Yale Fox is a DJ and nightclub sociologist living and working between Las Vegas and New York City. In 2010, while working towards his PhD at the University of Toronto, Yale was contacted by a prominent Las Vegas nightclub – one of the highest rated in the world. So began Yale Fox’s transition from professional student to nightclub experience guru. This year, Yale received a TED Fellowship for his research on how a customer’s behaviors within a system (the nightclub) are influenced by the DJ’s repertoire of song selection – as well as other factors (flashing lights, wait times, architecture, the staff, other patrons and the unholy alchemy of Red Bull and vodka).

Yale Fox

His company, the 194 Group, is part research lab, part experiential branding firm and part talent agency – representing an impressive roster of DJs and party hosts. For Yale, the live booking aspects of the business are more a networking tool and a signifier of their coolness equity, “when (a potential client) asks, ‘how do we know that you guys know what’s hot in music?’ Well our DJs are playing the hottest nightclubs in the world.” The talent agency maintains their presence in the nightclubs, and Yale’s thesis papers provide a theoretical grounding for their services, but “we’re a marketing firm,” he asserts, “enhancing brand experience through music.” The 194 Group refers to 194 dB, the loudest sound pressure level a human ear can perceive without being damaged – and a double entendre suggesting the Group’s ability to amplify a brand through music.

Yale’s business partner Shez Mehra (DJ Wristpect), is a world-class DJ with a b-school vernacular and sensibility, who throws around phrases like “end-user-focused party-rocking.” Shez explains that there is often a conflict between what the client wants and what the customer wants, “A lot of times, the executives from a brand, the promoters or the venue owner, will want to dictate how we should play.” For Shez, mixing songs for the owner of the club, or for the client, would be the DJ equivalent of designing your customer experience around the disposition of the share- holder. It may please him in the short-term, but ultimately goes against his best interests. Of course, both the relationship with end-user and with the client needs to be managed. The latter requires a certain level of trust. “The client has one goal,” says Shez. “It’s either to sell alcohol or to spread the message about their product or service to the people in the venue. We do what we do to resonate with the end-user. Once they trust us to do that, they see it unfold in front of their eyes. They see the vibe. They see the sales and they see people leaving happily with their merch and talking about their experience.”

DJ Wristpect

For Research in Motion, 194 collaborated with Maritz to architect “BBM the DJ,” a series of experiential events to launch the BlackBerry Torch. The parties, exclusively for influencers – celebrities, athletes, bloggers and executives – as well as for sales reps from various retailers and wireless carriers, were designed to get the right people excited about the product. Attendees were given a Torch upon arrival, and could add an account that would allow them to literally BBM their requests to the DJ. A giant television monitor, dressed as a BlackBerry, displayed the requests, at which point the DJ was tasked to play as many of the requests as possible while maintaining the flow of the night. Shez characterizes this task, the improvisational element of creating a customer experience, as, “catering to the situation,” a notion that applies to many business spaces outside of the nightclub.

While Yale’s research papers are distributed and discussed within the 194 Group in the form of white papers and internal memos – both Yale and Shez are quick to point out that competence in moving dance floors is only teachable to a certain point. “Its hard to plan for,” Shez tells me. “In the BlackBerry Tours across North America, every city was completely different. What worked in New York didn’t work in Boston. You have to trust your talent to get into the psyche of the crowd.”

A recent 194 Group signee, DJ Mensa who also happens to have a background in psychology and marketing, adds that DJing is like creating any number of other customer experiences: “You say something with a song. Hopefully the crowd responds. Then you say something with another song and hopefully it perpetuates the conversation. I’ve always considered DJing a customer service. Develop a vibe that will hopefully peak at the right time.”

DJ Mensa

Robert Bolton is a writer at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

Kiva’s micro-financing model, which allows people to acquire loans of as little as $25, has transformed the way many entrepreneurs in the third world conduct business. For social investors however, the relationship with these entrepreneurs and the products and services they offer can be detached and distant, lacking a real connection with the product being made. Presented with a very brief business biography and engaged with entrepreneurs in little more than a quick transaction, few lenders truly understand the financial context of the seamstress in Tajikstan, the lumber delivery woman in Peru or the rice farmer in Laos.

Here’s a concept that we developed here at Idea Couture (not commissioned by Kiva) to illustrate how social enterprises can apply whitespace mapping to create new customer experiences. From the several strategic themes that emerged from the mapping exercise came the Kiva Tea idea. The Kiva Tea Gallery bridges the investor and the entrepreneur by extending the relationship from lending to spending. This natural extension of the brand connects people across borders through sharing some of the experiences that surround tea and global tea cultures. The Kiva Tea Gallery was designed to create a greater engagement between the cultivators and consumers of tea as well as a deeper appreciation for its economies and gastronomies. Indexing the very best of old and new world Japanese architecture, with past retail experiences, Kiva Tea Gallery offer customers a series of curated tea products, services and entrepreneurial opportunities. More than a teashop, Kiva Tea Gallery makes for a truly fulfilling engaging multi-sensory experience.

Customers are invited to taste teas from independent tea producers from all over the world. Like a certain tea? Buy a bag of it. Better yet, loan funds to the farmer. The same goes for tea paraphernalia. A collection of handcrafted ceramic and cast-iron teapots, cups, trivets and steepers are exhibited and displayed for sale in the gallery. If a particular piece speaks to you, you can purchase it and even lend money to the artisan who crafted it. For the entrepreneurs supported, Kiva Tea Gallery generates increased income by setting them up not only with the resources to produce but an inherent mechanism to promote and sell. The structure is set up so that the partners and wholesale distribution channels bypass layers of middlemen.

Education is a big part of the experience at Kiva Tea Gallery. The physical locations regularly offer tastings, tea-knowledge seminars, pottery classes in the ceramics studio and nursery tutorials including gardening tips and a take-home plant. These programs and events educate the patrons in traditional and regional tea cultures and histories. Kiva Tea Gallery offers something for tea lovers and conscience consumers at all levels of engagement – whether you want to buy a bag of tea, lend $50 to a tea producer, or learn to grow and ferment your own iahpet – the Myanma pickled tea for eating.

For more active lenders, Kiva Tea Gallery offers tea travel and volunteerism programs. How would you like to visit the Sri Lankan plantation where your favorite tea is produced? Meet the farmer, smell the terrain, exchange knowledge and maybe even put in some grunt labor. Perhaps you’re more interested in a month of pottery training from the rural Chinese artisan whose teapot you purchased. Experience fascinating cultures and customs, exotic cuisine – and learn the intricacies of the tea industry – all while you establish an authentic connection through your social investment.

With its interactive platform, Kiva Tea Gallery opens the gateway to new tastes, wellness therapies, social experiences, global stories and business relationships that allow lenders to understand, experience and reap the rewards of their loans. Online visitors can surf profiles, lend money or make purchases and view Kiva-produced videos from tea growers all over the world – sharing healing and wellness knowledge as well as growing techniques. The resulting Kiva experiences can provide new and engaging experiences to anyone willing to enjoy them. The opportunities are limitless.

The name Kiva and its logo are trademarks of Kiva microfunds, a California non-profit public benefit corporation.

Cheesan Chew is VP Head of Digital Innovation at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. She spends her time between San Francisco and Toronto.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

10 years has seen explosive growth in what is being called the “massification of luxury goods.” Luxury has gone mainstream but does this still make them luxury brands?

Coach literally reinvented itself in 2001 as a fashion-forward producer of mass luxury goods to better compete against stronger luxury brands. They have been incredibly successful and other brands are doing the same thing. H&M had haute couture designers, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli and Karl Lagerfeld design pieces for their retail stores that literally sold out in less than an hour. This is actually a good thing for the luxury market, providing an entry point for consumers into the luxury world.

Luxury brand leaders are trying to find ways to distinguish themselves from other premium brands and some are now pushing prices up to an unprecedented level to maintain their luxury positioning. Can being expensive alone maintain this positioning? Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès are all testing the limit of what they can ask for. The question is how high can you go? And how do you justify that cost to consumers?

Louis Vuitton is maintaining prestige while selling to the masses without ever having an end of season sale. Burberry is doing a phenom- enal job transforming itself into a luxury brand. Chanel is making sure style never goes out of fashion and is never affordable. Tiffany & Co. is still making sure everyone understands what the little blue box means. Hermès offers a true luxury experience with only a limited number of bags to sell each season. Just like a high-end restaurant that holds a table or two for those important guests that drop in without a reservation, a few distinguished customers can purchase a bag in-store, but generally, if you want to buy a Hermès bag, you have to order it. Most bags in the store are just for display. You choose the material: cowhide, ostrich or canvas, and the color of the hardware: silver, gold or diamond-encrusted. As you wait the 6-8 months for your bag, you can excitedly tell your friends what you’ve ordered. They are the masters in making their products desirable.

The key success factor for luxury brands is still quality. It takes three years to train a leather goods craftsman and two years to train retail personnel. If we continue with Hermès as an example, for the past 20 years their craftsmen have grown from approximately 300 to over 2,000. A Hermès bag is going to last a customer 30 years – it isn’t a product, it’s an investment.

In 2010 the total consumption in the Chinese mainland luxury market reached USD10.7 billion, excluding private jets, yachts and luxury cars, making China the world’s second largest consumer of luxury goods following Japan. Roughly 73% of China’s luxury shoppers are under 45, compared with just over 50% in the US, according to McKinsey & Co., as many as 45% of China’s high-end buyers are under 35, compared with 28% in Western Europe. It is not difficult to see where the opportunities are.

If you spend an hour in Shanghai or Beijing you will find plenty of pseudo luxury brands that are working hard to position themselves as true luxury brands using Italian or French names to lure the unsophisticated Chinese consumers. But as Chinese consumers travel overseas, these pseudo luxury brands need to invest in overseas retail to maintain their image. The cost of entry is raised.

If the largest luxury market decides they needed change, or if they take the lead in luxury consumption, China may initiate a powerful shift. The1960s marked a Cultural Revolution in China; the 2010s may just be the Luxury Revolution. The Chinese consumer may acquire and develop their appreciation for luxury and 50% of so-called luxury brands may not pass the test. Shanghai and Beijing have a higher concentration of luxury watch outlets than any other major city in the world. In China, the ‘luxurification’ of everyday life is the new normal. They have a very different definition of luxury and are fast evolving.

Conspicuous consumption is prominent in China – consumers are willing to pay more for publicly displayed possessions to signify wealth, meaning price will be an indicator of exclusivity. This is good news for luxury goods. Luxury consumption always operates at a level of aspiration and imagination, but it can have real effects in facilitating the construction of self-identity. While luxury shoppers are being led by the rational desire to purchase items that are of high style and craftsmanship, eight of the ten top purchase motivators are emotionally driven. Luxury marketers must be reminded that it is vital to tap into deep consumers’ desires for social status and indulgence. In the context of Chinese consumers, marketers need to consider the implications of the needs of national identity and how they construct and maintain social meanings among the emerging upper-middle class. As luxury goods attempt satisfy a social need to project success, we enter the realm of the symbolic, and it is symbolic meaning that is used in the search for the meaning of existence.

Idris Mootee is the publisher and editor-in-chief of M/I/S/C/, a published author, speaker and CEO of Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He spends his time between, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Shanghai.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

In a recent blog post, Grant McCracken suggests it is the job of designers to conduct provocation and innovation through pie.

He points to Project M as the source of this uniquely American metaphor with its Pie + Conversation = Ideas/Ideas + Design = Positive Change equation. As a first step towards ideas that better the world, Project M believes that “pie can bring people together.”

Notwithstanding Grant’s anthropological magicking of the subject matter with references to gift economies and turn takings, much of the gist of his post is on the value of bringing people together to mine their ideas and interactions through indulgent and interuptive moments that occur while eating pie. Of course, he advocates the need for social scientists familiar with Marcel Mauss and Charles Goodwin to manage the “social and cultural mechanics” of what is said and done during those moments.

In referring to gathering input with pie slices as part of the design process, he writes:

Some people who wish to make a social difference don’t really care to hear from the Pie recipient. They have a vision of the new world, and they mean to keep banging away at this vision until the pie recipient embraces it. But if we have learned anything about engaging the world it is that it can’t be about us. Our best efforts must begin with a study of them.  

I wonder about that, especially when it comes to innovation and design that occurs in the business world rather than the philanthropic world. Here, the issue isn’t about facilitating insightful conversations with consumers over tasty pie. For me, that’s never been an issue. The issue is implementation, adoption and the secret filling of innovation: innovation is only innovation if it offers a new or improved way for humans to do things that they already or will do. Otherwise, the big ideas is just another idea. And we all know what ideas are like. Grant addresses this issue when he writes:

Designers are very good at thinking about provocations. After all, they are in the imagination business. They are trained to look at existing systems, spot where stasis lives, and think of ways to make things new. What designers are not so good at, in my humble opinion, is figuring out what happens next, what comes after the provocation. Handing out pie…does have the potential for provocation. But something substantial happens if and only if new arrangements are made visible, thinkable and doable. Pie qua pie will not get this job done.

At Idea Couture, we’ve baked our share of pies. Some of them, like the Aviva Community Fund and the MIT Global Challenge, have had social change as their key ingredient. Thank designers for that, and a guy in Edmonton who provided a spark of an idea. Others that were not about generating ideas to better the world but designing new and innovative product or service revenue streams, have had a few teaspoons of transformation snuck into the recipe.

In almost every project, we begin our efforts with a study of them. Before that, there is always some kind of tacit knowledge about the sponsor of the project: the grapevine, stakeholder interviews, collaboratively refining project plans, and past experience. But maybe that knowledge shouldn’t be so tacit. Maybe it should be more provocative, purposeful and pursued to ensure that the “something substantial” and “new arrangements” actually get out of the oven and on to the table.

Why? Well, when you are a design movement, you are often the only baker. Yes, there can be a conversation with them over pie. But you buy the ingredients. The recipe is yours. You set the temperature on the oven. Maybe you cut the slices and serve them. But when you conduct design work for Fortune 500 companies, the kitchen can be a more complicated place.

Like pies, kitchens are bursting with the rich and tasty flavor of metaphor. One of my favorites is that the kitchen is a stage. As a place to remember, rehearse and perform who we are and who we want to be, every fridge and cupboard is filled with meaning, purpose, intent, function, dysfunction and history – even when they are empty. When that stage is crowded with multiple bakers (with their own ideas, their own ingredients, their own baking methods and their own meanings, purposes, intents, functions, dysfunctions and histories) actually getting pie on the table can be a challenge.

I agree that asking those sitting around the table what kind of pie they want can be a critical component of getting the bakers to do what they should be able to do best to serve the needs of the hungry. Extend the conversation to include smells of pies, memories of pies, places of pies, people of pies, attempts to bake pies. Bring in Human Factors to watch pie in the making. Throw open the doors of the kitchen to let loose a co-creation of pies. But if those hungry consumers are not going to own the pie, name the pie, manufacture the pie, bring the pie to grocery stores and market the pie, then I think it’s equally critical that the entire pie design process begin with a study of us.

I think it takes very little to provoke their ideas. It takes much more provocation to ensure that the bakers deliver something to the table that truly fulfills the pie eaters’ needs and wants. Rather than faulting designers for not being able to follow through on “what happens next,” I think they – along with strategists, anthropologists and others working within and for organizations – need to more effectively provoke their corporate sponsors. For the sake of the anthropologists, it would be nice if that could be done long before we consider provoking consumers for their ideas and interactions.

To begin, two questions that are always in the backs of our minds but, perhaps, need to come more to the front of our tongues:

1. Do Americans really need another pie?

Obesity is a major health crisis in the U.S. (and Canada, too), and some Fortune 500 companies are contributing to the crisis by encouraging consumers to stuff their faces with more pie. The shelves on grocery stores are bursting with them.

When considering innovation and design, everyone in the kitchen needs to ask, Is there a real appetite for this? Do Americans really need another pie? If the answer is no, then why are we even talking about ingredients?

To get to the answer, over pie or not, organizations need to talk about why they continue to create clutter and cultivate calories in an era when many of us want to simplify, even purify our lives. If it’s about feeling the buzz of being part of this innovation thing, maybe the C-suite should consider something like an extension move into the celery business. Designers need to talk about why they’re taking another pie gig. If it’s just for the money, they should remember that the best pie is made with love and what they ultimately pull out of the oven could be a total disaster.

2. Who wants a piece of the pie?

Everyone’s hungry. Me-Too Innovation afflicts enough large organizations it’s no wonder so many of the good and/or new ideas are being brought to market by small companies and start-ups. Examining institutional, processual and cultural barriers to innovation isn’t something most organizations are willing to fund, unless they are actually trying to build an innovation process rather than simply adopt job titles to reflect the dubious existence of one.

Cue the Tina Turner song: we don’t need another knock off. If an organization does engage in the copycat business to keep its sales scale tipping, fine. But at this stage in the game, there’s little to no reason in talking with consumers. Like Grant says, it’s just “banging away.” A more valuable use of conversational time, over a slice or not, would be to talk about some of the causes and symptoms of Me-Too Innovation and, perhaps, address that corporate cultural malaise with an institutional ethnography.

I’d be interested in any other pie-related questions and concerns you might have about designing projects that come to fruition – blueberry, strawberry, rhubarb, whatever.

I Recently had the pleasure of visiting the Kaos Pilots in Aarhus Denmark. The school focuses on developing change-agents and action oriented revolutionaries through pedagogic models like appreciated inquiry, action learning, and systems thinking. The school uniquely combines elements of business, design, and the humanities into a challenging and truly world-class educational experience that harnesses the positive energy, aspirations, and attitudes of its students, faculty staff, and guests in all the right ways. This place embodies a serious-play model for real.

Before my talk began, the group met for Monday morning coffee on the school’s terrace. It became very apparent how close the KP’s are to one another; how well they know each other – and the how these relationships add an invaluable layer to the overall educational experience. I believe a 3 month long project based “out-post” in Shanghai was largely to thank for this. (This year’s class is traveling to Bogota Columbia). I heard many great stories about this and other “out-post” experiences during my time there. Placing students in a foreign place and challenging them to live, work on, and deliver client projects all on there own is an integral component to the KP experience and the school’s legacy.

So why was I there in the first place? Oh ya, lucky for me, I was invited by my good friend Pete Sims to share some of my own personal and project based experiences from within the design research / foresight context, and to introduce a situational awareness and sense making tool we call the Table of Context with one of the KP teams. This tool / cognitive aid helps to plan and establish the scope of front-end research, organize findings for group learning and socialization, catalyze imaginative inquiry, and facilitate co-creative dialogues. We’ve used Tables of Context both internally and externally (i.e. with clients) on several occasions to map out existing and emerging opportunity spaces, communicate research findings, and to inspire critical dialogues based on the potential and meaning of signals and the contexts they create and or occupy.

I thought this was particularly relevant to a Kaos Pilots’ learning because being placed at the ambiguous front-end of an innovation project -or stuck in the middle of chaos- without a previously defined starting point, clear plan of inquiry, or “map” of the landscape / context is now commonplace and can be a frustrating, scary, and even overwhelming experience- for students, designers, and corporate executives alike. That said, the table of context is meant to help reduce some of this ambiguity and chaos, and focus one’s attention on building up an accessible knowledge base (as a tangible, visual and or interactive resource) that can be expanded upon and leveraged over time to help innovation teams develop a better informed awareness or literacy about a given subject, context, problem or opportunity space.

Ultimately my goal was to highlight how foresight and design research practices and some of the tools/methods employed, especially at the “fuzzy-front-end” of innovation. I also wanted to point out that this type of work requires a personal commitment to the development, practice, and maintenance of an an always-on curiosity and appetite for collecting, questioning, sorting through and sharing the salient and not so salient bits that one comes upon throughout their day. Even when you’re not at work – and especially when you’re not at the office.

Please stay tuned! There’s more on the KP + Denmark experience to follow.

Click to Be Taken to the Youtube Video Demonstration of the Tablet Reader

In general, the information and articles that are presented in these magazines are almost all available online in some form.  Magazines are still working as though the internet does not exist, that it cannot provide a willing user almost limitless access to any type of information they wish (and some they don’t), at a moments notice.  Magazines operate under huge lead times, often prepping and finishing a magazine a month to two in advance of the actual street date.  Obviously, this means that things can happen between the time the magazine hits the newstands and the time that it has gone to press quite easily.  A tablet version would seem to solve that problem at first, but it just exposes the root of the problem in that, the internet can simply do that type of information retrieval better, faster, and easier for the user.  The problem stems from these magazines not being able to differentiate themselves enough in the eyes of the reader from any standard website that can provide them with this information.  There simply is no innovation.

Looking at what Time Inc. has planned for the digital magazine, it seems like the biggest innovation they have is the ability to customize some contents of the magazine to the users liking, such as adding a custom fantasy football team to track, and videos embedded into the magazine, as well as (and this one is clearly for the user…) more dynamic advertising.  Is that really what they feel passes for innovative and attention grabbing?  Various websites have been doing this for years now.  Custom homepages are tailored to the individual users’ needs, and across a much broader scope than say just sports, but rather, politics, entertainment, technology and then maybe sports as well.  Magazines are simply failing to leverage their greatest asset over the internet.

Put simply, the writing one finds on the internet is 95% drivel.  Put up against writing consisting mainly of blogs, anonymous comments, and poorly written reviews and commentary, magazine writers are made to look like Hemingway.  These writers need to be afforded the freedom to chase and write articles that are compelling, and are not the standard canned articles you can find anywhere on the internet with a couple clicks.  They need to dig deeper, evoke some wonder, intrigue, emotion, something.  The angles on the articles need to be fresh and attention grabbing.  The content once again has to reign supreme.  You can’t compete against the internet in a direct manner, if any lesson was to be learned from the music industry.  What you have to do, is find a slightly different avenue to travel down, and then do your best to leverage the opportunities that the internet presents.  If a magazine can write compelling content on a monthly (or perhaps bi-weekly?) basis, with the ability to have access to all the same features (pictures, videos, real time scores, etc) the internet presents all month long, then perhaps the product can succeed.  As it stands, Time Inc.’s vision is thoroughly underwhelming.

After getting multiple complains from many people and becoming hesitant when sending out any sort of text, I was finally fed up enough to go to the phone company and ask them what the problem was.

The local phone company kiosk I visited told me to directly call the phone company on my cell phone and that they would re-set my phone system. As far as I can remember, the number to call from your cell phone to reach the service provider has always been *611. It may have been the sales associate handwriting, or perhaps I was crossed-eyed for a split second, but the sheet of paper with the “*611” on it clearly read “*Cell” to me. I started to think, was it coincidence or were these three seemingly random numbers strategically chosen to subliminally remind us what the numbers mean?

I started to think that all of the numbers were strategically chosen to carry some form meaning or association. Another example I thought of was “411” the telephone directory. Did you know that “411” can also be read as “ALL”? I have done some light research, but I haven’t found any hard evidence that suggests this was deliberate. I however, would love to talk to the person who picked the numbers to see if it was a coincidence or not.

- Jess

Through a series of explorations around collapsibility, rough sketches were produced. These rough sketches were prototyped through a series of half scale models built out of foam core and tape, enabling me to rapidly and cost effectively verify the stability and collapsibility of the concept.

Building on a theme of portable luxury, warm dark wood was combined with cool metal to create an aesthetic rarely found at your average park or bus stop, catching the eye of your newest BFF.

100 Wishes prompts a terminal patient to choose 100 wishes that he or she did not have a chance to fulfill themselves while they were healthy in life. Family members and friends will be given the opportunity to take one of the 100 wishes as his or her own, not only as a way of honouring the departed, but also as a way for the participants to share a final tangible experience with their loved one.

The memoriam is a large unit comprised of many small containers that resemble dandelion seeds, each holding equal portions of ashes of the deceased. Within each seed container there is a note with the description of the person’s incomplete dying wish. Once the wish is completed, the note is replaced with a photo capturing the moment of achievement of the special wish. The seed container is then once again placed back into the large unit.

When the wishes have all been satisfied, the soul of the departed can finally be at rest, knowing that through their loved ones they have completed , being able to rest knowing that they have been honoured by those that truly love and care for them. The wishes serve to bring the friends and family closer to the departed through the exploration of their deepest wishes and aspirations. In addition to providing comfort to the terminally ill and providing a proactive form of remembrance for their loved ones, it serves to remind everyone involved that one never knows what lies ahead, and we must live as though each day was our last.

The first redo involved changing way the taskbar grows to show the preview panes.  In order to combat my friend’s lack of ability to choose exactly what he wanted without going through several clicks, now when a mouse hovers anywhere on the taskbar itself, all the preview panes fly out vertically.  Clicking on the taskbar would keep preview panes in the ‘fly-out’ position until one is chosen, or the taskbar clicked again to have them all ‘fly-in’. The preview panes could also be turned off to improve overall CPU performance or just to reduce overall clutter, with a result that would look something like the following:

The lack of preview pane makes the total space that is taken up significantly less, and is more akin to the taskbar from Windows XP and Vista.  This could serve a potential benefit of acclimatizing users to the new taskbar in general in Windows 7, and just generally making users feel more comfortable with their new OS.

Finally this option represents the minimalist approach to the taskbar.  Often times I worked with ‘auto-hide’ the taskbar in Windows XP, which would essentially hide the taskbar from view until the user hovered over the very bottom portion of the screen.  In essence this is the same, only the windows button, clock and ‘show’ desktop button (which I made significantly larger from its default size in order to facilitate use) are able to be viewed at all times.  The one problem I had with the auto-hide feature in the past was that I hated to lose the clock from view so this rectifies that minor problem.  When a user would hover over the bottom section, the taskbar could fly out into any of the previously mentioned concepts above.

We are reaching a point with our technology where it is not enough simply to provide the user with a small amount of options for minor changes to how things work.  It is now expected that the user be able to customize things to their liking, and to do so with relative ease.  Many types of consumers need to be accommodated for, especially with regards to User Interfaces, but giving them some of the power to customize the product can help lessen the burden for designers.

Finally, with regards to yesterday’s post about how Microsoft Office and Notepad should both be using ‘tabs’ by now, I created two quick concepts on what that could look like.  They would easily allow a user to flip between open documents, while reducing the overall number of programs open, and thus improving the overall PC performance.