Letting go

http://www.flickr.com/photos/basheertome/5557362895

on design in a time of disruption

Letting go...

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinou/453593446


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghewgill/5046616680

been on a quest for perfection + control...for much of human history, we have

napoleon bonaparte



started with this...much of it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purdman1/2875431305

movable lead type



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmwk/3517373312

might be a finite thing...led us to believe that knowledge itself

store, and constrain knowledge,our ability to capture,

gutenberg bible

gutenberg parenthesis



http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/4127624763

"the truth" about all sorts of things...long enough, we could discover

...that if we experimented



http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigbirdz/4507266406

to do just about everything......and "the best way"

iso certified



http://www.google.com/patents

claimed them as our own...we protected ideas, and

google patents



http://www.flickr.com/photos/siliconbeachtraining/3925458997

duplicate what we'd learned...we created processes, enabling us to

six sigma

design thinking



http://www.flickr.com/photos/fungleo/4771589650

globalisation further amplified this...industrialisation, automation and

chongqing china



http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/3009516045

something you can scale it...once you can duplicate



http://www.flickr.com/photos/daverugby83/4478007023

you can make money...and if you can scale it,



http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadmagiera/265752353

much of this is starting to unravel...thanks to the Internet,

bruce mau massive change



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5129303018

important than that of any the network are now more

but the knowledge + power in...scale is still important,

one group or individual...



http://www.flickr.com/photos/28misguidedsouls/5522310921

spreading messages and ideas...social networks act as "amplifiers"



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardoalvarez/229045487

and it's likely to grow...let a product, or idea loose online,

crazy frog



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardoalvarez/229046257

they self-replicate and evolve...but ideas don't just grow,

the annoying thing



http://www.flickr.com/photos/eneas/3479302322

is normally associated with viruses...often at a pace and intensity that

swine flu mexico



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/2679758872

the network sets in... once the power of

it's impossible to contain ideasand while viruses can be contained,

this is actually bacteria...



http://www.flickr.com/photos/altemark/39593706



http://www.flickr.com/photos/misbehave/2352753067

device has only amplified this the portable, always on, always connected



http://www.flickr.com/photos/nebraskasc/3659328702

you have the perfect storm...combine all these things and



http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/311744213

feedback loop...an endless, often over-connected



http://www.flickr.com/photos/yghelloworld/4965465016

ideas to greatness...propelling unexpected

angry birds



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcVyvg2Qlo

enabling new voices...

it gets better



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahmadhammoudphotography/5410375058

...accelerating change

egyptian revolution



http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccun934/2899155411

on a global scale...or causing chaos

market crash 2011

economic crisis 2008



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmv/3371886

create entirely new situations..."converging and influencing each other toat us faster or with less predictability; they are"events, threats and opportunities aren't just coming

require unprecedented degrees of creativity""...these first-of-their-kind developments

Capitalising on Complexity - 2010 IBM CEO Study



and...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/z_wenjie/5602616401

with some decidedly unique challenges...designers, (or anyone who makes products)

this new environment presents engineers,

nathan road hong kong



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/5661879987

the balance of power is shifting...

always connectedalways on



http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/3496433929

to interact with our creations we can no longer expect customers

in a linear, exclusive, orpredictable manner...



http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncanup/3526550845

to create experiences for them...users no longer have to wait for us



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessehull/163703252

if something doesn't suit them...



http://www.flickr.com/photos/24763767@N03/3907937027

...they can change it

kindle teleprompter



http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanl/4818276266

...improve it

flipboard

readability

instapaper



http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramus/5222185714

...enhance it



http://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora

...even compete with it.

open source social network



http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/4955025544

be able to go even further...very soon, they will

3D printing

makerbot thing-o-matic



http://www.flickr.com/photos/salty_soul/4737350118

necessarily a bad thing...this is not



http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiseb/13541804

people don't necessarily want the perfect product..."counterintuitive but there is growing evidence thatincomplete, and possibly even substandard seems"Issuing your customers with something that is rough,



http://www.flickr.com/photos/emerson12/2682480262

around the edges that they can adapt or improve.""...they prefer to deal with something ragged

Loose, Martin Thomas



http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/2206470413

behave in a generally homogenous way... we've also tended to presume users

in our quest to create perfection,



http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/3832910201

far from the truth...but this is increasingly



so...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexnormand/5913845927

of a product into society...of 50 million to mark the "penetration"

marketers often use an audience



http://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerzombie/5173624489

(which was usually a good thing)historically, market penetration took time,

traffic 1963



http://www.flickr.com/photos/highwaysagency/4542411761

of how a product may fit into our lives...development of social norms and an understanding

with time comes stronger mental models,

traffic 2011



http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachronism_uk/853247355

those embarrassing mistakes...time also enabled us to work out

sinclair c5



http://www.flickr.com/photos/vvvracer/4436798901

time is now a luxury...for better or worse




stability

creation of new infrastructural

technology followed by

rapiddisruption

years

S curve - stable over decades

stability

Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison

...the big shift




stability

creation of new infrastructural

technology followed by

rapiddisruption

years years

S curve - stable over decades the present (and likely future)

many new infrastructural technologies

frequent disruption

smaller periods of stability

stability

Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison

...the big shift



http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/5510707992

a market penetration of 50 million...it took radio 40 years to reach

Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen



http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahreido/4566354684

10 years to 'adapt' to television...by comparison, we had only




while the iPod took only 5 years...iconic


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU

less than 6 months...and YouTube,


star wars kid



http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

in less than half this time...Google+ may reach that milestone

google+ 25 million



http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3156948184

at a pace that was once unheard of...technology adoption is creating 'generation gaps'

researchers are discovering that our rapid



http://www.flickr.com/photos/tocaboca/5523598823

Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center, Internet and American Life Project

experiences with technology."are having completely different"People two, three or four years apart




...but this is different.tastes than our siblings

we've always had different



http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafaelrobles/4791344184

She was holding my Kindle e-reader."recently with two words: "Daddy's book."

"My 2-year-old daughter surprised me

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s, NY Times



http://www.flickr.com/photos/smaedli/5953114412/

limited to our children...these changes are not

and looked for the search box.""I just opened my Moleskine

- @aral



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

really had it easy...and those blind men with that elephant

add to this the global nature of the Internet,

information deficit

different perspectives



http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiobeerhorst/5929704093

in a slightly different way...and engaging with products

each of us experiencing, understanding

interpretations



http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparker/460227098

interdependent systems of experience...designing multi-layered and tightly

while companies such as Apple are successfullystill

apple store



http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdharrison/2407640646

most touch points and interactions...their ability to control and contain

their success relies in great part on

magic kingdom



http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanj/4432327487

have this luxury...most products will not

android china

rubber ducks lost at sea



http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_and_selena/5051157647/

be the first to fail...orchestrated products may in fact

today the most perfectly

OLPC

design by committee

mental models



in fact...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnus_d/3162046451

of experience...for each layer

nespresso coffee



actors in the ecosystem...and an increasing reliance on other

there will be trade-offs in complexity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavouz/3137171590

recycle nespresso capsules

george clooney nespresso

nespresso vs

cost of aluminium

fair trade ethics



http://www.flickr.com/photos/zyphbear/446780548

that have become all too commonto the abrupt changes in environment...reducing a product's ability to react

fuel costs

union UPS handbook

carbon costs

volcano UPS delivery




in fact be the simplest–or most flexible...the most successful products mayin an increasingly complex world,

bodum

french press

bialetti



http://www.flickr.com/photos/tocaboca/5523734441

experiences they create for themselves...meaning and enrich their lives, through

enabling pathways for users to find

toca boca



http://www.flickr.com/photos/hodac/2243470147

stop short of fully defining the experience.""the best designs will set the stage, but

Adam Silver, Frog Design

cardboard box play



http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform

they were originally intended for...beyond the device, context or technologythe most valued products will be designed to live

newspaper publishing

print media process



http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/3151369718

with no primary context at all...they may even be designed




should not absolve us of responsibility...but letting go of 'experience' as we once knew it

domino falling



http://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/2455551478

responsibility than ever before...in fact, as designers we now have more

and developers



http://www.flickr.com/photos/particlem/3953768763

Video Games and the Human Condition, Jonathan Blow

with every product we create."to the number of people we may affect

"A responsibility that is directly proportional

elevator lift design



http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterkaminski/181721075

to consider the implications of our work...our lives, the more important it will be for us

the more technology weave their way throughand the Internet

segway



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaykayess/4294959440

–a design for our collective future.""We are creating a blueprint together

Douglas Rushkoff



script and API becomes a part of that future...each meme, pattern, metaphor, gesture,

minority report interface

natural ui

twitter URLs

Marshall McLuhan

thereafter our tools shape us.""We shape our tools and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickflashphotos/3393880262

wish to create?...what future do we



http://www.flickr.com/photos/stickwithjosh/5288115744

we do will have any impact...there's no guarantee the work




that it may...but there's the very real risk



http://www.flickr.com/photos/brostad/3547607847

we were at when we created them."cannot be solved at the same level of thinking"The significant problems we face,

Albert Einstein




[email protected] thank you

http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu/letting-go

many thanks to the amazing photographers on

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0

licensed under

available on

@yiibu

contact usat



mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Business

Letting go