Interactions Magazine by prosume

VOLUME XV.1 | JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2008

EXPERIENCES | PEOPLE | TECHNOLOGY

toward a model of innovation Cover Story by Hugh Dubberly

On The Language of Interactions Interaction design deals with the nuances of human discourse: spoken, visual, and semantic. Here we explore the nature of dialogue between people and technology.

Ps AND Qs

6 Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s In a Name? Idioms, Metaphors, and Design Elizabeth Churchill OK/CANCEL

9 Being Popular Tom Chi, Kevin Cheng FEATURE

11 Primal Interactions Alex Wright (P)REVIEW

13 Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages by Alex Wright Reviewed By Fred Sampson

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

FEATURE

15 Realizing the Vision of Mobile Spatial Interaction Peter Froehlich, Lynne Baillie, Rainer Simon FEATURE

19 The Linguistic Command Line Aza Raskin FEATURE

23 Understanding Convergence Stefana Broadbent, Valerie Bauwens

Key Process, Management & Organizational Interactions Much of our interactions work is grounded in the reality of organizations: large enterprises, small businesses, and academia. These articles investigate the relationship between process, management, and those organizations. COVER STORY

28 Toward a Model of Innovation Hugh Dubberly FEATURE

38 The Business of Customer Experience: Lessons Learned at Wells Fargo Secil Watson (P)REVIEW

44 Design Education for Business and Engineering Management Students: A New Approach Terry Winograd FEATURE

46 Designing for Disagreement Paul Burke THATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ENTERTAINMENT

52 Halo 3: The Theory and Practice of a Research-Design Partnership Dennis Wixon, Randy Pagulayan

VOLUME XV.1

JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2008

EXPERIENCES | PEOPLE | TECHNOLOGY Addressing Critical Challenges The challenges facing culture and society must be addressed by the design of interactions—human to human, and culture to culture. These articles explore the core issues facing practitioners as they struggle to understand the worldly implications of their work.

FEATURE

56 Designing For the Last Billion

Unanticipated Consequences & Influences Once our work is introduced into society, we simultaneously influence culture and lose control over that influence. These articles reveal some of the unanticipated results.

THE WAY I SEE IT

70 Filling Much-Needed Holes

Gabriel White

Don Norman

UNDER DEVELOPMENT

TRUE TALES

59 New Users, New Paradigms, New Challenges Gary Marsden SUSTAINABLY OURS

61 Two Digital Divides and Four Perspectives Eli Blevis

72 Persona Non Grata Steve Portigal TIMELINES

74 Unanticipated and Contingent Influences on the Evolution of the Internet Glenn Kowack

LIFELONG INTERACTIONS

67 My Father’s Kitchen Table Allison Druin

80 On Innovation, Appropriateness, Intervention Design… Jon Kolko, Richard Anderson

interactions

A discussion on the ICSID-IDSA CONNECTING ’07 World Design Congress in San Francisco.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Interactions Cafe

Welcome

a Richard

Anderson

Interactions: Experiences, People, Technology Our world is at the point of major change, fueled by

and experiences that merge in contemporary culture

the increasing capabilities of technology, the immi-

to create meaningful, positive interactions.

nent entry of enormous powerhouse countries into

ful team of designers, social scientists, engineers,

ic environmental and cultural flux on both a local

professionals, and academics who are engaged in the

and global level. The opportunities are tremendous,

creation and development of appropriate and innova-

yet the future is also murky in its uncertainty: As

tive products, systems, services, and experiences.

we begin to design products, services, and systems

Additionally, we’ve tapped into the historic expertise

for this dynamic future, the speed, complexity, and

of a number of leaders in our industry. We’ve also

impact of our actions grow to an unprecedented

developed, and will continue to extend, the interac-

height and the feeling of anxiety begins to build.

tions website in order to support the work in the print

This point of precipice is one that can be bested, a Jon

Kolko

but it requires a dramatic shift in the way we understand and think about our lives and jobs. Any

We encourage you to visit http://interactions.acm.

will be seen as a narrow and limited view. Our intel-

issue; both online and in print, you will find a num-

lectual emphasis and our creative energies must now

ber of themes that indicate some of the challenges

resonate on a cultural level, and on an emotional

facing interactions practitioners in the near future,

level, and on a responsible level. Words like “culture”

with the reflections and thoughts of both special

and “emotion” and “responsibility” are scary, as they

guests as well as regular contributors. • • • Elizabeth Churchill has spent her extremely active

magazine understand, value, and share. This was

career in industry, academia, and research and has

the word that John Rheinfrank, Bill Hefley, and Brad

a particularly strong intellectual approach to under-

Myers chose when they begin this magazine in 1994,

standing the problems facing practitioners as they

and it speaks to the philosophical “solution” to the

strive to develop interactive products. Her examina-

challenges we face in the coming years.

tion of the relevance of language in design hints at

We see a world rich with culture, emotion, and

Januar y + Februar y 2008

tion between our readers and ourselves. org and begin to respond to some of the copy in this

ated word that is less scary, one that readers of this

a new liberal underpinning to the work of technolo-

human connections. The human-built world can

gists. This is reinforced by Alex Wright’s discussion

afford a sense of beauty, sublimity, and resonance,

of the use of oral culture, as he looks at the rise of

and through our advancements in technology can

social networking colloquialisms in our digital com-

come advances in society. At the center of these

munities. Aza Raskin is also exploring the semantics

advances are interactions—conversations, connec-

of language, and he reflects in this issue on some of

tions, collaborations, and relationships—within and

the distinctions between the landmark work of his

across multiple disciplines, with and without tech-

father, Jef Raskin, and his own work on linguistic

nology.

command line interfaces.

We are proud to take editorship of interactions at

Gabe White has provided a succinct case study

this pinnacle moment in human history. Our goals

of his work with Motorola in developing telephone

for our three-year tenure are simple and straightfor-

interfaces for developing nations. Gary Marsden’s

ward:

forum continues to explore the larger theme, as

1. To increase the relevance of this magazine to interactions

magazine and to allow for a more robust conversa-

individual focus on product, research, or technology

are subjective and ethereal. But there is an associ-

To achieve these goals, we’ve assembled a wonder-

the global economy, and the potential for catastroph-

practitioners focused on interactions. 2. To ensure that the contents of the magazine are deep, diverse, and of global relevance. 3. To place an emphasis on the people, technology,

he examines the challenges facing businesses that intend to offer products and services to developing nations. Eli Blevis sets the framework for an ongoing contribution to the magazine on sustainable design, and Allison Druin begins to examine whether the

appropriateness of design is different for those either early or late in life.

most influential innovations of our lifetime. Fred Sampson returns to interactions in a new role,

The enterprises that drive these social, political,

overseeing what we intend to be a much broader and

and culturally relevant products require a new lead-

more purposeful collection of reviews and previews.

ership and a new understanding of user-experience

Fred’s review of Alex Wright’s Glut richly extends the

practitioners. Secil Watson shares her pragmatic

author’s own contribution to this issue.

experience in building a customer-experience culture at Wells Fargo; Paul Burke shares philosophical

• • • We hope you enjoy our first issue of interactions,

insights into his time spent developing a forward-

and we hope you share our vision for the future of

thinking design consultancy; Stefana Broadbent

our profession and industry. We are humbled by

shares the process—and some key findings—of

the scope of the challenges facing our many disci-

insight generation for which she has been respon-

plines in the years to come, but these challenges

sible over the past three years at Swisscom; Dennis

are equally rich with potential and excitement. As

Wixon describes some of what can be done to

we investigate the work, methods, and reflections

increase the impact of insight generation on design;

of our colleagues, we hope you will join us in forg-

and Terry Winograd describes the origins of a new

ing deep human connections, in developing rich

program for students of business and engineering

dialogue, and in building bridges between seemingly

management at Northwestern University to enable

disparate topics: We hope you will join us in devel-

them to benefit more from design and designers in

oping interactions.

the workplace. Steve Portigal has keen insights into the irony

—Richard Anderson and Jon Kolko eic@interactions.acm.org

and humor present in our culture and has spent his

out the potential absurdity of one of our primary design tools and raises a larger question regarding the methods and processes we use on a daily basis. Hugh Dubberly’s cover story investigates the process of innovation used by companies striving to cash in on the developing global marketplace. He has worked to develop a model of innovation and presents both the outcome of that work as well as the process of investigation. His visually rich material dramatically alters the way we think about innovative product development, at the same time hinting at a visual method of problem solving and concept exploration that can serve as a method of design synthesis in understanding and resolving other design problems. Don Norman continues as chief interactions curmudgeon, reminding us that innovation is not always wanted, while Peter Froelich and colleagues illustrate an area of innovation oft subjected to such criticism. Glenn Kowack visits Jonathan Grudin’s Timelines forum with an insightful early history of one of the

Richard Anderson is a “user experience” practice, management, and organizational strategy consultant with international management, cross-organizational development, and more than 20 years of experience. He started and directed the Experience Center at Viant, as well as the user research and experience strategy discipline at Studio Archetype and Sapient. Via various consulting, advisory, and employment roles, and his workshops, courses, conference programs, and more, he has helped move “user/customer experience” into a position of greater influence in numerous companies. At CHI 2007, Richard received SIGCHI’s Lifetime Service Award for extensively facilitating and spreading the development of the field via his leadership contributions to BayCHI and to other chapters of SIGCHI around the world. Jon Kolko is a senior design analyst at frog design. He has worked extensively in the professional world of interaction design, dealing with complicated technological constraints in order to best solve the problems of Fortune 500 clients. His expertise extends into supply chain management, demand planning, and customerrelationship management for clients such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, IBM, Palm and other leaders of the Global 2000. The underlying theme that unites his various projects concerns the creation of solutions that are useful, usable, and desirable. Prior to working at frog, Jon was a professor of interaction and industrial design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was instrumental in shaping the interaction and industrial design programs. He is the author of the text Thoughts on Interaction Design.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without the fee, provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on services or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. © ACM 1072-5220/08/0100 $5.00

interactions

ties of human behavior. His work in this issue calls

Januar y + Februar y 2008

career researching and understanding the peculiari-

On The Language of Interactions

What’s In A Name? Idioms, Metaphors, and Design Elizabeth Churchill Yahoo! Research | elizabeth@elizabethchurchill.com

soning. And about metaphorical

the other day. If you do, I’ll poke

memes, shared understandings

phors are also often used to nudge

you, I retorted. We both laughed.

thereof (or not), and the actions

people to act in certain ways. The

The person sitting next to us

that invite, inspire, and imply.

desktop metaphor is a well-known

looked mystified. I proceeded to

David Gartner

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

It has been argued that our con-

example—the use of documents,

try and explain that no, my friend

ceptual system, the terms in which

files, and folders as pointers to…

wasn’t going to come to my house

we think and act, is fundamentally

documents, files and folders. In

with a spray-paint can and per-

metaphorical in nature. Idioms,

1999, Bill Hibbard, emeritus senior

sonally annotate a wall. And no, I

metaphors, and similes are evoca-

scientist at the Space Science and

wasn’t going to reach over with my

tive. They describe one thing in

Engineering Center, articulately

bony index finger and prod him in

terms of another, enhancing our

invited us at ACM’s SIGGRAPH to

the side.

conceptualization—often of both

“find effective visual idioms for

things. Telling someone they look

direct manipulation user interac-

one who has never been on a

like a bulldog licking mustard off a

tions with visualizations” and to

social-networking site, much less

thistle or that they look like a shaved

“find effective visual idioms for

used Facebook, what it means to

monkey reflected in a spoon is going

collaborative interactions among

“write on my wall” or to “poke”

to make you think differently, even

multiple users.”

someone. A lot of words, several

if only for a second and only for

dubious analogies, and a couple of

humorous effect.

Give it a shot: Explain to some-

In technology design, meta-

“I’ll wall you,” someone teased me

wobbly metaphors later, I gave up,

Similes, analogies, and idioms

But, there be dragons. Metaphors and analogies underpin our creative leaps, our lateral thinking,

got my laptop out, and proceeded

sometimes spring from experi-

our inspirations, but they also con-

to demonstrate—to show him just

ences with technology. Some are

strain us. In lazy moments meta-

why writing that thing feels like

easy to trace. “Don’t stand there

phors become the thing, become

such a threat, and why my poking

like one o’clock half struck,” my

reified and reused, confused with

back lacks firepower. To be honest,

mother used to say to me. (Think

fact or rules for design. Scaffolding

it isn’t even clear to me if being

about it.) Some idioms stand the

reasoning through metaphors,

poked is a good or bad thing. But,

test of time; to burn the candle at

similes, and analogies can lead to

by “walling me” with that com-

both ends has been a warning for

problems of initial understanding,

ment, my friend was essentially

decades, probably longer. The blocks

design rigidity, and overextension,

saying he would embarrass me

didn’t fall right is readily understood

and—perhaps most interestingly

publicly by sharing something

to mean something did not work

for the global world of internet-

mind-bendingly silly with all the

out as planned, even to people who

based interaction and communica-

folks who are my Facebook friends.

have never played Tetris, whence

tion—problems of translation and

the idiom purportedly derives.

derivation.

Walls, poking, and friendship… This all got me thinking about

Sometimes idioms converge con-

To the first point, inevitably

ceptually despite their divergent

there will be breaks in design

about the language we use when

sources. All singing, all dancing, and

metaphors. For example, years

naming the human-computer-

fully loaded—one idiom in perfor-

ago, despite a friend’s insistence

human interactions we design,

mance, the other in capacity, but

that the desktop metaphor inter-

and more generally, about idioms,

now they are used interchangeably

face was “absolutely intuitive,”

metaphors, and idiomatic rea-

in conversation.

the metaphor did not immediately

communication—in particular

Ps AND Qs

make sense to a lot of people—

on a Facebook wall and grafitti-ing

place but at the same time extend

including me. I found it absolutely

the brick structure I can see out of

it? “What’s Mebendazole and laxa-

not intuitive.

my window. However, there’s a lot

tives for a computer? I think I’ve got a

to be said for playful, memorable

worm.” This is an extended meta-

the world of file and folder icons

visual cues and nice mnemonics

phor that I am pretty sure won’t

from the land of the command

(and in the case of the desktop

catch on.

line. Consequently, on this first

metaphor, good consistency across

exposure to the desktop graphi-

application menus). These are

meanings ascribed to idioms? Do

cal user interface or “GUI,” I spent

great ways to get people to spend

they become slippery over time?

a long time looking for grep. I

time and learn to use the maddest

And what happens when you retain

mistakenly tried to concatenate

and baddest of interface designs.

the form, prompting the mean-

files by slamming one icon into

And, with exposure, somehow

ing, but replace words accidentally

another. Finally, I sat paralyzed for

these odd connections start to feel

or intentionally (as my friend’s

some time, refusing stubbornly to

like they are obvious and intui-

German-speaking mother did when

drag my floppy disk icon into the

tive. It is a strange trait of human

learning English in stating that a

trash can, or “the bin” as I called

beings that we tend to forget how

popular form of face-cream was

it, being British, because I did not

confusing things were before we

“selling like hot bricks?”) I still knew

believe this was the way to eject

learned them. Which brings us to

what she meant, but typing it into

a floppy disk. No, I reasoned, that

another common phrase—it’s easy

my regular search engine just now

would surely simply erase every-

if you know how.

offered a dog’s breakfast of results.

thing on it the disk—throw it all

Few idioms and metaphors are

Do people have slightly different

Sometimes the original deriva-

away. Wrong mental model. As HCI

translatable into other languages.

tion of an idiom gets lost. I am not

pioneers Frank Halasz and Tom

I don’t have any ready technology-

sure that always matters. But, per-

Moran pointed out in 1982, this

inspired foreign idioms to illustrate

sonally, I worry that there is incipi-

was an analogy-inspired mental

this point, but to pull the radishes by

ent ideology that lurks therein…

model that could be considered

the leaves purportedly means to get

and that I am inadvertently saying

harmful; it certainly caused me

the wrong end of the stick in Spanish.

something, that if I understood it, I

some stress and a few cross words.

And when talking to someone who

would be mortified at my gauche-

Looking back I thank the stars

speaks Spanish, if you want to spill

ness. Someone once told me that

(whoever they may be) for desktop

the beans, you set free the pigs. Some

they had named their game design

search. I also learned to say it cor-

turns of phrase cross subculture

company something that sounded

rectly as “gooey” and later was

boundaries; the desktop metaphor

cool in English but that meant

satisfied to publish something with

is a case in point. But there are

something heinous in Swahili. That

that name.

many that probably don’t.

cautionary tale is worth heeding.

When and how do our turns of

How does all this relate to a

correspondence, there is little simi-

phrase and pithy analogies become

favorite idiom, the source of this

larity between the socially embed-

contentful, recognized idioms or

column’s name? Mind your Ps and

ded and physically embodied inter-

metaphors, understood by a cul-

Qs. Following a short but effective

action of manipulating papers files

ture or subculture? And what hap-

pilot-study methodology (I asked

and folders and pointing and click-

pens when someone comes along

all my friends) and a preliminary

ing on icons. Or between writing

and tries to keep a metaphor in

literature review (I searched the

Beyond limited representational

Januar y + Februar y 2008

For context, I had ventured into

interactions

OPINION

ACM TRANSACTIONS ON INTERNET TECHNOLOGY A BIMONTHLY PUBLICATION OF ACM PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701 New York, New York 10121-0701, USA +1-212-869-7440 FAX: +1-212-869-0481 EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Richard Anderson & Jon Kolko GROUP PUBLISHER

Scott Delman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ken Korman MANAGING EDITOR Denise Doig ART DIRECTOR Andrij Borys ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Alicia Kubista PRODUCTION MANAGER Lynn D’Addesio Kraus COPY EDITOR Kate Crane CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Lifelong Interactions: Alison Druin On Modeling: Hugh Dubberly (P)reviews: Fred Sampson Ps & Qs: Elizabeth Churchill Sustainably Ours: Eli Blevis That’s Entertainment: Dennis Wixon The Way I See It: Don Norman Timelines: Jonathan Grudin True Tales: Steve Portigal Under Development: Gary Marsden COMMUNITY EDITORS

Kerry Bodine, Dave Cronin, Ame Elliott, Katie Minardo Scott WEB EDITOR

Wendy Ju FOUNDING EDITORS

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Januar y + Februar y 2008

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www.acm.org/pubs/periodicals/toit AD28

OPINION

Ps AND Qs

Web), I found that there are four

your Ps and Qs was a request for

ed who suggest it means minding

main derivations for this idiom1.

bartenders to be careful that they

your pennies and quarters, or

All users agreed that the term

accurately tallied how much peo-

being careful with your money,

means to watch your manners, be

ple had been drinking. And on the

and the philosophical who say one

cautious, and be cognizant of eti-

other side of that exchange, when

should always remember that you

quette. All stress appropriate social

uttered at a customer, it meant,

have “priorities” in life, and the

performance, and everyone seems

You’re acting drunk—behave!

“qualities” of your character will

to think it’s an old phrase. Mother

Literacy. Another interpreta-

help you achieve them.

Internet suggests the source lies

tion of the idiom says it refers to

as far back as the 1600s or 1700s.

the problems children apparently

erally mean be careful with the tech-

Here are the most popular deriva-

have in learning the letters p and

nology of printing to get the desired

tion assertions, in order of most

q, since they are mirror images of

result, or does it mean to behave

interesting to me, and in four

each other. Rather like typesetters,

yourself appropriately?

main categories: technology affor-

children apparently confuse these

dances, literacy, etiquette, and folk

letters because a loop with a line to

particular technology-related prac-

wisdom.

the right or a line to the left kind of

tice and is also a socially embed-

look the same. They need to learn

ded admonition regarding inter-

the most popular explanations

that the location of the line down

personal behaviors; one should not

is that the phrase comes from

is the essential feature that distin-

reduce the latter to the former. We

typesetting, from the early days of

guishes the two.

also should not reduce complex

Technology Affordances. One of

printing, when movable type was

Behavior and Etiquette. As a

So, does mind your Ps and Qs lit-

Mind your Ps and Qs is about a

sociotechnical designs to static,

positioned for printing on presses.

child, I was told that the phrase

metaphor-based solutions. Design

The lowercase letters p and q were

meant to be careful to say please

metaphors should not be treated

hard to tell apart since they are in

and thank you—mind your pleases

as promissory notes, i.e., because

most cases mirror images of each

and thank-yous (thank Q’s). The

we invoke an analogy or metaphor

other. As each line had to be set

most unlikely, it seems to me, is

once, we are held to it ever after,

up one letter at a time, and letters

that it was something sailors were

to mould each new iteration into a

are placed into printing presses in

told so that they would not soil

(notionally) consistent extension of

reverse, the printmakers needed to

their navy pea-jackets with their

the metaphor, in perpetuity.

be careful not to confuse one let-

tarred “queues” (pigtails). Not buy-

ter for the other. A complex, visual

ing that one.

mental rotation was in order. My

Folk Wisdom. Finally, as in all

personal favorite explanation is

things, there are the money-mind-

I do not advocate trying this method in your daily work practice.

It feels like the design challenges are becoming greater with the proliferation of interactive experiences at the desktop but also

learning to touch type on an old metal typewriter. Typists in typing pools were apparently reminded to type with even pressure to ensure

reach on QWERTY keyboards, these were often the letters that came out lighter, or “ghosted,” due to a lack of decisive typing pressure. Having learned to type on an old metal beast of a machine, I can sympathize with this one. Another explanation is that Ps and Qs are short for “pints and quarts,” two measurements for drinks. In the days of yore when pubs really were taverns, mind

interactions

pages. As p and q require the most

Januar y + Februar y 2008

an even ink appearance on typed

On The Language of Interactions

A BIMONTHLY PUBLICATION OF ACM DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS

Mark Mandelbaum PUBLICATIONS BOARD

Co-Chairs: Ronald F. Boisvert and Holly Rushmeier Gul Agha, Robert B. Allen, Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, Adolfo Guzman-Arenas, Wendy Hall, Carol Hutchins, Mary Jane Irwin, Keith Marzullo, M. Tamer Ozsu, Mary Lou Soffa

developments in pervasive and

but a complex weave of them. As

ubiquitous applications.

designers we are charged with gen-

Despite its warts, the desktop

these metaphors, but also, most

thoughtful design. But…

crucially, questioning them, even if

What parts of the desktop metaSUBSCRIPTIONS

Various subscription rates are available; please see the interactions website at http://interactions.acm.org/subscribe.php for more information.

The Ps and Qs column in

erful graphical interface-design

what happens as etiquettes

tools, open APIs, mashups, and

develop and the relationships

proficient and talented “amateur”

that emerge between interactive

interface designers? How far will

technologies and people’s actions.

we go with mashups and with

In interviews and reported con-

Web-based, interactive docu-

versations, I’ll look at the tensions

ment formats before a Web page

and the interactions between

is not a page? When will VOIP not

these issues in various domains:

be like phoning someone? What

Already planned are a discussion

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

models are appropriate for signal-

of how guardians and children

acmcoa@acm.org For other services, questions, or information: acmhelp@acm.org

ing consistencies and continuities

understand evolving etiquettes,

between interactive experiences

sanctions, and concerns in inter-

that bounce off the desktop and

net communication; issues in

INTERACTIONS ADVISORY BOARD

onto public displays and into inter-

digital copyright and ownership of

active objects? Should we move to

content; personal perspectives in

a new model for recreational spac-

controlling access to us and to our

es? And what should that model

stuff; personal digital archives—

be? Is “walling” someone the right

the models, metaphors, and confu-

or only metaphor for leaving a pub-

sions of shoebox-under-the-bed

lic message in a social-network-

metaphors and tensions in the

ing space? What other metaphors

design digital/physical doppelgang-

could there be for these com-

ers; and the tangle of online identi-

munication spaces? And which, if

fiers. In each case, I’ll chat with a

any, will last? What issues arise

person or persons who are smart,

when we design for cross-cultural

engaging, or simply opinionated on

connections? What responsibility

the topic in question.

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Januar y + Februar y 2008

that makes us unpopular. upcoming issues will be about

Jonathan Arnowitz, Apala Lahiri Chavan, Elizabeth Dykstra-Erickson, Shelley Evenson, Robin Jeffries, Kun-Pyo Lee, Aaron Marcus, Lisa Neal, Ian McClelland, Raquel Oliveira Prates

interactions

phor are still relevant in today’s world of widely available and pow-

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erating, using, and disseminating

metaphor has inspired much

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do we as designers deal with in

So please, feel free to shoot the

situations where we have, perhaps

breeze, but mind your Ps and Qs when

unwittingly, imparted an ideology

writing on my wall. And yes, “wall-

that, when examined, we do not

ing” apparently has already made

agree with?

it into the online Urban Dictionary.

The Ps and Qs of social-media environments pose particular challenges because interaction design is palpably not performance and activity engineering: Users appropriate, transform, and elaborate, and issues of social etiquette and social play are in constant tension, not owned by the users, the service providers, or the “technology” itself. Such social systems do not have a single binding metaphor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Elizabeth Churchill is a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research leading research in social media. Originally a psychologist by training, for the past 15 years she has studied and designed technologies for effective social connection. At Yahoo, her work focuses on how internet applications and services are woven into everyday lives. Obsessed with memory and sentiment, in her spare time Elizabeth researches how people manage their digital and physical archives. Elizabeth rates herself a packrat, her greatest joy is an attic stuffed with memorabilia.

FEATURE

Primal Interactions Alex Wright The New York Times | alex@agwright.com

As emerging Web technologies

newer literate cultures. Ong’s

than subordinative” and “aggrega-

fuel the rise of so-called social

theory seems amply born out on

tive rather than analytic.” That is

media (think YouTube, Facebook,

the Web, with its panoply of blogs,

to say, orality fosters a collective,

and Twitter), the practice of inter-

comments, user reviews, tags,

highly social way of understand-

action design is evolving from its

and other forms of user-generated

ing by building consensus over

roots in human-computer inter-

content that often seem more like

time—through iterative dialogue

faces to address a broader range

talking than writing. Ong coined

and, at times, fostering antago-

of human-to-human activities.

the term “secondary orality” to

nistic views—as opposed to the

Designers who once trafficked in

describe this pattern (“secondary”

more studious, individualistic

task analysis and usability heu-

because while electronic com-

style of traditional literary writ-

ristics now frequently grapple

munications may resemble oral

ing. Oral cultures are “participa-

with subtler, “squishier” modes

patterns of interaction, they are

tory rather than objective” and

of interaction: negotiating social

also filtered through the medium

“situational rather than abstract”;

relationships, building communi-

of writing)[1].

they value direct experience over theory. Finally, oral cultures are

studied and poorly understood,

“empathetic and participatory

tion of blogs to social networking

largely due to our deep-seated

rather than objectively distanced.”

and “crowdsourcing” applications,

cultural bias toward literacy. But

In other words, whereas literate

modern software design seems

without a clear understanding

cultures strive toward idealized

less predicated on how people

of how oral culture really works,

notions of “truth” or correctitude,

interact with computers, and

we are left with a flawed and

oral cultures turn largely on

increasingly focused on how peo-

limited perspective on the social

human emotion.

ple interact with each other.

changes now taking shape online.

If we contemplate the pres-

By deepening our understanding

ent-day Web through the filter

that the emergence of social

of oral culture, we can make bet-

of Ong’s theory, we can find

media heralds the fruition of the

ter choices about how to design in

numerous examples of oral

Web’s great promise: an age of

the world of social media. First, we

and literate cultures colliding.

technological liberation, in which

have to recognize the crucial dis-

For example, on Amazon.com,

old institutional hierarchies will

tinctions between oral and literate

most books include two kinds of

give way to an unstoppable wave

modes of thought. Oral culture is,

reviews: editorial reviews sup-

of individual expression and bot-

according to Ong, “additive rather

plied by ostensibly authoritative

Some pundits have suggested

tom-up social organization. But the rise of social media may not be such a futuristic development as we might suppose; it may also signal the resurgence of ancient patterns of interaction rooted deep

ORALITY

in our human prehistory.

Additive

The linguist Walter J. Ong

LITERACY Subordinative

argued that electronic communi-

Aggregative

Analytic

cations often bear more resem-

Participatory

Objective

blance to the cadences of age-old oral cultures than to the deliberate writing style of comparatively

a Characteristics of Oral and Literate Cultures

Situational Empathetic and participatory

Abstract Objectively distanced [1]

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Today oral culture remains little

and identity. From the prolifera-

interactions

ties, working with issues of trust

[1] Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Methuen, 1982.

On The Language of Interactions

renegotiate our relationship with the increasingly outspoken people

tribal patterns of communica-

customer reviews contributed

formerly known as “readers.”

tion. People may be hardwired to

by visitors to the site. The two

that people are so naturally

emblems of social status, and to

same Web page, but they never

inclined to “talk” online. As Steven

invoke them as emotional proxies

intermingle. Editorial reviews

Pinker points out, most people

in forging connections with peo-

seem to meet Ong’s criteria for

learn to read and write only with

ple they would otherwise consider

literate culture: They are analytic,

great difficulty, after years of gru-

strangers.

objective (at least in principle),

eling education. But we are born

and typically written in the third

babblers, the “talking ape.” The

human beings now possess the

person. Customer reviews, by

resurgence of oral culture online

technologies of literacy—armed

contrast, seem to map exactly to

is simply a natural manifesta-

with powerful computers and

Ong’s definition of “oral” culture:

tion of this deep-seated human

unprecedented possibilities for

They are additive and aggregative

instinct [2].

individual expression—it seems

(insofar as customer reviews are

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

no small irony that in our post-

Our ancient human impulses manifest in other ways online as

industrial era of technological

average ratings); they are often

well, particularly in the use of

progress we should rediscover our

situational—written in the first

certain kinds of iconography and

most ancient impulses: building

person—and completely participa-

other visual symbols to negotiate

social networks through symbolic

tory, open to anyone.

social relationships. In preliterate

communication, forging bonds of

times, people relied on symbolic

trust with people we don’t know,

turn to Wikipedia, where pub-

objects to forge bonds of trust with

and, above all, “talking.”

lished articles at least aspire to

each other: trading bone knives,

the virtues of literacy—striving

jewelry and other items, or using

ating these primal modes of inter-

toward analytical objectivity and

cave paintings as rallying points to

action—the resurgence of “oral”

authoritativeness (albeit with

achieve group consensus about a

culture and the use of visual

mixed results). Yet each article is

shared objective. As people started

symbols as totems of trust and

always accompanied by a discus-

living together in closer quarters,

identity—perhaps designers can

sion page, often hosting a free-

they started to produce more and

broaden their perspective on mod-

wheeling and vigorous debate

more of these symbolic objects—as

ern software design and begin

in which readers try to reach a

a way of mediating relationships in

to appreciate the deeper human

collective agreement about top-

a growing community. Thus, visual

instincts now shaping the digital

ics under dispute. Again, oral and

symbols allowed people to free

world. We may now be working at

literate cultures may coexist, but

themselves from the bounds of

the cusp of a historical paradox,

they never quite converge.

social proximity. Here too, we can

propelling ourselves forward into

find parallels in the world of social

the past.

The same distinction plays itself

In an age when billions of

aggregated to give measures like

For a similar example, we can

rely on certain visual symbols as

It should come as no surprise

types of reviews may occupy the

out across the Web—in the world

media, in the way people seem to

of blog postings and comments, or

use visual symbols as a basis for

in the numerous cases of compa-

creating relationships with people

nies grappling for ways to engage

they otherwise do not know.

their customers in public forums.

Consider the iconography of Ebay’s

At The New York Times, where I

trusted-seller ratings, Amazon’s

work, we also spend a lot of time

reviewer ratings, or the elaborate

pondering this question—how

symbolic status hierarchies of

to invite readers into a dialogue

virtual worlds like Second Life.

while maintaining the company’s

While one wants to be careful of

bedrock journalistic values, which

making sweeping claims about the

inevitably turn on a certain kind

long and complex history of visual

of literate, editorial exclusivity. We

culture, the use of certain mark-

are constantly exploring ways to

ers of trust and identity do seem

By understanding and appreci-

Tim Gasperak

[2] Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. New York: Perennial, 1995.

to harken back to deep-seated,

sources like Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal, sitting alongside

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex Wright is the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He has led user experience design initiatives for The New York Times, Yahoo!, Microsoft, IBM, Harvard University and the Long Now Foundation, among others. His writing has appeared in Salon.com, The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard Magazine, and other publications. Alex writes regularly about technology and design at http://www.alexwright.org.

(P)REVIEW EDITOR Fred Sampson wfreds@acm.org

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages By Alex Wright Joseph Henry Press, 2007 ISBN 978-0-309-10238-4 $27.95 Alex Wright, information architect at The New York Times, presents in Glut a history of information over thousands of years—indeed, from the beginnings of life on earth. Wright’s insights and analysis provide a lucid perspective on the current state and prospects of information management and distribution. As he states in the introduction, Wright intends to “resist the tug of mystical techno-futurism and approach the story of the information age by looking squarely backward.” In so doing, our current challenges and anxiety may be dissolved in the great stew of experience. Wright takes us through the history of taxonomies, classifications, categories, and catalogs—from the libraries of Alexandria and Rome to the collections of the British Museum—and analyzes the agonized efforts to make information available, initially to the educated and powerful, but eventually to the masses. At every turn we see the decline of civilizations punctuated by the destruction of their libraries, and the rise of subsequent states reflected in the management—by limiting access and distribution or by broadening opportunities—of expanding collections of information. Wright also demonstrates how in technology, in turn leading to changes in society— forces we see at work today. The information architect of the 21st century might take comfort in the history of information as presented by Wright. There are no truly new problems, only new technology that reintroduces challenges previously addressed. One of the insights that I gained in reading Glut involves the long and glorious history of folk taxonomies (distinguished from, if tantalizingly related to, folksonomies). Even the earliest taxonomies of Linnaeus and his predecessors were based largely on the categories and groupings of the people with the most intimate knowledge of the sub-

interactions

Reviewed by Fred Sampson

Januar y + Februar y 2008

changes in the human environment lead to changes

On The Language of Interactions

ject. While Aristotle’s great chain of being provided a

that knowledge shared on the Web is frighteningly

top-down hierarchy that included gods, demons, and

evanescent: There’s minimal archiving of the Web,

humans, the bottom-up folk taxonomies proved most

links rot, and Wikipedia entries morph. But from

useful in practice.

another perspective, knowledge sharing over the

Indeed, we learn that the most effective classifica-

traditions. The nature of today’s communication

etic rules that hold together biological networks can

reinforces the value of story and sharing of the com-

be seen to influence humans and our tendency to

mon human experience. Which takes us right back to

group and classify. It’s only natural. Networks, from

the earliest ages of prehistory, when shared experi-

bacteria to bees, to human beings and our comput-

ences pulled us together.

ers, are deeply rooted in biology. Networks are part

cal networks is the interactions among the network

nonbiologists among us to the concepts of epigenetic

membership, so there is much we can learn from

rules (from biologist E.O. Wilson) and stigmergy.

their study. In this issue of interactions, Wright further

Epigenetic rules combine genetic predispositions

explores the ideas introduced in the last chapter of

with cultural tendencies to carry common ways of

the book, positing the applicability of Walter J. Ong’s

classifying and coding across generations. Wilson

theory of orality in contrast to literacy, to the pres-

defines epigenetic rules as “hereditary regularities of

ent social interaction technologies. Readers may also

mental development” that “animate and channel the

be interested in Wright’s recent talk at the Long Now

acquisition of culture.” The notable coincidence of

Foundation, archived at www.longnow.org, and in his

similar taxonomic systems across different peoples

blog and links to articles at www.alexwright.org. books to be lacking in editorial guidance or missing

“allows social groups to harness the physical world

the touch of a good copy editor. I might fault Glut

as a memetic storehouse.” Think ultimately of docu-

in this way, but such flaws do not detract from the

ments, books, libraries, and the power arising from

remarkable intelligence of Wright’s style; they mere-

the mere existence of such collections of informa-

ly draw attention to the economics of publishing.

tion, regardless of content. Indeed, the concept of

Rather than dwell on those issues, I prefer to thank

stigmergy raises for me the gut-level power of Jared

the author and publisher for making this valuable

Spool’s presentation on inukshuk, Inuit monuments

and intriguing work available.

“Someone else was here; you are not alone.”

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Ultimately, what emerges from a reading of Glut

interactions

It is all too easy today to find otherwise valuable

such universal classification. Stigmergy, in turn,

in desolate, lonely places that say to the traveler,

A defining characteristic of social and biologi-

of what we are. Wright goes on to introduce the

and times suggests an epigenetic rule that supports

Internet has, in effect, reverted to humanity’s oral

tions “feel right” for a reason: The concept of epigen-

Glut offers the information architect in each of us comfort, inspiration, and validation. Comfort in knowing we are not alone, that many inven-

is a reminder that everything we today take for

tive and committed historical figures preceded us.

granted was once an innovation, which was once

Inspiration, by providing context reference, even the

controversial, violently opposed by those who felt

science that supports us. Validation by showing how

threatened by change, and came to be only by virtue

the efforts of the giants who have gone before us

of time, location, circumstance, or the power of the

result not only in where we are, but also where we

individual will, ego, and skills of persuasion. That

can go if we have the vision to do so.

what resulted was not necessarily the best, but is the survivor of an evolutionary process of natural selection. That what might seem obvious today was once revolutionary, even threatening. And that there are recurrent patterns in the emergence of networks and in the use of hierarchies to organize our world. In the final chapter, “Memories of the Future,” Wright introduces some thinking about how the history of information might apply to our current experience. Among the insights is that books shared knowledge over time and distance; now distance is not the challenge. But temporal problems remain in

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Fred Sampson is a staff information developer for the Content Management and Discovery team at the IBM Silicon Valley Lab, where he helps user-experience designers creat e self-documenting user interfaces; he dreams of growing up to be an information architect. Fred is vice-president for finance of ACM SIGCHI, a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, and a member of the Information Architecture Institute and the Usability Professionals Association.

FEATURE

Mobile computers are increas-

Realizing the Vision of Mobile Spatial Interaction

ingly used as a link between the physical and the digital worlds. This innovation demands a more sophisticated multidisciplinary approach to the modeling of spatial interaction than has yet been developed. Our aim in this article is to open up the “black box” of mobile spatial interaction (MSI) and discuss some issues and possible approaches that could be taken.

Lynne Baillie Telecommunications Research Center (ftw.) | baillie@ftw.at

Rainer Simon Telecommunications Research Center (ftw.) | rainer.simon@ftw.at

Groundbreaking concepts that proposed how to combine virtual information with the user’s direct surroundings arose as early as the 1990s. Two early examples include Egenhofer’s Smart Compasses, which point and direct people to places of interest, and Geo-Wands, virtual geographic pointers for the selection of surrounding objects and

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Telecommunications Research Center (ftw.) | froehlich@ftw.at

a Geo-Wands: Using mobile phones as digital pointers to realworld objects

interactions

Peter Froehlich

On The Language of Interactions

a The

p2d sensor prototype [11]

attached services [1]. [1] Egenhofer, M. J. “Spatial Information Appliances: A Next Generation of Geographic Information Systems.” First Brazilian Workshop on GeoInformatics, 1999.

augmented-reality techniques,

primary activity. This imposes

enabling the continuous inter-

strong constraints on the interac-

type of technological advance-

play between virtual and spatial

tion design.

ment was implemented in

information.

An early application of this

Atlanta in the late 1990s; visi-

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

[3] Counts, S., M. Smith, and J. Zhao. “Automated Route Annotation in Support of Community.” Proceedings, MSI workshop CHI2007, San Jose, Calif., 2007.

Outside the car MSI is quickly evolving as a means of sup-

tors to the Georgia Tech campus

ally focused on three main cat-

porting mobility in pedestrian

were able to experience enhanced

egories, which have now reached

navigation, outdoor sports, and

“future visions” of spatial aware-

a level of technical advancement

traveling. However, more work

ness [2].

that makes them ideal for tech-

is required in this area to better

nology transfer into commercial

support the user undertaking

has become increasingly feasible

devices. The three categories are

these activities. For example,

and desired. New technology,

wayfinding, access and creation

Scott Counts from Microsoft

including digital cameras, GPS,

of spatial data, and augmented

Research proposed that the

accelerometers, digital compass-

reality.

“route” should be viewed as a

Since then the concept of MSI

[2] Abowd, G. D., C.G. Atkeson, A. Dey, J. Hong, S. Long, R. Kooper, and M. Pinkerton. “Cyberguide: A mobile context-aware tour guide.” ACM Wireless Networks 3 (November 1997): 421-433.

Research in MSI has tradition-

es, and RFID chips, is constantly

Orientation and Wayfinding.

spatio-temporal document type

being built into mass-market

A good example of successful MSI

[3]. His group is currently inves-

mobile phones, thus enabling

is the “flight-mode” visualization

tigating how runners can author

the user to interact with his or

in today’s car navigation systems.

their own routes, which can be

her surroundings in new ways.

The bird’s-eye perspective facili-

automatically annotated with

These innovations are inspiring

tates an efficient match of digital

sensor data for outdoor sports.

industries to create new contact-

information with the driver’s

less applications, such as in the

view, thereby blocking out the

Data.

domains of ticketing and vend-

task-irrelevant rear view and

in MSI research is the ability to

ing. Spatially related research,

making closer parts of the road

access digital information that

in the form of Web-based map-

more prominent than farther-

has been attached to physical

ping and geo-browsing, is begin-

away ones. As exemplified with

places called points of interest

ning to be transferred to com-

most wayfinding systems, MSI

(POI). The Geo-Wand is a research

mercial mobile devices. MSI is

is frequently a secondary task

concept that enables tourists to

further boosted by virtual- or

that should not interfere with the

point their mobile phone at a

Accessing and Creating Spatial A common theme found

FEATURE

historic building and ask “What

the real world. However, this tag-

square, including water pipes and

is this?”

ging could quickly get out of hand

electricity, to assist urban plan-

with a high number of postings

ners and infrastructure service

MSI includes other aspects, such

in popular areas. Lemmelä and

providers [8].

as our sense of space and of

Korhonen from Nokia Research

social interaction. For example,

provide an interesting solution

Innovation Funnel.

researchers at Fraunhofer pro-

to this, a visualization method,

sense of orientation and mean-

duced a prototype of “StreetBeat”

which indicates the density of

ingfulness to conventional loca-

[4], a location-based mobile appli-

postings by overlaying semi-

tion awareness—and it is quickly

cation that aims to make people

transparent heat maps over the

stepping out of its research stage.

feel part of the cultural experi-

conventional map view and auto-

The ftw. project Point-to-Discover

ence of alternative-music clubs in

matically displaying the “hot”

demonstrated the high technical

Berlin by playing excerpts from

topics [6].

accuracy and attractiveness of

Beyond physical spatiality,

the previous night’s band as they

Augmented Reality.

For a tour-

Getting MSI through the MSI adds a

accessing nearby points of inter-

ist in a historic city, relevant

est with a spatially aware mobile

information about a specific area

phone, featuring a combination

ment academic MSI research in

is not always easily accessible.

of GPS, a digital compass, and

consumer products may latch on

A spatially aware mobile device

3D-accelerometers [9]. Japan,

to these types of social experi-

could serve as a window to vir-

where mass-market phones with

ences, and thus this area is one

tual information, such as the his-

integrated GPS and compass have

that can benefit from extended

toric past of a building [7].

been available since 2006, is the

wander by. Companies looking to imple-

research and development.

Virtually enhanced exploration

first test bed for commercial MSI.

is also useful as a professional

The phones can provide informa-

isting information and services,

tool. Schall developed an applica-

tion on nearby restaurants and

people are also increasingly cre-

tion that enables users to view

shops [10]. It is only a question of

ating and geo-referencing their

the subsurface structure of a city

time before spatially aware hand-

In addition to accessing preex-

own multimedia content. The challenge for MSI is to make this development fruitful for mobile

[4] McCall, R., S. Ghellal, J. and Rothauer. “Mobile Phones, SubCulture and Presence.” Proceedings, MSI workshop CHI2007, San Jose, Calif., 2007.

[5] Ahern, S., S. King, M. Naaman, R. Nair, and J.H.I. Yang. “ZoneTag: Rich, CommunitySupported ContextAware Media Capture and Annotation.” Proceedings, MSI workshop CHI2007, San Jose, Calif., 2007.

[6] Lemmelä, S. and H. Korhonen. ”Summarizing location based posting activity on communication hot spots.” Proceedings, MSI workshop CHI2007, San Jose, Calif., 2007.

[7] Baillie L., H. Kunczier, and H. Anegg. „Rolling, Rotating and Imagining in a Virtual Mobile World.” Proceedings, MobileHCI’05, Salzburg, Austria, 2005.

contexts. Several concepts in recent years, such as GeoNotes, [8] Schall, G., E. Mendez, B. Reitinger, D. Schmalstieg, and S. Junghanns “Handheld Geospatial Augmented Reality Using Urban 3D Models.” Proceedings, MSI workshop CHI2007, San Jose, Calif., 2007.

have demonstrated the feasibility and attractiveness of attaching digital information to real-world coordinates, with metaphors such as virtual post-its or graffiti. Some of the most interesting

[9] Simon, R. and P. Fröhlich. “GeoPointing: Evaluating the Performance of an Orientation-Aware Location Based Service under RealWorld Conditions.” Proceedings, LBS2007, Hong Kong, 2007.

action forms of sharing and tagging. One example is the Zonetag mobile application, which allows for the context-aware upload of photographs from a camera phone [5]. Zonetag aims at lowering the effort of tagging on mobile devic-

[10] GeoVector. http:// www.geovector.com

es, by automatically suggesting tags based on the user’s social network, his previous entries, as well as names of nearby places in

a Prototype

interface of Street Beat [4]

interactions

with the socially motivated inter-

Januar y + Februar y 2008

MSI activities here are concerned

On The Language of Interactions

ity wants to send you a money-off

ist attractions) and create new

To realize MSI applications

voucher (deny and delete); your

applications (e.g., augmented-

and services, the strongest chal-

buddy is nearby and wonders if

reality games). As the techni-

lenge is how to conceptualize

you want a coffee (accept, audio

cal advancements move from

and design applications that are

alert); the train you need to catch

a research stage to production,

tailored to the needs of mobile

is delayed (accept, vibrate).

new visualization methods and

sets are sold globally.

[11] The Mobile Spatial Interaction (MSI) Initiative, http://msi.ftw.at

users. In this respect, the follow-

here is in the acquisition and

are needed. It is important to

Dealing with uncertainty. MSI

access to contextual data—to

highlight the importance of this

applications are subject to many

understand and act appropriately

topic and drive joint initiatives

kinds of uncertainties: GPS, sen-

on the infrastructure that is

to make MSI transition success-

sor inaccuracies, or incorrect geo-

available when billions of people

ful [11].

tags. There are also technical and

start to contribute MSI data every

design issues provoked when the

day. We will need new systems

user moves from indoors to out-

that can store, search, and mine

doors. These certainties cannot

geo-spatial data. This will require

always be avoided, and there is a

interdisciplinary and hybrid

need to ensure transparency and

research across different fields to

communicate these inaccuracies

enable the successful collection

to the user.

and searching of such data in

Given the plethora of different

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

standards and communication

multimodal interaction concepts

ing things need to be considered:

Display of spatial information.

Spatial content. The challenge

order for it to be useable, useful, and used. Identifying the business value.

interfaces for mobile devices,

The proven feasibility and attrac-

as well as a range of varying

tiveness of conceptual research

computing power available in

scenarios like wayfinding, POI

the devices, it will be quite dif-

access, and exploration should

ficult to design in global terms.

now motivate the definition of

Presenting spatial informa-

more commercially oriented

tion and various details about

application concepts. In-depth

the location and the people in

user research is one of the stron-

the location without provoking

gest success factors to identify

cognitive overload is an inter-

the real needs of specific user

esting and challenging interac-

groups, such as tourists in a

tion-design task. To increase

variety of mobile situations. This

the bandwidth and flexibility of

market-oriented research should

information display, the speech

feed into the definition of busi-

and sound-output capabilities of

ness and role models including

mobile devices should be exploit-

all stakeholders of MSI: end-user

ed to a larger degree.

communities, service providers,

Social disclosure and privacy.

mobile operators, content provid-

There are challenges in how we

ers, and handheld manufactur-

go about protecting individual

ers.

privacy—not only in meeting leg-

We see MSI as a major oppor-

islative and safety requirements,

tunity to make mobile internet

but also in being sensitive to

services useable, because interac-

what users want and do not want

tion styles such as pointing are

to make available about their

closely matched to situational

present location. Designing with

needs of mobile users. MSI will

these issues in mind is complex.

affect both how we interact with

For example, a shop in the vicin-

existing information (e.g., tour-

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Peter Fröhlich is a senior HCI researcher at Telecommunications Research Center Vienna (ftw.). He manages the project Point-to-Discover (p2d), which is co-funded by mobilkom austria, Siemens Austria, and the Austrian competence center kplus. The project develops the foundations for mobile spatial interaction: interaction techniques, modeling of spatial information, GIS data integration, and content aggregation, as well as hardware prototyping. Together with Lynne and Rainer, he has initiated the MSI initiative. Lynne Baillie has a Ph.D. in HCI from Napier University in Scotland. She has worked as a senior researcher for the Telecommunication Research Center Vienna (ftw.). Since 2002 she has investigated existing HCI methods for their applicability in the mobile domain and as a result has developed new methods in order to design more usable applications for mobile devices. She has also undertaken studies in the home and investigated how we can improve and extend user-centered development methodologies to enable codesign with families. Rainer Simon is a researcher at Telecommunications Research Center Vienna (ftw.) and a research fellow at the Vienna University of Technology Research Group for Industrial Software. He has several years of experience in the field of mobile application research and currently works with major mobile network operators on novel location-aware applications and gesture-based interaction methods for mobile phones.

FEATURE

The Linguistic Command Line Aza Raskin Humanized | aza@humanized.com I’m a Mac baby. Twenty-three

edit the images, Excel to create a

implementations of subtasks. My

years ago, I was born. So was the

spreadsheet, PowerPoint to com-

computer has eight copies of spell

Macintosh.

pile the presentation, TextEdit to

check; each features a different

create the appropriate Web pages,

version of the English language,

damentally changed since my

an FTP client to upload it to the

most lack a decent interface,

lower-than-your-kneecap days.

internet, and Firefox to view it.

and less than half recognize my

I’m just a larger, differently pro-

Most of our time is spent just in

name. When application com-

portioned version of my younger

moving content from one applica-

partmentalization is removed, so

self. Unfortunately, the same

tion to another. Then there is the

is the unnecessary code overlap:

thing is also true for the GUI:

frustration from errors caused by

Disk and memory footprint drops,

It’s matured, but hasn’t funda-

the cognitive overhead required

development time decreases, and

mentally changed in the past 23

to switch applications, each of

usability and reliability increase.

years. We are still stuck juggling

which has its own idiosyncrasies.

windows in a time-wasting dance

The same keyboard shortcut,

son from services on the Internet,

to find the application we need to

Control-D, changes your font in

or even old command-line utili-

get a task done.

Word, but creates a bookmark

ties. Instead of reimplementing

in Firefox. Trying to remember

common pieces of functionality,

original Macintosh, and compare

whether the methods and short-

applications should outsource

it with one of the latest versions

cuts we’ve learned in one applica-

that functionality to an OS-level

of OSX. With the exception of

tion work in another is a game of

service, some other local service,

some new gadgets and some

chance. Compartmentalization of

or an Internet service. As a user,

smoke and mirrors, much of the

tasks via uncoordinated applica-

imagine if you never needed to

interface is still the same. Sure,

tions frustrates our habits and

teach your name to yet another

there’s Spotlight, a way to find

wastes our time. We shouldn’t

spell check, or—as a developer—

the stuff we lose in our morass

need to think about which appli-

implement another instance of

of folders and badly named files,

cation we are using to know

spell check.

and Expose, a kludge to help us

how to spell check, look up word

wade through our windows. But

definitions, change font size and

pioneer in early interface develop-

these are quick-fix patches on a

undertake other common tasks.

ment. His work included develop-

sinking metaphor. They keep us

Applications are the cause of

My father, Jef Raskin, was a

ing the first Macintosh at Apple,

in an unsatisfying marriage to

another computer woe: software

and inventing “click and drag”

our windows and applications.

bloat. Although bloat is partially

and other ubiquitous interface

When we want to get some-

due to sloppy coding induced by

metaphors. He’s the reason why

thing done, we still have to slog

ever increasing computing power,

we use the word “font” for what

to the application that does it,

compartmentalization forces code

should more correctly be called

dragging our content scream-

redundancy. Tasks rarely fall

“typeface.” Toward the end of

ing and kicking behind us.

completely within a single com-

his career, he outlined many of

Everywhere we look, our tasks are

partment: Word has an under-

his ideas—both radically differ-

needlessly compartmentalized,

powered drawing package, CAD

ent and radically better—in his

and we are left schlepping hither

packages have underpowered

book, The Humane Interface. The

and thither. Take the example of

text-layout engines, and even

challenge between task complex-

writing and posting a presenta-

Google has a calculator. Thus we

ity and selection simplicity was

tion to a website: A simple task

arrive at the modern monolithic

included in his call for change.

like this requires Photoshop to

application mired in mediocre

“By applying the concept that a

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Look at a screenshot of the

Applications should take a les-

interactions

Looking back, I haven’t fun-

On The Language of Interactions

system should not be more com-

as a service. Instead of arguing

While the recognition solution

plex than your present needs,

for the abolition of applications,

can work in a single application

and by allowing the system to

we can champion services with a

with a restricted set of options, it

increase its power incrementally,

universal way of accessing them.

fails when we look at real tasks

the dream of providing products

That way, we can snap our fingers

that cross application boundar-

that are truly simple initially can

and have the functionality we

ies. For example, the argument

be achieved, without their being

need, regardless of the applica-

that menus provide visibility and

made to merely look simple, and

tion we happen to be using. This

findability breaks down when

without impairing their flexibil-

shift also reframes the interface

applied at a large scale because

ity,” he wrote.

challenge, which then becomes

they become slow to learn and

this: If all functionality is avail-

use. Similarly, keyboard short-

the conflict between seamless

able to us anywhere, at any time,

cuts—patches meant to increase

user tasks and divided applica-

how do we tell the computer

the speed of menus—also do not

tions: “Instead of a computer’s

which particular piece of func-

scale. The keyboard features a

software being viewed as an

tionality we want?

finite number of keys and even

My father also discussed

operating system and a set of

way to access those thousands of

interface views the software

possible services we might want

as a set of commands.” That is,

to perform on our selected data—

and keyboard shortcuts. The

functionality should be learned

from calculating the sum of the

abstract concepts inherent to

on an as-needed basis, and be

values, to performing a Google

detailed functionality are difficult

available anywhere in the system,

search on the text, to changing

to represent visually. Microsoft

regardless of the dividing lines

the size at which it is displayed.

Word attempts to use icons to

between the individual applica-

Current paradigms for accessing

represent some of the basic func-

tions. Applications interfere with

this functionality don’t scale to

tionality of text processing, but

the idea of as-needed functional-

how we really work—i.e., across

this method doesn’t work out

ity. The learning curve for each

applications, not within them.

well. Can you figure out what

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Imagine grafting together the

keys to functionality. Icons fare worse than menus

each of these icons does?

use, but if we need to use any

endless menus for PowerPoint,

additional piece of functionality

Mathematica, Firefox, and

of the examples, your recognition

not provided in our main appli-

Photoshop. Certainly, there would

is learned. Those icons, no matter

cation, we must learn an entire

be some overlap, but the result

how self-evident Microsoft would

other application that provides it.

would still be a Medusa’s head of

like them to be, require language

This makes a simple task such as

seething submenus. It would be

(in the form of tooltips) to actu-

editing a document with pictures

laborious to find anything in such

ally explain what they do. If

unnecessarily difficult.

a monstrosity, and inefficient

simple text-formatting operations

to manually select a menu even

fail so greatly, how can icons be

these ideas in my own work and

if we knew where to find it. We

designed to express the full range

to design an interface system

headed toward graphical menus

of functionality that services

that works beyond the boundar-

initially because they made all

provide? And how would we page

ies of an individual application.

options visible, by allowing rec-

through that giant lexicon of

The challenge is that the current

ognition of an option instead of

icons to quickly to find the one

software economy is tied to the

forcing the recollection of an

we’re looking for?

concept of applications. Disparate

option. Jef Raskin and the rest of

applications aren’t going to dis-

the Macintosh team found that

pointing-device” or WIMP para-

appear. Providing services, how-

menus worked well. In hindsight,

digm, has its limits, and these

ever, allows us to granulate that

they worked well because of

limits are now growing clearer as

software economy. If you don’t

the limited number of available

the complexity of modern com-

need all of the functionality of

options.

puting unfolds.

I’ve tried to follow through on

interactions

fewer mnemonic matchings of

applications, then, the humane

application can be overcome with

We’re going to need a universal

Photoshop, you can just buy the photo-editing features you need

With increasing scale, the menu metaphor falls short.

Even if you can recognize a few

The “window, icon, menu,

The Linguistic Command Line.

Pictionary is a game in

FEATURE

which one tries to represent objects, places, and abstract thoughts in image form. It’s a hard game, and there is no reverse game. Because information density is drastically greater in pictures than in prose, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, but only when they describe a concrete visual like a graph or a portrait. In the realm of the abstract, pictures fail. How would you pictorially represent Marxism? You could try a picture of Marx, but that doesn’t distinguish between the person and the school of thought (and requires your viewer to know what Marx looks like; otherwise it’s just a guy with a beard). Words can capture abstractions that pictures cannot because language has an immense amount of descriptive and differentiating power. Abstract thoughts are exactly represented by the words that give them names. It is this power that comes to the rescue in speci-

Linguistic Command Line Interfaces

the range of options that a text

Two current programs attempt to deliver linguistic command-line interface to users: Humanized’s Enso, and Blacktree’s excellent Quicksilver. Enso uses a more naturallanguage syntax, and works like this:

interface effortlessly provides.

1. At any time, the user presses an activation key to call up a text-entry area.

down menus, check buttons, and tree-lists, cannot compare to

With just five alphanumeric characters, we can choose one out of 100,000,000 possible sequences. And choosing any one sequence is, in approximation, as fast as choosing any other (typing five characters takes roughly one second). It’s difficult to come up with a non-text-based interface that can perform as well. Using language to access functionality brings to mind the oldform command line, which is still one of the most powerful interface paradigms we have for controlling our computers. Although command lines are hard to learn

2. Next, the user begins typing what they want to do. For instance, “translate to Japanese.” 3. As the user types, Enso autocompletes to the most likely command, and related suggestions appear below the typed text. 4. The user either continues typing until the command desired is specified, or arrows to a preferred command. 5. The user dismisses Enso, and the specified command is executed. Enso then takes the selected text, uses the Google translation service, and places the results back into the text. With just one implementation, the ability to translate to and from languages is available anywhere on the computer, always with the same interface, and accessible in a few mnemonic keystrokes. Enso uses copy and paste as the graphical equivalent to standard out and standard in, allowing it to speak to almost any application in an implementation-agnostic manner. Because of the power of language, adding a large number of commands scales well. It’s always easy to get to the functionality desired.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Standard GUIs, with their drop-

interactions

fying functionality.

On The Language of Interactions

and difficult to troubleshoot

ment. This bears repeating: It

address bar is just a primitive

when things go wrong, nothing

is often easier to use a desktop

command line, a command line

is intrinsically hard or difficult

search than to find something

that our grandmother can—and

about using language to tell the

placed in the computer for safe-

does—use.

computer what to do. The hard

keeping.

part of the old command lines

harness the power of language

horizon, the full linguistic com-

as unfathomable as the origin of

to good effect. The quick-add

mand line—one that provides

Stonehenge. Worse, remembering

features of 30boxes.com and

access to all functionality at any

command-line options is like bob-

Google Calendar are my favorite

time—must rely on structured

bing for apples in a cement mixer.

examples: They forgo the clunky

syntax and autocomplete to guide

I still have to ask my coworkers

and time-consuming forms of

the user to known commands.

which flags are needed for untar-

the standard database, and opt

That is, the linguistic command

ring a gzipped file. (It’s “tar-xfvz.”

instead for the utter simplicity of

line needs to help the user get to

Gee, how could I forget?)

typing an event’s information—

the right command, instead of

for instance, “Sunday dinner at

letting the user blithely type in a

the fault of command-line inter-

7:30 p.m. with Asa Jasa.” The

vacuum.

faces in general; maybe it’s just

quick-add feature doesn’t even

the command lines we’re used to.

feel like an interface, which is the

the past two decades, so will

If commands were memorable,

highest compliment an interface

the linguistic command line. We

and their syntax forgiving, per-

can get. The better an interface

are seeing it in its infancy. Enso

haps we wouldn’t be so scared

is, the less it’s noticed.

is one example of a linguistic

to reconsider these interface

Januar y + Februar y 2008

command line: It allows users

example of a domain-specific,

to issue commands to an operat-

command line is the future of

linguistic command line hiding

ing-system service regardless

computing.

in its print dialog. When choos-

of the application they’re using

ing which pages to print, you can

(see sidebar). Other approaches

language for selection started

simply enter the pages you want

to the problem exist, and find-

with Web searching. Google

as text—e.g., “1-4, 7, 15-20.” This

ing the best ones will take time.

placed the capstone when its

means to print pages 1 through 4,

Regardless of how we finally

name became the household

page 7, and pages 15 through 20.

tackle the problem, it’s time for

verb for “typing to find what

Imagine how difficult this type

a new, human-centric command

you want.” In fact, googling is

of input would be to design as a

line to make a comeback for lan-

almost always faster than wad-

more standard GUI interface.

guage-based interfaces—a com-

ing through a bookmark menu

interactions

Even Microsoft Word has a nice

Just as the GUI has grown in

paradigms. Perhaps the linguistic

The move back toward using

Because natural language processing is still far off on the

was memorizing command names

But maybe this confusion isn’t

Other places on the Internet

Now imagine using a drop-

mand line that finally lets us just

or a categorical listing, which

down menu to select the one

do want we want to do, when we

again indicates that something

website—out of the 100 mil-

want to do it, wherever we are.

is wrong with using menus as a

lion websites in existence—to

How humane.

mechanism for accessing large

visit. Ludicrous! How do we

quantities of data. After the Web,

actually surf to a site? By typ-

search came back to the desktop.

ing an address into the address

OSX, Linux, and now Vista have

bar, aided by an autocomplete

integrated desktop searches that

that quickly enables us to visit

make searching the computer as

addresses we have previously

convenient as searching the Web.

visited. When we want to go to

Now, with a few memorable key-

the mail “application,” we type

strokes, we can find what we are

in “gmail.com”; when we want

looking for. This stands in stark

to open a news “application,”

contrast to racking our brains to

we type in “nytimes.com.” On

figure out where, in the jumble of

the old Unix command lines, we

files and folders, we put a docu-

would type “pine” and “rn. “ The

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aza gave his first talk on user interface at age 10 with his father at the local San Francisco Bay Area chapter of SIGCHI and was hooked. At 17, he was speaking and consulting internationally; at 19, he co-authored a physics textbook because he was too young to buy alcohol; at 21, he started drinking alcohol and co-founded Humanized. Aza enjoys playing the French Horn, which has taken him all over the world, and puttering in his lab, which has given him a greater respect for physics.

FEATURE

Understanding Convergence Stefana Broadbent Swisscom Innovations | stefana.broadbent@swisscom.com

Valerie Bauwens Swisscom Innovations | valerie.bauwens@swisscom.com

Convergence has been the mantra

interviews about how people com-

Should content and communica-

of the information and commu-

municate, view TV, play games,

tion be linked more closely? And

nication-technology industries

use the Internet, listen to music,

most significantly, what benefits

for the past few years, and it is

and inform themselves. We spend

will users find in the convergence

defining the strategy of every

time with all the members of the

of all the channels?

Telco, broadcaster, ISP, and phone

household and often ask them to

manufacturer in the world.

keep diaries of their activities. In

have asked more than 500

Technically, convergence defines a

2005 we also started a longitu-

people, from all age groups, life

multimedia environment and/or net-

dinal study with 60 households

stages, professional, linguistic,

work where signals, regardless of type

that we will follow until the end

and regional backgrounds, to

(i.e., voice, quality audio, video, data,

of 2008, looking at every aspect of

keep a record of all their com-

etc.) and encoding methodology may

their ICT usage at home.

munications, with the exclusion of professional exchanges

independent endpoints with similar

become a staple of many compa-

and face-to-face conversations.

characteristics [1]. From the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

nies that want to be at the edge

Participants have been asked to

perspective, this means that all

of innovation. What makes our

keep a diary for four days, jotting

media and communication chan-

experience unique is our focus

down every mediated interac-

nels can be merged and received

on all the ICT technology in the

tion. This includes dialogues that

on any device, and the related

home, from PC to TV, from hi-fi

occurred via SMS, email, voice

brands will soon be offering all

to mobile phone, from land line to

calls on the landline and mobile

the related services. This opens

digital camera. We systematically

phone, and IM sessions or calls

the way to an exponential series

put this in the context of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

from the PC. For each exchange

of combinations, such as SMS on

daily schedules and lifestyles.

we asked participants to indicate

the TV; TV on the mobile phone;

When we look at the evolution

whom theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve communicated

digital pictures moving from

of communication patterns, we

with, which channel they used,

the PC, to the TV, to the mobile

compare the use of all channels

what topic they discussed, and

phone, and so on; IM bundled

and devices and can therefore

other critical information about

with music, etc. Therefore, it is of

consider the full palette of tools

the call. We have then gone back

strategic business value to under-

our participants have at their

to discuss the diary with the par-

stand how people are presently

disposal.

ticipants individually, in order to

using the disparate services and devices. In 2004 we started an observa-

The Divergence of Communication Channels.

One of the

recurring questions in the debate

understand, line by line, why they chose one channel of communication over another.

tory of technology usage within

about converged services con-

Swisscom, the largest telecom

cerns the interrelation of different

the rationale behind selecting

operator in Switzerland, with the

communication channels, such as

SMS instead of a phone call, it

objective of understanding the

email, mobile voice, instant mes-

becomes obvious that the rea-

potential of converged services.

saging, and SMS. Should all chan-

soning is highly sophisticated

Each year we visit close to 300 dif-

nels be on every device? Should

and cannot be reduced uniquely

ferent households in Switzerland,

we be able to seamlessly move

to cost or location. Factors such

and we conduct observations and

from one channel to another?

as privacy, discretion, needing

When discussing, for instance,

[1] Convergence definition, http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Convergence, accessed on 11.12.07

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Ethnographic user studies have

interactions

be seamlessly exchanged between

In the past three years, we

On The Language of Interactions

How We Collect Our Data The team of the User Observatory comprises a group of 11 social scientists, two sociologists (Daniel Boos and Petra Hutter), five anthropologists (Jeanne Carruzzo, Susanne Jost, Caroline Hirt, Cora Pauli, Veronica Pagnamenta), and four psychologists (Stefana Broadbent, Valerie Bauwens, Myriam Fournier, and Regula Zimmermann). Thanks to the variety of backgrounds, we developed

6:00 h

8:00 h

10:00 h

12:00 h

14:00 h

16:00 h

18:00 h

20:00 h

22:00 h

Personen

Father 47

Boy 15

Boy 13

Girl 9

HIFI

6:15h wake Sewing up, breakfast course 7:00h wake up, breakfast Work, office 7:00h wake up, breakfast School

Household, cook Lunch

Homework

6:30h wake up, breakfast School 7:00h wake up, breakfast School

Household

Relax

Household, TV: Football

Cook

Lunch at a restaurant Work, 1/2h way home by car

Reading a book, Relax

Relax XBox” “GTA San Andrea s”

TV Series: Playing “K11” Dinner Bath

TELEPHONE

TELEPHONE / AB RADIO

Schlafzimmer

KAMIN

Gästezimmer Werkstatt Dusche/WC

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

NOTEBOOK TELEPHONE ACCESS POINT, WIRELESS REPETER

Reading a book

Playing outside, Trampoline

TV: 2 new DVD: “Kingdom of Heaven” Reading a book Lunch at Reading Playing, home a book exercise flute

Men’s evening, bowling

Playing outside with friends: Football

Küche

Mother 43

RADIO

Bad/WC

a special mix of field techniques to collect information about the daily lives of our participants. Every month we visit a number of households, focusing on different topics that can range from communication to entertainment, from the use of social-networking sites to the use of VOIP. Although the focus may change, all contextual interviews follow a certain pattern, and we are careful to collect a certain base set of information in order to continue building a comparable set of data across studies. All interviews and observations are recorded, and field notes are taken. Interviews are then transcribed in a semi-summarized format, and data is made anonymous. Alongside recording conversations and taking field notes, we have developed a series of small artifacts to collect our data. These artifacts can be thought of as cultural probes, in that the participant completes the artifact and is therefore actively producing content. 1. A communication diary. Participants are asked to complete a diary for four days, jotting down every private exchange they have that is mediated by technology. This includes the use of SMS, email, voice calls on the landline and mobile phone, and also IM or calls from the PC. For each exchange, we ask them to write down who they were communicating with, what they were “talking” about, where they were, and at what time. Participants are instructed to take the paper diary everywhere, and to fill it out immediately after a communication event has occurred, in order to reduce the risk of forgetting over time. When we come back to retrieve the artifacts, we discuss the diary with the participant to understand why a certain channel was preferred over another in a given situation. 2. A timeline. Participants are asked to develop a timeline of their previous day, and we coconstruct the artifact with the participants. We ask the entire household to sit together in front of the paper and draw out the timeline of the previous day. The collective exercise makes it easier for people to remember, as it sparks discussions, and we can find redundancies that make the reconstruction more reliable. We also ask the household to draw the last weekend day. Based on the timeline, we also systematically inquire about the organization of the household in terms of responsibilities and chores, about travel time and means of getting to work, school, or leisure. We discuss hobbies and sports, and leisure time in general. 3. A map of the home. Next, participants are asked to draw a map of the position of technology in the home. Participants draw their home in “plan view” and place all informationtechnology devices on the map. If a device is mobile, we discuss where the device is used most frequently. 4. A social map. Finally, the participant is asked to draw a social map or personal network. We ask each participant to write down the names of the people who are meaningful to them and with whom they are in contact on a regular basis, and to place them in order of proximity to themselves. The inner circle represents people that are very close. Names that are placed further out are less close or contacted less frequently.

FEATURE

immediate feedback, availability

the idea of being continuously

a new function for them that did

of the communication partner,

in contact. Thanks to presence

not previously exist. This is why,

frequency of conversations, famil-

information and the fact that it

in our opinion, old channels are

iarity or formality of the relation-

can run in the background, users

never really supplanted by new

ship, time available, and quality

have gotten used to the idea of

ones: IM has not supplanted email

of the exchange all contribute to

having very long instant-mes-

or SMS, but each has continually

the choice of the channel. Users

saging sessions and a sense of

redefined its function. This is

are very good at identifying and

continuous companionship. Email,

also why we tend to recommend

exploiting the specifics of each

on the other hand, is used more

that channels should be kept

channel to create the appropriate

for â&#x20AC;&#x153;administrativeâ&#x20AC;? purposes in

quite distinct and that boundaries

communicational setting for each

support of online activities (e.g.,

between them should be blurred

conversation and for both com-

travel and shopping preparation)

with great caution. Convergence

munication partners.

or coordination with associations

on devices, convergence of

and clubs (e.g., receiving newslet-

address books, and seamless

do not seem to be purely idiosyn-

ters from the club; coordination

transition between written and

cratic. On the contrary, there are

and organization of club events).

oral communication, while osten-

some clear general patterns of

People contact friends and family

sibly aimed at simplifying usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

usage that have emerged. While

by email only to send pictures or

lives, are not necessarily solutions

a channel is rarely uniquely dedi-

more terms mean more links,

nesses organize for operation,

nal pressure or internal decay

increasing the reader’s effort.

not innovation[6].” Organizations

disturbs the relation between

by their nature are conservative:

a community and its context

They maintain a way of doing

or environment, a relationship

Creating concept maps involves

Concept maps differ from traditional texts by making links

The process begins when exter-

[2] Schumpeter, J. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942. [3] Ashby, W. R. An Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1957. [4] Novak, J. D., and D. B. Gowan Learning How to Learn. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. [5] Nussbaum, B. “The Empathy Economy.” Business Week, 8 March 2005. [6] Conley, C. “Building a Creative Culture,” a presentation, Denver, Colo.: AIGA Image Space Object Conference, 2007.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

In a concept map, nodes and

interactions

a framework of propositions[4].”

Figure 2. Model-Story Cycle Explaining a model involves telling a story, navigating a path through the model. Similarly, telling a story builds a model of actors and their relationships in the mind of the listener.

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

Twelve sketches developed during the design process. More than 50 were printed at full size for discussion. The sketches are arranged in chronological order.

Innovation map July 11, 2006 v0.6

environment world

regulation law government standards open source commerce economics economic development zietgeist trends

Processes for Creating Value: Stages in Organizational Growth

deregulation markets

domains

6 Learning process

art business science technology design multi-diciplinary

Adds a third level to look for successful innovation processes and improvement processes and then share them throughout the organization Changes goals and processes throughout the organization Benefit: continuous improvement of organization and ability to adapt organization to changing external conditions

goal = spread successful processes observe success

roll-out

codify

goal = create new system goal = reduce defects observe problem

organizations

test change

prototype

people

are made up of people

make/allow/resist

manufacturer copmanies supplier

defender attacker

individuals person

business user

goal = maintain quality output (raw material)

revolutionist inventor rule-breaker

consumer customer

(finished product) input

process

output

team players non-market players

good enough not good enough over-shot under-shot

feedback loop

entrepreneur

5 Innovation process

recombinant networks of breakthrough continuous customer-centric disruptive demand-led enable enact value experiential management market-led models of operational process radical seeds of sources of strategic supply-pushed technological theories of

Redefines a “problem” or reframes goals often by introducing new language, new ideas, and new points of view. Adds a second level to redefine “problems” Changes goals as well as actions Benefit: generation of new products or services (Find more effective systems)

goal = create new systems

}innovation{ innovator's dilemma

concept cycle diffusion direction discipline ecosystem expert factory framework lab landscape method paradox risk strategy work intent planning

observe problem

prototype

test change

The innovation process is similar in many ways to the improvement process. Typically, the innovation process is broader in scope of inquiry and effect—more able to challenge preconceptions and assumptions. We might say innovation processes aim to broaden language while improvement processes aim to narrow it. (raw material)

(finished product) input

process

output

design

test

is th e

changes Innovation map June 29, 2006 v0.2

demand-led

difference

innovation cycle

difference development

end-user

adopt

discipline

technology

improvement

sustaining creation criteria constraints

customer-centric innovation (CCI) engineering

beliefs

implement

accountability

continuous innovation

design (v.)

knowledge brokering cycle

competitive positioning initiative risk acting on creative ideas

science

enable innovation

behavior

device

frameworks

innovation concept

exploration

attribute dependency pattern

knowledge

insight

assess

interdependence risk experiential innovation

play

forms

strategy

first finding

leaps

learning

invent it ourselves

innovation paradox introduce

change

redefine

R&D

goals

market-led innovation

funding

practice (n.)

modes

integration risk

responsibility

innovation landscape radical

game

renew

market cap multiplication pattern

opportunity

operational innovation

new product brought to the market

organization

players

novel

method innovation risk

patents

solution

older parts dying off

new shoot

experimentation

new product revenue meaning

standards

innovation method

evolution

solve a problem supportive culture

sources

evolving system

innovation strategy planning tools

radical innovation

resources

process design realization (a-ha!)

origin of hypothesis

sports

platform

stability

different

market share

sources of innovation

social systems

regulation

research

RFP

value objective success mission attractiveness balance benefit worth

seeds of innovation

resistance

recognize

strategic innovation

design (n.)

worth

policy construction

techniques prototyping tools

system

risk

assumption

status quo

paradigm

failure

problem

value innovation

breakthrough

time to market theory of patents

principles

ideas

research tools scenarios

diffusion

freedom egalitarian hierarchical choices communication

conflict

-forgetting -learning -memory -processes

-resolution -aversion

opportunity

quality

attribute dependencydivisionmultiplicationsubtractiontask unification-

efficiency

enable performance

implementation

profit

implement commercialization realization (giving tangible form)

mean times to payback

reutrn on investment (ROI)

resources investment elements funding money time information knowledge capital sources origin of hypothesis to source ideas initiativeintegrationinterdependence-

risk failure cramming uncertainty

fun revenue

steps to source ideas sociology

technological innovation

reutrn on investment (ROI)

subtraction pattern

objects

think resistance to change

redefine radical reframe

4 Improvement process prototype

test change

The improvement process has been well documented in the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement, [Shuart, Demming] and in the Six Sigma movement. Some argue that an emphasis on measurement alone cannot lead to new types of products and services. [Nussbaum]

shoot introduce time to market

don’t know

Adds a second level to identify “problems”, errors, inefficiency Changes measurements and correction loops (controls) Benefit: continuous improvement of products and services (Maximize efficiency of current system)

goal = reduce defects observe problem

new goal = maintain quality output (raw material)

novel unprecedented

act

plan

check

(finished product) input

process

output

local process

decentralization equalibrium open-minded participation politics

brand principal of relativity conflict vs. stability chaos vs. stagnacy control

curiosity question game play

open-minded interest

concept

feedback loop

-evaluation -exploration -organization -systemization

behavior adopt commitment discipline invent it ourselves resistance resistance to change inertia modes not-invented-here

3 Managed process Adds measurement and correction to maintain quality Benefit: stability, quality

goal = maintain quality output (raw material)

(finished product) input

process

output

For frequently repeated processes, controlling cost and quality becomes increasingly important.

feedback loop

new product-

revenue satisfaction status quo market cap tradition established

commodity

useful

2 Defined process

solve a problem fulfill a need

sustaining

(raw material)

forward future intellectual property theory of patents, copyright, trademark stability

(finished product) input

process

As groups face tasks repeatedly they should identify “best practices” and agree on “standard procedures.”

compete playbook neutralize decisions acquisition game plan competitive positioning merger

1 Ad hoc process Actions happen as needed, but are difficult to repeat Benefit: quick, adaptable

meet

tactical product innovation

Actions repeatable, but unregulated Adds defined method for achieving goal Benefit: repeatability, predictability

output

strategy

(raw material)

realization (giving tangible form)

think tank

supply-pushed

new

experimentation ideate

difference anomaly

ideas

refine nurture recycle

-ary improvement incremental creative destruction older parts dying off evolving system fusion alter natural selection

design (v.)

revolutionist

revolution theories of innovation

practice (v.)

time

success value

technical insight

tools

framework perception assumption

organizational

productivity

improve

profit

status quo

policy construction

mission oriented environmental empathic

different

tool kit

entrepreneurship TQM first Six Sigma new product brought to the market decentralization ofopening available-

fun growth

useful

request for proposal world

creativity

thinking support tools

s-curve / diffusion curve

perception

process innnovation

tradition

don’t know

Classic quality management process

paradigm shift

market share

products

opening

money

point of view

performance

question

task unification pattern

creation

crisis design (n.)

know

build (prototype) Classic design process

revolution

feedback loop

better diffusion

productivity

observation

model

innovation strategy

person business

observation measurement recognize evaluation

significant

know

generate

evolution

shapes

beliefs frameworks borrowing meaning point of view social systems sociology conquest sports principles accountability responsibility link

models of innovation innovation work

patternconsumption chain

feedback loop

change creativity

goals shape

discovery

measurement

elements

research finding learning

analysticplanningprototypingresearchthinking support-

technical

insight

R&D think tank think hypothesis assessment assess knowledge brokering cycle capabilities self-stimulating system exploitation extrapolation potential

acting on ideas acting on creative ideas apply define development engineering

discovery

profit chain s-curve diffusion curvevalue chain

continuous

exploration

strategic (game-changing) innovation

open source

innovator's dilemma

entrepreneur

quality

future

manufacturer investment

better finding

game plan

intellectual property

playbook

satisfaction

forward

entrepreneurship evaluation

invention

team

commercialization

creative destruction

services

connect and

develop

culture nurtures and sustains, or inhibits innovation

established

culture

attractiveness alter

management innovation

people

growth

forward concept

significant

division pattern

accommodate

culture

framework commitment

economic development

implementation

benefit environment

ideate analystic tools assessment

influences

innovation diffusion

innovation direction

leaps invention realization (a-ha!) eureka “i have found it” inspiration

integrativereactiveproactivesupportive-

connect and develop commerce

apply

advancement

efficiency innovation ecosystem

individuals

improve

innovation framework available resources

develop hypothesis

generate idea*

decisions

consumer

evolutionary

art

incremental

acting on ideas empathic design economic development

curiosity

define

innovation lab

enact innovation

fusion

innovation factory bring to market a new produt

disruptive innovation

enable

innovation expert

customer

conquest

innovation

information

diffusion curve / s-curve

advancement breakthrough

breakthrough innovation

customers innovation discipline

economics

method steps techniques model policy construction design scenario planning request for proposal need finding need statement planning brainstorming deep dive social forecasting ARIZ TRIZ

Increasing sophistication, maturity, and investment

innovation

process

of purposeful

process

bring to market new-

products platform device system forms

features functionality

415 648 9799

services

process

(finished product)

object

This may be appropriate for small groups or groups just beginning to tackle a problem. Ad hoc processes may be unavoidable in some emergencies.

artifact

solution accommodate

Dubberly Design Office Stages in Organizational Growth July 21, 2006 v0.4

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a June 29, 2006: (Landscape) The team began with research, reading all the articles and books they could find on innovation. During the process, they developed three collections: existing models related to innovation, prior definitions, and a list of words related to innovation. The first step in mapping was to group related words and begin to prioritize. An early hypothesis was that innovation involves a change of goals.

a July

11, 2006: This version is one of the first that links concepts, though many are still in lists. It posits innovation as “a process of purposeful change.”

a July

21, 2006: This version posits innovation as one of several processes organizations learn as they grow. An interesting idea, perhaps, but it does not fulfill the assignment of creating a concept map.

convention provides a ground for innovation innovation produces a new convention change (in the environment) may threaten organizations / cultures organizations / cultures evolve through innovation innovation is to organizations / cultures as mutation is to organisms / ecosystems organizations / cultures are built on conventions conventions are embodied in thoughts (including goals), actions, artifacts conventions may fail 1) from internal decay 2) from external pressure 3) because we view them differently 1, 2, 3 reduce the fit (between convention and people)

link overview 13 10 9 8 6 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2

change innovation convention insight process adoption collaborate demonstrate limitations organizations/culture articulation environment hypothesis immersion people oppontunity value

people seek to maximize fit within their environment individuals need motive, opportunity, means to create change motive is maximizing fit within their environment opportunity is a) people with which to collaborate b) a space in which to collaborate (physical or virtual) c) infrastructure for collaborating (tools and systems) d) a social structure for collaborating (norms and processes) means is the innovation process convention resists change convention has limitations we may not see the limitations (external) change may call attention to the limitations external change such as new competitors, dwindling resources (rising costs), slowing growth, new evidence (facts) the process of innovation includes immersion / articulation / demonstration / adoption the process of innovation incorporates the design process the process of innovation incorporates invention insight begins with individuals change begins with collaborations value traced through the change that produce it to its origins in insight we call innovation innovation is a label (we assign after the fact) action (fight or flight) may include immersion immersion is a precondition for insight insight remains partly a matter of chance an insight may involve juxtaposition, pattern making, reframing, abduction knowledge of other domains aids insight an insight is a sort of hypothesis hypothesis must be validated by a test articulation enables sharing of insight articulation can be brought to life through demonstration demonstration is a test of hypothesis

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

demonstration embodies change

change faces resistance change overcomes limitation change may lead to adoption adoption creates value value answers the needs of duty / fear / greed / altruism / compulsion / desire adoption may have many outcomes / many beneficiaries adoption dissipates novelty of change

ACAD Innovation Map Propositions v1.3 Link Connections Exercise Dubberly Design Office September 12, 2006

change becomes convention

a September

4, 2006: Nathan Felde suggested a number of improvements. He also sent his own version. (See page 34, September 4th, in the next section.) And he urged the group to meet.

a September

10, 2006: The author, Nathan Felde, and Paul Pangaro met in Pittsburgh (at CMU’s Emergence Conference). They went back to the beginning, rehearsing the arguments and creating a rough outline using Post-it notes. Over two days a new consensus formed, with the team agreeing on the structure of their argument and a series of propositions.

a September

12, 2006: After the Pittsburgh meeting, Ryan Reposar created this version, documenting all the propositions. He also counted the number of times terms appeared in a proposition, creating a measure of their relative importance.

COVER STORY

Innovation

Processes for Creating Value: Stages in Organizational Maturity

Making products & performing services

creates value

Innovation Types

tactical

Innovation type

strategic

Expense of single experiment

Lenght of each experiment

Ambiguity of results

Smallest

Shortest (could be days)

Clearest

Continuous process improvement Continuous process improvement involves countless small investments in incremental process innovations. General Electric excelled at this pattern of innovation through its well-known six sigma program.

Improving processes

but is often unmanaged

through a process (that can be managed) In the context of a community, observation (of customers, technology, laws) leads to insight (the joining of 2 or more formerly separate ideas) to create an effect (value—knowledge, culture, wealth) with consequences for the community (spreading adoption)

Product or service innovation Product or service innovations are creative new ideas that do not alter established business models. Consumer products companies such as toy and game manufacturers excel in this type of innovation and are constantly priming developers for the next Cabbage Patch doll, Tickle Me Elmo, or Razor scooter.

creates new value

c. 6200 BC Map Çatalhöyük

Other models of innovation Eight rules of brainstorming after IDEO

Every innovation is sandwiched between two conventions, the one it replaces and the one it becomes. In that sense, an innovation is a pivot point, a transition from one period to the next.

All innovations have precedents. Precedent provides a foundation— or springboard—for innovation and a means of ﬁtting a new idea into our model of the world.

Innovation begins with insight. But ideas alone—even inventions— are not enough.

1 Defer judgment 2 Build on the ideas of others 3 Stay focused on the topic 4 Allow only one person at a time to speak 5 Make quantity your goal 6 Encourage wild ideas 7 Be visual 8 Prototype

c. 6000 BC Beer and bread Sumerians, Babylonians, Mesopotamia 5000 BC Irrigation Fertile Crescent

Six thinking hats after Edward de Bono (1985)

c. 3500 BC Wheel Proto-Aryan people or Sumerians, Russia/Kazakhstan or Mesopotamia

1 Fact (Focus on information available, objectivity, what is needed, how it can be obtained) 2 Emotion (Present views without explanation, justification; follow intuition, hunches) 3 Negative view (State weaknesses, why something is wrong; be judgmental, critical) 4 Positive view (Look for benefits, what is good; maintain optimism) 5 Creative idea (Generate possibilities and hypotheses, new ideas) 6 Summary (Control process, steps, other hats; think about thinking, next steps)

c. 3500 BC Writing Sumerians, Mesopotamia c. 3300 BC Construction nail Sumerians, Mesopotamia c. 2500 BC Ink Egypt, China c. 2500 BC Glass Egyptians or Phoenicians

How

Process revolution Process revolutions also improve existing business processes, but in major leaps—say, a 30 percent increase in productivity—through the implementation of major new technologies. For example, Wal-mart is investing heavily n "smart tags" (radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags), which identify what a product is, where it is, where it has been, how it has been handled, and so on. The technology may revolutionize processes for tracking consumer products from production to consumption and yield dramatic new supply chain efficiencies.

creates value more efficiently

Creating new processes new types of products or services

an insight applied with consequence

after Govindarajan and Trimble (2005)

precedent

Innovations throughout time c. 9000 BC Agriculture Fertile Crescent c. 7000 BC Animal husbandry Near East

Parallels design, engineering, and R&D processes Contrasts with TQM and Six Sigma practices (You can’t measure your way to innovation!)

2000 BC Currency Unknown 1700–1500 BC Alphabet Semitic-speaking peoples, eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea 650 BC Coins Lydians, Turkey 600 BC Soap Phoenicians, Lebanon c. 300 BC Compass China c. 200 BC Saddle China 77 Encyclopedia Pliny the Elder (comprehensive work), Rome

individual

preparation

Individuals have insights.

obsession immersion expertise observation

Prepared individuals bring: Optimism Openness to change Belief that the world can be different Conﬁdence to make it so Persistence to see it through

Ten faces of innovation after Tom Kelley of IDEO (2005) Learning 1 The anthropologist 2 The experimenter 3 The cross-pollinator

Insight and development favor those who are prepared.

105 Paper Cai Lun, China

insight

c. 960 Paper money China

Organizing 4 The hurdler 5 The collaborator 6 The director

juxtaposition

Observation can lead to insight Something doesn’t ﬁt Something doesn’t make sense Something is wrong Something could be better A new way of looking at things (a new frame) A new set of goals

Experience, Skill, and Talent Domain expertise Knowledge of other domains Understanding of the process Communication, management, and political skills Practice (Doing it a few times helps.)

pattern matching

For insight to become innovation it must be manifest in change.

cultural

c. 10th C Gunpowder China or Arabia

Creating “enviroments” cultures value systems value creating processes and new business models

Strategic innovation Strategic innovations, such as OnStar, Tremor, and Moviebeam, are the subject of this book. They may include innovations in process or product but always involve unproven business models. Innovative strategies alone—without changes to either the underlying technologies or the products and services sold to customers—drive the success of many companies, such as IKEA and Southwest Airlines.

nurtures and sustains the creation of new value

customers technology laws

customers designers management researchers manufacturers laborers suppliers

in which anyone can particpate

Who Largest

Innovation

observation (+luck)

1280s Eyeglasses Salvino degli Armati or Alessandro di Spina, Italy

Longest (could be years)

1447 Printing press with movable type Johannes Gutenberg, Germany 1608 Optical telescope Hans Lippershey, The Netherlands

People in business or non-profit organizations, from the arts to the sciences

Most ambiguous

In any role, for example, customers, researchers, designers, management, labor, suppliers In any domain, from edcation to healthcare to religion to the military

1609 Microscope Galileo Galilei, Italy 1793 Cotton gin Eli Whitney, U.S. 1795 Metric system of measurement French Academy of Sciences, France 1798 Vaccination Edward Jenner 1800 Electric storage battery Alessandro Volta, Italy 1834 Refrigerator Jacob Perkins

1837 Photography Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, France

insight applied

1838 Morse code Samuel F.B. Morse, U.S. 1841 Sewing machine Barthélemy Thimonnier, France

resets goals, reframes problems. revises point-of-view improves effectiveness (not focussed on efficiency)

yields

two or more ideas combined eg. horseless carriage, mobile phone

10 Types of Innovation after Vijay Kumar of Doblin (2004?)

What

1842 Refrigerator John Gorrie, U.S.

changing beliefs, processes, artifacts Products, services, theories, cultural expressions (art)

1843 Typewriter Charles Thurber 1868 Typewriter Christopher Latham Sholes, U.S. 1876 Wired-line telephone Alexander Graham Bell, Scotland/U.S. 1879 Automobile engine Karl Benz

All aspects of business: research, development, design, manufacturing, distribution and supply, legal, finance, even raw materials

Innovation Category

Innovation Type

Description

Example

1879 Incandescent light blub Thomas Alva Edison, U.S.

Finance

Business model

How you make money

Dell revolutionized the personal computer business model by collecting money before the consumer's PC was even assembled and shipped (resulting in net positive working capital of seven to eight days).

1884 Photographic film George Eastman, U.S.

7 Sources of Innovation after Peter F. Drucker (1985)

Networks and alliances How you join forces with other companies for mutual benefit

Consumer goods company Sara Lee realized that its core competencies were in consumer insight, brand management, marketing and distribution. Thus it divested itself of a majority of its mfg. operations and formed alliances with mfg. and supply chain partners.

Enabling process

How you support the company’s core processes and workers

Starbucks can deliver its profitable store/coffee experience to customers because it offers better-than-market compensation and employment benefits to its store workers--usually part time, educated, professional, and responsive people.

Core processes

How you create and add value to your offerings

Wal-Mart continues to grow profitably through core process innovations such as real-time inventory management systems, aggressive volume/ pricing/delivery contracts with merchandise providers, and systems that give store managers the ability to identify changing buyer behaviors in and respond quickly with new pricing and merchandising configurations.

Product performance

Systematic innovation means monitoring seven sources for innovative opportunity.

1889 Automobile Gottlieb Daimler, Germany 1894 Radio transmission Jagdish Chandra Bose

Sources within the enterprise, whether business or public-service institution, or within an industry or service sector: Process The unexpected—the unexpected success, the unexpected failure, the unexpected outside event The incongruity—between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be or as it “ought to be” Innovation based on process need Changes in industry and market structures that catch everyone unawares Sources that involve changes outside the enterprise or industry: Demographics (population changes) Changes in perception, mood, and meaning New knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific Offerings

5 innovation patterns

Delivery

How you design your core offerings

The VW Beetle (in both its original and its newest form) took the market by storm, combining multiple dimensions of product performance.

Product system

How you link and/or provide a platform for multiple products

Microsoft Office "bundles a variety of specific products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) into a system designed to deliver productivity in the workplace.

Service

How you provide value to customers and consumers beyond and around your products

An international flight on any airlines will get you to your intended designation. A flight on Singapore Airlines, however, nearly makes you forget that you are flying at all, with the most attentive, respectful, and pampering pre-flight, in-flight and post-services you can imagine.

Channel

How you get your offerings to market

Legal problems aside, Martha Stewart has developed such a deep understanding of her customers that she knows just where to be (stores, TV shows, magazines, online, etc.) to drive huge sales volumes from a relatively small set of "home living" educational and product offerings.

that manipulate existing components of a product and its immediate environment to come up with something both ingenious and viable after Goldenberg et al. (2003) Attribute dependency The attribute dependency pattern alters or creates the dependent relationships between a product and its environment. For example, by creating a dependent relationship between lens color and external lighting conditions, eyeglass developers came up with a lens that changes color when exposed to sunlight. Division The division pattern - by dividing an existing product into its component parts you can see something that was an integrated whole in an entirely different light. Think of the modern home stereo--it has modular speakers, tuners, and CD and tape players, which allow users to customize their sound systems.

Subtraction The subtraction pattern works by removing product components, particularly those that seem desirable or indispensable. Think of the legless high chair that attaches to the kitchen table.

Brand

How you communicate your offerings

Absolut conquered the vodka category on the strength of a brilliant "theme and variations" advertising concept, strong bottle and packaging design, and a whiff of Nordic authenticity.

Customer experience

How your customers feel when they interact with your company and its offerings

Harley Davidson has created a worldwide community of millions of customers, many of whom would describe "being a Harley Davidson owner" as a part of how they fundamentally see, think, and feel about themselves.

1896 Radio Guglielmo Marconi, Italy

When

Innovation Type

Description

Example

Disruptive

Creates new market categories based on a discontinuous technology change or a disruptive business model.

Oracle created a portable database that ran on many different computers and offered easy reporting.

Application

Develops new markets for existing products by finding unexploited uses for them, often by combining them in novel ways.

An entrepreneur took World War II synthetic rubber to market as a toy called Silly Putty.

Product

Focuses on existing markets for existing products, differentiating through features and function that current offers do not have.

Platform

Interposes a simplifying layer to mask an underlying legacy of complexity and complication, thereby freeing a next generation of offers to focus on new value propositions.

Sony’s video game machines provide a platform for independent developers.

Makes structural modifications to an established offer to create a distinctive subcategory.

Tylenol branched out from pain killers to products for allergy and sinus, cold, arthritis, and other ailments.

Continues the trajectory begun by line extensions, driving innovation into finer elements of detail, getting closer to the surface of the offer with less impact on the underlying infrastructure.

Kimberly Clark and Procter & Gamble have dominated the disposable diaper categories by adding to their products tape, Z fold, and elastic to increase convenience.

Focuses on differentiating the interaction with a prospective customer during the purchase process.

Avon developed a sales channel with their “Avon calling” campaign in the 1950s.

Experiential

Bases value not on differentiating the functionality but rather the experience of the offering.

Cirque du Soleil redefined the notion of circus with its visual and philosophical productions.

Extracts cost from the materials and manufacturing of an established offer without changing its external properties.

Southwest built a fleet with a single standard plane, simplified pricing and seat selection, and focused on point-to-point round-trip itineraries to reduce costs.

Reduces the customer’s cost of maintaining a complex operation by integrating its many disparate elements into a single centrally managed system.

LEGOS sold its plastic bricks at a premium by marketing them in kits that integrated into toys.

Process

Focuses on improving profit margins by extracting waste not from the offer itself but from the enabling processes that produce it.

McDonald’s engineering every process, from procuring and cooking to hiring, training, and terminating.

Value-Migration

Redirects the business model away from a commoditizing element in the market’s value chain toward one richer in margins.

Wal-Mart migrated power from branded consumer goods to high-volume discount retailer. It reduced costs with industrystandard bar codes and RFID-enabled inventory tracking.

Organic

Uses internal resources to reposition itself into a growth category.

Nokia, formerly of paper and pulp products, rubber manufacturing, and cable, entered the electronics sector with coaxial cable for computer networks.

Operational Excellence Value-Engineering

Integration

Category Renewal

Acquisition

Solves problem of category renewal externally through merger and acquisition.

Gateway acquired eMachines, the low-cost leader in retail PCs, and allowed their management to control the company and improve its operating efficiency.

Innovation is a process It crosses domains (Art, Business, Science). It’s remarkably similar in each domain. It mirrors the design process. The process requires agreement It requires goal setting. Goals have constituencies. Goals must be supported and negotiated. The process is rhetorical and political.

The change must be represented as a Hypothesis Model Outline Script Sketch Mock-up Prototype Pilot

In order for things to change, insights must be shared Explained Discussed Promoted Distributed

The representation should be tested by The maker Colleagues and peers Members of the intended audience

The process requires iteration— convergence on a goal— through a series of representations each more complete than the last.

Open Societies Diverse, raucous, even chaotic Less hierarchical and stratiﬁed More democratic and egalitarian

Three orders of change after Michael Geoghegan 1 First-order (Creates new domains and new generative languages) 2 Second-order (Affects system rules within a new domain) 3 Third-order (Seeks increased efficiency within that system. Efficiency may lead to surplus, which makes it possible to support the discovery of new invention)

Tests lead to iterations No innovation is born fully formed. Innovations require successive rounds of improvement. Sometimes the wider world provides the best feedback.

tactical Incremental Change Innovators work within a given situation. Goals remain essentially the same. Means become more efﬁcient. Costs decline. Productivity increases. This is the realm of TQM and Six Sigma.

Punctuated Change Innovators reframe the situation. They create consensus around new goals. They ﬁnd the means to realize the innovation. The means are now more effective (but perhaps not more efﬁcient). New domains or new markets emerge. A strategic change opens the possibility of many tactical changes.

Seven sources of innovation after Peter F. Drucker (1985)

in thought

change

strategic

Systematic innovation means monitoring seven sources for innovative opportunity. Sources within the enterprise, whether business or public-service institution, or within an industry or service sector: 1 The unexpected (The unexpected success, the unexpected failure, the unexpected outside event) 2 The incongruity (Between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be or as it “ought to be”) 3 Innovation based on process need 4 Changes in industry and market structures that catch everyone unawares

theory

in action

Sources that involve changes outside the enterprise or industry:

performance

in artifact

For a change to be an innovation it must create value.

5 Demographics (population changes) 6 Changes in perception, mood, and meaning 7 New knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific

product

cultural

Ten types of innovation after Vijay Kumar (Doblin Group) Finance 1 Business model (How you make money) 2 Networks and alliances (How you join forces with other companies for mutual benefit)

Meta Change Innovators focus on the organization (or its tools, especially its communication tools). They create systems that promote and reward innovators. They change beliefs, values, and processes. They create collegial organizations and learning organizations. Cultural change instills the spirit of innovation paving the way for both strategic and tactical change.

Process 3 Enabling process (How you support the company’s core processes and workers) 4 Core processes (How you create and add value to your offerings) Offerings 5 Product performance (How you design your core offerings) 6 Product system (How you link and/or provide a platform for multiple products) 7 Service (How you provide value to customers and consumers beyond and around your products)

1907 Color photography Auguste and Louis Lumiere 1913 Assembly line Henry Ford, U.S.

diffusion

1923 Recording of sound on ﬁlm Lee DeForest

Delivery 8 Channel (How you get your offerings to market) 9 Brand (How you communicate your offerings) 10 Customer experience (How your customers feel when they interact with your company and its offerings)

imitation

1937 Photocopying/Xerography Chester F. Carlson, U.S.

Fourteen types of innovation after Geoffrey A. Moore (2005)

differentiation

1939 Computer (electronic digital) John V. Atanasoff, Clifford E. Berry, U.S.

value

1945 Penicillin Alexander Fleming, U.K. 1947 Polaroid instant photography Edwin Herbert Land, U.S.

Where within a community (not alone)

Customer Intimacy 5 Line-Extension 6 Enhancement 7 Marketing 8 Experiential

survival

Operational excellence 9 Value-engineering 10 Integration 11 Process

proﬁt and growth share price

hope

Not all changes become innovations. For example, Mezo-Americans used wheels in toys but never applied them for transportation, perhaps because they had no large draft animals.

1950 Credit card Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider (Diners’ Club), U.S.

Product Leadership 1 Disruptive 2 Application 3 Product 4 Platform

recognition and fame intellectual property

Innovation requires diffusion of a change throughout a community. Diffusion is evidence of value to the community, and it creates value for the innovators.

1947 Transistor John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, William B. Shockley, U.S. 1950s Oral contraceptives Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Min Chueh Chang, U.S.

Category-renewal 12 Value-migration 13 Organic 14 Acquisition

duty ethical imperative

1957 Artiﬁcial earth satellite Sergey Korolyov, et al., U.S.S.R.

An organization, a discipline, a business, a market, a polis (at all levels) in a value system (with its deterrents and rewards and tolerance for risk of stability) in a mythos (eg. the myth of progress) in a language (eg. English, the argot of engineers, the patios of IBM, the slang of surfers)

Applied Materials introduced a multi-chamber semiconductor manufacturing device that integrated multiple steps of water fabrication within a single environment.

Marketing

think make test

If it’s ever going to amount to anything, an insight must be developed— it must be reﬁned and applied— it must be “worked-out.”

1945 Atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer, et al., U.S.

Line-Extension

Enhancement

Learning Organizations Values (embracing change and diversity) Social structures (a process for cultivating new ideas) Infrastructure (tools for conserving and sharing knowledge)

1927 Television Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Philo Taylor Farnsworth, Russia/U.S.S.R., U.S.

Before a market exists, when a market is young, when a market is mature, when a market is in decline

but within the minds of individuals, reframing the way we think

Innovation Zone

Customer Intimacy

at anytime (change brings more change) Throughout the life of a community or organization Throughout the life of a discipline (an art or science)

after Geoffrey A. Moore (2005)

Product Leadership

Prepared teams build: Collegial Organizations Mutual respect A sense of shared community (common purpose) A sense of equality (at least at some times)

1903 Engine-powered airplane Wilbur & Orville Wright, U.S.

14 Types of Innovation

Task unification The task unification pattern involves assigning a new task to an existing product element or environmental attribute, thereby unifying two tasks in a single component. An example is the defrosting filament in an automobile windshield that also serves as a radio antenna.

Multiplication The multiplication pattern makes one or more copies of an existing component, then alters those copies in some important way. For example, the Gillette double-bladed razor features a second blade that cuts whiskers at a slightly different angle.

collaborative development and iteration Teams create meaningful change.

consequenaces

1958 Integrated circuit /computer chip Jack Kilby, U.S. 1958 Laser Gordon Gould and Charles Hard Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow (invented separately), U.S.

This concept map was prepared for the Institute for the Creative Process at the Alberta College of Art and Design. The Institute exists to focus and organize activities, enterprises, and initiatives of ACAD with regard to the cultivation of dialogue, research, and special projects that directly address the nature of the creative process and design thinking. ACAD is a leading centre for education and research, and a catalyst for creative inquiry and cultural development.

unknown (unknowable) unintended

1960 Birth control pills Unknown 1960 Communications satellite John Robinson Pierce, U.S. 1963 Computer mouse Douglas Engelbart, U.S.

Dubberly Design Office produced the map. Satoko Kakihara provided research and copy writing. Ryan Reposar and Sean Durham provided design. Nathan Felde and Paul Pangaro helped shape the content and structure. ACAD faculty Chris Frey, Wayne Giles, and Darlene Lee offered expert commentary and many helpful suggestions. Many others offered advice and shared their knowledge. We thank you all.

1969 Internet Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the Department of Defense, U.S.

out of necessity, luck, or abundance

Why

Nine innovation archetypes after GE and Stone Yamashita Partners (2005) 1 The generator (The generator of the idea that gets an innovation rolling) 2 The iterator (An idea-engineer who takes the original idea and turns it into an innovation) 3 The tech guru (The harnesser of technology to turn the innovation into reality) 4 The customer anthropologist (The keen observer of what customers truly hunger for) 5 The producer (The champion of flow. The master of moving ideas along) 6 The visionary (The force behind creating the world as it could be—and should be) 7 The communicator (Amplifies and clarifies the idea in the minds of others outside the team) 8 The roadblock remover (With a hammer— or with velvet gloves—knocks away organization, political, and financial roadblocks) 9 The futurecaster (Forecaster and modeler of the economic and social value of the future innovation)

reframing

1041 Movable type printing press Bi Sheng, China

Building 7 The experience architect 8 The set designer 9 The caregiver 10 The storyteller

fed by fear, greed, a drive for glory, or altruism

1970 Animal cloning John B. Gurdon, U.K. 1973 Cell phone Unknown 1974 Personal computer Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems, U.S. 1978 Human In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards, U.K.

Innovation is a label we apply to describe a successful change and the process of creating it.

We recognize innovation after the fact— once an old convention has been overturned and a new convention has been established.

Together, insight, change, and value entail innovation, and they conjure its opposite, convention.

Diffusion of an innovation has consequences. Some, the value of the innovation to the community that adopts it, are easy to see. Others are unintended and perhaps unknowable in advance.

During the process, innovation is hard to see. Innovators focus on the domain of change. Few wake up saying, “Today, I will innovate.”

Alberta College of Art + Design 1407-14 Ave NW Calgary, AB Canada T2N 4R3 403 284 7600

1989 World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, U.K. 1995 Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) Unknown

Dubberly Design Office 2501 Harrison Street, #7 San Francisco, CA 94110 415 648 9799

new paradigm

Dubberly Design Office Innovation map B July 27, 2006 v0.2

Draft Version 1.3 September 1, 2006

1, 2006: This version (one of many related studies) frames innovation as insight + change + value. Change is at the center with innovation behind it, sandwiched between two conventions. Innovation and convention are out of focus, suggesting the blurring of boundaries. The vertical axis defines the innovation process.

having failed, requires new

learning design process (artificial evolution) having failed, requires new

may suggest new

by inc re as ing

iteration (trial & error) may be improved by more

fit (gain)

is reflected as increased

actions may lead to

artifacts

a is

accrues to

creates

ng mo sa on lati re

a February

may lead to leads to new

g tin ep cc ra fo ion dit on -c pre

is borne by

sp e

he lp

relates to

in ce lan ba im

creates

is the source of (but does not guarantee)

relates to

may result in

. . . . . . . . . may pave the way to new .-. . . . . . . . -

becomes

maximizes (perceived)

faces a

conserves

may have (with luck & preparation)

4, 2007: The next step was to give typographic form to the model. It still places the old convention at the top and the new one at the bottom. Terms and propositions continue to change.

beliefs

counter-change (adoption)

value

24, 2007: This version is relatively close to the final. The armature is in place, as are the feedback loops. But they are not differentiated from the rest of the terms. Innovation is still the same size as convention. Insight, change, and value have not been called out. The color metaphor of a spotlight shining on innovation is not in place.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

19, 2006: Next, Ryan linked the terms so that none repeated, creating a version that was a “true” concept map.

context

a February

demonstration (testing)

interactions

a September

ng mo sa on lati re

. . . . . affects . . . . .

are responsible for

to its origins in

relates to

maximizes (perceived)

form . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . form . . . . . . .

are

overcomes Draft Version 2.4 September 19, 2006

creates new

ACAD Innovation Map Dubberly Design Office

individuals

all create

springs from invention

convention

innovation

traced through the change that produce it

create a need for efficiency which reduces

paradigm 2

evaluates

reforms relations creating

community

is a source of, but does not guarantee,

provides security for

context 2

articulation (prototyping) must be proved through

fit 2

insight (seeing opportunity) must be shared through

gain

maintains relationship to

creates . . . .

community2 convention2

counterchange

frames possibillities for

ovation

selection [cost < gain]

variety (experiences)

when large enough gains

has as its mysterious heart

g tin sis re by uo sq tu ta es rv se pre

creates value answers the needs of duty fear greed altruism compulsion desire incorporates the design process

disturbs relations creating

becomes

po se a

affects

innovation

change (disturbance)

recognition (definition)

as it difuses becomes

lve s

in vo

many outcomes many beneficiaries

dissipates novelty of change

design process [artificial evolution]

destruction [cost > gain]

innovation

pressure (external) decay (internal)

mis-fit (cost)

context

agrees on & is formed by

. . may show fitness for .. .

ate ly

may have

each face

can be overturned by

testing

ea ch

.. ult im

may lead to adoption

th re at to

is a test of embodies

context n

cost

convention maintains relationship to

. . . must survive . . .

can be brought to life through demonstration

is the basis for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

articulation

is a sort of hypothesis begins with individuals

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . evolve

fit within the world

articulation enables sharing of

seek to increase their

is increasing their

includes

may spring from juxtaposition pattern making reframing abduction

faces resistance begins with collaborations

the innovation process a) people with which to collaborate b) a space in which to collaborate (physical or virtual) c) infrastructure for collaborating (tools and systems) d) a social structure for collaborating (norms and processes)

insight

eri t

individuals need motive, opportunity, means to create change

remains partly a matter of chance

individuals

aid immersion is a precondition for insight

.. a

communityn conventionn

us t

knowledge of other domains

mis-fit may be framed as an

we call

may call attention to

change

may create a

disruptions such as new competitors dwindling resources (rising costs) slowing growth new evidence (facts)

have limitations which we may not see may include

resists are susceptible to

artifacts

are agreements (between people)

(in the environment)

may be fight flight freeze

is to organizations / cultures as mutation is to organisms / ecosystems

paradigm 1

nova innovation -

habits

disturbance [outside forces]

include

may lead to

actions

actions artifacts

produces new

thoughts include goals beliefs values models frameworks

may lead to

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . may drift within

innovation is a label (we assign after the fact)

members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . leave & enter

are sustained by

evolve (in part) through

context 1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . gives way to

may threaten organizations / cultures are built of conventions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . may face

may fail 1) from internal decay 2) from external pressure 3) from re-framing

fit 1

beliefs

lon g-t erm

community1 convention1

agrees on & is formed by

reduce

provide a ground for

may fail to recognise

inevitably lead to

convention convention community

creative destruction

a September

ma yb e in cre as ed

28, 2006: Sean Durham suggested a straightforward, journalistic approach: who, what, when, where, why, and how. It introduces the idea of consequence, which later became value.

a July

in ce lan ba

a July 27, 2006: This version focuses on ways of classifying innovation, reprising taxonomies from several authors. It posits innovation as “insight applied.”

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

innovation desire intent produces design chance a new risk reward convention

Formed from, with / in side the extant

by seduction

i/o dentified

springs from precedent and individual insight

negates the status quo

A series of sketches developed by Nathan Felde in chronological order.

intuition

pattern matching

flaws

rejection

reframing

mistakes

preparation

and abduction

and lack

bearing in mind tactical

new, brilliant and significant; star like

strategic

by iterative

organizational

collaborative

ovulation, from re cognition, meriting recognition

cultural

development

and uses change to create

conversation

July 25, 2006: Nathan sent this wonderful poem early in the process. Sean Durham later turned it into an animation. You can view the animation at http:// www.dubberly.com/innovation_movie.html.

juxtaposition

gaps

glued, brewed and stewed

replication adaptation

thought

toward (a goal) or located in a context, time and place

expression

differentiation

demonstration

action

artifact

distinction

sustainability

ego instigated

possibility

4, 2006: This version responds to the map created on September 1. Together, they illustrate a central tension in the team’s discussions: Can innovation be defined? Nathan wrote: “I guess what I am concerned about [in prior models] is the representation of innovation as cut and dried. Fear, greed, need, perplexing situations and the associated behaviors and anxieties are messy and volatile. I realize that the progress of business requires order and command and control, but the chaotic flux within which or at least from which the seeds of innovation are sown needs some depiction in our rendering of the map/diagram/ output of this discourse. Can anyone do it or can it be taught? [These] are questions that have come up. Have we resolved that, or is it a starting premise to be confirmed or denied? Are we at a juncture that mandates innovation ourselves? Is this a predicament that fosters innovation? It appears to me that a fault or fault line discloses the opportunity to innovate, although the activities take names like think, wonder, search, toy, rummage, and guess. Design: a guessing game.”

survivability

a September

value, new consequences, distribution

success

Free to form new bonds

diffusion and

acclaim

adoption of

a new paradigm

about; active and progressive; ontological Dapperly Design Office Innovation poem July 25, 2006 V..1

a February

14, 2007: (Landscape) Nathan proposed this playful version in response to the grid structure of the February 4th version. He described this one as “my structural-engineering interpretation of the latest round.”

iza

t io

may threaten

hrough ar t] t

nd fo

on nvir e the [in

s n ew

individuals need motive, opportunity, means

include habits may be flight, fight, freeze

are sustained by

artifacts

to its origins in

may lea

em bo d

n pri

y in ma

te p m s t h ro c in e v e d e e s s includes n t s ig io n n p r o ce s s

c l l o l l co l l ol a b o a b o a b o ra t e r la ra b o t in at e ra g t in g

red

uce

de clu

d to

ies

adoption immersion

is a precondition for insight remains partly a matter of chance may spring from juxtaposition s pattern making aid articulation reframing abduction is a sort of hypothesis knowledge of demonstration begins with individuals other domains is a test of can be

innovation

mes

faces resistence begins with collaborations

i a t ra ovncorpogs fro

bec o

are agreements [between people] have limitations [which we may not see] disruptions

to create change

nn he i

cts

actions may fail from internal decay external pressure re-framing

v e n t ion s

pro duc e

include goals beliefs values models frameworks

all

affe

co n t of buil

t] men

grou

re sa

[we assign after the fact]

thoughts we c

prov id e a

lt u

innovation is a label

interactions

o rg [ in p lve evo

s is t hi w t it h h c co c le w h i is p e o p i n w f o r o r f ce re is a s p a u ct u u re w str ct is i n f r a e t ru th ial s is a s o c in it h it w eir f ng th is increasi

innovation is to organizations/cultures as mutation is to organisms/ecosystems

14, 2007: (Landscape) Nathan’s assistant, Purnima Rao, created this version. It contains a number of very interesting ideas. Change is literally at the center of a whirl. It posits “motive, opportunity, and means” as necessary for change. (Does that suggest a crime?) It also describes innovation as “a label we assign after the fact.”

Januar y + Februar y 2008

a February

brought to life through

creates value traced through the change that produce it answers the needs of duty fear greed altruism compulsion desire

dissipates novelty of change

may have many outcomes many beneficiaries

COVER STORY

maintained by some convention.

error. The process may lead to

number of options that can be

The original convention no longer

new insights. Or it may prompt

discussed—increasing the like-

“fits.” Perhaps the context has

reframing of goals, consider-

lihood of insight. (In practice,

changed, or the community, or

ation of new approaches, new

an increase in variety may be

even the convention. Someone

generative metaphors. Success

required for some insights to be

notices the lack of fit. It causes

also leads to change: new beliefs,

found.) A community seeking to

stress and increases bio-cost. It

actions, and artifacts.

increase variety must integrate individuals who can increase the

pain, to force its way into people’s

order change. Innovation in one

community’s language, provide

consciousness.

place affects related conventions

new points of view, draw on addi-

and may reduce their fit, hasten-

tional types of experience, foster

ing further innovation.

new conversations, and provoke

Perception of misfit almost simultaneously gives rise to proposals for change, for reframing.

Ethnography and other

action [7].

It creates the opportunity for

research techniques can help

insight.

identify opportunities for inno-

of individuals.

vation. Design methods can

individuals as drivers of innova-

when shared, articulated, pro-

increase the speed of generating

tion—and the source of insight.

totyped. Sharing is a test: Does

and testing new ideas. But new

But to succeed, individuals must

the insight resonate with others?

ideas are still subject to natural

participate in a community,

Proposals for change compete

selection (or natural destruction)

where they contribute variety.

for attention. Most are ignored

in the marketplace or political

and fade away. The changes that

process.

Insights move forward only

survive are by definition ones the

Variety: a regulator.

Horizontal axis: The importance The map posits

Individuals who drive innovation also have a sense of what

The map

is not known but necessary for

community finds effective. They

posits variety as a regulator of

progress, and they understand

spread because they increase fit,

innovation. Variety is a measure

how to find it. Individuals who

because they create value.

of information [3]. Here, it is the

drive innovation also seem to

language available to an indi-

possess a healthy measure of

ing from fit through misfit and

vidual or community. Language

optimism. They are motivated by

back again. The vertical axis

enables conversation; conversa-

the value that innovation creates

loops back on itself, reflecting

tion enables agreement; agree-

(which need not be monetary).

the cycle.

ment enables action. At the same

The map suggests a cycle mov-

The yellow loops: the role of feedback.

Of course, innovation

processes are rarely linear. The map includes several feedback

Innovation remains messy,

time, language constrains action,

even dangerous. Luck and

because language limits what can

chance—being at the right place

be discussed and agreed.

at the right time—still play a role.

Pressure to increase efficiency

Like the vertical axis, the

loops, suggesting the role of itera-

creates pressure to reduce vari-

horizontal axis also folds back on

tion and the recursive nature of

ety, as maintaining less variety

itself.

the process. At a basic level,

requires less effort or saves

innovation involves experimen-

time. Reducing variety decreases

The story above describes one

tation, making something new

the number of options a com-

path through major points on the

and testing it. To some extent,

munity can discuss. Conversely,

map, but the map offers multiple

the process may be trial and

increasing variety increases the

paths and invites closer reading.

An invitation to interaction.

[7] Esmonde, P. Notes on the Role of Leadership and Language in Regenerating Organizations. Menlo Park, Calif.: Sun Microsystems, 2002.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

In turn, these lead to second-

interactions

creates enough friction, enough

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

While this model is not a rec-

[9] Star, S. L. and J. R. Griesemer “Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations,’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907 - 1939.” Social Studies of Science 19, no.3 (1989): 387-420.

tion to react and participate in

ipe, it hints at ways in which we

improving this model of innova-

might increase the probability of

tion. Just as quality is founded

innovation. But more important,

on the feedback loop of “plan-do-

it invites further thinking.

check-act” and feedback loops are

Computer scientist Alan Kay

necessary for successful innova-

has noted, “We do most of our

tion, we seek your insights and

thinking with models[8].” They

feedback as well.

are “boundary objects,” enabling

The team’s hope is for this

discourse between communi-

model to spur thinking and

ties of practice [9]. This is what

discussion—interaction among

makes models powerful.

readers. We hope it leads to other,

The poster includes an invita-

more useful models.

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Another View

“Innovation” has frustrated me for some time. Does “innovation” mean “new idea,” “invention,” “design concept,” “product revision,” or “game-changing revolution on the order of general relativity?” Making a concept map is a good way to decide what we mean. In the process of collaborating to build this map, I felt that coming to the core entailment—“innovation is an insight that inspires change and creates value”—was an insight of its own about innovation. I sensed that if this insight countered the dilution of meaning and inspired a change in use of the term, it would create value. An innovation about innovation. But, as with any innovation, saying it does not make it so—it actually has to change a convention, and for the better. (“Value” means “positive value.”) There was a point where that core entailment was lost in revision, one of many twists and turns in the process. This shows that the process of innovation can be fragile. Perhaps because I was a participant, I feel the story of making the map is as interesting as the outcome. Reviewing the spreads reprinted here retells some of that story; flipping through 50-plus full-size prototypes retells it fortissimo. What neither tells is the tug-of-views across cities, threads of email, and fields of Post-it notes. One key argument was: What parts of the process of innovation are messy, unpredictable, ineffable, mystical, magical, intuitive? The more that innovation is those things, the less we can help the process and make a deliberate innovation; at one extreme, that phrase becomes an oxymoron. Conversely, what parts of innovation are predictable, likely, improvable, or even deterministic? We certainly resist the idea that the source of inspiration, the source of hypotheses, can be fully known, reduced to algorithm.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hugh Dubberly manages a consultancy focused on making services and software easier to use through interaction design and information design. As vice president he was responsible for design and production of Netscape’s Web services. He was at Apple for 10 years where he managed graphic design and corporate identity and co-created the Knowledge Navigator series of videos. Dubberly also founded an interactive media department at Art Center and has taught at San Jose State, IIT/ID, and Stanford.

While we explored those questions, I learned that bringing about innovation, in addition to requiring creativity, requires stubbornness. Without stubbornness, obsessiveness even, why would an individual rage against the lock-in of current convention—spend all that time in the patent office and on trains, in thought experiments outside of prior language in order to see anew? So, this is the unpredictable part: getting to the moment of genuine insight, when a new means to solve a problem (a new metaphor for framing the problem-solution) breaks the lockin of convention. This is the inventor’s phase of innovation. Yet innovation requires a second form of obsessiveness: Inspired by the possibility of bringing value, there must be drive to do something with the inventor’s insight. This role can be called “the innovator,” and often a different person plays it. Propelled by the demonstration of possibility, the innovator moves from insight to demonstration to fruition— to creating value. Is it inevitable that, once invented, an insight with real potential brings about valuable change? It would seem so, though timelines and paths are not predictable. The innovator’s phase seems more understand-able, planable, work-able from experience. These are the aspects we can better understand, and foster, and improve. —Paul Pangaro ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul Pangaro is the CTO at CyberneticLifestyles.com in New York City where he consults at the intersection of product strategy, marketing, and organizational dynamics. He is recognized as an authority on search and related conversational impedences in human-machine interaction, and on entailment meshes, a highly rigorous framework for representing knowledge. He was CTO of several start-ups, including Idealab’s Snap.com, and was also the senior director and distinguished market strategist at Sun Microsystems. Paul has also taught at Stanford University.

Dennis Letbetter

[8] Kay, A. From an interview in the video, “Project 2000.” Cupertino, Calif.: Apple, 1988.

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AD28

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

Of the many executives I’ve come to know who oversee corporate-experience [1] Beers, R.and Whitney, P. (2006). “From Ethnographic Insight to User-centered Design Tools.” EPIC 2006 Conference Proceedings, pp. 144-154. ISBN 1-931403-30-4. American Anthropological Association.

research and design personnel and activities, Secil Watson of Wells Fargo is one of the most insightful and inspirational. Members of her staff agree, praising “her leadership and vision—she has the brain of a businesswoman, heart of a designer, and soul of a researcher[1].” In this article, Secil answers questions that many struggle with: What role should “customer experience” personnel and leadership play in a large business? Who should “own” customer experience, and where should it be positioned in a company? How should customer experience impact the work of managers and executives? What does it take to move customer experience into a position of strategic influence? —Richard Anderson, Co-EiC

The Business of Customer Experience: Lessons Learned at Wells Fargo Secil Watson SVP, Channel Strategy | Secil.Watson@wellsfargo.com

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified

dominant outbound mentality that

financial-services company providing

centered around knowing what to

banking, insurance, investments, mort-

offer the customer. At the same

gage and consumer finance through

time, our home page needed to be

almost 6,000 stores, the Internet, and

updated. Marketing banners took

other distribution channels across North

up much of the page (and you can

America and internationally. It has

imagine the space left for content

$549 billion in assets and 158,800 team

in a 2002 screen resolution), and

members across its 80-plus businesses.

while our Web traffic consisted

In May 1995, Wells Fargo was the

predominantly of consumers, we

first financial institution to introduce

rotated banners advertising com-

access to banking accounts on the

mercial banking products together

Internet, leading a revolution in the

with small business and consumer

way consumers organize and manage

products. Customer service links

their money.

took several click-throughs, and the

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

ability to sign in to view accounts—

Motivations are Important

which represented 80 percent

I joined Wells Fargo five years ago

all site traffic at the time—was

in the online strategy team, with a

stashed away in the corner, visible

background in management con-

only as a small button. The option

sulting, marketing, servicing, and

to enroll in online banking was

e-learning. My first assignment was

overshadowed by allowing custom-

to evaluate consulting companies

ers to “personalize” the site, which

that could help us leverage the

meant, among other things, being

Internet as a sales channel for the

able to receive stock quotes, weath-

bank. I sat through many presenta-

er news, and horoscopes.

tions that focused on traditional

To me, there was a great oppor-

tools of marketing: lots of segmen-

tunity to increase online sales by

tation work, with personalization

increasing the visibility of our prod-

as a must-have capability, and a

uct content. After conducting eth-

FEATURE

a Wellsfargo.com

home page, 2002.

nographic studies and individual

our site a buying site.” We chose

easier and quicker as we add new

breakout sessions, we compared

the word “buying” as opposed to

functionality.

our data with quantitative search-

“selling” because it acknowledged

log data. We identified that people

that the customer was in the

What Did it Take to Affect Change?

were expecting to accomplish core

driver’s seat. An online customer

The first project that utilized our

tasks from the home page—sign-

has complete control over the expe-

User-Centered Design (UCD) meth-

ing in to view their accounts, or

rience; the best thing we can do to

odology, which had not yet been

enrolling in online banking—and

improve the experience is to make

formalized, was the home page

were using search and banner ads

customer tasks easier and quicker

redesign project. It was ground-

in place of navigation options. Yet

to accomplish.

breaking at the time, and very

neither path was getting the cus-

In the following five years, we

successful. I could explain to execu-

tomers to their desired content. As

succeeded in building a highly

tives how listening to customers

a result, the home-page drop-off

integrated customer insight and

and analyzing their tasks had actu-

rate was very high.

experience design team, developed

ally paid off. Presenting tangible

a robust user-centered design

results before presenting a new

were experiencing the same drop-

methodology, and established a

way of doing things was critical.

off rates and were individually

Web governance structure that is

We increased the prominence of all

concluding that in order for the

founded in an extensive set of expe-

links that were essential to custom-

customer to reach their content, the

rience standards and guidelines

ers, and we gave them the ability to

business unit needed home page

that we maintain over the course

sign on to view their accounts from

real estate. While there was con-

of our regular work. We succeeded

the home page.

stant shuffling of the positioning

in sparking change in the culture of

of the content on the home page, it

our organization, and we made cus-

accounts and enroll in online

wasn’t prioritized by key customer

tomer experience “strategic.”

banking, as well as to view rates

Ironically, all business units

tasks and the business cases to be

What still drives me, though,

As a result, traffic to view

and product details, went up

are the basic tenets of the initial

dramatically. Also, the result-

program developed five years ago:

ing page was much less cluttered

rejected the marketing consulting

providing customers a positive

and loaded faster, saving time.

companies, and instead created an

experience each time they interact

Customers were going deeper into

internal program called “Making

with us, and making their tasks

the site, and starting more appli-

made in facilitating these tasks. As a result of our analysis, we

Januar y + Februar y 2008

home page, 2001.

interactions

a Wellsfargo.com

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

cations. Our initial success gave us the ability to redesign most of

a Wellsfargo.com

home page after the redesign, 2003.

a Wellsfargo.com

home page today, after the 2006 refresh (more content and imagery, leveraging much larger screen aspect ratios and faster connection speeds now used by customers).

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

[2] Strothkamp, B. (May 23, 2007) Case Study: Metrics Drive Wells Fargo’s Home Page. A Best Practice Home Page Driven By Data — Not Opinions. http:// www.forrester.com/ Research/Document/ 0,7211,42448,00.html

banking channels. In creating both of these tools,

the content, navigation, and page

we relied heavily on analyzing

layouts on the site within the first

insights from ethnographic studies

year. We were also able to replicate

we had conducted in our customers’

our success a few years later, in

homes. This deep look into our cus-

2006, with another refresh of the

tomers’ lives gave us the ability to

home page design using the same

answer not just what they did, but

UCD principles and tools. Forrester

also how and why as it pertained to

Research senior analyst Brad

finances. We also identified what

Strothkamp wrote about the 2006

aspects of our customers were

redesign: “Wells Fargo’s new home

crucial to us as we designed expe-

page represents the culmination of

riences for them: their life stage,

years of learning about how con-

tenure with the bank, tenure with

sumers use its Web site, resulting

online banking, and their product

in a home page that is both aes-

holdings. We mined our customer

thetically pleasing and meets the

data to quantify and qualify which

needs of increasingly discerning

representative groups to include in

users[2].”

our profiles.

We formalized our customer expe-

One common mistake that we

rience methodology. The customer

avoided with our profiles was the

experience group took the time to

desire to represent every customer

document our UCD process, and

segment. Instead, we focused on

we went through many iterations

a handful that gave us the most

of this process over time. We also

insight. What connected these two

made it modular—easy to com-

key tools and made them actionable

municate to different audiences,

on an experience project level were

yet robust enough to encompass a

the “scenario starters,” which took a

whole set of tools, including com-

snapshot of one of our user profiles

prehensive yet consumable mod-

given a certain event in their lives,

els of customer tasks, personas,

key life and financial goals as they

scenarios, scorecards, and perfor-

arose from the event, challenges for

mance metrics as well as standards

taking action, and motivations to

and guidelines.

want to take action. The ability to

For example, the two core ele-

keep the profiles and their scenar-

ments of our UCD tools were a)

ios constant throughout the design

reusable user profiles representing

process, with questions such as

our typical customers and b) the

“would Jane do that?” was critical in

user task model, modeling and

grounding our efforts in customer

quantifying what managing-

experience as opposed to our own

finances tasks our customers per-

expert perspectives[1].

formed. These tools became the

We championed customer expe-

interface of our deep knowledge of

rience broadly. We knew that

customer’s goals and tasks. While

product managers, engineers, and

all of our user profiles had some

servicing staff were equally impor-

online-banking affiliation, we mod-

tant partners in the success of each

eled customer tasks universally,

of our customer-experience efforts.

beyond what customers did with a

Instead of owning and controlling

bank or what they did online, but

the goal of creating positive cus-

encompassing what they did with

tomer experience, we shared our

their finances socially and in other

vision and our methods across the

FEATURE

ferentiator. As a service industry,

that took a long time. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do

we had to think about the servicing

formal training across the group,

consequences of our online prod-

nor did we mandate a new process.

ucts and experience. And of course,

Instead, we created converts in

as a public company, we needed to

every project we touched using our

make a profit in our endeavors. The diagram below displays

set of well-designed, easy-to-use

how each party needed to col-

UCD tools such as those mentioned

laborate with the other in order to

above made the experience teams

arrive at the optimal solution that

more credible and put us in the

fits all objectives, including the

position of guiding the process of

objective of doing it right by the

concept definition and design for

customer. (In a different industry,

our business partners.

where the impact to the environment is a significant part of the

difference: We created PowerPoint

outcome, environment can also be

templates for our profiles and sce-

constraint/enabler.) As we collabo-

nario starters, and put the quantita-

rated with our partners across the

tive information supporting our user

organization, we acknowledged that

task models into Excel. This allowed

customer-experience competency is

our business partners to engage

not the center of our organization,

with the tools without having to

but it is an equal partner with all

rely on the design team. Over time,

the other groups that take part in

project by project, we dramatically

creating the customer experience. We saw our role as that of

our group. Now product managers

facilitator. Undeniably, in our

demand that we include the cus-

development process, the product

tomer in every step of our product

managers lead and the project man-

development process.

agers get things done. The value

We believed in collaboration.

rience team is to provide timely,

a hand in shaping our customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

relevant insights and expertise for

experience could arrive at the right

good decision-making around creat-

solution in their silos, since they

ing experiences. requires the customer-experience

was no exception. As a highly regu-

team to play the role of the facilita-

lated industry, we had to think of

tor. We do so by: 1) asking the right

compliance and legal as strategic

questions, 2) going to the right

partners. As an online channel, we

partners for the right answers,

had to think of technology as a dif-

and 3) creating a forum that sup-

Task Model (intentionally masked)

model for optimizing customer experiences

Acting on our value proposition

The customer-experience group

a User

a Our

proposition of our customer-expe-

None of the disciplines that have

each had a limited vantage point.

0%/0,% 02/#%33

a Managing Finances Mental Model (intentionally masked)

Januar y + Februar y 2008

changed the culture and language of

#USTOMER 6ALUE

interactions

Even simple steps made a large

#534/-%2

4%#(./,/'9

UCD methods. Having a flexible

"53).%33

group. This was a grassroots effort

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

a User

Profile

tools enable the business people,

we have emerged from thinking

designers, researchers and strate-

that we are a service channel to

gists to make meaning together

thinking that we are also a buying

cocreatively, a necessity in an envi-

channel, to now believing that we

ronment where no one functional

are here to maximize long-term

area can hold all, or even most, of

customer value. This is now the

the knowledge necessary for creat-

focus of our channel, and how we

ing customer value. The willingness

prioritize and judge our success.

to invite full participation is a key

Our challenges today are more

factor that continues to push Wells

around enhancing our methods to

Fargo to become increasingly cus-

quantify the gains from good cus-

tomer-centric.

tomer experience, and less around

We made customer experience a strategic discipline.

I started as a

proving that customer experience is an equal partner at the table.

strategist, then managed our cus-

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

a Scenario

tomer-experience design team, then

What do I Hope For the Future?

integrated the customer insight

Our success doesn’t speak to the

functions into the customer-

power of the customer-experience

experience team, and finally came

group, but to the power of harness-

full circle to managing the strategy

ing the insight from our customers

function. However, my most recent

and utilizing it at every step of the

management position included a

process. I believe all customer-

major change: The customer-expe-

experience teams that are able to

rience function is now an essential

develop and share the voice of the

and integrated part of our strat-

customer have this inherent power,

egy group. In my current team,

and I see that some organizations

we don’t have a separate group of

are beginning to recognize it. Five

ports cross-group collaboration

strategists. Instead, we have dif-

years ago, when I told people I man-

(facilitating giving and receiving

ferent disciplines represented that

aged customer experience, they

of help and insights). We believe

each contribute to our strategy: UI

thought I ran a call center, as “expe-

that the right solution is within

design, information architecture,

rience” was synonymous with ser-

reach for each of the initiatives we

content strategy, customer com-

vicing. (Right now, we have servic-

undertake. But it does take focus

munications, servicing experience,

ing and banker experience as part

and determination to identify it

product management, strategic

of our integrated team). When I told

and not yield to the pressures of

planning, market research, user

people I designed the website, they

launch dates. Here, too, the UCD

research, syndicated research, met-

thought I was a graphic artist.

tools play a role in how we facili-

rics analysis, statistical modeling,

Now organizations are begin-

tate brainstorming sessions, and

process consulting, business archi-

ning to understand and accept the

how we constantly integrate the

tecture, innovation, and business

customer-experience discipline as

results of qualitative studies with

development. My group works with

a critical business discipline that

quantitative analysis to support

product and marketing groups to

spans all processes, from sales and

well-informed decision making.

develop the best solutions for our

marketing to HR. It’s exciting that

customers.

the topic is now part of business

Starter

We facilitate user-centered design working sessions with our

We evolved our focus to maximize

school curricula and that it gets

business partners, which allows us

customer value. My team’s collec-

wide media and analyst coverage.

to humanize the activities of expe-

tive goal is to create positive cus-

Still, there are many aspects of my

rience design, project prioritization,

tomer experiences, which should

life as a consumer that I regret, and

and business case definition by

lead to long-term customer value.

I can’t wait until the day that com-

keeping real people and their stories

As we have evolved our thinking

panies that I interact with shape up

at the center of the problems we

and management of the online

their offerings. I see my job and the

were solving. The UCD process and

channel in the past five years,

discipline as just having started,

FEATURE

and I see many more years of evan-

that collaboration requires a mul-

managers, can drive an organiza-

gelizing this new way of creating

tidisciplinary team to find the

tion toward a culture that starts

business value that includes the cus-

optimal solution that meets all

asking the right questions more

tomer as a partner in the process of

constraints. But I failed to men-

often. This will make managers in

making money for the shareholders.

tion one critical point: Money is

all disciplines better able to con-

sweet, and money now is better

nect to the right groups to get the

demand better experiences, and they

than money later. If the planning

answers to their questions. To

should vote with their wallets. It

cycle first takes into consideration

enable this, I recommend a heavier

is really hard for established com-

the potential financial return

dose of integration between Web

panies and industry leaders to

of a product concept, and then

analytics, customer analytics, mar-

change their practices and busi-

evaluates the resulting customer

ket research, design research, and

ness models to focus steadfastly on

impact along with other variables

the art and science of customer-

better customer experiences. They

such as technical viability, even

experience design.

have so much invested in their cur-

though the resulting product may

rent infrastructure that dramatic

be very profitable in the short

integration points, the complex and

changes are very complex and time

run, it will create a poor cus-

comprehensive insights of analyti-

consuming in nature. But unless

tomer experience for many. So, I

cal groups can easily get lost on a

they change, this will create oppor-

strongly recommend that product

design team trying to make a dead-

tunities for new entrants that will

managers first find a concept that

line. One tactic would be to seed

develop their business models and

creates a good customer experi-

each of these teams with at least

infrastructure from scratch around

ence, that is technically viable and

one person who is more knowledge-

a strategy that focuses on customer

serviceable, and only after that

able in the skills, tasks and chal-

experience as an essential way to

should they look for scenarios that

lenges of the other groups, so that

attain long-term customer value, as

yield an attractive net present

bridges can be formed. Another

opposed to strategies that focus on

value. Not all means justify the

tactic would be to have regular

marketing prowess, sales effective-

end of making a profit.

cross-group forums where teams

Without upfront and well-guided

Customer-experience manag-

come together around one specific

network, high switching costs, or

ers should manage an economy of

business issue each time with their

cost efficiency.

insights. Customer-experience

insights in tow. A third tactic would

managers should act as facilitators

be to recreate and expand the

lets, these new entrants will gain

for cultural and process changes

UCD tools and process to include

market share from traditional com-

that make organizations yield

input and output from all these

petitors and provide disruption.

positive customer experiences

teams. And a final, yet easily for-

Hopefully, the financial impact

more often. To do so, they should

gotten, tactic would be to do what

of such disruptions will be sig-

measure their success not by the

we preach for good experiences:

nificant, as this will dramatically

intrinsic value of the customer

periodically survey and interview

speed up the cultural change that

insights and experiences they

business partners to learn how they

is already in progress at many large

generate, but by the value of the

are using the customer-experience

companies. Some large companies

insights that get used, adopted, or

tools and insights, what they value,

have already realized this and are

implemented across their organiza-

and what they still need.

extending their management to

tions. They should be good facilita-

focus on examining and improving

tors and know that their power

customer experience. I am lucky

does not come from their tenure or

enough to be at a large company

expertise, but that it comes from

that has proactively identified this

harnessing and sharing the voice of

trend early on and is taking strides

the customer.

If customers vote with their wal-

toward implementing customerfocused strategies.

To be used widely, customer insights should be integrated, fresh,

Executives and product manag-

relevant, accessible, digestible, and

ers should approach doing business

actionable. A good insight economy,

differently.

I mentioned above

facilitated by customer-experience

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Secil Tabli Watson manages the Internet channel strategy team at Wells Fargo Bank. Customer experience is her passion. Her experience includes consulting to Fortune 1000 companies in marketing, customer service, product development, and e-learning. She is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and Cornell University.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

ness, market share, distribution

interactions

Customers should continue to

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

Design Education for Business and Engineering Management Students: A New Approach Terry Winograd Stanford University | winograd@cs.stanford.edu

Don Norman is the “Don” of interaction design, hav-

with interaction design than you would think. The

spoken, consulted, and led design research at com-

connection goes through “operations”:

panies such as Apple and HP. The progression of his

a matter of the physical products, but of the opera-

of HCI and interaction design. Every few years he has

tional processes that a company can put into place

turned the field’s attention in new directions, leading

to create an effective flow of information, materials,

to new understanding and new practical potentials.

and labor. Big manufacturing innovations come from

To oversimplify, as we must for someone as produc-

new ways of thinking about supply chains. From his

tive and wide-ranging, he has shepherded in and

engineering training, Don says it’s really all about

written key books on a series of perspective shifts:

queues and buffers. is not just the interaction an end user has with the

(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1969). This and several other

product, but with the whole range of operations that

books went along with his cofounding of the first

make that interaction work. The poster child example

Department of Cognitive Science and the Cognitive

is the iPod, which does have excellent usability design

Science Society.

but would not be successful without the whole chain that provides for music access. In some sense, the

(Doubleday 1988). This book led to much of the cur-

success of the iPod is the success of iTunes, which in

rent HCI research agenda, along with the cognitive

turn is not a program but a service.

agenda and a long relationship with Jakob Nielsen in usability consulting. • Emotion and affect in Emotional Design: Why We

No product or service is successful without a front end and a back end, but design as now practiced usually concentrates on the front end rather than

Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2003).

the operations-centric design of the back end. Don’s

Having led the study of people as “cognitive proces-

vision for the future of interaction design is to extend

sors,” Don shifted attention to the role that emotions

our reach from improving the design of the product in

play in our interactions with everyday objects.

hand to designing the larger ecosystem—the service

• Business in The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Januar y + Februar y 2008

• The essence of successful interactive products

Attention: An introduction to human information processing

• Usability in The Design of Everyday Things,

interactions

• The essence of successful manufacturing is not

interests and insights over the years has led the path

• Cognition as an empirical science in Memory and

Don’s insight is that manufacturing has more to do

ing written several of the most influential books and

infrastructure that makes the product really work. He

Can Fail (The MIT Press, 1998). After his experiences

believes that the confluence of operations and design

at Apple and HP, his attention was directed to all the

has great power. He wants interaction designers to

things that make the difference between successful

move beyond being critics of devices to being innova-

and unsuccessful products, beyond their user design.

tors in the value chain—contributing solutions, not

So at this point, what can we expect next from

just finding problems. Interaction designers need to

Don? The seemingly unlikely context is that his cur-

be able to frame their contributions in terms of the

rent project is to develop a new teaching program

bottom lines that will motivate companies to move

at Northwestern University: a “design track” in the

their designs into real use.

Master of Manufacturing and Management program

So it’s not so surprising that his current collabora-

(MMM). The new program is a joint enterprise between

tion is with a business school (Don codirects the pro-

the Kellogg School of Business and the McCormick

gram with business professor Sudhakar Deshmukh).

Engineering School (http:// mmm.northwestern.edu).

The new program is a design track within the two-

But why manufacturing?

year master’s degree MMM program. Students will

(P)REVIEW EDITOR Fred Sampson wfreds@acm.org

Yip-Wah Chung

receive both an MBA and a master’s in engineering

agement at Cornell, and the curriculum in “integra-

management, but they won’t become designers! That

tive thinking” at the Rotman School in Toronto. But

is another key insight that drives this program, as

MMM’s focus on the design of operations is unique. The structure of the program is still evolving, but

school (a one-year master’s degree in engineering

the basic outlines are clear. Students in the MMM

design and innovation). To get design into effective

design track will take courses along with other MBA

practice, you need to train designers and also to teach

students in the three basic components of business—

the people they work with how to understand, incor-

finance, marketing, and operations—and will do an

porate, and foster design. The programs aim to train

industry internship. The design track will add new

businesspeople and engineers to work with design-

courses on the operations side, taught by both the

ers, not to turn them into one-year design wonders.

regular faculty and consulting faculty with experi-

This philosophy is also at the heart of new programs

ence in design, such as Karen Holtzblatt of InContext

around the world, such as the Stanford d.school,

and Larry Keeley from Doblin Design. Students in the

which talks about creating “T-shaped people.” Such

engineering design and innovation program (codi-

people maintain the depth and focus of a single dis-

rected by Ed Colgate) will join the MMM designers in

cipline while adding a “crossbar” of design thinking

this series of courses, which includes an integrative

that drives the integration of multiple perspectives

project course in which a small group works with a

into solving real problems.

company on a real design problem.

The interdisciplinary commitment of MMM is

Of course, this will all change as they try it out.

deep—not just a combination of perspectives in the

Don admits that he really doesn’t know yet what he

courses, but a focus on how to make that combi-

will be doing. As he said, “I never understand what

nation work in organizations. The goal is to foster

I’m working on while I’m working on it. When I do,

design thinking in the managers and engineers who

I write a book and move on.” At this point the book

will work with designers—a goal that will produce

isn’t yet written; this review of the program is pro-

the people who IDEO CEO Tim Brown says are criti-

spective. Don is well aware of the problems that lie

cal to the design-driven organization. There needs to

ahead in turning a good idea into effective action.

be an interplay between the HCI point of view (the

This program is one of many experiments in design

end users looking into the system from their outside

teaching going on around the world, and a few years

vantage point) and the operations point of view (the

from now we’ll all read the books and help write the

structure and functioning of the whole system, from

next chapter in interaction design.

the inside). Design will require optimizing from multiple points of view. The Northwestern University design program as a whole is intended to complement existing HCI and design programs (of which there are several in the Chicago area) and to put greater focus on a business perspective than interdisciplinary programs that grew out of product design, such as Stanford’s d.school. It is philosophically aligned with programs such as the joint MBA and design program at the Institute of Design, the master of engineering man-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Terry Winograd’s focus is on human-computer interaction design, with a focus on the theoretical background and conceptual models. He directs the teaching programs and HCI research in the Stanford Human-Computer Interaction Group. He is also a founding faculty member of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the “d.school”). Winograd was also a founding member and past president of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. He is on a number of journal editorial boards, including Human Computer Interaction, ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, and Informatica, and is the author of many books.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

well as its companion program in the engineering

Sam Levitan

interactions

Mary Hanlon

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

Designing for Disagreement Paul Burke Thinktiv| pburke@thinktiv.com

Creativity is a leap of faith into

individual approach should still

ground through clear and col-

unknown territory, and the key

be respected—the value of design

lective definition. It is essential

attribute of a creative problem

for today and tomorrow lies with

to understanding the task ahead

solver is the ability to make the

understanding collaborative prob-

and clears the path for rapid,

appropriate leaps. It is through

lem solving, the methods that

efficient ideation. Without it proj-

a methodology—whether implicit

enable a fluid design process, and

ects spin out of control and lead

or explicit—that a creative mind

the value of disagreement in solv-

to costly changes at later stages,

can navigate a problem space,

ing complex problems.

when investments have already been made.

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

know when to make a leap, and

determine how that leap will aid

Thinking

in delivering a richer solution. But

As one of the two conjoined parts

collective definition can be diffi-

as defined, this event is a singu-

of the design process, thinking

cult. As mentioned above, creativ-

lar creative process. One person

needs an upgrade. In a collabora-

ity is a singular act. Individuals

collects information, synthesizes

tive design group, and with the

do creative things, and they tend

it, and produces a creative result.

increasing complexity of prob-

to do them their own way. Herb

The difficulty of methodology

lems, thinking cannot simply be

Simon introduced the concept of

comes when individuals are asked

a private act within an individual

“bounded rationality”—the idea

to join a group and work together

designer. It needs to be a capabil-

that in a complex world, deci-

to solve a problem.

ity that transcends the individual

sion making takes place within

and reaches every layer of the

an environment of incomplete

munity is being engaged to solve

design problem from team and

information and uncertainty. In

are compounding in complex-

project management all the way

that world, decisions are made

ity. As a result, what used to be

down to the specific needs and

through individually learned and

something one person could solve

requirements of an artifact in the

interpreted schemas and heu-

alone now requires participation

process. At every stage of the pro-

ristics [1]. For a designer, their

by a group of complementary col-

cess, thinking and theorizing are

specific training and sets of expe-

laborators. With such problems,

essential to engaging in solution-

riences are those schemas and

the ways in which individuals solve

improving debates and dialogues.

heuristics. Collaboration requires

The problems the design com-

[1] Simon, Herbert, ed. The Sciences of the Artificial, 2nd ed. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981.

problems have become less use-

Shared Understanding.

However, getting to a clear and

The

that the individuals understand

ful than the ways a collaborative

first part of thinking with a

how to resolve these differences

team solves a problem. While the

group is getting to a common

and find a common ground.

FEATURE

from tuning and tweaking of language to wholesale objection.

come to the table as individu-

definition. Collaborators should

This is outstanding—it’s where

als with their own judgments

think as egolessly and objectively

all of the individuality and inde-

about what output is needed and

as possible about the problem.

pendent creative sparks can be

how to solve a problem. On some

They should seek out information

captured, discussed, debated, and

level they will have no choice

and provide ideas from every per-

brought into a common shared

but to disagree. Prior to present-

spective imaginable to determine

view of the problem territory.

ing thoughts and ideas about the

the extent of the problem. To bor-

Shelley Evenson, head of the mas-

project/problem, collaborators

row a term from the film indus-

ter’s program at Carnegie Mellon

should first acknowledge the

try, collaborators should attempt

University, calls this mapping the

need for structure, establish the

to suspend disbelief [2] to drive out

territory and we see it as the first

governing principles of the team

the true values, objectives, and

stage of designing for disagree-

(including the desire to focus

opportunities within the problem

ment. As an additional output,

on the problem, mutual respect,

space, including an analysis of

definition by disagreement should

motivation to make progress,

the business values, technologi-

result in a set of terms, common

a general agreement about the

cal limitations, and requirements

as well as unique, that are vital to

problem solving sequence, and

of the audience. This collabora-

the discussion and resolution of

egolessness). Following that,

tive exploration will result in the

the model and territory. By estab-

designers can proceed into the

large set of items and concepts

lishing the specific definitions

discovery and definition of the

that make up the space of the

of these terms as an amended

problem. Such guidelines will set

problem to be solved.

glossary to the model, the two become reference artifacts that

the boundaries for disagreement

From this set, visualization

by separating out organizational

of the ideas into a model allows

will be a platform on which to

issues from the project issues. By

everyone—on a single surface—to

make changes, a map to plan

formalizing a set of protocols for

see the scale, scope, and relation-

design activities, and a tool to

debate, mediation, and issue reso-

ships between parts of the prob-

mediate disagreement.

lution, the team can have a more

lem and begin to create a model

dedicated, focused investigation

of the problem. Throughout the

organizations tend to architect

of the problem without involving

development of the model, there

hierarchical activities to create

team politics.

will be a range of disagreements

a unique, repeatable, and some-

Enough Process.

Design

[2] Wikipedia; http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Suspension_of_disbelief

Januar y + Februar y 2008

At this point the team will begin the initial stage of project

interactions

When approaching a new design problem, all collaborators

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

[3] Rittel, Horst http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wicked_problems

times proprietary methodology.

know each other’s capabilities

solution. He believed that with

While this is good from a busi-

and the scope of the problem.

the increasing complexity of the

ness-model standpoint, it doesn’t

They can then pick the methods

world, seeking anything more

work well as problems become

that will best derive the result

than “good enough” is impractical.

more complex and unique, or

from the unique team-member

wicked. As defined by Rittel,

expertise, the breadth of experi-

cess, designers learn constantly.

“Wicked problems have incom-

ence with the problem type and

Knowledge acquisition across

plete, contradictory, and changing

subject, and the information

multiple lines of inquiry allows

requirements, and solutions to

available. These activities can

the designer to see a problem

them are often difficult to recog-

be iterative, cyclical, linear, or

in perspective. The value of

nize as such because of complex

singular depending on the situ-

the designer lies in the ability

interdependencies.” In addition,

ation, team capabilities, budget,

to objectively synthesize that

“while attempting to solve a

constraints and accuracy of the

knowledge. However, with so

wicked problem, the solution of

inputs.

much information in the world

Through the discovery pro-

one of its aspects may reveal or

Working fluidly, teams can

create another, even more com-

swap, reorder, and reconsider

stand and properly reflect back,

plex problem [3].” Different tools

activities to make them appropri-

there is a propensity to be overly

and resources are required to

ate or irrelevant to the solution

thorough. The differentiator in

solve a wicked problem, and it

based on the constraints of the

designers is the ability to know

is expected that those tools will

work, thereby saving time and

when something is good enough

change throughout the discovery

money and allowing for a more

and move on to the next activ-

of the solution in response to

direct focus on the activities

ity—to factor the singular output

findings. For these types of prob-

that have the highest impact.

into the bigger picture of the

lems, a fixed method can become

Disagreement with proposed

problem being solved. This notion

too prescriptive and limiting.

activities is expected and should

of knowing when to stop results

Designers can no longer afford

be embraced as a continued

from deciding what constitutes a

to strictly rely on and faithfully

opportunity to maintain and

satisfactory outcome and looking

implement a process as written.

grow the shared understanding of

for ways to achieve that outcome

They must proactively engage

the team. When disagreeing and

by optimizing action instead of

more fluidly in problem solving by

evaluating, teams should remem-

maximizing action.

constantly thinking about what

ber to use as much process as is

tool or task is necessary to solve

necessary, but not too much to

in a constant state of change due

which problem.

overwhelm the problem with val-

to technological, cultural, and

ueless exercises.

business drivers. The speed of

For problems that resemble previous ones, the existing meth-

Suffice Satisfactorily.

The more

and the designer’s quest to under-

Products and solutions are all

change is outpacing traditional

ods or patterns can be a point

unknown the territory of these

design processes. As a result, it

of departure. However, they

complex problems, the more dif-

is no longer important to quest

should be used only as a baseline

ficult it is to know what the right

for perfection in design problem

to model the project. The team

answer is to that problem. Mixing

solving, but to build a series of

should be cautious of the specific

“satisfactory” and “suffice,” Herb

satisfactory answers that add up

differences between the previous

Simon proposed the term “satis-

to something great. For instance,

and current problem and select

fice” to describe a decision-mak-

quality is still vitally important,

activities that best fit the problem

ing process that allows people

but is simply one of the given

at hand—not activities that are

to make decisions that meet the

needs that define the goals of the

most familiar.

given needs of a problem rather

output. And while quality and

than searching for the optimal

good thinking are vital to the

For new problems, teams must

FEATURE

delivery of design solutions, it is

clients, audiences and peers in a

isolate the product, the problem,

increasingly important to make

way that can elicit response and

the purpose and the people in the

something, get it done, and get

expose new opportunity. (For

problem, arrange them spatially,

the solution into the marketplace.

example, Hugh Dubberly rein-

and make a platform for making

Satisficing offers the designer

forces this point in this magazine

decisions.

the ability to optimize actions in

through one of his visual expla-

The designer should continu-

favor of quicker results.

nations; see page 28) By way of

ally balance the micro-focus and

training in the craft of making,

the macro-focus to ensure that

Making

the analysis and synthesis of

ideas and information track back

In the collaborative design world,

content, and the study of people

to the master objectives and

clear focus on the objective is

and culture, designers can distill

don’t stray from the vision and

one of the primary requirements

information into something more

ideals of the project. Designers

of efficient design problem solv-

useful, interesting, approach-

should also not hesitate to take

ing. Creativity and interpretation

able, and visual. Knowing this, it

a step backward in the project to

are vital to the exploration of a

is best for the designer to “make

seek out other evidence that can

problem, but without governance

early and make often.” This is

deepen and broaden understand-

and constraint, they derive unfo-

visual decision making—or syn-

ing when needed and appropriate.

cused results. Boundaries allow

thesis and distillation with the

Often, one small step back to look

for more explicit exploration of

express purpose of generating a

at the whole problem makes way

concepts and ideas that propel

reaction. Designers should use

for discontinuous leaps forward.

the project forward by ruling out

the output of visual decision

the unimportant. With the shared

making as a conduit to disagree

that, in addition to being visually

understanding of the project

with team members, stakehold-

focused, people are also becom-

problem territory, the rules of

ers, clients, and audiences in an

ing increasingly aware of their

collaboration, and the framework

effort of finding the true answers

likes and dislikes—and are rather

for thinking about and solving

to the problem—to get informa-

vocal in their position about these

the problem in place, making

tion out of Word documents and

preferences. To put it another

becomes of primary importance.

into a form that is more engaging.

way, people are getting increas-

Throughout the entire life cycle

ingly disagreeable. In working

say a picture is worth a thou-

of a project, designers should be

with clients and audiences, the

sand words, or according to Ivan

making artifacts with the pur-

designer has the opportunity to

Turgenev, “A picture shows me

pose of presenting a visual argu-

embrace this fact as an opportu-

at a glance what it takes dozens

ment. This argument should be

nity. By approaching the situation

of pages of a book to expound”

egolessly delivered as a logical,

without ego, the designer can use

[4]. People agree with Ivan. They

structural representation of the

the presentation and feedback

respond to visual information

solution derived from synthesized

process to collect more data from

far better than they do to long

information. This could be a dia-

the audience for further synthesis

prose. (As a matter of fact, this is

grammatic model, a wireframe

and iteration.

probably right at the point where

of an interface, a screenshot of

you wish it was a picture. See

a website, a 3D rendering of a

of a complete project process, the

page 47)

product, or any of a number of

output is a product, service, or

outputs depending on the proj-

solution that will have a life in

tiating capabilities of a designer

ect requirements and the activ-

the marketplace. As such, each

is the ability to visualize business

ity selected. Regardless of the

idea will ultimately need to have

problems and present that visual

output, the primary function of

a visual appeal that projects an

argument back to stakeholders,

making visual information is to

image of quality and confidence

One of the unique and differen-

Visual Language.

At the close

[4] Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons. Russia, 1862. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ A_picture_is_worth_a_ thousand_words

Januar y + Februar y 2008

They

interactions

Visual decision making.

Designers need to remember

Key Process, Management, & Organizational Interactions

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

[5] Pacione, Chris and Margaret McCormack. “Designing for an Internet Speed Up.” Bodymedia lecture, 2001

to the consumer. Therefore, the

integrated into the solution

be considered, assessed, defined,

design team shouldn’t save and

itself. This allows for a quicker

refined, and rejected across all

build visual language exclusively

product release by removing the

levels of the problem; it should

for the final artifact, but should

need to brand after the product

also be governed by and with the

instead bring visual attributes

is developed and by debating

same rigor as the problem defini-

into the process early. For both

the technical issues well before

tion process. Collaborators should

new and existing brands, embed-

the engineering has been done.

drive out the unique to build a

ding graphic language into the

Additionally, it fosters quicker

vernacular that is differentiated,

visual vernacular of the process

adoption by decision makers

protectable, and that resonates

at the start will build passion for

because they have been a part of

with the audience it is intended

the approach that aids in the col-

the brand’s growth and develop-

to serve.

lective support for the idea with-

ment throughout the growth of

out the need for the “big” design

the solution [5].

presentation.

The Impact of Language.

Emotion and Egolessness.

There

exists an interesting dichotomy in For

the mind of the designer. Armed

brands and new market innova-

with empathy and experience,

ing brand structure, the character

tion, words have become increas-

designers are capable of getting

and rules of combination for that

ingly important. As concepts

into the heads and hearts of

brand can serve as guardrails

and ideas get more complex and

users to uncover the motivating

for the design team. Endorsing

the marketplace becomes more

values for a product or activity.

the brand language can remove

saturated, tone, voice, and lan-

Over time, experience allows

the need to generate an original

guage are quickly becoming key

the designer to gain confidence

graphic language as part of the

differentiators in the cluttered

and make the right choices that

design process and may serve as

world. Overwhelmed consumers

lead to a quicker or better result.

the foundation to build a more

are gravitating toward products

With the increase in confidence,

robust brand attribute library

that resonate emotionally or

ego can often follow. While con-

throughout the process. The bene-

can accurately and effectively

fidence through experience is an

fit to the client organization is that

communicate the reasons to

important and useful trait for

with branded models and illustra-

believe in their offering—ignoring

designers, ego can make collabo-

tions, the artifacts of discovery

those that don’t. Therefore, for

ration difficult. Part of the shared

and synthesis can be used to

any answer to any opportunity,

understanding in a project group

extend the vision and ideas of the

semantics are a vital component

is that everyone on the collabora-

design team to communicate the

of the process. Definitions have to

tion team is a peer respected for

territory and new opportunities

be descriptive of the precise posi-

their opinions and experiences.

to internal and external audiences.

tion and intent of the solution but

The influence of ego in a group

For new innovations, aligning

must also have a tone that meets

changes the dynamic, moving

to a graphic style brings passion

the consumer on their level. If it

focus away from the project and

to the group. Over the course

misses, it will be ignored.

removing the fluidity of team

For projects that involve exist-

thought. Though it is a fine line

of the process, each participant

Language should be argued

(both team member and client)

to seek out the most appropri-

to walk, designers need to be

will build a relationship to the

ate terms for a concept. The

confident enough to believe in the

solution by watching it come to

disagreement and dialogue will

value they bring without reaching

life before their eyes—not dis-

either result in the assignment

the level of ego.

similar from watching a child

of a term, removal because it is

grow up. In addition, by building

deemed inferior or coopted, or the

and tasks themselves, emotion

the brand into the product or idea

invention of an entirely new term.

derived from confidence and

along the way, the brand becomes

As a constant, language should

interest in the subject lead to pas-

As it pertains to projects

FEATURE

sion and energy. These are moti-

solve a design problem regardless

vating influencers for everyone

of a particular process. The prob-

in the group. When one person

lem solver must be confident,

becomes passionate, the energy

assertive, inquisitive, pragmatic,

Terms of Reference

of the team increases. As another

empathetic, and passionate. Each

fine line in this process, passion

designer must value themselves

can sometimes lead to overwork.

and their opinions but also be

With wicked problems, time-

respectful of the opinions and

1. Egolessness: In psychology, egolessness is an emotional state where one feels no ego (or self); of having no distinct being apart from the world around oneself.

lines can sometimes be quite long

experiences of others on their

and include a variety of activities

team. They must not only under-

and tasks with varied purposes.

stand how to execute on tasks but

Some activities are intended to

they must also be able to rise out

result in more questions, some

of a task and look holistically at

are meant to add to the final solu-

the problem, considering all parts

tion, and some eventually become

of the system from the business

the final solution. Designers need

issues to people management to

to be passionate enough about

production requirements. They

the problem, the process, and the

can no longer strictly sit inside

output to know when to stop—

the task and rely on the process

they need to realize when they

to carry them through. Instead

have satisficed. When creating

the designer must become fluid,

anything from any point within

moving freely between thinking

the project timeline, designers

and making as each new situa-

need to take note of the purpose

tion emerges. And ultimately, the

of the task and use the appropri-

designer must learn to use visual

ate amount of energy to get the

decision making as a way of pre-

item to where it needs to be for

senting synthesized thoughts to

the moment, or to make it “good

generate a response—disagree-

enough.” And with tasks that

able or not.

2. Methodology: a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity 3. Method: a particular form of procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, esp. a systematic or established one 4. Process: a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end 5. Philosophy: the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience 6. Standard: a level of quality or attainment 7. Satisfice: “Satisficing” means deciding what constitutes a satisfactory outcome and then looking for ways to achieve it. We stop looking when when we have “satsficed.” (See http://web.uvic. ca/akeller/pw408/r_satisfice. html)

attached to an artifact, as that attachment will lead to a skewed perspective when receiving feedback. Though they can certainly argue the position that led to the visual choices, designers must be willing to receive the disagreements from peers and clients openly and honestly. Collaborating The difficulty of fluid collaboration is that everyone in the organization needs to have an impassioned understanding of how to

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul is the co-founder of thinktiv, a design innovation consultancy. (www.thinktiv. com). His firm is dedicated to visualizing business through passion, empathy, creativity, and business alignment to make discontinuous improvements for clients. Additionally, Paul holds a position as lead designer for the ITSqc at Carnegie Mellon, where he creates diagrams, visualizations, products and materials for all audiences of the eSCM solutions. With a B.A. and graduate coursework from the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Paul has spent the past decade developing his skills in both large corporations and small studio settings, including Wall to Wall Studios, Trilogy and his previous consultancy, Inkwell Studio.

interactions

need to be cautious to not get too

Januar y + Februar y 2008

result in visual choices, designers

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

FORUM

THAT’S ENTERTAINMNT EDITOR Dennis Wixon denniswi@microsoft.com

Halo 3: The Theory and Practice of a Research-Design Partnership Dennis Wixon Microsoft Game Studios | denniswi@microsoft.com

Randy Pagulayan Microsoft Game Studios | Randy.Pagulayan@microsoft.com In the September-October issue of interactions, cre-

users play the game. By synchronizing both behavior-

ative director for the Windows Core Innovation Team,

al and aesthetic measures we were able to provide the

August de los Reyes, and I described an approach

design team key evidence of when their intent was

to designing emotionally engaging products. The

not realized. Without both of these measures design-

approach is based on the James-Lange theory—a

ers would not have been able to make fully informed

pioneering theory of emotion that places physi-

decisions regarding design changes.

“readout” based on our activity and the context in

Three key characteristics of the data reporting were: 1. Data reported very quickly.

As many of you

which it occurs. This has clear implications for what

realize, timeliness of data is a key to effectiveness.

user researchers focus on during the design of prod-

Toward the end of any development project, hard

ucts, and speaks toward the relationship between

decisions must be made to get the product out the

researchers and designers as they work together to

door. No one can “wait for the data to come in.” So

create compelling products.

for us, every second counts. There is little time to

In the article mentioned above, we pointed out

spend doing a thorough analysis on thousands of

the parallels between this approach and the frame-

data points. In Halo 3, we needed to be able to col-

work of mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics that is

lect hundreds of hours of player time over a week-

used extensively in game design developed by Marc

end and turn around our recommendations within a

Leblanc (http://algorithmancy.8kindsoffun.com/).

day or two.

In that approach designers control mechanics; the

2. Data reporting that speaks to designers.

behavior of players is considered dynamics and the

Although we are the experts in our field and in data

conclusions that players reach about the game are

analysis, we should stop assuming our partners can’t

aesthetics. Halo 3 is an example of the application of

handle looking at numbers. One of the key facets to

this framework and the James-Lange theory.

our approach was presenting the player experience

Halo 3 is the third game in the Halo series; it is

using numbers and charts directly to designers and

a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios

letting them do some exploration themselves. The

for the Microsoft Xbox 360. The game, released in

behavioral data we collected was analyzed and plot-

late September 2007, holds the record for the highest

ted in terms that made sense to the designers, such

grossing opening day in entertainment history, mak-

as the location of player deaths during a mission.

ing $170 million in its first 24 hours. This achieve-

The reporting system supported easy, one-click drill-

ment is even more striking when we consider that

down to deeper levels. This required investment up

most videogames lose money.

front in terms of the research questions they wanted

During the design of Halo 3, we were able to collect

answered, and our being able to build views of data

and analyze large amounts of behavioral data and

that were simple to understand and easy to identify

monitor conclusions users reached about the game.

problems in.

This combination of behavior and conclusions was

3. Data reporting that links quantitative and qualitaStraightforward linking between quanti-

critical. Games designers are reaching for an aesthet-

tive data.

ic experience—an emotional conclusion about the

tative data (number of deaths) and qualitative data

game. But that aesthetic experience is based on how

reporting (video) was another critical factor. Starting

Januar y + Februar y 2008

product of emotion. In this approach emotions are a

interactions

cal activity as the source of emotions, rather than a

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FORUM

THAT’S ENTERTAINMNT

with quantitative data provided us and designers

forced the team to step out of their normal role and

with the means to detect problems. Drilling deeper

become “player” again, giving them the ability to see

provided understanding. Drilling all the way down

things they normally wouldn’t have.

to video provided data in its full context and helped

Although this work has also been described in

make the findings actionable. In other words, both

some depth in Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/

the researchers and designers could see where prob-

issue/15-09/), in this essay we’ve presented the

lems were and how to fix them.

theory behind the work and the strategic context of

In addition to having a toolkit that was based on

the work.

these principles, we developed a strategic approach to

Finally and most important, without the com-

our research for Halo 3 based on our previous experi-

mitment and creativity of the Bungie team, the best

ence with Halo 2:

research in the world would make no difference. Our

1. Combined formative and summative evaluation.

duty as user researchers is to produce the clearest,

In Halo 2 most of our user-testing efforts on the

timeliest, most holistic, and most actionable data

single-player campaign were formative. Every ses-

possible. We’ve outlined how we did that for Halo 3.

sion was about drilling down into that week’s version

We wish every user research the opportunity to work

of the game, finding problems, and fixing problems

with a team like Bungie at least once in their career.

from the previous week. In Halo 3 we extended this

Life is short, have fun.

by adding a summative component to our measures.

to week and over the course of all of our testing. We were measuring the entire game experience as a whole, as opposed to just focusing on the drill-down details. 2. Address broader organizational needs.

We’re all

familiar with reasons why user experience profes-

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Dennis Wixon leads a team of more than 20 at Microsoft Game Studios, which provides consulting and research to make games fun. He is also a member of the User Experience Leadership Team, a corporate steering group. Dennis previously worked at Digital Entertainment Corporation and has been an active member of CHI. He has authored many articles on methodology and co-edited Field Methods Casebook for Software Design (John Wiley & Sons).

sionals use real consumers as the major source of data collection. What we need to remember, though, is that many of our processes for data collection can also be applied to those working on the product. The Halo 3 team participated in internal playtesting at strategic points in the development cycle to give them a chance to experience the entire game experience in a “clean” way. This was critical, because it

Randy Pagulayan has led user research efforts on multiple games at Microsoft Game Studios, including Halo 2 (Xbox) and Halo 3 (Xbox 360). Randy also co-authored several book chapters on usercentered design in games and has been an invited speaker for the Nielsen Norman User Experience Event in 2003 and the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen in 2005. Most recently, he was featured in a cover story in Wired magazine (September 2007).

interactions

several important high-level constructs from week

Januar y + Februar y 2008

It was important to us to track how we were doing on

Addressing Critical Issues

Designing for the Last Billion Gabriel White frog design | gabriel.white@frogdesign.com

In the developing world, access to

ing almost 7 million new mobile

challenges by providing an icon-

mobile phones can have a signifi-

phone users each month, many of

driven user interface that is sup-

cant positive impact on people’s

whom will not be literate.

ported by audio voice prompts.

lives. Phones can increase the

At present, effective use of almost all digital systems

describe the names of functions

ing farmers with better access to

requires relatively advanced lev-

and guide users through basic

information and markets; they

els of literacy. How do people who

tasks. The process of setting the

can give tradesmen the abil-

cannot read learn to use digital

alarm, for example, is explained

ity to serve customers beyond

systems? How can people navi-

verbally as users step through

their immediate area. In parts of

gate, understand, and make use

the task. Significant efforts

Africa, phones are being used to

of the functions of these tools?

were made to provide the voice

alert unemployed people to job

And how can we, as designers,

prompts not just in dominant

opportunities, health informa-

help make this possible? Many

national languages, but also in

tion, and more. Research by the

standard working assumptions

regional dialects—six languages

London Business School found

just do not apply when creating

for India alone.

that an increase in 10 mobile

digital products for a nonliter-

phones per 100 people can boost

ate population. The research and

considered a competence that is

the GDP growth of a developing

design for MotoFone, a Motorola

solely individual. Jan Chipchase

country by up to 0.6 percentage

mobile phone crafted specifically

of Nokia describes the phenom-

points. There are social benefits,

for use in developing countries,

enon of “proximate literacy,”

as well: For the vast populations

offers some unique insights into

wherein people by themselves

of migrant workers in developing

these issues.

may not be able to use a mobile

maintain relationships with fam-

Literacy and Design

become competent with the

ily at home.

Most people have some level of

assistance of others (see www.

literacy. Most people can read

janchipchase.com). There is almost

difficult challenges in making

numbers; many “nonliterate” peo-

always someone in a person’s

mobile phones usable to these

ple can recognize at least a hand-

family or community who can

people. The UNESCO Institute for

ful of words and symbols. People

help, either by demonstrating

Statistics estimates that almost

learn enough to get by in their

how to use a product or by help-

a billion people throughout the

day-to-day lives. But many of the

ing to read instructions. In this

world lack even basic levels of lit-

basic features available in mobile

way, design patterns are not just

eracy, most of them living in poor

phones are potentially confusing

useful for helping individuals,

and developing countries. Almost

for those who cannot read. Most

but are empowering mechanisms

half are in India, Pakistan, or

functionality, beyond making

for transferring knowledge and

Nigeria. As mobile phones spread

basic phone calls, requires an

understanding between people.

rapidly through developing coun-

understanding of the compara-

If the design patterns used by

tries, the need to create products

tively complex descriptive labels

a given phone are familiar to a

that cater to nonliterate people is

and symbols used to communi-

potential instructor, the process

becoming more pressing. India’s

cate the product’s capabilities and

of transferring knowledge to a

telecoms regulation body claims

interaction paradigm.

novice becomes easier. Because

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Unfortunately, there are some

interactions

However, literacy should not be

phone, but are able to learn and

countries, mobile phones help

The voice prompts are used to

sale price of produce by provid-

that this country alone is add-

MotoFone addresses these

of this, products need to be

FEATURE

designed not just for end users, but also for their instructors. Designing for familiarity means that designers should rely more heavily on mimicking real-world interactions and commonly understood metaphors. Conceptual metaphor or abstraction has much more potential to cause confusion for people who are not literate than for those who can read. Considerable effort went into the design of each of the icons used in MotoFone. In many developing countries, for example, it is important for people to know whether their phones are connected to their home networks, or roaming onto another network. This is because roaming can have a big impact on the cost of calls. The “roaming” indicator is typically a simple triangle placed next to the signal strength meter. The MotoFone research team found that this important indicator meant little to users, and that an icon showing a house with a cross through it—a metaphor that is much more closely

the on-screen content, governs

often have different effects in dif-

connected to the message—was

the pattern of interaction.

ferent contexts. For example, the “OK” button used on many mobile

advantage of our ability to repeat

phones can have a significantly

gestures makes them easier

different effect, depending on the

Gestures and Spatial Memory

to learn and use. In develop-

context in which it is used. This

Making use of spatial reason-

ing countries, most people’s

makes learning a series of ges-

ing and memory in a design can

experience using technology is

tures more difficult for users and

make it easier for people who

limited to tools such as televi-

limits the ability of the designer

cannot read to learn how to use

sions, cassette players, fixed-line

to leverage spatial memory skills.

a device. Often, nonliterate users

telephones, and cars or motor-

This problem is compounded by

make use of spatial memory to

cycles. For most of these kinds of

the limited physical space avail-

navigate a system that would

devices, each unique control has

able for controls and displays on

otherwise require reading skills.

a unique location, appearance,

today’s functionally rich mobile

In India, for example, nonliter-

and dedicated function, making

devices.

ate people sometimes use auto-

it much easier for people (both

matic teller machines by learn-

literate and not) to use their spa-

ter take advantage of gestural

ing a series of gestures, moving

tial memory to learn and use the

and spatial memory. The keypad

from one button to the next in a

device.

was designed to reduce the need

sequence of movements that are

On mobile devices, the opposite

MotoFone was designed to bet-

for menu navigation. The address

necessary to complete the task.

is true. For all but the most basic

book, the most used function

This physical motion, rather than

digital systems, physical controls

after making and receiving phone

Januar y + Februar y 2008

audience.

Designing systems that take

interactions

far more accessible to the target

Addressing Critical Issues

calls, has a dedicated button.

Through in-country research and concept validation, the

prepaid tracking features allow

ance, also very important, is

Motorola team established a core

users to directly check their

available using a direct keypress.

feature set for MotoFone that

prepaid account balance with a

By making important functions

was both useful and appealing

single keypress. But perhaps most

directly available from the key-

to target customers. By reducing

important, many design elements

pad, MotoFone enables users to

the amount of functionality avail-

of MotoFone are focused on sup-

more easily access the phone’s

able, the main navigation could,

porting people who cannot read.

features by harnessing spatial

in turn, be flattened to a single-

memory.

level menu that provides direct

erate users creates a unique set

access to important functions. In

of demands and opportunities

this way, SMS (often necessary

for designers. When creating

Nesting functions in hierarchi-

to check prepaid account bal-

products for nonliterate people,

cal menus is in direct opposi-

ances), ringtone selection, alarm

designers should consider the fol-

tion to the design goal of taking

clock, and system clock settings

lowing best practices:

advantage of spatial memory. For

are all primary functions directly

almost every phone, the same

available from this menu. This

Understanding the competencies

physical space of the screen is

approach mitigates the need for

of the group must be considered

used to represent divergent kinds

users to remember where, within

along with those of the indi-

of information and functions, and

a complex internal hierarchy,

vidual.

there is often very little space

each piece of functionality is

available to provide orientation

located.

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

• Harness collective literacy.

• Leverage familiar images and metaphors that are culturally meaningful. Without written words,

tion shown on the screen might

Environmental Factors

appropriate design of symbols

represent an address book; in

In addition to struggling with

and icons becomes critically

another context, it is an SMS

literacy, people in developing

important.

message composer or a music

countries often have quite spe-

• Draw on well-developed skills,

player. Reusing the physical space

cific practical needs in relation

such as spatial memory. Make the

in this way runs counter to peo-

to mobile phones, compared

most of people’s ability to remem-

ple’s natural bias toward a spatial

with those living in wealthier

ber spatial relationships.

understanding of systems.

parts of the world. Through the

Bringing mobile phones to the

course of the MotoFone project,

developing world can have a con-

of mobile devices is difficult:

the Motorola research and design

siderable positive impact on peo-

Displays are small, and the func-

team spent a great deal of time

ple’s ability to improve their lives.

tional demands are high. Good

carrying out contextual research

Designing such products in an

user interfaces provide users with

in many developing world coun-

appropriate way only enhances

context about their location in

tries. The team found that phones

that opportunity.

a system (such as breadcrumbs

are very often used outside, so

in website navigation). But even

screens need to be highly read-

in typical mobile phones, this

able in direct sunlight. Power sup-

objective is often difficult to real-

plies are often unreliable, so bat-

ize. Without the luxury of large

tery life becomes a critical issue.

screens to provide orientation

And users are very price sensi-

cues, mobile phones rely heavily

tive, so tracking phone spending

on short, descriptive screen labels

is an almost continuous activity.

Addressing this in the design

Designing systems for nonlit-

Navigation and Spatial Memory

cues. In one context, the informa-

at more than 12 days. Customized

Checking a prepaid account bal-

and people’s memory of where

To address these issues,

they are in the system. For those

MotoFone makes use of a large

who cannot read, however, under-

Electronic Paper Display, like

standing these labels becomes a

those used in some e-books,

difficult task, as there are no spa-

which is exceptionally readable in

tial cues to prompt memory.

full sunlight. Battery life is rated

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gabriel White led the interaction design for MotoFone while working for Motorola in Beijing. Currently, he is a principal designer at frog design, a strategic-creative consultancy, based in Palo Alto, Calif. He has a keen interest in designing products for social change, and also publishes a blog dedicated to mobile interaction design at www. smallsurfaces.com.

FORUM

UNDER DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Gary Marsden ugaz@acm.org

New Users, New Paradigms, New Challenges Gary Marsden University of Cape Town | ugaz@acm.org

It is not surprising that the field of HCI has been closely

school education, and most will never have used a com-

bound to Moore’s law. At its inception, HCI was con-

puter before in their lives.

type of user had very clearly defined tasks and goals

The days when “internationalization” meant translating menus into the users’ home language are over. Take for a moment an idea beloved to interface

that they tried to achieve on fairly limited hardware. As

designers, held over from the office-worker days: the

Moore’s law resulted in computer technology leaking out

desktop metaphor. It loses a great deal of its efficacy

of corporations, HCI morphed to accommodate home

when applied to users who have never used a desk, fold-

usage and to look at how people set about completing

er, or filing cabinet. Before the students can be taught

less well-defined tasks. Currently, HCI has expanded to

to use a computer, they must first learn the metaphor

look at social and even whimsical applications of tech-

on which the interface is based; this tongue-in-cheek

nology. But what’s next?

double “training” is hardly an ideal situation.

It is tempting to believe that the only result of Moore’s

Much of this desktop thinking is being carried over

law is more and cheaper technology for us to use in aug-

into cellular-handset design. For example, my Sony

menting our lives. However, another side effect is that,

Ericsson K800i uses the image of a 3.5-inch floppy

for the first time ever, computer technology is afford-

disk for “save” menu items. Given that “save” is quite a

able to those who live in developing countries. With a

complex idea to convey in a few pixels, one could argue

cellular handset, many people around the world are

that the disk icon is as good as any. Fine, but then the

purchasing their first ever computer. They may not have

interface should at least be consistent to allow the users

a house, a regular job, or even access to electricity, but

to learn this new visual literacy—my Sony Ericsson

they own and use a cellular telephone.

also uses icons of memory cards to convey the notion

To place these figures in context, in South Africa

of “save,” making the interface unnecessarily complex

where I live, 77 percent of the population have a cellular

for illiterate users. Elsewhere in this issue, Gabe White

handset, but only 11 percent have access to a computer

explores how to overcome these literacy issues in the

according to the 2007 CIA World Factbook. Between 2001

Motophone by using a more consistent icon design

and 2005 the number of cellular subscribers in Africa

along with new techniques like gesture recognition and

increased from 25 million to 192 million (more than sev-

exploitation of spatial memory. Ultimately, however, we

enfold). In the same period in Europe, numbers merely

must move away from simply providing new forms of

doubled, to 759 million. And is the Internet having an

access to old functionality requirements.

impact? Data from the ITU shows that in 2006, only one

Where does one start, then, to create an experience

person in every 1000 in Africa had an Internet subscrip-

that is appropriate and effective? These users—new to

tion. In Europe this number rises two orders of magni-

the world of computing, and without a great deal of the

tude, to 110 people per 1,000.

prior tacit knowledge upon which our interface para-

So how does one design for these new and highly

digms are based—are willing to put in the time to learn

specific users? Designing for mobile devices is complex

a difficult interface provided there is a demonstrable

enough, but users in the developing world are unlike

benefit in their lives. Usability is not so important,

any that most HCI practitioners and researchers have

but utility is paramount—with limited income, there

encountered before. In Africa, at least, many of these

is little space for the luxury of a superfluous piece of

users live in a village with no electricity. They have

technology. As reflected in the adoption figures, users

few possessions—a bicycle, perhaps, and a few cooking

understand the utility of cellular handsets in a way

utensils. It is unlikely that they will have had any high

that has never occurred with the desktop PC. Mobile

Januar y + Februar y 2008

who had access to the technology—office workers. This

interactions

cerned primarily with the only large group of people

Addressing Critical Issues

handsets make sense in a society where few people can

sion and the purpose of your research when the person

afford a home with electricity. They also make sense in

you are interviewing may never have been to school and

a society where many families are separated by migrant

has no concept of data collection? In short, HCI does not

labor practices. The cellular telephone also provides a

currently offer a set of rigorous techniques for conduct-

means by which potential employees can be contacted

ing user-centered research in the developing world.

with offers of workâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;not easy when you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a

In this forum, our goal, therefore, is to work toward

front door or post box. By conducting ethnographic user

how we can best conduct effective and ethical HCI

observational studies (such as contextual inquiry) it is

research within a developing-world context. We will

possible to gain good insight into the types of problems

present case studies, field reports, and reflections on

these users experience in dealing with technology and

how HCI practice might need to change and how indi-

start to understand ways in which these devices can be

vidual researchers have overcome the obstacles they

used more creativelyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in his article Gabe White outlines

faced when conducting this type of work. To date, our

some example applications, such as provision of health

field has helped the first billion ICT users; now it is time

information.

to start thinking about the next five billion.

Less straightforward, however, are the issues that dictate how one can convert these observations into solutions. Participatory design and paper prototypes are of dubious value when working with users who have no prior exposure to technology. Furthermore, the ethics of explaining a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in such a process rapidly become complicatedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;how do you begin to explain your profes-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gary is currently employed as an associate professor in the department of computer science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He was born in Ireland, studied in Scotland, and had his first job in London. Although his background is in computer science, moving to South Africa has forced him to reconsider his views about technology in general and HCI in particular.

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Januar y + Februar y 2008

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FORUM

SUSTAINABLY OURS EDITOR Eli Blevis eblevis@indiana.edu

Two Digital Divides and Four Perspectives Eli Blevis Indiana University | eblevis@indiana.edu

to promote sustainable behaviors, and (iii) designing

manner that could not have been conceived just a

otherwise—developing a sustainable practice and

few years ago. There is clear consensus among the

cultural-economic frame for the design of interac-

scientific community that carbon-dioxide-producing

tive technologies, themselves.

human behaviors are closely linked to and a primary cause of global warming and that continuing without acting differently is unsustainable and holds disastrous consequences for humanity as a virtual

The material effects above I have elsewhere described as a rubric of possible material effects [1] of particular interactive systems which includes disposal, salvage, recycling, remanufacturing for reuse,

certainty. Not the least of these virtually certain

reuse as is, achieving longevity of use, sharing for maxi-

consequences is the creation of groups of environ-

mal use, achieving heirloom status, finding wholesome

mental refugees on a massive scale, as regions of

alternatives to use, and active repair of misuse.

the earth cease to be inhabitable. There is not much controversy but surprising

I have also elsewhere postulated several design principles for how to conduct interaction design

novelty in the claim that interaction design, indeed

otherwise from the perspective of sustainability.

all software design, and computing hardware

These design principles are (i) linking invention and

design and marketing practices are implicated

disposal, (ii) promoting renewal and reuse, (iii) promot-

in this issue. We as an interaction-design com-

ing quality and equality of experience, (iv) decoupling

munity need to take steps to lay solid foundations

ownership and identity, and (v) using natural models and

to ensure that sustainability numbers among the

ref lection. These principles—like this first article

central foci of all that is designed in the name and

of this new forum—are only a starting point for

service of human-centered computing. By sustain-

prompting discourse and actions of sustainable

ability, I mean especially but not exclusively the

interaction design. They are germane to what fol-

sense of environmental sustainability. There are

lows in this article.

other senses of sustainability, including such con-

The EICs and I have big plans. In the future,

cerns as public health and wellness, social equity

we will have many guest authors and coauthors,

and globalization, urbanization and poverty, food

interviews, and special articles such as collected

and the politics of food, and many other issues for

responses to particular issues or images that con-

which our present choices about how we live hold

cern sustainability and interaction design. We

implications for our future choices about how we

expect this column to showcase various perspec-

will be able to live.

tives within the collective CHI community and

I have chosen the title “Sustainably Ours” to sug-

characterize and place these perspectives to create

gest two things about sustainability. First, sustain-

an aggregate notion of the role of sustainability in

ability is collectively ours in the sense that it is an

interaction design.

issue of collective global fate accumulated from individual and sovereign actions. Second, our CHI

The Second Digital Divide

community is especially responsible for certain

The photograph depicting shadows of tourists on

issues of sustainability and approaches to sustain-

the Grand Canyon is included here as a metaphor

ability that are ours—namely, (i) understanding—

for an idealized perspective of sustainability. This

learning how and why interaction design acts as a

image illustrates what I will call the “second digital

catalyst to material effects, and (ii) promotion of

divide”—that is, the one between our intended uses

[1] The rubric of material effects and five design principles in the perspective of sustainability first appear in: E. Blevis. “Advancing Sustainable Interaction Design: Two Perspectives on Material Effects.” Design Philosophy Papers. 2006 #4. Team D/E/S, Queensland, AU. ISSN 1448-7136, and E. Blevis. “Sustainable interaction design: invention & disposal, renewal & reuse.” In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems San Jose, Calif., April- May 2007. CHI ‘07. ACM Press, 503-512.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

alternative behaviors—the use of interaction design

warming pervades present-day popular press in a

interactions

The issue of sustainability and its relation to global

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Photo courtesy of the author

Addressing Critical Issues

[2] The named perspectives and rigorous interpretation of the survey results will possibly appear in: K. Hanks, W. Odom, D. Roedl, and E. Blevis. (2008, under review). “Sustainable Millennials: Attitudes towards Sustainability and the Material Effects of Interactive Technologies.” CHI’08, Florence, Italy: ACM Press.

of digital artifice and the unintended effects of

by me and several key members of my Sustainable

digital artifice on the natural world. The shadows in

Interaction Design Research Group (SIDRG). This

the image have no material effects on this enduring

survey research was conducted in 2006 with a pop-

natural edifice. They are part of a human interac-

ulation of 435 general arts and science undergradu-

tion with nature that does not destroy anything.

ates enrolled in a general education required course

Which digital technologies have such a relationship

in information technologies. The research was

to nature? Few. Perhaps none.

conducted by Kristin Hanks, David Roedl, William Odom, and me, and reported elsewhere, includ-

Four Perspectives

ing the derivations of these characterizations of

Each of us has different behaviors with respect to

perspectives toward sustainability. Despite certain

sustainability and materiality depending on per-

empirical origins, some of what follows is specula-

spective and context. I characterize the perspec-

tive and intended as reflection and provocation to

tives [2] as four in number—namely (i) individual

interactions—political without apology.

material success, (ii) legacy material success, (iii) collec-

The perspective of individual material success.

tive material success, and (iv) global collective fate. At

We can account for some actions as reflecting the

the outset, I would say that any one person is likely

perspective of individual material success. The

to act according to different perspectives in differ-

perspective of individual material success is my

ent contexts and situations.

naming of the motivation for acts which (i) owe to

I should also record that my naming of these

a preference for new things over old ones, and (ii)

perspectives owes in part to qualitative interpreta-

which do not primarily owe to concerns about the

tion of quantitative survey data analysis conducted

environment or other aspects of sustainability. The

FORUM

SUSTAINABLY OURS

perspective of individual material success treats

for ways to show that sustainable practices can be

nature as a commodity resource.

good business. These suggestions follow from the design prin-

you live in a house that has more than 400 square

ciples in the perspective of sustainability in several

feet per person or if you purchase a new car more

ways, including (i) the idea of promoting renewal

than once in five years, then you are acting accord-

and reuse as a way of overcoming the link between

ing to the perspective of individual material suc-

invention and disposal, and (ii) promoting quality

cess. I will own up to having done both of these

and equality of experience as a means of making

things in the past myself.

newly acquired things more useful and pleasant to use in the future by subsequent owners rather than

time that I write this) to replace the Motorola Razr

allowing such things to become part of the waste

vN you bought to replace the Motorola Razr vN-1

stream.

you had, I would say that you have acted according

The perspective of legacy material success,

The

to the perspective of individual material success. I

perspective of legacy material success is my naming

don’t have an iPhone. I do want one. I really want one.

of motivation for acts that (i) owe to a preference

Everyone wants one. The iPhone is an awesome

for preserving or renewing old things over replacing

and wonderful paradigm-shifting example of inter-

them with new ones, and (ii) that do not primarily

action design and fashion. Wanting the latest thing

owe to concerns about the environment or other

before the thing you already have has reached the

aspects of sustainability. The perspective of legacy

end of its useful service life is common and under-

material success treats nature as a commodity

standable. A third of the students in the survey

resource, but with the respect of a localized trust

described above reported owning between four

such as one would afford to familial property to be

and eight cell phones with the average age of this

handed down from one generation to another.

population being just under 20 years old. A Flickr

To be not at all provocative, I would say that if

contributor named “happylandfill” has a fantastic

you own things you expect to pass along to your

photograph displaying his collection of iPod boxes,

children—your father’s watch, your mother’s jew-

artful in its self-described idolatry.

elry, monetary wealth, a lovingly restored or pre-

In a sense these interactive devices are even more

served vintage car—then you are acting according

insidious from the point of view of sustainability

to the perspective of legacy material success. I will

than homes and automobiles, since they are seldom

own up to having many such things—monetary

designed with a second owner in mind, the modest

wealth in particular being a sadly conspicuous

residual values that eBay endows to nearly anything

exception.

notwithstanding. Many people may see the perspective of individ-

To be somewhat more provocative, I would say— and the survey results concurred—that there are

ual material success as inevitable. Some may con-

few if any things constructed from the materials of

sider the production and consumption of material

information technologies that fall into the category

things as an entitlement and necessary condition

of enduring, high-quality, upgradeable products that

of the health of market economies. Some may see

achieve legacy status and that are constructed with

environmental concerns as being in conflict with

transfer of ownership in mind.

the machinery of enterprise, and others may see the

As an example, I have great hopes that I will be

same shift in public attitudes toward environmental

able to buy conversion kits to make my 1995 car

responsibility as an opportunity to respond in a way

cleaner and that doing so may be a better strategy

that is both sincere and that creates competitive

from an environmental perspective than trading

advantage.

this perfectly preserved, functioning, and much

As a design strategy from the perspective of sus-

loved car for a new one with the latest clean tech-

tainability, respective of the perspective of individ-

nologies. I may be wrong about this—it’s hard to

ual material success, I would suggest two things: (i)

tell. Nonetheless, I hold no such hope for my cur-

try to get people to buy things that are more useful

rent laptop, which is simply neither upgradeable

to others later and prompt them to reuse by making

nor built to last. To be very deliberately provoca-

it easy for them to redeem the residual value in the

tive—indeed outraged—I would say that the Apple

thing they would otherwise have discarded; (ii) look

iPhone’s lack of upgradeability and Microsoft Vista’s

Januar y + Februar y 2008

If you purchased an iPhone (a very chic act at the

interactions

To be deliberately provocative, I would say that if

large and obsolescing technical footprint are exam-

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

ples of environmentally irresponsible design at the

[3] My use of the term choreographed obsolescence is owed to M. Woolley’s “Choreographing obsolescence - ecodesign: the pleasure/ dissatisfaction cycle.” In Proc. of DPPI ‘03 Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces. New York: ACM Press, 2003, 77-81.

more so, than the acquisition of new ones. The perspective of collective material success.

best and cynically choreographed obsolescence [3]

The perspective of collective material success is my

at the worst.

naming of acts that (i) are motivated by a preference

As a design strategy from the perspective of

for new things over old ones, and (ii) that are specif-

sustainability respective of the perspective of indi-

ically motivated by concerns about the environment

vidual material success, I would suggest two things:

or other aspects of sustainability. The perspective

(i) build sustainable features into quality things; (ii)

of collective material success treats nature as a col-

promote the means of renewal and reuse by mak-

lective resource and perhaps even a collective trust,

ing upgrades and maintenance available to avoid

while still looking toward technology mediation as

disposal and as an alternative to the need to acquire

the solution to issues of environmental sustain-

brand-new things.

ability.

These suggestions follow from the design prin-

I would say that when you have purchased things

ciples in the perspective of sustainability in several

specifically because they are “green,” then you have

ways, including (i) the idea that providing the means

acted according to the perspective of collective

of renewal and reuse is an enterprise opportunity

material success. An alternative-fuel vehicle lets

that promotes sustainability by overcoming the link

you go on doing what you’ve always been doing—

between invention and disposal, and (ii) shifting

more or less—while relying on new technologies to

notions of the coupling of ownership and identity in

make such actions more sustainable.

a way that makes the preservation and renewal of old things just as fashionable and status-bearing, or

Most of the now pervasive press about the greening of IT describes new technologies and enterprise

effects of the stuff you already have may be more

Companies are creating corporate green policies.

badge of contribution than actual contribution.

Many interactive devices are being manufactured

As a design strategy from the perspective of

from less toxic materials and use less power. The

sustainability respective of the perspective of col-

opportunities and directions abound, including

lective material success, I would suggest these

small-footprint operating systems, responsible recy-

things: (i) design things that preserve material as

cling and export for reuse, carbon offsetting, carbon

much as possible; (ii) make it fashionable to buy

calculators, greener data centers, greener manufac-

green design that holds the possibility of durability

turing, manufacturer handling of and responsibility

and long service lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;disposability is the opposite

for retired equipment, and others. There are too

of green; (iii) make it fashionable to think of

many such efforts to adequately list here; I expect

new-to-me as just-as-new-as-new for things of suf-

to report on many of them in future columns, and I

ficient quality.

invite your input. What is accomplished under the perspective

These suggestions follow from the design principles in the perspective of sustainability in several

of collective material success is laudable and yet

ways, including (i) the idea that the cost of new

requires a caution: Technologies and enterprise

things includes the cost of disposal or alternatives

models that are targeted to make new things less

to disposal, and (ii) the link between ownership of

harmful still promote consumption to satisfy

the latest fashionably green things and sense of

increasing needs, rather than changes in lifestyle

self-identity provides the potential to promote posi-

and cultural behaviors to decrease needs. Buying

tive green behaviors on the one hand and what can

interactions

more new stuffâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;however greenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to offset the

day IT practices by both consumers and producers.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Photo courtesy of the author

models as the panacea to unsustainable present-

Addressing Critical Issues

be little more than empty emblematic green washing

merce that are less and less based on material

on the other.

resources; and (iii) do research to allow people to

The perspective of global collective fate.

The per-

make informed decisions about their behaviors with

spective of global collective fate is my naming of

respect to sustainability—even when you’re sincere,

acts that (i) are motivated by a preference for pre-

it’s hard to know what to do.

serving or renewing old things over replacing them

These suggestions follow from the design prin-

with new ones, and (ii) that are specifically moti-

ciples in the perspective of sustainability in several

vated by concerns about the environment or other

ways, including (i) the idea that renewal and reuse

aspects of sustainability. The perspective of global

are preferable to invention and disposal, (ii) the

collective fate treats nature as a commonly held

idea that things of sufficient quality provide greater

resource, a resource in peril, the protection of which

equality of experience to more people and extend

is unavoidably political.

useful service life, (iii) the idea that things are not

I would say that when you have changed your

needed as much as we think to establish positive

consumption behaviors deliberately to create less

outside perceptions of our identity, and (iv) the idea

environmental harm, you are acting according to

that taking inspiration from the natural world may

the perspective of global collective fate. Minimizing

hold the key to alternative, more sustainable ways

energy use in your household, taking fewer airplane

of being in a manner preferable to blind faith in

trips, using less fuel in any way related to trans-

technology.

portation, avoiding anything that is disposable, and eating only local foods and less or no meat are big

Looking Forward

things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

I have described a second digital divide—the one

There are many other things you can do: Bring

between nature and technology—and four perspec-

your own grocery bags to the store or market; ride a

tives on sustainability and materiality. Each one of

bicycle and stay healthy—chronic illnesses that may

us acts according to these perspectives in varying

have been avoided by diet and exercise choices have

contexts, and it doesn’t seem realistic to expect

substantial environmental costs—turn things off

that any one of these perspectives can prevail.

when you’re not using them; turn off your computer

Nonetheless, these perspectives serve as a frame for

monitor every time you walk away from it; use the

understanding what is sustainably ours. I invite your

low power settings on your laptop; buy less stuff or

responses to this article and look forward to our

used stuff; and make the stuff you have last longer.

future discourse and interactions on the matters at

It is not practical to expect that everyone will

hand.

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

commit to making the lifestyle changes needed to

act according to the perspective of collective global

Acknowledgements

fate. Furthermore, even if you are committed to

I very gratefully acknowledge the essential con-

making such changes, it’s not always easy to know

tributions of Kristin Hanks, David Roedl, and

what the best changes to make are. Should you buy

William Odom of the Sustainable Interaction

a hybrid vehicle or a new clean diesel or wait for

Design Research Group (SIDRG) of the School of

the wide availability of hydrogen-powered vehicles

Informatics, Indiana University at Bloomington.

or move within walking or cycling distance of your work? What will happen to the vehicle you already own? Should you switch to the small-footprint Ubuntu operating system in order to use your present computing equipment longer, and what are the implications of doing so for your collaborations with others in your present workplace? As a design strategy from the perspective of sustainability respective of the perspective of global collective fate, I would suggest these things: (i) make it fashionable to think according to this perspective; (ii) help enterprise see a way to frame its sustainable future by finding models of com-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eli Blevis serves on the faculty in the Human-Computer Interaction Design Program of the School of Informatics at Indiana University. Dr. Blevis’ primary area of research is sustainable interaction design for which he is best known. This area of research and Dr. Blevis’ core expertise is situated within the confluence of human-computer interaction as it owes to the computing and cognitive sciences and design as related to the reflection of design criticism and the practice of critical design. Dr. Blevis has published more than 40 articles and papers, and has given several invited colloquia internationally on sustainable interaction design and the larger context of notions of design.

FORUM

LIFELONG INTERACTIONS EDITOR Allison Druin allisond@umiacs.umd.edu

My Father’s Kitchen Table Allison Druin University of Maryland, Human-Computer Interaction Lab | allisond@umiacs.umd.edu

One late night, I sat at my father’s kitchen table

and how robust the technology really is. When we

swapping “work stories.” I told him about my never-

can support the interactions of users that may have

ending lab meetings and emails, and he told me

special challenges (they can’t spell “elephant,” can’t

about his frequent fights with his computer. At 65,

remember what button to press, or can’t find the

my father is an active consultant to the plastics

mouse), we can better support all users from age

industry, with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and

seven to age 77. That is why when I was asked to jump aboard this new forum, I was quite excited. This will be a place

him on this late night was, of all things, a wireless

to investigate the relationship between children,

mouse. His computer support consultant insisted it

teenagers, and older adults, and technologies they

was “the thing to have,” yet in a few short months

interact with—from screen-based worlds to tangible/

my father had knocked it on the floor countless

ubiquitous computing. These interactions may take

times, misplaced it twice, and finally broke it. A

place at home, in school, at work, or in public places.

wireless mouse was not the thing for my father. In

What will be a critical part of this forum, no mat-

fact, he was quite furious at “this wandering mouse.”

ter what the subject matter, is the respect we need

While I was trying to be sympathetic and support-

to have for users of any age or life experience with

ive of my father’s mouse adventures, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to the children in my lab

diverse dreams and needs. Randy Pausch, in his profound talk this past

who had redesigned numerous computer mice over

September at Carnegie Mellon University, pointed

the years. In my early days as an academic, I would

out that “enabling the dreams of others” is some-

work with five- and six-year-olds using paper, clay,

thing perhaps as important as achieving your own

pipe-cleaners, and old socks to make “mice of the

dreams [2]. As interaction professionals, there is

future.” My young design partners suggested every-

nothing more important we can all do than under-

thing from tying small pillows on mice to imagining

stand users’ lifelong interactions between people

computer mice that sprout wings, all to “keep their

and their technologies, and support the opportuni-

mice safe from falling on the floor and breaking[1].”

ties for new dreams and possibilities for the future.

Little did these young designers know they were

By giving ourselves the “permission to dream,” as

envisioning solutions to my father’s challenging

Randy explained, we can create the technologies

interactions with a wireless mouse. That night at the

needed to support people’s diverse lives. In the com-

kitchen table, I was struck by how similar the con-

ing months I hope this forum can explore such top-

cerns are of users at the extremes of life. Those peo-

ics as:

ple who are at the beginning of their lives or those

• Is Less More? Should we be creating more-sim-

who have experienced a great deal of life can be con-

plified technologies for children and older adults?

cerned about their physical abilities, memory recall,

Will these simplifications help users to focus on the

[1] Druin, A., “The role of children in the design of new technology,” Behaviour and Information Technology, 21, no.1 (2002):1-25.

[2] Pausch, R. “Really achieving your childhood dreams,” from his last talk presented at Carnegie Mellon University, September 18, 2007. For the video: http:// video.google.com/ videoplay?docid=36242 1849901825950&hl=en. For a transcript of the talk: http://www.cs.cmu. edu/~pausch/Randy/ pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

despite all his success, what seemed to consume

interactions

a wall of awards that chronicle his busy career. Yet

Addressing Critical Issues

task at hand, or will these technologies just become “uncool” or “unusable”? • Intergenerational Design. When children partner [3] Kohl, H. Stupidity and Tears: Teaching and learning in troubled times. New York: The New Press, 2003, p.76.

need to be acknowledged. Users of different ages

methods need to be changed? Can diverse ages and

in different parts of life may never be able to inter-

viewpoints be bridged to find new solutions to old

act and understand the world in the same way. My

problems?

colleagues and I find this out on a monthly basis

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

thanks to our work on the International Children’s

the perils for children when their interactions online

Digital Library (www.childrenslibrary.org). We

become questionable? Are there technologies that

developed tools that enable children to search for

need to be built or social norms that need to be

books online according to how long a book is, how

established, or both?

a book makes you feel (e.g., happy, sad), and even

• How to Stay Healthy Online? What are the chal-

by the color of a book cover [5]. However, what con-

lenges for older adults relying on consumer health

tinues to surprise me is that every month we get at

information over the Internet? Is it what older adults

least one email from a bewildered adult who has no

need, or can this information lead to wrong paths to

idea why there are colors that you can choose from

staying well?

to search. In more than five years, we have never

Herbert Kohl, the writer, educator, and reformer, [5] Druin, A., A. Weeks, S. Massey, and B.B. Bederson, “Children’s interests and concerns when using the International Children’s Digital Library: A four country case study,” in Proceedings of Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL’2007) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, (2007):167-176.

sometimes the differences between people just

with older adults to create new technologies, what

• When Social Computing Is Too Social. What are

[4] Hochheiser, H. and B. Shneiderman, “Universal usability statements: Marking the trail for all users.” interactions 8, no. 2 (2001): 16-18.

It is important, however, to acknowledge that no matter how much we attempt universal solutions,

once received an email from a child asking why that

has pointed out that “by valuing the imagination, we

tool was there (children have sent us many other

empower ourselves to dream of the world becom-

emails such as why the Harry Potter books aren’t

ing a better or more decent place, which provides an

in our library, but that’s for another discussion on

opening for us to act to transform it[3].”

intellectual property).

Kohl’s words suggest we can make a difference.

In thinking back to my kitchen-table discussions

One of my favorite examples of when accommoda-

with my father, it now strikes me that his computer

tions for challenged users made a difference for all

consultant truly did not understand my father’s

users is a sidewalk “technology” called curb cuts.

interactions with his world. He needed to acknowl-

These indentations in the sidewalks (which activ-

edge my father’s way of “talking with his hands,”

ists spent years fighting for) have enabled travelers

which for years has led to more than a wireless

in wheelchairs to move freely between curbs. This

mouse on the floor—think papers, pens, and the

simple design has also enabled bikers, rollerbladers,

occasional water glass. Today I believe my father is

parents with strollers, and people with shopping

content with a “wired” mouse, a new computer sup-

carts to maneuver the sidewalks more effectively;

port consultant, and knowing he’ll one day write a

the technological advancement intended to support

strongly worded letter to Steve Jobs, the maker of

those with limited mobility has actually supported

his recently deceased wireless mouse. As for me, I

everyone.

look forward to more late-night discussions at the

Another example of making a small difference in technology that can lead to big usability gains can be

kitchen table, and a better understanding of lifelong interactions.

seen in newer refrigerators. A simple beeping sound is now triggered once the refrigerator door has been open for a given amount of time. While this new techno-refrigerator feature is an excellent reminder for forgetful older adults or curious young children to close the door, it can also be an important feature for the average adult rushing around trying to make dinner. These few examples can serve to remind us that “universal usability” can happen when we consider how small and large changes in interactions can lead to unifying people of difference [4].

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Allison Druin is the director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) and an associate professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. For more than two decades, Druin has led interdisciplinary teams of adults and children to develop new technologies (e.g., digital libraries, mobile storytelling) to support children’s learning. She was the founder of CHIkids, a CHI conference program, which led to the development of her team’s co-design methods with children, Cooperative Inquiry.

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Unanticipated Consequences and Influences

Filling Much-Needed Holes Donald A. Norman Nielson Norman Group | norman@nngroup.com

Summary: Many of our clever eth-

environmentally insensitive prod-

features. The world of products

nographic and field methods are

ucts? How many times are these

grows ever more complex every

designed to identify unmet needs. You

unmet needs best left unmet?

year, every hour.

know what? Most are far better off if

Why must we rush to fill the

they stay unmet.

essential voids in our lives?

One of my mentors, the distin-

by the remarks of John Thackara,

needs? Maybe most of them

guished American psychologist

commenting on a seminar on

deserve to be unmet.

George Miller, once passed judg-

design research at the Delft

ment on the contributions of

University of Technology [1].

accepted a huge amount of bag-

a research scientist by stating,

Thackara worried about the

gage in our rush to turn human-

“He has filled a much needed

frenzy to fill all those unmet

centered design into a science.

hole.” The same judgment can be

needs. “Why?” he wondered. I

Personas sprout everywhere.

passed upon many products.

asked Pieter Jan Stappers, one of

Teams of ethnographers scour the

the seminar organizers, what he

land. Even marketers now claim

cially the ethnographic stud-

thought of the comments. Pieter

to be doing ethnography instead

ies of observing people in their

Jan obviously approved:

of surveys and focus groups,

My comments were inspired

Much of our research, espe-

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

[1] Lugt, R. v. d., and P.J. Stappers. “Design and the growth of knowledge: Best practices and ingredients for successful design research.” Delft, The Netherlands: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology. http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/symposium/. 2006.

does that tell us about the unmet

I fear that we have uncritically

although I fail to notice any dif-

daily lives that search for areas of potential support, aim to

But most innovations fail, and so do most new products. What

Holes, the negative space, unstruc-

ference in results. Everyone’s

find unmet needs, to fill those

tured spaces, have always been

actions are being scrutinized,

necessary holes, those essential

important, especially in the areas

from office work to love making.

voids. Essential voids? Yes. Holes,

of creative thinking, such as arts,

As a result everything grows in

gaps, and voids are essential to

design, science, and probably every-

complexity, from kitchen toaster

civilized life. They give us respite

day life and religion. One danger in

to the bathroom toilet.

from the press of modern civiliza-

modern technology fitting closely

tion, returning us to ourselves,

into the patterns of people’s lives, is

You get to go out into the world

with our own thoughts and our

that an efficiency drive takes over,

and watch, take pictures, sat-

own resources. It is the space

with overstructuring as a result. (P.J.

isfy your curiosity and inherent

between things that allows us

Stappers, email: 2007. Used with

nosiness. Back at the office it is

to be at peace with the world, to

permission.)

great fun to scribble notes, to

Ethnographic research is fun.

post them on walls and rear-

be in silence, to be undisturbed. Innovation is good, we are

range them to form patterns.

people, by us. Doing gives a sense

all told. Innovation is a growth

Then we can create personas,

of accomplishment, of participa-

industry, with books, seminars,

colorful little artificial people

tion, of belonging. Doing, think-

and firms all devoted to promot-

with cute, interesting lives, or

ing, dreaming: All are needs best

ing its virtues. We teach our

maybe overstressed, overbusy

left unfilled by products and

students—and our executives—

lives. We delight at personas, at

designs.

to do field observations, to define

prototyping, at watching people

and create, to brainstorm and

go through their paces. New

not fewer. How many times do

innovate. Come up with the bet-

products galore. Innovation is the

the never-ending ethnographic

ter idea and the world will rush

new hot topic. But does all of this

studies coupled with ever-eager

to your door. We take existing

activity lead to actual success in

design groups lead to unwanted,

products and tweak them, modify

the marketplace? I fear not.

unnecessary, overburdening, and

them. We add intelligence and

Many things need to be done by

We need more unmet needs,

All cross the world stores,

OPINION

THE WAY I SEE IT

ACM Transactions On Asian Language Information catalogs, and internet shopping

Processing

sites contain an endlessly proliferating choice of products. Do we need all of these things? Are they actually used? Or does every

The Asian Language Information Processing Transaction (TALIP) publishes high quality original archival papers and technical notes in the areas of computation and processing of information in Asian languages and related disciplines. Some of the subjects to be covered by this quarterly publication are: Computational Linguistics; Linguistic Resources; Hardware and Software Algorithms and Tools for Asian Language Processing; Machine Translation; and Multimedia Asian Information Processing. Emphasis will be placed on the originality and the practical significance of the reported research.

home have its own private cache of discarded gadgets hidden away because they serve no useful function? Designers take pride in innovation, but what percentage of new product innovations actually succeed in the market place? Estimates vary, but they range between 4 and 10 percent, depending upon which study you believe. In other words, 90 to 96

To learn more about TALIP, please visit www.acm.org/pubs/talip/

percent fail. That’s pretty miserable. It means that whatever we are doing, it isn’t the right thing.

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Innovation is not a guarantee of success. Successful products of dimensions: form, function, value, design, marketing, production, distribution, sales, and servicing. Successful products seldom stand in isolation. Most are part of a strong product family that provides supportive infrastructure, where there is a solid platform that builds each individual product’s value and sustains it. Unmet needs? Essential voids? Let them be.

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interactions

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Don Norman wears many hats, including cofounder of the Nielsen Norman group, professor at Northwestern University, and author, his latest book being The Design of Future Things. He lives at www.jnd.org.

Email: acmhelp@acm.org Mail: ACM Member Services General Post Office PO Box 30777 New York, NY 10087-0777 USA AD28

Unanticipated Consequences and Influences

Persona Non Grata Steve Portigal Portigal Consulting | steve@portigal.com One recent morning I came into

day. Unfortunately, these images

lenging and ultimately unrealistic

my office and found a small

evoke Team America World Police

stock photo.

woman astride my desk. Well,

more than they evoke any actual

to be precise, it wasn’t an actual

empathy or (heaven forbid) convey

for personas—alliterative names

woman. It was a cutout of a pho-

useful information.

and generic imagery—reveals

tograph of a doll representing an

ticular (frightening) persona man-

illustrate is not real, yet they are

My officemate had brought this

ifestation; this is a critique of per-

often buttressed with the inclu-

odd item back for me from the

sonas and the inevitable impulse

sion of “color” details—interesting

CHI conference, and, knowing my

to misuse them. Personas are

but manufactured factoids (i.e.,

extreme discomfort with this sort

misused to maintain a “safe” dis-

media diet, favorite possessions,

of tool, had left it for me as some

tance from the people we design

marital status, etc.) that suggest

sort of a gift.

for, manifesting contempt over

a real person lurks behind the

understanding, and creating the

smiling stock photo. Like reality

and recognized a familiar level of

facade of user-centeredness while

television, the appeal comes from

suspended realism: think Barbie,

merely reinforcing who we want to

the seduction of a sanitized form

G.I. Joe, Robot Chicken. Indeed, the

be designing for and selling to.

of reality. And like reality televi-

Januar y + Februar y 2008

David Gartner

dollmaker had outfitted her with

interactions

their role in the Big Lie. What they

archetypal customer—a persona.

I took a closer look at the effigy

This isn’t a critique of this par-

The common representation

This impulse to distance oneself

sion, personas are easier to deal

meticulously crafted accessories

from the customer while simul-

with than the inevitable messiness

such as a digital watch, ID badge,

taneously claiming to embrace

of real people and real life. Using

CD-ROM, and Day-Timer.

the human element isn’t limited

personas takes away both the

to designers and to their use of

responsibility and the necessity

personas. Market segmentation is

of having to actually engage with

The company that produced

often presented in a similarly lim-

a customer and acknowledge who

the persona is announcing to the

iting format. For instance, a client

they are.

world that it regards its users as

recently approached us and out-

mere dolls, as dehumanized, life-

lined the different types of people

updated, because culture is a mov-

less, plastic lumps that are with-

they wanted to know more about.

ing target. The Associated Press

out will, motion, action, or emo-

Each one came with its own infan-

reported [“Shampoo Ads Highlight

tion until their master (creator?)

tilizing alliterative name, such as

Changing Image of Women

physically animates them. There is

Critical Incident Carl, Integrator

in Japan,” August 27, 2007] on

powerful subtext here—does this

Ian, and so on. The ease with

groundbreaking shampoo adver-

company manipulate its custom-

which she spoke to us about real

tising in Japan that began to break

ers the way a benevolent yet stern

people as if they were characters

free of the traditional marketing

tween stages her tea party?

from the Strawberry Shortcake

stereotypes, where female con-

universe was distressing.

sumers were seen only as one of

And, frankly, it creeped the hell out of me.

The back of the cardboard cutout has some smart text about the

Just for fun, do a Google image

Once defined, personas must be

three types: a housewife, an office

type of user represented: her skill

search for “personas” and you’ll

worker, or a schoolgirl. Shiseido

level, experience, attitude, objec-

find many examples of the same

acknowledged the cultural chang-

tives, job priorities, and relation-

reduction of the human element.

es that have swept through Japan,

ship to the products this company

Pay particular attention to the

and its new advertising has had a

makes. It also shows some thumb-

visual representation of the per-

tremendous impact on sales. Its

nail photos depicting the figure

sona: it’s either cartoonish clip art

rejection of closely held models

through the course of her work-

or a beautiful yet bland, unchal-

of who its consumers were, while

OPINION

successful, was seen as radical

they lead to certain types of usage.

within the industry.

When we met with a client to kick off an in-depth user-research

memetic power via alliterative

study, we walked into a confer-

names like Jessie Jeans Buyer,

ence room where the whiteboard

these iconic oversimplifications

was filled with aspirational—not

become shibboleths inside the

factual—personas. It required

corporation, creating significant

significant organizational effort

cultural resistance to the idea of

to approve the work of studying

refreshing them. As a tangible

real users, but in the meantime, it

output of some process, they

was trivial for the team to gener-

become a new truth that can blind

ate (out of thin air) richly detailed

us from seeing the real world.

examples of who those customers were. Compared side by side with

tion hosted by a major software

actual research, persona confabu-

company, teams were given

lation requires very little effort. To

fancy new Web-design software

make a crude comparison, guns

and were asked to create a “safe”

don’t kill people, but they make it

social-networking site for kids,

a lot easier. And personas aren’t

based on several personas (the kid,

solely responsible for bad design or

her mother, and her mischievous

solely to blame for the disconnect

friend). The design presentations

between designers and their cus-

were mostly an excuse to show

tomers, but they make bad design

off some cool visual or interactive

a hell of a lot easier. To compound

design feature that the team came

the problem, personas enable all

stories. Don’t deny the need to

up with. There was no examina-

of this under a cloak of smug cus-

do in-person research with real

tion of what constituted “safe,”

tomer-centricity, while instilling

people. Look for ways to represent

and the personas were regurgi-

bemused contempt. As with guns,

what you’ve learned in a way that

tated in the context of the design

we need to be trained to use these

maintains the messiness of actual

solutions with all the subtlety of a

tools safely, but given the preva-

human beings. And understand

sitcom character. Acknowledging

lence of untrained users and the

that no tool, no method, and no

the time and energy constraints of

ensuing casualties, let’s step back

shortcut, can substitute for real,

a competition, the experience sug-

and consider whether the benefits

in-person interactions. People are

gests that simply handing some-

of these tools outweigh the risks.

too wonderfully complicated, to be

one a persona is not sufficient to

Any process based in falsehood

actually engage them in thinking

takes you away from being genu-

about a real person. The solutions

ine. If this is the best way we have

were not believable, and since they

to keep the organization focused

were based on fake people, it was

on a “real” customer, then we

not unexpected.

have larger organizational prob-

You might react to this argu-

lems that need to be addressed.

ment by disclaiming that “perso-

With personas, we’re going down

nas are just a tool.” So they are,

the wrong path. Rather than cre-

but tools have affordances, and

ate distancing caricatures, tell

reduced to plastic toys. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve is the founder of Portigal Consulting, a boutique agency that helps companies discover and act on new insights about themselves and their customers. He is an accomplished instructor and public speaker, and an avid photographer who curates a Museum of Foreign Grocery Products in his home. Steve blogs regularly for All This ChittahChattah, at www.portigal.com/blog.

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Recently, at a design competi-

interactions

By imbuing a persona with

TRUE TALES

Unanticipated Consequences and Influences

Glenn Kowack, a pioneering networking entrepreneur, is writing a book about forces underlying unforeseen consequences in uses of digital technologies. This excerpt provides a fascinating perspective on the evolution of the Internet. Glenn and I have been good friends since w e met in late 1978 in the Tampa airport, waiting for a flight to Havana to have a look at life on the other side of the Iron Curtain. We found music, color, socioeconomic equality, and daiquiris, but not much venture capital.

— Jonathan Grudin

Unanticipated and Contingent Influences on the Evolution of the Internet Glenn Kowack gkowack@illinoisalumni.org

“History is lived forward but observed backward.” —SOREN KIERKEGAARD

the 1990s, networking was dominated by telephony, which consisted almost exclusively of national champions: highly regulated post, telephone, and telegraph

In the Beginning There Was Telephony

monopolies known as PTTs. They not only operated

Some years ago I read an 1880s-era newspaper article

networks, but they also did the deployment, manufac-

about one of the first demonstrations of long-distance

turing, and research. Almost all were wholly owned and

telephony. The reporter wrote, “What might this new

operated by their national governments. Many were

device be used for? Well, people at a party in Manhattan

actually government ministries. PTTs had enormous

might call people at a party in New Jersey. Or, a young

political clout.

man might use the telephone to ‘pop the question’ to his

A strong PTT was considered the only way to meet

true love.” When the telephone was first deployed, many

the demands of national priorities, business, and the

had difficulty seeing its value. Life and work were linked

public. Often the interests of users were last in line after

to the infrastructures of the time: Markets were local,

economic stability, national security, prestige, and what

and modern cities were densely constructed so that

could be very substantial government revenue. This

related businesses were near one another. How could

control-and-stability-first model employed research,

the telephone compete with other technologies? The

development, and deployment cycles that took many

telegraph already provided transcontinental transmis-

years. Global standards were developed and maintained

sion. Pneumatic tube systems and couriers in London,

in a similarly controlled and process-heavy manner

New York, Paris, and other cities could deliver signed

by representatives of national technical committees

contracts across town in hours. How could a voice-only

that participated in the various historical stages of the

box possibly compete with hard-copy transmission? It

CCITT—the International Telephone and Telegraph

took the telephone system a century to provide a rough

Consultative Committee (today the ITU-T, the standard-

approximation of quick document delivery, when fax

ization activity of the International Telecommunications

machines became widely used in the 1980s.

Union, a United Nations agency).

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Januar y + Februar y 2008

From our vantage point, one could easily assume that

the Internet followed a deliberate, highly rational, and

The ARPANET Begins

even obvious path from its beginnings to today’s domi-

In the 1960s, to write even simple programs required

nant networking technology. Many explicit goals and

expensive equipment and rare skilled programmers.

plans were in fact realized on the way to our ubiquitous

There was almost no independent software industry;

commercial Internet. Yet, time after time, unanticipated

software was strictly proprietary. A computer’s hard-

factors, some inherent in the technology and some

ware architecture, its operating system, and even its

external, produced powerful and unexpected effects on

applications were typically all made by the same manu-

its evolution. Social, economic, and industrial influences

facturer. Academics focused on basic research, carefully

often had broad effects in the manner of shifting tec-

avoiding inappropriate influence from commercial inter-

tonic plates. Some were subtle, with intimate knowledge

ests. It was expected that new ideas would eventually

of technical issues required to understand how they had

be exploited by outside businesses, often large corpora-

their effects.

tions, if at all. The infrastructure and process for start-

From the beginning of the 20th century and well into

ing new enterprises was far less developed and under-

FORUM

TIMELINES EDITOR Jonathan Grudin jgrudin@microsoft.com

stood—venture capital was almost nonexistent. In 1969 the United States Department of Defense

ments. Major early uses, such as file-sharing and email, did not require real-time response. Users of academic

ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) chose pack-

networks were comfortable with a research agenda and

et switching, a technology then recently developed by

had relaxed expectations for network performance and

Paul Baran and others, as both a subject of research and

stability. This was made more palatable by the network’s

as a way to connect to expensive computers at research

steadily improving capabilities, which engendered a sort

centers across the country. Packet switching held then-

of “rising tide” mentality. Funds earmarked for network-

unknown attributes that would have a profound effect

ing provided by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research

on the Internet’s evolution. ARPANET designers chose

Projects Agency) or NSF were in a sense free money,

to base their work on the novel “connectionless” style of

which makes any purchase more acceptable. Within

networking.

this specialized, somewhat isolated community, security

Planning for commercial deployment of these ideas

was not a great concern, especially because contempo-

was not on ARPA’s agenda. In fact, ARPA formally pro-

rary delights such as identity theft, huge quantities of

hibited commercial exploitation of the ARPANET, which

online personal information, and viruses had not yet

was created using public funds. This limitation would

emerged.

later become famously known as the “acceptable use

As a research project, the ARPANET was free to

policy” (AUP), which mandated that only academic insti-

experiment with technologies of uncertain capability

tutions or companies with government contracts could

and consequences, including use of the connection-

use the network. By 1983 the ARPANET had grown to

less networking model at a low layer of the network.

113 nodes.

By not setting up connections before transmission, the

While internetworking research progressed, the

software and hardware could be simpler, cheaper, and

PTTs were converting the existing analog telephone

could make far more efficient use of bandwidth since

network to digital technologies, reconceiving hardwired

all capacity was unreserved and would not sit idle due

circuits as virtual circuits, or connections. Connections

to unused reservation. However, although one could set

were seen as the only way to guarantee commercially

up connections at layers above IP, they would stand on a

required levels of service and security. Each connection

statistical service and thus never be certain to behave in

was to support real-time communication and be undis-

a deterministic manner. Without resource reservation,

turbed by transient traffic crossing the Net. Control

transients crossing the network could potentially dis-

was centralized to meet technical and business require-

turb or block other traffic. In practice, the Internet was

ments. Three critical business requirements were a

quite robust; after all, that’s what it was designed for. It

viable business model, service level guarantees, and

had a tendency to stay up, in spite of shortfalls such as

security.

not guaranteeing timely delivery.

The PTTs Ignored Connectionless Networking

when it was first deployed, and it’s probably fair to say

The PTTs and data networking companies (notably IBM)

that that it’s not yet fully understood today. The domi-

had long product-cycle times and long-range research

nant attitude in the technical community, well into

programs. They could have explored connectionless

the later 1980s, if they had ever even thought about it,

networking.

was that the Internet was there for research, was not expected to be used for mission-critical applications,

and their three critical business requirements revolved

and would not be the final commercial version. So the

around networks employing centralized control. A

Internet could focus on what worked at a basic level and

network without someone actively running the entire

not let potentially problematic unknowns get in the way

entity, as in connection-oriented networking, was

of research directions.

beyond comprehension. Additionally, the PTTs sought a

Connection-oriented networking employs complex

holy grail of “multimedia” support, a universal medium

basic mechanisms to reduce the complexity of interac-

for voice, video, and data networking. Connectionless

tions of traffic crossing the network. Great effort is made

networks could not deliver the time-critical part of this

to allocate resources, which are then guaranteed to be

goal. The PTTs were disinclined to pursue a technology

available, and from there, network operation is rela-

that, from the start, appeared inadequate.

tively straightforward. Connectionless networking is far

In contrast, the Internet was developed with research funding and was not constrained by these require-

simpler at the level of the basic components, but as the network grows, traffic patterns quickly become exceed-

interactions

However, their technical practices and worldview

Januar y + Februar y 2008

Connectionless networking was not well understood

Unanticipated Consequences and Influences

1960

1965

Key Technologies And Major Networks

1970

1975

1980

Ethernet Invented UUCP Invented

1995

2000

Regional Networks

ARPANET

UNIX Invented

ARPANET Converts to TCP/IP

1990

NSFNET &

TCP/IP Deﬁned

First ARPANET Transmission

Packet Switching Invented

1985

ARPANET NSFnet Cutover

UUCPnet (USA)

many incorporate as commercial ISPs or acquired

incorporates as UUnet

EUnet (EU)

incorporates PSInet Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) Ebone (EU)

Networking Organizations

incorporates

USENIX - US UNIX Users Group European UNIX Users Group InterOp Trade Show RIPE Association (EU)

Personal Computer Invented

Other Computing and Networking Technologies 1960

1965

1970

1975

IBM PC Invented

1980

1985

OSI HTTP, Deﬁnition HTML Completed Deﬁned

1990

First Web Browser (Mosaic) Distributed

1995

2000

ingly complex; how traffic might combine or be impeded

tions. AT&T was restricted from entering the computer

can be very difficult to ascertain. Fortunately, as IP use

industry by regulation, and thus could not commercially

scales up, the law of large numbers appears to conspire

exploit UNIX. Copies of the source code were widely

in favor of its effective operation—but odd transients

distributed to universities, and by the 1980s UNIX was

can and do pop up all over the network.

available on nearly every major computer architecture. Also in the 1980s, TCP/IP communication protocols were

Connections vs. Connectionless

ported to UNIX and widely distributed. UNIX proved to

By the 1980s the networking world had effectively split

be an effective server for network applications and in

into two camps: the commercial (telephone and data)

many environments a capable system on which to per-

networks using connection-based networking, and the

form Internet routing. Before long, UNIX minicomputers

research-oriented, connectionless Internet. The former,

and workstations were ubiquitous in universities and

if it paid attention to the Internet at all, knew that the

engineering organizations.

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Januar y + Februar y 2008

Internet was only a prototype, and in some ways not

UNIX’s limitations relative to other operating systems

even a serious one. After all, the Internet not only failed

resembled ARPANET’s limitations compared with con-

to support critical customer and operator requirements,

nection-based networks. In particular, UNIX originally

it also fundamentally could not. This was true in terms

had only one type of scheduler, which allotted time

of longstanding theory and business practices. And

to different applications in a manner that could not

commercialization of the Internet was not a concern;

guarantee deterministic behavior. This parallel is also

it was prohibited by the AUP into the 1990s. However

seen in another critical invention of the 1970s, Ethernet,

this technology might be deployed commercially, it was

which could not guarantee time-deterministic behavior,

expected to be by parties other than those doing the

but made up for that in simplicity, flexibility, bandwidth,

academic investigations, who would surely move beyond

and generality. Despite some controversy about poten-

the technical approaches used in academic and research

tial problems, Ethernet quickly became a market suc-

networks.

cess and the primary medium for local area networks.

UNIX, Ethernet, and the PC

community of trained computer users familiar with

The same year ARPANET was first deployed (see above),

keyboard, mouse, and email. It became an open plat-

UNIX, which was to play a major role in the evolution of

form for innovative new interoperable applications.

the Internet, was created as an ad hoc software research

This created a large, thriving, highly competitive

project at AT&T Bell Laboratories. The UNIX creators

shrink-wrapped software industry. Large profits and

took a novel approach to operating system design: Build

competitive pressures drove investment and innovation

a modifiable core system that does a few basic things

in manufacturing and development, resulting in much

simply and well, making it far easier to write applica-

shorter development times.

The PC, arriving in the early 1980s, created a large

FORUM

Substantial academic networks that supplemented

TIMELINES

be TCP/IP, or OSI (Open System Interconnection), or XNS

ARPANET and were also close to the IP community

(Xerox Networking System) —which was considered

began to be deployed in the 1980s. These included ad

a significant technical advancement over TCP/IP—or

hoc dial-up networks in the US (USENET) and Europe

even perhaps Novell Netware, which dominated the PC

(EUnet) based originally on the UUCP (Unix-Unix CoPy)

world? Experts could see many technical and business

protocol, and the academic CSNET, which began as an

pros and cons associated with each.

economical dial-up network alternative to ARPANET. The early performance of the Internet could not

Furthermore, the Internet was not considered a candidate for a universal medium comprising data

effectively support serious real-time processing require-

networking and time-critical communications such

ments. Conveniently, neither did the early PCs—they did

as telephony, radio, and television broadcasting. There

not typically run real-time or high-performance appli-

were already massive, well-understood, highly efficient

cations. The Internet supported applications such as

networks designed for those purposes. The Internet’s

email, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and HTTP (HyperText

well-known poor performance at time-critical services

Transport Protocol), which were throughput oriented,

was a fundamental limitation, and the Internet was

not response-time sensitive. Furthermore, the unidirec-

also not designed for efficient broadcasting. This cre-

tional traffic flow of these applications didn’t require

ated an interesting freedom: The developers of the

real-time synchronization of user data as in telephony.

Internet could concentrate on making it do what it

The unimportance of real-time response is seen in the

did well, and not worry about making the Internet all

success of the UUCP protocol that connected thousands

things to everyone.

of UNIX machines over cheap, conventional dial-up telephone lines, allowing free email, network news, and file

Denouement

transfer, although delivery often took days.

When the noncommercial nature of the Internet eventually eroded, the PTTs took notice. Starting around

moved its military sites to a separate IP “MILNET.”

1990 the U.S. and European UUCP networks, UUNet and

CSNET also adopted TCP/IP around this time. In 1986,

EUnet, transitioned to IP and became for-profit compa-

ARPANET was largely superceded by the National

nies, joining PSInet, founded in 1989. These commercial

Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), which was also

networks soon connected to NSFnet, which walked a

restricted from commercial activity. Experience creat-

tightrope as a noncommercial network chartered to fos-

ing and managing ARPANET, USENET, EUnet, CSnet and

ter widespread interconnection. NSFnet adroitly worked

other networks produced a self-aware community of

with emerging commercial networks without violating

network operators and a large community of network

the AUP. Eventually, nongovernmental exchange points

users. Important to note, none of the actual content,

were set up, NSF withdrew, and the era of the commer-

primarily email and network news, was ever specifically

cial Internet began.

and cost from the operations of the networks. At this time, the thinking within the Internet com-

The PTTs had been preparing. Along with IBM and other large computer companies, they had participated in the development of the Open Systems

munity was that the Internet worked well, it was incred-

Interconnection (OSI) networking standards within the

ibly useful and quite stable, and that someday there

International Organization for Standards and the ITU

would be an Internet in broad popular use that would

since 1974. In 1988 the OSI reference model was for-

have great impact, but we didn’t know what it would

mally completed. The U.S. Department of Defense and

look like when it was finally deployed. Nor did we think

the European Commission immediately adopted OSI as

the final, commercial Internet would employ existing

their standard.

Internet technology. We expected the experience and

This seemed to be the long-awaited transition,

discoveries of Internetworking to be absorbed by the big

expected and even favored by many in the IP com-

telecom providers, who would deploy and market them

munity. Longstanding members wrote books about the

in a form quite different from that of the free academic

transition. It seemed OSI would, inexorably, win the day.

experiment. All manner of technical decisions were up

The stage was resoundingly set for a reasonably smooth

in the air. I recall hearing from a senior UNIX engineer

transition from IP research networking to PTT-oriented

around 1987 that no one knew which, if any, of the

commercial networking.

many popular protocol suites would be the eventual leader, or even if there would be a single leader. Would it

It never happened. The cumbersome OSI repeatedly failed to demonstrate that it was practical. In the

Januar y + Februar y 2008

charged for, which removed a great deal of complexity

interactions

In 1983, the ARPANET converted to TCP/IP and

Unanticipated Consequences and Influences

meantime, there was a relatively huge installed base

one should never even think of going into that business.

of reasonably well-performing IP software. Why trade

Another, an experienced European Internetworking

a solid, running technology for an entirely new design

expert, asserted that it was entirely reasonable for the

and complex, untested ISO software? Legions of net-

PTTs to time their rates of change to match the typical

working experts trained on IP continued to improve

technical career, so as to not upset longstanding employ-

the Internet, exploiting ever more powerful technol-

ment practices and create unemployment, and that the

ogy to close in on the quality of service that previously

Internet should modify its rate of change to fit such cycles.

required connections. It would be pleasingly theatrical to describe some

The Return of the Telecoms

dramatic crescendo or key event in the growth and

Within only a few years the telecoms learned enough to

commercialization of the Internet, but there was no

enter the Internet service business through acquisition

explicit confrontation, no point when the competition to

or starting their own ISPs. Since then they have been

Internetworking abruptly failed. Rather, IP just contin-

busily working to construct rational business models

ued to accelerate faster, and more commercially, than

and divert innovation cycles to the service of their busi-

anyone had ever anticipated.

ness requirements rather than the unbridled interests of users. However, they have not yet, after more than 15

Trying to Make Sense of

years, been able to return telecoms to a state of “busi-

History As it is “Lived Forward”

ness as usual.” The changes brought by the Internet

Once commercial Internetworking took off, profes-

continue to carom through the telecommunications

sionals found trying to navigate the big networking

business—free WiFi hotspots and VoIP being prominent

picture deeply confusing. So many fundamentals and

recent examples. The Internet continues to drive dis-

particulars changed so quickly, and often unexpect-

ruptive change in everything from the media business

edly, that it was exceedingly difficult to know what was

(music, film, television, and radio), education, interna-

going on and what direction to take. Literally thousands

tional outsourcing, retailing and travel, to the press.

of ISPs were founded in the U.S., and similar numbers in Europe. Service prices were dropping rapidly, new

Conclusion: Serendipitous Obscurity

and cheaper devices were introduced continually, cli-

and Contemporary R&D

ent software was changing rapidly while entirely new

The obscurity of the Internet and its inability to sat-

applications such as the Web appeared abruptly, band-

isfy prevailing commercial requirements allowed it to

width requirements (driven substantially by the Web)

develop and grow without appearing to be a potential

and provisioning were exploding. Business relations

competitor. In this way the Internet was not subjected to

between ISPs were tumultuous, with each jockeying for

efforts to kill or co-opt it, and gained the time and space

advantage, some becoming leaders in the dial-up busi-

to mature. The failure to take a “breakthrough” technol-

ness, others in long-haul IP capacity, with battles over

ogy seriously, as in the example of the telephone, with

“settlement” and pricing—who was whose customer and

which this column began, this time played a critical role

who paid whom how much. Battles over market leader-

in creating our wonderful commercial Internet.

interactions

Januar y + Februar y 2008

ship were made all the more complex by the arrival of

huge quantities of venture capital, which often propelled

Acknowledgments

ISP growth far ahead of revenue and made it possible

This article was prepared with helpful input from Dan

to assemble a large ISP by acquiring many smaller ISPs.

Lynch, founder of InterOp, Dave Crocker of Brandenburg

Perhaps the most confusing change was from engineer

Consulting, Suzanne Woolf of the Internet Systems

to entrepreneur, which could be both heady and dis-

Consortium, and Internet pioneer Gary Grossman, pres-

orienting in what was, for a surprisingly long time, an

ently of Riva sur Piedmont.

MBA- and lawyer-free zone. It was amazing to see the different perspectives held even by experienced professionals in the field. I recall in 1996 talking to an experienced Silicon Valley software engineer and entrepreneur who confidently proclaimed that there was no way to make money running an ISP, and, because a new ISP could show up and undercut the established ISPs at any time, there never could be—so

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Among his many accomplishments, Glenn Kowack directed UNIX R&D at Gould Computer Systems in the 1980s, was the founding CEO of EUnet Limited (the first commercial and multinational ISP in Europe), a member of the board of directors of the Commercial Internet Exchange, and a contributor to the founding of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

INTERACTIONS CAFE

focused on the cultural sensitivity both Gabe White

(continued from page 80)

and Gary Marsden introduced: appropriateness, not the push for newer, and faster, and bigger. Richard: Well, today’s Internet is an example of a

Martin referred to this as intervention design in his

truly timeless innovation born of a long, drawn-out pro-

conference plenary on “Design Thinking: The Next

cess. But as described in Glenn Kowack’s early history

Competitive Advantage,” and I’m sure we’ll offer more

of the Internet, that process was not exactly rigorous.

Sometimes such interventions mean helping

However, new ideas that have value—that can, for example, lead to greater appropriateness—can

companies organize and do things in such a way that

be generated faster via processes that have rigor.

more appropriate, refined, or polished user experi-

Ethnographic research methods can be a key compo-

ences will result. But they do sometimes mean helping

nent of such processes, as can the involvement of mul-

companies do things so that they can be more innova-

tiple disciplines in ways akin to those Secil describes.

tive. However, innovation can be an important part of

Sir Ken Robinson’s amazing plenary at the confer-

making user experiences more appropriate, refined, or

ence spoke to this. Ken defined creativity as “the

polished. I think Hugh Dubberly’s cover story on the

process of generating original ideas that have value,” a

model of innovation captures that.

process that “more often than not comes about through

Hugh’s model also addresses the insight required of

the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing

all of this, stating that “immersion within the context

things.” However, according to Ken, our creativity has

is almost always essential” to achieve such insight. I

been systematically educated out of us.

often coach and advise companies on how to achieve

Certain process interventions that attempt to res-

such immersion effectively, and the article by Stefana

urrect that creativity can happen and be effective

Broadbent and Valerie Bauwens contributes guidance

rather quickly, but long-lasting interventions—e.g.,

as well. That article also reveals ethnographic research

the cultural interventions being orchestrated by Secil

findings that advise against certain types of innovation

and Stefana—can take a lot of time. As Roger Martin

since they are likely to yield user experiences that are

described, the ways of thinking that are dominant in

inappropriate.

business create an environment that is hostile to such

Clearly, ethnographic research was a big topic at CONNECTING ‘07. What struck me was the extent to which members of this particular design community

change. But those companies that can achieve such change are likely to also achieve competitive advantage. Jon: Maybe that’s one of the key distinctions between

seem to embrace such research while they struggle

design and innovation: I see design as something that

with the role it should play in their work.

is inherently separate from business. It can be twisted

Jon: Hugh’s model captures the idea of refinement

and manipulated into a business context, often with

and polish in execution—his process exemplifies the

great financial rewards for those who understand how

sort of rigor that is necessary to call something “appro-

to position it correctly. But on its own, design is about

priate.” Secil spent nearly five years working on the

shaping culture and society, and the construct of profit

advancements she’s detailed, and Stefana’s work has

and competitive advantage is arbitrary (although cer-

spanned nearly as long. Innovation is nearly always

tainly appealing for many). The struggle we see, as

accompanied by a push for speed. Innovate faster!

academics try to understand “design research,” and the

Innovate now! But all of the truly timeless “innova-

emphasis that has been placed recently on develop-

tions” were born of a long, drawn-out, and extremely

ing nations and on issues like sustainability (an issue

rigorous process.

addressed extensively during the conference and by Eli

I found it interesting that, also at CONNECTING ‘07,

Blevis in this magazine), indicate a return toward what

many of the speakers, including IDEO’s President and

could be thought of as a more liberal view of design:

CEO Tim Brown, cited Charles and Ray Eames as being

appropriate, culturally resonant, and profitable only

influential in their view of the creation of iconic design

incidentally. Personally, I think this shift is sorely need-

solutions. Charles and Ray Eames spent their career

ed and long overdue; in a culture overcome with con-

refining a process of design that emphasized craft,

sumption and stuck with an abstract view of happiness

patience, care, and detail, and Charles is referenced as

as lots of money, perhaps design can be the answer not

saying “innovate as a last resort.” Their view of design,

only to our environmental woes, but to our spiritual

engineering, production, and development was one

woes, too.

— Richard Anderson & Jon Kolko

Januar y + Februar y 2008

articles on this in future issues.

interactions

Watson describes in her article in this issue. Roger

Interactions Cafe

On Innovation, Appropriateness, Intervention Design… Shortly after attending the ICSID-IDSA CONNECTING ’07

than they are innovative). As we see a trend in society

World Design Congress in San Francisco, EICs Jon and Richard

toward “slow” design (clearly juxtaposed with fast-food

sat down to discuss the conference and its relationship to this

culture), the bloat of features and functionality that

issue of interactions.

seem to go hand in hand with being new and different are dramatically misplaced.

Jon: I’m concerned with the overabundance of the

On top of this, the majority of the companies that

word “innovation” in our professional discipline. At

are clamoring for increased innovation haven’t proven

CONNECTING ‘07, the theme was neither subtle nor

that they can solve the older problem of quality: I

convincing: Nearly every speaker talked about inno-

don’t need more “new” and “innovative” features in

vation (some better than others), yet no one over

Windows; I just need the bloody thing to work without

the course of four days managed to define the term.

crashing.

Apparently, if a business isn’t focused entirely on inno-

be more innovative. Why don’t you get them to be more

and they won’t be around in a hundred years.

appropriate, or refined, or polished, instead?

I’ve recently done a mental inventory of the products,

Januar y + Februar y 2008 interactions

Richard: Actually, my coaching and teaching focus

software, and services that I use and that I cherish. The

on moving user experience into a position of greater

items I hold dear to my heart are either one-offs (craft

corporate attention and influence—on helping to

oriented and thus not in the realm of the innovation dis-

enable companies to do the kinds of things Secil

cussion) or refined and subtle (they are appropriate more

You do a lot of coaching and teaching companies to

vation right now, their business is completely ruined

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Frances Karandy, Bentley ’05, MBA, MSHFID Design Researcher, Yahoo!

Creative thinker. Business strategist. Usability specialist. Frances Karandy knows the value of integrating strategic business skills with user experience knowledge. That’s why she chose Bentley — one of the premier user experience graduate programs and the only one located within a business school. Bentley offers a variety of nationally recognized usability programs and services for both individuals and corporations: • MS in Human Factors in Information Design (MSHFID). Students gain a deep understanding of user-centered product design, as well as leading-edge business skills. Graduates are highly sought after for senior-level positions at top companies worldwide. • Information Design Certiﬁcate Program. Two-day courses, designed for professionals in a variety of ﬁelds. Most courses are available online or at your site. • Design and Usability Center (DUC). Professional user-centered design services available for clients around the globe. Visit www.bentley.edu/usability for details. For more information, please contact Bill Gribbons at 781-891-2926 or wgribbons@bentley.edu. © 2007 Bentley College, Waltham, MA