Design monkeys

I don't know how truthful is this entry, but it does certainly provide a set of clear examples of how designers get it wrong:
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1367
This entry was submitted by Max Dirnberger and edited by Rob Spiegel






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Flip "pocket video camera" -an ongoing story

The Flip video camera was increasingly being mentioned as an example of innovation. It seemed like an ideal story including the $590 million purchase by Cisco... until it was killed earlier this year:


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html


What is even more interesting is that the Flip created a whole product category, so it is going to be great to see whether the argument that "smartphones are killing every other device" holds (I don't personally think so), or if this is a typical case of "good design with bad strategy".

Here are some of the pocket video cameras to follow in the near future:

Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam

Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera Camcorder

Coleman CVW9HD-R 1080p HD Waterproof Pocket Camcorder

Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 Camcorder

uCorder Pockito IRDC260-R 2.5-Inch Wearable Mini Pocket Camcorder

Jazz Pocket Camcorder

Toshiba Camileo B10 Full Hd Pocket Camcorder

I own a Flip and I've really enjoyed its simplicity. This is an attribute rarely found today in electronic devices, and even more in "smartphones"... two AA batteries, no cables and hours of video. Cisco probably was the wrong company to buy the Flip, and the consequences are now visible: a rich group of entrepreneurs, a dead product and an idea that has replicated in a host of me-too products in the market.

Wii key points

The Design of Wii: http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/wii_console/part_2/


"Wii will rock you" by Jeffrey M. O'Brien. June 4 2007
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/06/11/100083454/index.htm

Videocalls

Video phone calls:

1. The technology has been ready for a while
2. Most people don't see any real value in video phone calls
3. This might change in the future, but is by no means a technology issue

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/pr_levy_facetime/

High complexity, high ambiguity, slow diffusion

I often have trouble explaining students and clients what exactly can be understood as product complexity and why this can be important for innovation.

Today I found a great example: Google Wave
http://www.news.com.au/technology/google-shuts-down-confusing-wave/story-e6frfro0-1225901471683

Since I first tried it I thought "what is this?". I couldn't grasp the concept of Wave, it seemed like a complicated all-in-one communication portal. But I couldn't see the point. I must have used it ten times, and I never got the point. Now I don't feel so bad: it seems that most people didn't get it either.

Google Wave is, I think, is a good example of a product of high compatibility, as it didn't really add anything new, it merely mixed everything together. It is also an example of high complexity perhaps not so much in its use, it did seem simple and usable enough (although I'll never be sure if I was missing something). And it is equally and example of high ambiguity.

Now, according to theory, Google Wave would have succeeded eventually, assuming that it did add any value to the web. Perhaps it did, in which case it was 'only' a matter of time. Which is obviously expensive to maintain. Or, possibly, it was just a simple case of putting "the cart before the horse", where the geeks at Google thought "this is sooo cool!" while the 'rest of us' said "hmm, don't think so".

In the end, Google Wave is also an example of something every much over-looked in innovation: great companies also fail. Your next product ain't necessarily going to be a success, even if your previous products have been awesome. Not that I wish for it, but I do expect to see an Apple blunder sooner rather than later.

Smartphones, tablets, netbooks, laptops, pdas and ebooks

The relation between laptops, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, PDAs and eBooks is an interesting one. Not (only) from a technological viewpoint, but rather from the social and symbolic dimensions. In recent years and in the next decade, change is bound to happen. In 2008 the laptops displaced the desktops and today it seems "natural" to own and use a laptop, even when one can imagine that obvious disadvantages exist. Several companies are developing different strategies, but as a designer I think that most users as well as most companies are yet to fully understand what mobile devices are best and why. I've heard since the early 90s that lots of 'intelligent' devices would exist, back then people thought of e-kettles and e-coffeemakers...

Where is this going? I think we should stop and think deeply about our lifestyles, needs and behaviours. Design competitions should be organised. Research grants announced. The future looks interesting... and highly unpredictable!

The interesting case of the shopping cart

My students came up with this nice example of innovation: the shopping cart. Here is a thorough analysis of the case, worth analysing & necessary to understand the creation of meaning: http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/12/22/92/PDF/WP_CSI_006.pdf

Collection of Design Strategies

Four years ago I made a note somewhere about this site: espdesign.org. I found the note today and paid a visit. I found a large and interesting collection of design strategies. Perhaps adding a blog post here will be more useful to more people? Worth trying:

http://www.espdesign.org/sustainable-design-guide/design-strategies/

Some are rather obvious, while others are interesting and need further reckoning. I'd go for:

#28: Design feedback mechanisms (information)
#30: Simplification
#41: Design Products to be Loveable
#44: Change Consumer Behaviour (and producer, supplier, the entire chain)

It'd be interesting to extend this work going from the level of strategies to the more useful level of actions.

Complex Systems Innovation

It's somewhat interesting to see the different interpretations of "complex systems" used in design & engineering. This paper by Bar-Yam(pdf) from the NE Complex Systems Institute provides points for analysis and discussion.
Here I will only say that complexity in design need not be limited to "large-scale projects" such as the design & construction of the Oasis of the Seas (the largest cruise ship in history). I'd actually say that there is little complexity in such projects; arguably lots of difficulties (complicated) but not so complex since the result is by no means emergent, but entirely planned and centrally coordinated in pre-defined hierarchies, etc.
Instead, I would argue that the design of a 'simple' ceramic pot made by a handcraft expert can be seen as a complex design project. Perhaps it involves simple materials, simple tools, simple processes, but it does contain a deep and wide scope of cultural, social and historical meanings that make it an irreducible system.

Further reading on Complex Systems Engineering: http://necsi.org/cxworld/engineering.html

Task: analysis of 2009 IDEA product designs

NewScientist features the 2009 IDEA award winners here:
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn17541-idea-competition

Interesting diversity of products, stakeholders and value levels.

Todo: Analyse and classify the 10 winners using a design framework (FBS, Cagan&Vogel, etc)

NPD failure (?)

I've read this before, and now that I find a reference I thought I'd make a note:

"30,000 new products hitting the shelves each year but only 10-30% of them lasting into the second (Gavetti and Rivkin, 2005). The vast majority of new products, in other words, fail." -- Jonathan Hey.

Two things are interesting here: first, the vast number of products developed every year! The first question that comes to my mind is "really? do we need all that crap? And the second issue is: yes, one would imagine (intuitively) that a 90-70% rate of short-lived products is a failure... but is it? In view of the first point raised here, it would seem that perhaps the failure is not in having such a high rate of short-lived products, perhaps the actual failure is in wanting to design so much crap.

What I'm trying to say here is: why do we immediately jump to the conclusion that we need to design 'better products' that have a higher rate of commercial success (lifespan)? Isn't this rather telling us that we should design less?

Brownie Wise and Tupperware

A very interesting story of a change agent: Brownie Wise was a brilliant salesperson who caught the eye of Earl Tupper and helped create the concept of Tupperware Parties, a major paradigm shift in marketing and sales. Her story is relatively obscure due to various circumstances, which actually make the entire case more appealling and suitable for analysis.
I was given this example by Rosaura Aguilar Cruz, a student in my Innovation class. Here is an excerpt of the source:

"Modeled on the home party plan pioneered by Stanley Home Products and expanded and refined by Brownie Wise, the home party plan became and remains the exclusive outlet for Tupperware." http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8470b.htm

Camel milk

Some ideas seem pretty simple and hardly new: milking camels has been done in Africa for centuries. But it may actually require a lot of innovation to implement this idea in a different system: Europe, for instance.

This is the story of Frank Smits, who is committed to camel farming in the Netherlands. It is a very interesting case of innovation, where the main ideas and concepts of Schumpeter, Kuhn, and other experts can be applied.

I like these cases because they escape the hi-tech vision of innovation. As a point, the NYT article does not mention the word "innovation".

Design has a lot to contribute in cases like this. Developing new products of added value is quite a challenge, specially in a "new" market (the article talks abput "the world's growing array of camel's-milk products, like chocolate, ice cream and soap")...

Gadgets

Two cases worth analysing:

1. ASUS, the Taiwanese electronics maker that triggered a significant shift with their first netbooks (now every other laptop company has followed), seems to be working on the next ebook reader.

2. Years late, but finally basic features have been added to the new Apple Nano.

Chic vomit bags

Yes, the title is right. Not that I think this is innovative, but it defintely is 'new'. An interesting example of switching an object's context in order to add value:

http://www.morningchicnessbags.com/

- what da ya reckon?

Two recent examples of positive impact design-innovation

1. HIB-System: this German lego-style system to build actual 1:1 houses seem just like the kind of simple ideas that turn to be very hard to implement but may have the potential to bring positive consequences to the masses. Simple technology, easy assembly and low cost. House design and construction does need innovative and sustainable solutions. Entire presentation here.

2. Joint venture Mercy Corps and Saatchi and Saatchi: develop this mobile food stalls in Jakarta to bring healthy food to kids that are malnourished and used to eating junk food. Quite an interesting case where a little design may trigger a cultural change. Apparently the project is still under development.

We'll keep posting interesting sample cases of innovative design projects that aim to bring positive impacts to large groups of people.

Apple: "the conveyor belt of rubbish"

Often times, we have some ideas and opinions, but aren't capable (or just have no time) of articulating them in a brief format. Neal Lawson does just that when he writes about Apple's product line (iPod, iPhone, Mac):

I’m often intrigued by the difference between classic and timeless design, which must be a good thing, and the conveyor belt of techno rubbish.

Priceless.

eBooks

I was an early adopter of the Rocket eBook back in 2000. Since then, I've been interested in the case of ebooks from an innovation viewpoint. I use it frequently in my courses as a real-life example to explain many of the basic concepts in diffusion, change, socio-technology coupling, sustainability, intellectual property, etc. Students tend to adopt very clear attitudes about ebooks: they easily dismiss their potential based on their initial commercial failure, or they are enthusiastic about their future in transforming a centuries-old field. I'm usually somewhere in between the extremes, as I think there are compelling arguments on each side. I love books and I love change, so I'm very much interested in following how this process develops.

Steve Portigal has done some extensive work on ebooks. Worth checking out, although it is clear that the final word will be the users' in due time. If and when ebooks become mainstream, don't forget that they first appeared as a complete product in the market back in 1999. Just to warn those who may call them 'new'...

"Mobile learning"

Here is a discussion on using cellphones in education. And here is a related and optimistic report called "Pockets of Potential" (pdf). I feel strong about this point, because at our school, there is a project on how to apply mobile devices into teaching/learning initiatives. It began in August 2008 and I was a big enthusiast, as were the 30+ students in my class that got a BlackBerry device with unlimited web access (G3). I must say that a few interesting things happened, but most of them had little or nothing to do with learning activities. Perhaps we were unimaginative, or perhaps we just couldn't see the "pain" to be solved through these devices. I must say that I'm still hopeful that meaningful uses may be addressed in the future, but a year later, most mobile devices are stored in a drawer, while the rest is used for rather conventional and uninteresting things.

Real Innovations, Real Impacts

Forget about the iPhone, Kindle and other gadgets. They may be interesting, but DO NOT SOLVE anything!

Powermondo does:
"Over 3,000,000,000 people do not have access to affordable, safe, and healthy products to meet their daily needs for survival." http://www.powermundo.com/products-and-services.html


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