“Chipchase [well-known design researcher for Nokia] and his team conduct ethnographic research throughout the world, focusing on emerging behavior related to mobile technologies, and they’ve pioneered several techniques. As a core element of UCD, ethnographic research is a type of participatory design that is typically used to actively engage users and reveal insights without overtly influencing the context of use. In an ongoing project called Nokia Open Labs, Jan and his team are flipping this traditional model on its head.
Instead of recruiting users anonymously in a given community, the Open Labs team takes participatory design out into the open — to the commons — as an active form of community engagement. Chipchase uses posters, events, and prizes to attract as large a cross section of the community as he can. In the process, he creates a network of influence, and the result is a type of social cohesion that builds community consensus around the idea of exploring new possibilities and embracing new futures. Yes, one of the objectives of these activities is to inform the design of Nokia’s products and services. But that may take years to realize. In the meantime, Chipchase achieves a more immediate and direct impact in the community through a change in mindset. He’s creating fertile ground for new social practices to emerge — in this case around mobile technologies.”
From: Design With Intent – How designers can influence behavior
Today, the Lab is evolving into something much bigger from where it started:
Nokia Open Lab, held in Helsinki, is an event with the aim of provoking global discussion on a mobile future. The event is the first of its kind hosted by Nokia, where an invited set of social media participants from bloggers to forum members and everyone in between will be taking part in workshops that will focus on the future of mobile and co-creation of media. The event’s benchmarks of learning for both the attendees and Nokia include how social interactions and technological interactivity affect us.
What about US?
Could we do this at In-sync? How about an “Innovation for Well-being Conference” where we as host invite thought leaders and innovative designers from the various genres and discuss the meaning of well-being in healthcare industry? Artists, scientists, yoga teachers… it could be an event of unorthodox mix, where unlikely members collaborate and discuss an idea.
The creative conference event I did in Japan, Public/image.METHOD was a based on a concept like this. We invited 10 creators (artists, designer, IT, photographer, anime director, web designer, etc) and put them in teams of two. We had 5 very diverse and unlikely paired collaborative teams – each with a different theme or collaboration project. The event was meant to become a platform of collaboration, inspiration and new product launching pad.
The event, for the agency (ANSWR) that I was working for, was not only a new product but also a very clever way to market itself. As the target of the conference was the top creative influencers in Tokyo, we chose the speakers and themes accordingly, based on what’s up and coming and fresh. At the end of the event, ANSWR’s name was known in the industry as the “it” agency.
COULD WE DO THIS???
