Not two words you expect to see together, nonetheless I have been blown away by the ambition of the new TRIL centre (Technology Research for Independent Living). In a joint venture between Intel and the IDA, the team at TRIL are taking design for accessibility to new levels in their approach to some of the most common human problems as we age. They describe themselves as:

“a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing, all informed by ethnographic research and supported by a shared pool of knowledge and engineering resources.”

I would say that they are taking core design principles and applying them to one of the largest problems we face: the aging population. We really want to work with these people.

William Gibson’s glorious observation that “the future is already here; it is just not evenly distributed” is one of the best arguments I know for high quality ethnographic research. Undertake enough observation and you will start to get user insights about what the future will be.

Nevertheless, it is always useful to get a helping hand when it comes to predicting the future. I am no great fan of “futurology”; it always seems either too simplistic (extend the trend) or too complex (study the chicken entrails).

Courtesy of those brilliant people at Experientia I was directed to a recent collection of papers called Sigma and Delta foresight scans that look ahead at developments over the next 50 years. The research was commissioned by the UK Office of Science and Innovation’s Horizon Scanning Centre, and complied by futures researchers, Outsights-Ipsos Mori partnership and the US-based Institute for the Future (IFTF).

The papers look forward at emerging trends in science, health and technology. As well as assessing the current state of thinking they also examine the possible implications for society. The sites are clunky but the insights are very sound.

via Experientia (and Louis) …

Though written primarily for a design audience, this collaboration between Cheskin and the AIGA is an excellent primer on how ethnography supports successful design.

Great design always connects with people. To truly connect, designers need to have compassion and empathy for their audiences. Designers need to understand the relationship between what they produce and the meaning their product has for others. Enter ethnography.

Download the report here

via Metroplis Magazine …

Mary Foyder/courtesy IDEO

IDEO’s Smart Spaces group takes on ‘urban planning’ by applying it’s user-focused methods on capturing the spirit of a Kansas City neighborhood.

IDEO immersed themselves in “the Vine,” applying the multidisciplinary method they bring to nearly all their projects, whether bathroom cleaners or hotel rooms. They hosted “whine and dines” (focus-group dinners), walked the streets, ate in the restaurants, did historical research, took photographs, and interviewed dozens of people about the neighborhood, sometimes on videotape. Part anthropology (with IDEO’s trained anthropologists), part site exploration (with IDEO’s trained architects), part documentary filmmaking (with IDEO’s trained media artists), their approach is to seek the qualitative essence of the community from the perspective of the community.

Read the article