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Of late a lot has been going on in the Mobile Domain. Needless to say, as designers, we have a huge role to play in the design of phones, its applications and the services associated with it.I have been following the Mobile market in an emerging market like India, very closely. With the tariff for the rates going down to the wire, where there is not further possibility of a reduction in the prices, User Experience and Customer Service IS going to be the differentiator.
Here below are three presentations that I came across today, while doing my readings in Mobile User Experience. I am sure each of them would have been more interesting to attend!
Mobile User Experience: What Web Designers Need to Know
A wonderful presentation, with a good insight into the domain of Mobile User Experience, and what Web Designers (and Interaction /User experience Designers) need to look into, when designing experiences for the mobile phone.
Designing The Mobile User Experience
And then there is this presentation, that gives a sneak peak into the future. Of the exciting times that Mobile User Experience is going to bring along with it. What I am more interested in is how these high end phones can look to get into the emerging markets, provide similar experiences at a low cost.
Future trends in mobile user experience
I remember Pranav Mistry in his TED India talk mentioning about the need to make the Sixth Sense project open source, and thereby reducing the costs considerably. This would ensure that the technology is able to reach the masses and not just be limited to the elite.
. . . → Read More: On Mobile User Experience
Came across this interesting interview about the legendary graphic designer Paul Rand. Touched upon some really nice points. Gives an explanation on the IBM logo, and also his views on why the world needs graphic designers in it. Enjoy!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
I gave a talk recently at the Designers meet organized by Regalix, here in Bangalore.The theme of the meet was Digital Design Innovation. My talk focused on how we as designers should look to to see the impact of Digital Design Innovation in the context of India, and in particular in the social sector.
Below is the presentation that I used for the talk, which ran for 15 minutes.
Design for Social Impact – An Introduction
As the participants were not too familiar with the domain, the challenge was to lay the platform for everyone to understand easily. The idea of the talk was to introduce the concept of Design for Social Impact, and implant a hope that there would be more people who join me in the quest for ensuring that design expands its boundaries and reaches out to places where it can make a huge difference.
I came across this presentation on Design for Social Impact. I think its a great presentation, with some wonderful insights.
Design For Social Impact
View more documents from ideals.creatives.
I read a cartoon strip the other day. One mother to the other: My son is with a book always! How cool is that! The other mother: On that’s nice. His grades must be really good then as he is with a book always. First mother: He is on FaceBook.
Have you been bit by the Facebook bug yet ? I must admit that I have been to some extent. However there have been many other issues of concern that I have been having. One of them being the importance of maintaining my privacy.
The way people use Facebook, Orkut and other social networking sites (SNS) have been a matter of interest to me. This difference is also a result of the cultural differences people have across countries. The fact is also that people have taken a conscious decision on their part (or alteast have thought about it), when it comes to decide what information that they want to share .
One of the things that I always face a problem is the amount of information that I would be sharing on these SNS. Facebook now is the first choice of people to share images amongst friends. I have heard many people request me to upload my professional photographs on Facebook. I have done so only to a limited extent.
Another large chunk of people use Facebook as a way of letting the world know each and every activity that they do. I mean seriously, is there any reason why I should know in such detail what the other person is doing. If I do, then it is a serious case of intruding into the other person’s privacy. However, wait! I did not intrude… It’s you who made that information public. So there is something going on here and . . . → Read More: The side effects of FBing!
Of late there has been a sudden rise in interest in the propagation of Design Thinking. The impetus to this has been hugely due to some articles in the Harvard Business Review(last year), and Businessweek (this year).
If the need of the hour is to think innovation and think beyond the obvious, Design Thinking is definitely an essential tool. A lot of companies like Apple, who are driven by Design, have been doing it for years now. A few more have joined the bandwagon, as mentioned in this another post by BusinessWeek.
Apart from these above, there has been the recent publicly available talk by Tim Brown at the TED conference this year. Brown is evangelizing that Design Thinking needs to go to a much larger scale and also that designers should start to think big.
Everyone seems to be acknowledging it. A few seem to understanding it, and a fewer seem to be to be understanding it. The interesting point about Brown’s talk is that he looks at going beyond the notion of consumerism with which Design has been traditionally associated with.
One of the other great design thinkers, who I admire, and have been a student of myself, Erik Stolterman also talks about the notion of Design Thinking in his blog Transforming Grounds. He also makes the very valid point that Design Thinking is been there since a long time and has found its applications in numerous fields.
I strongly believe that one of the areas where Design can play a huge role is Design for Social Impact. This also happened to be the topic of my Masters thesis at Indiana. The challenges are immense, and the solutions are rarer to find, and that is why Design Thinking becomes important.
The outcome of the application of . . . → Read More: On Design Thinking and Beyond
I recently attended a talk by Elizabeth Churchill, Principle Research Scientist at Yahoo Inc, California. She was presenting her ideas from a HCI perspective and as a part of the Big Thinkers Series, organized by Yahoo Research and Development, Bangalore.
The talk focused around the idea of SocioTechnical Design and Engineering. The context was primarily in understandings for the Internet Experience Domain. It was a great talk! I enjoyed every moment of it. It is especially important in the context in which we have opened up Deskala. At Deskala, we are exploring the reach of technology in emerging markets and coming up with design solutions, services and innovations.
With the context of communities changing everyday (Sherry Turkle et al. ), the way we conduct research on users is also changing. What was the notion of a community a few years ago is not the same today. Cyber-ethnography has become the most appropriate tool in reaching a definition of the virtual community.
In the context of an emerging market like India, the need for defining newer methods of user research is important. The penetration of technology is limited to the mobile experiences amongst the emerging markets population. But with the ever changing technological scenario, the technological intervention will expand to other forms of technology.
One of the key propositions going on in the design research field is to bridge the gap between the offline and the online. In India at-least, inspite of having a good reach of technology, there are only 32.1% of the population who are online and are accessing internet from devices.
The notion of cyber space, is therefore not limited only to the online world. One has to expand the understanding of the cyber space. So in the ideal case of cyber-ethnography, one would spend hours in this . . . → Read More: Cyber Ethnography and its challenges in Emerging Markets
One of my favorite methods of User Research is Ethnography. It could also be the result of my love for traveling and photography.
Historically, ethnography has been used as a research tool in Anthropology and also made an appearance in the other fields like Documentary film making, Market Research etc. In HCI, Ethnography is often aimed at doing, but is unable to be carried out effectively, owing to the large amount of planning that one needs to go through, especially when the time is short and there is quick research to be done.
In the context of Designing for Social Impact, Ethnography holds a special place. The following diagram would explain the areas on which one needs to concentrate in the context of the social innovations. Framing the situation from the Design perspective, becomes crucial. And ethnography is a great tool to enable the design researcher to come up with answers to these points as one gets to analyze the situation closely by staying within the context.
Designing for Social Innovations
Any problem space can be said to be a design space. And within that design space lies a design problem. One has to however justify, why the problem at stake is a design problem and not say some other problem. Can governance problem be classified as a design problem? Can the lack of facilities in a rural school be classified as a design problem? Any problem that is identified, will give rise to a Design Opportunity. Once that has been understood, it is an imperative on the part of the designer to apply proper Design Thinking in order to come up with Design Solutions. So, in the case of our examples, would ensuring a better governance system, be a well ‘Designed Solution’ or a ‘Design Solution’ . Finally . . . → Read More: Ethnography in User Research
After a long wait finally the video for the talk that I had given at the Ignite Bloomington event is up. The talk was on some simple strageties to keep in mind while Researching for design for social impact. The findings and recommendations are based on the design research that was done for the Pick Me, Click Me, Educate Me! Project.
With this the presentation should be a better understood.
God I speak fast!
Of late I have been traveling around India. In context of designing for social impact I have always been observant to how design is playing a role and how and where design can further play a role. There have been numerous occasions where I have got some answers. The journeys have been mostly done in the different kind of trains, the auto-rickshaws, the private vehicles and also on foot.
Needless to say there have been numerous occasions where you feel like doing something. There is an abundance of issues that in my opinion need the services of a designer. Every step I took, made me realize the importance of being a HCI designer. One of the greatest learnings that I have taken out of my masters education is the value of seeing problems and design solutions from a HUMAN point of view. The moment one does that a lot of things appear different. And I am not saying from a USER point of view here. In my opinion they are both different.
A HUMAN point of view allows me as a designer to not think deeply about the solutions, but the needs. It allows the designer to take care of the emotions and the pain as felt by humans. After all in the end the designer is also a Human. The USER point of view that usually results from the personas, or by studying the likely people who will use the design solution. More often than not, the designer fails to connect with the person on the level that one experiences the similar joys and pains.
Another realization is that even if you implement the design in a novel manner, how do you ensure that the user’s behavior is changed? For example, you can have the best facilities for . . . → Read More: Designing for India
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