Crafting experience
The Victoria & Albert Museum’s ‘Power of Making‘ exhibition highlighted the intricate and creative skills required to build experiences in the physical form. The pre-requisites for the exhibition’s most successful items seemed to be knowledge of materials, patience to iterate and willingness to subvert processes and raw ingredients from their original purpose. These same techniques [...]
MEX Inspirations: Kids + stickers + blank canvas = ?
Colossal published this fascinating set of photographs showing what happens when you give a group of children an unlimited number of sticks and a white-painted room to use as a blank canvas. I couldn’t help but think about how this might help designers understand user motivations in a world of touchscreen interactions.
Defining personal computing
“Apple went from 3.42% share at the end of 2008 to 5.6% share today excluding the iPad or 17.6% including the iPad. HP went from 19.3% in 2008 to 16% today or 13% if iPad is included.” (via Asymco) Every industry likes to measure its performance but the choice of metrics can cause business strategy [...]
Know your users
This poster, found in the student quarter around Ipswich Docks in the UK, highlights how knowledge of your target audience can refine mobile usability. It is designed specifically for the significant number of students equipped with Blackberries. The QR code links directly to Blackberry Messenger, the student messaging platform of choice, adding the event organiser [...]
Sense and the City
The London Transport Museum has an exhibition entitled ‘Sense and the City‘ (until 18th March 2012) exploring how digital technologies, particularly mobile devices, are integrating into the transportation and architectural landscapes of cities. One feature of the exhibit is a set of photographs contributed by readers of the Londonist, which show the relationship between citizens, [...]
Sustainable device values
Julius Tarng, a designer at Smart Design in New York, shared details of his personal project exploring the human relationship with mobile devices. Tarng’s extensive sketches and prototype photographs highlight two key elements of his Modai concept design: Sustainability. Enabling users to keep the same device for longer than the typical 18 month lifecycle, upgrading [...]
When industry is swayed by established behaviours
In the 1890s, the majority of consumers in the Far East purchased their oil in blue tins supplied by Standard Oil, the dominant American company which had grown rapidly through its extensive control of production and distribution. However, when a competing organisation led by the Samuel Brothers was able to slash the price of oil [...]
How did mobile changes users’ lives in 2011?
So much has happened within the industry during the last 12 months, but as 2011 draws to a close, what has the mobile business really changed for its end users? Digital experiences expanded across multiple touchpoints. Witness the commercial launch of Sifteo, the growth of Apple TV and the introduction of the iPod Nano and [...]
Visual stories in data
Luke Bacon, one of the Brunel designers participating at MEX, shared his selection: a TED talk by Hans Rosling exploring visual stories in data. Luke comments: “Firstly, it is fascinating to see what someone can do with information, how they communicate it and explain it. Secondly, I think it highlights the importance of knowing what [...]
Meet the speakers: Mo Firouzabadian
Mo comes to MEX to explore the how consumers experience media across multiple digital touchpoints, focusing on the themes of Pathway #2. Mo Firouzabadian is Head of Connected Devices of Lumata. He leads Lumata’s social content solutions for hardware manufacturers and operators. Prior to Lumata, Mo was at Buongiorno, leader in mobile connected life, responsible [...]
