-
Nice visual/interactive work here
Archive for January, 2008
Defining service design
January 20, 2008I recently had the pleasure of meeting some of the great people behind a book on services in the tourism industry. Andres explained to me that they had written this book in Estonia (only has been translated to Finnish so far) and was working on setting up a BA in service design.
This was great news, as I often feel that how you teach people can influence the way an industry shapes itself. I quickly realised though that we were talking about services in really different ways. He was talking about the classic and slightly corporate view of the “service industries” like tourism, catering, etc and imagined the alumni of this program to work in middle managment in bridging ideas between people on an execution level and the upper management. Quite a different perspective than my own on the subject.
This makes me think that service design, in the way that I was taught and people talk about in the UK, can be interpreted in a really different way and a little like interaction design, might create a gap between the way a field is taught and the practice. Definitions are always useful and I get the feeling that in these pioneering years of service design, we’re gonna need one really quickly.
Thoughts from the edge
January 18, 2008As I struggle to keep my head away from tinkering for more than 15 minutes, I’ve realised a few things so far:
- there is a fine balance to be struck between saying yes and saying no
- people are, in general, quite unforgiving of any mistakes, even if you’re starting out
- money is always an issue
- hiring is difficult
- you have to be able to give up control if you want to go forward, but give up too much and all hell breaks loose
- be sure to know what you’re good at and what you’re not
- I only end up doing things I “trained for” 10% of my time, means I have to learn the other 90% on the fly
Update
January 15, 2008So I feel I’ve neglected this site long enough, I really should update people about why on earth I’m hardly in touch with the world. January is always a good month for announcements anyway right?
Firstly I am now CEO (or chief slave driver as I prefer to call it) of a small technology and design startup called Tinker.it. My partner in this being non other than my former IDII professor Massimo Banzi. So that’s taking, oh about 90% of my time now.
I’ve also been spending the last few months doing a bit of work for Blyk the free mobile network for young people funded by advertising. Often referred in my twitters as Finland2.0, it’s been really interesting as I’ve been running workshops with their target audience. Call it a user-based Applied Dreams if you will.
Then, well I’ve been working on a little project of mine with some great friends. More soon I hope. Let’s just say my dreams of getting something weby done are finally coming true.
And to top things off, Karola and I will hopefully be selling Topoware china to the world in a few months. I’ve been having fun dealing with real manufacturing constraints and old world communications with this one.
So there, it’s not that I don’t love you all, it’s just that I’m trying to die young 
links for 2008-01-15
January 15, 2008-
Unbelievably disturbing piece, as a woman and a human being, I can’t believe we’ve come to this.
-
travel shwag. I don’t quite like the little yellow detail at the bottom though.
-
Greatest article in a long time about design’s position as the fixer-upper of social issues. Sustainability is an example of a “messy problem” we simply cant tackle with design alone.
links for 2008-01-10
January 10, 2008-
Really interesting article on how to define youself as a business and how to sell your value in the world of interaction design.
Quote of the day
January 10, 2008“used for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, probing for food, courtship and feeding their young”
You’d swear they were talking about limbs wouldn’t you?
Not quite. I love evolution.
links for 2008-01-09
January 9, 2008-
Moma exhibition featuring some work from current RCA students..need i say more?
-
Nice, added to rss feeds