Future finance

LEWIS JUST | PPJ | 2015

FUTURE FINANCE GSA + HITACHI CORPORATION

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Brief Project Launch Desk Research Research Data Bank PEST Cards Micro Macro Trends Key Stakeholders Workshop One PEST Timeline 7 Minute Ideation Pre-Kizashi Draft Pre-Kizashi Expert Interviews Fieldwork Insight Cards Workshop Two Finalising Kizashi User Journey’s Communication Artefacts Final UK 2025 Kizashi Final Presentation

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The Team

Louise Mushet

Alice Gunn

Reynan Burden

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Lewis Just

Gemma Lord

Santini Basra

Chris Strachan

Giulia Fiorista

Gianluca Menini

Brief This project sees you work with Hitachi Corporation, other professional designers and a variety of civic academic stakeholders in order to deploy, utilize and evaluate Hitachi’s current design research model, Kizashi, and its capacity to develop future-based scenarios that inform company strategy and fuel design development.

Hitachi Design utilizes a “human-centered approach” and has recently developed Kizashi in order to build an understanding of global shifts in society and how these relate to people’s values, attitudes and behaviors. Kizashi research projects have been carried out with academic institutions within influential, fastgrowing countries such as Brazil and Indonesia to capture insights into local needs, emerging experiences and expectations for the future.Your objective will be to use Kizashi to analyze current social issues within the UK and translate existing behaviors into

The establishment and communication of such future focused knowledge regarding behaviours will underpin design

emerging forms of user experiences appropriate to the future

innovation only if it can be

context of social services within the UK in 2025.

demonstrated to be credible and

As a team, you will put into practice your own user-centered

emerge from evidence gathered

design techniques and socially-driven approach, conducting fieldwork and engaging with different stakeholders to explore and understand opportunities which are not only based upon present service users, but also reveal/scope out potential “preusers” who might indicate or lead to social needs in the near future. Your outcome should incorporate tangible, future-based direction communicated in ways that Hitachi can work with and access directly. In parallel you will also deliver an evaluation of Kizashi as an approach or means for achieving this, and may include possibilities to enhance or enrich the existing model.

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PROJECT LAUNCH

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Hitachi kicked off the project to the GSA team (four MEDes

was partnered with Santini, a Product design BDes graduate.

students and 5 postgrad designers)with an introduction of

Nobu then went on to outline the six social drivers that the team

the Kizashi (meaning a sign of things to come in Japanese)

would use to explore these domains: environmental conservation,

methodology. The idea is that Hitachi can develop innovations

ageing population, regional disparity, diversity, security and

by identifying problems that may occur in a vision of the future.

citizenship. There was an afternoon brainstorming session to

This vision of the future is not a fantasy; it is a future forecasted

identify the interesting cross sections of domains and drivers

“viewpoint� that helps to explore human attitudes and behaviors.

where the group tried to create research questions that could be

After this overview, and a brief presentation about Hitachi and

explored by further research. Some cross sections were blank

their understanding of design, Yukinobu Mauyama (or Nobu

which prompted in depth discussion as to why that might be

as he preferred) offered us the opportunity to divide the GSA

and eventually led to further questions, sometimes forced, but

team into the four domains that the Kizashi would be based on:

others felt like genuinely interesting topics to dig into.

energy, mobility, finance and healthcare. I chose Finance and

Desk Research Exploring domains through various mediums

After the project launch we spent a few days as two teams (two domains per team) exploring the grids. We used postit notes to layer pertinent themes and populated them with more questions, trying to keep a UK context in mind.

Sharing and discussing as an entire team meant that we could harness the knowledge that we already had. It also allowed us to push each other into new areas that gave us a deeper knowledge base. As a whole the process was creatively driven; we pulled ideas and references from a plethora of places from sci-fi and movies to personal experiences, news articles to tech podcasts.

To capture this knowledge we set up various communication platforms to quickly share articles that others would find useful.

We communicated internally via Facebook , used Mural.ly as a reference hub and a tumblr blog to keep Hitachi up to date with our progress.

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Brian Loranger Design ethnographer

Ethnography Talk We had a workshop with Brian Loranger, a design ethnographer,

He stressed that interviews are secondary forms of research,

the aim being to prepare us for the next stage of the project:

as they are simply someone’s opinion, whereas if we are able to

engaging with ‘experts’ in our research areas. Brian talked the

carry out observations in addition, we would get a much richer

team through basic methods of ethnography, highlighting key

perspective. This made us strengthen our viewpoint that an

points that we should consider when out in the field. This ranged

expert is not only an academic in the field, but can also be a

from techniques for gathering research, ethics and how best to

user with an inherent knowledge of how a system behaves or

record our interviews and observations.

interacts in their experience.

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Research Data Bank Creation of a physical and digital knowledge bank

In order to continuously work on gathering research in parallel we

The digital Matrix was a great tool to keep research properly

developed a physical and digital “matrix� that used the domains

referenced to its original source, which was extremely useful

and the social drivers. We made our physical matrix as large as

when it came to creating PEST cards. The digital copy also had

possible so that we could step back from it and see the links,

the bonus of being adaptive in a short space of time. If there

even though at this point we had decided to individually choose

was a theme emerging, it was simple to pull multiple sources

a subcategory to work on. We used Mural.ly to digitalise and

together into a cluster and see where these clusters may relate

reference our research findings and develop questions.

to the rest of the research.

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PEST cards Synthesising research into PEST cards

When we had created the matrix the group had a number

is simply a vehicle to condense complex research material into

of hypotheses that formed from a general synthesizing of

a text heavy article summary with snappy one-line titles. This

aggregated knowledge within each domain. These hypotheses

was somewhat counterintuitive to the future forecasting project,

could then be explored by deep research through PEST cards. We

where predictions are often complex and unstable. Our target

struggled to efficiently use the PEST cards, a new tool given to

was for 200+ PEST cards and we managed, but it took a big

us by Hitachi. As designers, we are used to coming up with tools

push from the entire group to stay motivated as the majority of

that fit the tasks at hand but the PEST cards seemed uncreative

the research was carried out individually.

and gave little room for any synthesis of ideas. A PEST card

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Janet Kelly Tutor of Product Design

Pre-user Workshop The aim of the workshop was to start thinking about relevant

During the second part of the workshop we started looking at

stakeholders linked to the main themes of our project, and their

the relationships and networks between user(s) and product(s),

potential relationships with future design scenarios.

to justify the reason for specific products/services to exist.

We started with an open discussion about “users”, as a notion

After we started to identify key stakeholders involved in each of

that framed our contemporary design work.

our sectors, we plotted their relationships with each other and

Formulating questions like: “What is a user and why are designers

described the kind of relationship they have. We then mapped

interested in them? How can someone be a user of a specific

the key stakeholders, thinking about how these networks and

design if it doesn’t exist yet? Do people see them selves as users

relationships might change in the next ten years, informed by

or pre-users for that specific matter?”, helped us to create a broad

the research we had done during the creation of the PEST cards.

conversation about the meanings of user-centered design [‘user’ can be intended as a ‘tool’ for designers].

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Micro/Macro Trends Making sense of the PEST cards through infinity grouping

To understand the PEST cards as a group the team decided to start to categorise them to see common links. Each domain team went about this in varying ways. Santini and I ended up laying all 50 cards out on the desk and clustering them into bubbles.

These formed micro themes, which we then drew onto tracing paper. This was then covered with a further layer of tracing paper that showed the macro themes. This allowed us to see the PEST cards not as a fragmented pile of research, but as a rich set that could also be easily communicated to others.

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Key Stakeholders Identifying key stakeholders to interview

On top of the micro and macro theme layers we started to explore some pre-users. We did this by picking key stakeholders and mapping out interactions and other stakeholders that may directly or non directly be a part of the pre-users life. By exploring the context and environment of the pre-user it became clearer who we might need to contact in order to answer the research questions generated by the discussion. To prepare for the coming stages Hitachi requested a list of potential “experts” who we might interview. The word “expert” raised many eyebrows,

and we decided to interpret this to mean anyone with more knowledge in a given area than we had. We started to compile a list of academics, service and product users, professionals, government agencies, business owners and employees.

As a final deliverable to Hitachi, summary sheets for the overall domains where also created with an overview of each social driver. This helped in clarifying our main points, and was a genuinely useful exercise.

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WORKSHOP ONE

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Workshop One The main objective of this workshop was to move from the generated PEST cards to the Pre-Kizashi stage. This was the first time the GSA team had shown our work to Hitachi and so we were eager to show how we navigated the task using both their methodology and our own. Generally our work was well received but it felt like we had produced work that had already met the requirements of the first day of the workshop. The workshop could have been more productive if it had been about building upon the work we had done, instead of starting where they assumed we had gotten to in the process.

PEST Timeline Plotting PEST cards from now till 2025 broken into P-E-S-T

We were split into two sets of domains and plotted our PEST cards, along with Hitachi’s PEST cards onto a timeline. The cards were also grouped under the titles; Political, Economical, Social and Technological, with the idea that it might be easier to see links between the domains. However it lead to a fairly messy timeline that lost most of its structure after the PEST cards had been “clustered”. Eight clusters where produced by picking out key PEST cards and linking up other relevant ones. These key PEST cards were given umbrella titles by Hitachi that we then tried to develop as a group. After these groups had formed the idea was to add a “users voice” to make the method more human centric.

Most GSA students felt uncomfortable making up these generic perspectives from users, as we had not even had a chance to talk to any existing users, never mind begin to understand their attitudes towards specific hypothetical scenarios.

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7 Minute Ideation Ideation to explore future scenarios and feasible services

The cluster titles were then used as a starting point for future concept ideation. Though the ideas did prompt interesting discussions within the teams, they lacked any user insight.

These ideas felt rushed and were based on little to no research or evidence. Though it helped populate our Pre-Kizashi sheets, most to all of the ideas were lost within the later refinement stages.

Pre-Kizashi A first outline of Kizashi

The cluster titles were forcibly refined into “snappier” titles and migrated onto the heading of the Pre-Kizashi sheets. In total there were 16 Pre-Kizashi’s; four per domain. We then populated the Kizashi structure with the 7-minute ideations, relevant PEST cards and “user voices.” The structure was broken down into five main boxes. The first box was to capture background events or triggers, the “beginning” of change and peoples way of thinking.

Then the sheet split into two stories that each had two boxes; one to capture the transition phase from 2014-17 and the second to capture the maturation phase till 2025.

This structure allowed for two distinct user voices to permeate through the predicted futures.Though the project brief centered on the users viewpoint, it was very difficult to create any narrative through the Pre-Kizashi structures. At this stage it was not made explicitly clear that we needed to define any specific user, and so it was fairly difficult to talk about abstract ideas without any concrete users to ground the work.

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Draft Pre-Kizashi A developed digital Pre-Kizashi

Post workshop we had four new Pre-Kizashi structures per group.

relationships” should move from a theme to a driver as it spanned

These were then taken away and developed so as to retain the

not only our Pre-Kizashi but was also visibly present in other

richness of the database whilst keeping each Kizashi distinct

domains. Once finished we had four clear titles: Commodification

and clear. Our first major task was to take our new Pre-Kizashi

of digital data, The peer driven economy, Brand driven finance

titles and start to make them our own again. Within the finance

and Rise of the alternative currencies.

domain, we also discussed the differences between the PreKizashi titles and what may be the driving forces behind them.

So that each domain was aware of the other, and their potential overlaps a chart was produced to compare each Pre-Kizashi to

There was a lot of talk about the “new values of generation-Y”

the others so that we could share information when necessary

within the workshop so we decided to explore this idea in detail

whilst keeping the domains distinct.

to clearly define what we meant by this. We also felt that “Trust

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Expert Interviews Diving deeper into the future of the four domains

We contacted many people on our interviewee list and were fortunate to get quick responses from a handful. As the finance team, we decided to aim for three to four targeted interviews per Kizashi. This would mean we could have time to prep for them, which would then let us get the most out of the interviewee.

Banking Renaissance Interview: Terry Cordeiro and Rebekka Bush Title: Head of Digital at RBS Synopsis: Traditional Banks need to move from transaction to centres of advice, education. There needs to be more transparency. Will retain legacy (older gen) customers.

This also gave us time to properly digest the information and synthesis it into the Kizashi.

The interviews took place in person and through Skype. We had decided to keep the interviews semi-structured so that we could tackle the key points while keeping it flexible enough that the interviewee could lead the conversation down another path. To do this, for each interview we sat down and discussed point by

A Netarchical Economy Interview: Liam Collins Title: Researcher at Nesta Synopsis: Alternative Finance is still young, many of the brands are only just starting to target sectors of the market, and services are still a little overcomplicated.

point what value we might gain from talking to each individual and then created a set of loose questions that flowed together in a linear fashion.

Care was taken throughout the interview stage to understand the interviewees position and potential biases, though in general the people we spoke to were comfortable opening up and engaging with our questions. Some would simply hold their hands up and

Alternative Currencies Interview: Dug Campbell Title: Founder of Scottish Bitcoin conference Synopsis: Bitcoin is an exciting space. Its money that you can program. Money can be used more effectively through microtransactions. Legislation is tricky for crypto-currencies

say “look I don’t know, but that’s an interesting question and here are my thoughts on it”.

The interviews gave us more in depth specific knowledge, which made us reconsider our original hypotheses. This also led the team to reflect and go back to our initial desk research to revaluate and strengthen it.

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New Values in Data Interview: Chris Downs Title: Design Council, working on Data Synopsis: Data can be used as a raw material in the future.

Hopefully it will not be monetised. Data needs to flow both ways. Its not a privacy issue, its a trust issue.

Fieldwork User led research to understand users values

We quickly realized as a team that if we wanted to talk about the future user with any confidence we would need to push our knowledge further. To do this we used some of the ethnographic research techniques discussed in Brian’s workshop. Participant observation let us explore some of the finance world first hand.

We bought Bitcoin, and experienced the fears of having no safety net if you forgot the wallet’s password and the joys of seeing our transactions on the blockchain.

We were also lucky to visit Findhorn community, which gave us first hand experience with a local complimentary currency. We talked to the community leader about Eko; their local currency and were also fortunate to use the Eko ourselves. This gave us a chance to interact with the community and probe a little into how they felt towards it.

As some of our Kizashi sat within the digital realm, we also contacted people through forum boards. This was surprisingly successful and we ended up getting responses from over 30 users, some going into great detail about their thoughts and values surrounding privacy, trust and the monetization of data.

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Insight Cards A developed Pre-Kizashi with interview insights

For the second draft of the Kizashi, it was important to try to distill what we had learnt from our interviews into the Kizashi and develop two diverse stories. Before writing each story we explored the themes off the Kizashi structuring sheets using a posit timeline to plot events into the future. This allowed for some ideas to visibly run in parallel, which helped strengthen all sheets.

One sheet was completely rewritten two or three times, as after interviews our thoughts changed dramatically. The others tended to be more gradual as more detail could be brought in after interviews. As a team Santini and I worked on each of the Kizashi structuring sheets together. Though this was a slower process than separating the sheets between us, it allowed for a pooling of our aggregated knowledge.

To communicate our field research findings (both expert and user interviews) the GSA team came up with an “insight card” tool.

The idea was that each card would carry a key insight that could be attributed to an interview, or a syntheisis of several interviews.

Unfortunately due to time constraints, the cards ended up being used as a vehicle to hold key quotations lifted from transcripts of interviews. This meant that each group had insight cards in the hundreds. We wanted Hitachi to see all of our work, but I don’t think we thought through how they might be able to digest the information in such a short workshop.

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WORKSHOP TWO

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The main goal of this workshop was to translate our expert and

Overall this workshop was more successful than the first, as

alternative user research into understandable insights that could

student’s ideas were keenly listened to, questioned and pushed.

be easily internalized by the Hitachi team and would lead to a

It was at times hard to reframe our outlook as we had worked

final strengthening of Kizashi.

hard to define the Kizashi, and to depart from that definition took a bit of stepping back and trust in the feedback.

We set up the room with all the Kizashi on the wall surrounded by the insight cards we had made. When we saw them cluttering

The workshop had the added effect of boiling the most important

the walls it became apparent that there was simply too much

Kizashi to the surface, which were identified by Hitachi. For

information to take in. The Finance, Healthcare and Mobility

Finance we were given “Dawn of the banking Renaissance” as our

team agreed to simply highlight one or two key insights that

lead Kizashi as it best encapsulated the background events that

they wanted to communicate and quickly produced a colored

had triggered many of the other Kizashi. Primarily the Financial

border. The Energy team ended up putting their insight cards

Crisis of 2008 which saw the system visibly broken leading to a

into envelopes fastened to the wall so that they could be taken

mistrust in the banking sector; new regulations passed by the

out and read through.

FCA making the UK a FinTech breeding ground and the creation and rise of true peer-to-peer networks.

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Finalising Kizashi Condensed Kizashi’s with Hitachi input

By the end of the workshop, to some teams relief, the Kizashi pack had slimmed from 16 to 14. This gave the Mobility and Energy team a chance to consolidate Kizashi’s and strengthen stories. Hitachi stressed that they wanted the Kizashi to be made easier to understand, have more insights within them and for the Kizashi to be easily comparable, as they would be used as a suite.

There was also an emphasis to make the work more UK-centric.

Certain domains lent themselves to this (healthcare and the NHS) but others simply had to use multiple levels to tell the full story. We worked on local, national, global and thematically local levels in order to cover the core elements of the Finance Kizashi.

The Finance team also ended up migrating some of its work on the “open sourced economy” to Mobility as it correlated to a higher degree with one of their stories.

After the workshop we had a final week to take the feedback onboard and finalize their Kizashi. As a Finance team, we also decided to produce a glossary of terminology that we had either recently discovered, or that we had made up as the term does not yet exist.

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Dawn of the Banking Renaissance After the Financial Crisis of 2008, and the continued misconduct of high profile financial institutions, consumer trust in financial services reached an all time low, currently sitting below all other sectors (even oil companies). This, coupled with the FSA’s recent relaxation of regulations has given rise to a generation of Challenger Banks who we will see emerging between 2015 to 2018. These Challenger banks are contesting the Traditional banks, attempting to gain market share of young pre-family professionals, with simple financial needs. However Traditional banks will retain the majority of business, post-family, and elderly customers who have more complex needs. Due to a general lack of trust Traditional Banks must, and are, changing their role from transaction focussed organisations to one of advice, help and support. While both Challenger and Traditional banks are moving towards more digital services, unlike Challenger banks who will remain digital-only, Traditional banks will retain their high street presence. The role of the high street bank will not be transactional, instead a social hub to educate customers in finance, especially at pivotal financial moments in life.

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Terminology Agnostic Banking

Digital Native

Agnostic, in an information technology (IT) context, refers to

The term digital native is used to describe people born after 1980,

something that is generalized so that it is interoperable among

when social digital technologies such as Usenet and bulletin

various systems. The term can refer not only to software and

board systems came online. Digital natives are characterized as

hardware, but also to business processes or practices. Agnostic

having access to networked digital technologies and the skills

banking is a system where accounts could move freely from

to use those technologies. Major parts of their lives and daily

one provider to the next, like a phone number does with telecom

activities are mediated by digital technologies: social interaction,

providers.

friendships, civic activities, and hobbies.

Challenger Banks The challenger banks are a mix of ambitious start-ups, spinoffs from existing banks, household-name retailers and smaller specialists. They challenge the traditional model and tone of banks. The current generation of challenger banks are digitally focused, relying less on a highstreet structure.

William and Glyn – RBS spinoff (opens 1016) Atom Bank – First digital only bank (launches 2015) Metro Bank – first new hight street bank in 100 years

Financial Literacy Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it (turn it into more) and how that person donates it to help others. More specifically, it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources

Vault Based Banking The idea that banks issue money that is backed by a large safety deposit kept by the bank. In reality 97% of money is digitally created by the bank and is debt based. Only 3% of money is still in the “old-fashioned form” of real cash that you can touch.

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Perceiving New Values in Data With the exponential growth of data and connected products (i.e. the internet of things), there is a rise in awareness of the value of data; more individuals understand it’s monetary, social and personal value, more organisations start to use it as a raw material, and the government starts to realise it’s value in creating a more efficient and sustainable infrastructure. People start to become aware of the differences between types of data, such as Bi-Data and Digital Assets. While older generations start to become more concerned about the privacy and protection of their data, younger ‘digital native’ generations recognise the benefits of sharing their personal data, aware that the more they put into a network, the more they will get out. We see advances in data protection technology such as cold storage, particularly used by older generations. Digital assets become much harder to pirate, as several platforms migrate to subscription payment models. Meanwhile, with the ubiquity of the Internet of things we see a new generation of Bi-Data, used widely as a raw material to shape and realise the products and services of the future.

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Terminology Bi-data

Digital Assets

Bi-data is data collected as a bi-product of day to day digital

The term digital estate refers to data that can be inherited. Digital

existence. The collection of this data can be visible or invisible

assets are in contrast to physical assets more dynamic. A digital

to the user.

asset in essence is anything that is stored in a binary format and comes with the right to use. Files that do not possess the

Invisible – interface tracking, email buzzword filtering

aforementioned right are not considered digital assets

Visible – movement monitoring, Bodily functions, social media, energy consumption, health records, driving statistics

Examples: cryptocurrencies, URLs, media files (films, book,

In/visible – Purchase history, Search history

music), printable files

Commons The commons is a general term referring to the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society. These

Digital Estate The term digital estate refers to data that can be inherited. This is typically an individuals collection of digital assets.

resources are held in common, not owned privately.

Micro Transactions Digital commons can be described as information and

A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small

knowledge resources that are collectively created and owned

sum of money and usually one that occurs digitally. Right now

or shared between or among a community and that tend to be

micropayments are used heavily in in-app purchases but have

non-exclusivedible, that is, be (generally freely) available to third

potential for other applications. Currencies such as Bitcoin, which

parties. Thus, they are oriented to favor use and reuse, rather

are divisible to 6 decimal places would allow for huge advances

than to exchange as a commodity. Additionally, the community

in micro-transactions.

of people building them can intervene in the governing of their interaction processes and of their shared resources

Willingly Contributed Data This is data that is produced for the betterment of a network,

Cyberlockers

and is usually visible to a wider community.

A cyberlocker is a third-party online service that provides filestoring and file-sharing services for various types of media

Examples: Wikipedia entry, Survey, a blog post, forms, Bio/Profile

files and data. Cyberlockers are online data hosting services

information

that provide remote storage space within a secure storage architecture and can act as intermediaries between a user and a data collecting organizations.

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A Netarchical Economy Off the back of the Financial Crisis of 2008, individuals and small businesses do not trust or believe in the integrity of hierarchical systems, with a particular lack of trust aimed at the ‘bonus banker’. The recent change in FCA policy has allowed for a wealth of new organisations to enter the finance market, making the UK a breeding ground for FinTech Startups (once reserved for Silicon Valley) who embrace the values of ‘New Power’, shunning larger corporation’s ‘Old Power’ models. These startups have opened the door to peer-driven models. On one side we see a bottom up revolution in finance, individuals are providing financial services that are usually reserved for traditional banks, while on the other side we see large corporations partaking in the ‘New Power’ ideology, by shifting their business or product to a new Sharing Economy model, in order to remain relevant to Generation Y. These new models help foster positive social connections, ultimately creating stronger communities. In the case of the sharing economy, these communities are geographically local, while in the case of Peer-driven lending models, these are communities of interest.

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Terminology Crowd Approval

P2P Lending

This is the practice of first working out if a product is fit for market

The practice of lending money to unrelated individuals, or “peers”,

by testing through crowdfunding websites or other means. If the

without going through a traditional financial intermediary such

crowd “backs” the product then it is worth producing. This is

as a bank or other traditional financial institution. P2P lending

important as it could change the way companies produce.

involves debt contracts and payment of interest.

Crowdfunding

Zopa – P2P personal loans

The practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary

Funding Circle – P2P business loans

contributions from a large number of people, typically via

ThinsCats - P2P investment loans advised by experts

the Internet. Crowdfunding offers either rewards or equity

Lending Club – loans for Debt-based assets

participation in an enterprise.

Transition Towns Kickstarter – Tech/performance for rewards/product

A grass roots community project that seeks to build resilience in

CrowdCube – Highend business/investment for stake/equity

response to peak oil, climate destruction and economic instability.

The first initiative to use the name was Transition Town Totnes,

New Manufacturing Techniques

founded in 2006. The socioeconomic movement is an example of

With the development of small low cost 3D printing and a shift

fiscal localism. Transition towns are moving towards localization

towards flexible manufacturing products can now be customized

of their economy, including small businesses, currency and

and even users can start to create their own designs.

supply chains.

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The Rise of Alternative Currency The Financial crisis of 2008 shakes the public’s belief in the financial system underpinned by a potentially flawed currency. At the break of the crisis a white paper was released, describing a new digital currency, Bitcoin, an unregulated peer-to-peer currency, with a transparent open ledger. Bitcoin became a major player in the body of alternative currencies growing around the world. Specifically in the UK, the transition towns movement was promoting the use of local currencies, such as the Brixton and Bristol pounds. Bitcoin as a representative of cryptocurrency evolves globally, gaining exposure, and thus gaining momentum and strength, through a peer-to-peer network. Complimentary currencies on the other hand are used on a local scale fostering positive social values within communities, however they have found it extremely hard to develop a economically sustainable model. Bitcoin, as well as other cryptocurrencies (that can work on alternative value systems or systems of exchange), are moving towards legitimisation, not only on governmental levels, but also from the business community through supportive infrastructure and venture capitalist investment.

Soon we will also see the legitimisation of local currencies as the UK adopts more economically sustainable models (imported from mainland Europe) for complimentary currencies. This ultimately leads to a point where society deals with several different local and global currencies on a day-to-day basis.

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Terminology Altcoin and Bitcoin

Crypto 2.0

Bitcoins are the leading and most widely accepted example of

This is a movement beyond money. The application of block

cryptocurrency accounting for over 90% of the cryptocurrency

chain or distributed ledger technology to things other than

market value. Altcoins is a collective term to describe non-Bitocin

digital currency. The block chain offers the ability to facilitate

cryptocurrencies. They are easily created due to the openware

decentralized ownership and store, transfer and process

that the Bitcoin platform runs on. Altcoins provide some of the

information in a decentralized, programmable way. Many

examples of alternate value systems.

consider that innovation to be the true value of this technology.

Example: Freicoin, Auroracoin, Solarcoin

Deep Cold Storage This is digital storage that is kept off the network. (not connected

Cryptocurrency

to the internet) This means that when data is kept in cold storage

A cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency in which encryption

it is protected from hackers. However the physical storage device

techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency

(hard-drive) must be kept in a secured location.

and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.

Sustainable models of Complimentary Currency All currencies cost money. The financial institutions used now

Complimentary Currencies

have a complex way to hide the charges to users. Merchants have

Complementary currency describes currencies that exist as

to pay fees for the transfer of money. Complimentary currencies

a supplement to our conventional (national) money. It is an

are still working out how to become financially sustainable. Some

agreement to use something else than legal tender as a medium

methods are being used to experiment a new sustainable model:

of exchange, with the purpose to link unmet needs with otherwise

Membership fees

unused resources. Complimentary currency have low risk as

Transaction fees

they are tied directly to the value of the national currency.

Demurrage – loss of value over time

Business (mutual) currency – WIR Local currency – Brixton Pound World currency – Terra Voucher/points system – Nectar points

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User Journey’s Exploring user journeys in a rich future context

After sending off the third and final Kizashi draft with the summary sheets, the third phase of the project could commence. In order to communicate the Kizashi more effectively it had been agreed that the GSA team would create communicative artefacts. Janet gave us a quick overview of how these artefacts might be created like a prop in a sci-fi film it helps to tell the narrative in a quick yet impactful way.

To bridge the gap between Kizashi and the artefact, it seemed natural to develop personas that would bring distinct viewpoints not only to one Kizashi, but could also pick up on others. It was common for these issues to overlap, contradict or compliment one another.

Personas We built a world for these personas to live in to tell a story within that context, this would give a more human angle to the factual based Kizashi structure. As the Finance team, we decided to first lightly envisage personas that would predominantly belong to one Kizashi story then find links to the other Kizashi. We then developed the personas so that it would be easier to create narratives, which generally worked well. We ended up getting rid of one persona to simplify the output and make the workload manageable. We developed a narrative around each persona so that there were opportunities to add touch points or moments within their experience . This meant that we could design artefacts around these touch points in parallel with the naratives where we wanted the most emphasis.

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User Experience Map Tim lives in a small rural village in the countryside. This village operates on an informal barter economy; a system in which various goods, services, and currencies can be exchanged. Currently Tim is trying to save up a bit of cash to buy his daughter a 21st birthday present, and so when buying eggs in his local store, he chooses to pay for them in time, as opposed to using the local currency — EKO’s — or the national currency — Pounds. In paying for these eggs in time, he is offering the shop his labour for a specified period of time.

Graham and his wife, Linda are going through a divorce. Alongside splitting their physical estate, they must also separate their digital estate. This process not only includes a splitting of assets, such as music, films, photos and e-books, but also the management of joint subscriptions, as well as bi-data collected on the individuals. At this moment in time we see Graham filling out an e-ink form given to him by his lawyer in order to help separate his and Linda’s digital estate.

Long term couple Amy and Craig have a baby on the way, and are looking to buy a house in the suburbs. Currently they are in a meeting with their account manager, John, at RBS, who is attempting to assist them with this decision. John is using personal and financial data that RBS has collected on them to attempt to converse in a personal and friendly tone, while also offering them housing suggestions based on their current situation. This type of interaction is typical of traditional bank’s attempts at mass personalisation — offering a more tailored service to everyone.

Anthony’s mother has sent him some cryptocurrency for his birthday.

However she knows he is lazy and often doesn’t wake up early, so she has decided to program this birthday money so it can only be spent before 9am in the morning. Not only is the currency unavailable after 9am, but also Anthony’s spending history using this currency can be viewed by his mother, and therefore when he buys his daily morning coffee his mother knows he is awake.

Car Share Divorce Lawyer Car Share Challenger banks Digital Divorce Lawyer SpinDigital off Bank Challenger banks As law we move from society of Specialist law firms willbrand emergeon the As we move from a society ofwill contest the Specialist firms willa emerge In order to grow a fresh Traditional banks, attempting to gain ownership to one of usership, we see offering services focusing on digital ownership tomarket one of share usership, we see offering services focusing on digital highdata, street and shake off the of young pre-family more resources shared, such as helping clients navigate the more resources shared, such data, helping clients thatofstill shadows the professionals, with as simple financial cars. These willnavigate be found the both in the mistrust grey areas data usage and cars. These will be They foundwill both in theonly banks grey areas data usage and banking sector, traditional banks needs. be digital city of and in rural areas. ownership. city and in rural create spin off banks. These new thatareas. will push traditional banks ownership. to provide better and more holistic institutions will strive to be more services. transparent and will try hard to define their brand personality so as to differentiate themselves.

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SpinStar off Bank Star Bucks Bucks Data Fa In order to companies grow a fresh will brand on the Many companies Many start to evolve These dw high street and shake off the their rewards syst their rewards systems from that of spaces mistrust that still shadows the vouchers to digita vouchers digital programmable banking sector,totraditional banks currency.secure This me currency.

This means that they can and diss create spin off banks.

These new offer customers offer customers specific bi-da institutions will strive to be moredeals from one day toofanothe transparent will try hard or times day one dayand to another, in to different locations the define their brand personality soday. as Companies can us locations or times of the devices to differentiate themselves. to change custom Companies can use these incentives habits. (E.g if its q to change customers consumption afternoons, the pr

habits. (E.g if its quiet in the afternoons, the prices fall)

Data Farm Swap Shop arm Swap Shop Community ShopCommunity Shop High street High Bankstreet Bank will start to evolve data farms will start torun occupy Community run swapThe shops will grow The heart of the the shop Bankstheir will keep their presence on data farms will start These to occupy Community swap shops will grow heart of the community, thecommunity, shop Banks will keep presence on tems from that of spaces outside of cities. They will be in rural areas, as a way of cutting provides a place for locals to shop, the high street but will dramatically outside of cities.

They will be in rural areas, as a way of cutting provides a place for locals to shop, the high street but will dramatically al programmable secure locations used for the storage costs and bringing communities chat, acts as a bank for local change their role. They will no longer locations used storage costs and bringing actsbeas a bank for local change theiroffer role.

They will no longerinstead eans that they canfor the and dissemination of mass quantitiescommunities together. Swap shopschat, can also currencies and is a place where LETS transactional services, ssemination of mass quantities together.

Swap shops can also be to share currencies and is(Local a place wheretransfer LETS system, offer transactional specific deals from of bi-data produced every second of used as a way bigger, more exchange using theservices, space as ainstead social hub to atainproduced used as a way to shareexpensive bigger, more (Local system, using as acustomers social hub to er, different every second the dayof by thousands of connected objects, like a lawnexchange mower transfer where people can share time and the space educate in finance, of the day. devices. power drill. be agreed. especiallyinatfinance, pivotal financial ys by thousands of connected expensive objects, likeora alawn mower where people canskills) sharecan time and educate customers in life. s.se these incentives or a power drill. skills) can be agreed. especially atmoments pivotal financial mers consumption moments in life.

quiet in the rices fall)

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We sat down as an entire group and discussed how best to manage the artefacts. The groups were working towards them in different ways and although there was a call for them to somehow have a similar aesthetic, the team concluded that this would be too restrictive. Instead, we decided to present the artefacts in a uniform way. We devised a structure where we would create a context with user experience maps, then put our personas into these contexts and then exhibit our artefacts seperately but still connected to the maps via a colour key. The maps offered a chance to build more of the research into the future landscapes. For instance, we could talk about the sharing economy by illustrating a car share garage and highlight how the high street might change within the next 10 years.

Communication Artefacts Communicating Kizashi’s through physical touchpoints

As a Finance team, we brainstormed several artefacts for each persona and fed these back to the GSA team. At this time there was a discussion as to the purpose of the artefacts. Were they simply made to provoke? Should they be realistic representations of products or systems that potentially could be created? Each group was left to develop their own interpretation, as we didn’t want to lean on the domain groups’ ideas too much. Instead we were free to decide for ourselves, which resulted in a collection of multi-functional artefacts, each with their own merits.

At the time we also talked about recording audio to bring further context to the artefacts and strengthen the stories. The idea being that you could plug into the map and hear a small snippet of the narrative that would help to contextualize an artefact. This was quickly tested and, as a whole, the group decided not to pursue the idea as it felt a little clunky when presenting and would take a lot of time if we wanted to do it correctly.

We selected the strongest artefacts on the basis of impact; feasibility to make a good prototype and the depth of communication that could be found. These were then rapidly built, tested and improved to the highest finish possible within our time constraints.

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Digital Asset Divorce Form Perceiving New Values in Data With the exponential rise in the production of data and the recognition of its value, specialist lawyers emerge to protect people’s digital assets. This e-ink form is used as part of a divorce procedure to divide a couple’s digital estate. The form is used in parallel with the user’s personal devices, addressing not only digital files but also joint subscriptions and the use of Bi-data.

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Personalised Bank Email The Dawn of the Banking Renaissance A personalised email sent by a branch manager to two of his customers. This email details some of the services that traditional banks will start to offer as part of an attempt to shed their current stigma, and move towards a more holistic banking approach.

This depicts a bank’s attempt at mass personalisation; using a customer’s financial and personal data to communicate in a ‘friendly tone.’

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Barter economy eggs A Netarchical Economy & Rise of Alternate Currencies In a tight knit rural community, goods and services, such as these eggs, are exchanged through various value and currency systems.

This leads to an informal barter economy, in which time, skills, resources and currency (local and national) are exchangeable.

These eggs can be paid for in British Pounds, Local EKOs, or time. A system such as this allows for a community to increase it’s economical resilience, while also promoting it’s local identity through increased social interaction.

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Digital Wallet Rise of Alternate Currencies This is an example of a digital wallet in 2025. The wallet is used to store, create and spend digital money. The wallet allows the individual to program their own currency, affecting their own modes of consumption, for example to helping them to achieve personal health goals. Equally businesses can use programmable currency to alter customer’s spending habits, such as when and where they spend.

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FINAL PRESENTATION

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Projects usually finish with a sprint at the end and this project

Overall the space of the boardroom worked fairly well. We hung the

was no exception. We arrived down in London a day before, with

context maps on one wall, the process overview on another and

everything made but the final presentation. The GSA team had

had the artefacts displayed on the table with an accompanying

discussed how best to present earlier in the week and quickly

description plaque so that the work could be understood in its

concluded that simply showing the Kizashi sheets would not

own right.

have the desired impact, nor communicate well in a day long presentation. Instead we translated the sheets into a visual story, breaking each element of the Kizashi into its own presentation slide (in the beginning, transition phase etc). Although sometimes we had to reply on vague stereotypical images, it at least added something to the story. Some groups were able to use pictures from their alternative research, or highlight companies relating to the Kizashi.

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Reflections When we were given the gigantic task of mapping out the four

Overall I think the group worked very well together. The dynamics

broad domains at the project launch, I thought that this project

formed by working as a team of 9, then within our domain

would be difficult to navigate through. The shear breadth and

teams kept everyone motivated and supported. If one group

depth of knowledge required to produce an outcome that was

was struggling, they could rely on the overall team to help them

both robust, yet also simple enough to communicate through a

through. There were times towards the end when tensions

tangible object was daunting.

became visible within certain dynamics of the group, but this

I think most of the group found it difficult to tackle the research-

is to be expected when working with strong designers who are

heavy front end of the project. Though I do think it was necessary

opinionated and vocal. Due to our different backgrounds and

to go through this research to understand the topics in detail, the

not working together previously, I was surprised by the overall

methodology of the PEST cards and the first workshop caused

equilibrium found within the group. I would go as far to say that

friction at the start of the project and the working relationship with

strong friendships were formed as a cheerful bi-product of this

the Hitachi team. However, that definitely improved as we began

project, with potential collaboration again in “the near future”.

to understand each other and strengthen our communication.

The Kizashi structure was less visual than we were all used to,

I am fairly pleased with the overall outcome of the project. I think

but I personally found that it helped to condense the complex

that the Kizashi were finished to a comprehensive level within the

domains into slightly more digestible information. I think the

time limits. I would be very interested to see how the artefacts

Kizashi need to be left with slightly more room for interpretation

are next used and how the research carried out is engaged

as they are fairly rigid in their formation.

with. I feel that these artefacts could be used in several ways,

The communication artefacts worried me the most at the start

from communicating within a design team to being used as an

but as the project progressed, their importance grew and they

engagement tool as part of further fieldwork. This could be a

became less of an add-on and more of a crucial element of

starting point to unlocking more indepth insights and may help

communication. All too often research can get easily lost when

interviewees to step into the future, explore it, and then reflect

the actual “designing” happens. By making a clear narrative

on that exploration.

weighted by artefacts, the research can be engaged with and provide a talking point for deeper discussions.

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lewismjust@gmail.com