Digital Content Design - building blocks
A major characteristic of digital content that makes it different from the traditional medium is that it can be consumed in non traditional settings. For example PARC has done identified the notion of "micro-waiting" as a new way that users engage content.
We are also exploring the categories/thresholds of "information overload." The obvious implication is how can technology help users find the nuggets of useful information given the constant deluge of data from all sources.
Embodied Interaction Framework
Beyond understanding these building blocks, there are teams at PARC exploring the issue of how to design an embodied interaction framework that leverages natural human behavior to alter system state or trigger interaction. Or, in plain(er) English, create devices/solutions where a user does not need to learn a new "language" to interact with technology. What makes PARC's approach unique is that this explicitly incorporates social science and psychology insight, also areas that PARC has a long history of advanced work, into the technology design.
Moving from Content Creation to Content Consumption
Although nobody would dispute the truism that content creation and consumption are the two sides of the same coin, people don't always think of it that way. Today, there seems to be little understanding of the consumption side beyond aggregate measurements to meet the needs of content creators/providers.
Let's flip the lens around and ask how to measure and deliver consumption pattern in the eyes of individual consumers. If we can make it seamless and nearly invisible, this could ignite the next phase of the digital revolution.
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P@P
Showing posts with label Social science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social science. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Smart Phones of Near Future and PARC's Migitti Project
New York Times on Smart Phones
Here is an article from NY Times on what the future of smart phone may look like and how key players are pushing the envelop.
PARC's Migitti project was one of the featured solutions in the article. Beyond the technology, we also deployed extensive social science analysis to ensure its usability.
Migitti Project
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P@P
Here is an article from NY Times on what the future of smart phone may look like and how key players are pushing the envelop.
PARC's Migitti project was one of the featured solutions in the article. Beyond the technology, we also deployed extensive social science analysis to ensure its usability.
Migitti Project
Activity-Based Serendipitous Recommendations with the Magitti Mobile Leisure Guide
View more presentations from begole.
===
P@P
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Digital Content Consumption - What is Next?
Digital content consumption, today
It would be an understatement to say that digital content consumption is creating a headache for the traditional providers. The latest public display was billed as Media Brawl at Web 2.0.
Digital content consumption, tomorrow
What is right around the corner is a new generation of techniques and solutions. Here are some of the areas that PARC is working on.
* Non-traditional directed consumption through user generated content such as tags
* Predictive models through sentiment analysis and machine learning
* Distributed content and security management
* Recommendation systems built on reality mining in mobile devices
Digital content consumption, the day after tomorrow
One of the areas that there does not seem to get a lot of attention is how are users actually consuming content. Most the discussions have an implicit assumption of a bygone day when a person would actually devote a chunk of time to an activity, i.e. read a news article, in front of a decent size screen. With smart phone projected to overtake laptop as the most ubiquitous mobile device, the inevitable question in a couple of years is when I am on the go with a smart phone, when and how do I want to consume content?
One of the more interesting insight that PARC has worked on already is the notion of "microwaiting." The simple scenario, albeit a bit scary, is to think of stopping your car at a red light in your morning commute. You know the wait is about 60 seconds. And, guess what, we have found that this is an example where people are very receptive to consume content. Thus the term "microwaiting".
One of the things that people don't often know about is how social science plays a key role at PARC. This is an example where this unique combination of technical and social insight leads to really interesting design and business implications.
p.s. Let me know if you want to learn more about "microwaiting". We have published a CHI paper on this topic.
===
P@P
It would be an understatement to say that digital content consumption is creating a headache for the traditional providers. The latest public display was billed as Media Brawl at Web 2.0.
Digital content consumption, tomorrow
What is right around the corner is a new generation of techniques and solutions. Here are some of the areas that PARC is working on.
* Non-traditional directed consumption through user generated content such as tags
* Predictive models through sentiment analysis and machine learning
* Distributed content and security management
* Recommendation systems built on reality mining in mobile devices
Digital content consumption, the day after tomorrow
One of the areas that there does not seem to get a lot of attention is how are users actually consuming content. Most the discussions have an implicit assumption of a bygone day when a person would actually devote a chunk of time to an activity, i.e. read a news article, in front of a decent size screen. With smart phone projected to overtake laptop as the most ubiquitous mobile device, the inevitable question in a couple of years is when I am on the go with a smart phone, when and how do I want to consume content?
One of the more interesting insight that PARC has worked on already is the notion of "microwaiting." The simple scenario, albeit a bit scary, is to think of stopping your car at a red light in your morning commute. You know the wait is about 60 seconds. And, guess what, we have found that this is an example where people are very receptive to consume content. Thus the term "microwaiting".
One of the things that people don't often know about is how social science plays a key role at PARC. This is an example where this unique combination of technical and social insight leads to really interesting design and business implications.
p.s. Let me know if you want to learn more about "microwaiting". We have published a CHI paper on this topic.
===
P@P
Friday, September 11, 2009
User-Technology Convergence with Opportunity Discovery
Translating assets and capabilities into new markets and revenues
Companies often come to PARC to develop disruptive solutions for an existing or a new market. From the company's perspective, there is a set of assets and capabilities but internal processes is not always set up to look beyond one year.
PARC's Opportunity Discovery framework has been a favor tool for companies to systematically explore markets and options.
Migitti
Here is a recent project we have developed for DNP of Japan. This should give you a flavor of what kind of work is involved with O/D
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P@P
Companies often come to PARC to develop disruptive solutions for an existing or a new market. From the company's perspective, there is a set of assets and capabilities but internal processes is not always set up to look beyond one year.
PARC's Opportunity Discovery framework has been a favor tool for companies to systematically explore markets and options.
Migitti
Here is a recent project we have developed for DNP of Japan. This should give you a flavor of what kind of work is involved with O/D
Activity-Based Serendipitous Recommendations with the Magitti Mobile Leisure Guide
View more presentations from begole.
===
P@P
Monday, July 20, 2009
Opportunity Discovery
Fail fast fail cheap
This is probably the slogan that best captures the operandi modus of Silicon Valley and, to some extent, to innovation in general. The trouble is that "fail" is a dirty word in most places outside of Silicon Valley but the innovation imperative is not any less.
Over the years, companies have looked to PARC as a partner in creating innovation solutions. And, we have developed a methodology on how to "fail fast fail cheap" without the "fail".
Now, we are talking!
PARC's Opportunity Discovery service
The insight is that while small validations upfront to test assumptions and ability to consider all adjacent applications may add some additional initial overhead, they will yield a more robust and successful result and generally result in lower overall project resource and time requirements.
With PARC's Opportunity Discovery service, or O/D, we have created a systematic framework and a set of tools to unearth market and user insights which provide the basis to design a product/service.
On a per product/project basis, O/D allows the client team to capture and share information for better decision making. At the corporate level, O/D allows the management to feel comfortable that all reasonable options have been actively considered and explored before making a large investment.
This is probably the slogan that best captures the operandi modus of Silicon Valley and, to some extent, to innovation in general. The trouble is that "fail" is a dirty word in most places outside of Silicon Valley but the innovation imperative is not any less.
Over the years, companies have looked to PARC as a partner in creating innovation solutions. And, we have developed a methodology on how to "fail fast fail cheap" without the "fail".
Now, we are talking!
PARC's Opportunity Discovery service
The insight is that while small validations upfront to test assumptions and ability to consider all adjacent applications may add some additional initial overhead, they will yield a more robust and successful result and generally result in lower overall project resource and time requirements.
With PARC's Opportunity Discovery service, or O/D, we have created a systematic framework and a set of tools to unearth market and user insights which provide the basis to design a product/service.
On a per product/project basis, O/D allows the client team to capture and share information for better decision making. At the corporate level, O/D allows the management to feel comfortable that all reasonable options have been actively considered and explored before making a large investment.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Migitti: Mobile Recommendation Systems
Reality Mining
Most of us have heard of data-mining even if we cannot write a nested query to save our lives. With the proliferation of rich-media mobile devices, there is a new gold mine in the form of reality-mining. In other words, instead of firing up a browser on my phone to do a search on Yelp and decipher what catches my fancy given where I am at, a system can be built to incorporate my personal preference and location information to give me the most tantalizing (and relevant) choices.
Migitti Project
Well. We've built one at PARC.
Here is the link to the slide-ware
http://www.slideshare.net/begole/activitybased-serendipitous-recommendations-with-the-magitti-mobile-leisure-guide
===
P@P
Most of us have heard of data-mining even if we cannot write a nested query to save our lives. With the proliferation of rich-media mobile devices, there is a new gold mine in the form of reality-mining. In other words, instead of firing up a browser on my phone to do a search on Yelp and decipher what catches my fancy given where I am at, a system can be built to incorporate my personal preference and location information to give me the most tantalizing (and relevant) choices.
Migitti Project
Well. We've built one at PARC.
Here is the link to the slide-ware
http://www.slideshare.net/begole/activitybased-serendipitous-recommendations-with-the-magitti-mobile-leisure-guide
===
P@P
Monday, July 6, 2009
Projectors today and tomorrow
Ethnography and Social Science at PARC
I suspect nobody would be surprised to know that technical merit is not the sole success factor of a technology. Everything roughly equal, the more user-centric solution usually wins.
What may be a surprise for some though is that PARC has a long history investing in ethnography and social science as part of its technology platform. And, the ability to view the world with human factors an integral part of the overall context has been viewed as an important competencies for our clients.
What is wrong with my projector?
Below is a video that talks about projects which highlights the complex issues when human and technology mix.
I will confess that it really forced me to think about how I interact with it and its potential problems. You would too!
===
P@P
I suspect nobody would be surprised to know that technical merit is not the sole success factor of a technology. Everything roughly equal, the more user-centric solution usually wins.
What may be a surprise for some though is that PARC has a long history investing in ethnography and social science as part of its technology platform. And, the ability to view the world with human factors an integral part of the overall context has been viewed as an important competencies for our clients.
What is wrong with my projector?
Below is a video that talks about projects which highlights the complex issues when human and technology mix.
I will confess that it really forced me to think about how I interact with it and its potential problems. You would too!
===
P@P
Monday, June 15, 2009
National Initiative for Social Participation
Where is social media taking us?
If you are reading this blog, you are a participant in social media. And, in a world of Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, social media is not just a technology phenomenon, it is an important part of the cultural and social fabric.
Given its prominence in the everyday life around the world, it is surprising that there has not been a systematic understanding of its many dimensions.
Some fundamental questions surrounding social media
Peter Pirolli at PARC is one of the organizers behind this whitepaper that tries point out the importance of social media and calls for a national level organization like NASA to tackle the following six challenges:
* A Nation of Neighbors
* A National Deliberative Process
* Encyclopedia of Life
* Climate Collaboratorium
* Energy Initiative: Socio-technical systems supporting reflective communities
* Enabling Healthy Living
You can find the full document and related information at http://iparticipate.wikispaces.com/
===
P@P
If you are reading this blog, you are a participant in social media. And, in a world of Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, social media is not just a technology phenomenon, it is an important part of the cultural and social fabric.
Given its prominence in the everyday life around the world, it is surprising that there has not been a systematic understanding of its many dimensions.
Some fundamental questions surrounding social media
Peter Pirolli at PARC is one of the organizers behind this whitepaper that tries point out the importance of social media and calls for a national level organization like NASA to tackle the following six challenges:
* A Nation of Neighbors
* A National Deliberative Process
* Encyclopedia of Life
* Climate Collaboratorium
* Energy Initiative: Socio-technical systems supporting reflective communities
* Enabling Healthy Living
You can find the full document and related information at http://iparticipate.wikispaces.com/
===
P@P
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