The greatest thing that designing a product can do for me to create an attractive experience of being in the outdoors is – the ability to mass produce and customize a product to bring out a sense of novelty.
An incremental design on a product that is already available in the market will entice people who are passionate in the recreation related to the product to try it and use it. But it will merely enhance the experience: 1. for a small, niche group, 2. Until the next best product appears in the market.
Why design a physical product when I know the limitations it has in achieving the goal to bring people outdoors?
A statement piece for a campaign – One product that triggers the desired response and sends a message to the public. eg Coca Cola
The approach of co-creation
Co creating space/experience – an approach found lacking by traditional event hosts: How to create an attractive experience of going outdoors and participating such that it captures returning crowds? (Physical products will have to be complemented by a channel for communication, likely it will be more than a service.) > Pop-up event design
Content generation for entertainment, crowdsourcing, fanfiction and storytelling, etc. – this is what netflix is doing.
Products
Services
Physical and tangible
Abstract and intangible
Detached Objects
Complex systems
Customizable (at most)
Obliged to adapt to constant changes
Have immediate value
Have value only when being used
Produced by a specific manufacturer
Created by a set of individual departments
Moving on, will designing a product limit me to customisable products at maximum?
Or will a product be able to meld with on-site and off-site screen based experience to fulfil the other objectives of organisers or boost their portfolio in terms of sustainability, sustainbility etc. ?
Taste and preferences of millennials:
Adventurous, Wanderlusty, Experiential retail, Willingness to encounter danger or risks in pursuit of enjoyment.
What brands are millennials attracted to? (Possible case studies)
Fashion/Apparel brands: Sephora, Nike, Sketchers, Lorna Jane and Underarmour (active-wear brands), ASOS, Shore Projects,
Store concepts: Muji, box shops (consumers are also producers), Ikea (sustainability)
Blogging: (food) Lady Iron Chef, Miss Tamjiak, (lifestyle articles) The Smart Local, other commercially driven blogs, Information driven ones like HongKiat.
Work: Shared work spaces WeWork (co-working communities) Starbucks
The Mall: Pop-up retail (Suntec City), PasarBella
Lifestyle: Jamming, Art jamming, Partying, After-party supper and breakfast, Themed social activity – trampoline park, Headspace (mindful meditation), Nike Women #betterforit Lily VS Margot, Grubhub and Snapchat, GOPRO (Important: User-generated content and product design),
Pop culture: Netflix, Disney, SuperBowl/NFL (Sports-related), On screen spinoffs for books such as Harry Potter, LOTR, GOT, The Hobbit, Star Trek
Brands that project wealth: Audi
Advertising/entertainment digital media network: Huffington Post, Buzzfeed
Travel: National Geographic, AirBnb
Movements: Movember, Inktober, Purple Parade, gender equality, lgbt rights
Extracted from Emerald Insight: Co-creating Value through customer’s experiences
By Venkat Ramaswamy
Venkat Ramaswamy, the co-author (with C.K. Prahalad) of The Future of Competition: Co-creating Unique Value with Customers (Harvard Business Press, 2004), is a Hallman Fellow and Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan (venkatr@ umich.edu). His current book project (with Francis Gouillart) has the working title Co-creating Strategy: Building a Co-creative Organization to Generate New Strategic Capital through Valuable Engagement Experiences.
Insight
Customers have learned how to use these new tools to make their opinions and ideas heard and involve themselves in the value creation process. Seeing opportunity in this new environment, leading firms are responding by engaging their customers in the co-creation of value.
Co-creative interactions are an emerging strategy for value creation. By engaging with informed, connected, and networked customers around the globe, the shoe company Nike has found a new source of value. Whether as ‘‘single individuals,’’ or as members of global thematic communities, customers or other stakeholders now can and want to be involved with Nike in shaping outcomes of value. They do this by sharing their interactions and experiences – these range from their ideas about how to improve or customize products to their feelings when they use products.
During the 2006 World Cup, in partnership with Google, Nike set up a social networking website, Joga.com, that invited individuals to film their soccer skills, upload the videos that showcased their talent, and then have the network community comment on, rate and share the user-generated content.
The community was the judge of a winner every month. Joga.com invited individuals to create their own profiles and socially network with others. Joga.com was in effect a thematic community that enabled individuals to share personal and collective soccer experiences. With over one million fans participating in this innovative brand building effort, Nike had a unique opportunity to learn directly from its customers.
Sponsoring Street Soccer Competitions, creating a website that connected professional players with their fans, ‘‘Nike ID’’ website, the firm invited twenty purveyors of sneaker culture to compete in designing a new shoe for Nike. The firm structured the competition as if it were a reality show and then asked the Nike Internet community to vote on the best design. Besides these designs and Nike’s original new designs for the season, fans could go on the Nike ID site to personalize their own shoes from various styles and colors, including putting the flags of the countries they wanted to support on their shoes. Nike provided software tools for local soccer teams and professional leagues to co-design and customize the soccer shoe.
IMO,PURPOSE: To create value through experiences. Lending customers the power to influence the things that are to be used by them.
As it engages with its community of customers Nike can build its brand in unique ways. For example, Nike’s customers gain experiences of value to them through their participation and influence in the design process, by being a part of creating the product/service offering, by socially networking with people who share like-minded passion for the sport, and by reducing their risk of dissatisfaction.
Influencing the design of the product through Co-Creation
Taking this idea one step further, the Experience Co-Creation (ECC) process involves enabling co-creative interactions so that individuals can have meaningful and compelling engagement experiences. Either process requires some management guidelines based on enlightened self-interest.
To illustrate how an EEC initiative works in practice, consider the running shoe business of Nike. In May 2006, Nike launched the Nike þ (NikePlus) platform, a collaboration between Nike and Apple, consisting of an Apple iPod music player, a wireless device to connect the music player to running shoes, a pair of Nike shoes with a special pocket to accept the wireless device, and membership in the iTunes and Nike þ online communities (itunes.com and nikeplus.com). The Nike þ co-creation platform capitalizes on the connection between running and music. The combination of innovative, mobile technology, online communities and athletic gear expands the field for co-creation.
To manage the co-creation of value process in this market Nike uses guidelines based on the DART Model – dialogue, access, risk-return, and transparency – to establish best practices (see Exhibit 2). At Nike, these guidelines set the stage for high-quality co-creative interactions between individuals (runners); groups (teams of runners, running clubs); and organizations (Nike and Apple).[2]
Dialogue.
The DART co-creation model is designed to foster meaningful dialogue, for example, between the customer and the company. The Nike þ system encourages meaningful dialogues:
Between the runner and Nike.
Between the runner/listener and Apple. B Among runners.
Between runners and running experts.
Runners can engage in nearly real-time conversations online. Groups of runners can challenge one another and friends can cheer on each other as they make progress toward their goals and resolutions.
Sharing Information
Transparency. The fourth guideline of the DART model of co-creation of value is transparency, in other words, shared information. Nike believes that runners need more insight into how they should train, what routes they should run, or what shoes might be best for their needs. Nike þ offers a wide range of information. By logging into the Nike þ website, runners can find out which routes are most popular, what distances and paces others are achieving, and how their progress compares. From the company’s standpoint, Nike þ allows Nike to know a lot about the individual runner. Many dedicated runners now record every run they make, their goals, the courses they run, the partners they run with, and, through the website blogs and discussions, their personal concerns and feelings about running. This input provides Nike with a goldmine of ideas for potential innovations.
By using the DART model to assess the effectiveness of interactions, firms can co-create mutual value continuously, even in existing engagement spaces. For example, runners using the Nike þ system have access to a host of new experiences: they can integrate two passions, music, and running; they can track runs with unparalleled precision; and they can take part inactive,new social network.Nike þ enhances runners’ enjoyment of the sport and increases their motivation. For Nike, the learning from these customer interactions creates new strategic capital. The company can now learn directly from the behavior of its customers, both from mining the data and from customers’ direct input on their preferences. Nike can build relationships and trust with the Nike þ community and experiment with new offerings, all the while enhancing its brand.
One generic set of product for all events; Where does the branding come in? How do I maintain each brand’s authenticity with temporary furniture and fixtures of a generic image?
Using fun as a means to get to an outcome (interaction/outdoor activity): Can this way of engagement be the same across different brands? For example, to get a hotdog bun at Netflix event I have to crank a machine. To get a hotdog bun at Coachella I have to crank a machine as well. Similar acts. Similar outcome. Perhaps the way of cranking the machine at each machine is different –
for Netflix, 2-Player Interaction Game > Generate kinetic energy > Cranks the machine > Players get hotdog bun
For Coachella, 2-Player Interaction Game related to sound > Sound Sensors > Cranks the machine > Players get hotdog bun.
Find more similarities and differences between pop-up event hosts.
HOW TO CREATE INTEREST?
Seize attention > Stimulate imagination
TRAITS OF INTERESTING THINGS
Novel
Complex
Comprehensible materials
Understandability
HOW TO CREATE INTEREST ?
Hint to make sense of objects
A gap in knowledge encourage curious questions; Need to eliminate the deprivation
To create a meaningful digital platform that allows non-superficial, fuss-free and genuine social interactions. To communicate with strangers.
Design Statement
Design a platform which matches people through common interest and provides initial anonymity, facilitates daily topic discussions.(exchange of ideas/ experience w/o prejudice)
Which of the messaging applications: Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, Telegram, and Snapchat, do you like the best?
Why do you use social media?
What is one best feature of the mentioned application that you found helpful in making connections and conversation with others?
What does it allow you to do differently?
If you have tried social dating apps like OkCupid and Tinder: How often do you chat with your matches?
Do you enjoy chatting to people through these applications?
What about social dating app attract you to use them? (Sense of thrill, Curiosity, Trend following, Seriously looking, Networking, etc.)
What puts you in a dilemma when using these applications to connect? (Safety, Privacy, Online Identity, Time Consuming, Blue ticks, Awkward situations, Differences between matches, Your match is a freak, etc.)
What do you do on your own to mitigate those situations?
How successful do you think social apps are capable of conveying full messages including tone of voice, clarity, and quality of conversations?
How do you decide which strangers to match on social dating platforms? What are the issues that you face associated with the way you pick your matches?
What are you looking for on social dating apps? (Genuine friendship, to kill boredom, new experiences, others)
Why do you use social dating apps for your purpose mentioned in 12.?
How successful do you think dating apps are in for you to identify the counterpart’s intentions? If very successful, what have the dating apps done right for you? If not successful, what do you think can be improved?
What do you think the counterpart’s intention is most of the time? (Sex, Friendship, Looking for a Date.)
Does that bother you if your intention is different? How will you proceed with that acquaintance when you know the intentions are different?
If there is an application that is able to address your concerns and the problems you are facing with building genuine connections on social media platforms, how likely do you think you will use it?
What do you value most in conversations?
What other features do you think will make social connections more interesting?
Idea One: From Microblog to Blog – A Seamless Story
Observation: Many platforms for microblogging for different types of social media. Why do people microblog?
Storytelling is a challenge with most social networks because of their very short content formats, making it difficult to “Tell a Story” with 1 photo and a few characters.
Approaching microblogging in a different way: How many social media-related phone applications do people keep on their smartphones? Most would have Youtube, Facebook, Instagram since these are the free applications that have achieved more than 1 billion downloads. How do people feel about fragmenting their information across various social media platforms? How can I create one seamless story?
(Questions: What are the social media apps that you use? How do you keep note of your social media footprint? How do you use social media, including messaging applications?)
Interviews Person A: Uses Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Skype, FB Messenger, Bleep, Boomerang, and Wire. Finds that it is cumbersome to keep note of his social media footprint, especially for confidential information. Has a preference to be able to time bomb messages for confidential info at work, and that is a means to remember.
WIP
Microblogging Platforms
Idea Two
There are several POV to this issue of rewarding people by using fun as a motivation. What a person defines as fun will be difficult to measure against what others define as fun.
WIP
Idea Three
Observation: It is getting harder to find a canteen stall with completely clean cutleries.
Problem: Hygiene issues, less peace of mind when picking cutleries, some hawker centers recognise that it is a problem, and solves the issue by dispensing disposable cutleries. Environmental issues as a result.What do users do when they meet with unhygienic eating conditions?
What do users do when they meet with unhygienic eating conditions?
Person A: Puts the dirty utensil on the table, and returns for a cleaner piece. If it remains dirty, wipe with a piece of tissue or opt for disposable utensils.
Person B: Brings own home utensils or disposable utensils.
Person C: From prior experience, if they know that the utensils for one place are dirty, they will opt to switch places to eat next time, or opt for takeaway so that there will be disposables to use.
Levels of experience with using dirty utensils:
Wipe the utensil > Pick another utensil > Return for a disposable one > Opt for takeaway > Change eateries next time
Proposed solutions:
Screen based system for operators to track circulation of cutleries so that washing time can be moderated.
Phone application to check for cleanliness of eateries so that diners can make an informed decision.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”
-Steve Jobs
The gameplay of these toys starts by making questions and attempting to answer those questions.
Opportunities: Weight, space constrains the design
Usage: Intuitive – the positive end into the negative end. More predictable outcomes because of its rules of the game.
Limits: Less manipulation allowed compared to Meccano
Usage of similar concepts into life-sized situations at EverBlock
How is interest sustained?
Collaboration with Future Lab and Hackathons
Innovating play experience
Crowdsourcing site for Lego ideas
Increased reliance on its own IP (Lego Racers, Ninjago, The Lego Movie) which is more effective at targeting Lego Fans, and associating with other merchandises (E.g. Clone Wars, WOW, and Harry Potter) which targets a smaller group
Failure
Incompatible parts such as Karla collection and Duplo
Being too focused on small groups’ needs thus designing large bricks for babies when these cannot be expanded into something more flexible
The Lego Movie
Lego The Knight Bus from Harry Potter
Lego The Clone WarsLego Baby (Out of Production and replaced by Lego Duplo)Lego Duplo For GirlsLego Duplo Animal Set
EverBlock Systems was formed to make it easy for companies and people everywhere to build large sized objects using a series of universal building blocks. We manufacture, sell, and rent EverBlock® globally and are building a world-wide network of agents, renters, and distributors.
Sustainable green building. Simplicity of Design.
Uses:
Temporary event structures
Decor, pillars, entryway’s and stylish objects
Event furniture such as bars, benches, tables, etc
Pony walls, backdrops and room dividers
Hard tent sidewall
Interior tent walls and tent dividers
Exhibits and displays
Risers, platforms, podiums, and steps
Illuminated objects
Opportunities
Look and feel, association with children’s toys
Flexibility
Transportation
Temporary Furniture, Walls, DecoFurnitureLarger temporary structure with a feeling of permanence
Meccano
Concepts: Modularity, Flexibility, Compatibility
Nature: Planes to be formed into solids in a “wireframe” structure
Material: Metal (Likely steel), coated with paint
Parts: Reusable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, and high-quality plastic parts
Connection: Nuts, bolts, and set screws/grub screws
For children above 10.
Difficulties: Too many types of unique parts
How is interest was lost?
No linking outfits between the 11 outfits produced, no incentive for buyers to come back for more. Even the colours do not match.
Upsizing with “A” (Accessories) to move on to the next set without duplicating parts. Eg Buying Outfit 2A after buying Outfit 2.
General modelling incompetence
Present day; most parts are made of plastics.
Marketing centered: Responses by Meccano fans shows that they prefer the basic “normal” sets to the modern outfits
Part 1: Write a response to the exhibition “Future World”. Keep in mind the following questions – What is experience design and what are the possibilities of responsive environments? How might this change the way we think about the world around us and the ways that we communicate with each other?
The Future World Exhibition displayed user-centric installations and is directed to educate and inspire viewers to impact their environment through play and exploration.
It emphasized on cultural differences in user experience. From Circulum Formosa to the 100 Years Sea, the developers explored the differences in space perception through paintings of Western and Eastern origin. Although the differences require some attention to differentiate, it is insightful to understand why some visual design work better than others. Cultural specific problems begets culturally relvant solutions to produce user experience designs which speaks to the user. One-size-fits-all solutions to context-specific (cultural) designs may not have the same degree of impact. Placing these two projects at the start of the exhibition seems like an opening statement to the rest of the exhibition to me – to be part of the “picture” or the environment and experience, rather than be a viewer at the side.
Play, however, seems like a common language in many context when it comes to experience design. Most exhibited works at the Future World gravitate around learning through play. Playful activity inspires engagement. (Create! Hopskotch for Geniuses and Light Ball Orchestra)
User experience is a system of cause and effect.
Action > Result that might trigger another chain of actions > Feedback
Interactive media provides responsiveness through the immediate feedback it gives. Immediate feedback can assure us of the things we do, discourage, encourage, help us better understand information the environment is trying to convery to us, our actions on the people and places we go to, etc. Information can be subconsciously registered in our minds (refer to video shown to the class on Week 6), and excessive information may confuse, cause miscommunication and distress. (I remember something vaguely about the ripple lines on the ceiling of a home which reflects the amount of people in another location.) How easily does one person link up and interpret messages that the responsive environment is trying to convey? Designs may speak to somebody born and raised in natural environments, or they might mean completely different things. For someone born into the age where responsive environments are in prevalence, will they need a baseline to understand most things?
The first chapter of the Digital Age by Goodwin focuses on defining design and goal-directed design. Goal-directed design allows designers to do what they do best by creating. The tools – (the 4Ps) Principles, Patterns, Processes, and Practices – helps ensure that the design effort is not in vain by making thought process transparent to the rest of the team (design, engineering, business).
Cooper’s Goal-directed Design workflow
Some design offices are built with an open concept workspace to encourage interaction between departments and for meetings, and most use Skype, Slack, Whatsapp and other applications to facilitate communication at all times. Sometimes it may be difficult to manage in terms of decision making in the business, design, or engineering processes. Apart from keeping the core team and departments small, how can companies ensure that they are moving from department to department and within departments with as little friction as possible?
Are there any good metrics to decide whether a company is effective and productive in implementing goal-directed design? Eg. The amount of time spent on a project, the amount of idling time within each department, productivity etc. Every project’s brief is different and is subjected to manpower and other factors. Although different, it is important for metrics to understand if the design is worthy of or unworthy of the time before it is taken up.
Goal-directed design comes with higher risk of diving into depth more quickly rather than the breadth of any project. How can companies ensure that they are on-point and making the best decisions within their context? Sometimes when ideas get stuck, there is a need to take a step back.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Part 2: Start to work on final project proposals – prepare three ideas for a screen-based experience that you’d like to create (it can be speculative). Prepare a slide show to illustrate your ideas. The ideas can be based on any of the field trips done so far or can be something completely new.
Part 3: Find 3 examples of a product/project that you think are good examples of thoughtfully designed user experience. Be prepared to support your choices.
On the far left: Looks like a climbing product for young children.Simple materials and assembly.Indian workers setting up the pop-up structure for Archifest. Boards were pinned and hammered together to form one platform.Construction worker hanging on the wire frame to set up chords of some sort. The danger is an issue when it comes to large setups for large events. For small setups, keep in mind the level of difficulty to set up structures.Materials: Old palettes, nails, bottles of water and soil.Parklets encourage people to stay outdoors, provides a place to hang out.
Building on what is available as an outdoor leisure in urban space:
Safety is an issue in setup;
Multiple layers of engagement after drawing someone into the location to interact with it, how do I make people dwell a little longer? How much privacy shall it give to encourage different types of people who want to interact less? ;
Aesthetics: even when the work is in progress, it is designed to look aesthetically photogenic and interesting, the process of setting up leads up to the opening of the show.
