London Futures

Some fantastic [images of a future London where climate change has wreaked havoc](http://www.london-futures.com/category/images/).

Really compelling design work.

Content and context

> What is context? It’s the operating framework in which the content occurs — the goal, one might say. For example, the design of the Apollo lunar module was content. The goal of landing a man on the moon in nine years was the context. You will get a completely different result from engineers working on a lunar module if the context is "some day we might go to the moon" than if its "were going in nine years.” – Dan Pallotta.

I’ve been trying hard to focus my work energy on deciding context first, rather than immediately jumping to content.

Notes from Device Design Day

[Nice 1-day conference](http://devicedesignday.com/) by [Kicker Studio](http://www.kickerstudio.com/) last Friday. A few notes:

*Kim Goodwin and Michael Voege, IxD + ID*

– When ID & IxD can work together from the start, can be a good convergence process. Start wild, gradually narrow down
– ID often requires more *emotional* cues from people in user research
– Daily, quick checkins are useful between design teams even in the separate design phases

*Stuart Karten, Hearing aids*

– People of *all* ages wanted the hearing enhancement one hearing aid company was offering; not just the old
– [Modemapping](http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2007/09/more_on_modemapping_a_cool_visualization_tool.html): research technique to chart all the activities a person does throughout the day by time and quality/happiness, to discover common pain points and patterns across people, then list out functional, behavioral, and social needs in those.
– Sample themes for ID of hearing aids: jewelry, algorithms/nature,
performance enhancement.
– Capacitive touch on the ear has issues when people brush their hair back
– Using an iPhone/Android app can be a good way to test touch interactions; just simulate the product onscreen and use the iPhone to respond to touch input

*Wendy Ju, Implicit Interactions*

– [Joe Malia’s privacy scarves are awesome](http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2006/06/what-happens-wh.php)
– Many important interactions take place in the “attentional periphery”: a doorman’s offer to open a door; a dog wagging its tail. Each communicates status, an offer, and acknowledgment of you.
– Implicit interaction axes: Foreground/Background, Proactive/Reactive. A single interaction can move around these quadrants. Most UIs today are Foreground + Reactive; lots of potential in the others

*Mike Kuniavsky, Information as a material*

– [FedEx Senseaware](http://www.senseaware.com/), a passive (soon active) device + web info system for packages
– Multiple screens (phone, tablet, desktop, tv) are “holes in space to the same thing”
– Are you building an APPLIANCE (limited functionality, focused UI) or a TERMINAL (infinite functionality, general UI)?
– A terminal: “a transparent window into services”

*Ian Myles, Astro Design*

– Concept design can be a fancy concept movie or a simple sketch with localized glowing; both convey the idea but the latter is much simpler
– [Intel Moorestown](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyQ_NWt_sjA&feature=related) device; ultra widescreen (32:9) suggests new
interactions/uses

*Dan Harden, Frog -> Whipsaw*

– Interesting Skymall items: [laser scissors](http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Industrial-Laser-Scissors/dp/B001OFOFJM); [overhead book holder](http://www.activeforever.com/p-236-levo-book-holder.aspx?CMPID=Froogle_levo-book-holder)
– “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his workand his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” – [LP Jacks](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._P._Jacks)
– “Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.” – [Marcus Aurelius](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius)
– Livescribe pen lets you draw interface elements and then use them by touching: [http://waynehodgins.typepad.com/ontarget/2008/08/cool-tools- live.html](http://waynehodgins.typepad.com/ontarget/2008/08/cool-tools-live.html)
– “There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are _obviously_ no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no _obvious_ deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. ” – [C.A.R. Hoare](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._A._R._Hoare)
– [Vudu remote control is beautiful](http://www.google.com/images?q=vudu%20remote%20control&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1328&bih=806)
– [InfiniteZ virtual holographic display system](http://www.infinitez.com/zspace/product)

*Julian Bleecker, Design Fiction*

– “[A Survey of Human-Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies](http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1363200.1363210)”
– “[Yesterday’s tomorrows: notes on ubiquitous computing’s dominant vision](http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1229069)” – Genevieve Bell
– “[Scientists on the Set](http://sppus.highwire.org/content/12/3/261.abstract)”, “[The Future is Now](http://sss.sagepub.com/content/40/1/41.abstract)”, & upcoming book “Science on the Silver Screen” by [David Kirby](http://www.davidakirby.com/)

Why futurists

“Futurists perform a quirky, but necessary, task in modern society: we function as the long-range scanners for a species evolved to pay close attention to short-range horizons.” – Jamais Cascio.

Vision and leadership at Pixar

From [Ed Catmull’s talk](http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010/inside-pixars-leadership/) at the [Economist Ideas conference](http://ideas.economist.com/):

> I do believe you want a vision, so you start off with a person who has a vision for a story. And we do things to try and protect that vision and its not easy to protect it, because they feel these pressures.

> One of the protections is the notion that they have the final say so. Now this is a very hard thing to say because we say we are filmmaker led. The reason its hard is if they can’t lead the team, we will actually remove the person from it.

> We will support the leader for as long and as hard as we can, but the thing we can not overcome is if they have lost the crew. It’s when the crew says we are not following that person. We say we are director led, which implies they make all the final decisions, [but] what it means to us is the director has to lead.. and the way we can tell when they are not leading is if people say ‘we are not following’.

Creating Pandora

A fascinating view into the cameras and technology used in Avatar. The new technology included a virtual camera that lets you physically shoot a virtual scene, augmented reality that overlays live footage with CGI backgrounds, face-scanning cameras, and a combination 2D/3D camera.

Another innovation was adding imperfections (camera movements, lens flares) to make a “perfect” virtual world more believable.

Really interesting to think about what this technology might do when released to the world in a few years…

Update: i09 has a bunch of great interviews with designers who worked on Avatar: [part 1](http://io9.com/5420143/5-designers-reveal-secrets-of-james-camerons-avatar), [part 2](http://io9.com/5444960/avatars-designers-speak-floating-mountains-amp-suits-and-the-dragon), [part 3](http://io9.com/5460957/the-complete-history-of-pandora-according-to-avatars-designers)

Dreaming first

“Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine, and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities. So I believe that dreams–daydreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing–are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to invent, and therefore to foster, civilization.” – [L. Frank Baum](http://www.iwise.com/gAHxh)

“An optimistic story about the future”

The Power of 8 is a set of concept videos, fake products, landscape designs, architectural plans and stories that combine to show what a future where technology brings people together might look like. Really well done and unique.

Excellence within constraints

“As a child I used to be fascinated by Ferraris, but now I’m totally bored by them. To make a car for, say, $40,000 is much harder than making a car for 10 times that amount. A Golf is a work of genius because it’s excellence within constraints. That’s what genius is.” – Malcolm Gladwell.

The iterative writer

I’m very interested in the intersection of fiction (written or filmed) and design, and while science fiction icon Bruce Sterling said recently that [“design has more to offer fiction at the moment than literature has to offer design”](http://magicalnihilism.com/2009/10/14/icon-minds-tony-dunne-fiona-raby-bruce-sterling-on-design-fiction/), I’ve found it extremely valuable as a designer to learn from both writing and the writing process.

The other day I caught up with a friend who had recently completed a screenwriting class. He described his writing process to me and it had many parallels to the conceptual design process.

First, he said, he determines where the story starts and ends. From these two points, he can build up the rest. It’s tempting to tell yourself “I just need an idea, a start or a finish, and I’ll figure out the rest later.” But without a start *and* a finish, you don’t have a unique story yet and your work is likely to wander aimlessly. His first project had only a beginning, and he ended up scrapping the script because it didn’t have anywhere to go. It’s also much easier to try out very different stories when they are simply a pair of beginnings and endings than when you are writing a full script for each version.

In concept design, design principles are analogous to the script’s start and finish. They provide a high-level view of what you want the experience or product to be like, or to accomplish. They are much easier to experiment with than fully-realized products or even prototypes, and without them your solutions will be all over the map.

Next, my friend creates the first section of his story, from the beginning to the main character’s first turning point–for instance, when Luke Skywalker first discovers Princess Leia’s plea for help while cleaning R2D2. Sitting down, he tries to bang out a treatment for this first section in a single sitting. This helps him see if the setting and characters are good enough to support action, dialogue, and getting the plot to the desired end point.

After finishing, he sets that treatment aside and does something else for the rest of the day. The next day, he returns to his station, but instead of picking up the draft from before, he begins a brand new version. Without trying to consciously repeat *or* avoid anything from the first version, he simply writes another draft of the scenario, then sets that aside as well. After 3 or 4 versions, the best elements have generally persisted while the extra stuff disappears, and he has a solid section of the story. He repeats this process for each subsequent section until he has a full draft.

Concept design benefits from a similar process. Apple famously [uses a “10 to 3 to 1” process](http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/03/apples_design_p.html) where their designers create 10 separate, equally-detailed and -viable design concepts for each new feature. I talked yesterday to Ford’s head of interior design, and he cited a similar process for physical prototypes–“so many different versions you can’t even count”. Later in the development phase, of course, you want to drive toward convergence, consistency, usability, and feasibility. But early on you shouldn’t be stingy with the concepts–keep them fast and loose, and make sure you cover as broad a range as possible.