letting go

http://www.flickr.com/photos/basheertome/5557362895

on design in a time of disruption

Letting go...

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

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been on a quest for perfection + control...for much of human history, we have

napoleon bonaparte

started with this...much of it

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movable lead type

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gutenberg parenthesis

there were as many as 10-12 million"printed his bible...less than 50 years laterin all of Europe before Gutenberg“...there were perhaps 30,000 books

“Gutenberg’s Legacy”, University of Texas

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nothing short of revolutionarythe knock-on effects were

standardisation of spelling

spread of knowledge in local languages

development of formal grammar

wider access to knowledge for women and the poor

fewer books printed in Latin

democratisation of knowledge v.1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2938685296

might be a finite thing...also led us to believe that knowledge

store, and constrain knowledge,but our ability to capture,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/4127624763

"the truth" about all sorts of things...long enough, we could discover

...that if we experimented

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to do just about everything......and "the best way"

iso certified

http://www.google.com/patents

claimed them as our own...we protected ideas, and

google patents

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duplicate what we'd learned...we created processes, enabling us to

six sigma

design thinking

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globalisation further amplified this...industrialisation, automation and

chongqing china

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/3009516045

something you can scale it...once you can duplicate

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you can make money...and if you can scale it,

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much of this is starting to unravel...thanks to the Internet,

bruce mau massive change

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important than that of any the network are now more

but the knowledge + power in...scale is still important,

one group or individual...

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spreading messages and ideas...social networks act as "amplifiers"

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and it's likely to grow...let a product, or idea loose online,

crazy frog

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardoalvarez/229046257

they self-replicate and evolve...but ideas don't just grow,

the annoying thing

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is normally associated with viruses...often at a pace and intensity that

swine flu mexico

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the network sets in... once the power of

it's impossible to contain ideasand while viruses can be contained,

this is actually bacteria...

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have only amplified this always connected devices

portable, always on,

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you have the perfect storm...combine all these things and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/311744213

feedback loop...an endless, often over-connected

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yghelloworld/4965465016

ideas to greatness...propelling unexpected

angry birds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcVyvg2Qlo

enabling new voices...

it gets better

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahmadhammoudphotography/5410375058

...accelerating change

egyptian revolution

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on a global scale...or causing chaos

market crash 2011

economic crisis 2008

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create entirely new situations..."converging and influencing each other toat us faster or with less predictability; they are"events, threats and opportunities aren't just coming

require unprecedented degrees of creativity""...these first-of-their-kind developments

Capitalising on Complexity - 2010 IBM CEO Study

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with some decidedly unique challenges...designers, (or anyone who makes products)

this new environment presents engineers,

nathan road hong kong

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the balance of power is shifting...

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program our consumption is becoming“The idea that someone can

obsolete, and fast.” - Seth Godin“The extraordinary revolution of media choice”

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to interact with our creations we can no longer expect customers

in a linear, exclusive, orpredictable manner...

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to create experiences for them...users no longer have to wait for us

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if something doesn't suit them...

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...they can change it

kindle teleprompter

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...enhance it

http://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora

...even compete with it

Shopping mall app store

Curation & tech support

Social discovery

Serendipity...(and fun!)

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be able to go much further...very soon, they will

3D printing

makerbot thing-o-matic

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necessarily a bad thing...this is not

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people don't necessarily want the perfect product..."counterintuitive but there is growing evidence thatincomplete, and possibly even substandard seems"Issuing your customers with something that is rough,

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around the edges that they can adapt or improve.""...they prefer to deal with something ragged

Loose, Martin Thomas

the end result is

behaviours such as this...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bombardier/5456285991

“…if you have an Instagram account, you can slap a tagon anything, take a picture of it, and sell it...” – Fatima Al Qadiri, Mousse magazine

you know--hacked products.”

She sells dried fruit. A friend’s cousin is selling

weird potted plants...people are creating,

– Fatima Al Qadiri, Mousse magazine

http://moussemagazine.it/articolo.mm?id=994

“...even my grandmother has an Instagram business.

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it’s also worth noting the

companies that have succeeded

designing products with a pragmatic mix

of beautiful, and “good enough”

IKEA

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yto/4923423098/

¥799 (£83/$130)

basic but fun plastic case

stock MediaTek MT6589T chipset

8 Mp cameradual SIM w/ dual standby

highly customized MIUI ROM

Xiaomi Hongmi

fancy Gorilla Glass

http://allesalike.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/e382b9e382ade383a3e383b30021.jpg

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52526343@N05/4843218498

“We want to give customers

the kind of satisfaction that comes

out as ‘This will do,’ not ‘This is what I want’.It’s not appetite, but acceptance.”Kenya Hara, Designer

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behave in a generally homogenous way... we've often tended to presume users

in our quest to create perfection,

caricature

personas

scenarios

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far from the truth...this is increasingly

complex vs. complicated

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of a product into society...of 50 million to mark the "penetration"

marketers often use an audience

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(which was usually a good thing)historically, market penetration took time,

traffic 1963

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of how a product might fit into our lives...development of social norms and an understanding

with time came stronger mental models,

traffic 2011

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those embarrassing mistakes...time also enabled us to work out

sinclair c5

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time is now a luxury...for better or worse

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stability

creation of new infrastructural

technology followed by

rapiddisruption

years

S curve - stable over decades

stability

Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison

as coined by John Seely Brown

...the big shift

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vvvracer/4436798901

stability

creation of new infrastructural

technology followed by

rapiddisruption

years years

S curve - stable over decades the present (and likely future)

many new infrastructural technologies

frequent disruption

smaller periods of stability

stability

Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison

as coined by John Seely Brown

...the big shift

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a market penetration of 50 million...it took radio 40 years to reach

Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen

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10 years to 'adapt' to television...by comparison, we had only

Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen

while the iPod took only 5 years...iconic

Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU

less than 6 months...and YouTube,

Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen

star wars kid

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

in less than half this time...Google+ reached that milestone

Google + in fact reached this milestone in about 3 months... to the tune of 2million new users a day!

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at a pace that was once unheard of...technology adoption is creating 'generation gaps'

researchers are discovering that our rapid

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Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center, Internet and American Life Project

experiences with technology."are having completely different"People two, three or four years apart

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...but this is different.tastes than our siblings

we've always had different

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She was holding my Kindle e-reader."recently with two words: "Daddy's book."

"My 2-year-old daughter surprised me

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s, NY Times

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limited to our children...these changes are not

- @araland looked for the search box.""I just opened my Moleskine

- @rossmonstr

a Kindle as a bookmark?"

"Can we all take a moment

to appreciate my mother using

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

really had it easy...and those blind men with that elephant

add to this the global nature of the Internet,

information deficit

different perspectives

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in a slightly different way...and engaging with products

each of us experiencing, understanding

interpretations

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparker/460227098

interdependent systems of experience...designing multi-layered and tightly

while companies such as Apple are successfullystill

apple store

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most touch points and interactions...their ability to control and contain

their success relies in great part on

magic kingdom

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have this luxury...most products will not

android china

rubber ducks lost at sea

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be the first to fail...orchestrated products may in fact

today the most perfectly

OLPC

design by committee

mental models

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnus_d/3162046451

nespresso coffee

for each layer of experience

there will be trade-offs

in complexity

actors in the ecosystem...and an increasing reliance on other

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavouz/3137171590

recycle nespresso capsules

george clooney nespresso

nespresso vs

cost of aluminium

fair trade ethics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zyphbear/446780548

that have become all too commonto the abrupt changes in environment...reducing a product's ability to react

fuel costs

union UPS handbook

carbon costs

volcano UPS delivery

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are not exempt from this challenge

products witha software component

internet connected fridgemeet Samsung’s

(including 8” LCD and Android apps)

Samsung RF4289HARS

Source: Unknown (please advise if it’s you)

http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/04/how-smart-do-we-need-our-homes-to-be/

the but of design jokes“smart” fridges have long been

$3400 (£2700) price tag,

yet despite its

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmalone/2355592191

consumers seem to genuinely

“...the wife loves cooking...she looks up recipes and listens to Pandora while cooking. Wi-fi was easily connected. I particularly like the calendar feature so we can view each others schedules.”

“My wife and I love the refrigerator, having the weather displayed on the LCD screen is great.”

“The touchscreen control panel is nice and we look forward to really enjoying the features, which are perfect for this household.”

“...the 8" LCD screen absolutely sealed the deal. It was

easy to connect to my wifi and is very fun. All my

friends and guests love it.”

http://www.samsung.com/us/appliances/refrigerators/RF4289HARS/XAA-reviews

love it...

but when they do complain, it’s usually

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmalone/2355592191

“[why can’t I] send the Pandora sound out via a speaker jack on top of the refrigerator...or [you could] add Bluetooth or DLNA playback to transmit to another device. Give it that feature in the next model!!!

about a lack of interoperability between the fridge

and other services or devices

“...Samsung needs to incorporate the ability to "print" shopping

lists from the software on the fridge via the wireless router, or at

least send it in an email to print...what is the use of adding great

features if you can't utilize them...”

“...speaking of apps, though- I don't really like the Pandora radio. I think iHeart radio would have been a better choice.’

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in fact be the simplest–or most flexible...the most successful products mayin an increasingly complex world,

bodum

french press

bialetti

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tocaboca/5523734441

experiences they create for themselves...meaning and enrich their lives, through

enabling pathways for users to find

toca boca

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hodac/2243470147

stop short of fully defining the experience.""the best designs will set the stage, but

Adam Silver, Frog Design

cardboard box play

http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform

they were originally intended for...beyond the device, context or technologythe most valued products may be designed to live

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/3151369718

with no primary context at all...they may even be designed

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/466394182

should not absolve us of responsibility...but letting go of 'experience' as we once knew it

domino falling

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responsibility than ever before...in fact, as designers we now have more

and developers

Video Games and the Human Condition, Jonathan Blow

with every product we create."to the number of people we may affect

"...a responsibility that is directly proportional

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to consider the implications of our work...our lives, the more important it will be for us

the more technology weave their way throughand the Internet

segway

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaykayess/4294959440

Douglas Rushkoff

–a design for our collective future.""We are creating a blueprint together

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and API becomes a part of that future...each design, meme, pattern, metaphor

minority report interface

natural ui

twitter URLs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickflashphotos/3393880262

wish to create?...what future do we

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stickwithjosh/5288115744

we do will have an impact...there's no guarantee that the work

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/3543419506

that it may...but there's the very real risk

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghewgill/5046616680

Marshall McLuhan

thereafter our tools shape us.""We shape our tools and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinou/453593446

hello@yiibu.com thank you

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many thanks to the amazing photographers on

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licensed under

available on

@yiibu

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