Constant Garden blogged

This morning some friends have let me know that the Constant Garden project
done in Umeå with Annika and Vanessa has been mentioned in a design and technology
blog. One must be happy for the media space, and love the comments.

Presenting at SIDeR conference

Last week I had one new experience: of presenting in an international conference. The SIDeR
(student interaction design research) conference that happened in Sonderborg, DK was the
site of this premiére. My paper was about what Interaction Design could do to help in bridging
the Digital Divide gap. I believe there's much to add, to the overal context understanding and
design of new ones, and the whole experience of getting in touch with new technologies.
[ read the full paper ]

In general the topic that most captivate me was the importance of the link between field or
user studies and the concept phase, and how storytelling techniques can be used for this.
These techniques help in engaging people to the cases and to keep the whole teams informed
and involved with the projects.

It was also great to be able to revisit the city where we had the Design is a Game project back
in September 2006 and meet some old friends and other friends from Umeå who were also
presenting their work. We had a great time.

Fulfilling a childhood dream

When I was a kid, all I could think about were cars, and from early age I was an avid reader and
collector of car magazines.  Every year I waited anxiously for the issues with the pictures from
the international motor shows, specially the Geneva Motor Show, with the european concepts.
At that time, words such as design were not part of my vocabulary, but I was already fascinated
by form, shape and those marvellous machines.
Going to the Motor Show this weekend took me back in time, and realized a dream of a young
boy, that would later become a designer, not a car designer, but still fascinated by the forms
and shapes and now also by the interactions and experiences that surround the automobile
in all its expressions.
My strongest impression from the show was the amount of space dedicated to green, or eco
themes. Almost all the manufacturers showed either a model, a concept of a range of techno-
logies dedicated to reduce significantly or to zero the polluting emissions. Green for some and
blue for the hydrogen were everywhere, and even the oficial guide magazine brought the theme
on its editorial note: "A car can be beautiful, efficient and economical in terms of consumption
and polluting emissions. This revolution was necessary and vital" writes the editor in chief of the
L'illustré.

The revolution is not only made of engineering achievements. Interaction design also plays a role
in it. In the Eco Panda concept by FIAT, a USB drive is stuck to the dashboard and records the car's
emissions according to the driver's style. Later, plugging the USB to the computer, a software
analyses the data and instructs the driver on how to drive more efficiently.

See more pictures from the Motor Show here

First week in the new place

Since last saturday I've been living in Grenoble, France. I moved to attend an internship at
Xerox Research Center Europe, It's my first chance to test for real the knowledge from the
Interaction Design Masters. So far the work subject, group, location and the city have been
fantastic. The city is nice and warm with great mountains around, that make my new horizons
very interesting to look and live. More to come soon.

Environment Hacking

 

 

Last friday our class was invited by Matt Ratto, researcher in the HumLab at Umeå university to
participate in a one day workshop, that among other discussions, brought up the hacking activity,
where people adapt or transform objects or the space to suit their needs, specially in a way that
was not foreseen. It was a great opportunity and training to go around the university campus
looking for examples of this kind of activity. In the pictures we see a shortcut being created and
a doublesignage hacking: the new sign that was inserted over the fence was painted over to show
the new direction.

Activities or solutions like that are quite interesting for designers, and a good example of
this is the book by Jane Fulton Suri, from IDEO: Toughtless Acts.  In it, the author shows a great
collection of ideas and solutions, that inspire us to use them and to keep our eyes open.