Ghost in the Pixel

Preaching to the choir I know, but nice to see it stated…by the founding editor of LifeHacker ;-)

“That’s the thing about Apple marketing. They don’t talk about how many gigabytes of memory or how many CPU cycles or how many apps (much). They aim for your heart, and show you how technology can make your life better during its most important moments”

http://smarterware.org/6190/lessons-from-apple-on-advertising-and-aesthetics

All about emotion, vision, story and personal meaning…If we’re not inventing and persuading at that deeply humanistic level, you become a me-too commodity. Just be human. It’s really that simple! :-)

What’s a digital concept car? Borrowed from the automotive world, a concept car is a highly refined and vividly realized manifestation of a design intent, typically bold, striking, compelling expression of where to take a product or portfolio line into the future. It’s a statement of visual, behavioral, and emotional possibilities for an implied product (or set of products). However, a concept car is NOT the final product, nor may it necessarily become productized.

The purpose and rationale of a concept car is primarily provocative exploration, identifying and pushing the boundaries of constraint & possibility, and in doing so achieving an evolved sense of who we are as a company–what do we value? What do we not value? What do we aspire to become? Where do we wish to go?

Concept cars can serve as the vehicle (pun intended :-) for shaping novel directions that inform existing product development efforts, not a “pie-in-the-sky” dream that never materializes or pure lab experiment. This is brilliantly captured in BMW’s latest ad in which the announcer says “Some may call this a concept car. But it’s not a new car. It’s every car we build”, meaning that almost all qualities (formal, technical, artistic) make their way into existing lines, as an ongoing progressive evolution…a multi-disciplinary conversation really.

Core to such concept cars is the primacy of guided, focused vision (not committee led arguing), empathy for customers leaping ahead existing models, and highly realized prototypes–vivid, detailed, performant. The vision drives the concept car. Literally.

It’s vision-centered design in its ultimate form, hopeful and yet grounded…and always pushing the limits of constraints, contingencies, and possibilities. More details soon…

 

What does it take to make breakthrough, game-changing visionary designs that transform human attitudes/behaviors or entire markets? Well in a word, a LOT :-) I don’t have the answers. But my previous post on design readings scratches a bit at this complex surface of design potential. Below are some key insights I’ve gathered in my recent readings and 10 yrs of pro experience…

• To achieve radical insights you need both observation of actual human behaviors in their context AND imagination of what could be (with a healthy dose of empathy). It’s an alchemical blend of analysis > interpretation > synthesis that takes more than a hint of personal ingenuity and clever thinking.

• You must apply a critical lens of examining the activity, the experience, the emotional value, and the fundamental purpose / meaning your endeavor is striving for. In essence, why is this design needed? Why does it matter? Why do you matter?

• You’ve got to tap into some customer invisibles:

>> unmet expectations: What are they expecting to get done, at a basic pragmatic level of performance and utility? How can you go beyond that?

>> tacit knowledge: I love how the new iPad ad mentions “you already know how to use it”. What knowledge/experience/abilities do your users already tacitly possess and employ and how can you leverage that? Metaphors, models, skills from pre-existing domains and situations, etc.

>> latent aspirations: What are your customers / users really striving for? What do they believe in and cherish? What do they dream of??

No doubt uncovering these invisibles takes some subterfuge and nuancing of traditional usability methods. Perhaps the answers are not in the people themselves but in their context, culture, trends, etc…

 

So here’s what I’ve been reading lately on my iPad (thanks to the Kindle App ;-)

 

• ReWork: a brief passionate manifesto by the 37Signals folks, expressing their philosophy of work. It’s fun and catchy and brilliant, although not necessarily appropriate for everyone or every project situation…but a great short read!

 

• DRiVE: another fun insightful book by Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, which I enjoyed. Delves into some new theories of human behavioral motivation, contradicting long-held assumptions about extrinsic vs intrinsic rewards, etc.

 

• Design-Driven Innovation: really good survey on the value of “design-driven” approaches and the primacy of creating meaning when striving for game-changing products/services. (that’s a lot of participles ;-)

 

• Change by Design: by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. Nice summary of “design thinking” from his worldview of leading a global innovation firm. The money quote: “Design thinking relies on our ability to be intuitive, recognize patterns, construct ideas with emotional value, to express ourselves in media other than words or symbols”…lots more!

 

 

Just sharing a few notable links that caught my eye (and mind) recently…Enjoy!

 

• Dan Saffer’s online interview with Want magazine: A bit long but filled with interesting thoughts ranging from personable robots to “designing for the Long Wow” to gestural/touch languages. Highly recommend taking the time to read and view the video!

 

• Marty Cagan’s Open Letter to the design community: Again, a bit lengthy but some valuable insights and lessons shared on truly getting good design done effectively within complex, corporate environments. There are some possibly controversial points, perhaps, going against the grain of typical canonical UCD thinking, but in my view speaks quite accurately about the pragmatics of design issues like… prototyping, design deliverables, exec engagement, and of course job titles/roles/duties.

 

• Why SaaS companies suck at making usable products: An informative summary of reasons why many SaaS enterprise offerings are dreadful in terms of usability, with recommendations for how to alleviate the pain. (much of it inspired by Steve Krug’s popular usability guidebooks)