circle-d

photo: Michael Oh (CC BY 2.0 – thanks!)

It’s great the way this happens… In parallel, many people thinking in similar ways, but calling it by different names. “Service design” came out of the bubbling pot that also contained transformation design, system design (from a user perspective!), design by transformation, experience design, user experience design, user-centred design, etc. But when it all came down, the linguistic prizes pretty much landed on user experience and service design.

We still have angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin debates about how different these two things are. And for what it’s worth, my view is that service design is a user-centred approach to systems design, and seeks to develop an integrated offering across touchpoints through beautiful, engaging and useful user experiences.

A new label has been bubbling up in the last year or so: UX strategist. So… is it a planner? is it a design strategist? is it a service designer? is it an insight person? is it a social media consultant? a design ethnographer? a UX analytics expert?

I believe it could cover any of these, and it’s great that there is wide range of possibilities because of what this represents: the widening acceptance that in-depth understanding and engagement with users/audiences/customers/players needs to start way before the first wireframe is drawn or even way before the first Agile story is written on an index card.

Where I believe this is heading, is a world in which we not only start thinking about the strategy for the user experience way before specification stage, but a world where most organisations are eager to use user experience and service design as a strategic weapon in early stage proposition development. Yes, I know some people call that “design thinking,” but, that’s cool.

Looks like it’s time for my not-quite-yearly post about how strange and wonderful London is when it snows. For example, if you can squeeze onto a train, and can see past armpits and elbows, you might start a conversation and meet some very nice, interesting people. Breaking through the usual reserve + urban commuting cocoon is acceptable.

I’ll leave for another post, or for you to post, reflections on the research regarding increasing weather extremes and climate change. However, note that two years ago, I wrote my first snow post in February. Last year, the first snow was in January. You can see where this paragraph is headed, so I’ll move on.

Today, I decided to work at home, rather than face the crush and uncertainty of the reduced Southeastern Railway services. Southeastern has had a number of issues to deal with in the last few days, including a tree on the line, train failures, probably frozen switches, and, sadly, a fatality on one line during the first day of snow. Read the rest of this entry »

Night box office in Berlin

On the eve of the UK spending review (slash-and-burn) announcements, it’s difficult to remain optimistic about the opportunities for service design in a climate of 500,000 projected public service job cuts and knock-on private sector job losses. However, in an effort to not be pessimistic, I will try to believe that a downturn can be a propitious time to innovate – in any case, at the grass roots level.

I’ve just returned from the Service Design Network Conference in Berlin, which I attended on behalf of the ThoughtWorks experience design team, and where I experienced many stimulating conversations, workshops, and presentations.

Lucy Kimbell’s keynote on Service Design at the Crossroads was an excellent reminder to celebrate and exploit the unique skills and sensibility that design brings to the inter-disciplinary mix, as many service design offerings now overlap with other consulting professions.

Despite the climate of cutbacks, there were many sessions on design innovation in public services. I found this symptomatic of hope, even as we read the list of 192 non-departmental bodies (quangos) that the UK government is planning to cut. Among these are organisations that have used design innovation methods — including co-design, co-creation, user research, visualisation and prototyping — in their work. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by anyjazz65 (CC:attrib 2.0 generic – thanks!)

In the last few years a new international cultural meme has developed: the apparent belief that photos of people who “look natural with no facial expressions eg smiling, grinning or frowning” deliver better national security than pictures of relaxed, smiling, happy people. At least this must be a meme for those who set the requirements for ID photos, e.g. a driver’s license or passport.

I just had my driver’s license re-photo’d. No, I am not going to post the photo, but you’ll get the idea from a friend’s comment that I look like something from (what would be) a very grim Madame Tussaud’s exhibit.

Another friend just got his Netherlands passport, and the photo took over 45 minutes of digital re-shooting to get right. “Right” means that his head shape and distance between the ears(!) fit within very strict guidelines.

Granted, that his new passport has a laser-etching on the reverse side of his photo, generated by his mug shot reversed, so that as you hold it up to the light, you see through the paper completely aligned with the photo on the front side. Way cool. But, again: no smiling. Apparently light-heartedness messes with laser beams.

Even Denmark, the country with the highest worldwide score for happiness, states in their consulate site “No smiling and no headgear please!,” although they include that friendly exclamation point.

I know I’m showing my age, but I remember when getting a passport photo was an opportunity to show an interesting face to the world. An opportunity, it seems, that is denied to most people now. OK, maybe with all of our online profiles, etc., we can shed this particular opportunity.

But even in these times, wouldn’t we rather that the first impression we give is of an approachable, happy individual? Doesn’t this precondition any interaction we have with officialdom, at least slightly?

One theory about what is behind this, is that it is due to the spread of face-recognition technology; showing emotion through facial expression “distorts” our machine-readable features.

The dystopian vision that emerges is of airports and major urban centres that are legislated as expression-free zones – no laughing, smiling, and certainly no expressions of sorrow. Just looking “natural with no facial expressions.”

But maybe we could get an emotion-zone set up next to the cigarette smokers.

Update!: Now the photo booths have to warn against public displays of happiness:

photo: dan paluska (cc: attrib 2.0 gen – thanks!)

During a recent trawl for blogs on sustainability and service design, I came across an old post on sustainability and user experience that, I believe, still has good bones.

Alexa Andrezejeski’s Adaptive Path post, from early 2008, addresses the question of what UX and sustainability have to do with each other. She writes about a discussion at Adaptive Path, which came up with a set of principles, including:

Experience is closely tied to sustainable behavior: People act un-sustainably because it’s often much easier or results in a better experience than doing otherwise….

Make sustainable experiences more compelling than the alternatives….
Understand and appeal to people’s motivations, values and aspirations…
Harness the power of information to help people make better decisions….
Promote a service-mindset vs. a product-mindset…
Communicate the business value of sustainability….

Her post ends with an expression of frustration with the difficulty of finding or creating opportunities to put this awareness into practice in aid of furthering sustainability.

Since 2008, people’s consciousness of the issues has intensified, as has awareness of the evidence of increasing climate chaos. So there is greater openness to the need for services/products that apply the congruence of user experience and sustainability, or even consideration of the one in the development of the other.

But the future is uneven, isn’t it. For example, see the problems around the launch of  PG&E smart meters in California, written about by Tom Raftery (PG&E smart meter communication failure – lessons for the rest of us). Read the rest of this entry »

Remembering my post from last year, when snowfall unleashed much irony-free snowman-building fun; here we are again, with the wonder of the white stuff charming the average Londoner.

One difference is that there is a lot more on Twitter this year about #uksnow and the tweet-mining UK snow map is now at version 2.0.

However, many people are trying to figure out the relationship between the colder winters we are facing, versus climate change and global warming. Read the rest of this entry »

Monday morning, and we’re traveling north on track number five through London Bridge station. North! Can you ever imagine?

I have always suspected that the only way to undo the mess that has been rush hour at London Bridge was to do something radical, or many things radical.

Southeastern Railway had their big, new timetable launch this Monday. They had preceded it by saying that it had involved a great deal of consultation, use projections and planning, but while they hoped that the changes would be generally appreciated, they also expected some people to be disappointed with the results.

There have been mixed reviews. The changes include the introduction of the North Kent high speed line, up to St Pancras, which dramatically decreases journey times from major towns, but costs a premium to use (around 30%).

Some lines have had service reduced, and there have been major route changes. From the customer perspective, it’s quite difficult to get the big picture of the changes. Read the rest of this entry »

Like the proverbial cobbler whose children go barefoot, circle-d has very bad about utilising our own expertise – in this case to maintain a consolidated, up-to-date online presence.

So, today begins the relaunch of the circle-d site from this blog, to explain and present current work and thinking in user experience, service design and strategic design.

While material is being assembled, please find gathered below some relevant blog posts that were originally posted in my personal blog. And for those of a nostalgic nature, you can still visit the old product and interaction design focused site (now with Flash 5!!).

Photo of “output of the new and improved CandyFab 4000″ by oskay  on Flickr under creative commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Thanks!

…not necessarily simultaneously

I just saw this new-style safety pin and was fascinated by the idea that someone felt it was worthwhile, and a sensible business proposition, to improve on the old classic. I think, in many contexts, it would be an improvement. Smaller, lighter, less material, fewer production processes. All good things. And very elegant design. Undoubtedly, there are instances where the old, larger and more robust version would be more appropriate.

I would imagine it is inspired by shower curtain clips, and I saw one reference to knitting stitch holders. Nice re-appropriation of design. Read the rest of this entry »

Can anyone tell me why having a toothbrush at work in a UK corporate environment is faintly embarrassing? I have worked in small design studios that were home-like enough to allow for people parking their toothbrushes in the loo.

I can’t remember what it was like in US corporate workplaces, but in the UK, I feel compelled to palm the toothbrush and paste, and scuttle to the ladies’. Apparently in Germany, it is not a thing of strangeness. Witness above the happy array of brushes, paste and other devices.

Is it something about the “personal” being stored in the public realm? It makes me think of Chartier, a (19th century?) workers’ restaurant, now very much on the tourist trail, which has small drawers built into the architecture, where patrons would store their napkins between meals – the little drawers that look like miniature filing cabinets below the carafes. (Photo by kev_walsh, on Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic, thanks!)

So, when is Muji, or some other clever manufacturer going to come up with a mini storage method for 6 to 36 toothbrushes and accoutrements? With some method of personalising the front of the drawer, so people can easily locate their own. When I have a moment, I’ll return with the start of an open source scribble for how I would do one, and the name of that online one-off manufacturing source.

Originally posted on 9 February 2009