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Ethnography
I hate the word “consumer.” But I’m not sure what to do with it. It drives me crazy when clients talk about “the consumer” like they’re some kind of other species out there foraging for nuts and berries in Wal-Mart, Rite Aid or the shopping malls of America. If only they could find the perfect...
Articles, Ethnography, Experience Design, Featured Articles, Industrial Design, Service Design, Social Change, Strategic Foresight, Strategic Innovation, Technology, Transportation Desgin, Uncategorized
To address better ways of integrating Transportation in Urban environments requires a very wide-angle perspective lens in order to view the whole scenario of life in an urban environment as well as those in and around the emerging world. It requires that we put ourselves on the same streets of the...
Ethnography
We’ve been running ethnographic projects at Idea Couture since go. Almost three years ago, when I first joined what was then a five-person team on the fifth floor of our building, I was jettisoned into the field on a CPG project designed to examine the role of the kitchen in people’s lives. Since...
Ethnography, Explorations, Uncategorized
I just came back from my first Idea Couture business trip. They sent me ‘down South’ to Austin, Texas and part of my job was to familiarize myself with the culture, customs, and styles of the city. My goal was to research and soak in as much of the lifestyle as I possibly could; but how do you become...
Ethnography
A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describing how consumer feedback (or lack of it) impacts the design of cars once again reinforces how ethnographic studies trump focus groups in concept development and testing. It points out that the 2010 Ford Taurus and Buick LaCrosse were designed with...
Articles, Ethnography, Experience Design, Featured Articles, Industrial Design, Service Design, Strategic Foresight, Strategic Innovation, Technology
People tinker, they build, remix, they repurpose, reverse and perverse engineer. They crack open the housing. Look under the hood. They view the source. We have always made things, and have been defined by what we make and how it was made. Today the ‘refresh rate’ of the majority of physical objects...
Ethnography, Experience Design, Industrial Design, Strategic Innovation, Technology, Uncategorized
What does a product designer need to do to create things that people desire? Things that jump out from the sea of sameness and justify a premium price? Can design change the elasticity of products and shape the demand curve? If yes, then what’s the use of conducting quantitative research when consumers...
Art and Culture, Articles, Ethnography, Featured Articles, Strategic Innovation
Throughout my career, I have constantly been amazed that people believe brainstorming is a serendipitous process. Get a dozen people in a room, bring some post-it notes, and you’re guaranteed to leave with an industry-shattering idea. Brainstorming is easy. And so is coming up with really bad ideas. ...
Articles, Ethnography, Industrial Design, Strategic Innovation
This is a kick off post to a series that will be exploring the shift from touch to feel as both context and concept for the design of new products, services, systems and experiences. The series will question “touch” and the touch context from a variety of perspectives; and mix, muse,...
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The compound effects of poor corporate brainstorming is threatening to put the post-it industry out of business. Brainstorming needs some innovation.