MediaLAB Amsterdam — Design Process and Programme
COLOPHON
Design Process and Programme, MediaLAB Amsterdam, August 2015 Publisher MediaLAB Amsterdam Supported by Amsterdam Creative Industries Network MediaLAB Amsterdam Hogeschool van Amsterdam Wibautstraat 2-4, 1091 GC Amsterdam The Netherlands medialabamsterdam.com Section titles and paragraphs are set in Montserrat Bold, designed by Julieta Ulanovsky, with additional body text in Merriweather Black, designed by Eben Sorkin. This publication is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/4.0
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About (4-57)
— Who we are — Who our students are — Who our partners are — What we do — Design Across Cultures — Citizen Empowerment — Manifesto
Programme (58-103) — Design Process — Scrum — Toolkit — Workshops — Master Classes — Deliverables 4
TA B LE OF CON TEN T
MediaLAB Amsterdam (104-123) — Multidisciplinary team — Presenting your work — Rules of thumb
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About
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“We don’t design for the sake of designing, we design for a purpose” Marco van Hout
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A B O UT
Our current age sees everything as an object of manufacture, as something which can be got hold of and improved or altered, to produce better or more effective outcomes. Though this is what makes us human, we should stay focused on designing for a purpose: to meet a need, to achieve a goal, or to make a statement. 9
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Who we are
Research and design with a focus on current, relevant and meaningful digital media and applications. It offers talented students a structured, fast-paced, 20-week programme in which they experiment and search for solutions in challenging projects formulated by academic and industry partners. The project teams are multidisciplinary and international, comprising students from different cultural backgrounds and from both academic and applied study areas. Each team writes a full academic paper and presents a working prototype to the challenging partners. The teams work five days
A B O UT
a week at Studio HvA or at the partner’s premises. The students have one day a week to work individually on the documentation of their internship or graduation project. The programme is in English and available to all final year students from universities and applied universities. During the programme students follow an agile Human-Centered Design process supported by an expert from the MediaLAB, several workshops, and coaching by external experts. MediaLAB Amsterdam is located in Studio HvA and is part of CREATE-IT, the applied research centre of the School of Design & Communication at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
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Loes Bogers
My background is in critically engaged electronic arts, and media & cultural studies. I hold a BA in Media & Culture: New Media from the University of Amsterdam and an MA in Interactive Media from Goldsmiths College, London. In recent years I’ve worked as an innovator in arts education for youth and worked on projects at the Patching Zone (NL) and Kitchen Budapest (HU). Forget about practice, there’s only do: let’s get our hands dirty.
l.bogers@hva.nl
Felipe Escobar
My interests lies in combining user centric design and technology to make better solutions that are engaging and easy to use. I hold a BA in Industrial Design from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia and a MSc in Design for Interaction from TU Delft. I have worked as industrial designer, web designer and UX designer in different parts of the world. I am interested in discovering and implementing new methods that allow the design of better experiences, services and products. I love cinema and interactive art, and I am lways up for good coffee.
f.escobar.vega@hva.nl
Tamara Pinos
My interests in art and technology motivated me to move to the Netherlands where I have discovered the fun of tinkering, computing and serious games. I hold a BA in Computer Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and a MSc in Media Technology from Leiden University. I am co-founder of Advance Consulting, a software development company based in Quito-Ecuador, and I have experience as a programmer, project manager and dancer.
t.v.pinos.cisneros@hva.nl
Margreet Riphagen
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For the last ten years I have gained experience in various disciplines of new and interactive media. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Integrated Communication Management, a post-Bachelor’s in Business Science and a Master’s in Information Studies (Human Centred Multimedia track). After working at Waag Society and Media Guild for more than five years, I have now worked for the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2008. I am also involved in the Institute of Network Cultures with various research projects. My motto is ‘keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars’.
m.riphagen@hva.nl
I love to work with new stuff and I hold a masters degree in History. Sounds like a big contrast, but I’m at my best in an area where IT, communication, education and innovation meet and intersect. I’m an organiser, always looking to streamline processes and increase overall efficiency. Switching between tasks, safeguarding deadlines, communicating between stakeholders and facilitate others to focus on their core responsibilities what I do and want to keep on doing. I can also tell you where to eat what in Amsterdam and I’ll cook you a delightful Indonesian ricetable, since both cooking and eating are things I love to waste my time with.
A B O UT
Pavel van Deutekom
p.van.deutekom@hva.nl
Marco van Hout
With a passion for human centered design, I bring over 12 years of experience in applied research and design practice. In the past decade I have specifically specialized and pioneered in design for emotion, building the foundations of this emerging field. I am a co-founder of Susa-Group, a strategic design consultancy. As a board member of the International Design & Emotion Society and as a trainer and public speaker I have the opportunity to travel and see many countries, but the best trips are to my atic where I love to create abstract paintings. As a research and design programme coordinator I foster the role and importance of applied research and the need for structure, critical thinking and deep questioning in our design process.
m.van.hout@hva.nl
Gijs Gootjes
My background is in Media Entertainment & Pop Culture. Since 2008 I’ve been researching and designing media applications together with various MediaLAB partners. Besides my work at the MediaLAB I have started an R&D lab at the NOS, the Netherlands News Network. I love to work on topical issues and trends in media and technology. Coordinating the MediaLAB gives me the opportunity to create collaborations between research, education and creative industries and to work with talented and highly motivated students. In my spare time I love to visit Amsterdam’s creative hotspots. I can advise you on places to go for inspiration or just an ice-cold beer.
g.gootjes@hva.nl
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Who our students are MediaLAB Amsterdam works with final year students from different backgrounds, and offers a multitude of opportunities to its students. We’re looking for people who are ready to respond to opportunities and challenges intelligently, creatively and enthusiastically; people who are motivated, have ambitions in life, love to explore what’s happening around them, and have specific skills and talents. We like to work with students who don’t give up easily, and who love experimenting with technology and the opportunities that digital media provide.
A B O UT - OUR STUDEN TS
We believe that interdisciplinarity leads to greater creativity. Besides bringing people with different skills together, we try to bring in people from different cultures and working styles. We believe that collaborations between Do-ers and Thinkers, and the combination of their academic, applied and artistic approaches, can promote the design process and foster the creative application of digital technologies. We consider the academic, applied artistic, and personal qualities of each student individually. We seek students who will bring a variety of experiences, backgrounds, interests and opinions to our lab. We especially appreciate students who like to explore opportunities in the real world and love making things. To work with the best students from all over the world we need to look beyond their formal qualifications. This is why we ask our candidates to motivate their application, introduce us to their work by sharing their portfolio, and have a personal interview. Students we’ve worked with are ambassadors of our design process and the MediaLAB culture. This is why our alumni are very important to us. We invest in long-term relations with our alumni, introducing them to our education, research and industry partners. We motivate and facilitate them to bring our prototypes to the market and to start their own businesses. Our alumni have a special place in our programme and in our academic and industry networks.
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WE LIKE TO WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO
love digital media and creative technologies care for others and have a desire to help them enjoy exploring their world and finding ways to improve it are the living proof that you get energy from putting energy into something love to make stuff are not afraid to fail have an open mind like to be challenged and keep learning
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MediaLAB allows you to come up with yet ‘impossible’ concepts and filter these into ideas that lie in the realm of possibilities to develop and think about these concepts from a unique point of view.
A B O UT - OUR STUDEN TS
What do our students say?
(Florian Root, Freelance Interaction designer) MediaLAB Amsterdam it’s the best place to experience a brand new idea of “learning” while being introduced to the huge potential of Amsterdam! (Enrico Catalano, Freelance Interaction designer) At the MediaLAB I finally got a chance to put theory into practice, to actually create something with a team. (Elin Wassenaar, Freelance text editor) We came a long way in one semester. Work hard, and trust in the fact that you¹re going to create something awesome. (Kimberly Waldbillig, Branding Amsterdam Fashion Institute)
Lecturer,
AMFI
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If it was possible I would do a couple of other projects at the LAB. Its the perfect combination between doing research, thinking of concepts, producing, presenting and managing projects. (Bauke Bakker, Trainee Natwerk) 17
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Who our partners are MediaLAB Amsterdam is interested in working with new partners, because great relationships with committed project partners are crucial to the depth of our students’ learning and to the development of new knowledge and design in products and services. MediaLAB Amsterdam works with various assigners from government, Dutch SMEs, and large international corporations in IT, media, urban planning, education, culture, healthcare and other fields. They bring in digital media & ICT-related problems, societal challenges, ideas and innovation issues.
A B O UT - OUR PARTN ERS
The projects we work on are always shaped in co-creation with our partners. During the projects the MediaLAB brings in a network of Amsterdam’s creative industries. Working with creative entrepreneurs, coders and designers gives the MediaLAB the opportunity to bring skills and knowledge to guarantee working prototypes, giving the assigner the opportunity to take the working prototypes into production. Recent partners have included Cisco, NOS, IKEA, ProRail, the City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Light Festival, Dropstuff, Beeld&Geluid, Arkin, Ordina, AVROTROS, WeMakeVR, Submarine, TWC and many others.
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OUR PARTNERS
A B O UT - OUR PARTN ERS
Creative, fresh, energetic and spontaneous -- these are the words I would use to qualify OUR experience with the MediaLAB. “Design Thinking” has become the principal source of differentiation, and competitive advantage for the industry players. The MediaLAB is certainly facilitating Bell Labs’ with this increasingly valuable asset. I look forward to the next project! Fahim Kawsar | Manager IoT Bell Labs (Alcatel Lucent) Working across time zones and cultures is never easy, but our collaboration with MediaLAB makes it seem so. And that’s thanks to the people there - pragmatic, but with a strong spirit of adventure - a combination that seeds endless possibilities. (Sruthi Krishnan, researcher, Fields of View) Working with the MediaLAB has been an exceptional experience. The students I’ve had the pleasure to work with were very well prepared and extremely creative and they embraced each new challenge with a lot of enthusiasm. (Stefania Bercu, Researcher Transmedia Analytics Creative Industries Research Centre Amsterdam) Everybody dived into the deep end. Head first. No cold feet. In 6 months the students accomplished something that normally takes years. (Maurice Levano - coach with VIP Team/Arkin) It is exciting to see how the theoretical concepts that I proposed are being translated into actual experiments. (Mirjam Vosmeer, researcher, Games & Play lectoraat)
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What we do One of the key focus areas of the projects we work on is citizen empowerment. Digitization has a big impact on every aspect of everyday life: getting access to information and culture, purchasing clothing, organizing healthcare. The Create-IT research departments are specialized in this transformation and collaborate with the MediaLAB in designing possible solutions. Industry and research partners who are interested in this transformation and want to invest in this topic from their own expertise can team up with us to co-create in this design process.
A B O UT - OUR PROJEC TS
PROJECT CASE 1 Food waste Gr端t (2015)
PROJECT CASE 2 Games 4 Therapy Keep it! (2014)
PROJECT CASE 3 iNDiViDUALS SOUND.IT.IS (2013)
PROJECT CASE 4 Amsterdam Light Festival The Dark Side of Amsterdam (2014) 23
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SMART CITY – GRÜT Challenge Design a digital solution that uses sensors to change consumer attitude towards food waste. Solution Grüt is a kit that helps children grow their own crops. The kit includes a set of sensors and an app. The sensors measure the condition (light, temperature and soil moisture) of the plant. This information is sent to an app that provides feedback to the kids, in the form of a virtual buddy. During the research it was discovered that children are more likely to take care of something when they develop a relationship with it and feel ownership over it. However, It’s easier to have feelings for a dog than for a plant, that’s why Grüt shows a plant’s feelings and needs through a virtual avatar. The avatar will show the children what are its needs which in turn makes it easier to create a bond. Grüt engages children by the fact that both the avatar and the real plant’s well being depend on him or her. Industry partner: Cisco
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D ESIG N
Jarmal Martis (NL) - Rotterdam’s University of Applied Sciences Evelin Al (NL) - Trinity College, Music & Media Technologies Ilaria Zonda (IT) - Politecnico di Torino, Ecodesign http://medialabamsterdam.com/smartcities Zo n d a, I. & M art is, J. (2015 ) . Grßt - A Gardening Sensor K it fo r C h il d r en . A d ig i t a l a p plicat ion t hat he lp s c hildren dev elop ownership for the i r p la nt , i n : P ro ceed i n g s of 7t h Int ernat ional Conferenc e on Intelligent Tec hnologies fo r Int era ct i ve E ntert ainme nt , Turin, Italy.
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GAMES 4 THERAPY – KEEP IT! Challenge Design a game that supports therapy in early intervention of psychosis. Solution This project sets out to explore the development of a game to support therapy for VIP (Early Intervention Psychoses) clients of Arkin. This solution will be characterized by including game elements, context awareness and social aspects, and can focus both on awareness (recognition) and social function (reintegration). As a solution the team came up with Keep It! Keep it!, an iPhone application that attempts, in a playful way, to counter the harmful thoughts of people recovering from a psychosis, in situations with lots of stimuli. The application helps users to structure their thoughts by creating a mind map, and tries to re-orientate users towards a more positive and healthy way of thinking by providing questions and messages that can be answered by writing a note or just thinking about it. The mood and intensity of the thought (pattern) that is bothering the user is actively portrayed in the interface of the app to make the actual process more playful; the user needs to make a colour bar, that represents the bothering thought, disappear from the back of the screen. Industry partner: Arkin Corporate
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Research partner: Lectoraat Games & Play, Menno Deen and Karel Millenaar
A B O UT - OUR PROJEC TS
Gerdjan van Hagen (NL) - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Game Design Matias Daporta (SP) - Amsterdam School of Arts Sebastiaan Broek (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture Susana Passinhas (PT) - Coimbra University http://medialabamsterdam.com/games-4-therapy
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INDIVIDUALS - SOUND.IT.IS Challenge How can the narrative of fashion culture be revived through digital media in the context of the iNDiViDUALS brand? Solution Once upon a time, fashion shows were focused on being seen, not being heard. Combining the best of both worlds, SOUND.IT.IS proves that new media in fashion shows can be more than just a visual spectacle. Although it was an outcast in the past, immersive audio can now amplify the emotions of the catwalk experience as well as the designer’s collection. Industry partner: Soundlings, International Sound Collective Research partner: Amsterdam Fashion Institute
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A B O UT - OUR PROJEC TS
S/S14BY21 collection presentation. Photo by Peter Stigter. Dion Gavriilidis (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture Kimberly Waldbillig (NL) - University of Utrecht, New Media and Digital Culture Marissa Memelink (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture Myrthe de Smit (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture http://medialabamsterdam.com/individuals
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ALF 2013 - THE DARK SIDE OF AMSTERDAM Challenge How can we enlighten Amsterdam during the Amsterdam Light Festival ’13? Solution Students of MediaLAB Amsterdam pitched a project idea for the Amsterdam Light Festival ’13. A projection map was projected onto the Mozes and Aaronkerk on Amsterdam’s Waterloo square. The Dark Side of Amsterdam, one of the seven chosen concepts, is an interactive installation that was presented for 3 days on the market square. Passersby and visitors were asked to reflect on their sins. Users would then choose custom made glow-inthe-dark glasses that corresponded with their worst sin, and were asked to enter ‘the confession booth’ where a semi-anonymous long exposure portrait was taken. The portraits were projected onto the church instantly, accompanied by visuals depicting a sin, such as brothels and sex club signs to go with the sin ‘lust’. 410 people visited the installation and lust is (still?) Amsterdam’s favourite sin. Industry partner: Beam Systems Research partner: Frouke ten Velden, Excelsior Visuals The Dark Side of Amsterdam won the audience award at Beamlab #32
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A B O UT - OUR PROJC ETS
Akarsh Sanghi (IN) - Bachelor’s of Technology of Computer Science Gabriele Colombo (IT) - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences MediaLAB Amsterdam, Mizuki Kojima (JP) - Graduate School of Design Kyushu, Keio University SFC Sandro Miccoli (BR) - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Shinichiro Ito (JP) - Graduate School of Design Kyushu, Keio University SFC Shubhojit Mallick (IN) - Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay http://medialabamsterdam.com/amsterdam-light-festival
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Design Across Cultures
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D ESIG N
MediaLAB Amsterdam’s global initiative for collaboration between cities and multidisciplinary multicultural design teams to tackle similar local challenges all over the world, using the undeniable force of cultural differences and similarities as a design strategy. The teams speak a common language: (design) methods. They use this language to share and transfer the design process between teams so that they build upon each other’s research, ideas and insights rather than merely the end-result. 33
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SPEAKING THE COMMON LANGUAGE OF METHODS
We are living in an idea-generating era, where ideas and innovations are following up on each other in a staggering pace, and even more so: simultaneously on over a thousand different locations. The solutions that are developed in cities around the world are often very suitable for the local context. However, even though challenges might be very similar between cities, this does not always mean the end-solutions will also work in both contexts. Solutions are often discarded as not being valuable for a particular city or context, which is being based on the conclusion that the end-solution is not suitable. Additionally this indicates that all of the research, ideas and insights that were generated in the process are also discarded. Even with the given fact of the similarities in the challenges, the process (and especially, the methods and their resulting insights) could have been the most valuable to share and be inspired by.
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It makes sense to structurally gain insights in the process of solving pro足 blems and tackling challen足ges in cities across the globe by speaking the common language of methods
This allows us to
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DESIGN ACROSS CULTURES PROJECTS The Design Across Cultures (DxC) program connects cities, industries and multidisciplinary, multicultural design teams around the globe in order to locally solve global issues and improve ‘citizen empowerment’ around the world.
In the past 1,5 years, we have gained experience in running DxC projects with teams in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and in Bangalore (India), both working simultaneously on the same challenge in collaboration with industry partner Cisco (for example on women’s safety in public spaces, and food waste). Recently, we have finished a DxC project in collaboration with Bell Labs, Innovation Studio Fukuoka and Kyushu University on desig ning the future workspace. In all of these projects, citizen empowerment has been a main focus, especially in relation to the local context of the cities (Amsterdam, Bangalore and Fukuoka). 36
CITY, INDUSTRY, UNIVERSITY, LAB Each DxC project has a specific structure, where different stakeholders meet in a temporary or existing ‘lab’. Central is the agenda of the local (city) government, stating the current challenges they face (i.e. flooding, food waste, safety, sustainable energy, etc.). Industry (tech) partners support local governments in facilitating technology to tackle these challenges. Universities provide research capacity and talent. In the DxC ‘lab’, these parties collaborate in student-driven projects, supported with technology from the industry to tackle cities’ most current challenges. Unique to the program is the fact that several teams work simultaneously on the same challenge in different cities and share their work continuously. 37
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WOMEN’S SAFETY - POSTURAROMA DxC Challenge How can we improve women’s safety in public space? Amsterdam, the Netherlands How can we improve women’s safety perception in Amsterdam? Solution By using the powerful relationships between scent & emotion, and confidence through embodiment, PosturAroma helps women feel safer by enhancing their posture. By sensing the angle of the back and using scent as trigger, the user is reminded to keep her head up, and straighten her back when stepping into the world. Walk proud to feel confident, look confident, be safe. Winner of Best Design Case at the Design & Emotion conference in Bogota, Columbia. Nominated as finalist for Intel ‘Make It Wearable’ Challenge (October, 2014) DxC Partner: Cisco Systems DxC University: Amsterdam University of Applied Science (NL) DxC Lab: MediaLAB Amsterdam (NL)
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A B O UT - OUR PROJEC TS
Akarsh Sanghi (IN) - Bachelor’s of Technology of Computer Science Laura Mul (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture & Information Science Shinichiro Ito (JP) - Graduate School of Design Kyushu, Keio University SFC http://medialabamsterdam.com/womens-safety-nl Hout, van, M., Mul, L., Bogers, L. & Ito, S. (2014). PosturAroma – The Embodiment of Safety, in: Salamanca, J., Desmet, P., Burbano, A., Ludden, G., Maya, J. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Colors of Care: The 9th International Conference on Design & Emotion, Bogota, Colombia.
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WOMEN’S SAFETY - CONVERS(T)ATION DxC Challenge How can we improve women’s safety in public space? Bangalore, India How can we improve women’s safety in public space in Bangalore? Solution Convers[t]ation is an electronic panel, which could be installed in public transport hubs where women can quickly and anonymously report cases of sexual harassment. The data collected by the panel will flow into a transparent repository, from where it will be fed back via summary reports to institutions and via data visualizations on a big public screen to the general public. DxC Partner: Cisco Systems DxC University: Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IND) DxC Lab: Fields of View (IND)
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Marissa Memelink (NL) - University of Amsterdam, New Media and Digital Culture Bauke Bakker (NL) - University of Amsterdam, New Media and Digital Culture Yashvanth Mohan Kondi (IN) - International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, Information Technology Daksh Varshneya (IN) - International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, Information Technology http://medialabamsterdam.com/womens-safety-india/
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WHAT MADE THIS DESIGN ACROSS CULTURES? In this project the effect of designing in different (cultural) contexts became very evident. Where Amsterdam’s research made the team focus primarily on the perception of safety (women in Amsterdam are relatively safe), Bangalore illustrated the complexity of sexual harassment in India and the necessity to focus on reporting it and pulling it out of the shades.
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D ESIG N
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
BANGALORE, INDIA
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WORKSPACES 2020 - HUMMBI DxC Challenge How can we design for the workspace of the near future to optimise the wellbeing of the workforce? Amsterdam, the Netherlands How can we improve concentration and producti足 vity in open plan workspaces? Solution Hummbi is an app that recommends the optimal place to work in an open office based on real-time data that is collected via sensors in the office. Activity (movement), sound levels, temperature and proximity of other workers are measured. A worker indicates what level of concentration he or she needs and how the environment should help (i.e. quiet environment). The app shows a real time map and recommends the best place in that moment. DxC Partner: Bell Labs - Alcatel Lucent DxC University: Amsterdam University of Applied Science (NL) DxC Lab: MediaLAB Amsterdam (NL)
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Zilong Li (CN) - Kyushu University School of Design, Design Strategy Miho Saito (JP) - Kyushu University School of Design, Product Design Florian Root (NL) - University of Amsterdam, New Media & Digital Culture Michiel Hennekam (NL) - Hogeschool Rotterdam, Communication & Multimedia Design http://medialabamsterdam.com/workspaces2020-nl 45
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WORKSPACES 2020 - NICO-CHAN DxC Challenge How can we design for the workspace of the near future to optimise the wellbeing of the workforce? Fukuoka, Japan How can we increase social interaction between younger and older workers in the Japanese workspace? Solution Nico-chan is a wearable with a tamagotchi-like app that acts as a digital companion for employees, and suggests social tasks which colleagues can perform when they meet each other. As the tasks are performed, Nico-chan becomes happy and rewards the employee with items he or she can collect. The app is designed to facilitate open and friendly communication in the Japanese workspace, by creating more social and informal habits that are not usual in Japanese office environments. This allows to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between all employees, regardless of title or age. DxC Partner: Bell Labs - Alcatel Lucent DxC University: Kyushu University (JP) DxC Lab: Innovation Studio Fukuoka (JP)
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Zilong Li (CN) - Kyushu University School of Design, Design Strategy Miho Saito (JP) - Kyushu University School of Design, Product Design Florian Root (NL) - University of Amsterdam, New Media & Digital Culture Michiel Hennekam (NL) - Hogeschool Rotterdam, Communication & Multimedia Design http://medialabamsterdam.com/workspaces2020-nl 47
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WHAT MADE THIS DESIGN ACROSS CULTURES? This project showed the value of sharing the process and interchanging methods (and their results) even when the local challenges moved in different directions. In their exploration and research, both teams looked into productivity, mood, concentration and overall well-being within the office environment. For example, at one point, the team in Amsterdam focused on how regular breaks might benefit workers’ concentration levels, where the Japanese team used those insights to see how breaks could help create more social contact between workers in Japan. To speak the common language of methods was very beneficial for both the teams and the end result.
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AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
FUKUOKA, JAPAN
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Citizen Empowerment
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MediaLAB Amsterdam is part of CREATE-IT, the research department of the School of Digital Media and Creative Industries of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. All of our projects share a focus on CREATE-IT’s umbrella theme of ‘citizen empowerment’.
D ESIG N
The rise of digital media and the advent of the network society have shifted the relations between citizens on the one hand and companies and governments on the other. Citizens have new tools to organize themselves around issues of communal interest. The relation between professionals and citizens is shifting. This means both citizens as well as institutional parties and companies are looking for new relationships and new roles in society. These developments raise questions such as “What impact does the rise of digital media technologies have on society?”, “How can digital media be designed to optimise benefits for citizens?”, “How can professionals from a wide range of domains and fields - from fashion to musea, from policymakers to game-designers - serve their public in new ways?”, and “What societal risks do these developments have?”. MediaLAB Amsterdam aims to operationalise these and other questions and create proof-of-concepts and prototypes that help support research around this theme.
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The Agile MediaLAB Manifesto Our highest priority is to satisfy society with the early, open and continuous delivery of valuable research and meaningful solutions. We welcome change and acknowledge the need to continuously adapt tools, approaches and requirements to meet changing needs and to respond to other results. We deliver working prototypes frequently and test them continuously with real people. Researchers, designers and engineers must work together daily and connect with other stakeholders as much as possible throughout the project. We build projects around motivated individuals. We give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
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A B O UT - M AN IFESTO
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development/research team is face-toface conversation. Useful research and working prototypes are the primary measures of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable research. Sponsors, partners, researchers and developers should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to scientific, technical and design excellence enhances agility. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of unnecessary work – is essential. The best theories, requirements, solutions and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.
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Programme
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MediaLAB Amsterdam uses a combination of an iterative design cycle and the Scrum process in order to foster both the creative process and enforce teams to work structured and goal oriented. This has proven to be a powerful combination for the multidisciplinary design teams that work
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P RO G RAM M E
on projects in the labcontext that we provide. The process is further fed by workshops, master classes, an extensive design (research) method toolkit, expert meetings, and supported by (embedded) researchers and MediaLAB coaches.
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Design Process
The MediaLAB Amsterdam design process is a problem solving method that helps create and evaluate solutions in response to challenges. In the process MediaLAB intends to evoke real curiosity in order to make students feel highly motivated to find answers and solutions. This involves lots of iterations, making, prototyping, going out on field studies and test each idea, concept or prototype with actual users.
D ESIG N
RESEARCH, TRANSLATE AND CREATE At the start of every design challenge, and at the start of each new phase in the design process, research has a central role. Research provides plenty of insights; how people act/think/feel and who the intended users are, within the context of the challenge.
translate
RESEARCH
CREATE
These insights are the key to a solution, but they have to be translated into actual design requirements: which are key for the optimal solution? This is something that can be decided based on the research, and implemented and tested by creating a prototype. A next step might be to research again into what you created by setting up a test with users. During the project there is a constant two-way flow: from research, translation to creation, and from creation, translation to research. 61
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Scrum
Scrum is an iterative and incremental process for the design and development of products and services, and it has a very specific way of organizing a team. Tasks are achieved faster and with higher quality when using the Scrum-Framework. This is possible because of the high self-motivation of the team, which chooses itself how tasks will be executed. The project assigner’s demands will be iteratively prioritized and quickly realized. At MediaLAB Amsterdam, the flow of the design process is embedded in a sprint-based schedule, supported by Scrum roles, rituals, sessions and artifacts that support the process.
SCRUM
SPRINTS A sprint (or iteration) is the basic unit of development. The sprint is a “timeboxed” effort; that is, it is restricted to a specific duration. The sprints in the MediaLAB programme have an average duration of three weeks.
sprint
RITUALS At the MediaLAB we use specific ‘rituals’ during each sprint. Each sprint starts with an ideation and planning session, has a mid-sprint translation session, and ends with a sprint review meeting and retrospective. During a sprint, the team has daily stand up meetings.
IDEATION
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1 DAILY STAND-UP MEETINGS
2 IDEATION
DESIGN METHODS TOOLKIT
SPRINT PLANNING
RESEARCH CREATE
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sprint
RESEARCH CREATE
translate
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SPRINT REVIEW
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SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE
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1 — Daily stand-up meetings
The daily standup meeting takes place at the same time and place of every working day. Held (first thing) in the morning, it helps set the context for the coming day’s work. These standup meetings are strictly time-boxed to 15 minutes and all team members actually standup instead of sitting down. This keeps the discussion brisk but relevant. The daily standup meeting is not used as a problem-solving or issue resolution meeting. Issues raised are taken offline and usually dealt with immediately after the meeting. During the daily standup, each team member answers the following three questions: a) - What did you do yesterday? b) - What will you do today? c) - Are there any impediments in your way? 65
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2 — Ideation and planning
PLANNING
IDEATION
Every sprint has an ‘ideation and planning’ session. In this session the creative process is triggered by the facilitation of a brainstorm and ideation session in which ideas are identified and quickly sketched. The most promising ideas are placed in a hierarchy and it is decided which have potential to be taken along in this sprint. After this, tasks are identified, but more importantly the exact sprint goal (and duration) is defined. Last but not least, in this session a plan board in combination with the Design Method Toolkit is used to identify which methods are going to be used and how they are going to be executed during the sprint. 66
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3 — Translate and transfer
translate
In the middle of the 3-week sprint, there is a scheduled ‘translate’ session in which your team and the project-related researchers come together to translate research insights and decide which things to act on in this sprint or the next. Each translation session and its outcomes are carefully documented. The documentation is very important for later use in the academic paper, but moreover, it provides the team with a clearer overview of why they made or have to make specific decisions in the design process.
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4 — Sprint review
After the team has completed the planned deliverables for this sprint it is time for the ‘sprint review’. In this meeting, which is organized with all stakeholders present, decisions on progress and how to proceed are made, including next steps and possible needs and wishes. Specifically, the team will present the work they did during the sprint and will run through the sprint backlog together with stakeholders.
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5 — Sprint retrospective
A ‘sprint retrospective’ is held at the very end of each sprint. This is a meeting to reflect on both the results and the processes with the team. It is meant to change, improve, or stick to the way they work and function as a team.
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ROLES Scrum has only three roles; the relationship between these roles is easily defined and easy to understand.
2 Scrum Master (SM)
Team
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Product Owner (PO)
1
SCRUM - ROLES
1 — Product Owner
PO
The Product Owner is the final authority on the requirements for the product and is responsible for the product vision and improving return on investment. The PO manages end user and stakeholder expectations, prioritizes the product backlog, releases planning details, and provides clear and testable requirements to the team. A PO collaborates with the team, end users and stakeholders, ensuring that the goals are met and that they accept the deliverables at the end of each sprint. The project partner is the PO, and duÂring the sprints the team coach serves as dedicated Product Owner. 71
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2 — Scrum Master
SM
The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating the team: creating a trustful and inclusive environment, facilitating team meetings and negotiations with the product owner, and removing team and organizational impediments. SMs keep the process moving forward, ensuring that the values and principles of Scrum along with its framework are followed. They also facilitate stand-up meetings and the retrospective, and organize the planning and ideation sessions and the sprint reviews.
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The SM is a crucial role within the team, ensuring its success. Therefore, at the start of the semester each team has to make sure they appoint someone who has the characteristics of a good SM. Important: the SM is also a team member.
SCRUM - ROLES
3 — Team
TEAM
The multidisciplinary design team is cross-functional, autonomous and self-organizing. The team is responsible for researching the requirements, translating them, and making their own design and implementation decisions. The team members track the progress of their own work with the guidance of the Scrum master, and the team commits to create deliverables, being accountable to the product owner and delivering as promised.
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DONE
PENDING
IN PROGRESS
SCRUMBOARD
TO DO
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Artifacts
SPRINT BACKLOG
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USER STORIES
2
METHODS
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SCRUM - ARTIFAC TS
1 — Product Backlog The requirements for the product are listed in the Product Backlog, an ever-changing, dynamically prioritized list of requirements ordered by Business Value. Requirements are broken down into User Stories. 2 — User Stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the system. They typically follow a simple template: As a <type of user> I want <some goal> so that <some reason>
3 — Sprint Backlog The Sprint Backlog contains all the committed User Stories for the current Sprint, broken down into Tasks by the Team. All items on the Sprint Backlog should be developed, tested, documented and integrated to fulfill the commitment. 4 — Tasks The goal is to have all tasks fixed for the current sprint without having to add new tasks. If you use a method, use the method cards to define your tasks. 5 — Scrumboard The Scrum board gives you a quick way of visually seeing the status of your iteration. Add and move stories into different columns to change their statuses, such as To-do, In progress, Pending approval, and Done. Every Team member works on tasks and the PO decides when the tasks are moved from Pending to Done.
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On the back of each Scrum board, a Plan board can be found. This board is used to plan specific activities, either by using methods or without. These activities are translated into detailed tasks. These tasks can be either taken along in the new sprint or stored in the backlog for later use.
USER STORIES
METHOD CARDS
TIME ESTIMATION
D ESIG N M ETH ODS TOOLK IT
PLAN BOARD
SINGLE TASKS
First the team decides whether a User Story requires a method or not. When a method is required, the team uses the Design Method Toolkit to select a method, and find out which tasks are required to execute it. When planning, the time estimation on the cards is also used as indicator. 77
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Design Method toolkit The MediaLAB Amsterdam Design Method Toolkit enables you to get started and enrich your design process. Plan and execute your design research, ideation, experimentation and creation within short iterations. A collection of design and research methods: categorised to help you select, time based to help you plan. Detailed task descriptions help teams divide and assign tasks between team members. This makes the Design Method Toolkit perfect for lean, agile environments and multidisciplinary teams.
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METHOD CARDS The MediaLAB Amsterdam method card collection presents a very wide range of design and research methods that can be used to get the necessary insights.
Most of the cards can be used throughout the design process. The teams are encouraged to use a variety of methods (in order to have a wide range of insights) and to use them continuously. The method plan board is literally the reverse side of the scrum board, making these two interdependent tools. 84
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METHODS CARDS - CATEGORIES The methods are divided into categories relating to the type of insights that can be gained with them. The methods can be about defining goals, knowing the user and context, framing insights, ideation, prototyping and testing.
D ESIG N M ETH ODS TOOLK IT
DEFINE Goals and Intentions Define your challengeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision, objectives, scenarios, scopes and constraints. Ask yourself questions that relate to the why, what and who of your challenge and sense what trends, opportunities and possible constraints might affect it in the process. Get to KNOW the user Explore the background of the project, the context, the situation, location, time and social and technical context. Get to know the people involved, their wants, goals, needs and feelings. FRAME your Insights Draw conclusions from your research and make lessons learned explicit. Try to narrow down the information. Can you extract the most valuable and important elements from your insights? What impact will these insights have on your design? IDEATE and Conceptualise Generate ideas, explore possibilities, work out concepts. How can you visualize, sketch and conceptualize the requirements arising from your research insights? CREATE and Test Ways to get from concepts to production, prototyping and testing. Are your ideas valid? Can you create working prototypes from your concepts? How can you test your prototypes with users? What ways should you choose to get the optimal and most realistic test results?
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To help you select which method to follow, the cards are split into either research or create. RESEARCH cards focus on ways to do research at moments when you need to gain more information. CREATE cards focus on how to use the information gathered and translate it into objects, reports, prototypes, summaries, etc.
Research/Create
Name of the method
Cultural probes
1 WEEK - 2 WEEKS
Know User
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Research
Category
Estimated duration
Depending on the stage the project is in, you might have different goals. These categories help you select the method based on that.
This is an estimate of how long it wil take to execute the method, this range depends on complexity of the project and experience with the method.
The methods can be about defining goals, knowing the user and context, framing insights, ideation, prototyping and testing.
Short description
MED IALAB M ETH ODS TOOLK IT
The short description allows you to quickly read what the method is about and help you decide if it suits your specific needs.
Cultural probes Cultural probes, or design probes are a window into the life of the user. Probes or information gathering packages are handed out to participants and they are asked to track themselves for a certain period.
TASKS target user you would like to understand better. Also decide what type of medium is necessary to uncover those insights. 2. Prepare the probe and if it includes different types of tools, divide preparation between team members. Also decide whether your probe is digital or physical, or a combination. 3. Hand out the probe to the targeted group of users. Make sure to give clear instructions on how to use it and when to hand it in. 4. Gather the probes and schedule a meeting with the team to go through them. Try and cluster insights in this meeting and prepare a summary. 5. Write a short report (document) summarizing the main insights and share this with the team.
Tasks This is a list of tasks that need to be performed to conduct the method. Each of these tasks have been written so they can be assigned to a team member on the scrum board.
WHEN
When you need details about the user’s life and context.
WHY
Unobtrusive manner to collect information for then design process.
NOTE!
Good for long distance research with low budget. The open character of the data may cause interpretation issues.
OUTPUT
Collection of data from the user’s life and context.
NEXT
This method can’t stand alone and goes well with context mapping or follow up interviews.
Recommendations Here you can see recommendations, such as when the method will be most fruitful for your project, the reasons to execute it, the expected output, things to look out for and what the next steps to take would be. 89
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Workshops An important part of the support in the design process consists of the workshop programme. These workshops are facilitated by experts from the MediaLAB, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the field. Specifically, the workshops relate to the Design Method Toolkitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s categories and the teams learn how to execute the most important methods from the toolkit. Workshops are about defining intentions, getting to know users and context, framing insights from research, ideation, testing and turning the project into a business case. Check the schedule for dates.
WO RKSH OPS
Workshop Scrum
Scrum
This workshop covers the principles and process (theory) underpinning the mechanics, rules and roles of the Scrum framework. Attention is paid to rituals, artifacts and roles, and specifically to how they relate to the programme and the creative process within the MediaLAB. Students learn through instruction and team-based exercises, and are challenged to think in terms of the Scrum principles to better understand what to do when starting their project. After this workshop, Scrum teams still need a lot of practice and trial/error, but it is beneficial to team dynamics and project progress from day one! 91
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Workshop Tinkering
Tinkering
Tinkering is all about exploring materials (often technical materials) and finding new applications by engaging with them in playful, somewhat unstructured ways. In this workshop, students will experiment with Makey Makey (an Arduino-based device that lets you turn nearly anything into a computer key) and Scratch (a free programming language, originally developed by MIT for kids, with which you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations). Build a playful installation, game or prototype in just the time of this half-day workshop!
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Workshop Define Intentions
Define Intentions In order to clearly understand the ’problem’ the team has been asked to solve, this workshop will show how a design brief can be written based on a deep understanding of the stakeholders, needs, values, requirements, restrictions and opportunities that surround an assignment. Teams are also inspired to think beyond descriptives and to become creative thinkers.
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Workshop User & Context
User & Context
This workshop explores the background of the project, the context, the situation, location, time and social and technical context. Get to know the people involved, their wants, goals, needs and feelings. Learn how to design for impact on experiential, behavioral and social levels. By introducing methods that help understand the user and the context of use, the workshop teaches to empathize, perform deep questioning and translate this into practical design requirements. Denying the importance of understanding the end user and contextual factors, is like denying your solution is designed for humans.
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Workshop Frame Insights & Ideation
IDEATION
Ideation
In this workshop students recheck their understanding of the problem at hand. In order to generate good ideas it is vital to make them a good fit with their context. The workshop introduces several fast-paced and productive exercises that can be used to generate lots of ideas in a short time frame. Teams then try to cluster the ideas into potential solutions. The most important goals of the workshop are to have fun, open your mind, and change the way you look at the world.
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Workshop User Testing
User Testing
User testing is important but is often overlooked due to budget, time, and resource constraints. This workshop will explain how user testing can support the design process and can be employed to deliver better a user experience and a more meaningful end product. Learn how to choose between unmoderated and moderated testing. Learn when to integrate testing at different development / design phases. Learn how to maximize the ROI by knowing what to test. learn how to extract useful patterns from qualitative and quantitative tests.
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WO RKSH OPS
Workshop Business Model Canvas
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot any business model. In this workshop, teams will be challenged to imagine the business behind their concept and foresee opportunities, constraints, challenges, etc. Seeing the potential of the concept from a business perspective will help to sharpen the offering and final deliverable, and will support future scenarios for the continuation of the project after the semester.
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Master Classes In addition the the workshops, MediaLAB Amsterdam offers several Master classes within the programme. Master classes are shorter than workshops and specifically focussed on learning new skills, or improving them. Students learn how to search and select sources in their research, the challenges of cross cultural communication in an international working environment, how to improve their presentation skills, digital design, prototyping, coding and how to write an academic paper. The Master classes are not obligatory, but are recommended as they are perfect for broadening your skill set.
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MediaLAB Amsterdam Culture and Guidelines
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Your team is bigger than you might think! You are supported by many.
@ MEDIALAB AM STERDAM
Besides your fellow team members, many other people are directly involved in the project: an expert from the MediaLAB Amsterdam team, your graduation or internship mentor, the project partners and, in the course of the design process, developers, external experts, creative consultants, etc.
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Multidisciplinary and multicultural teamwork
At MediaLAB you work in a team comprising people with different skill sets and from different educational and cultural backgrounds. Even local cultural differences between people from the same country can have a big impact on the way they work with each other. Working in a team with a varied composition therefore requires a special attitude, both professionally and socially. Here are some things you should take into account.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
T EA M WORK
Language
Multidisciplinary and intercultural teams are great for creative processes. However, when people who work together have different languages, this can be an obstacle to success. Speaking in your mother tongue is very different from speaking in a second or third language.
So consider your words carefully; there are issues of interpretation, but also of cultural differences, especially when the spoken language is not the first language for either of you. Use visuals, write down your ideas, sketch. Make sure you understanding each other.
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Communication Styles â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Methods of communication that are normal for one group of people may appear ineffective or inappropriate to another group.
A person from a culture in which loud voices and interruptions are not seen as aggressive may inti midate someone from a culture that teaches more reserved modes of expression.
Learning in advance about the cultures of your team members before you work on a team with them can help you understand their methods of communication.
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T EA M WORK
Hierarchy
The importance of authority varies greatly between cultures. Some groups give great respect to people in positions of authority, while people from other cultures are perfectly willing to question an authority figure if they see them doing something wrong. Authority is based on different criteria in diffe rent cultures. The nature of a team should be made clear to all participants at its inception. At the beginning of the semester you will therefore write a team ‘plan’ in which ways of working together, but also values and roles are written down and agreed on.
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Conflict — When conflict does occur within a team, members from different backgrounds may react to it in dramatically different ways. Some people will repress their reactions to an insult or slight, while others will fight back. These reactions are based on individual personality to some extent but are also conditioned by a person’s background.
Resolving conflict between team members effectively requires an understanding of everyone’s view of what caused the conflict. Being open, but respectful to each other’s background, is the best remedy for conflict resolution.
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T EA M WORK
Language
Communication Styles
Hierarchy
Conflict
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Presenting your work
At the end of the design process you will have the opportunity to share with the world what you have created. We use the website as a communication portal for all our projects, but you will also have the opportunity to present your results to the creative industry during a final event organized at MediaLAB Amsterdam. This will be the showcase of your final design and prototype. You will present yourselves as experts to an audience consisting of friends, family, and partners from the creative industries, but also creative agencies looking for the latest trends and scouting for talent.
One of MediaLAB Amsterdam’s most important communication channels is its blog. Here, project teams keep followers and friends updated on the latest developments and insights in their projects or in related fields. As a team we trust you are just as proud as we are of our work, and just as keen to share its news on a regular basis. In the first week you will learn how our blog works and how you can best communicate and promote your team’s work there.
P RESEN TIN G YOUR WORK
BLOG
SHARING, WORKING, DOCUMENTATION To work together efficiently you’ll need tools to collaborate on projects, share documents and calendars, and communicate. There are huge numbers of digital tools to help you with this: use them! The right tools will put the most relevant information within easy reach. 111
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Rules of thumb
No ambitious programme would be achievable without some good old rules of thumb about things you can do, or should do (act); things to remember; and things to respect. We expect you to take note of these and commit them to memory. We are open to initiatives, so if you have anything to add or suggest (a change), please do not hesitate to talk to someone from the MediaLAB team and your team members. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find a way to make everybody happy.
1 — Every team works and studies for five days a week from 9:00 until 17:30.
RUL ES OF TH UM B
→ACT
2 — Schedule when you will spend time on indivi dual research, your own graduation project, or your personal development plan. 3 — Appreciate the value of the structured mor ning-scrum setup; it is there to help you and your team aim for the highest level of quality. 4 — Finish things on time, as agreed upon with your team in your meetings.
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→REMEMBER
1 — Involve or CC your MediaLAB expert coach in communications with the project partner. In case of a meeting, inform them in time about the details. The expert will always want to be present at partner meetings. 2 — You can request a day off with your PM. Of course you will have to inform your team too. Oneday requests: a week in advance. More than one day? At least 3 weeks in advance. Be aware that your requests may or may not be granted, depen ding on project needs. 3 — The MediaLAB team is not responsible for your personal grades (except for international students).
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1 — Keep to the team agreement document that you filled in at the start of the process.
RUL ES OF TH UM B
→RESPECT
2 — In the event of illness, please contact your expert coach before 9:30. 3 — Keep the MediaLAB tidy, shiny and awesome! 4 — Workshops are obligatory. There are no exceptions, as these are a vital part of the programme. If you arrive late, the doors will stay closed. 5 — Some distraction is good, but don’t overdo social media, appointments with others during working hours, etc. Keep the work/fun ratio balanced. 6 — You are not alone, and your team members will need to feel the same dedication coming from you as they are putting in themselves. Keep the same energy level and the motor will run beautifully!
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DELIVERABLES & WRAP UP CHECKLIST
1) PLEASE DELIVER IN A .ZIP FILE TO YOUR PM All project documentation - Provide all of the following documents that are applicable to your project:
- Research poster (final_research_poster.pdf). - All presentations in pdf format. - Project posters and booklets. - test_data.xls - experiment_methods_and_results.pdf - Final Video. - Pictures documenting the process (same as those that have gone on the Flickr set). - Final budget. - List of all contacts. - 3D Models. - Final design and styleguide. - Wireframes. - In case of hardware: Schematic of the circuit(s), and provide a list of components.
2) PLEASE UPLOAD TO MEDIALAB’S SOCIAL MEDIA Ask your PM for login details for the different accounts.
1 — Upload final poster to ISUU, But ONLY if it will NOT be sent in for publication to conferences or journals. 11 6
D EL IV ERABLES
2 — Please clean up your dropbox/drive and order it. Delete all draft files and just keep the final versions of the files. 3a — Please put all documented/commented code on Github. 3b — In case of hardware, deliver a schematic of the circuit/setup and provide a list of components. 4 — If applicable, put your whole project on the VM server of the HvA (keep in mind that ir runs ubuntu). >>You got details from Tamara for access to VM
so you can install and run a protoype on it.
5a — Please upload your final teaser video or final promo to MediaLAB’s YouTube account, add meaningful tags and include the school year & semester. 5b — Please upload relevant pictures (30-40 pics) from all phases of the project to Flickr and use proper tags (check how previous projects are tagged). Make a set for your project and add the pics to the set. 6 — Please update your project page on the MediaLAB website. 7 — Please wrap up your project blog, write a final post.
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