Get Together

Get Together, my final project at CIID, is now online. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way, whether it was acting in my videos, participating in my research experiments or putting up with a bombardment of text messages. And thanks to everyone that visited our end of year exhibition!

http://www.localhiddenvariable.com/get-together/

Keyless: The Movie is a tribute to all my classmates and the number of video scenarios we created over the past year. But mostly it’s a bunch of inside jokes ;)

Enjoy!

21 interaction design students explore the relationship between people, society and technology.

The Danish Design School and Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design will celebrate and showcase the work of Pilot Year students that came from ten different countries to study on the collaborative and intensive interaction design programme.

The students have come up with an array of projects that demonstrate the multidisciplinary and questioning nature of Interaction Design and Service Design. Through a people-centred approach and taking cues from social and environmental sustainability, audio, information visualisation, and the influence of technology - the twenty-one students have devised visionary working prototypes and produced video scenarios as their final projects.

From systems for the integration of climate refugees, to specially designed windows that question the notion of curiosity; from wearable technology, to a series of devices that can enable new interactions with light & sound - these projects consider new technology, concepts and working prototypes that address social, cultural and business issues.

As well as the final projects, there will be a chance to see videos and documentation of other workshops from the pilot year including industry-facing projects with Nokia, Novo Nordisk, Intel and DSB.

Save a date:

Opening: 27th August 3-6pm
(Then from Friday 28th August - Sunday 6th September, open from 11:30am-5pm)

Venue
Kunstindustrimuseet (The Danish Museum of Art & Design)
Bredgade 68 / 1260 København K
Website: http://kunstindustrimuseet.dk/en

More detailed information to follow soon.

I’ve been working hard on Get Together, a service I am designing for my final project at CIID. Here is a short video I produced as a prototype exploring the whole service from start to finish. Since creating this video I have begun refining the service and designing high res interfaces for all the touchpoints which will be used in a video scenario. I have also been working on setting up a basic group SMS system as a way to prototype the user experience.

More to come very soon…

Prototype

Our last class at CIID was an industry project with Nokia. In under two weeks, Nunzia Coco and I conducted user research, built prototypes and produced three different video scenarios. I just added the project to my porfolio, so go check it out!

I also updated the Thailand project with some photos, so you can check that out as well.

Special Moments by Sony Design

Sony Design has published some new concept projects, one of which focuses on Interaction Design. The Interaction Design project showcases a variety of explorations including Special Moments about “bookmarking” everyday life by incorporating sounds recorders into candles and bookmarks. But what I really enjoyed seeing was their “about Interaction Design” page:

As new technology is developed, we are constantly reevaluating the place of possessions (such as electronics) in our lives. Times are changing, and what makes our possessions valuable to us no longer depends on the things themselves. More than ever, we value the interactivity of things in our lives.

Interaction design will undoubtedly keep pace with the development of digital technology, advancing rapidly. But these advances must not overwhelm users. Instead, we must imagine the ideal role of technology in our lives. For digital content to play an enriching role in our lives, we must seek the kind of interaction design that reflects a new value system, one that strikes a chord with our senses and sensibilities.

Next-generation design development at Sony is focused on creating effective interaction design, tried and tested through rapid prototyping, in order to shape new lifestyles.

Via Interaction Design Umea

Following up on the previous post about CIID at the Reboot Festival in Copenhagen, this video is an example of the kind of prototyping we were doing for Reboot participants.

Nina, Ashwin and I helped Tor Nørrentranders, one of the festival’s keynote speakers, prototype a way for children to ask him science questions over the web. Tor is well known in Denmark for his children’s books which illustrate some of life’s bigger questions (why is the sky blue?) in a child friendly way. Now Tor is interested in using video and the web so that children can send him questions directly.

Over the next two days, students from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design are offering design consultation services for everyone at Reboot! Pick a CIID interaction designer to help you take action!

“A day without the mobile-phone” is an installation in a public space that is made up of cell-phones collected from the people in the city. The phones are hanged on a tree where they create a light- and sound-installation.

More info at http://daywithoutmobilephone.blogspot.com/ (thanks for the tip, Isabel)

Building on last weekend’s “Dispatch” experiment, I initiated another design probe which I also turned into a short video. This experiment, which took place on Saturday, started when I sent two text messages to 21 of my classmates and a few of our friends.

The first text from my personal mobile:

Dear Party People, I need your help with another experiment. For the rest of the day, please do not contact eachother directly. Instead, send an SMS to xxxx-xxxx and I will forward your message to the whole group. P.S. I heard about a party tonight, I will send details later.

And then a text from an old mobile phone (xxxx-xxxx referred to above):

Welcome to the Pilot Year Dispatch Line. To unsubscribe, reply with the word “bail”. Tak!

For the rest of the night, I used my mobile phones to manage a pretend service that allows friends to share updates with each other. I  unsubscribed people, sent confirmation responses, and forwarded each persons message to the whole group. As it turned out, I did not choose the best night to conduct this experiment because most people stayed in (although I wonder if conducting this experiment actually caused people to stay in). Like the last experiment however, it proved a good way to gain insights about people’s behaviors when it comes to using their mobiles as a tool to communicate and coordinate within a group friends.

You can watch the video above to see what happened or keep reading to see a log of all the correspeondance…

3:50

auto message: This is the Pilot Year dispatch line. To unsubscribe, send SMS with the word “bail”. Tak!

3:51

yves: bail

3:56

andreas: friends playing at støberiet tonight ‘funky kong’

4:00

alice: bail (boyfriend just arrived) sorry!

4:02

nina: stop the texting please :-) i’m not going out

4:05

sara: bail

4:09

magnus: bail

4:22

francesco: bail

4:30

eilidh: what are ujjval and Sid doing when they finish work?

4:36

mimi: Hey, Sid. I’ve just checked out your sms. Why don’t you stop by my house after finishing your work?

4:37

sid: most probably bail. but will decide 3 hours later :)

5:17

tobias: bail

7:19

adam: there is a party tonight ON the metro, then continuing in a space below the ørestad station. anyone interested?

7:26

sid: bail

7:35

andreas: Funkykong and Strøberiet presents: LOOP NIGHT saturday13june blagards plads 3, 22-03. Minimal tech and house beats by: Daniel san, FuadVonLoop, Jonathon Fremond & Minimize. Support your local beat! See you @ the dance floor <3

9:00

Eilidh: going to adams and mimi’s place,not sure what the plan is though

10:03

mimi: bail

10:20

automated message to people who have not yet updated the group: You have not updated the Pilot Year dispatch line. Are you still on board? If we do not hear from you shortly, you will be automatically unsubscribed.

10:22

ujjval: im still on board

10:26

marcin: im with my roommate at another party (IT crwod). Still waiting for things to happen. Keep me up to date…

10:32

ujjval: people who are on board, should consider andreas party. he is such a sweetheart to send invitations. cheers for andreas. uj

10: 36

kevin: bail

10:39

erlend: just want to stay up to date

10:46

eline: bail

10:54

ujjval: have viagra tonight and make it a great night, only 1dkk. SMS ‘vgra4 2night”5555

10:58

andreas: lol

11:16

automated message to people who have not yet updated the group: You have been automatically unsubscribed.

12:42

marcin: i’m asking what everybody is doing?

12:50

adam: marcin, you should try to catch up with andreas. i think everyone else has called it a night.

12:55

adam: or you can look up Undervand

1:00

adam: bail

Cards filled out by participant

Last night I met up with Sanne and Tommy, two Danish twenty-somethings that carried around my “Mobile Ideas” probe for a week. Amazingly, especially since Sanne lost her phone twice over the course of the week, the little envelopes filled with blank cards actually stayed attached to their phones the entire time.

They wrote 7 ideas each about ways to improve their phone based on complaints they had while using the devices in their daily routines. Some of the ideas were fairly obvious or were simple technical improvements, while others were quite unique and inspiring.

Some of my favorites:

• Creating automated, self-service lost-and-found  boxes for phones left on the train. Sanna lost her phone on the train twice during the past week, and recovering it each time meant connecting the dots between a lot of people and mild embarrasment when actually picking the phone up.
• More “pleasant” alarm functions for the morning. Since Tommy has the phone by the side of his bed anyway (in case someone calls, to recharge it, etc.), the phone has replaced his alarm clock. What if the phone could play a random song each morning? Or what if the phone could give you a reason to get up in the morning? I.E. Remind you of your goal to eat more healthy breakfasts, or remind you of that extra reading you still needed to do before class.
• Text messages as email threads or chat windows. Tommy and Sanne both made note of this. More and more, SMS is used for carrying on conversations. So why not do what Google did for email - turn correspondence into a dialogue by visually displaying all messages as a thread. Or even make SMS resemble a chat window like MSN or Skype.
• Services for Roskilde! Roskilde is the biggest music festival in Denmark and Sanne wanted a phone to fill her in when she discovered a new band or new song. For example, what if you can send a text to a stage and get a response with the name of the current song being played. Last year Sanne heard so many new songs, but didn’t know how to find them after the festival was over.

Sanne is a business student and Tommy works with a community/youth organization, so I was quite impressed with the ideas they came up just by carrying around some paper attached to their phones. But in the end, this wasn’t so much a tool for getting new concepts as it was a tool for getting stories. So having these ideas on the table helped us have a much more rich discussion and share our stories. Thanks Sanne and Tommy!

The City of Copenhagen has just launched an innovative program aimed at tracking down stolen bicycles.

The program is called “Få en lille chip på” or “Get a little chip on” and involves handing out 5000 free RFID chips that Copenhageners can put on their bicycles in order to participate in the pilot program that will run until May 2010.

The chips are placed inside a red reflector, which is installed on the bicycle. You have to register to take part - name, address and email.

There is a small army of people walking about the city everyday with the enviable job of irritating motorists. We call them Parking Attendents. :-) They are on the sidewalks of the city writing out parking tickets anyway so they will now be equipped with an RFID scanner so they can walk past parked bicycles, scanning happily as they go.

If their GPS-equipped scanner registers a stolen bicycle, you will immediately recieve an email with a map featuring a red dot where your bicycle was found.

Via Copenhagenize.com

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Last October we had a lecture by Anab Jain who showed us several projects she has worked on relating mostly to interaction design and speculating for near-futures. The highlight of the presentation was Yellow Chair Stories, a project from her time at the Royal College of Art.  Besides being great fun to watch, I think this project stood out because it didn’t fit into any category but still seemed immediately relevant. Anyway, I have revisited this project a few times over the year and now that it has been posted on Vimeo, I can finally share it here. For more inspiration, I suggest having a look at Anab’s Superflux blog.

Envelopes fixed to the back of mobile phones

This afternoon I initiated another research probe called “Mobile Ideas”. It is an envelope filled with blank cards, fixed to the back side of people’s mobile phones. The idea is to collect inspirational and spontaneous ideas for imaginary mobile phone features based on problems experienced while on-the-go.

Inside the envelope are blank cards

Each card leads with the sentence “I wish my mobile phone could…” and participants are asked to sketch quick ideas. They are encouraged to think beyond current mobile technology and consider problems not just with the phone, but with any situation where they might be currently using their phone. Fixing the cards directly to the device should encourage spontaneous ideas that address problems in a variety of situations.  I also hope to use these cards to lead more meaningful discussions and more fun interviews when I collect them sometime next week.

Logging calls and texts durings Friday night's experiment

Shown here is a short video recorded on Friday night when I conducted a small experiment involving my classmates, their mobile phones, and a party we attended.

This is the email I sent that afternoon before making the video:

Dear Party People,

Are you planning on going to the house warming party at
Skabelonloftet? If so, can you all help me with an
experiment for my final project?

What I have in mind is a small game with two very simple
rules:

1. You can not call or text anyone on this email list except
for me

2. You can not receive any calls or texts from anyone on
this email list except for me

I will act as an “operator” by keeping track of everyone’s
dispatches. You can call or text me to leave an update
about yourself, or to inquire about the latest update from
a particular person.

See you at the party tonight (i hope)!
Adam

There was no real objective for doing this other than seeing how the evening would be different when friends could not as easily contact each other. In the end, it really was not any different at all except for maybe people putting in a little more thought about where & when to meet. What was interesting though was that a few people broke the rules which they originally accepted from me. For example, Mimi got on a wrong bus which she perceived as a “little emergency” and felt the need to inform Nina immediately. Meanwhile, Magnus arrived at the party earlier than everyone else and out of discomfort (or boredom) decided to call people directly to urge them to hurry up.

It was also interesting being the hub for everyone, which made me realize just how much back-and-forth communication goes into something like meeting at a party. Keep reading for a transcription of all the SMS and calls I received…

There is actually nothing exciting about this video, but I enjoyed it for what it is — a really nice example of video ethnography. We have tried this a couple times, but it is a lot harder than it looks. Even if you can get someone to agree to being interviewed in front of a video camera, you still have to worry about eliciting responses that are somewhat clear and to the point otherwise editing a video as watchable as this one is really difficult.

On the Artefact website they have published the first of three articles about how to film customer insights.

This is going to be a 3 part series on how you can film participants as part of a customer insights deliverable.  This is a specific type of output that does 3 things for us:

1. Greater client engagement by selling high level insights from the participant themselves
2. Greater audience immersion (designers and clients) in the research without the paperwork
3. Greater distribution and communication because of its sharable format

Read the whole thing here

I don’t know how it started but someone thought it would be fun to play telephone (a.k.a. chinese whispers) during yesterday’s train ride to Malmö. It incited a lot of childishness and made the time fly. This same group of people routinely passes messages along to each other digitally. Can we sacrifice any of the clarity this affords us and bring back some of the random surprises word-of-mouth treats us with?

Another story I arrived late to are the padded lamp posts on London’s Brick Lane. As the story goes, this street, which has notoriously crowded sidewalks, is the location of countless injuries caused by people bumping in to lamp posts and other obstacles while texting. So the city used this street to test a new idea for making streets more safe — padded lamp posts.

This is wrong in so many ways, but you have to love such a low tech solution for dealing with the ramifications of such high tech devices.

UPDATE: There is a software solution! TXT’N'WALK app (http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/23288/txt-n-walk-mobile-app.phtml)

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Photo from nytimes.com

Someone recently showed me this ad campaign by Mini Cooper which uses RFID to target drivers of Mini Cooper cars as they pass by. From a New York Times article on the billboards…

The boards, which usually carry typical advertising, are programmed to identify approaching Mini drivers through a coded signal from a radio chip embedded in their key fob. The messages are personal, based on questionnaires that owners filled out: “Mary, moving at the speed of justice,” if Mary is a lawyer, or “Mike, the special of the day is speed,” if Mike is a chef.

I am not sure if an elevated highway is the safest place to put this but it’s a nice idea nonetheless.

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Discussion during last industry project

We just finished our 10th or 11th project (i’m losing count) which was an industry project with Nokia. In the end, Nunzia and I produced a series of videos to demonstrate the concepts developed over the last two weeks. Hopefully I will be allowed to share more about this in the near future. In the mean time, expect more updates about my final project which is the only thing standing between now and September.

How does the process of designing a better product work? To show you, Nightline went to Palo Alto, CA to the designers at IDEO, and gave them the toughest problem we could think of. Take something old and familiar like the shopping cart and completely redesign it in just five days.

Keep reading for parts 2 and 3 of this video…

Where do new ideas come from? This film is about design strategists and how they identify the right ideas. It was produced by the global innovation consultancy Continuum.

Not unlike some of what we are doing here at CIID…

Via Interaction Design Umeå

Advertisement in shop window

A quick update — we are halfway through our second Industry Project which is also our last course at CIID. I can not really go into much detail about this project, but it is two weeks long and so far we have found ourselves conducting quite a bit of user research. We first needed to speak with “young people” so Nunzia (my classmate) and I went to a Danish Højskole, a kind of school that many Danish people spend a year at before they go to university. We chatted with 4 different 20-year-olds and talked mostly about how their different communication channels (SMS, phone, Facebook, email, etc.) are used for different purposes. We led our conversations around certain themes such as privacy, planning social events, and being in emergency situations. Unsurprisingly, since 1/3 of Denmark’s population is on Facebook, these conversations always went back to Facebook.

Part of this project requires us to project 2-4 years in the future, so we needed to think about what emerging needs these young people will have as they mature. To gain a perspective on this, Nunzia and I paid a visit to a nearby park that is quite popular with mothers and their young children. We spoke with two women who were in their early thirties and each had a toddler. Our converstations here were less about communication and the themes mentioned above, and more about their daily routines.

I can’t say that we learned anything completely new from talking to either of these groups, but it has given us plenty of stories that we can use as inspiration and evidence as we begin to create our own concepts. Not to mention, every time we go out to interview random strangers like this, it gets a little bit easier.

Up until very recently, Hollywood was still releasing films in which main characters did not have mobile phones. And the fact that these characters did not have mobile phones was evident because there was always some pivotal scene in which two people could not get in touch with each other, or someone was running late or an ambulance could not be called. This drove me crazy. I recently thought it would be an interesting exercise to re-edit these films, or slightly older films, as if the characters did have mobile phones. What classic movie scenes could be totally negated? Would it make these scenes less universal?

Anyway, I was reminded of this scene from Saved by the Bell which is probably one of the earliest film/tv examples of a social dilemma happening around a mobile phone (YouTube, you never cease to amaze me).

By the way, if you grew up outside of the US and someone mentions a “Zack Morris phone”, this is what they meant:

Remember Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell and his big ass cell phone? Well, anyone with an old ass phone that is lacking todays features has a Zack Morris Phone
Sorry I couldnt get that video you sent me, I have a Zack Morris Phone

- Urban Dictionary

Copenhagen's networked bus stops

At many of the bus stops in Copenhagen is a count down timer to when the next bus will arrive. Actually, I don’t know how this works. But it’s awesome. Why is this only the first city I lived in that does this?

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Research
- Review the history of the issue; remember any existing obstacles.
- Collect examples of other attempts to solve the same issue.
- Note the project supporters, investors, and critics.
- Talk to end-users, that brings the most fruitful ideas for later design
- Take into account thought leaders opinion

Ideate
- Identify the needs and motivations of your end-users (needfinding)
- Generate as many ideas as possible to serve these identified needs
- Log your brainstorming session.
- Do not judge or debate ideas.
- During brainstorming, have one conversation at a time

Prototype
- Combine, expand, and refine ideas.
- Create multiple drafts.
- Seek feedback from a diverse group of people, include your end users.
- Present a selection of ideas to the client.
- Reserve judgment and maintain neutrality.

Choose
- Review the objective.
- Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas.
- Remember: the most practical solution isn’t always the best.
- Select the powerful ideas.

Implement
- Assign tasks.
- Execute.
- Deliver to client.

Learn
- Gather feedback from the consumer.
- Determine if the solution met its goals.
- Discuss what could be improved.
- Measure success; collect data.
- Document.

This future vision from Samsung takes the form of a commercial, focusing on specific products for the home that are offered by Samsung. Unlike the last video I posted which uses three short scenarios, System Hauzen follows a single narrative of a family going about their day. Unforunately this narrative is broken and becomes a cheap infomercial when the actors address the camera/audience, and especially by saying things like “this is the future…”.

But what’s most striking about this video is how creepy this ethnically ambiguous family is! A comment on the video’s YouTube page compared it to Horizons at Disney World’s Epcot Center, a future vision built in the 80s. System Hauzen is so campy, cliche and borderline anti-utopian that it immediately becomes a parady of itself.

I will continue to post videos related to future visions and scenarios, one of the domains of my final project

SMS Your Drinks - drink delivery service

Caribbian is a bar in Copenhagen that offers a unique service - they deliver cocktails! Three things that Copenhagen has a plethora of are green parks, cargo bicycles and people drinking outdoors. This service brings all of those together through the use of mobile phones. Just text your drink order to the number above (i.e. 2 liters of frozen margaritas) and then find the delivery man who arrives on a cargo bicycle throughout the day at the city’s most popular parks.

No matter how nicely I asked my pizza delivery man in Philadelphia to deliver some beer with my food, he just would not do it. So not only does this service highlight how awesome Denmark is, it is a nice example of mobile technology as a business use in an urban setting.

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

IDEO created these three video scenarios to communicate some of the user experiences made possible by Intel’s advancements in ultra-mobile PC technology. Although Intel is not in the business of making products like the ones depicted, it is in their best interest to show companies that are (i.e. Sony, Samsung, etc.) what is possible with Intel’s chips.

I am posting this because I think it is a good example of a typical “future scenario” video that focuses on consumer technologies and user experiences.

I will continue to post videos related to future visions and scenarios, one of the domains of my final project

Fitness club ad in the Netherlands, image from unpressablebuttons.com

This fitness club advertisement displays the weight of whoever is sitting on the bust stop bench, reminding them (or possibly shaming them) to think about exercise. It is another example of real-time data and public displays.

One of the most cliché of urban computing scenarios is the Minority Report style targeted advertising, but how can you can realistically change a billboard to meet the needs of one person in a group of people (without wearing a special eyeball)? I like that this does the opposite by singling out a person in a group of people, with the expectation that everyone is looking.

Via Unpressable Buttons

The scene in question from Minority Report

The Networked Omniscient (2006) by Evan Allen & Matthew Worsnick

I am also reminded of The Networked Omniscient (2006) by Evan Allen & Matthew Worsnick, in which they re-imagine Times Square filled with advertisements based on real-time data. For example, an NYPD advertisement that reads “There’s a Glock G-34 pistol crossing 44th Street. We’re on it.” Another billboard (sorry for the bad image) advertises a taxi company by reminding an individual of a flight they have later in the day.

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Copenhagen cyclists counter

While walking around town tonight I passed this on H.C. Andersens Boulevard, a display that was recently installed which shows the number of cyclists passing by. Red numbers indicate cyclists who passed by that day and blue is a running total for the year. A small sensor placed a few meters before the display changes numbers each time a bicycle rides over it. And according to the Copenhagenize blog, there is a SIM-card in the counter so the information is automatically sent to the City of Copenhagen’s Center for Traffic. Also worth mentioning is that next to the counter is a free pump for your tires!

This is a good example of real-time data and public displays, but it would be great to give these numbers some sort of context… How many cars have passed by? How does today’s number compare to the daily average? What data can the Center for Traffic send back to this display. Anyway, this was taken around 7pm and roughly, almost 7000 cyclists had passed by? 14,000 if you estimate the other side of the street. Well done Copenhagen!

I will continue to post observations, inspirations and anything else that I come across in the city or online which may be relevant to urban computing, one of the domains of my final project

Early morning chat and breakfast to share ideas about thesis

Still frighteningly vague given that this project is due at the end of August, but here it is anyway…

I want my thesis to …

I want my thesis to explore the social contexts of emerging technologies as they play out in people’s everyday lives. I want to emphasise the everyday by keeping my exploration grounded in reality through a process of user research and analysis. My research will look at the present and recent past so that I can ask questions about the future. At the same time I want to investigate the roles of scenarios, fictional narratives and storytelling as a means of exploring given contexts and communicating design concepts.

I’m interested in/inspired by…

I am interested in the behavioural effects of adopting new technologies and how this changes peoples everyday lives over time. I am also inspired by the creative uses of technology, new appropriations and the opportunities these create to help people improve their lives.

I am interested in new technologies and areas of research around the topic of urban computing, which explores the role of ubiquitous computing and networks in urban environments. Such new areas include locative media, location aware devices and participatory sensing.

It is important that this project involves itself with a context, user group or set of values that interests me personally. For example, how technology can support autonomy, spontaneity or mobility while also strengthening relationships, personal networks and communication. More examples include Copenhagen, cycling, empowerment, travel, community building, poor, disabled, exploration, etc..

During my thesis I would like to challenge myself in…

I would like to challenge myself in the early stages of the design process that we have been exploring throughout the year, which include user research, design vision, identifying problems & opportunities and visualising concepts through scenarios, personas and storytelling.

From Copenhagenize (the Copenhagen bike culture blog), comes this great music video that reminds you of how awesome it is to bicycle here. When the year is over, this is one of the things I will miss most (no matter how hard New Yorkers try).

Right before Easter holiday was the Innovation Lab’s NEXT exhibit/conference in Århus, Denmark where we exhibited Meet the Food You Eat. Several of our classmates exhibiting their own projects (Bunny Bot, CALEN3DAR and Compound Eye) were there as well.

Mimi Son made the above video that covers all the CIID projects and several of the others. Below are photos of some of my favorite projects.

Children playing with a PlayAlive demo

Not the best photo but a really neat project by a Danish company called PlayAlive who make “intelligent playground equipment.” It is essentially a large, playground style jungle-gym equipped with electronic pads (pictured above) that light up and make sounds to create different games. Children have to run and climb around the playground in order to hit the pads. It is sort of like a massive, multi-player Bopit in which kids actually get exercise.

A child playing Remote Impact by Distance Lab

Remote Impact is another computer based game that requires physical activity. It was the developed by the Distance Lab, a research group in Scotland that develops technology and products around the theme of distance. Remote Impact is a boxing game in which opponents fight eachother remotely. The game works by punching a life size silhouette of your opponent as he moves around, and the harder you punch the soft screen, the stronger your virtual punch will be.

Mimi sprays canned smoke on the coughing plant by Kitchen Budapest

The Coughing Plant was my favorite project by Kitchen Budapest eventhough it was probably their simplest. The idea is easy… a sensor inside the plant detects smoke and a hidden speaker makes a coughing noise. They had another version in the form of a picture frame hanging outside the building entrance where all the smokers were, but picture frames don’t breath and plants do. Maybe they could have made a dog collar???

The AfterLife coffin

James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau created AfterLife, a coffin that uses a decomposing body’s biomass to recharge batteries. This was situated next to a similar project (that I assume was by the same artists) that was a motorized sticky fly trap. It was able to collect all of the dead flies and use their bodies to charge a small digital clock.

Before the exhibit opened, Preben Meyer (director of the Innovation Lab) demoed three projects from the exhibit on Good Morning Denmark. One of these was Meet the Food You Eat!

He also brought it on another television show filmed in Århus.

What is it?

Travel Global | Read Local is a library service for hotels and their guests. It aims to promote Danish culture & knowledge to visitors of Denmark by giving them access to library materials and services. At the same time, Travel Global | Read Local allows hotels to serve their guests in new ways by arranging to have library materials delivered directly to their rooms.

Who is it for?

Travel Global | Read Local is for hotels and their guests. Many visitors to Denmark are eager to find local knowledge about sights, activities, books, music and other things that suit their personal interests. Few places in Denmark provide such information to help people experience the local culture in a meaningful way.

Hotels are interested in meeting the needs of their customers and providing them a comforting and welcoming stay.

Why is it valuable?

Hotel guests are able to explore Danish culture through the library and have books, CDs and DVDs waiting at their hotel room when they arrive, all for free.

Hotels that partner with the library will have a unique service that allows them give their guests a personalized experience.

The library can continue it’s mission of providing free access to culture and information while at the same time lead the way in promoting Denmark as a country which places a high value in the sharing of knowledge.

Possible business opportunities exist for both the library and hotels to offer paid subscriptions and premium services.

How does it work?

A special library website promotes materials and information relevant for visitors and guests in Denmark. When a visitor books a room with a partner hotel, they are given the ability to reserve materials from the library website. The library will arrange to deliver the materials to the hotel and the hotel will manage the rest. A hotel guest has many options for returning books, reserving more books, etc.

What were your key learnings?

People coming to stay in Copenhagen all begin by following a very similar travel process. In general, many people who are new to an area often seek the local library because its universal services make it reliable. Many people visit a country to learn about it’s culture yet they have different tastes and interests. There is a need for local and trustworthy information that can be tailor made for specific people.

Copenhagen Central Library photo by Tobias Toft

Week 1: The Context

Finding a design domain and building a user research plan was the primary focus of week 1. We had visits at several libraries to help generate a broad understanding of the existing system and services. We spoke with experts to gain knowledge in current trends, challenges and other issues facing libraries.

By the end of the week we chose ‘foreigners’ as a user group and made research plans to further refine this as a design domain.

We were interested in how library services could play a role with people who are visiting Denmark or who have just moved to Denmark. Plans for the following week included visits to the airport and other places where we might be able to find foreigners just arriving in Denmark.

Card sorting - one of our user research methods

Week 2: User Research

We conducted user research in the field and turned insights into design challenges. Most of the research took place at the airport and tourist information office where we conducted video interviews with tourists and foreigners living in Denmark. We were interested to know how they prepared for their trip and what resources they accessed once they arrived in Denmark.

After this we had the enormous task of finding the best quotes and observations from all our notes, videos and photos. For each insightful quote or observation we collected (we collected a lot), we had to answer “what does it mean?” Once this helped us understand the value in our insight, we then had to ask “so what?” As a group this really helped us figure out what was interesting and if it was useful.

The goal of this process was to create 3 well thought out design challenges that we could then create concepts for.

An early sketch by Sid

Week 3: First Concepts

We looked at three design challenges and created as many concepts as possible. We conducted many brainstorming sessions which included classmates not involved with our project. At the end of the week, we had literally hundreds of concepts. Most were purely inspirational but they provided material to develop several solutions and begin the process of planning how to execute an initial experience prototype.

After presenting three concepts to the class, we decided to move forward with one that involved incorporating library and hotel services. In a matter of days we were able to make a short video that communicated the idea.

Experience prototype at Hotel Fox in Copenhagen

Week 4: Experience Prototyping

hagen help us test our experience prototype with their guests. We prepared brochures, order forms and mini catalogs for the receptionist to distribute to guests when they check in to the hotel. We also brought 20 of our own books that the guests could borrow. The books were a mix of novels, guide books and design related photo books. Almost all of them had something to do with Denmark. We also included DVDs and a few other items in the catalog even though we did not bring them to the hotel. If a guest would like to borrow a book, they just need to fill out a small order form and give it to the receptionist. We also included questionnaires so that the guests could give us feedback about the service. Inside each book is a bookmark with recommendations based on that particular book. These include sights, other library materials and places to visit (i.e. The Danish Design Museum). For the sake of this prototype, the role of the library is not important. However we still included books and print material

We spent a few hours each day hanging out in the lobby and observing guests as they receive the brochure when they check in. The idea is to see if hotel guests, who generally only stay 2-3 nights, are interested in looking at new books and bringing them back to their rooms. We would also like to know what types of books are most popular and how the receptionists are able to manager the service.

Contents of the hotel welcome kit

Week 5: Solution Concept

We refined our hotel/library concept based on the insights from our experience prototypes and produced communication pieces to help make the concept clear and understandable. These included a concept video, service blueprint and system diagrams. We also began thinking about future scenarios based on the service we created and how a larger system could give travelers access to books all over the world.

Eilidh plays the Hotel Fox receptionist

Attention aspiring interaction designers: I hope you like making videos. Complex systems, like those involving technology or services that take place over time, are often easiest prototyped with video. And they are often best communicated through scenarios. So video is a tool we are gaining lots of experience with here at CIID.

Adam in hotel room

Not only was Hotel Fox willing to let us test our service with their customers, but they allowed us to film our video in one of their hotel rooms. It’s amazing what can happen if you just ask. Thank you Hotel Fox!

Martin reporting from Copenhagen Airport

We also rang up our friend Martin who is a reporter on Danish TV. Thanks, Martin!

Airport staff helping us with a brief scene

And thanks to this woman who helped us eventhough she was working! I will be posting the video later in the week…

UPDATE - Here’s the video…

WK Interact room at Hotel Fox

During the past week we have been running an experience prototype at Hotel Fox in Copenhagen. That’s that “lifestyle” hotel where each room was designed by a different international artist. Many thanks to the staff there for helping us with our project because Hotel Fox is a perfect place to test our service.

Some of the props we brought to the hotel

We prepared brochures, order forms and mini catalogs for the receptionist to distribute to guests when they check in to the hotel. We also brought 20 of our own books that the guests could borrow. The books were a mix of novels, guide books and design related photo books. Almost all of them had something to do with Denmark. We also included DVDs and a few other items in the catalog even though we did not bring them to the hotel.

Hotel Fox lobby

If a guest would like to borrow a book, they just need to fill out a small order form and give it to the receptionist. We also included questionnaires so that the guests could give us feedback about the service. Inside each book is a bookmark with recommendations based on that particular book. These include sights, other library materials and places to visit (i.e. The Danish Design Museum). For the sake of this prototype, the role of the library is not important. However we still included the library’s branding on all books and print material.

Welcome packets and loaner books at the Hotel Fox desk

We spend a few hours each day hanging out in the lobby and observing guests as they receive the brochure when they check in. The idea is to see if hotel guests, who generally only stay 2-3 nights, are interested in looking at new books and bringing them back to their rooms. We would also like to know what types of books are most popular and how the receptionists are able to manager the service. Last time we checked in, the hotel had lent out one book and received one feedback form.

A recent move means a new bicycle video! Closer to school AND I get to ride through the park everyday. Music by the Figurines.

Props from our video prototype

After presenting three concepts to the class, we decided to move forward with one that involved incorporating library and hotel services. In a matter of days we were able to make a short video that communicated the idea.

We are in the process of building on this concept so let me know your thoughts! (By the way, Radisson SAS is no way involved with this and judging by the receptionist on duty when we were taking photos, they don’t want to be involved with this… guerrilla prototyping!)

Some of our favorite ideas

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.” — Linus Pauling

Over the past two weeks we have had the good fortune of working with Brian Rink of IDEO San Fransisco who is facilitating our current class on Service Design. But the past two days were especially fortunate, as we learned to do brainstorming IDEO style. They call them brainstormers and they take them pretty seriously. Here are some rules that Brian shared with us:

1. Defer judgment
2. Encourage wild ideas
3. Build on the ideas of others
4. Stay focused on the topic
5. One conversation at a time
6. Be visual
7. Go for quantity

Besides a helpful set of rules, each brainstorming sessions needs a focused, informed question (not too broad not too narrow) and a good facilitator. Brian’s tips for facilitating included:

• Ensure ideas are captured and everyone behaves.
• At this point, we are focusing on IDEA GENERATION, not evaluation. That comes later. Keep the group generative.
• Make sure everyone gets heard and that everyone is listening, Groups are more powerful because they BUILD on each other’s ideas.
• Encourage WILD ideas, it’s fun and can trigger great innovations.
• Try to keep ideas to a SOUND BYTE or a headline, Encourage catchy titles and drawings.
• Have fun!

Brainstorming sign up sheet

For this class we have 7 groups of students working across two different topics (libraries and telemedicine), but for the brainstorming days everyone got to help everyone else. I think this is what made the past two days so productive, we had a chance to forget about our own projects and try to come up with ideas for our classmates. This, and the fact that each session was limited to one hour, helped maintain a good level of energy of focus through out each day.

Sketching an idea

Each hour long session included about six students and are goal was to come up with 100 ideas. After the end of two days, my group had literally hundreds of ideas to move forward with. Of course many of them were matching, or unrealistic or just plain silly, but I am expecting to find a few gems of inspiration.

User research profiles and notes

After wrapping up our user testing last week, we had the enormous task of finding the best quotes and observations from all our notes, videos and photos. For each insightful quote or observation we collected (we collected a lot), we had to answer “what does it mean?” Once this helped us understand the value in our insight, we then had to ask “so what?” As a group this really helped us figure out what was interesting and if it was useful.

Trying to find the value from our insights

From the photo above, the insight was a quote that read:

“It would be romantic to meet someone at the library” - Eda, 19. Just moved to CPH.

What it means to us:

- Meeting people face to face is a richer experience

- The library has a special ‘romantic’ quality to it

So what…? (phrased as a how might we… question):

How might the library connect strangers with similar interests?

User research insights

As you can see, we had quite a few of these. But before we could move on, we had to narrow it down. So we did what any democratic group would do and we voted. We gave ourselves 5 red stickers each and voted for the how might we… statements we found most interesting.

The goal of this process was to create 3 well thought out design challenges that we could then create concepts for. In the end ours looked something like this these…

People coming to stay in Copenhagen all begin by following a very similar travel process. From researching their trip before they leave home to visiting the top tourist attractions. During this journey they use a large number of similar services and pass through many public spaces, however the library rarely plays a role in their experience. How can giving library services a presence outside of the library help newcomers become more acquainted with Copenhagen?

Many people who are new to an area seek the local library because its universal services make it reliable. The space makes them feel in touch with the community it serves. Internet access and other basic services are available for free. A special charm makes it a surprising place to meet strangers. At the same time, people visiting a new area greatly value the advice and knowledge of local people. How might we create a service that uses the library’s knowledge and visitors to help guests and new residents of Denmark feel like a local?

Many people visit a country to learn about it’s culture yet they have different tastes and interests, be it films they watch, literature they read, music they listen to or even food they relish. The library is a rich source of trusted material, but provides no access for visitors wishing to explore local culture that matches their interests. How might the library provide a service for visitors not from Scandinavia to explore cultural content within their area of personal interests?

At a self checkout terminal in Copenhagen's central library

Last week we visited Pernille Schultz, head of the Copenhagen Central Library (Hovedbiblioteket), to gain some background knowledge on the Danish library system and it’s current challenges (libraries are one of the topics for our current course on Service Design). To get a better understanding of how libraries worldwide are using digital services, Pernille recommended the blog of Lorcan Dempsey. As it turns out, this blog is actually a great resource for anyone interested in services and networks in general, not just libraries.

One particular article, Always on: Libraries in a world of permenent connectivity, was especially relevant to some of the stuff we have been talking about in school over the past few days.

Keep reading for a summary of Lorcan’s key ideas in this article…

In Always on: Libraries in a world of permenent connectivity, Lorcan Dempsey looks at how mobile communication (i.e. networked devices) changes the way people coordinate their resources to achieve goals. He mostly focuses on students, whose goals may be academic or social, and how they use network technology to give new meaning to time (watching lectures on a train) and space (ad hoc rendezvous and social learning). But what is most interesting in this article is what these technologies and behaviors mean for services, particularly library services.

So what does this mean for libraries? He starts by describing some general observations:

• As more people access library collections from the network, the quality will be judged by what is visible on the network. Network-based services are no longer an “add-on”, they must be regarded as an “integral design principle.” I think this was recognized by Pernille and her associates although their current web presence did not reflect this.
• Socialization and personalization must play a role in library services which creates new challenges in utilizing products from various sources. They will have to “meaningfully synthesize a range of products and services from multiple sources, specialize them for particular users and uses, and then mobilize them into a personalized, socialized, individual user experience.” Dempsey also raises the issue of where these products will come from. What will the library need to create and what can come from third parties?
• Tagging, reviews and other user generated content common in social computing have been a challenge for libraries because users are small in numbers or perceive no incentive. Therefore these must mesh with broader initiatives or larger services. As an example of personalization, Dempsey describes a service at the University of Minnesota which suggests resources and services to students based on their interests which can be assessed by analyzing their course enrollments.
• Challenges of provision become highlighted in a network environment, where much the of the content does not meet the needs of digital devices or students who demand relevant, tailored material that they can copy and share.

Demspey goes on to describe some of the ways libraries are adapting to these challenges:

• Reference/enquiry - Instant messaging, SMS and email can all be used to communicate with the with reference desk, but Dempsey mentions one interesting study that indicates “even where people are physically in the library they may prefer to use chat reference than seek out a face-to-face encounter.”
• Collections to go - Audio and e-books which are more attractive with new user lifestyles.
• Presentation and visibility - Libraries are utilizing services like YouTube and iTunes to distribute videos and podcasts promoting the library.
• Alerting - Text message and email alerts about events, due dates, status of requests, etc.
• Syndication - RSS feeds, Facebook widgets, etc.
• Mobile sites - Portals, catalogs, etc. designed just for mobile devices.
• Communications and referral - Wiring up of library staff similar to retail environments.
• Booking - Rooms, equipment, etc. can be reserved online.
• Note-taking - Photos are taken of computer screens instead of writing down catalog details on paper, photos of text/images from books, etc.

And a few opportunities that might appear in the near future:

• With new student behaviors such as watching lectures on trains (”timeshifting”), capturing and managing audio/video materials such as lectures, events, etc. becomes a new opportunity.
• Synching large amounts of data and media to iPods and other storage devices is common practice. An opportunity exists to use the physical library as a space to sync tailored collections based on personal preferences.
• People use network services to manage their digital lives (Flickr, YouTube, Slideshare, etc.), so how can libraries play a role in this? Dempsey gives two ideas: having the library offer backup services as some of these materials may be important to the institution, and allowing users to mix library materials in with their personal online collections.

Dempsey also talks a lot about “presence” which is something we heard about in our meeting with Pernille.

In some ways, the challenge for libraries is to make themselves invisible, by delivering services into user workflow in networking environments… Libraries must also demonstrate value in the context of growing competition for resources. This suggests that as their network services grow in sophistication it is important for the library itself, its people, to be more visible.

The library cannot expect its users to build their workflow around the library; it must reach out into the workflows its users are creating on the network.

This article offers a lot more, so if anyone is focusing on network technology you should probably read this.

User research at the Copenhagen airport

Some more user research for our service design/library project, but this time at the airport. One of the topics we are exploring right now is foreigners in Copenhagen and how the library might be able to assist them. What better place to find foreigners than the airport? Actually most the people we approached were either Danish or were on their way to neighboring Sweden. No matter, the Danish people gave us an opportunity to ask questions about other topics and for those going to Sweden we just had to re-frame the questions some.

Reviewing material back in the studio

We decided to video tape these conversations and to my surprise only one person objected to our request to do so. Approaching strangers, especially in such a busy place, has been extremely challenging, but I am finding the conversations are becoming easier as the concepts for this project begin to develop. And as Simona told us earlier in the day, we are not looking for “truth” because we are not ethnographers. What we are doing is design research which means we are only seeking inspiration.

Card sorting in the library's grassy room

Yesterday was one of the most challenging days this year. We didn’t have to code anything, we didn’t have to solder anything, but we had to speak with people! We are currently in the user research phase of our service design class where we are designing for libraries. Earlier in the year we had a week long course on user research during which we found ourselves in elderly homes trying to speak to people suffering from dementia. But strangely enough, talking to average people in the library and on the street seemed more challenging.

The challenge probably results from the fact that our project is so wide open right now.  Since we are still exploring, it is difficult to know what to ask people. This means our questions are not focused and we find ourselves having casual conversations. It is not always easy to keep those conversations going when you are approaching strangers.

Because our group was somewhat weary of this, we prepared two different activities to help spark more interesting conversations. Once we got the hang of this, our day became much easier.

A young girl's sketch of how she perceives the library

The first activity asked people to make quick sketches of how they perceive the library. The results were nice and provided a conversation starter, but we still felt like we were not learning anything new.

More card sorting

The second activity was much better because it helped guide a longer conversation about different topics, a lot of which went beyond the library. We gave the participants three place mats (book store, library, internet) and a bunch of small cards with keywords on them. We asked the each person to place keywords on the place mat it best described. We were less interested in the final layout of keywords than we were about asking them about their choices along the way. We also included blank cards and allowed them to write their own keywords.

Compiling the results back at school

These conversations were much more rich and much more natural. It might also be worth mentioning that it was Sid, Eilidh and I conducting these activities. This seemed to be the perfect amount of people (one lead, one photographer, and one note taker). Back at school we organized our notes and photos for each person we spoke with. Hopefully after another session or two of this kind of research, which we plan on doing outside of the library, we will be able to identify specific problem areas that will make for an interesting service design project.

• Anthropologists help tech giants figure out the softer side - Feb. 25, 2009
  Genevieve Bell must be Jay's boss. Fortune Mag. on ethnography at tech firms.
• The Valley and the Sky | Sascha Pohflepp
  Acid? Drop City? Whole Earth Catalog? The future of design??

A dozen of the most daunting international  minds on business, technology and invention will take the conference stage. And 100 of the most perspectivating, forward facing  and unexpected uses of new technology is drawn from research labs, startups, and R&D facilities from around the globe, to be showcased, tried, discussed and probably fixed a few times during the four day exhibition.

I am glad they chose to include that line about fixing things ;) Anyway, we will be joined by a few classmates exhibiting their own projects, Bunny Bot, CALEN3DAR and Compound Eye.

This video was created for the 2 week course “Social Computing & Sustainability”. As the first of two Industry Projects we will have this year, it was a collaboration between the Interaction Design Pilot Year and Intel. Jacob, Yves and I produced this video as a mock “user research study” as a way to communicate Green House CPH, our concept for a government initiative to decrease energy consumption in Copenhagen.

I hope the video explains it all, otherwise keep reading for some more information and photos.

Wall of inspiration

After reviewing the brief, the first thing our class did was compile a wall of interesting things we found on the web regarding sustainability, technology and energy consumption. I was particularly inspired by new devices and services that help people manage the energy consumption in their home (smart meters, Google PowerMeter, various iPhone apps, web mashups, etc.).

Mjølnerparken aka Nørrebronx

Our group decided it would be interesting to focus on the social collective that is the apartment block. The first thing we did after that was visit different apartment blocks in Copenhagen and ask people some general questions about their energy usage, relationships with their neighbors, etc. In short, we saw that people did not care about their neighbors energy consumption because it did not affect themselves financially.

Concept development

After we presented our insights from our visits around the city, we decided to focus on the question what incentives are there for an apartment building as a whole to be energy efficient? Back in school we spent a lot of time brainstorming different concepts.

Scenario storyboards

We found it difficult to answer our question by designing new devices or services. What we needed was systemic change or a large incentive that only the government could provide. With that, we asked what would happen if the government rewarded the residents of an apartment building when their entire building met certain energy efficiency standards?

More storyboards

We came up with the concept for Green House CPH, a government sponsored rebate plan for individuals who could work together to decrease the overall energy consumption of their entire building. We sketched out scenarios and touch points that took advantage of emerging smart grid technology, current social web applications, mobile phones, and more.

Jacob filming (photo by Yves)

In the end we thought the best way to communicate this concept was to tell the story of a Green House CPH user. What resulted was a sort of documentary/user study that takes place one year after the city of Copenhagen launches the Green House CPH program.

• Utilities Turn Their Customers Green, With Envy - NYTimes.com
  Is ‘keeping up with the neighbors’ incentive to reduce energy consumption? How about head-on competition?
• COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
  Coming soon to a city near me
• COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
  Coming soon to a city near me
• From the InternetS of Things to a Web of Things
  Dominique Guinard’s slideshow from the LIFT 09 Workshop
• Internet of Things: Roadmap for the Future
  Vlad Trifa’s slideshow from the LIFT 09 Workshop
• Wired for Progress: Building a National Clean-Energy Smart Grid
  Everything you need to know about the “smart grid” right here
• Hyper Island: Hello IDEO!
  Two Hyper Island grads talk about their experience working at Ideo London
• Manifesto of Open Disruption and Participation by Eric Paulos
  “Ubiquitous technology is with us and is indeed allowing us to communicate, buy, sell, connect, and do miraculous things. However, it is time for this technology to empower us to go beyond finding friends, chatting with colleagues, locating hip bars, and buying music.”
• The Demon-Haunted World - Matt Jones Presentation at Webstock Conference
  “Since the 60s we’ve imagined the combination of computers and our environment would create both utopias and dystopias. Since the 80’s we’ve seen academics, artists and corporate R&D labs prototype these futures from the top-down. Now, hackers are building sensors, bots and software into everything around them bottom-up, fast, cheap and out-of-control. They’re creating environments that react, adapt and respond to us - and perhaps more importantly - each other: The Demon-Haunted World. Matt’s session will be a whistlestop tour of those days of future past and pointers to some practical futures we can start building right now, together.”

As mentioned before, the topic of the past two weeks has been Social Computing & Sustainability. Jay from Intel gave a brief talk on the idea of social computing and how it relates to some of the system-on-a-chip technologies that Intel may be working with. But one item from that presentation which really stuck out was this Carrotmob video. The video and concept have nothing to do with social computing per se, but I think it can be assumed it wouldn’t be possible to achieve what Carrotmob did without social computing. Showing what websites, mobile phone apps and whatever else were used would not really add anything to this video.

From this point of view and from a sustainability point of view, this video is well worth watching. And from a design point of view, it’s a great example of concept testing, experience prototyping, etc… The concept is designed for large corporations, but they were able to test it in a local market and prove its feasibility.

It makes me think of the project I am currently working on, a video scenario about a government initiative that helps reduce energy consumption. Our video focuses a lot on the touchpoints involved (websites & mobile phone apps). But can it not be assumed that any new, forward thinking service will be utilizing these? I think the Carrotmob video showed us this. So for our video, which as an Interaction Design project requires some of these touchpoints, we really have to think of some creative ways to make them new and fresh.

• A Designer Takes on His Biggest Challenge Ever | Fast Company
  A great story about David Kelley and IDEO
• The City Is Here: Table of contents « Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird
  Also looking forward to this - the new Adam Greenfield book
• Orange Cone: Smart Things: an outline
  I am really looking forward to this book by Mike Kuniavsky. Working title: Smart things: the design of things that have computers in them, but are not computers
• YouTube - RISDDeSE's Channel
  YouTube channel for RISD's Design for Social Entrepreneurship program.
• Shareideas
  "An online community and wiki for sharing ideas on how to use mobile communications for social and environmental benefits."
• Putting people first » 35 Picnic conference videos
  "PICNIC brings together and disseminates the ideas and knowledge of the world’s best creators and innovators"
• Taco Lab
  "Taco Lab is a hybrid design and engineering firm specializing in interfaces and interactions. We are designers who craft experiences people will love. We are engineers who build these experiences."
• Stimulant
  "Stimulant conceives, designs, and develops digital experiences that inspire wonder for places, contexts, and devices where none usually exists."
• Meet the bright young stars of travel | Travel | The Observer
  "Whether it's the result of technology, the credit crunch, eco-worries or simply our constant thirst for something new, the way we travel is changing, and these are the trailblazers helping to make it happen"
• Meet The Food You Eat: Measuring Carbon Footprints With a Kitchen Scale : TreeHugger
  Our project gets mentioned on Treehugger
• 6 Gadget Trends and Their Effects on Social Media
• Articles - Dubberly Design Office
  Interaction Design related reading by Hugh Dubberly