At Wolff Olins London we are developing a series of LEARNSHOP sessions where we go out and explore an emerging technology, or bring experts in, or teach ourselves.
Last week, we tried rapid prototyping, courtesy of Chalk Studio Islington. We spent the week designing objects that would be useful to us in our daily lives at Regents Wharf. One was an innovation for the fabulous Honey Club, another was both a useful and aesthetic solution to ease our journey through our increasingly confidential work environments.
We were able to create, as a result of our design brainpower here, some beautiful and functional things that we hope to scale up and mass produce. But what we learnt along the way was just as rewarding.
Rapid Prototyping or 3D printing puts factory power in the hands of the individual. The technology itself does not seem so sophisticated. We printed off a non-electronic machine. It feels like a combination of knitting machine, photocopier and MRI scanning device. It will see your object design in negative space and then compose the form in plaster (in our case), or polymers, metal or chocolate – a wide variety of materials. Within the machine two flat beds sit proximate to each other. One moves over the other and over time, the object is built, micro-fine layer by micro-fine layer. From one of the beds of plaster dust, our beautiful object emerged as our expert, Mark, retrieved it, dusted it and hoovered it down. It was a joyful birthing process!
The brilliance of the technology is the idea behind it. Our modern age was so much about standardized processes and products, production line style. Rapid prototyping puts unlimited creative potential in our hands. It will allow us to create endlessly diverse and bespoke products, tweaked to our exact needs and living environments. But like all great technologies it is not it, itself, that is revolutionary (unless it starts to take on a life of its own…) - it is the uses that we put it to, the ideas that we materialise through it.
In this, it is setting us quite a challenge. 3D printing invites us to re-think our relationship with objects much as mass production did in the 50s. (And probably also with place, as we’ll able to produce anywhere, which could eventually put pay to our massive Asian outsourcing dependency.) We’ll need to be hugely creative to take the offer and meet its challenge.
But then again, it is not necessarily the case that 3D printing will wait for human intelligence to set the pace. The RepRap project at the University of Bath has been for some time producing 3D printers which manufacture the parts of other 3D printers – a impressive step towards self-replication. The bar is therefore set high. Should machines find such power and intelligence on their own, we may find ourselves falling behind in the creativity race.
For the meantime though, that appears to be some time away. Geniuses in various part of the world are putting 3D printing to monumental use- to open up access to tools and products in the developing world, to take airline manufacturing to the next highly bespoke level. And 3D printing, in conjunction with nanotechnology, is offering breakthroughs for our bodies- manufacturing skin cells and even organs for transplantation.
3D printing sets a new creative brief on an enormous scale.
The iPhone and many of its equivalents have generated a whole new perception of digital interaction. Finger-swiping and motion gesturing have greatly desensitized our understanding of these new technologies and enabled new purposes for mass digital interaction. The buck doesn’t stop there however—Mickey Mouse has just added a new angle to interactive technology.
Disney Research, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon and Tokyo University, just introduced a completely new method of digital interaction called Touché, which enables a wider gamut of information relay through touch. Touché works across all types of material, from existing touchscreens to more exotic items like doorknobs, your skin, and even water’s surface. See the video above for a richer explanation.
The understanding and range of these sorts of physical interactions will have huge implications and ripple effects. It will not only affect content structure and visual cues on your tablet, phone or Mp3 player, but also have a huge impact on our ability to decipher social understanding through body language and other parameters that our species has long taken for granted.
Touché works by sensing signals across a large range of frequencies — while the typical systems we know only pick up signal at a single frequency.According to Disney Research, this technology could soon enable embedding different commands for when a user pinches or grasps a hooked-up object.
In short, Disney has used zeros and ones to create a cross-platform game changing approach to people’s interactions with the objects in their lives.
This week, in his WSJ column, Ralph Gardner reckons with himself about why it’s taken him so long to get on Twitter and what motivates some of his younger reporter colleagues to tweet in earnest. “I appreciate there’s an ulterior motive here, though I can’t say I fully subscribe. It’s about growing the brand.”
Gardner admits slowly and begrudgingly that Twitter is useful. No doubt, the people and organizations who are active on social media truly do add viewers, readers, followers, etc. by extending their reach on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The point he seems to miss is that today’s media environment is a two-way street, where we’re all the source of each other’s truth. As everyone from brands and celebrities to consumers and Occupy protesters broadcast their opinions on Twitter, they are also taking in a gigantic stream of inputs from the people and groups they follow.
These new vehicles of communication and collaboration have created a host of new uses and users for brands to think about when they consider their offer and outreach. We can think of the traditional “UX” as a metaphor for brand interactions today, with “users” describing anyone who interacts with a company or personality through digital media or technology. In a journalist like Gardener’s case, you could use social media to source topics for future columns, learn about your audience’s interests, and end the week with a chat about the column you’ve produced.
In his book Users, Not Consumers: Who Really Determines The Success of Your Business, Aaron Shapiro, CEO of HUGE Inc wrote that users can sometimes be “more intimate with and influential on a company than anyone who has completed a purchase.” It takes Ralph Gardner a little longer to get to a similar conclusion, but he eventually says it: “It’s all about establishing your presence in the ether.”
Indeed, just being there (and being accessible to users of all sorts) is an important half of the battle. And that applies for both people and brands.
Last week at Wolff Olins New York we held an internal workshop to talk to our own strategists, designers and account managers about how they can develop their own personal online brands. Some were worried that they didn’t have much to say—nothing worthwhile that could be eloquently (or forcibly) expressed in 140 characters. While it’s always important to contribute smart things, develop a unique point of view, and create and curate content that communicates what you’re all about, our workshop stressed a more fundamental point: The first important move with social media is to just be there.
Being there lets you hear what people are saying. It makes you discoverable and accessible to a host of different users. And once you’re there, listening to others helps you figure out what you have to add.
Since Splash.FM had its public launch a few weeks ago, co-founder Jason Fiedler has been busy watching the start-up grow and making constant changes.A friend of Wolff Olins, he took a few minutes to chat with strategist Sam Liebeskind about the early-stage site and his plans to engage more listeners and brands.
If you haven’t yet read about Splash.FM in TechCrunch, Rolling Stone, and Gizmodo or stumbled onto it on your own, put it on your radar.This young social startup helps you find new music that you’ll love based on what your friends and go-to sources are loving.It joins a crowded space of sites claiming to do just this (Big hitters like Pandora, Last.fm, iTunes Genius, to name a few), but unlike most others, Splash rejects algorithm-based suggestions in favor of human recommendation, pulling together the best features of sites like Twitter, Klout, and HypeMachine.
SAM: First, the basics. What is Splash and who would use it?
JASON: At its core, it’s a social network— ‘a Twitter for music discovery.’You create an account, you splash (post) music you like, and you follow others whose taste you trust.It’s an easy way to stay on top of the latest music. Most people don’t like the stress of deciding what to listen to, but they want music they like.
At the same time, it’s a place where artists and tastemakers can prove their influence.We recognized that for everyone who has trouble finding music, there’s someone that thinks they have the best music.So each user has a “Splash Score” that’s based on how successful they are as a recommender.It’s really powerful, and really addicting.
I could imagine.So is that why people should use splash instead of Spotify or Rhapsody?
They shouldn’t use Splash instead of those guys.They should use it in addition to them.We’re not really trying to play in mainstream music, to compete with Spotify or Rhapsody.We don’t want to be an all access music provider for people who know exactly what they’re looking for.
Paint me a picture of Splash.FM’s personality?
The company is really just [co-founder Alex Gatof] and me so the brand doesn’t fake anything.It’s just us, so that makes it easy.You want to be fun and social.But you don’t want to make too much of a personality of your site because you don’t want to alienate any type of person.Look at Twitter and Facebook- they’re innocent. You want to be subtle without being sterile.
On the platform, to splash means to share a song (think ‘tweet’).Ripple means to like/re-share a song (think ‘retweet’). I love the name and terminology.How did that come about?
After trying to just come up with a name for the site for like, 3 days, I stopped thinking on that level.I needed to think bigger- more about the concept- and put that into words.I just talked out loud to myself and I was like, ‘Domino effect, one person affecting another…then all of a sudden I got onto waves and thought, its like someone just splashed [into water].’Right when I heard that word, I just knew the whole analogy would work.
Right.And the interface of the site carries the analogy through.Can you talk a little about the site’s design?
We never sacrificed the interface and the look.We invested heavily on that. And spent a lot of time on the logo too.I came up with the idea for it after a lot of research. [Some startups] might want to try to skip it but you have to really put time in there early. I audited the logos of all the other music sites out there before designing the concept of ours.
Tone of voice was also really important for us.I took a course [at Penn] on writing copy…It really is an art.You have to always remember that people are reading all this.So I thought, what would I want to read?
I see Barstool U currently has the highest Splash Score. What opportunities are there for other established ‘non-music’ brands to leverage your platform?
Splash gives lifestyle brands specifically an additional channel to express themselves and cultivate their image. If you go with the notion of brand as a personality, the type of music you listen to and like is pretty core to that. You can imagine Nike splashing a lot of workout music, Lululemon splashing tranquil yoga tunes… The goal is the same as Twitter- to amass and connect with a large userbase, build and maintain a loyal following. With Splash.FM, lifestyle brands can add depth to their brand perception that they previously couldn’t.
BarstoolU specifically has influence in the college demographic, and as a result they’ve resonated really well with our current user base. We’ve featured them, and will continue to feature similar brands that make sense.
You’ve read our Game Changers report.Which of the 5 qualities do you think Splash really nails?
Definitely experimental.To be a good product guy you just have to never be satisfied.Actually, if we didn’t have a hard date that we set, we’d still be in private beta, and probably would be forever.That’s how we still think today.
So what’s the future of Splash?
Eventually, we want it to be about more than just finding music.
One way to potentially expand in the future is this “cannonball” idea that we’ve been playing with.In theory, you’d get a cannonball if a song you uploaded or rippled early really went big.They would accumulate and turn into a virtual currency that you could use to get concert tickets.Or maybe it’s just about having a high Splash Score.This might be used to get you into bars/clubs (we’ve already done a few things with clubs where if you have a splash store above 70, you get to cut the line).Ultimately, your splash store is going to be a big deal.
What does success look like for you guys?
The ultimate success is to have people using our words beyond the site—make “splash” synonymous with liking a song.
If you sign up for Splash, be sure to follow Jason (@Jason) and me(@sam_liebeskind).Give us some ripples!
Visual art museums–Should they be a peaceful sanctuary to escape from the always-on, back-lit, digital world in which we all now work and play? Places to appreciate the spiritual energy of something raw and “real”?
Or, should directors and curators be looking to integrate cutting edge technology into museum spaces- to make the experience somehow more educational and accessible, interactive and fun? And if so, how?
It’s an interesting question, and one we’ve kicked around internally and with a numberofclients over the years.It’s also one that big tech guys like Google (Art Project and Google goggles-> maybe Google Glasses in the future?) are rapidly trying to digest and influence.
This month the Louvre followed in the experimental footsteps of the Brooklyn Museum, the Met, and a host of other world class institutions with their own future-looking answer.As part of an ongoing partnership with Nintendo, the museum created a handheld console aimed at evolving the age-old “audio guide” into something more fit for our hyperdigital expectations.If you haven’t seen it, you can check out pics and video here.
I find this incredibly exciting for a number of reasons. On the most basic level, it’s useful. The console simplifies the logistic challenges of a visit to the Louvre, allowing its operator to focus less on navigating the famous labyrinth and more on the art itself. It also offers flexibility in the level of info each user consumes- a nice middle ground between basic didactics and the commitment of signing up for a tour.
But maybe more importantly, it communicates that the Louvre is serious about designing an experience that’s not so far removed from people’s everyday lives.It’s an attempt to shift the institution from a sacred place you visit once a year (or once a lifetime?) to a space for continued learning and relevance.Hervé Barbaret, Managing Director of the Louvre says “the new audio guide is a valuable tool that will help make visiting the Louvre a more dynamic and rewarding experience, particularly for those that are not so familiar with a museum environment.” It’s a conscious move to get fit for the future and it will resonate with new, younger audiences.
Regardless of this program’s success, the Louvre has taken their shot at answering that fundamental “role of technology” question.Considering the way they’ve answered it though, maybe the issue isn’t as black & white as I originally posed.The challenge for cultural institutions might instead be more subtle: How do you integrate technology into the experience in a way that’s useful to those who want to take advantage of it, without distracting those who don’t?
Have you recently visited the Louvre and had a chance to test this thing out?We’d love to hear your thoughts here or on Twitter.And if not, feel free to weigh in on how technology is enhancing/destroying the experience of visiting your favorite museum. @wolffolins
Despite a veto threat from the White House on Wednesday, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act passed in the House last night by a vote of 248-168. Its goal is a more secure internet and it’s been endorsed by a lot of the heavy hitters in business, media, social media, and telecommunications. But privacy groups and the ACLU worry the measure breaches Americans’ privacy along the way.The Whitehouse has already weighed in calling for significant changes to protect consumer information.
From the LA Times:
CISPA is built as a mechanism to provide a greater degree of information sharing between the federal government and private companies, from Facebook to antivirus software providers, so that information regarding upcoming threats and ongoing hacking efforts can be spread through the community.
The measure, which some are calling the “son of SOPA” includes the catchall phrase “national security” as a valid reason for turning over the data. The contention is that despite the Houses’s intentions, CISPA could be used beyond its purpose of protecting the United States from malicious hacking attempts, and in doing so infringe on civil liberties. A representative from Georgia apparently said “I know it’s 2012, but it feels like 1984 in this House.”
The ACLU told Wired “Cybersecurity does not have to mean abdication of Americans’ online privacy. As we’ve seen repeatedly, once the government gets expansive national security authorities, there’s no going back. We encourage the Senate to let this horrible bill fade into obscurity.”
The bill is headed for the Senate now, if it passes there it will go to the White House for approval. Cyber activists are apparently looking to write a sequel to their SOPA takedown with a “week of action” aimed at killing this new act. Watch this space for updates and opinions.
The web has always been prime experimental space for trying out new designs and interactions, whether purely expressive or truly functional. We’ve come a long way from the days of Netscape, blinking links, Flash load bars and animated 3D GIFs (or have we?). Browsers have evolved to let the imaginations of developers and web designers run wild. Google’s Chrome browser led the charge with Chrome Experiments, like Rome and The Wilderness Downtown, by showcasing what new browsers are (and should be) capable of today.
Like web fonts and responsive web design, the simple act of scrolling has seen great advances over the past year. Geared scrolling has become a trendy new way to experience a webpage (we used it when we released our Game Changers report earlier this year). Similar to sideways parallax scrolling from the old school video games of yore, geared scrolling allows multiple layers of a webpage to move at different speeds, creating a rich sense of depth from two-dimensional elements.
Nike Better World is probably still the most widely recognized example of this, with Journey being their most recent addition to the project. Since then many others have explored specialized scrolling.
The world of personal finance is unnecessarily complex and overwhelming. In November, I wrote about Simple, an up-and-coming startup that hopes to turn the banking industry on its head. This week I wanted to highlight a few other startups that are simplifying and humanizing the way we perceive and interact with money.
Need to split up the restaurant bill? Need to write a check to your roommate for rent? Venmo makes transactions between friends fast, seamless and effortless. Add your bank account, and then start sending and receiving payments. Pay a friend back by simply replying with a text message or do it through the app.
My savings account has been collecting dust. For the past two years, I’ve gotten calls from my bank encouraging me to invest my money in a mutual fund.The jargon, opaque fees, over salesmanship has led to inertia. Until recently.
A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon Betterment, a new service that makes investing transparent, simple and painless. You don’t have to be a certified accountant to use Betterment; they translate the jargon and use normal, everyday language. You don’t need to have a lot of money to start investing; there are no minimum balances. Plus, you can make deposits and cash out whenever you want – without paying extra fees.
Don’t have time to track Twitter or Facebook for money-savvy content? Subscribe to DailyWorth, an email newsletter everyday that provides practical tips, real stories and inspiring ideas to help women take control over their finances.
Three months ago, I quit Facebook (and wrote about it on this blog). I had my sister change my password, so I couldn’t log into my account. It was a social experiment to understand the value that Facebook brings to the way people connect to each other.
After a two-and-a-half month hiatus, I am back on.
What inspired me to log in again was my birthday. Engagements, graduations, and birthdays are the only times when all 500+ of your friends simultaneously will write on your wall or send you a message. You get a highly concentrated level of positive feedback in a short period time.
Birthdays aside, surprisingly, I didn’t crave it or fear I was missing out on anything. There were a few friends abroad whose messages were left unread, but for the most part, my social life continued on as normal. For personal communication, I used email, text and chat; for broad communication, I used Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. For the most part, my online social habits have stayed the same.
Facebook currently serves as a personal directory for my “weak ties.” I seldom post updates, comment or check the newsfeed; I use Facebook to add and accept friend requests, receive messages, and view wall posts. And I only have it on my mobile browser (I still don’t have my password), so I check it about once a day. Even though it does not serve as my primary social channel, Facebook is still a significant utility in my life.
While Facebook has enhanced the way people around the world connect to each other, there are clearly social gaps that it fails to fill. Facebook’s recent acquisition of startup darling Instagram signals its ambition to become a more mobile, photo-sharing space. Social communities, like Instagram, offer a much more intimate, curated look into people’s lives. While people do over-share and promote on Instagram, there is a level of consideration you rarely find on Facebook.
And some would go so far to say that the over promotional nature of Facebook can be detrimental to your mental health. A new study shows that spending too much time on Facebook can lead to depression, while others have suggested it can also lead to loneliness. Because Facebook gives the illusion that people lead perfect, happy lives, people can feel like they are not living up to their peers.
A recent piece on Read Write Web called “Now is the Time to Quit Facebook” discussed people’s growing desire for more meaningful, authentic forms of engagement. I agree with them, but I’m back on The Book for now.
Melissa Andrada is a brand and content strategist at Wolff Olins New York. She’s passionate about the intersection between technology, social good and brand. @themelissard
Did a smart car company in Argentina just create the first Twitter-based commercial?
But for the ASCII, it’s a classic setup for a car commercial—a little smart car takes the scenic route from city to country and back, eventually maneuvering into a tight parking space between two large vehicles, showing off its size.
In this case though, 456 Tweets by the company Smart Argentina (@SmartArg) tell the story. Viewed as series of Tweets, the piece is a kind of low-fi parallax scroll, or a flipbook where each Tweet is a re-Tweetable “page” that “moves” the car forward.
While the handle Tweets in Spanish, the only relevant language here is visual. Clever use of the Twitter machine. Seen anything else like this? Direct us to it if you have!
