For example, I recently had a trip to the hairdressers. This is usually something I dread and want to be over in as little time as humanly possible. However on this occasion it was surprisingly pleasurable. But what was different this instance from previous others? It wasn’t until I got home and thought about it that I realized all the little human actions and interactions that had taken place. While I waited for my turn, I was presented with a cup of tea, a biscuit and a chocolate. When ready, the hairdresser asked for me by name and introduced herself. She pulled out a chair and sat down facing me to discuss what I would like to get done. The cut was fast and efficient. When leaving, she said goodbye, again by name. What is the additional cost of this approach to all the others I had previously been subjected to? A few euro for some chocolate and biscuits. The rest was changes in the behavior of the service provider, the small things that related me to her. It was down to such a fine art that I was unaware of the subtle differences, only that I enjoyed the experience as a whole.

It is often the interactions, frequently viewed as padding to the service, which leaves the biggest impression on the customer. Being aware of the client throughout the process, rather then exclusively concentrating on the end result, will provide a well-rounded service, which caters to both the functional and emotional. It is the small differences which will emotionally link the customer to the company and greatly increase the chance of a return customer.

Note: Can anyone confirm that all iPhone 3G’s arrive charged?

The successful soloist is likely to realize the more creative outcome, whereas the successful team is likely to realize the more meaningful outcome.

I may be reading too much into this, but one of the tenets of design thinking is around collaboration. Although an insanely creative solution has benefits, it is worthless without meaning to the end user. Solo creativity begins to become more about art, whereas successful design innovation is about the user.

Next up to the University of Cardiff where I was kindly granted a tour of the Product Development Research (PDR) Centre before meeting some of the folks across the corridors at Design Wales. The Rapid Prototyping and Injection Moulding services that PDR provide to surrounding SMEs are really impressive and I think that a facility such as PDR would serve local industry around the North West of Ireland extremely well. I also got to see the Rapid Prototype model they developed for Ross Lovegrove’s (renowned industrial designer) award winning water bottle design. Very cool! Across then to the offices of Design Wales, where I came away very impressed by both their design promotion and support operations. Design Wales are also leading a very interesting European Interreg funded project entitled SEEdesign. This project provides a network for the dissemination of good practice relating to design support for small companies (SMEs). It is made up of seven European partners who are cooperating in order to capture and build upon the knowledge accumulated within the various design support programmes that aims to improve the effectiveness of the support provided for local SMEs relating to design issues in Europe.

Avoiding the blizzards in Cardiff, I headed on up to UMIST where I called in to see Professor Bruce Tether at Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC). Bruce is well respected in the area of Innovation Management and Strategy where he has extensively published around the areas of systems innovation and measurement of innovation activities. His research interests also extend to the relationship between design and innovation, which occupied a large space of conversation. Bruce kindly gave me a copy of his recently published book ‘Design Inspired Innovation’ which I highly recommend.

After whistle-stop tour of London, Cardiff, Manchester, it was time to catch my flight back to Knock. I was fortunate that I was able to avoid the heavy snowstorms in the UK, and I was looking forward to getting home. After nodding off on my flight over the Irish sea, I awoke upon hitting the runway, only to discover that it wasn’t the runway in Knock we had landed on, but that of Shannon over a hundred miles away!! Apparently Knock airport was closed with heavy a snowfall. I guessed I wasn’t going to be home any time soon, and I was right, I wasn’t!!

Anyone else want to go back to school?

Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple, suggests that it is “the world’s most advanced phone.” Can a 2G or 2.5 G phone be described as the most advanced phone? Can a phone that has been designed to make texting difficult be called the world’s most advanced phone? Text messaging has succeeded by accident as an alternative to QWERTY where other systems have tried but failed i.e. Agenda’s Microwriter of the mid 80’s. The iPhone doesn’t have the keypad layout, predictive texting or even keys that give the sensory feedback necessary for fast texting. The automatic input techniques of expert texters who barely have to glance at either the screen or the keys have been totally overlooked. With the iPhone you need both hands as opposed to ‘the dexterous thumb’. Texting is far more important than talking to a very large percentage of people on this side of the Atlantic (Near East). It’s the language of a generation. The iPhone is too big, cumbersome and precious. It demands too much respect for what is essentially a very utilitarian tool. Phones end up in bags and pockets with keys and loose change. The iPhone won’t inspire mobile operators.

The bigger screen size combined with the touch screen finger input allows for easy typing of URLs. This is a good thing. But it is still a small screen to view a whole web page of content. It’s a compromise. On websites that you are familiar with navigation should be easy enough. But on a first hit you’re going to have a lot of zooming and panning or “pinching and scrolling” to do. Not to mention download times of ?? 30 to 60 secondzzzzzzzzzzz on the not so advanced 2.5 G networks.
The album “cover flow” mode of browsing through your record collection rocks, to use an appropriate parlance. I think they’ve really nailed the digital age version of flicking through the 12” vinyl at the record store on your way home from school. (The artwork of record sleeves was probably the first intro into, if not the only experience of the world of visual arts for a lot of people). From the demo I saw, Apple have really got something here.

It’s a techie’s dream, it’s fun, it’s a gadget. It’s sexy but it is not, as Jobs has claimed “five years ahead of any other mobile phone.” Face it Steve, it’s an iPod with phone, web, camera and email capabilities.

To quote Jonathan Ive “it’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.”

Oh yeah, and as for the social consequences of this device? In an ever more alienating world, some people wear their iPods all night long in bed. Now with the iPhone they can just stay plugged in 24/7 and get all their news, do all their chatting, shopping, playing, without plugging out. Matrix anyone….?