August 2010
4 posts
Technology + Well-being
For my year-long thesis project at Normative, I hope to answer one big question: Does technology (particularly as it relates to the web, devices, and sensors) have a positive, negative or neutral effect on human well-being (physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual)? In other words, can technology actually make us healthier, happier, smarter, and more connected?
I wonder, where are web,...
Defining Player Experience
Hey!
It’s Jean Jean, Senior Interaction Designer here at Normative.
Today I’ll be talking about something that’s both near to my heart, and an aspect of interactive design we’re discussing more and more here at Normative: Game Design.
As many of you may know, a little game named Starcraft 2 has been recently released by Blizzard after 5 years and over $100 million in...
Answering awkward questions at family gatherings
(@emenel)
I often struggle when attempting to explain my job to my parents and extended family. At least a couple times a year the topic comes up. We’re having dinner with my parents, or we’re at an aunt’s birthday party, or a wedding, and somebody says “So, tell me what you do?” and I tentatively respond “um .. I’m a designer.” This received one...
Healthy Social Life
(@elledog)
I read an interesting article recently on Time about low social interaction being linked to poor health. Thanks, @AnnaOBrien for the source. The article talks about how having little social interaction with others can have some of the same effects as obesity, smoking and lack of exercise. “those with poor social connections had on average 50% higher odds of death in the study’s...
February 2010
2 posts
Using design fiction to prototype
(@elledog)
You’ll probably agree when I say that as a designer one needs to make stuff up a lot of the time. I struggle with this and love it because, on one hand, I am a vehement believer in the value of research and data (facts), while on the other hand I get butterflies at the prospect of a blank sheet and imagination. Somewhere in between research and imagination is prototyping. Prototyping...
Relentless – The Difference Between Motion And... →
(@mmilan)
Lindsay found this great @steveblank article this morning which really described the undercurrent that we during a product design workshop we recently hosted for one of our startup clients.
In our team debrief after the workshop we discussed the fact that we’d had an extremely clear, focused and successful outcome. One of the team members commented about the fact that we...
November 2009
2 posts
7 tags
A Nokia future beyond Connecting People
(@mmonaa)
If ubicomp ever came into play in a prototypical form, it would in the Minority Report, specifically the scene in the video above and in which Tom Cruise’s character Inspector John Anderton manipulates a database of sound and images that are from the near future.
In the above mentioned scenes the audience witnesses the marriage of science fiction and science fact in the context of...
6 tags
Citizen Sensor - Lift@Home Toronto - Democamp 2019
(@mmonaa)
Karim Kanji of Techvibes posted a summary piece on the DemoCamp/Lift conference that took place in Toronto on November 17th. The DemoCamp/Lift hybrid was called DemoCamp 2019, which challenged presenters to discuss the future in 2019 and the implications of technology at that time. Among the presentations at DemoCamp 2019, Matthew’s “Citizen Sensor” (@mmilan) resonated...
October 2009
3 posts
5 tags
Backcasting your career
(@mmonaa)
Last week I partook in my first Backcasting workshop for our hospital client. The activity was quite eye opening in many ways for both myself and the client. For one, the client discovered intricate nuances of their organization that had not been fully articulated before. In other words, they came to a couple of epiphanies that probably would not have happened had they not gone through...
Always in the Field - Guerilla Ethnography for...
(@elledog)
Sometimes the thought of doing research, especially primary research, seems daunting. The planning, screening and recruiting the right participants, conducting the research itself, transcribing notes, uploading video files, writing reports, can take weeks and even months to accomplish. Not to mention the cost of such research projects. In specific cases, large research projects are...
6 tags
Business Model Generation
(@mmilan)
Yesterday, I recieved Alex Osterwalder’s and Yves Pigneur’s new book, “Business Model Generation” in the mail. Over the last year Alex and Yves, along with the help of Alan Smith and over 470 collaborators around the world, have taken this book from concept to reality, and the results are inspiring.
First off, I have to rave about the appearance of the book....
September 2009
1 post
5 tags
Speed Sketching Anyone?
(@mmonna)
Ever wonder what speed dating is like? Laying out all your best assets up front and center for the person sitting across the table to absorb in all but 5 minutes (8 minutes in some cases) pretty much sums it up. You go through a series of prospects and sell yourself by the minute. If the 5 minute package looks appealing, you seek it out and refine the conversation.
We can apply these...
May 2009
1 post
4 tags
Saul Kaplan on being a "Twittering Fool" →
The awesome and insightful Saul Kaplan has written a great post on how he is using social media to help promote his work at BIF.
Some of the clearest and most focused thinking I’ve seen on how to “just do it” with social media:
We have no marketing department, advertising agency, or PR firm and have spent the last eight months openly sharing a point of view that is a work in...