I confess – I’m for it. And I’ll go even further – I think “making it up as you go along” is one of the greatest, and most important processes of any age.

No great explorer set out with a detailed set of explorer guidelines. They adjusted and discovered.

No great inventor set out with a detailed set of inventor guidelines. They experimented and adapted.

No great leader set out with a detailed set of leadership guidelines. Leaders point the way and rally followers when their faith fails.

“Making it up as you go along” means that you recognize a good foothold on your way up a mountain and know how to take advantage of it (in other words, you understand your craft). But you don’t need (literally) a step-by-step instruction book (because you understand your craft). In software development terms, the “step-by-step” equivalent is a requirements specification. Kind of like paint-by-numbers for would-be Rembrandts who don’t yet know that method is incapable of producing genuine art.

As good as your tools?

One of the things I hate most about our industry (the web industry, the UX industry, the IxD industry, whatever), is the penchant for folks with too little imagination and too much process training, to force “development models” on us. We have “mental models” galore. We have “process blueprints” en masse. Sadly, we have a myriad of tools, but not always the proper skills.

There’s a Danish expression common to craftsman: “A worker is only as good as his tools.” Granted, good tools are critical, as is a good process. But tools represent the lowest common denominator. Even with the best tools, an idiot will make a mess of things.

Agile or ingenuity?

We’re still at the beginning of an era. The web is not yet 20 years old. We are very much making things up as we go along despite excellent pattern libraries and established best practices. Anyone who says we aren’t is either a liar or a fool. Unfortunately, in the interest of professionalism, many folks are trying to legitimise their existance by formalising their work processes.

The smart tool of choice these days for software development is agile. ‘Agile’ is basically a fancy term for making it up as we go along. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s a good technique used by the pioneers for whom oceans are named.

In the old, pre-computer era, we call this ‘flexibility’ and ‘having an open mind.’ ‘Talent’, ‘intuition’, and ‘ingenuity’ were also once keywords. When did we stop appreciating these abilities? We have, you know…

Now, agile development is being groomed for polite society (e.g. the clueless business executives who would have insisted that Columbus produce a map showing the exact passage to India before he had actually done his discovery work). But gosh, Mr or Ms Business Leader, agile isn’t Russian Roulette. It’s not going to cost a fortune – in fact, it will probably cost less than the idiotic “requirements specification” some overpriced consultant is going to talk you into.

Which leads us to scrum

‘Scrum’ is a term stolen from rugby (which follows a wonderfully make it up as you go along kind of gameplan). In the world of software development, scrum formalizes the informal iterative agile development process. The Scrum Master is a project coordinator who presides over meetings and shepherds the team based on a set of strictly defined rules. A formalised certification course during which potential Scrum Masters learn the basic rules and mechanisms takes several days. Why is scrum popular? Well, first, it’s not a bad process. Unfortunately, scrum can be a nasty weapon in the hands of the wrong people; business execs are often comforted by processes that are governed by strict rules. Particularly those pesky, unpredictable creative processes.

How to win the game? Stay loose!

It’s not that I have anything in particular against scrum, but I have a lot against creating gameplans that don’t allow for deviation or the unexpected voicing of a sudden brilliant idea that turns the whole project on its head. Good Scrum Masters know the value of exploring new directions. My problem is with the tyrants who blindly stick to this (or any other established process); who hide their own lack of talent and creative insight behind a veil of pedanticism and false authority.

Sorry Columbus, ignore this new world of yours. Remember, your job is to find a passage to India. What will you do between now and the next daily scrum meeting regarding this project?

How many of us slavishly follow our car’s navigation when we know it’s giving us bad advice? Very few – that would be silly. And how many times have we uncovered a blatant fault during the very first usability test? Does it make sense to test with several more respondents before fixing an obvious problem? Of course not – no matter what the test protocol may dictate.

Although I’ve singled out scrum, there are lots of other processes that can go equally awry. Many companies these days are busy trying to implement Toyota’s LEAN production system, often with disappointing results. Kaizen quality management (another Toyota development) can also go very wrong – and for the same reasons Total Quality Management, House of Quality, and Philip Crosby’s Zero Defects went wrong back in the 80s; too many managers let the process get in the way of the ultimate objective. Remember, the goal is the goal.

For every rule, there are myriad exceptions. For every battle plan, there are unexpected circumstances. For every process, there are fifty other ways to do things. So, my advice is to do what needs to be done, when you need to do it. And as to the gameplan? Don’t be afraid to make it up as you go along.

Who has never pulled a push door? Or pushed a door that is supposed to be pulled to open? If it is a basic knob, it’s hard to know which way it opens.So how about changing the shape of a doorknob to add small constraints on the push/pull actions so that a user can easily notice how to open the door? (I said “small constraints” because there are times when you have to pull a push door and push a pull door, such as when the door is stopped with a door-stopper.) This would be my solution:

How do YOU design nature? Whether we like it or not, nature evolves, following its own path towards the future. But is it really its own path? It’s probably fair to say that most people agree that Darwinian evolution is still happening today – natural evolution, survival of the fittest, species evolving to best fit their ever-changing environments. But what about the kind of evolution that some may consider, not so “natural”? Man-made species, genetically modified organisms, test-tube body parts, and creatures that have been forever tweaked by human interference.

These “things”, neither purely natural nor artificial, represent a new frontier – prototypes of future nature. Glimpses at what the future holds for natural organisms. A sort of engendered snapshot of a prediction of evolution, and in some cases, even a seemingly forced evolutionary process. It should come as no surprise that designers have taken an interest in this burgeoning arena of change. Proposing innovative lenses through which to view our inevitably prototype nature-filled future, designers shape this very future in their own way. Adopting the languages and materials of science, designers are beginning to understand the role “of design in a world in which humans have surpassed their Enlightenment roles as neutral observers and have become actors on the very forces of nature.” The merging of science and design is depicted heroically in Paola Antonelli’s 2008 MOMA exhibition, Design and the Elastic Mind and in the accompanying book. In the book’s preface, Barry Bergdoll says, “While the show’s viewpoint is largely optimistic, embracing science and design as agents of progress, there is also a clear undertone of urgency. Together, design and science must deal with the consequences of our ability to engineer natural phenomena.” In a future where it is difficult to differentiate between natural and unnatural, these prototypes of future nature, culled from the merging worlds of science and design, may be what people look to as the source.

Future Evolution, by Amelia Altavena (1986-). Digital illustration, 2010.

An important takeaway from Antonelli’s MOMA show

is that it “is not concerned only with designers who have an interest in the latest scientific achievements, but also with scientists who are (unconsciously or otherwise) engaged in the act of design.” It’s hard to imagine a more striking example of this kind of science/design blend than Craig Venter’s project, partially funded by the US Department of Energy, to design new microbes. The idea of man-made species is not a new one, however, it would seem that the idea is now a reality. Venter’s heavily funded experiments are “part of an effort to create designer bugs to manufacture hydrogen and biofuels, as well as absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases.” This brings us to a vital question: What will a future be like where the things that used to be nature, are instead, designed things? Where will society draw the line? I suppose to some, the possible benefits to engineering natural things to be better than they could have been naturally, outweigh the drawbacks. Microscopic bugs that create biofuel may be the beginning, or maybe genetically modified beef was the beginning years ago, (or maybe still it was the domestication of dogs centuries ago). Either way, what might the middle of this story look like? The end? Imagine if every single natural thing is now engineered to outperform its own natural abilities. One such orange tree grows more, larger, and vitamin boosted superfruits, for more months out of the year. Hypo-allergenic pet dogs are engineered to be more loving, easier to train, and live 3 times longer. And of course, humans will be different to – pick your future body from any number of science fiction movies from the past 50 years.

As you may have expected, it’s about the money.

There’s simply more money in “better” things: wine grapes modified to yield great tasting wine for more months out of the year earn their vineyard more money. Although the business case for Venter’s “designer bugs” may not be as clear-cut, it is an economically driven industry, “…a high-stakes commercial race to synthesize and privatize synthetic life forms.” Wondering where the “materials” for these synthetic organisms and printed body parts come from? Well, there’s a business for that. Emeryville, California’s BioFab “plans to churn out thousands of free standard DNA parts that academic and private biotech labs can use to create new designer microbes that can make everything from new drugs to fuel.” The mass production of such materials is expected to massively drive down costs of biotechnology work worldwide. Keeping the opensource wetware movement churning on the east coast is BioBricks, an MIT-based non-profit. According to their website, “Using BioBrick standard biological parts, a synthetic biologist or biological engineer can already, to some extent, program living organisms in the same way a computer scientist can program a computer.” Long live garage bio-hacking.

At a recent TED talk, Craig Venter spoke about his budding abilities to create prototype nature: “…this is software that lets us design species…Changing the evolutionary tree…Speeding up evolution with synthetic bacteria. We’re a ways away from improving people…Our goal is just to make sure that we have a chance to survive long enough to maybe do that.” And Venter isn’t the only scientist on the block looking to progress humanity to a point where people like you and me are benefiting from this same kind of bioengineering work to make us healthier, stronger, and live longer. While Venter’s San Diego lab is cranking out fresh organisms, just down the street, aptly named startup Organovo is showing off its 3-D “bio-printer” capable of building human blood vessels and organs. Yes, dear reader, they are printing out fully functional body parts. For designers it’s probably not hard to grasp the value of creating from scratch – livers, kidneys, and other vital organs that are usually in short supply for patients in need of organ transplants, but making the mental connection to rapid prototyping machines used in the design industry is unavoidable and downright eerie.

Modelmaker at Product Development Company A: “Let me just get this plastic product model out of the machine here, Steve, then you can go ahead and print out that live kidney you were working on…”

It would seem that scientists now have the ability to “grow” almost every part of a human body in the lab. How far away can we be from growing superior versions of these parts and selling them as commodities? Dr. Anthony Atala, one of the pioneers of human bio-engineering and director of the Wake Forrest Institute for Regenerative Medicine proposes a deep future scenario: “I don’t know how long it will take, but I do foresee a future when organs will be available off-the-shelf, ready to “plug in” and replace injured or diseased organs. I believe we’ll have a boutique of technologies that will include tissue engineering and cell therapies and doctors will select the ideal treatment based on the patient’s needs.”

Concerned about the scarring involved with getting cut open to swap in a pair of lungs that will give you 10 times the breathing power? Don’t worry, old-fashioned surgery involving cutting people open won’t be around forever. A team of scientists at the University of Michigan “plans to recreate jaw bones within the human body itself. It will create its bone scaffolding based on a printer laser system and CT scan, and then fill the scaffolding with cells taken from the patient who requires the bone replacement. Once implanted, the scaffolding would get absorbed by the body.”

Horrifying or terrifyingly appealing? Regardless of your moral stance, this work is happening. Scientists are orchestrating a massive shift in our understanding of nature; engaging in acts of design on the natural world and on the human body itself. Designers who imagine this future alongside them have a unique opportunity to apply much needed design thinking to the future of nature.

In the design process, there can often be an element of surprise,

an unexpected result, or even a total accident leading to an interesting outcome. The same applies in nature. Not every case of prototype future nature is as intentional as using software to design new species or growing body parts in the lab. Nature constantly generates things that could be perceived as “accidents” all on its own. That said, there is no doubt that humans have had a profound (and in most cases, damaging effect) on Earth. We have made certain decisions that have forever changed the evolutionary path of almost every other species we have come into contact with. To be more specific, animals that live near our nuclear power plants have a tendency to mutate far more often than their non-nuclear neighborhood inhabiting brothers and sisters. “Scientific illustrator (and coiner of the term “prototypes of a future nature”) Cornelia Hesse-Honegger details these minute mutations in the so-called “true bugs” she collects near nuclear facilities and areas of chemical contamination. True bugs don’t travel far, and they suck the liquid from the plants they live on,” she says. “So if the plant is contaminated, they take a lot of radioactivity into their bodies.’” She “discovered mutations — curtailed feelers, misshapen legs, asymmetrical wings — in as many as 30 percent of the bugs she gathered.” Her illustrations are a beautiful artistic representation of these creatures that are forever changed by human technology, for better or for worse.

Scorpion fly from Reuenthal, Switzerland by Cornelia Hesse-Honegger (1944-). Watercolor, Zürich 1988.

Illustration and science have long been intertwined,

as have design and engineering. Practically since the Enlightenment, scientists have relied on artists to visually depict their discoveries, experiments, and theories. Not until much later though, did artists and designers look to science for visual, physical, and conceptual inspiration.

Christopher Dresser, widely regarded as one of the grandfathers of industrial design was an expert in botany, and his plant studies not only revealed crucial scientific knowledge but also directly inspired his product designs.

Diagram illustrating Lectures on Botany at Marlborough House, by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904). Watercolour on paper, laid on canvas. London, 1854-55. Victoria and Albert Museum

Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, was the first artist to look at nature under water with microscopes and recorded a massive array of forms that influenced every designer living at the time. His book, Art Forms in Nature consists of over a hundred semi-fictional illustrations of the ocean creatures he discovered. As with Dresser’s plant illustrations, Haekel’s fantastical forms influenced almost every designer working at the time. Art Nouveau from the ocean depths to your table top.

Diagram illustrating species of Siphonophorae, by Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). Lithograph 1898. Art Forms in Nature

You know you’re respected by the scientific community when they name a molecule after you. Such is the case with the prolific architect, designer, inventor, and futurist, Buckminster Fuller, after whom fullerenes were named for their resemblance to his best-known invention, the geodesic dome. But Fuller wasn’t just a designer who scientists respected; he used scientific methods to arrive at his groundbreaking designs. Having decided to focus on the problem of shelter, he resolutely looked to technology to provide the solution. “To Fuller, a great technology had already been at work for millions of years – Nature. To look at the way ‘she’ designs the universe was to unlock the most useful direction one could take in designing the artifacts that would make the world work for humanity. Nature’s design was fluid, ephemeral, beautifully patterned. Nature’s technology was dynamic, lightweight, and driven by a functional imperative – optimum efficiency.” Fuller borrowed from nature for his projects because he believed it was perfectly designed and could guide him towards a better solution.

R. Buckminster Fuller, by Boris Artzybasheff(1899-1965). Tempera on board 1963. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine.

The likes of Dresser, Haeckel, and Fuller no doubt led the way for today’s scientifically inclined designers, yet the vigor with which the design community has leapt into the realms of bioengineering, genetics, and other cutting edge sciences, has no precedent in history. While scientists lead the crusade towards our bioengineered future, designers pose provocative questions about the implications of that future, develop fictional scenarios of behavior, and design objects that match this imagined evolutionary curve.

Part of his “Biotypography” series, “Typosperma” is Oded Ezer’s project to create cloned sperm designed to each have unique typographical information implanted in their DNA. Ezer’s fantastical creatures literally blur the line between science and design; between Craig Venter’s species designs and the Eameses’ mid-century modernist graphic designs.

“The main purpose of the Typosperma project was to create some sort of transgenic creatures, half (human) sperm, half letter.”

Would you catch a virus for fun? Mikeal Metthey thinks future people will. In a future where all disease has been eradicated by medical technology, Metthey says, “the anxiety associated with disease will be replaced with a recreational approach to illness in which potential patients will check into a ‘counter-spa’ where they will be infected by engineered viruses designed to mimic the [physical and psychological] experience of having a particular malady.” So proposes Metthey’s 2006 thesis project at the Royal College of Art in London, “The Minutine Space”. The project is meant to emphasize the social aspects of being sick and how, in this utopian future, people will actually miss being ill.

In the larger scheme of the science/design overlap, “The Minutine Space” jumps to a fictional future where medical science has taken its course and proposes a design scenario for these future humans.

“Scientists at the University of Western Australia have coined the term ‘disembodied cuisine’ to refer to a new tissue engineering technique that makes it possible to grow edible meat in a laboratory from sample cells.” But what would this in vitro-cultured meat look like, taste like? Interaction designer, James King offers a solution with his “Dressing the Meat of Tomorrow” project: “A mobile animal MRI unit scours the countryside looking for the most beautiful examples of livestock. The selected specimen is scanned from head to toe and accurate cross-sectional images of its inner organs are generated. The most aesthetically pleasing examples of anatomy will be used as templates to create molds for the in vitro meat. We wouldn’t necessarily choose to eat the same parts that we eat today. However, we might still want to recreate a familiar shape to better remind us where the ‘artificial’ meat came from.”

Is that real animal hide you’re wearing? No way man, this is that new stuff – “Victimless Leather”. A small scale prototype of a leather jacket grown in vitro, “Victimless Leather” is a project by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of SymbioticA, a self-described “artistic research lab. “The grown garment confronts people with the moral implications of wearing parts of dead animals for protection, aesthetics, or expression of identity and social class.” “Victimless Leather, on the other hand, offers the possibility of wearing leather without directly killing an animal as ‘a starting point for cultural debate.’”

We are living in a time of square fruit, palm-shaped islands, snow control, and engineered microbes.

“An age in which the ‘made’ and the ‘born’ are fusing.” There can be no doubt that our relationship with nature is in flux. Disregarding any potential moral guidelines around interfering with natural things, scientists and designers are increasingly governing our notion of nature – trees, plants, animals, atoms, climate. Where technology and evolution collide, we arrive at prototypes of future nature, things that we are not yet comfortable relating to. Is this deer natural or robotic? Is my cell phone breathing? During these moments of confusion and adjustment, we may fall back on richer connections to purely industrially manufactured items; things that we can associate with an origin, a natural habitat (be it a Chinese factory or a Walmart).

The blog NextNature “explores our changing notion of nature. How nature™ has become one of the most successful products of our time, yet much of what we perceive as nature is actually a simulation: a romanticized idea of a balanced, harmonic, inherently good and threatened entity. How evolution continues nonetheless. How technology – traditionally created to protect us from the forces of nature – gives rise to a next nature, that is just as wild, cruel, unpredictable and threatening as ever. How we are playing with fire again and again. How we should be careful in doing so, yet how this is also what makes us human.”

Humans are evolution catalysts. Yet we rarely discuss the responsibilities of this job description. We understand product evolution – how one generation of iPhone evolves into the next. And we understand Darwinian evolution in the traditional sense. But is that enough? Do we not also need to dive deeper into the nature designed, prototyped, and built, by people?

If the upcoming movie Splice can serve as an answer, then it does so with a resounding YES. Enjoy:

“To design is to have a ‘project’. Getting the design process moving is to expose and transform this ‘project’ in a conversation with those that it might eventually affect” (Buur, Binder, & Brandt, 2000).

In the early stages of design, rather than evaluate or validate specific user requirements or priorities, we are interested in exploring possibilities. As the opening quote suggests, we seek to engage with the various stakeholders the design project may eventually effect and gain an understanding of the unique design situation from their perspective. In Zimmerman et al.’s  (2004) framework for discovering and extracting knowledge during the design process, this is known as the Discovery phase of design. In this article we introduce Mobile Diaries as a field work method that can be utilised in the early stages of design to immerse into people’s everyday life.

This exploratory approach to self-reporting allows participants  to create and share a rich picture of their world, be they grandmothers, bankers, students, young parents or employees. In this article we describe Mobile Diaries, and provide examples of the kinds experiences they can enable.

A little background on self-reporting

In self-reporting, research participants are responsible for the data collection, allowing for the gathering of contextual data over-time and in situ, without the physical presence of researchers. Self-reporting can provide access into the private, personal and mobile aspects of people’s lives that are often difficult, or impossible, to access through traditional methods such as observation or interviews. The sustained personal reflection inherent in self-reporting makes available aspects that would otherwise remain tacit. So much of our lives are routinised and automatic, it is not until we are asked to document or consider certain activities that we are able to identify key junctures in our own understanding of a topic or a behaviour.

Self-reporting studies can take many different forms and the degree of formal structure is one of the things that differentiates approaches and determines the type of material collected. For example in the Electronic Sampling Method approach known as ESM (Larson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1983) or beeper studies, the participant is directed to systematically log specific things at specific times. In more open-ended approaches (such as cultural probes (Gaver, Dunne, & Pacenti, 1999) or visual diaries) data collection is only semi-structured around a particular topic. In this case participants are treated as active contributors and interpreters in the design process and select what, how and when to report. This encourages more playful and creative representations, important to an explorative and collaborative approach.

Over the last 10 years digital, online and mobile technologies have been incorporated into self-reporting methods in a range of ways (see end of article for some examples of other studies and platforms). These everyday tools can be easily integrated into people’s daily lives and support the generation of a range of different media forms such as video, images, text and audio.

Mobile Diaries

Mobile Diaries are a hybrid method that incorporate many of the creative and playful aspects of probes and emphasise the daily reflection of visual diaries. A range of different analog and digital technologies are used that allow participants to share and reflect on various dimensions of their day-to-day life.

A typical study

The exact design of the study (as always) is dependent on a number of factors such as:

• A definition of the problem space;
• The goals and objectives of the particular project;
• The theme of the study (e.g is it a personal project or focused on the workplace);
• Budget (how many people can we recruit and how, what kind of incentives might be required);
• The profile of the participants (e.g teenagers, adults or whole families); and
• Their current technology knowledge/competence and use (e.g how they might respond to the technology involved, how open are they to using new technologies).

Generally studies run from 1-3 weeks with between 1-10 participants. Topics explored depend on the study but could include, for example: sustainability in your everyday life; the role of mobile technologies in your life; or a ‘behind the scenes’ look at your job. Participants receive a ‘Mobile Diary Pack’ with various tools and instructions which direct the data collection around the particular design topic.

Mobile Diary Tools

A number of custom platforms have been developed to support online diaries, however, to date we have preferred to configure Mobile Diaries from existing platforms such as WordPress and Tumblr as this gives us greater flexibility over format, functionality and cost. Below we show the packs from a typical study (the list of available tools is growing and changing all the time, here we show typical ones we have used in the past).

During the study

Over the period of the study participants create collages, mind maps, videos and blog messages and send in mobile reports which appear on the blog. They also receive prompts, questions and reminders via the mobile phone and the blog.  The conversation is bi-directional: as we are receiving reports we are also responding with new questions or digging deeper into particular areas, and potentially redirecting the focus of the study as a result.

What do we see and learn?

The output of Mobile Diaries is a particularly provocative, experiential and sensorial insight into participant’s lives. As one of our clients described it “[we were able to] hear in people’s own words the challenges and learn about the context of sustainability in their day-to-day lives”. We share some examples below of the kinds of material generated and shared through this approach.

Life as it happens

Using their phone, participants capture images, text and audio and send this to the blog throughout the day. These reports give us a deeper appreciation of the activities that make up people’s daily lives and we are able to ‘see for ourselves’ actual examples and instances of things that might otherwise be anecdotal. Through these reports we can track events, locations, and a sense of participant’s emotions across the days and weeks. Over time, daily rhythms and habits emerge. The (near) real-time reporting increases the sense of immersion in people’s lives as we experience the activities ‘as they happen’ (Masten & Plowman, 2003).  This is complemented by more reflective accounts at the end of the day via the blog or with the video camera.

Personal Spaces and intimate stories

The use of video encourages in-depth descriptive accounts of events and surroundings from the participant’s perspective. The stills above are from one participant’s tour of their apartment building, which focused on areas relating to sustainability in the home. By giving participants video cameras and asking them to take us on a tour of their home we are able to explore and wander with the participant. This reveals some evocative spaces otherwise inaccessible to a design researcher; in addition to the explicit content being shared the video also conveys emotion and expression.

In another study focused on teenagers and their relationship to technology one participant gave us a tour of his shed, playing instruments as he told stories about the importance of this particular space to him.  These personal stories bring us closer to the participant’s world creating a sense of intimacy and proximity to the participants which is difficult to replicate in a one on one interview, discussion group or even during participant observations.

Inner thoughts and feelings, moments and metaphors

In addition to descriptions of external events and activities, Mobile Diary reports also capture emotions, feelings and inner thoughts. The examples above show emotional reactions and descriptions of personal feelings at particular moments in time. In some, the participant’s have used objects to serve as metaphors or symbols for representing emotions or ‘states’. This allows the participant to share inner thoughts and feelings that might have otherwise remained hidden. The open, honest and personal nature of these reports fosters empathy, often describing experiences we can relate to. That some are delivered in (near) real-time further increases the sense of connection; in that moment, we knew something of what the participant was thinking and feeling.

Action & Transformation

“Not only did it help us, the impact on participants and their way of thinking about sustainability was really interesting… the project really opened their eyes to their own patterns and behaviour and sparked some changes and definitely increased awareness” (feedback from client).

The process of self-reporting is an intervention designed to allow people to self-reflect and share aspects of their daily life; this process can also trigger participants to question their choices and everyday behaviours (Grinter & Eldridge, 2001).  The content of the Mobile Diary packs and the nature of the questions included can provoke new realisations and possibilities. For example, our self-reporting studies into sustainability in everyday life resulted in participants questioning personal behaviours and making changes in their lifestyles^[i]. For one participant, a discussion about sustainability with flatmates led to the installation of a composting unit in the household.

The interventionist nature of the method can be more intentionally activated through the inclusion of specific activities and questions within the packs. For example, in one study into sustainability we included sustainability challenges – new lifestyle habits -  that participants were asked to try and document throughout a week. These activities were particularly provocative at revealing emotional and infrastructural barriers to behaviour change.

And then…?

As the image below suggests, material generated from Mobile Diaries can be used in numerous ways. Mobile Diaries externalise aspects of people’s everyday lives through visual, tangible artefacts. These become shared resources that help us to understand current practices, provide a spring-board for ideation and allow us to envision how any future design might be taken up within the existing ecology of the participants life. For designers, the visual nature of the material allows for more active interpretation in ways not possible with written research reports.  For participants, the process of doing the Mobile Diaries means they are better equipped to reflect on and analyse their own practices, during follow up interviews and workshops (similar to primer tools), becoming active interpreters of the material and what it might mean for future designs.

The material generated through Mobile Diaries is not something to be reduced down into a traditional written report. The raw form of the material and the subjective picture it provides of the participants’ lives and world-view are essential to its immersive quality and its value for fostering empathy and connection with participants (Mattelmäki, 2005; Mattelmäki & Battarbee, 2002) ^[ii].

However, this does need to be balanced with normative business expectations of a ‘research outcome’, and the need to synthesise the data in a meaningful way for the client to then transmit to other stakeholders. Effective ways to share this tangible and personal material with those who were not directly involved is the subject of current research, e.g., (Sleeswijk Visser 2009). Our process includes the development of a multimedia ‘report’ that can support all the different formats of material generated. These reports introduce the participants through their own words and images, illuminate the themes that have emerged and identify some future possibilities to be considered. We have also found significant value in creating opportunities for co-interpretation of the material by clients and other designers, whilst this can be more time consuming, it is utlimately a more effective use of the material than simply ‘handing off the research’.

We have also found that the value of such methods is greater than their role as data collection activities. A personal connection is made with participants that can be of value well beyond the particular study. However, there is a tension between this and the day-to-day realities of client and agency practices and models which focus on deliverables and project phases, in between which there can be significant lags or breaks. There is still work to be done to articulate and communicate the value of such methods beyond their capacity to generate data ‘about people,’ and to embrace their ability to involve participants in a more ongoing and sustained way throughout the design process.

Mobile Diaries are a playful, immersive experience for the design team that allow us to discover something of the messy intricacies of participant’s daily life, valuable for both inspiring and grounding the design process as well as engaging directly with stakeholders. We’d love to connect with other designers employing similar approaches.

Acknowledgments

Big thanks to Chris Gaul for images & Will Evans for feedback and comments. Thanks also to Dr Toni Robertson and the @IDHuPLab at UTS, Digital Eskimo, Zumio, our clients & participants N.B Examples come from specific studies in which permission was granted for publication for the purposes of research. Our approach has been heavily informed by the ongoing research into generative methods inspired by Cultural Probes (Gaver, et al., 1999) and the work of Liz Sanders (www.maketools.com) as well as other research into self-reporting studies such as (Hulkko, Mattelmäki, Virtanen, & Keinonen, 2004; Masten & Plowman, 2003; Palen & Salzman, 2002).

References

Buur, J., Binder, T., & Brandt, E. (2000). Taking Video Beyond ‘Hard Data’ in User Centred Design. Participatory Design Conference PDC2000, New York, NY, USA.
Gaver, B., Dunne, T., & Pacenti, E. (1999). Design: Cultural Probes. Interactions, 21-29.
Grinter, R., & Eldridge, M. (2001). y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg. ECSCW, Amsterdam.
Hulkko, S., Mattelmäki, T., Virtanen, K., & Keinonen, T. (2004). Mobile Probes. NordiCHI 04, Tampere, Finland.
Larson, R., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1983). The Experience Sampling Method. In H. Reis (Ed.), Naturalistic approaches to studying social interaction: New Directions for Methodology of Social and Behavioral Science: Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Masten, D., & Plowman, T. (2003). Digital Ethnography: The next wave in understanding the consumer experience. Design Management Journal, 14(2), 75-81.
Mattelmäki, T. (2005). Applying probes – from inspirational notes to collaborative insights. CoDesign, 1(2), 83-102.
Mattelmäki, T., & Battarbee, K. (2002). Empathy Probes Paper presented at the PDC 2002, Malmö, Sweden.
Palen, L., & Salzman, M. (2002). Voice-mail diary studies for naturalistic data capture under mobile conditions.  CSCW, Louisiana, USA.
Sleeswijk Visser, F. (2009). Bringing the everyday life of people into design (PhD Thesis), Technische Universiteit Delft, Delft.
Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J., & Evenson, S. (2004)  “Taxonomy for Extracting Design Knowledge from Research Conducted During Design Cases.” Futureground 04, Melbourne, Australia.

Additional examples of other remote self-reporting techniques & studies & mobile/online tools

Digital Ethnography (pdf)

Digital Diaries

Digital Cultural Probes

Sticky Research (Video Diaries)

Revelation

7daysinmylife.com

[i] There is no way for us to tell how permanent these changes were, we can only be sure that particular practices were bought to people’s attention, and steps towards change were made.
[ii] The original Cultural Probes (Gaver 1999) were not designed to gather specific information, but rather to be a source of inspiration and empathy. Rather than being codified, transformed or translated into a report, probe material was designed to stand on its own as a rich visual resource for designers.

In conjunction with Rosenfeld Media, we’re very pleased to announce the winners of the UX Story competition. Entrants were asked to tweet – in 140 characters or less! – why storytelling is such a powerful tool for UX practitioners. Throughout June the responses came in and, after a tough judging task, the winners were chosen.

5 winners will receive a copy of Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks’ new book: ‘Storytelling for User Experience‘ from Rosenfeld Media; and all 12 winners will receive an exclusive Webinar with Whitney and Kevin.

Thank you to everyone who entered the event, and to all those who helped promote it! And now, the winners:

Book + Webinar

Every interaction is a story, with the user as the “star.”  This appeals to our human need to be at the center of every experience.
@dgelman

Storytelling is a two-way mirror. You see yourself reflected in the experience of others.
@nathangibbs

Storytelling is the way we learn and explain the world.
@argonaut

Stories take our audiance on a jouney and enable leaps of faith.
@MarkEhrhardt

With storytelling we give our stereotyped users a soul
@mcmarcos

Webinar prizes

Storytelling is how we make sense of the world: re-imagining our everyday lives as an experience to be shared with others.
@otrops

Stories help us to translate real life.
@franxo

Stories make #UX personal. They remind us that everything we make is made for a real person.
@ianeverdell

Stories help us empathize and experience another person's condition. Stories appeal to our emotions and drive us to action.
@balchenn

A good story will evoke emotion and the listener is able to relate to it on a deeper level – as humans, we remember emotions best
@Mike_me_up

Stories have the ability to change the way we view and interact with our world!
@christiansaylor

Stories make things meaningful, moving and memorable
@iaexperience

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you for entering! [Winners: we need your email address so we can contact you about the prizes. Please email stevebaty at gmail dot com]

Say your TV remote suddenly stops working and you are trying to change the batteries. Then you remember you changed one of the two batteries just a couple of days ago. Which is it? Exchange one of them with a new one. No, not this one…

You might have had that experience. Guessing the right one out of two is okay, but what if there are four or even eight? What if you’re visually impaired? You don’t want to take your battery checker out of your dusty toolbox just to find out one old battery, do you?

So I was wondering if there is a rechargeable battery that can change its form to tell you how “hungry” it is. The thinner it is, the emptier the battery is. When it’s full, it’s just as straight as a normal battery. Even if your eyes are closed, you can feel it and know how much more you can use it until the next recharge.

Another merit is that when it’s thin, it’s much easier to take out from a packed battery room, especially if there are multiple betteries packed tight in line. Fat batteries don’t need to be changed anyway.

In this round-up of book reviews we are moving from usability testing to business ideas and children. We reviewed Steve Krug’s ‘Rocket Surgery Made Easy’, a collection of essays called ‘Mobile Technology for Children’, 37Signals’ ‘Rework’ and Donna Spencer’s newest book ‘A Practical Guide to Information Architecture.’

Rocket Surgery Made Easy

Type: theory & practical

Authors: Steve Krug

Publishers: New Riders

ISBN: 978-0321657299

Details: 161 pages, paperback

Get the book

Need to convince your boss or a client that they need to do more usability testing? This book does the trick.

This book is Steve Krug’s follow up to the very successful ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. In the first book Krug told (and showed) us in an easy way what web usability is all about, while the purpose of this book is to get people to actually start user testing. The audience for the book isn’t usability professionals, but everybody involved in creating new websites that don’t do any testing right now. It is written in the same style as ‘Don’t Make Me Think’, which is very amusing to read and enthusing to pick up what he recommends.

In the book Krug explains that usability testing isn’t as complicated and scary as it looks. He explains not just why you should do test, but also when and how. The book isn’t trying to downgrade professional usability testing, but it is explaining that the more you test the better. It’s better to do multiple small tests with three users during the development of a website in contrast to doing one big-scale usability test at the end of a project.

This book isn’t for people who know what the power of usability testing is. But if you’ve never done a usability test before: buy this book. It will surely make you a believer. I do believe the book is also a perfect gift for clients at the start of a project. It shows them the power of testing and makes them less scared to invest in this.

Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning

Type: theory

Edited by: Allison Druin

Publishers: Morgan Kaufman

ISBN: 978-0-12-374900-0

Details: 353 pages, paperback

Get the book

The book consists of a collection of essays from various experts providing insights on how children use mobile technologies and how these technologies can support children’s learning and development. There is no doubt that children use technology very differently than adults; especially the youngest generation, which grow up using all kind of technologies as part of their normal daily life.

However the use of mobile technologies to support children’s learning started only a few years ago and it is still a topic of debate among parents, teachers and educational systems. Very often when children step into the classroom they have to leave their cell phone, mp3 player, portable gaming device, etc. aside as educational systems have not found a way to cope with the potential of these technologies. There is no clear answer on how to design and really take advantage of them, yet.

Among the benefits of using mobile technologies is that they have the potential to reach children in isolated or economically disadvantaged communities, this could provide them with a way to access information cheap and without the use of traditional computing devices. As a consequence learning and development opportunities can be equal for all children.

The book is clearly written and provides many interesting examples and case studies. But the down side of being a compilation of essays is that some basic information about mobile technologies repeats it self several times, which is a shame. At the end you don’t have a set of tools to work with, it’s clearly a theoretical approach.

Rework

Type: management

Authors: Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

Publishers: Crown Business

ISBN: 978-0307463746

Details: 288 pages, hardcover

Get the book

A short, but inspiring book about starting your own software business.

In this book Jason Fried and David Hansson of 37signals share their thoughts and learnings on creating a successful business. It’s a typical business book in which you see dozens of taglines on how to do business differently. But I have to admit that the message they try to bring across does sound interesting. And why not? They are the ones who’ve set up a highly successful company.

The book is a compilation of dozens of short (two page) columns. These columns are grouped in about twelve themes, ranging from hiring people to the culture of your company, but also damage control, competition and productivity. In each theme you see columns that are obvious, but also ones that contradict everything you learned at school. The theme I liked most is ‘Productivity’. Here the writers claim that you should not be a hero; if something can’t be fixed in a defined time, ignore it. Another point they try to make is that you have to make tiny decisions and good enough is fine.

Some other great insights I’ve gained by reading this book (I will only share five, otherwise I am copying the book):

• Underdo your competition: focus all your efforts on the core of your product, don’t make it a Coldwar game with the competition;
• Why grow? If companies are successful they want to grow. Why? A small company is very flexible and capable of responding to market change;
• Hire great writers: if you don’t know who to hire, hire the best writer. These are people who know how to think clearly and how to structure;
• Focus on what won’t change: a lot of companies and designers focus on the next big thing, but the core of your business should be built around things that don’t change. Make the core better;
• Let customers outgrow you: “When you let customers outgrow you, you’ll most likely wind up with a product that’s basic [...] There’s an endless supply of customers who need exactly that.”

It’s a very interesting read for people working in a business. If you are an avid reader of the 37signals blog ‘Signals vs Noise’ you’ll probably learn nothing new. But in any case it’s a nice collection of small insights.

A Practical Guide to Information Architecture

Type: practical

Authors: Donna Spencer

Publishers: Five Simple Steps

Get the book

An introduction to information architecture.

If there is one thing that can be said about Donna Spencer’s new books, it’s that it is very practical. This book is a great primer for anyone just getting started with Information Architecture, or someone who is looking to get a refresh on the guiding principles of the field. One of the best aspects of the Donna’s book is the tone in which she writes, it’s playful but very instructional. This allows for the reader to become truly engaged with the content, and makes for a wonderful learning experience.

The specific role of Information Architecture and Information Architects is a bit hazy. Donna breaks it all down very nicely though. She describes what skills are most needed by an Information Architect, and also how the role of IA applies to projects that live off of the web. Readers also are able to gain a sense of how best to collaborate with other roles when designing out an information architecture, for teams where the specific activities cross role responsibilities.

Another fine gem of the book is the overview of Information Architecture Patterns.  Patterns for hierarchies, databases, hypertext, linear, catalog, and more are displayed along with real world examples.  While this just scratches the surface of this topic, it exposes the overall depth patterns and how they can be applied.

If there is one area of the book that I wanted to see more of was recommendations on how long some of the described activities take. This type of information is vital for someone just getting started in the field, or trying to introduce an information architecture process to their organization.  Providing realistic estimates are always a challenge, but essential for planning projects accordingly and creating organizational buy-in.

Overall, Donna’s book was an engaging and educational read. It should be a staple for any UX Bookshelf, and required reading for junior information architects. It’s filled with bit of humor, and contains many real world examples to back up the lessons she is providing.

Buy UX Books

Love reading books? Especially for you we made a bookstore full of the best books in our field. Check out our UX Book store. The above book reviews were written by: Anahi Bagu, Brad Nunnally and Jeroen van Geel

Ever asked yourself how you can make more impact on your projects? Instead of reacting to poor product decisions, being in a position to drive real change? To be able to sit with a product team and make recommendations positively, that are implemented in a place that supports you? Now some of this relates to your ability to communicate clearly, the culture you work in, the receptiveness of what you do, your own knowledge and leadership. There are different flavours of leadership covering but not limited to – leading a design effort, managing a project team and providing a strategic direction. A world looking for better leaders has led me to read more about the topic (see references below and please add your own). We all have an opportunity to reassess how we “create” and perhaps an opportunity to lead away from the traditional technology driven approaches to something else?

So the question is:

What are the ingredients to become a great leader?

References:

• Making Movies is Hard Fun: Building Tools for Telling Stories- http://2010.uxlondon.com/programme/2010-05-19/hardfun/
• Becoming a design leader – http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/becoming-a-design-leader.html
• Using Stories for Design Ideas – http://johnnyholland.org/2010/06/15/using-stories-for-design-ideas/
• A Model for UX Career Growth – http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2010/06/11/a-model-for-ux-career-growth/
• Achieving Design Focus: An Approach to Design Workshops – http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/05/achieving-design-focus-an-approach-to-design-workshops.php
• UX Leadership – http://uxleadership.com/
• The 3 Steps for Creating an Experience Vision – http://www.uie.com/articles/experience_vision/
• Becoming a Customer Experience-Driven Business – http://blogs.hbr.org/merholz/2009/02/becoming-a-customer-experience.html
• What is an Experience Strategy? – http://johnnyholland.org/2009/06/04/what-is-an-experience-strategy/

The implications of Information Foraging Theory on designing user-centered websites have not gone unnoticed. Jakob Nielsen and Jared Spool, among others, have put forth considered recommendations on how to enhance information scent on the web. Most of their guidelines, however, tend to assume that the designer has direct control over the explicit words used in the interface. While this is certainly the case for browse-based websites dependent on site-wide navigation and hyperlinks, it breaks down for search interfaces where both content and navigation are completely dynamic.

While the principles for amplifying information scent in search-based interfaces are complimentary to those of browse-based models, they are yet distinct from them. Understanding how information scent applies to search first requires an understanding of human search behavior and the factors that affect it.

People are just like bears (only less fur)

Marcia Bates' berrypicking model

In her landmark 1989 paper, Marcia Bates outlined search as an evolutionary process. Users often begin with a general query, glean a few nuggets from the initial results, reformulate their query based on that new knowledge, and then repeat this process. Like a bear foraging for food in the forest, knowledge seekers tend to rapidly migrate from one patch of information to the next.

A Bloomberg terminal concept by IDEO

While this iterative behavior is true of virtually everyone using search, there are two key factors that distinguish some users from others: domain expertise and search expertise (though John Ferrara has identified several additional factors). Some websites, for example, may be able to assume that users are highly literate in a specific topic, while other websites may need to design for a range of expertise in a variety of subjects (the case for web search engines). In addition, users experienced at using search interfaces will be more capable of utilizing sophisticated search tools, but less experienced users will demand less complexity.

Though domain and search expertise separate some users from others, a given user may have different goals at different times. The two primary types of goals are recall and exploration. Recall involves a straightforward retrieval of a specific fact or document (for instance, “what it the population of Brazil?”), and can generally be accomplished in a short amount of time. Exploration, on the other hand, is a more subjective process. Choosing where to go on holiday, for example, is a complex question that may take hours or even days to decide.

Carrots and sticks: designing for information scent

Understanding the iterative nature of search and the contexts from which users operate is the foundation for knowing how to effectively harness information scent to improve the usability of search. Above all else, Information Foraging Theory has taught us that users need to feel as if they are always “getting warmer.” As a user searches, information scent must grow increasingly poignant, emanating a feeling of progress to the user. When information scent is strong, users are confident that they’re headed in the right direction. When it’s weak, users may be uncertain of what to next, or they may abandon their search altogether.

When information scent is strong, users are confident that they’re headed in the right direction. When it’s weak, users may be uncertain of what to next, or they may abandon their search altogether.

There are many practical methods for increasing information scent in search. Some of them bear resemblance to Nielsen and Spool’s original recommendations, but are deserving of further elaboration in the context of search interfaces. We will trace the user’s journey from the searchbox, to the list of search results, and end with query refinement using faceted navigation.

The searchbox

In order for a user to have a successful search experience, he must first locate the searchbox and successfully enter a query. These two obvious requirements lead us to our first two design recommendations.

The searchbox should look like a searchbox
Cute attempts to drastically re-style the searchbox usually end in failure. The universal language of the searchbox consists of a border, white background, and a corresponding button that says “search.” In addition to expecting the searchbox to look a certain way, users have also come to expect it in a particular location: the top right corner of the page. The further one deviates from this expected appearance and placement, the more one risks that users will not actually discover the searchbox.

Provide as-you-type query suggestions
Whether the subject is a particular Icelandic volcano or the president of Iran, users are often not sure exactly what to type in order to find what they’re looking for. A little help can go a long way in getting the user off to the right start. As-you-type query suggestions reduce spelling errors and, equally important, give users a sense of confidence that they have entered a dependable query.

Autocomplete at Globrix, eBay, and Last.fm

Search results

Assuming that the user found the searchbox and managed to enter a query, she will then be presented with a set of results matching that query. Consisting of at least a title and description, search results are typically dense with information. The challenge becomes separating the signal from the noise.

Indicate the number of results matching the query
The number of matching results has a significant impact on the user’s confidence in his query. If he sees that a large number of results have been returned, he can safely assume that his query is adequate, whereas only a handful of results may be an indicator that he may have misspelled a word or is simply searching for something that doesn’t exist.

John Ferrara on Titles

Use descriptive titles
In order for users to detect information scent in search results, the results must be digestible at a glance. Titles are usually the first recipients of the user’s attention, so it’s important that they accurately describe the content that they represent. Avoid using file names as titles, which are often cryptic and usually contain little information scent.

Highlight matching words
In addition to descriptive titles, hit highlighting is one of the most helpful cues on the search results page, making queried words immediately stand out to the user. The user can quickly evaluate the list of results by simply observing the greatest concentration of highlighted words on the page.

Make visited links discernible from unvisited links
A visual indicator of which pages have already been visited provides useful scent to the user. Whether she is trying to re-find a page she found yesterday, or trying to avoid duplicating her efforts, a visited link color is very helpful.

Yahoo's best first pattern

More detail for top results, less detail for the rest
One of Peter Pirolli‘s interesting discoveries is that users tend to prefer more verbose results in some circumstances (when there is no time constraint or when there are few results to choose from), and more concise descriptions at other times (under a deadline or when there are many results). How can these opposing cases be reconciled? An ideal compromise is the best first pattern, in which extensive metadata is presented for the top one to three results, while more concise views are provided for all of the subsequent results.

Avoid zero results
A search result page that has no results is a serious roadblock to users. It will either delay their journey, or cause them to give up completely. It’s important to do everything possible to avoid zero result pages from ever occurring. Two helpful tools are automatic spelling corrections and synonym dictionaries. If the user has obviously misspelled a word in the query that would yield zero results, it’s best to automatically correct the spelling for the user, being careful to notify the user of the modified query.

Faceted navigation

Frequency can be indicated both numerically and with horizontal bars

So the user entered a query and glanced over the first set of results. What now? If the user already found what he was looking for, then job done. But chances are he still has a long way to go. Faceted navigation is the best available tool for facilitating the evolutionary flow of search. It both helps the user understand the shape of the data, and gives him the ability to drill down to a very specific slice of the results.

Show the number of matching results for each filter
Showing result counts for filters helps users understand the overall composition of the results. They provide cues that feed into our decision-making process, influencing how we decide to further slice the data. In addition to providing a numeric count, subtle visual indicators such as horizontal bars can make the distribution of results even more immediately obvious to the user.

Use breadcrumbs to indicate the user’s query and applied filters
In addition to choosing where to go next, users need to know where they are currently and how they got there. Breadcrumbs provide this trail, and also enable users to quickly get back in the event of having taken a wrong turn. Each breadcrumb should be independently removable, while Greg Nudelman has outlined an even more forgiving breadcrumb that allows for the swapping of one filter for a related one.

An internal knowledge management application at British broadcaster ITV

Make metadata clickable
When filterable metadata is shown for a search result, that metadata should be clickable to allow for organic filtering of the results. For example, when searching a catalogue of books that presents the author alongside each result, clicking on the author’s name should cause that author to be added to the query as a filter.

Find ways to meaningfully visualize facets
Many facets lend themselves to a certain kind of presentation. Whether the facet consists of cities, prices, keywords or categories, there is probably a corresponding visualisation well suited for each, from a map to a slider to plain text. Effective visualisations are ones that make the data tangible and easy to comprehend.

2010 House of Representative Election from the New York Times, Google Stock Screener

A fairytale ending

Information scent plays a valuable role in making the digital landscape easier to traverse. By applying principles that amplify information scent, we can help facilitate a state of flow that enables users to engage in productive, frictionless, enjoyable search experiences.