This Is Service Design Thinking: Basics – Tools – Cases (Amazon Partner Link)

Book Trailer:

(ThisIsServiceDesignThinking.com)

When: February 7th,  2011. 19:00 o’clock.

Where: Coffee Fellows
IDEO Offices, Hochbrückenstraße 6, 80331 Munich. Update!

Linkedin Event: http://bit.ly/fsYB5j

Exclusive update! B. J. Fogg, innovator, social scientist, researcher at Stanford University and writer of Persuasive Technology will join the conversation about this exciting topic through Skype. Learn more about B. J. Fogg

Extract from the book: Persuasive technology is a fast-growing area of research and development. Computing systems of many types, from Web sites to productivity applications to mobile devices, are becoming increasingly focused on motivating and influencing users.

One of the assertions of this book is that in the future we’ll see more and more computing products designed for the primary purpose of persuasion. In addition, software applications – desktop or Web-based – designed mainly for other purposes (such as productivity, creativity, or collaboration) will increasingly incorporate elements of persuasion, ideally motivating users to make better use of the application and supporting them in achieving their goals.

In my view, it will become important for most people designing end-user computing products to understand how principles of motivation and influence can be designed into interactive experiences with computers. As end-user computing matures, understanding captology may become as important as understanding usability. (p.XXV)

Since I received my degree in design I haven’t had the chance to go back to Denmark. Today I found an invitation from my professor to participate at the…

Participatory Innovation Conference
13th – 15th January 2011 in Sønderborg, Denmark

Participatory Innovation gathers theories and methods across academic fields that describe how people outside an organisation can contribute to its innovation. Join this conference to help identify ways for industry and the public sector to expand innovation through the participation of users, employees, suppliers, customers etc. – both on a strategic level, in concrete methods, and in the day-to-day interactions.

PINC 2011 is held under the auspices of the SPIRE Research Centre

Industry and public agencies increasingly adopt user-driven and open innovation, as they realise that innovation cannot come solely from within an organisation. Innovation happens in the ‘breaking of the waves’ between people outside and people inside – because they have different stakes and perspectives.

In academia, new breakthrough contributions to understanding innovation – and supporting it – will also emerge in the borderlands between disciplines that traditionally do not collaborate: between languages and design, and between management and anthropology for instance.

PINC 2011 is a forum where participants from different disciplines and organisations can meet and challenge each other to develop the field of participatory innovation. [read more]

This how-to guide covers the mechanics of data collection for applied qualitative research. It is appropriate for novice and experienced researchers alike. It can be used as both a training tool and a daily reference manual for field team members. Its question and answer format and modular design make it easy for readers to find information on a particular topic quickly. [Direct Download, via ]

Don Norman at IIT Design Research Conference 2010 from IIT Institute of Design

The research product gap – and two kinds of innovation: Donald Norman makes some good points in his talk at the design research conference this year. He already challenged the community with his provocative statements on design research (’Technology first, needs last’)  in an article in the Interactions Magazine (March/ April 2010). – I do agree with him in most of what he is saying: We design researchers need to bridge the gap between research and company product divisions (ie. marketing, engineering, etc.).  A common language is needed in order to accomplish results in real products which are based on our user insights.

It’s an elaborate speech, well structured. Nonetheless I would have expected Norman to talk more about solutions to this apparent problem than just to repeat and explain what is already known to be a problem. A similar debate is ongoing for years among anthropologists who want to make their field more applicable and to gain a wider public audience [1, 2, 3].

Ergonautek meets academia: Last week I followed the invitation of Mario Giudici, Daniel Hunziker (Human Centered Design, Basel) and Andy Polaine to hold a guest lecture at Fachhochschule Luzern/ Switzerland. For the seminar I met a group of well prepared and highly motivated design management students – all of them eager to take a deep dive into design research methodology.

ergonautek guest lecture at Fachhochschule Luzern

The topic was ‘un-design through service design’ – How might we nudge behaviours and develop new services that allow us to move beyond simple consumerism? During the seminar the students were asked to examine the products and consumption in their lives and “un-design” them using service design approaches in order to reduce or remove their negative environmental and ethical impacts on the world.

With my lecture on video as a method for design research I contributed to the method section of the seminar. With telling examples paired with theory and practical exercises I passed on the ergonautek knowledge to the students on using video for design research. Although the seminar was packed with practical hints and activities it seemed to be fun and interesting to all of the participants. For me it got especially exciting when the students presented their results from a tiny field study which they conducted at the end of the day. The video material from these studies highlighted the difficulties people can have while interacting with services. With this input on using video for design research the students got a powerful method at hand for their upcoming student’s projects. Wish you good luck for this, guys!

Analysing the field material and preparing short highlight clips

First I asked the participants to reflect on a r&d process as it most likely would take place in their company. In a second step the workshop participants were asked to make up a more ideal process. What methods for user research would they like to employ, how and at what stage of the process?

Participants sketch an imaginary and idealized r&d cycle.

It was a fun activity for most of the IxDA members yesterday I guess. Even though some participants seemed to be rather disenchanted with their particular company policy on user engagement ;) Check out the workshop results on the IxDA Munich page on LinkedIn.

To those interested in joining our group: Munich’s interaction designers meet up every six weeks for either a social gathering in a bar or beergarden or for a more formal presentation or workshop at IDEO/ Hochbrückenstraße 6. See the IxDA Munich website for the latest news and announcements.

What tools do we have at hand for engaging users?

I haven’t tried this application yet. I am afraid it would not help me much for my research. It basically does not allow one to take four recordings at the same time (video, photo, sound AND notes) since the iPhone does not support multi tasking. For my work practice it is extremely important to work with different types of media in parallel. As an example I am taking voice recordings as a back up for the video. Or I take pictures and voice recordings for soundslide. Here the app is probably of no help.

My second concern relates to the flow of research activities. One of the core functions of the applications is the possibility to annotate and share research material instantly. These functions appear to be a bit disruptive. During my research I often find technology disconnecting me from the people I study. I just can’t imagine to start typing on my iPhone while the informant is showing me around and inviting me to his everyday life activities: “Please wait a moment I need some time to send this picture off to my collegues…”