People are already cyborgs

Donna Haraway writes about us being cyborgs, connected and dependent on the technology around us. Jepp, part of you brain is on the Internet and on your mobilephone Harraway is "a leading thinker about people's love/hate relationship with machines". Jepp, she is also into this perspective that we need to understand peoples relationships to technology, and even that human and machine are not possible to separate any longer. I don't agree fully, but I think it says something about our relationship to technology. Living "without that part of your brain" is like living without glasses  when having really bad sight. You feel cut off from reality. You loose something of yourself and you ability to take part in society and to perceive,  reflect and communicate.

Harraway also tackles "masculine bias in scientific culture and sees herself as the troubled "modest witness" of the ethical maelstrom of genetic engineering" 

Read more at: 

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway_pr.html

By the way, Donna is coming to Uppsala in 30 of October!

Design in progress

Communicating and  presenting the design process continiously for stakeholders becomes more and more important for designers. Especially in service design, because then the "product" is never really finished. Its an ongoing process and the user value is created continiously at different touchpoints. This also  why companies are adviced to have a a group that constantly work with user input and how to improve the service. This, and other hints comes from UX practioners:

http://www.uie.com/articles/best_practices/


http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/emerging_best_agile_ux_practice.html

http://www.thinkingandmaking.com/view/agile-ux-six


http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2007may/agile-ucd.html



This and more  examples of  advices for best practice for UX in agile environments, is found here: http://www.quora.com/How-do-UX-practices-fit-with-agile-development-practices

What is your food culture?

Learning about the culture of eating without hands.  Its a challenge... but people ARE very creative in finding ways. Finding their own culture and manner. This is where true innovative ideas occur.

But, eating is about aesthetics and pleasure and meetings and cultures and lifestyle....
not just eating.

Its like, why do people take a shower or a bath?
Not necessarily to get clean. Its plesuare, rituals, lifestyle etc

- To wake up.
- To prepare for bed.
- To get warm.
- To feel warm.
- To reflect.
- To meditate.
- To reduce pain.
- To do something.
- To get away.
- To prepare oneself for a meeting.
- To look good in the hair.
- To avoid a burn injury.
- Etc.

Showering can also be approached as a culture. Just like eating is a culture.


http://wikieducator.org/Lesson_19:_Disability_and_Rehabilitation_Part_1

Experience design or service design?

What is service design and what is interaction design or experience design:

- The methods are (almost) the same
- But service design involves a bigger perspective, and requires an understanding of different touchpoints..


http://www.enginegroup.co.uk/service_design/v_page/service_design_and_user_experience_same_or_different

When inventing new services and artefacts it interesting to consider cultural differences affecting values. And values in a society may change...

The psychologist Shalom Schwartz has elaborated a widely accepted value model that consists of 10 human value types. These are ordered along two major dimensions: openness to change vs. conservation and self-enhancement vs. self-transition (see Figure). Extensive research in numerous countries has confirmed the validity of this model across cultures. However, cultures may differ in their value priorities.

http://www.migration.uni-jena.de/project4/values/index.php

Conventional wisdom

The blogger Anders Gustavsson have read Freakonomics and is discussing some interesting thoughts about conventional wisdom, and how people tend to believe things that the (their) majority believe in...

http://andersgustafsson.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/konventionell-visdom/
(in swedish)

Crowdsourcing

This is old, but still interesting: Crowdsourcing. Picture databases such as Istockphoto.com and flickr are good examples of this. Instead of buying a picture from a professional, you now buy your picture (or use it for free if allowed) from anyone sharing their pictures. The special practice has converged into something everyone can be part of making money on... as long as you create pictures that someone else wants.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html