Untangling brand and customer experience
In just under nine minutes, Brandon Schauer and Josh Levine do an awesome job of simplifying and conveying the essence of brand and experience in a way that a diverse audience would understand. I just love this video. It expresses so many of my thoughts and beliefs regarding brand experience design. This is not a video just for the marketing department, C-suite, or UX folks. This is something that everyone needs to watch, know, understand, and apply. I only hope that the work I do in the future helps to achieve this for the organizations I work with. I originally saw this in the fall of 2009 and came across the link on one of my previous comments. I loved it so much I had to give it its own post. Hope it inspires you as much as it does me.
Sunset in Bloomington 7/17/10
How @lancearmstrong uses the internet to get information
Bread pudding at McGuire's Irish Pub
Jennifer stealing my dessert
Photo gallery of Jillian and Gaven
Going to the chapel
Jilli is updating her facebook profile to let everyone know that she is getting ready to get married.
A précis of "The Logic of Selection" in "The Language of New Media" by Lev Manovich
Thesis and argument
While these attributes of generating new media objects provide a higher level of efficiency and give end-users some creative license to make choices, this model of authorship is not mutually exclusive to new media. A historical perspective of artistic creation, cultural changes, and the dynamic influence of electronic and digital media properties help us to understand how we have developed this logic of selection.
A Correlation between Design Thinking and our Changing World
To be effective in this new world, you will need to master the skills of empathy and teamwork, as well as leadership and driving change. You will need to know how to function in a world that is not a hierarchy but a kaleidoscopic global team of teams, with no boundaries between sectors and change that happens at an escalating pace.
About seven years ago I started having this sense that our world was starting to go through an unprecedented transformational change. There have only been a few periods like this in all of human history. I knew it had something to do with the internet and computers but I did not have a very clear understanding of what it is all about.
When I started in the HCI/d program at IU, some of the pieces of the puzzle started to fall in place. This semester I am taking a New Media course taught by Christian Briggs. I have been reading Marshall McLuhan's book, "Understanding Media" and Lev Manovich's "The Language of New Media". Suddenly, big pieces of the puzzle started coming together.
Along the way I developed this concept that design thinking principles could not only help me learn to be an interaction designer but they were also preparing me to be better equipped to function in this new world we are growing towards. When I read this article by Bill Drayton, the excerpt above seemed to jump off the screen.
Capstone Project: Part 6 - Design Expertise
This is the fourth sub-section of the Literature Review section for my Capstone project.
Here is a listing of links to the previous capstone project posts:
- Capstone Project: Part 1 - Abstract
- Capstone Project: Part 2 - Introduction
- Capstone Project: Part 3 - Approach and methodology
- Capstone Project: Part 4 - Disruptive Innovation
- Capstone Project: Part 5 - The Design of Business
- Kristian Andersen - Brand Experience Design (posted previously and incorporated into Capstone project)
Design Expertise
Another book I started reading is "Design Expertise" by Kees Dorst and Bryan Lawson (Lawson and Dorst 2009). Dorst and Lawson note that they believe design is a complex collection of skills that anyone has the ability to learn. Further, talented designers rely on skills, knowledge and understanding.They point out that we are still in the preliminary stages of defining design expertise and this book could not even have been written a few years ago.
Capstone Project: Part 5 - The Design of Business
This is the second sub-section of the Literature Review section for my Capstone project.
Here is a listing of links to the previous capstone project posts:- Capstone Project: Part 1 - Abstract
- Capstone Project: Part 2 - Introduction
- Capstone Project: Part 3 - Approach and methodology
- Capstone Project: Part 4 - Disruptive Innovation
The Design of Business
Another primary influence upon the direction of this project has been Roger Martin’s “The design of business : why design thinking is the next competitive advantage” (Martin 2009). Martin is the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He has been researching and introducing innovative new ways for business leaders and consultants to think and transform organizations. This new path is grounded and driven by design thinking.
Martin describes design thinking as the foundation for balancing analytical thinking and intuitive thinking. This balance allows organizations to maintain innovation which will increase efficiency and lead to perpetual competitiveness. In essence, design thinking allows organizations to move from the complex to the simple, from mystery to algorithm through what he refers to as the “knowledge funnel” [see Figure 6].Martin indicates that design thinking is made possible by using abductive logic, a concept that was originally developed by James Peirce (Peirce, Houser et al. 1992). Abductive thinking equips design thinkers to explore possibilities by looking to the future while still exploiting opportunities by looking to the past.
Figure 6: The Knowledge Funnel
Source: (Martin 2009)He elaborates by stating that the roadmap to success will lead to new kinds of organizations marked by changes in structure, culture, and processes. These new organizations will be run by a different kind of leader that is focused on maintaining this balance between analytical and intuitive thinking. These new organizations will be staffed with a new type of worker that will have a different view of the world and their role in it. They will use new sets of tools to understand the world and organize their thinking through a new type of experience to develop the skills to use these tools. Jon Kolko calls this “design synthesis” which he describes as “an abductive sensemaking process.” (Kolko 2010) References
Kolko, J. (2010). "Abductive Thinking and Sensemaking: The Drivers of Design Synthesis." Design Issues 26(1): 15-28.Martin, R. L. (2009). The design of business : why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Boston, Mass., Harvard Business Press. Peirce, C. S., N. Houser, et al. (1992). The essential Peirce : selected philosophical writings. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
