News
Prototyping as fast as we can | Gill | BDH | Plot…tap, tap, tap….whirrrrr…clunk, fizzzz….bugger! Tap, tap….whirrr…clunk…ding! Woohoo! Feeling some pressure to do get it all done, but enjoying the chance to do this. Honest! Kit ordered, now arrived..sketching daily…it's still a case of making it something compelling…nearly I think…er..John..where's the …er…thingy. …blink…blink…blink…….blink….
Happy towns everyware? | Gill | BDH | PlotSo what do we actually make or do then?
We've been gathering all of the information we can find, on happiness, on people in Bristol, on possible useful technologies, and we've even made some little demos along the way…like this twittering, fidgeting bird
.
Now, to use a phrase (from an old friend Mr T Ryan) we've got to "Pass the pineapple." It's an aussie phrase about no matter how painful it is, you've got to get it out! We've nailed two directions for developing our ideas - internally directed happiness practices and externally directed happiness through relationships. We've got a notion that it could be done through a speciual product rather than through the mobile phone -there are so many different phones in peoples hands and therefore highly unlikely we can get a common platform for what we'd like to do.
Here's us prototyping what something might do, and we're playing with sellotape, elastic bands, and tags…thanks to Processing for the opening up of making things work with each other.
What we have decided is that it will be something that is more of a Slow technology - like the Slow food and Slow cities movements - something that is life affirming and actually adds some value to what people already do, and does nothing to embarass them or make them want to hide. We had many tales about either developing Facebook fatigue or being Facebarassed by colleagues and stalkers. We'd like to take a different position, we'd like this to be:
thoughtful,
respectful,
appropriate,
undemanding.We're writing this as the start of a slow technology manifesto. We're not the first people to talk about these issues - have a look at this interview with Adam Greenfield http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/hiding_in_plain_sight who is making clear points about theuse of ubiquitous computing. Others have different takes on what a slow technology might mean - even really slow acting things. It makes sense of where we've been in the past and how we think now.
Our next steps are to explore the design further from the point of view of relationships and abstracting what gets seen by others, and what meanings are made visible in the interactions. The other is to look at locations and places and see if there is something there to work on too. We've discarded so much - like the map ideas we originally had. We had trouble really identifying who would want a map view of happiness (maybe the council might), so we abandoned that direction.
Happy towns may end up being the effect of the thing we come up with, rather than the cause of it. Making a town happy is a tall order. Maybe just helping a few people to be happy is fine?
The view from the user side | Gill | BDH | PlotUsing stories to inspire imagination, and visual clues and probes to get people talking, we've finished the user studies. A range of deep interviews with hedonists and responsibles; young and older; cynnicals and new agers. Now we're pulling out some of the insights they reveal and getting on with designing and building.
Did you know that people really, really hate to be bombarded with unsolicited material? That's pushy advertising to the rest of us. So we have to go careful in those advertising routes to make these things make money - there are ways they do work - that's what our users told us. But there are hundreds of ways that they don't.
It's complex picture of things people are attracted to, and things they just don't want anywhere near them. Using materials to open up the conversation, and getting people to imagine themselves in this pervasive world is where we get our inspiration.
There are clues in what people already like to do, and some of the best technology apps are where these are the things you work with. More very soon…
Thanks to everyone who gave their time and thoughts - you know who you are - and to those who helped us find such stimulating people to talk to.
Getting the happy knowledge, firsthand…. | Gill | BDH | PlotWe've been collecting stories about the things that people do to make their lives happier, and it's absolutely fascinating. Each answer is a story in itself about the person, and the more specific you are, the richer and more personal the solution is. They're like little descriptions or recipies of how to do happy.
So we're moving things on, and finding out that we're less comfortable with more new age versions of happy work, and trying to find a version that works for 'normal' people. We've also done so much reading around the work already done in this are, we can avoid repeating what is already there, and what we know doesn't work. It's looking very much like less 'happy life coach', more 'doing happy' kind of thing.
At the same time we're trying out technologies and programming - making things move, message and talk at a distance, including our small twittering bird - one of the many scenarios we've been developing to work out the ideas we're looking at for the user research. Interviews start this weekend, and we're booking in times to speak to people as fast as possible.
We're looking for a particular cross section of people, as we know there's a lot to be gained by finding out from people just what might work, and especially what wouldn't. We're looking for technophobes as well as technoaddicts; cynics as well as open minded new agers; and a rich diverse mixture of great Bristol folk.
Expect us to be brought down to earth and to have had all of our cheesy thinking challenged and moulded into some firm clear idea the next time we write.
Oh, and just in case,
We’re looking for people at different stages of their lives, just like this, but not strictly:
• A man who is head of the family
• A woman who is head of the family
• An infant school child or a junior school
• Teenagers in pre-exam study time
• Someone who owns their own business
• A grandfather or a grandmother
• A student
• An unmarried young couple just starting out
• A couple with a new baby
…Ideally we can get them in pairs – so a grandfather with a teenager, or a child with a dad (if that’s feasible).
We are looking for at least 12 people in pairs of two. Ideally we would like a diverse mixture of male and female, ethnic backgrounds, and class who live in Bristol and fit the following descriptions.
We want to learn about what people do to make themselves happy.
We want to come and do an in-depth interview which will take about 1.5 hours. If this sounds like something you know someone would be interested in participating in, then we will be doing the research this coming weekend - between the 23rd and 25th February 2008.
Please contact Gill on 07966209615 or mail gill@plotsite.net.
And they're off! BDH/Plot get their happy skates on | Gill | BDH | Plot"… a virtuous activity of the Soul" — Aristotle (one of the many, many quotes on the subject, and one we like)
So what is going on in this project? Well we don't know yet where we will end up, but we have a rough plan of action, and we know that we are on our way.
So far it's been a heads-down in a bunch of research materials and a heads-up in the air engaging a whole load of imagination and storytelling.
Design processes at the end of the day are all about finding an answer to the question "What is it?" at a variety of levels of detail; but we tend to break this question up into the initial sub-questions "Who is it for? What is it for? & What does it do?"
The design-research process will answer these eventually in some detail, and feed the prototyping process, but for now they act as big stabilisers in the background, anchoring the investigation.
A brainstorm in the BDH attic
"Heads-down" is an immersion and engagement with a rich seam of happiness books, articles, and media-mentionings — and a plan to engage with a variety of "happiness expertise" to identify and set the right context.
"Heads-up" begins with a day-long kick-off open-studio style brainstorm at BDH and lots of notes sketches and diagrams up on the wall.
Marker pens and post-its are distributed and then Gill and Nick from Plot and John from BDH lead off with an overview and Q&A of "Why we're all here…"
Afterwards, a cross-section ("I'm not that cross…") of BDHers scribble out their mental maps of Bristol as a place, and as a place to live ("The buses are crap, but driving is tough…"), with some shared Bristol cultural landmarks, both celebrated and obscure, to act as both warm-up to the session and warm-up to the "Towns" part of the investigation.
Capturing this and much, much more on the big post-its, with some cross-collation of the small post-its and some rapid thematic collaging (process freaks amongst you may recognise this activity as "affinity diagramming") results in some broad "topic/thematic landscapes" to consider —
• "What makes me happy?"
• "Amelie"
• "Karma accounts"
• "Press happy for…"
• "Perspective two-step"
• "The festival of happy"
• "Happy hotspots"
&
• "Simplicity"We end the day exploring and identifying "dimensions of user-ness" (The who is it for? question.) This will be crucial for both user-research interviews and observations, as well as testing the validity of our propositions and prototypes.
Photo's are taken; the big post-it wall is documented and packed for transport back to Plot; addresses, phone numbers, and appreciations are exchanged, as well as pledges of eternal friendship etc etc
Back at Plot, a project site is set up on base-camp to exchange project materials, conversations, files, dates, and more pledges of eternal friendship etc etcThen an inital set of introspective trigger questions —"What do we do to makes ourselves happy?
