeber how to play, and how to be together. It is all very well having a play room equipped with the latest playstation etc. but how far does the bond between parent and child go when this is the case? How many children bond and stimulate each others development and imagination by simultaneously staring at a computer screen. Throuhgout this project my main aim was to get away from the technlogical aspect of 'playing' that is so common in society.

To explain my design simply it is a clothing range; primary function being dressing up and entangling yourself with the rest of yourself or with other little ( or big) people you want to play with. I created rough prototypes from old clothes and scraps of material. I made them the correct size for my own age group so I could test the principle of the idea before testing it out on the kids. The group of twenty year old girls, my lovely friends and fellow designers, had great fun playing with my models. The room filled with laughter and attracted attention from others in the room.

The incorporation of pockets,zips,velcro and buttons will indeed provide a learning aspect to my design. As it is aimed at 3 to 8 year olds, there are indeed children in this age bracket who may have difficulty using buttons or laces.

The beauty of this project is that it is all about fun. We had such a laugh testing it out I thought to myself there is nothing stopping this idea from developing into the adult market as a drinking game or just something to bring smiles all round. I am unsure wether to make this design an actual game with rules and a 'winner', my gut instinct is telling me to stay away from this aspect and just let their imagination run wild!

I do want to make my design modular. I like the idea of the tops opening at the back and then fastening onto each other so the children would all be connected but still be able to move and intertwine with each other.

The design itself is very simple. There are so many various ways I could develop this but at the same time I am scared of over developing it. I have to start looking into materials, textures and cost! How would I market 'Hokey Pokey'? There could be various ranges, like winter or summer? Outfits for playing in the snow or at the beach in the sea. Indoor or outdoor? Rain or shine? I need to find out how children percieve clothes? I need to focus on a principle material?

Tomorrow is a day full of opportunity. A few small boys aged 3-6 are coming into my studio to test our models. I want to use this time efficiently. I intend to create character profiles, scenarios and story boards. Without a doubt I will be observing the children, looking at how the interact with their surroundings. I have to consider what the cultural and environmental effects of my design would be? The analysis of potential error is also important as it a product aimed at children. Hope tomorrow is inspiring!

Trip to NCR

Today we spent the morning with the designers and leaders from NCR. We were given a tour around their lab, studios and room 504.
The soul purpose of this visit was to familiarize myself and other students in my class with the whole purpose and background of NCR. Our new brief which we have been set was given to us by NCR and is a competition between Innovative Product Design students at Dundee University and Industrial Design students at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen.

A guy called Charlie Rohan introduced us and gave us a quick introduction to the company and the work they do all around the world.
Their main focus is on the design, purpose, function and development of ATM machines.
Which as a product, are very complexed and detailed systems. There are so many aspects to take into consideration eg. Function,security and architecture.

ADOPTION = USABILITY AND USEFULNESS

It was insightful to realize how very different every country of the world approach the concept of banking and the way different societies use ATM machines.
For example, in Germany people do get bank statements posted out to their home address. Therefore, the printing of a statement becomes a primary function of the ATM machine. In Egypt, the majority of their ATM machines are situated in the back of trucks. Therefore, creating a entirely new concept of mobile banking.

Evidently, as designers produce new ideas these have to be tested on the users.
NCR are designing for a constantly changing democratic society and therefore they must make sure that all the assumptions they make are infact true and their design intent possess the possibility to be manufactured.

The way that individuals use cash machines are changing every day. Cheques are rapidly going out of fashion; typing in a pin number is slowly incorporating advanced technology such as biometrics, iris scanning, voice recognition, swiping a card rather then inserting it.

The designers explained the different techniques they utilize in order to show the customers these new, evolving ideas. Customers are familiar with the behavior that they are used too and aspects such as advertising, graphics and models all contribute to selling the whole process to society.

Marketing, merchandising and the environment are all areas of huge significance to the team at NCR.

The concept of money and currency is also of great importance. Is money going to gradually disappear from our lives entirely? Before the idea of trading was utilized correctly and became an integral part of the society and the way we live, money did not exist. Do users always NEED a physical interface or product?

An interface they discussed was mobile phones. Everyone has one. We are familiar with mobile phones . And most importantly we TRUST them. Imagine the scenario: you are waiting in a que to the ATM machine and you can somehow inform your mobile phone of the transaction you wish to make. This in itself, takes away the element of waiting. You then reach the ATM machine, type in your mobile number and bingo. transaction complete.

Room 504 was inspiring. It held models of blue sky ideas. The name originated from a hotel room number 504.
Slogans I noticed on various models were:
ENJOY LIFE
THE SUPERIOR SPECIES HAVE ARRIVED
MIGRATE TO A BETTER PLACE

With regards to visuals. The company reach out to customers using a wide range of mediums. From rendered sketches, written explanations, card models, life size models, appearance models and functioning models.
Their designs almost resemble furniture. Design and technology integrating seamlessly. Obviously, when humans and cash merge there are always margins for error to occur: one of the many reasons why the research behind these concepts is so complexed.

The day ended with a quick discussion between the students and the board of NCR design directors. This was to give us a chance to ask any questions regarding the brief we have been set. Their feedback and advice was helpful although I felt I was aware of most the facts they pointed out already, which was comforting as I am obviously on the right tracks with my project.

ADVICE
Show them that we understand our character, we have defined a need for our character.
Explain how we would take our idea forward in business terms.
Show uniqueness.
Sell our idea.
Show how good our idea is for our character.
Our finished outcome does not necessarily have to be a product.
Define what a product is? A video? A role play? Or a combination of many things.
BE CREATIVE.
They want to get us thinking in ways that is are going to inspire them.
Make their designers think. Stimulate them.
Stimulate our local design community.
We are delivering a service. A self service.
Justify if our character really needs a financial service.
Justify everything.
Everything we challenge on the brief. They will challenge us on.

Looking back I had a good morning, it was insightful, informative and inspiring. But to be honest, not creative enough for me. I like designs that make me smile and make me think about my behavior and question why we act the way we do. But, on saying that the models we were shown today were out of this world. The company itself is doing amazing work all over the globe and I am excited by the fact they have set us this brief. A challenge.

Trip to SENSATION

Today myself and Garry Burns (fellow IPD student) spent the day at Sensation, which is science centre in dundee that promotes learning in new,fun ways, for both adults and children. The purpose of the trip was to give us the opportunity to interact with 5 year olds, as our user we are designing for is a 5 year old boy called Jordan.

We created various culture probes to allow us to explore the world of 5 year old and get more into the mind and imagination of children of that age group.

In the morning we met with Hannah Crookes, who is the Education Manager for the Centre. She was very friendly and helpful and thanks to her and the rest of her team we gained alot of valuable researh today.

ETHNOGRAPHY

This made me want to go grab a camera and take photos of everything www.thoughtlessacts.com
I am fascinated by the way people of the world adapt to various environments, products and places without even realizing they are doing it!
The book THOUGHTLESS ACTS by Jane Fulton Suri and IDEO is funky. It is the only book of its kind I have ever seen. It captures the funny and provocative ways that people interact with the world around them.
Flicking through the photos in this book sharpened my awareness to human behaviour and major user issues very relevant to product design.
I ventured out myself to do some 'people watching'

I hope this has given you an insight into our CHANCE project. I responded to this brief rapidly and the outcome was rewarding. For me, people were at the heart of this project and I have learned alot from a design perspective about people and the world we live in.

We produced some great funky concept videos for this project which I will try and upload soon. But the project did show us that people do infact believe everything you tell them, with a few exceptions, we made the truth more obvious. For instance, putting a sign on a cash machine stating there is chance this machine will swallow you card. And no one took the chance. Interesting.

DO PEOPLE BELIEVE EVERYTHING WE TELL THEM?
We then decided to explore the way people engage with products and systems embedded in our environment.
Looking at everyday rituals that embrace the concept of chance
Everytime we post a letter we take CHANCE that it will not be delivered properly.
We focused on making this truth obvious to the public.

OUTCOME
This project was a huge success. To gain feedback we sent out an email to all the individuals who took part in it. We successfully reached our goal of making people think about their behaviour. The fact they all seen the posters of a simple jigsaw piece created a large sense of curiosity. They took the 'chance' and followed instructions properly.

How we did it?

We focused on the idea that companies, individuals and professional bodies all over the world...take the chance that members of the public will follow instructions properly.

On first enquiry was conveyed in the form of a 'Jigsaw'
We created a 'space' called the Jigsaw Corner outside the library. Hence, creating a mini community and an interactive game.We then placed individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in envelopes with a set of simple instructions, and hid them in random locations. The fact we adverstised the project one week before it was set up had a great impact on the project.

The chance project…
The brief : A two week rapid response project that forms 20% of my final mark for IP31001 exploring the notion of using design as a way of finding out about people and the world.

“The world is full of chance-every moment of our lives is governed by statistics, probabilities and chance. The time we wake up, the mood we are in, the weather, the times the bus arrives and the chance we will get a seat.
Yet while we are aware of chance and we can measure it, it remains intangible-it has no form, texture,colour, taste or smell.

Explore chance from a research design perspective-using product design as a mode of enquiry…”

NEW APPROACH:
Problem finding not problem solving.
We cannot observe or directly measure chance.
Propose playfulness….make people think.
DESIGN AS A MODE OF ENQUIRY.
What is a product? It does not necessarily have to be an object…it can be an outcome.

Definition of CHANCE:
The quality shared by random, unintended, or unpredictable events.
“It is by ‘chance’ we met, by choice we became friends”
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes;
Chance,nature, compulsions, habit,reason, passion and desire.
Made me think about SERENDIPITY: is love fate, random chance, or the result of devotion and dedication…?
LUCK: the only thing about luck is that you can be sure it will change.

I worked on this brief with fellow ipd student Giorgio Giove

Our main aim of the project was to create solutions that proposed playfulness and made people think about their behaviour...

At the very outset we decided to carry our variprojectsi' projects and social experiments as opposed to focusing on one specific final outcome.