People have a better idea of how films get made than how [digital] design gets done I was listening to Peter Merholz talk to Andy Polaine (thanks Mathew) who, 35 minutes in, talk about the institutionalisation of Design and it got me thinking: do we need a Digital Design Council? I did a stint at… Continue reading The case for a Digital Design Council
Category: Interaction design
72 questions on digital human values
In 2020, the Human Values team at BBC R&D North Lab and I won some funding from NESTA to turn their Human Values work into practical tools for policy-making. Building on my experience shepherding the London Internet of Things community into developing the Better IoT assessment tool, I helped them develop a questionnaire for people… Continue reading 72 questions on digital human values
Repairable by design?
I’ve been a trustee of The Restart Project, a right to repair charity, for almost a year. They are focused on raising political awareness of the need for right to repair legislation in the UK and Europe and have been doing a fantastic job over the past 6 years. It’s an honour to meet with… Continue reading Repairable by design?
New work: Human Values and policy-making
Over the past few months, I’ve been working with the BBC R&D team on advancing their Human Values research in the context of some NESTA funding we won. We’re working entirely remotely and I’ve been enjoying working with friends, old and new, in their North Lab. Since the Open Internet of Things event I helped Usman… Continue reading New work: Human Values and policy-making
Alone together: the past 20 years of remote connections
The pandemic seems to have triggered some investigation of how we connect remotely with others. Welcome to the last 20 years of HCI everyone! Seriously though, people have been researching how we connect with others and our surroundings in situations that are mediated by technology for a long time. So careful before you claim it’s… Continue reading Alone together: the past 20 years of remote connections
So you’re about to graduate
(This is a follow-up to my blogpost as I’ve been invited to give one of the keynotes at the Umea Institute of Design’s Degree Show in Sweden next month.) So you’re about to graduate from an interaction design degree. Welcome to the rest of your life in the industry of design. Here are some harsh… Continue reading So you’re about to graduate
Intelligent for what?
Apologies to Drake for inelegantly stealing his line but I’m in Canada this week, speaking at the iX Symposium at the Société des Arts Technologiques and I’ve become very interested in the concepts of artificial intelligence and how mainstream the expression has become. The world of the internet of things in which I mostly operate has been… Continue reading Intelligent for what?
Caring about watches again
So Apple is making a smart watch (let’s call it what it is, “wearable” is too clunky and best used for non-screen connected products). It’ll do well enough with early adopters whenever they launch it and regardless of battery life but more importantly it’ll test one important assumption: is the ability to pay with a… Continue reading Caring about watches again
Insurance in the internet of things: the Future Stigma of Data
In May, Ana Bradley joined my consultancy as a Partner and one of the first clients we worked on together was Imago TechMedia. We helped them plan an event for the insurance sector around the internet of things in a half day workshop. The insurance sector is one I’d recently been looking at anyway for… Continue reading Insurance in the internet of things: the Future Stigma of Data
Change in times of change
I was reminded of this video which, shot in 2000, is strangely prescient of the times we live in now. The beauty of Hussein Chalayan‘s work never ends it must be said but I have a soft spot for this collection. “Chalayan’s Afterwords Collection was inspired by the story of refugees, having to leave home… Continue reading Change in times of change