Blogs | design mind

Mobile Impact at SOCAP 2010

Kristina Loring — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:22:24 -0500

Some 4.5 billion mobile phones are now in use worldwide‚ providing unprecedented opportunities to communicate and collaborate with people in even the remotest of communities. But what if cell phones, your only means of communication, were too expensive for your friends and family to afford?

Movirtu, a for-profit social enterprise that provides innovative network infrastructure solutions for mobile operators servicing rural poor communities in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia, aims to provide shared access to basic mobile phone services for people earning less than $2 a day. frog collaborated with Movirtu on their MXShare series to bring a critical resource-communication-to a population in need, in an easy to use and easy to understand format.

Design Research for Empowerment
In order to better understand the emotional and practical needs of the community that Movirtu aims to serve and how well the system worked for a rural population, frog sent a team of designers to conduct a field study with 12 residents of the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. From conversations and observations the team discovered the core needs of those in Kibera, as they relate to both life and mobile phones. frog’s design team identified six basic needs of the handset-less in Kibera that would be satisfied in the end product: pride, privacy & security, identity, education and enablement. From the ability to easily store contacts to effortlessly send text messages, frog ensured that each aspect of the user experience met these needs. frog found that in the case of the Kibera residents, the end product that met these needs was not only successful but provided empowerment for the disempowered, connectivity, and the ability to live in dire circumstances while having a strong sense of self.

Moving into the Cloud
Movirtu's MXShare is a virtual cell phone system that can be installed into a mobile network's core. The system allows people who can't afford to buy a handset to make calls, receive calls, and send text messages using other people's phones. Borrowing phones and swapping SIM cards can be problematic for rural populations that spend a majority of their day commuting several miles, so Movirtu allows individuals to log in using codes. Customer contacts and all usage data are stored in the “telecom cloud,” not on the mobile device, which maintains privacy, reduces personal data security risks and frees customers from any specific device. frog helped to shape the info architecture to make the login process and navigation of the service more intuitive and efficient for users.

Movirtu and frog at SOCAP 2010
As part of the Mobile Track at this year’s Social Capital Conference on October 4-6th in San Francisco, the frogs behind the design research of the MXShare will join Movirtu CEO Nigel Waller to present a deep dive case study on the cloud phone. The discussion will examine the high-level principals and larger frameworks of designing for (and with) those living at the “bottom of the pyramid.”

frog design is an official media sponsor for the conference and will feature posts on how social entrepreneurs are using innovative ways to provide meaningful impact in business. During the week of the conference design mind will offer live coverage of the conference through daily blog posts and live tweeting of various keynotes and workshop sessions.

Why the World Needs More Misfits

Adam Richardson — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:20:02 -0500

Here's the video of the talk that I gave at TEDx Taipei back in July. There's a funny twist at the end of it, so watch to the end... Thanks to the TEDx Taipei team for a) a great event, b) a nice professional job with the videos.

Plugging Into My Electric Bill

Collin Cole — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:49:59 -0500

Energized is an ongoing series following my education about living a more sustainable life.

My journey begins with a few basic questions. How much electricity am I using each month? How much does it cost? It’s amazing (and a little embarrassing) that I’ve paid for utility services for almost 30 years without knowing. But I don’t think I’m alone.

Where I live, electricity is bundled with other services, such as water, waste water, and garbage pickup. This combined monthly bill has been a recurring expense in my household budget for years. But now I’d like to dig in to see how much I’m paying for just electricity. Knowing this will help me measure the impact of any future improvements.

First stop, Wikipedia. Electric service is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). A watt is a measure of power; a kilowatt hour is 1,000 watts in use over one hour of time. Ten 100 watt light bulbs running for one hour will use one kilowatt hour of electricity.

Next, I was happy to find that my usage history was easily accessible on my provider’s website. Because I’ve recently moved, my usage history only goes back to February 2010.

My monthly electric usage and cost for the last 7 months

Observations and a few calculations:
• I’m being charged two different rates! One rate for usage up to 500 kWh and a higher rate for anything over.
• There are also two different overage rates; one for winter, one for summer. Overage rates are 30% higher in the hotter summer months than in winter.
• A Fuel Charge accounts for almost one third of my bill. Charged per kWh, this covers the cost of the fuel needed to produce my electricity. Austin Energy claims this is a dollar-for-dollar pass through cost, without any markup or profit.
• My usage in August was 309% higher than in March. This is obviously due to constantly cooling the house, but going over by 1,500 kWh at the higher rate added up fast.
• The extreme heat of the Texas summer is sure to magnify any inefficiencies, such as inadequate weatherproofing or insulation, and inefficient cooling performance. It also means that habits such as leaving the door open while bringing in groceries have costlier consequences. But to take a more positive point of view, high summer temperatures and rates mean that being more efficient will have a bigger payoff.
• For just my seven months of history, reducing consumption by 15% would have saved $140 (and 1,274 kWh). That would pay for more than an average month’s entire electric bill.

So here’s what I’ve learned:

Monitoring your bill is a good first step.
Know how much you use and how much you’re paying for it. Austin Energy, like providers in the entire State of California, has a consumption baseline for their customers. They set an allowance of energy each month at a low rate and charge a premium for usage over that amount. These baselines are designed to encourage conservation, especially during summer months when demand is high and systems are stressed.

The savings seem small. But they do add up.
At first glance, it seems that I might spend more at Starbucks than I do for a day’s electricity. But small savings throughout the home can add up to literally hundreds of dollars per year (and maybe even finance your caffeine addiction). Multiplying those efficiencies across a neighborhood, city and country can make a very meaningful impact on our overall consumption and approach to energy production.

Monitoring your bill only provides after-the-fact information.
There’s an obvious delay between my usage habits and seeing their cost impact on my bill. The delay makes it difficult to pinpoint inefficiencies or take cost-saving action.

The coming generation of smart meters and home management systems promise real time, actionable usage data, and should be widely available on the market in the next couple of years. But rather than waiting for those to come, I’m going to see what’s available now.

Next post: Do-it-yourself consumption analysis!

Remarketables 8.30

frog Marketing team — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:15:39 -0500

This week's collection of remarkable marketing links, curated by the frog marketing team.

The 10 Greatest Accidental Inventions of All Time: Sometimes genius arrives not by choice...but by chance

Consumers will not only buy, they'll help create

David on Demand: He will do ANYTHING you tweet him

How to handle PR in times of crisis

Twitter Parade!

People are ditching their physical possessions for digital ones

How internet usage has changed: The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet

Nike + Foursquare

Twitter has a new feature, "You both follow"

But will it make you Happy? Consumers find ways to spend less and find happiness.

10 Cool Crowdsourced Music Video Projects

Image from flickr user: specialkrb

Sketch Jam Kickoff

Kristina Loring — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:50:42 -0500

Often we find frogs tend to have a wide range of skills and interests. When they aren’t working tirelessly to produce innovative solutions for clients, frogs are searching for ways to hone their creative skills and learn a few new tricks that lie outside of their specialized expertise. Wanting to create an environment that promoted a culture of playfulness and tinkering, Senior Interaction designers Mitch Murphy and Ahmed Riaz started Sketch Jam, a forum for frogs to learn and practice a range of creative skills through sketching on paper, with form, in code or with video.

Sketch Jam is based on the idea that everyone, regardless of skill or experience, can benefit from having a space to tinker, play, experiment and practice design sketching. Design sketches are sets of simple yet powerful artifacts designers create in order to solve problems or explore opportunities, a medium that can benefit anyone working creatively.

Each ‘Jam’ is to be a self contained exercise in coming up with a simple powerful exploration that can propel a design forward. It’s a exercise for our minds and hands and time for frogs to play with new techniques mediums and and styles of sketching. The goal is for participants at any level of experience to attend any sketch jam session, continually practicing new skills that can benefit them in tacking their project challenges. The first Sketch Jam harkened back to the days of doodling in your notebook, teaching the anatomy of the perfect stick figures. frogs in a variety of different roles - program managers, operation team members, technologists - came out, eager to put their designer hats on. You can check out pics from the first Sketch Jam (below) and look out for recaps of upcoming Jams that might spark some ideas for new creativity tools you can bring to your own organization.

Risk, Security, and Working Styles

Jan Chipchase — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:04:42 -0500

frog's Executive Creative Director for Global Insights Jan Chipchase is currently in Afghanistan doing a research study with generous support from the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion. He is working with a nimble local team to explore topics around mobile banking, known in the industry as mobile money — a presentation he recently gave to the US State Department on the subject can be found here. This is the fourth in a series of dispatches from his field studies.

Given the situation in Afghanistan how smart is it to conduct street/ad-hoc research on the ground? To answer this it’s worth reflecting on the working models for 3 different foreigner roles in Afghanistan: the military, NGO staff, and journalists.

The military and those that work alongside the military consider themselves targets every time they step off the base — they’re armed and they typically don’t ride in anything less than a SUV. Where traffic allows — their convoys prefer to go at high speed through the city, and on a mundane level they are disliked by everyone else because they generate traffic jams when they go by. If you’re sitting in traffic — your phone call may be dropped when they drive by because they carry mobile phone signal jammers, to foil the remote detonation of IEDs. (Those of you interested in how the Army applies anthropological skills to their own operations here should read this and this).

Most of the NGO staff here live in compounds with barbed wire-topped high-walls and Kalashnikov wielding armed guards at the entrance and if they wish to keep their jobs, they abide by strict rules that dictate where they can go when. Their compounds may have a safe room and planned escape routes; the larger ones have meaty barriers, layers of protection, and lookout posts. NGO staff will have a list of places they can and cannot go in the city — based on a security assessment plus current chatter. As an example — a number of restaurants and cafes in Kabul that are frequented by foreigners have previously been considered secure enough, but are now off-limits because current chatter suggesting that they are targets.

NGO staff forays outside their compound are approved by their security team and a trip through the city might not actually involve their feet touching the ground: personnel climb into a car inside their compound; drive through the city, and if the destination venue allows they pull the vehicle into the compound before stepping out. Many venues such don’t have space for parking so the car pulls up and the passenger walks the 5-10 steps from the car door. For NGOs and other organizations operating in at the more secure/paranoid end of the scale an interview with a farmer might require a back-up vehicle; 2 drivers and 3 or 4 security — which obviously affects the dynamics of any conversation that takes place. Protocols dictate that field staff doesn’t go out before 10am — more ‘security events’ happen in early morning apparently. In an environment where you need to sync with the driver and wait for clearance to leave, spontaneity is deliberately impossible. NGO staff generally avoid hanging out anywhere where the military, or military contractors are found partly because the latter are more likely to be targeted; and partly because of the stark difference in attitude about what is going on here and what to do about it.

The journalist model involves hiring a driver and/or fixer, travel light and rely on an unpredictable schedule to throw off any pre-mediated violence or kidnapping — though since their work sometimes involves spending time with people who are targets this risk can be extended to them. The judgment call about where to go when includes contextual understanding, personal network, and relying on the advice of their fixer, but it is ultimately made by the journalist.

The research that we’ve been conducting these past weeks in Afghanistan has been based around the journalist model — and broadly speaking it has worked well. A core team of Panthea and myself rotated in mixed-gender local fixers depending on the city.

One area where we’ve deviated from the journalist norm is in our use of transport: motorbikes have helped us beat the traffic and frankly are a more interesting way to traverse the city. Hiring a driver with a trial-bike can open up a whole world that is otherwise logistically off-limits, although most bikes are of the on-road variety. We’ve tried three-on-a-bike, but it’s a bit unwieldy. A motorbike + driver can be yours in Afghanistan for anywhere between 1,400 to 3,000 Afghanis (25 — 50 Euros) a day. See also this post on conducting street research here.

There are numerous people here who don’t fit neatly into what I’ve described here, for example NGO staff may live in a regular compound with a housekeeper but no distinct security.

The photo above is a small detail from a compound the exact location of which it’s not particularly appropriate to share. I was hesitant to use this photo in this post — simply because the experiences here are overwhelmingly positive and because another uniforms-and-guns photo reinforces the stereotype of Afghanistan as a war zone. But the reality is that the compound guards, police and army provide a backdrop to experiences here that is difficult to ignore.

When it comes to security and organizations I’ve long learned that it’s best not to ask the question if you’re not prepared to listen to the answer. If you ask and don’t follow the rules someone’s job can be on the line as and when you get into trouble, and to put it simply when that happens it’s likely that someone will be tasked to pull you out of it. Risk is rarely personal, and sometimes it’s best not to ask.

Each visit to Afghanistan builds on my understanding of what works and what doesn’t and I appreciate how much there still is to learn. How do the risks of working out on the streets stack up compared to other countries? I’m not pretending its a cake-walk but I probably have a greater chance of being shot in Chicago, of being run over in Shanghai, of being pick-pocketed in Milan. The same goes for you.

How to Build a Better Vital Signs Monitor

Sara Munday — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:36:55 -0500

As designers, when we get the opportunity to see our work make it into the real world (and out of our creative brains), we get all giddy inside. That’s why we were thrilled today when our client Welch Allyn announced the release of the Connex® Vital Signs Monitor (CVSM) 6000 Series, a core part of the Connex® Electronic Vitals Documentation (EVD) System.

By bringing a patient’s vital signs into one system, the EVD helps doctors and nurses to better capture patient information and send it wirelessly to an electronic medical record. All this can be done in one place with the CVSM—eliminating the need to find a computer and transcribe it later. This significantly reduces errors in capturing patient information, making the job easier for doctors and nurses as well as for patients, who ultimately receive more efficient care.

Bringing a medical device to market can be a real challenge, so it’s rewarding to take a look back at the collaborative design process between frog and Welch Allyn that led to today’s successful launch.

Discover
Our work with Welch Allyn began with an extensive design research phase that spanned 32 different locations across five countries. frog’s design analysts, designers, and engineers went into the field with Welch Allyn teams to identify insights and opportunities by visiting primary care physicians as well as post surgical and intensive care wards at several hospitals. This helped the team to gather insights from both the patient and healthcare provider perspectives.

In parallel, frog conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to fully understand Welch Allyn’s business goals, opportunities, strategies, brand and technical constraints.

Understanding use

Understanding pain points

Design
Leveraging the insights and findings of this research phase, frog looked to build an intuitive, approachable, and durable design for the CVSM that would match the quality and precision that the 100 year-old Welch Allyn brand is known for.

Our approach involved an iterative process of design, mock-ups and form models, together with user interface simulations that gave us tangible and immediate feedback on a variety of concepts. This was coupled with in-depth participatory design testing sessions held at frog’s San Francisco studio where we transformed a conference room into a hospital work environment. We invited doctors and nurses to participate in these sessions, and their experiences helped us to identify the most meaningful design solutions.

Evolving concept sketches

Early form factor studies

An early UI testing concept

In participatory design sessions, we used a high-fidelity interactive prototype on a touch tablet PC screen and asked participants to perform specific tasks.

Testing prototype concept

Deliver
For the final phase of the project, frog worked closely with the Welch Allyn development team to assume the design directions from the previous phase, both physical and digital, were practical and achievable in the finished product.

While Welch Allyn worked on defining software, electronic, and mechanical details, frog refined the physical and digital designs to match. With client development teams in four locations across three countries, communication and collaboration in addressing design challenges as they emerged was a key to a successful solution.

Exploded architectural view

Result
Reflecting the hospital and clinical environments where it will be used, the industrial design of the CVSM uses durable materials with easy to clean surface finishes, color coded touch points, an accessible handle, an alarm light visible from 360 degrees at a distance, and a full-color touch screen display suitable for use with surgical gloves. The user interface is simple, despite its ability to handle complex information, allowing patient data and monitoring to be easily customized and sent wirelessly to electronic medical records.

Before the availability of the EVD System, studies have shown that 10,000 omission and/or transcription errors can occur per year for a typical 200-bed hospital or clinic; 8,000 hours were wasted with manual vital sign documentation; and more than $250,000 was lost in productivity due to lack of access to vitals. We are thrilled to have partnered with Welch Allyn on a solution that minimizes these issues, helping doctors and nurses to become more efficient and deliver the best care for their patients.

Socializing Truman

Shawn L. Morrissey — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:25:46 -0500

When we last left our hero, he was busy bookmarking websites, and downloading apps to his iphone and android devices, gathering information focused on multiple facets of his life. Truman, and his lovely wife Meryl, were keeping track of all kinds of personal data, from daily blood sugar counts, to calories consumed, to amounts and types of exercise. And then the light fell out of the sky...

Personal Informatics.
The focus on quantifying our lives has quickly grown beyond the accurate capture of data elements, and is growing into the analysis of our lives, as we attempt to generate meaning from these data. We can now capture and visualize our music listening habits, social footprints, reading history, fiscal responsibility, energy consumption patterns, things that probably shouldn't be tracked around our parents, even the activity of your mouse. Withings created the first WiFi scale that can to the Internet, and save weight, fat and BMI data automatically. A company called Toumaz is creating WiFi-enabled wearable monitors that provide continuous monitoring in hospitals. Some wonderful folks at MIT created a site for us all to share this data. With all this data being captured, our digital wake is growing daily. But what does it all mean?

Outsourcing Accountability.
As people started generating meaning from this data, an interesting thing happened. We're uncovering amazing insights about ourselves. We can rise above our own wakes and look for trends, and paths, and directions. ...and some of this information is really hard to accept - I weigh more than I want, I'm progressing slower than I wanted, I don't know what to do. One reaction is to outsource our accountability.

The Bright Side of Communities.
At the same time, we're also taking responsibility for not just ourselves, but for our communities. The word "community" is derived from two Latin terms that mean "with/together" and "gift". We're re-learning the value of sharing stuff, this time within a digital context. While Facebook and Twitter kick-started the broader appeal of digital sharing, interest-specific communities are creating their own sites, focused on sharing data.

MapMyFitness is a diverse set of applications and sites all built around a fitness community. Taking the personal measurements to the next step, these sites provides tools and communities, and create a community-driven source for fitness content, maps, and advice. Konamoxt built on their health-focused community they called Sweat365, and extended it to help organizations develop online program and communities for their employees. Their Healthy Corp program helps incent employees to engage in positive behavior changing habits, anchored in existing wellness programs.

Healthcare-focused communities such as TheCarrot, CureTogether and PatientsLikeMe provide users not only the ability to track this wellness-related data, community members can share their data with their community, helping users find people who share similar conditions, and share information to help make better healthcare decisions.

Where to Next, Truman?
This sharing of data certainly has its dark side as well, best captured in Phillip K. Dick's classic short story, "Minority Report". On one hand, I can envision a world where my insurance company and my doctors are looking at the same information I've generated, where my doctor helps me set up a plan to achieve specific goals, where my insurance company offers incentives when I achieve goals. It's a world where a restaurant shows me customized menus based on that same information, where I can always receive instant feedback on the impact of different food choices on my body. It's a world where my favorite sporting good store can create a specific coupon or incentive as I walk into the store because I let that store know I'm a member of the ILoveRunning.com community.

On the other hand is the world where credit card companies are mining the same data, and selling that data without my control. A world where pharmaceutical companies are notified when I eat at The Cheesecake Factory so they can send me information about Lipitor. A world where predictive analysis of my checkins to Gowalla combined with my spending habits can create specific coupons that I may or may not want.

Which world will become reality? In the next article in this series, we'll discuss where this trend is heading. Tim talks about "publicy" which we'll look at, and we'll also look at how game dynamics are defining the next step in this evolution. As always, I'd appreciate your insights and feedback.

Designing a Decanter, Mad Men Style

Adam Richardson — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:14:00 -0500

My last post was inspired by Mad Men, but it's pure coincidence that I'm now also posting this great little video produced by storied brand firm Landor in the 1960's to educate about the design process. It focuses on a bottle/decanter for Old Fitzgerald whiskey, and shows all the steps from concept through to model making to market testing, all narrated by Walter Landor himself. It's great watching the modelmaking in particular, as these days this would all be done through rendering, 3D printing and CNC. In this era everything is done by hand, and I particularly enjoyed watching the gold leaf get applied!

Unfortunately the video transfer quality isn't very good, but it's a fun way to spend 15 minutes and while the techniques we use today are far more sophisticated the fundamental process is largely the same.

Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo.

Sustainability Begins at Home

Collin Cole — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:52:01 -0500

Energized is an ongoing series following my education about living a more sustainable life.

For the last 20 years, I’ve lived on the suburban fringes of Austin, Texas. It just seemed like the place to be with small children. The homogenous neighborhood, with its chain restaurants and strip shopping centers, was the price paid for parks, pools, schools, and a large yard for the kids and pets. But now my daughters are in high school and college. With my congested daily commute to frog’s downtown studio, and both kids driving as well, we saw our monthly gasoline bill triple. We started exploring a move.

Mueller Austin is an urban “infill” project, with a vision to transform the former 700-acre Robert Mueller Municipal Airport site into a mixed-use urban village. The community concept follows the principles of “New Urbanism:” anti-sprawl, walkable neighborhoods, a spirit of sustainability, a range of housing types and prices, and a focus on the smart integration of residential and retail, rather than segregating properties by their types and uses. It values community closeness over individual separation. The neighborhood is still in development and the reality is far from the ultimate vision. But I was sold on the concept, Mueller’s central location, and bought one of the last home sites in the first phase of development.

Our new Mueller house is a top-rated, 5-star green home for its energy and water efficiency, safe and renewable materials, building techniques, and smart products and appliances. Austin Energy, the city’s leading utilities provider, has a nationally-recognized, point-based system for rating green building. I must admit that the environmental focus of the neighborhood was a secondary consideration; I was more focused on Mueller’s central location. But ultimately it piqued my interest to learn more.

My move brought a few new realizations:

Sustainability begins at home.
The green aspects of my house have heightened my awareness. Paying attention to features such as the attic insulation, heat-blocking windows, the tankless water heater or programmable thermostat during the building process has made me notice other areas that could be made more efficient.

Living greener is a sequence of small choices, every day.
I make hundreds of seemingly trivial decisions every day that impact my energy consumption and conservation. Turning off lights and water, closing curtains on a hot day, adjusting the thermostat when leaving the house, or replacing a light bulb with one that's more efficient. Recognizing those moments is quickly redefining my habits.

Adopting just a few green practices builds momentum.
Anyone that’s ever tried to lose weight knows that if you exercise, you’re much less likely to cancel that investment with overeating. Making just a few small changes in my energy habits has made me less likely to waste my savings with careless consumption.

As excited as I am to learn more, I’m not ready to “be green” at any cost. I suspect that it isn’t always cheap or convenient. I'm not sure if all the “little things” will really add up to make a meaningful financial or environmental difference. I’m looking forward to comparing my time and cost investments with the real savings they produce.

Next post:
Baselining my own energy consumption and cost.