Godrej's internal magazine Change publishes my article - "Are you ready for the information economy?". Read it here: http://issuu.com/godrej/docs/jan_2012/11.
April 27, 2012
April 06, 2012
Google's Project Glass vs. Nokia's Future Vision; why Google has it right...
By now, you must have seen Google's Project Glass video showing the future of wearable AR technology. As expected the blogosphere is abuzz with excitement, scepticism, and mockery of the concept. Some are even calling Nokia one of the first in augmented reality glasses, take this Giz post for example - "I Liked The Google Glasses Video Better In 2009 When Nokia Made It". Wearable AR has been around for many many years. See this Atlantic article which talks about MIT Media Lab technology that is 13 years old showing wearables. In fact the cyborg Steve Mann [who I have seen in person in 2002] has been wearing AR glasses for years before Nokia or Google envisioned it. ID Professor Tom MacTavish remembers a time when he met Steve Mann at a conference - once he recognised who Tom was, he pulled out a log of the last time they had met, using that as a way to start the conversation. Tom felt unequipped to match this sort of augmentation of human memory!
What makes Project Glass [the right way to say it] compelling is that it uses mature voice recognition technology, real location based prompts, and contextual computing to describe its concept. This is no longer science fiction, nor does it reside purely in engineering labs' future vision videos. This is real technology that will be on the street soon. Google co-founder Sergey Brin was seen wearing one of these at a recent event. Sure Google may mess it up, maybe their actual product may not be that compelling. But by doing it first, Google paves the way for future designers and engineers to come up with technology that will work. Wearables is where AR will shine in the future, and Google is on the right path...
[posted first on www.anijomathew.posterous.com]
March 26, 2012
Coke Freestyle, social vending machines should curate drink mashups.
Yesterday, I was at the Pei Wei diner in Chicago. It was an interesting outing, mostly because I finally got to use Coke's new Freestyle vending machines. If you do not know what Coke's new Freestyle vending machines are, head over to Coke Freestyle to learn more. I, for one, was super excited!
While I was at my table (craftily chosen next to the vending machines), I did a little informal user observation study. Of course, people were amazed by the features of the new machine. Most people would spend a few minutes exploring their options. One couple talked about the options with each other before choosing their drink. But here is the kicker - not one person (in about 10-12 people who used it during my short observation period) explored mixing different drinks. The whole point of this new machine is that you can mix and mashup drinks. All the people I saw went through the choices and then picked one drink, and then walked away.
Granted this was not a rigorous study by any means, but it led to me asking why...I think by providing people with so many choices, I think Coke is confusing people more than helping them. So what do they do? They default to known preferences, something they are used to.
Here is a thought - what if Coke curated some drink choices? Maybe even get some of their brand ambassadors to endorse drink mashups. This way one option would be to choose your own mashup, another would be select something a celebrity has endorsed. Then have a story page connected to each mashup, so that people can brag about them:
"Oh what are you having?"
"I am having an Oprah Winfrey mix, the one she drank at the Oscars"
Better yet connect the Freestyle to social media, so that users can like or dislike mashups, tweet their drink mix, or bring up favourite mixes of their friends. Pepsi is trying to do this somewhat with their Social Vending Machines, but does not go all the way.
In a world of free information, curation and the ability to curate for others will be the key to long term engagement. The Coke Freestye is a great idea but it stops one step short.
Coke, are you listening?
[posted first on www.anijomathew.posterous.com]
Patrick Whitney dreams for Steelcase
Steelcase is celebrating their 100 year anniversary by inviting 100 minds from around the world to dream 100 years into the future. ID's Dean Patrick Whitney is one of the dreamers. You can see his dream on Steelcase's 100.Steelcase website:
http://100.steelcase.com/mind/patrick-whitney/
February 10, 2012
ID student project TidyTilt hits 2232% funding on Kickstarter
Zahra Tashakorinia and Derek Tarnow, two students at the IIT Institute of Design designed an accessory for the iPhone called TidyTilt in Prof. Martin Thaler's workshop. One the requirements of the workshop was that students post their designs on Kickstarter for funding. So they did...Zahra and Derek asked for a modest $10,000 to start working on their product. Never in their wildest dreams would they have imagined what happened next.
On January 29, their Kickstarter venture hit $223,174 - that's 2232% more than the initial request. Clearly this is an indicator of what good design (TidyTilt) can do when applied on a great platform (Kickstarter).
Widly successful, both Zahra and Derek are now in production mode for TidyTilt. Congratulations Zahra and Derek!
January 25, 2012
India Immersion Program 2012
The India Immersion Program was an innovative program where a team from the Institute of Design (9 students led by 1 faculty member) worked with a team from Godrej& Boyce in India (9 interdisciplinary members led by the VP of Innovation) to develop solutions for a problem of strategic importance to Godrej. Through the tenure of the project, the teams immersed themselves in the emerging economy context of India through engagements with local people, place, and culture; interactions with eminent {government, design, business, and technology} personalities; as well as held design discussions with their counterparts.
The program was supported by generous funding from the Godrei group, a $3 billion conglomerate in India and the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, a leading school of Design in the US. ID students only had to bear the cost of travel to India and any expenses outside the period of the 2 week program.
4 teams of ID students and Godrej executives came up with 4 innovative strategic directions for Godrej. The final presentation was made to the General Management Council of Godrej & Boyce which includes the Chairman, Mr. Jamshyd Godrej and the Executive Director & President, Mr. Phiroze Lam.
Here are some photographs from the sparkling new Innovation Centre at Godrej that the program was housed in.
October 04, 2011
Why Amazon Fire is the new disruptor...
Yesterday, a good friend of mine casually mentioned - "You know, I pre-ordered the Amazon Fire". If reports are to be believed, 95,000+ others made the same decision. Why is this important? Well for one compare it to RIM's performance in the second fiscal quarter - only 200,000 Playbooks were sold in the entirety of that time. The Kindle Fire is not an amazing innovation by any means. It has a dual core processor, 8 GB HDD, 512 Mb RAM, NO CAMERA, and limited access to applications - by any measure this is mediocre hardware. BUT it costs $199! ONLY $199!
This is where Jeff Bezos did something smart - something which other hardware manufacturers cannot do. Hardware manufacturers (Samsung, Motorola) have one problem - they are hardware based. Which means that if Apple holds all hardware aquisition contracts for tablet hardware, they have to work around it by charging more for their device. Because thats all they have...the device. And because they hold this position, the companies (including Apple) have to continuously fight a losing battle - cutting edge hardware technology.
Bezos took an alternate position - he decided his company could make money off cloud content instead of the device. He should know - he has been working hard to make Amazon one of the best cloud based information service out there. Now all he needed was a platform to access this content - an Amazon branded platform. A "cheap" Amazon branded platform.
So what does he do? He waits. Rob Wheeler in his HBR post suggests why waiting is a good thing for disruptive innovation. He says that "Disruption occurs given two criteria. The first: that incumbents move upmarket to the most profitable segments, ignoring low-end competitors at the bottom of the market. The second: that the low-end competitor introduces a product with a scalable technology or business model advantage at its core that has the potential to displace the incumbent."
When the time was right, Bezos picked the platform that was most on a trajectory to failure - the RIM Playbook. By using the RIM Playbook as a hardware template (he hired Quanta, the same company that designed the Playbook, to design the Fire), Bezos dramatically reduced his front end design costs; by using technology that is just right (not cutting edge), Bezos reduced his supply chain costs; AND by using the same hardware platform, Amazon gave Quanta breathing room .
Now that Bezos had the price he wanted, he could focus on the experience. The Fire is so compelling, not because it is the fastest, or the lightest, or has the best camera. But because it is the BEST cloud information device out there. Better than the iPad, better than Android, and better than WP7 or 8. And Fire will change the way we interact with the cloud!
My friend invested wisely. Fire is the new iPhone. Fire is the new disruptor.
September 19, 2011
Steve Jobs explains how Apple 'got to its glory' in 1996 interview
via www.bgr.com
What caught my attention is Jobs' observation: "The problem was that Apple stood still. Even though it invested cumulatively billions in R&D, the output has not been there."
This is the problem with most big companies - the R&D is there. Money is being spent! BUT ON WHAT? Maybe its time companies took a leaf from Apple - they invest in R&D but they NEVER STAND STILL!
August 30, 2011
The Next iPhone May Be Kind Of Boring Suggests Forbes But...
via www.forbes.com
Okay - so I am not usually interested in iPhone rumours and predictions. Everyone has one and they are usually baseless . But here is one from Forbes: The next iPhone may actually not be that exciting - only a dual core processor, curved glass, NFC functionality (yawn!). BUT here is the interesting tidbit: it could work on ANY wireless carrier OR NONE AT ALL. Imagine walking into an Apple store, walking out with an iPhone5 and using it on any wireless carrier (since the phone has both CDMA and GSM radios). Or maybe you prefer to use it only through VoIP services. Now that is different.
Of course Apple is going to suggest that this is all new and innovative BUT don't forget that Google tried to bypass the wireless carriers with their NexusOne. The problem was that their initial offering worked only on TMobile and people don't really care for spending $500 bucks on a phone if you can't hold it in your hand.
Everything said and done, if this does indeed happen, it will be really exciting and game changing. Maybe not so much for the techies (yes! yes! the quad core iPhone should come out sometime in 2013) but for anyone who is interested in mobile strategy and business models.
April 26, 2010
Why games are essential ingredients for the future of design...
via shakeoutblog.com
One of my students, Raph forwarded this blog post to me and I procrastinated from reading it. Till now!
Click the link for TWO amazing videos - both of which show why Games and Game Theory will effect the way we design...
Good watch (especially the second one - Jesse Schell @ DICE, which is already quite viral).
{thanks Raph}
