Sketching Innovation: Aiding Thinking From Concept to Cocktail Napkin To Creation

Sketching Innovation: Aiding Thinking from Concept to Cocktail Napkin to Creation

It all may starts with the sketch! Having worked side by side with various graphic designers at advertising agencies, interactive design firms, and public relations firms, I have personally observed how creative players digest information and and conceive of new ideas in a graphic way. These conceptualizations often end up in a preliminary sketch. In his book, “Sketching User Experiences,” author Bill Buxton calls sketching an “aid to thought.” These initial concepts provide timely, inexpensive expressions of an idea, concept or product and give collaborative teams a rallying point for discussions. Future discussions, centered around the sketch, may ultimately advance the product development. During the course of 805, I too have used sketching as an “aid to thinking” with the creation of the wine label, the animated poem and the website.

Many stories have been told of venture capitalists meeting with entrepreneurs in coffee shop and bars, to leave with a “cocktail napkin” sketch of a technology or business model.   Product developers and interactive designers use a number of techniques in creating innovative products. For example, today we witness a movement from interface design to “experience design” with websites and technology products. Author Buxton points to the advent of “interaction” experiences such as creating an orange juicer to usability testing. I am reminded of a 1999 experience that I had with a dot-com company seeking to perform retail sales on their website. The advertising agency representing the company chose to perform a focus group of people actually navigating the website to poll their reaction, the patterns and find obstacles for retail behavior. Today we focus on maximizing the user experience with technology. Yet I wonder if this experience is designed to save time, thus giving us more time to experience more technologies. Nevertheless, as humans we do seek positive interactions with the tools and technologies around us to complete our daily tasks. Yet, sometimes our experiences may not be as authentic as we believe.   

One of the interesting aspects of the Buxton book was the “Wizard of Ox technique” that showcases how innovators often use conjured artificial systems to provide users with preliminary experiences before the “real” system exists. The book cites an airline ticket kiosk that was created in 1971, allowing travelers to access boarding passes via a kiosk – that was actually staffed by a real person behind the wall. So 40 years ago, we witnessed the “puppeteering” of innovative concepts while technology caught up. Today, technologists are imagining new frontiers as technology innovations quadruple their pace with microchip miniaturization, data processing and storage, telecommunications and satellite capabilities. The Wizard of Oz effect may still exist as new technology products emerge and customers experience things that are a patchwork of human intervention and technology.

From the preliminary sketch to the authentic user experience, human beings are grasping new technologies and mastering new ways of completing various tasks. Design’s integral role will continue to play out in sketches and creative concepts, bringing innovation from the cocktail napkin to reality.

A Performance of the Written Word: Online Content

        In the book, Evolving Perspectives on Computers and Composition Studies, authors Nancy Kaplan of Cornell and Patricia Sullivan of Purdue, explore issues related to emerging computer  technologies and the traditional “written word.” In Chapter 1, Kaplan explores the pedagogical implications of emerging media. Citing renowned media theorists such as McLuhan, Goody and Ong, Kaplan states that, “The conventions of the book have organized not simply the text but the world: what we can know and how that knowledge is organized for retrieval.” Advancing that concept further, online databases and digitizing of information takes that to the next level. Kaplan asserts, “the computing revolution is above all else, a writing revolution… as it expands the reach that a text can attain.” I was interested in the insights of the author regarding intellectual property. She stated that the printed word: “Is fixed and stable and can acquire economic value; it can be copyrighted and owned by its producer or publisher.” Today, the intellectual property rights of new media forms remain in flux with the case law associated with privacy, data mining and trademarks remaining  ever-changing. When it comes to education, Kaplan states that while a book can “represent” content, it cannot perform it. As the digital age advances, we do in fact see more initiatives associated with the performances of digital content and educational materials for online course delivery. Degree programs, trade programs and certifications are now offered online.  

The second  chapter by Sullivan, “Taking Control of the Page: Electronic Writing and Word Publishing,” explores the relationship between electronic publishing and theories of writings. Sullivan cites Walter Ong who states: “technology constantly remakes the way in which we communicate and even think.” While dated as it ties back o the late 1980s, to 1990s it provides a solid overview of the advent of desktop publishing tools and its accompanying impact on education, business and perceptions. In the final analysis, Sullivan states that the “control” that writers gain is temporary, situational and heuristic rather than all-encompassing and thus lends itself to a need for rhetorical theory. She posits various areas of further discussion including the role of the author the interaction of the author with the technology and the pedagogy of electronic writing.

These chapters, while dated, provide perspectives for future educators of technology-enabled writing.  As we advance beyond the textbook to interactive communications, we truly adapt to a new way of thinking and perceiving. Contemporary and future scholars must continue to monitor and document adaptation of the written word and its impact on the education, business and human communications.    

Pass the Tissue Box ... It's Another Tear-Jerking Animated Movie

Media, Remediation and More During the Digital Age

As a mother watching Toy Story with my children, sometimes I have to remember that it is “just an movie” as the producers pull at my heartstrings. When the beloved Jessie doll is thrust under the bed as her toy owner grows and no longer appreciate her, tears begin to fall … until I realize that it’s a doll! An Animated doll no less.  Or then there was the time the waterworks turned on again as a I watched the feature-length movie UP!, watching the scenic life of the professor pass by and the grief over the loss of his wife depicted on the animated screen. I was actually choked up about the relationship between two animated characters.

Mission accomplished for Pixar Studios as they deftly removed the vehicle of animation and computer graphics from the equation, providing a rich cultural experience.  “They made the settings, the toys and the human characters look as much as possible like live-action film,” said Bolter and Grusin. And this “stripping away of the digital vehicle” is what makes media scholars, professors, media content producers and students of the contemporary era wonder about the impact of this new content.   

The book by Bolter and Grusin cites Marshal McLuhan’s 1964 book, “Understanding Media,” in which he said: “The content of any medium is always another medium.” This tenet perhaps lies at the core of the contemporary definition of remediation, “the representation of one medium in another.”  

Bolter and Grusin’s book sets forth a multitude of concepts regarding remediation, mediation, immediacy and hypermediacy, drawing on historical art theories and “contemporary” streams of thought. The text was a little troublesome, as it provided some historical (read outdated) examples for CD-ROms and other technology forms that have been radically displaced by the web, streaming audio, streaming video and other technology rich solutions.

Nevertheless, the concepts of remediation, immediacy and hypermediacy remain strong today and merit further discussion and evaluation.  As our media habits have matured, we have gone from a fascination with “photography and cinema” to scratching our itch for immediacy with lie, real-time content generated from the Internet.  

The book cites the advent of Microsoft windows, a graphical user interface that fades into the background. It is a tool that constantly pulls the user between manipulating the windows and examining their context. This lends itself to a dramatic multiplicity that hypermediacy perpetuates.

Further, Bolter and Grusin point to the fact that hypermediacy expresses the tension between regarding the visual space as mediated and as a “real” space that lies beyond mediation. Some, including Lanham have called this the difference between looking “through” and looking “at”.

So, with all of that said, as moviegoers pack the popcorn and candy, the experience of digitally-animated films provide us not only with a fantastic  entertainment, but a journey-ride through remediation in the digital age. Pass the tissue box!  

The Smart Money Finds a Culture of Innovation

Software Innovation Market Trends Apply to …. Everything

Contemporary businesses needs a culture of innovation that drives product development. The days of incremental change and product line extensions are gone, as the diminishing return or new market debuts and consumer attention spans wane. Let’s take a look at how lessons from software innovation invade multiple vertical marketplaces for new product adoption and market sustainability.  Author Bill Buxton  in his book, “Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design,”  cites the trend for software manufacturers to develop new products sometimes known as “n+1” – one with enhanced functionality that appeals to the marketplace. Unfortunately, though the incremental costs of these subsequent releases diminishes profitability. We have seen this many times over with Microsoft products, Quickbooks accounting software and many others. Buxton states that the reasons why the profit drops are four-fold: the products increase in complexity, the installed base grows and disruptive changes are not tolerated, the low handing fruit has been picked with both features and customers and lastly, as the product has grown, the product has gone through “feature bloat” to a point of diminished return.

The aforementioned circumstances occur at a time when the marketplace is shrinking and the attention span of consumers is drifting to another trendy software. Thus, there is always a compelling need to develop and market new products. The lesson in these circumstances – create a culture of ongoing research and development to seek out new innovation with a vengeance for innovation. Research and development groups may at times get bogged down in the n+1, n+2, or n+3 mentality. This is devastating to the organization. While interim product innovation provides a temporary life in sales and market movement, the erosion of innovation and long term sustainability of the company may be falling apart.

Savvy venture capitalists remain wise students of this phenomenon and they actively search for and invest in software companies that have more than a “one trick pony.” A one trick pony may be a good idea for the inventor who may be able to ultimately monetize the invention through a strategic sale, but a company with a culture of innovation that pervades the executive suite, the research and development group, marketing and all branches of the company provide the right investment --- the place for smart VC money.

While Buxton’s book cites numerous software and technology innovations, including an in-depth case study of Apple and the successive iPod debuts, these innovation cycles apply to nearly everything, most notably many consumer products that we touch every day.  Smart business executives, designers, researchers, marketers and professional communicators seek that culture of innovation that goes beyond n+1 to true, “box breaking” innovation because it maintains top line growth and bottom line profitability.

     

A Tale of Transmedia Story Telling

A Further Discussion of Convergence Culture By Henry Jenkins

A Tale of Transmedia Story Telling  

As we continue our discussion of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins, we turn our attention to the phenomenon of transmedia story telling – depicting a theme or story line over multiple media platforms. To illustrate this technique, Jenkins addresses The Matrix – a  movie that aptly crosses over multiple media formats and depicts convergence in one of its truest forms. Jenkins states that “the Matrix is a transmedia story that unfolds across multiple media platforms, each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution in the whole.” He further asserts that transmedia storytelling permits the “best of the best” with each media form capturing storytelling that yields the most rewarding experience for the audience.  “In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best – so that a story might be introduced in film, expanded through television, novels and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as a movie.” As consumers, we seek transmedia storytelling in our lives as it simplifies our pop culture experience and simultaneously gives us a uniform story that we can grasp, appreciate and share with our friends and colleagues. We talk about these “transmedia” stories around the water cooler and they permeate our lives. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Does transmedia storytelling enrich our viewing experience or regurgitate the same story over and over again?”  

While we may appreciate the benefits of transmedia story telling, it should not be overlooked -- or forgotten -- that this phenomenon is the outgrowth of the horizontally-integrated entertainment industry. As Jenkins states, “A good transmedia franchise works to attract multiple constituencies by pitching the content somewhat differently in the different media.” Nevertheless, it is a slight variation on the same theme. So, we must ask, “Are we getting the vanilla version of everything to maximize the profits of media giants?”   

Even Jenkins agrees: “We do not have very good aesthetic criteria for evaluating works that play themselves out across multiple media.” Jenkins cites the fact that to date there are too few transmedia stories to measure. Perhaps that is true, but perhaps it is the story of things to come. As consumes, we mus ask ourselves if we will tolerate transmedia story telling as the re-hashing of a familiar story over and over again to various forms of monotony.