The LIFT09 conference will explore the new forms of socialization with sessions about the impact of new technologies on the way we love, collaborate, exchange, educate, vote, and much more.

The 2009 edition will feature a large number of innovations in the format of the conference. Registrations are already open and the super early bird price is 650 CHF (400 Euro or 630 USD at current exchange rates).

“The analytical process we typically use to do our work—understand the problem and alternatives; develop several ideas; and do a final external check with the customer—gets flipped. Instead, design thinking methods instruct: There’s an opportunity somewhere in this neighborhood; use a broader consumer context to inform the opportunity; brainstorm a large quantity of fresh ideas; and co-create and iterate using low-resolution prototypes with that consumer.”

The article cites olayforyou.com as an excellent example of this type of reframing.

“The experience is simple yet conveys a deep understanding of the myriad factors that make up your specialized needs. Analyzing your responses, the system quickly assembles a tailored set of recommendations for a regime that is designed to meet your age and stated desires.” [...]

“With this seemingly small enhancement, Olay will also differentiate itself in a highly complex, competitive market; speed up the time in which it understands and can build new solutions for its target prospects; and build a database that will enable P&G to reach out directly to its customers on a personal basis (which is a rarity for consumer-product companies).”

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“One thing that’s very broken in the social tools we have right now is context and boundaries and a sense of who I want to share what with,” said Liz Lawley, director of the laboratory for social computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Many social-networking sites essentially force users to become part of a huge community, or they force users to choose whether someone else is a friend or not, with no other subtleties defining that relationship, she noted.

“People want to create villages and they’re being forced into cities. That’s creating a huge tension in social interactions,” she said. Lawley and other academic researchers spoke at the Microsoft Research annual Faculty Summit, an event that brings together academics, government workers and Microsoft researchers to discuss new fields of computer-science research.

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About 300,000 motorists have crashed because of a satnav, the [UK] Mirror [newspaper] has found.

Around 1.5 million drivers have suddenly veered dangerously or illegally in busy traffic while following its directions.

And five million have been sent the wrong way down a one-way street.

I have no idea how one can actually get hold of such data, but yes, there seems to be a problem. Now TomTom, a Dutch manufacturer of automotive navigation systems, has hired Ken McAlpine, formerly at Apple, as senior vice president product design.

Ken McAlpine is an engineering professional with 27 years’ experience in consumer product design, manufacturing and project management. McAlpine was previously employed as director of engineering with Apple Inc, based at the head office in Cupertino, California. McAlpine was involved in the development of, among other products, the MacMini, AppleTV and iPhone. Additionally, McAlpine led Apple’s laptop engineering teams, which were responsible for engineering management, program management, electronic circuit design and support of all Apple laptop products. McAlpine will be responsible for product design and usability within TomTom’s PND division ensuring that the user experience is consistent across all TomTom platforms.

(via DdUX)

Wizzit solves this problem by using what it calls Wizzkids, who help new subscribers sign up and show them through the system. In cases such as Johannes’, a pilot like Coetzee flies in to do the paperwork. Coetzee was invited to Elandslaagte Farm by its co-owner Marisa van der Heever. She not only wanted to give her employees access to banking, but also to reduce the hard cash in circulation, which is often a target for rural criminals. It also allows workers to save their money more easily, she says. What’s more, Coetzee was able to open accounts for her 54 workers in less than an hour.

Once a Wizzit account is open, deposits can be made electronically and transferred to other Wizzit users or to pay accounts, including such things as utilities accounts. Wizzit has a range of retailers and stores who accept payment from it, as well as Maestro debit cards and access to internet banking and ATM-based banking.

Vodafone Receiver Magazine, Toby Shapshak
 

This paragraph from Toby Shapshak’s article on mobile banking and digital currency in Africa in the latest Receiver magazine inspired me to share a story of a man we met in Alexandra township, one of the most dangerous parts of Johannesburg, South Africa. Dave and I were meeting someone in connection to our project with Experientia in January and Father Nazareth (not his real name) dropped by our host’s house.

Curious to more about what we were doing, he shared with us that he was a Wizzit account holder! Naturally I offered to buy him lunch if he’d share his story with us. He painted a picture of life under apartheid - he is in his fifth decade - and his struggles both within the system and later, as a member of the militant arm of the ANC. He seemed resigned to the fate that his past as a ‘freedom fighter’ was held against him in this new South Africa, seen as a ‘trouble maker’ he was more often unemployed than not. Both he and his wife had Wizzit accounts although neither had a working phone at the moment. Nor any money in the account. But he added, the beauty of the account was that it wouldn’t expire just because no transactions had been made - it seems regular banks in South Africa cancel accounts if there has been no activity for the preceding 6 months. And opening the account had been so easy - no paychecks, proof of residence or regular income was required, just his ID and his mobile phone number.

At that point, he looked up from his pizza (he only ate half of it and planned to take the rest home with him to share the treat with his youngest children still at home) and asked me a question that led to a conversation that totally changed my perspective of him. In an instant he went from an unemployed artist and initerant preacher to a visionary with dreams of changing the quality of life in his community and instilling civic pride amongst the residents again.
 

How can a bank account help the unemployed, you tell me?

When I asked him what difference did having a bank account make when he had no money he talked about the sense of empowerment that comes from having this tangible symbol of being part of the mainstream establishment. Though unemployed and supporting his family through odd jobs and piecework, he was now a bank account holder! They were part of Wizzit’s community and he felt it added value to his standing in his church - he is the leader of a 1000 member church and his community. Now the question was how could this kind of bank account - easy to open and easy to own - with all the intangible benefits of having a bank account, something that seemed out of reach for the majority of the residents in Alex township, become a platform for civic development. Just like the story mentioned by Shapshak above, Father Nazareth had a vision.

“If you remove temptation, “he said, “you will remove the motive for the robbers.”

Then he took his background as a trade union leader and organizer to start brainstorming around using mobile phone bank accounts and the local civic organization to work towards a community based solution for lowering crime.

The temptation being the cash that everyone is forced to keep or carry, including spaza shop owners, tavern owners, tuck shops and all the hair salons in the township as well as all the other residents who work infrequently or irregularly and thus do not have bank accounts. He was began talking excitedly about organizing all the shop owners together, getting them access to their own accounts with Wizzit and then organizing daily protection for collections or deposits so that there would be no money at the end of the day in cash form that can be easily robbed or stolen.

He could see the potential for lowered crime rates if every earner in the township could have an account and even if they went out to do some piece work for daily wages, they could deposit the money before walking home from the train or bus (majority of robberies take place at the bus or train station at night when they know people come back from work). He began mapping out a way the old civic street and yard model of organization back in the ‘bad’ old days could be used to coordinate and manage the activities, giving people a sense of security instead of everyone having to sleep with hard cash under their mattress.

He said crime was so bad at night that if he stepped out to the corner shop at night he would carry his old phone in his pocket just for the tsotses (literally means ‘bad men’) - they’d kill him if he had nothing to give them, he added. At that point, our conversation had to end but I had a feeling that Father Nazareth had left me with insight on exactly what the real power of possessing a bank account meant to the underemployed and those at the bottom of the pyramid. In turn, he’d designed himself a concept that just might make a real difference if it can be prototyped and then scaled up across the country using the same principles of grassroots organization that they had already developed during their freedom struggle.
 

Some recent articles on the topic of mobile banking and social and economic development at the bottom of the pyramid:
-Mobile banking – the next phase in Africa’s mobile revolution - Toby Shapshak, Receiver Magazine
-Innovations target South Africa’s unbanked - Financial Times, July 22nd 2008
-Mobile banking boosts Maldives - BBC, July 25th 2008
 

This photograph of Mamelodi Township, Pretoria was taken by Niti Bhan

Having identified Service Design as an important new issue for the support of design in companies, SEEdesign developed a range of extra activities including workshops and training sessions on this topic. The material developed during the 3 years of the project has now been compiled into a downloadable publication, which can be used by businesses (in both service and manufacturing sectors) and by providers of design support. Design Wales and the service design consultancy Engine have created the original publication in English with some SEEdesign partners translating the material for use in their own countries. This initiative demonstrates the programme’s commitment to improving the design support provided for companies across Europe by addressing the development of new disciplines such as Service Design.

Download part 1
Download part 2

Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody
Aspen Institute - Jul. 06, 2008
Clay Shirky discusses his latest book, Here Comes Everybody, about the way people organize themselves without formal structures to respond to catalyzing events.

Clay Shirky on social networks and the Obama campaign
Aspen Institute - Jul. 06, 2008
Clay Shirky discusses social software, including the system used by the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. He notes the way members of the community organized in response to Obama’s support for the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation.

Clay Shirky on Social Networks like Facebook and MySpace
Aspen Institute - Jul. 06, 2008
NYU Professor Clay Shirky discusses Facebook, Friendster and other social software.

Danah Boyd on social networks and immersive environments
Aspen Institute Jul. 04, 2008
Anthropologist of the online community Danah Boyd discusses ways young people use social network sites to connect with their friends and present themselves online. Boyd compares social networks like MySpace to immersive environments like Second Life. She also discusses mobile portability.

Danah Boyd on how teens interact online
Aspen Institute - Jul. 04, 2008
Danah Boyd discusses ways young people use social network sites to connect with their friends and present themselves online. She discusses various techniques teens use to talk and interact online.

Craig Barrett: Technology the Human Impact
Aspen Institute - Jun. 30, 2008
In an interview with Aspen Institute Trustee and venture capitalist John Doerr, Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, discusses the intersection of technology and society.

The Finnish-language forum [now also in English and Swedish] claims to be first of its kind in the world, and wants to provide an alternative to what its members perceive as foot-dragging in the oil and auto industries.

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Daily Strength
Healia
HopeCube
ICYou
iMedix
I’m Too Young for This
MDJunction
MedHelp
SugarStats
TauMed
Trusera
TuDiabetes
WEGOHealth

Read more here

In three years we worked with some of the best companies in the field and some of the best people too.

Here they are in alphabetical order:

Our clients
Alcatel-Lucent (France, Spain), Area Association (Italy), Arits Consulting (Belgium), AVIS (Italy), Barclays (Italy, UK), Blyk (Finland, UK), Cittadellarte (Italy), City of Genk (Belgium), Condé Nast (Italy), Conifer Research (USA), CSI (Italy), CVS-Pharmacy (USA), Design Flanders (Belgium), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Expedia (UK), Facem (Italy), Fidelity International (UK), Finmeccanica (Italy), Flanders in Shape (Belgium), Haier (China), Hewlett Packard (India), IEDC-Bled School of Management (Slovenia), IKS-Core Consulting (Italy), Istud Foundation (Italy), Kodak (USA), LAit (Italy), Last Minute (UK), Max Mara (Italy), Media & Design Academy (Belgium), Microsoft (USA), Motorola (USA), MPG Ferrero (Italy), Nokia (Denmark, France, Finland), Research in Motion (Canada), Samsung (Italy, Korea, UK), Swisscom (Switzerland), Tandem Seven (USA), Torino World Design Capital (Italy), Voce di Romagna (Italy), Vodafone (Germany, Italy, UK), and Whirlpool (UK).

Our collaborators (interns, consultants and staff)
Sven Adolph, Ana Camila Amorim, Andrea Arosio, An Beckers-Vanderbeeken, Josef ‘Yosi’ Bercovitch, Enrico Bergese, Niti Bhan, Elena Bobbola, Janina Boesch, Giovanni Buono, Donatella Capretti, Manlio Cavallaro, Gaurav Chadha, Dave Chiu, Raffaella Citterio, Sarah Conigliaro, Piermaria Cosina, Marco Costacurta, Laura Cunningham, Regine Debatty, Stefano Dominici, Saulo Dourado, Tal Drori, Dina Mohamed El-Sayed, Marion Froehlich, Giuseppe Gavazza, Valeria Gemello, Michele Giannasi, Young-Eun Han, Vanessa Harden, Yasmina Haryono, Bernd Hitzeroth, Juin-Yi ‘Suno’ Huang, Tom Kahrl, Erez Kikin-Gil, Ruth Kikin-Gil, Helena Kraus, Francesca Labrini, Alberto Lagna, Shadi Lahham, Jörg Liebsch, Cristina Lobnik, Maya Lotan, Ofer Luft, Davide Marazita, Claude Martin, Camilla Masala, Myriel Milicevic, Kim Mingo, Emanuela Miretti, Massimo Morelli, Peter Morville, Muzayun Mukhtar, Giorgio Olivero, Pablo Onnias, Hector Ouilhet, Christian Pallino, Giorgio Partesana, Magda Passarella, Romina Pastorelli, Danilo Penna, Andrea Piccolo, Rachelly Plaut, Laura Polazzi, Laura Puppo, Alain Regnier, Enza Reina, Anna Rink, Michal Rinott, Silvana Rosso, Emanuela Sabena, Vera de Sa-Varanda, Craig Schinnerer, Fabio Sergio, Manuela Serra, Sofia Shores, Massimo Sirelli, Natasha Sopieva, Yaniv Steiner, Riccardo Strobbia, Victor Szilagyi, David Tait, Beverly Tang, Akemi Tazaki, Luca Troisi, Raymond Turner, Haraldur Unnarsson, Ilaria Urbinati, Carlo Valbonesi, Marcello Varaldi, Giorgio Venturi, Anna Vilchis, Dvorit Weinheber, Alexander Wiethoff, Junu Joseph Yang, and Mario Zannone.

Our partners
Amberlight, Design for Lucy, Fecit, Finsa, Flow Interactive, Foviance, Italia 150, Launch Institute, Prospect, Savigny Research, Syzygy, Torino World Design Capital, UPA, URN, Usability Partners International, Usercentric, UserFocus, User Interface Design, and UXnet.

Our friends (insofar not covered by the above)
Nik Baerten, Valerie Bauwens, Toon Berckmoes, Ralf Beuker, Marco Bevolo, Daniella Botta, Stefana Broadbent, Francesco Cara, Jan Chipchase, Allan Chochinov, Elizabeth Churchill, Gillian Crampton-Smith, Regine Debatty, Federico De Giuli, Jesse James Garrett, Adam Greenfield, Hubert Guillaud, Wilfried Grommen, Laurent Haug, Bob Jacobson, Marguerite Kahrl, Anna Kirah, Simona Lodi, Peter Merholz, Bill Moggridge, Donald Norman, Nicolas Nova, Bruce Nussbaum, Laura Orestano, Vittorio Pasteris, Gianluigi Perotto, Carlo Ratti, Hans Robertus, Bruce Sterling, John Thackara, Joannes Vandermeulen, Lowie Vermeersch, Judy Wert, and Younghee Yung.

Thanks to you all!

Pierpaolo Perotto, Mark Vanderbeeken, Michele Visciola and Jan-Christoph Zoels
The Experientia partners

PS. We are constantly looking for great talent! We currently have openings for interaction designers, communication designer, information architect, IT staff, usability consultants, etc.

Beeline Labs, Deloitte and the Society of New Communications Research have produced “2008 Tribalization of Business Study“, the first study of its kind to learn from the early experiences of more than 140 organizations on how they’re managing communities, measuring success, and deriving business benefits. The survey and interviews examined online community initiatives at a mix of business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies, as well as non-profits, with communities ranging from fewer than 100 members to more than 10,000 members.

The Wall Street Journal published recently a reaction on the report, entitled “Why most online communities fail”:

“Thirty-five percent of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members – despite the fact that close to 60% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects.”

(via FreshNetworks and FutureLab)

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(via FutureLab)

“While engineers in the United States lavish attention on expensive phones that boast laptoplike features, in Kenya there are 10 million low-end phones. Millions more are used elsewhere in Africa. Enhancements to such basic phones can be experimented with cheaply in Nairobi, and because designers are weaned on narrow bandwidth, they are comfortable writing compact programs suited to puny devices.”

“The prospect of marrying low-end mobile phones with the Internet is earning Nairobi notice from outsiders, who wonder whether the city might emerge as a test-bed for tomorrow’s technologies. One intriguing possibility is broadcasting local television programs on mobile phones.”

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“The explosive growth of mobile-phone ownership in the developing world is largely down to a vibrant recycling market and the arrival of cheap US$20 phones, but is also down, in part, to the efforts of forward-thinking mobile-phone manufacturers. Anthropologists working for companies such as Nokia spend increasing amounts of time trying to understand what people living at the so-called “bottom of the pyramid” might want from a phone.”

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(via textually.org)

Vodafone Receiver magazine has published their report from Budikote, a village in rural India, as part of its ongoing series on emerging markets.

“The StoryBank project, based in a rural Indian region, has been looking at ways of using [mobile phones] to enable technology-poor villagers to participate in and benefit from content creation and sharing activities. Skipping the text-based internet paradigm altogether, the project is exploring how camera phones and a library of digital stories (the story-bank) can be used to extend existing initiatives in community radio.”

David Frohlich is the Director of the Digital World Research Centre and Professor of Interaction Design at the University of Surrey, where he works on future photography, literacy and communication technologies. Before joining Digital World, Frohlich, who has a PhD in psychology, spent 14 years as Senior Research Scientist at Hewlett Packard Labs, a time devoted to tangible interfaces, new media design, and the digital divide.

Matt Jones returned from New Zealand to Wales to help set up the Future Interaction Technology Lab at Swansea University. As a Reader in the FIT Lab he explores the human-computer interaction aspects of mobile and ubiquitous computing as well as socially-inclusive and impacting design. He recently co-authored Mobile Interaction Design (Wiley 2006).

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Articles focus on the concept of leapfrogging and remote education, with in-depth stories on Africa and India.

Biella is a small city in the North of Italy, that became wealthy because of its textile industry, and is now coming to terms with a new global landscape that is not so favourable any more. Some companies have managed to do rather well - Ermenegildo Zegna is an example - while many others are struggling.

The town is now trying to put itself on the map - globally - as a place of exquisite textiles. Their marketing campaign is all about the “art of excellence“.

So in our panel discussion I quizzed the audience on what the concept of “slow” might mean for textiles. What could slow fashion be? How could the concept of slow thinking be applied to the textile industry, a very crucial branch of Italy’s design industry? And how can we make it into a lever for sustainability (with fashion often being exactly the opposite)?

One of the audience members, Paola Fini, wrote me about a new company she started - partly inspired by the internationally known Biella-based artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and his Cittadellarte - trying to address these questions.

byBiella is all about traditional suit making, with a special slow experience. The entire process of selecting the fabric, choosing the style and taking the measurements is done at the client’s home. The bespoke suit - Made in Italy of course with great attention to fabric quality and detailing - is then produced in four weeks.

Moreover, much like Slow Food, byBiella emphasises the culture of dressing and elegance, as a balance between the inside and the outside, with the individual at the heart of the company’s activities.

A great initiative it seems, that I can only applaud, although I would like to hear more about sustainability and see a stronger storytelling component (especially on the website which didn’t make me feel part of a vision that I would want to share, endorse and promote to others).

Now what does “slow” imply for the not so high end in the clothing industry? byBiella is an entirely valid concept, yet also a company that offers “slow” products that are probably out of reach for most people. What might slow fashion mean for more modest budgets? How to bring the excellence, the sense of quality, and the natural purity so pervasive in Biella, into textile products that are also within reach of a wider population, let’s say for children, teenagers or young adults - much like Slow Food has done with excellent quality local food products?

I don’t have the answer, but the question needs to be addressed urgently. We need many more Paola Fini’s in Biella.

555 Million Subscribers & Counting
As the competition grows in China’s mobile market, it is cultural dynamics that will determine who comes out on top.

“Success requires a keen understanding of the country’s changing cultural dynamics, where increased affluence, a breakdown of traditional family relationships, and an aging population have created a unique set of user needs.”

Calculated Design
In defense of quantitative analysis: a new call for integrated design research

“Ethnography breaks down at the moment we ask not just for depth of knowledge, but breadth. Anyone who’s struggled to conduct a massive ethnographic study across multiple time zones can tell you this firsthand. While ethnography facilitates the generation of ideas in relation to specific users and use scenarios, it leaves us clueless as to which among these will satisfy a wider audience. Ultimately, we need complementary methods that scale more effectively and validate our work in a way clients can understand. What we need is quantitative research.”

The first report, “Living in the 21st century: older people in England” (press release - study download) presents a major longitudinal study (316 pages) about the reality of ageing in England. It covers employment, material well-being and poverty, health, quality of life and independent living.

(via FutureLab)

The second study, entitled “Don’t stop me now – Preparing for an ageing population“, (press release - study download) illustrates how unprepared the UK Councils are for this ageing population.

“The report asked older ‘mystery shoppers’ to identify the everyday challenges they face in accessing council services. They approached 49 councils asking a series of questions and found that most councils need to improve the way they provide information in key areas such as volunteering, leisure and social activities, learning opportunities and transport.”

Hyderabad, India – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today announced a series of new portable, compact patient monitors that provides a reliable, yet affordable means to observe and care for patients. Now available to healthcare providers in India, the new Philips SureSigns VM3 is the first Philips patient monitor designed for emerging markets.

With a growing per capita income and adoption of new lifestyles, healthcare services in India are rapidly changing. In order to meet the increasing demand for quality care, people in urban areas have seen the construction of new, state-of-the-art hospitals and associated satellite facilities, while others are increasingly seeking care at smaller nursing homes and clinics. [...]

High-end patient monitors are out of reach for many small to mid-sized clinics, forcing doctors and nurses to apply treatment only based on visible symptoms. On occasion, this means they must wait for a patient’s condition to deteriorate before changing treatment. With access to more affordable patient monitoring equipment, clinicians have the ability to observe a patient’s vital signs and make more informed, timely decisions about patient care.

Built on a strong heritage and industry leadership in patient monitoring, the Philips SureSigns VM3 offers ECG, respiration and pulse oximetry in one user friendly, compact monitor that helps provide quality care in almost any clinical setting. It offers vital signs measurement and monitoring in an easy-to-use system that can be used in various departments throughout the hospital, nursing homes, private practices and rural clinics, as well as ambulances and mobile facilities.

Read full press release