“Sometimes concept cars are created not to show to the public but only to inspire those inside the corporation (…) concept cars are three-dimensional question marks that ask ‘What if?’.
“Concept cars are dream machines, vehicles that we eagerly hope will provide a forecast of our own automotive future (…) through the artistic eyes and creative mind of the auto designer”.
Larry Edsall’s “Concept Cars“, a book published by Barnes & Noble.
When working on defining consumer products and applications, conceptual design becomes a crucial research technique enabling teams to further explore the potential of ideas, options and features. Designers can synthesize and visually communicate key aspects of the user experience more effectively than what lengthy discussions alone or written documentation can possible achieve.
As part of the process, sketches morph into mockups which, in turn, evolve into prototypes testing specific use cases and features. At this point, delivering measurable results means involving both resident and external users as part of conjoint analysis and usability testing. This kind of research relies on trial, error and refinement, rapidly iterating as needed to be able to innovate.
Selected concepts should be shared with actual customers to gather direct insights on what’s of value to them. This becomes a basis for design and feature prioritization as well as product roadmapping. However, there could be design concepts which could lead to design inflation if mistakenly positioned as close representations of what can be delivered. This means overpromising and, eventually, failing to meet customer expectations.
There are two tracks worth considering. One is concept design involving near term products, while the other is about forward looking experimentation. Both might have to be developed in parallel. Forward looking work is about leveraging design foresight to provoke strategy and innovation. As Bob Johansen states in “Get There Early” this is about being able to “sense the future to compete in the present”:
“It’s the ultimate paradox for leaders: you can’t predict the future, but you must make sense of it in order to thrive. To be successful, leaders need to sort out what’s important, devise strategies based on their own point of view, and get there ahead of the crowd”.
“But most leaders today are just concerned about getting there in time. Many are even willing to settle for getting there fashionably late. They focus on quick-fix problems, avoiding the kinds of long-term dilemmas that will characterize the future”.
“CloudPrint is a new service that allows you to share, store and print documents easily using your mobile telephone. From your desktop computer, print your documents to the CloudPrint “virtual printer” and your print job will live “in the cloud”.
“When you print a document to CloudPrint, we’ll notify all the people you send it to with an SMS message containing a unique document code. With just your telephone number and that document code, you can retrieve your documents from anywhere. Send CloudPrints to yourself to easily make your documents accessible wherever you go, or send CloudPrints to friends. Now wherever your go, your documents can go too”.
“Cut the cord“ is something we have been hearing for the past few years from well known vendors such as Nokia (2003 press release) when illustrating the sense of freedom implied in a truly mobile user experience enjoying voice, video and data communications anytime, anywhere. Here is another example from Intel showcasing new devices to that end:
In the meantime, the telecommunications industry has also delivered hybrid solutions under the “convergence” term, which involve [a] fixed broadband connections (e.g. DSL, Cable, Fiber) coupled with [b] relatively small wireless base stations (e.g. WiFi and Femtocells) and [c] a new category of mobile devices which are also able to seamlessly connect to cellular networks. In any case, the vision on the user experience remains cordless or wireless, which ever term works best.
A great variety of consumer electronics can also wirelessly sync up with one another (e.g. phones with earpieces, laptops, printers, etc.) when in proximity by leveraging Bluetooth and Wireless USB to name a couple of increasingly popular examples. And, as shared in quite a few of my previous posts, a growing number of services live in the cloud, such as HP’s new printing service, further illustrating the Web 2.0 trend.
You can also kiss the power cord goodbye. Check out Wildcharge’s new product (conductive charging). Their pad can charge up to five devices simultaneously. If interested in this, I would also suggest visiting ecouple’s website (inductive charging).
One can only guess that future releases of these “cable free chargers” will eventually be leveraged by all kinds of consumer electronics, including large flat HDTV sets, which can be hanged up as if they were picture frames anywhere you like. Speaking of which, you would not need to worry about the cable jack either: Amimon talks about WHDI™ technology for the wireless delivery of uncompressed HDTV throughout the home with video rates of up to 3Gbps, with the same quality as a wired connection and no latency.
The following is just a collage of relevant trends portraying paradigm shifts worth studying. The first one points to the fact that while broadband access was first deployed thinking of business productivity (and corporate IT budgets), but it turns out that the consumer market is driving quite a few of the most interesting innovations:
“In many cases, business are following -not leading- when it comes to network-based service innovation. This is particularly true of high-bandwidth media applications (…) The functionality associated with social network and the growth of online media isn’t slowing down; rather it’s spreading rapidly. Today’s multimedia and Web 2.0 trends are merely a forerunner to the Internet environment of the future (…) We expect mobile networks increasingly will be used to access multimedia content and visit community sites”.
The overall number of wireless subscribers is confirmed to grow quickly by all accounts:
“There are now considerably more mobile wireless subscribers than wireline switched access lines – something that was hard to imagine when the Telecommunications Act passed in 1996″.
“Another growing trend is wireless substitution. The migration from wireline to wireless is taking hold – in terms of minutes of use, as well as consumers who “cut the cord” or those who never sign up for wireline service (…) For a growing segment of the population, mobile wireless has become their only telecommunications service”.
“Wireless broadband subscription also is growing (…) in the first half of 2006, 59% of new broadband customers opted for mobile wireless broadband services”.
Market analysts forecast broadband services becoming a substantial part of wireless operator’s mainstream revenues, which is significantly different from today’s market where voice calls remain the predominant source in most cases:
“Mobile broadband will represent close to half of all mobile service revenues in 2012, making it one of the largest and most strategically important segments of the mobile industry (…) Some mobile broadband vendors and operators are clearly betting that a significant number of fixed broadband subscribers will migrate to mobile broadband”.
Mike Roberts, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, as quoted by Robert Jaques on vunet.com
“According to research carried out by Juniper, there will be over 1.2 billion people using mobile broadband on mobile phones and laptops by 2012 (…) The ‘Internet outside’, as I’m going to call it, means much more than just being able to search Google at a bus stop. The Internet outside means having access to information and services almost everywhere you go, which will change how those services work and what they offer”.
Andthe number of mobile broadband subscribers could end up being larger than those on fixed broadband:
“Revenues from mobile broadband services will generate more than $400 billion globally by 2012. In 2011, there will be more mobile than fixed broadband subscribers”.
“The arrival of the mobile web on the mobile handset over in 2007 and beyond will see users embracing the same content they take for granted on their PCs (…) Operators need to ensure they are firmly locked into this value chain, or risk missing out on what will be an enormous market by 2011″.
“The MediaCart™ system helps shoppers save time and money by being more in control of their shopping trip. Shoppers can locate products in the store; check prices; view store specials, shopping lists, recipes, and nutritional information; and scan products at their cart”.
I’ve been using MediaCart’s shopping carts for a couple of months already at ShopRite in Parsippany, New Jersey. At the store’s entrance you can still choose between picking up a regular shopping cart or a newer and enhanced MediaCart, which features a bar code scanner and a computer screen as seen in these pictures below.
I suggest watching the following video to better understand its capabilities:
This other one showcases Fujitsu’s version, adding a mobile phone:
Note that not all of the MediaCart features have been implemented at the store I am currently shopping at. While I was able to get product listings, information and multimedia ads on the spot, the automatic checkout system has not been deployed at that location. So, every single item still needs to be manually scanned.
On a couple of occasions, MediaCart’s greeters told me that these new carts happen to be equipped with GPS. I guess that was their way of implying that this is a location sensitive system. MediaCarts incorporate RFID technology instead, since GPS would not be able to deliver aisle level accuracy. Nonetheless, that anecdote reminded me about a couple of other interesting things related to location services, which at some point might end up being part of your grocery shopping experience.
For instance, at the bottom of the above collage you can also see an orange like picture of NearbyNow’s poster at the Fox Valley Shopping Center in Aurora, IL. This one is encouraging shoppers to use their mobile phones: when sending a text query (SMS) for a brand, product or sale, in exchange you get text messages with relevant information such as current promotions and discounts. Also this past summer, when enjoying the Harry Potter’s festivities in downtown Naperville, IL, we were handed paper bookmarks with directions to download Electronic Arts’ mobile game (over-the-air download), which also required sending a simple SMS to begin with.
In case you wondered about the poster that reads ”Stingray Bay Hotline” in my collage, that’s actually a picture I took this past summer at the Brookfield Zoo when patiently waiting to see the stingrays in a slow moving line. So, I called that number (+1 708 688 8954) with my mobile and got to hear a voice recording with additional information. Furthermore, callers were encouraged to share their own experiences by leaving their own comments after visiting that exhibit. Let’s connect the dots as far as what all of these could mean to our newly enhanced shopping experiences:
“[The] SplashShopper application (…) serves as an organizer for shopping-related items such as gift lists, grocery needs and DVD rentals”. The $30 downloadable application includes a synch-able desktop version and allows users to share lists with others”.
“Consumers should expect a flood of location-aware shopping applications, though, as more GPS-enabled phones hit the mass market. GPShopper is hoping to integrate such technology into its free Slifter application, which couples shopping information with community features. The service includes product images and maps to nearby stores, and users can text products to friends to create a kind of wish list”.
Mobile phones have gone even further. As an example, the following two videos talk about interfacing with vending machines and checkouts to save you from having to carry any cash or credit cards. There are a few alternative technologies facilitating this kind of shopping experience:
So far, the upper part of this post deals with what we might like to call “shopping on location“, which translates into an enhanced consumer experience. I could go on talking about shelf-checkout (e.g. Home Depot, Walmart), fingerprint payment (e.g. Jewel/Osco), electronic payments, so on and so forth; but I think MetroGroup’s videos already do an ok job at delivering the vision:
Switching tracks, the following focuses on “remote grocery shopping” from any connected PC. Peapod serves both perishable and non perishable products while Amazon will just ship the latter. Peapod has been in business for some years already. Most of their customers appear to be dual income couples or families, average basket size is $150 and regular users tend to shop at least twice a month:
“With more than 10,000 products for shoppers to choose from, Peapod boasts not just the expected selection of grocery basics, but also farm-fresh produce; restaurant-quality meats and seafood; diverse prepared foods and party trays; deli meats and cheeses (sliced to order); Kosher, organic and specialty foods; a vast selection of produce; a variety of beer, wine and beverages (in select markets); pet supplies; videos; office and school supplies and private label products from supermarket partners Stop & Shop and Giant”.
“We offer more than 22,000 non-perishable grocery items–and our selection is growing every day. We can ship all products for free, via Super Saver Shipping, Amazon Prime, or free standard shipping. We have great everyday prices plus special offers on your favorite brands. We make it exceptionally easy to find products you buy routinely, or to discover new items we think you’ll like”.
This would be the right time to talk about “virtual shopping carts” and the role of recommendation and personalization agents, but I’m thinking of making that the subject of another post. In the meantime, I would suggest having quick look at ”My Adidas Innovation Center” and “The emerging bargaining power of crowdclouts” to better understand where we might be headed.
As usual, I will welcome your comments and emails on any of these subjects.
“Matt Bross, BT’s chief technology officer, said that his firm uses a combination of external and internal innovation to drive new projects”.
“The telecoms giant has innovation scouts who research new ideas in locations such as Israel, China, Shanghai and Malaysia, while internally there is an innovation box for ideas”.
I would add South Korea to Matt’s list, as this country is experiencing a number of emerging trends worth keeping an eye on. Earlier in the year I wrote a couple of quick posts on trendhunting and coolhunting because, as Tim Studt mentioned in “The Loner is Even More Alone“, businesses can become victims of their own success when increasingly focusing on what appears to work well for them, then ‘unlearning’ the boundariless behaviors which helped them innovate in the company’s early days.
The issue is about corporate strategies gravitating towards core competencies and lean organizations when becoming “less capable of watching out for the disruptive technologies that threaten their futures”. So, it pays for high tech corporations to selectively deploy innovation scouts, British Telecom being a clear example.
Rosalie’s article also reports about Jeff Weedman’s remarks, P&G VP, who advised delegates at The Economist Innovation Awards on finding new ideas regardless of where they came from. This link on P&G’s Connect+Develop program shares some insights on how P&G interacts with the outside world. In case this subject was of interest to you, here is some more info on innovation networks: post #1 and post #2.
At the same event, Nokia’s Stephen Johnston stated that “businesses should no longer just release products to their own schedule. Instead, they should follow the market, conduct research and let go of engineering control”. The point being user centered design is becoming a limitless source of innovation and the key to remaining competitive. See Nokia’s ‘research for everyone’.
Best practices in this field often involve early awareness of emerging trends and close collaboration with users in the research, well beyond the scope of outmoded focus groups and mechanical polls and surveys.
“Although computers have become cheaper, more capable and more commonplace, they have made much less progress when it comes to ease of use”.
“Part of the problem is that programmers have traditionally had more power than designers. Programmers put in place the myriad features they want; interface designers then struggle to wrap them all in a product that is simple to use. The results, all too often, are clunky interfaces”.
Designing better graphic interfaces, meaning ones that are adaptive and allow for a more intuitive and personalized use is a step in the right direction. In parallel, more capable and responsive multimedia devices are also needed, as well as well integrated applications taking advantage of these technologies.
Since a fair amount of what we do involves being online and interacting with others, there is also a need for understanding where the web is headed. Additionally, a number users are becoming more sophisticated:
“A big trend we are seeing now is tools as content (…) across the board with the amount of time people are spending on YouTube and Facebook making user created content (…) more and more people are looking for the tools themselves to be the content”.
Glenn Entis, Chief Visual Officer at Electronic Arts.
All of these things actually matter in the context of ubiquitous computing and the implied freedom that comes from becoming fully mobile, as user friendliness also means neither being entangled by wires nor tied to a given physical location.
There is a fair amount of research going on seeking to understand whether immersive environments allow for exposing and interacting with large amounts of information more efficiently. This is sometimes related to 3D browsing in virtual online worlds as well as combining live video feeds with augmented reality.
In some other cases, the focus is on innovative ways of leveraging large displays. As an example, A few months ago I shared a list of today’s ”Minority Report GUIs“ such as: Microsoft’s Surface, EON Touchlight, Perceptive Pixel’s advanced multitouch system. The same post includes a clip of the actual sci-fi movie which back in 2002 helped us visualize this kind of HCI, human computer interaction. Have a look at this video of the ”sensitive wall” from Naturalinteraction.
As part of the above list, I would also like to mention Heliodisplay’s mid-air projector and Accenture’s wall size high def interactive screen. Last month, Siggraph’s “Best Emerging Technologies Award” went to USC’s Institute for Creative Technology in collaboration Fake Space Labs, Sony Corporation, and USC School of Cinematic Arts for the Interactive 360-Degree Light Field Display, which delivers 3D images resembling holograms by means of a fast spinning mirror which allows users to see the images without any kind of headgear:
When thinking of today’s consumer market, Apple has incorporated multitouch technology in the iPhone and, nonetheless, the company is able to charge a premium for its products thanks to its user friendly and elegant designs. There is a variety of mobile devices following that trend which are now available to the public. Microsoft is also putting greater emphasis on interface design, note that a quarter of their budget at their research lab in Cambridge goes into HCI these days. Surface, Popfly and Photosynth are clear signs of Microsoft’s interest in enabling new user experiences.
“Although computers have become cheaper, more capable and more commonplace, they have made much less progress when it comes to ease of use”.
“Their potential remains tantalizingly out of reach for people who find their control systems or ‘user interfaces’, too complex. And even people who have no difficulty in navigating menus, dialogue boxes and so on, might use computers more productively if their interfaces were better”.
“Ease of use is one area where technology firms can differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage”.
“Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency of buildings and their use of energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle”.
I’m still playing with the idea of setting up shop in Second Life. Since consultaglobal is about the business of innovation and technology, I think that a simple green building would best showcase that. Here is one of the two “virtual buildings” I’m currently designing:
“Global Innovation Exchange 2007 is a groundbreaking event focused on sharing and diffusing innovation insights, strategies and next practices from around the world”.
“This 100% virtual event provides the all the value of a face-to-face conference but in a highly innovative online format that saves you significant time and expense”.
“ECCI X aims to dissect and reanimate the debate on innovation and creativity”.
“Our two target areas will be to …
• … focus on the removal of the borders between lab and home, between product and user, and to rethink and recreate the whole dynamics between user, creativity and innovation;
• … begin the process of dismantling and recreating innovation and creativity as such – and ultimately, to innovate innovation”.
Working and researching directly with users/consumers in a collaborative fashion as well as “lead-user innovation” involving expert users have become popular design research tools in Europe.
Interestingly enough, this kind of best practices happen to be actively promoted by incentives provided by some European governments as well as enabled by initiatives such as i-City for 3G and 4G applications.
Eccix aims to deliver a forum to discuss users roles in creativity and innovation and the implications of the “co-creation” process. Through the year I have already written quite a few posts on the subject and will keep an eye on any news coming from ECCI in the next few days.
“The current explosion of AJAX-powered Web sites has helped spawn countless next-generation Web apps offering everything from simple to-do lists to complex project management, not to mention the ability to share all kinds of things — documents, calendar listings, photos, video and more”.
A couple of days ago, when blogging about “The Oscars of Invention“, I listed Access Grid Release 3.0 from Argonne National Laboratory. This online collaboration program allows teams to communicate using videoconferencing with life-size displays and full duplex, hands-free audio.
The fact that Access Grid is open source prompted me to do a quick search for “free” browser based (e.g. 2.0 environment) remote real time online presentation and collaboration tools using traditional PCs. Please note that the following list is not sorted into any particular order and includes open source (e.g. Dimdim) as well as free services subsidized by advertising, some of which also offer ad-free premium services by signing up for a monthly subscription (e.g. Vyew).
If you happen to be familiar with any of these (or any other equivalent services) please share your comments below or send me an email. Thanks!
Welcome. My name is J. de Francisco. Originally from Barcelona, I live in the Chicago area, working at Alcatel-Lucent. Most know me as "Josep" (Catalan) or "José" (Spanish).
I am the co-founder of consultaglobal, an initiative focusing on sharing and discussing innovation practices.
Views expressed here are solely my own and do not reflect those of my employer and/or partners.
You can also kiss the power cord goodbye. Check out 
Chicago, 30 October 07 
