jesse poe.is blogging

I admit I don’t have much of a sweettooth but Babycakes is worth the walk. This weekend I was there and snapped this picture:

Everyone asks for tips, it helps make rent and gives you a little something to look forward to, an extra reason for service with a smile. But it’s not what you, because all to often everyone is doing the same thing, it’s how you do it.

After snapping this picture and getting permission to write about it, the friendly staff informed me that when they pose the right question between the two tip jars their tips soar as that people really want to weigh in on a discussion.

Guess where my tip went?

In my last post I wrote that the future of technology is ubiquity.

I wanted show what an evolutionary step between today and that imminent future.

I decided to show this in what might a business card look like. So here is my business card, in a evolutionary stutter between now and ubiquitous technology.

HTML Code that is simple enough to work as advertisement, but still readable by a computer and not only readable but semantically tagged in such a way that would come up faster on a search than most sites we cruise daily, complete with a QR Code to bridge the physical to the virtual, and above all to bookmark it.

It took me a a bit of effort to make this example and quite a bit of analog tech like stencils, and silk screen, and is a bit crude but you get the point. And possibly the first of it’s kind.

Clients often ask me, what, in my opinion, is the future of technology. They want to know what the next internet will be, or the next iPhone, or app store, and my answer is resoundingly the same.

The future of technology is not another device or service, although we will see many of those before the future arrives.

Instead, the future of technology is ubiquity.

You will no longer reach for you iPhone to make a call, it will simply be, need to send an email, just scratch it on to a piece of paper and write send. These sort of things.

Seem like science fiction? Remember where we were 30 years ago, remember where we were 10 years ago? Now we can have face-to-face chatting through our iPhone. Imagine that 4 years ago, and this Sci-fi idea seems all the more tangible.

These things are already in motion, check out MIT inventor Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense technology. And the understand of simple and ubiquitous technology will be understood with clarity and wonder.

We are at a bulging point with technology, and it’s future is ubiquitous as opposed to device driven, and therefor the sort of thinking that was once at the forefront before technology became such a focus will be important again, but only with a full understanding of how technology can serve that insight, as opposed to lead that insight.

This post discusses:

• Experience Design & User Experience
• The Golden Circle
• Inspiring people to use

Today I took the F train to work instead of my typical route and got off at the first stop in Manhattan, East Broadway. As I wandered my way to work through Chinatown I was reminded of how quickly you can find yourself in unfamiliar territory. I had to keep checking the horizon to orient myself through what was once the famed Five Points.

There was information everywhere, but none of it was information I could understand. I was looking for points of reference among this cloud of info and I was thinking about how much it was like the types of systems I help clients through and how quickly they can lose themselves in a maze of backend, CMS, servers and Ftps, and formats, all to achieve the same goal: to get their work done.

This maze of tech can be confusing and no matter how well crafted a system or even your guidance through it, if the User is not the focus of the design, it is bound to end in frustration for all, and that User should be the people who will be using it it not the people building and critiquing it.

Is your user experience meant for only a select few or for a greater audience? In world wide web, it should be the greatest audience as that anyone could find their way to your site, company, program.

Take this ad for tea, I know it’s for tea without even understanding the print, I understand most of the add and the call to action without even reading a word, and the scan leads you to purchase. Very effective and simple, yet the technology doesn’t get in the way of the ad nor destroy the image and emotional feeling of the ad. And the end result is that this company went from a print add to actually connecting with me via my iPhone and one step away from the point of purchase.

The contrast of the two above images says a lot about what we call experience design. Why is that some companies are able to communicate their product or idea so much better than others who are “selling” the same thing? It is the property of the Golden Circle, the positioning of what you believe first inspiring others to believe in you, as described in Simon Sinek’s TED talk: How Great leaders Inspire Action.

If you believe that the user’s experience should be an experience they can understand and communicate (sans tech support), then you are going to inspire Users to USE your product or service.

This post discusses:
• the hospitality, music, and internet industry
• a start-up to be aware of
• a cool iPhone app
• two ways to direct your strategy
• the key to successful poetry

Last night, I went to the ACE Hotel in midtown to meet up with Edward Aten founder of Swift.fm in ACE’s very popular bar.

Swift.fm is an amazing start-up that allows users to add audio information to tweets creating a radio-station style playlist of music (check out my office ambiance channel here) which is viral-enabled to allow users to engage content in various formats and contexts by highlighting their musical perspective. They are also a breath away from being the #1 Music-specific twitter client by traffic, and with their new platform of locked down branded-wrapped embeddable channels they are soon to be a swift force in creating brand identity, engagement and social conversation on the web (well even more than they already are).

We talked about the future of Swift.fm and the future of the web and which direction we see it going: a direction that other like minds across town are quickly developing at diaspora*

I had two eyes open all night as that not only am I interested in the internet (as it is my field) and especially as it relates to social networking and music (as that is my love), but also because I build social media plans for hip hotels and program their facebook pages in FBML.

We toured the hotel and it’s famed analog sound system, met with the event planners and tried a variety of their special brews.

Independently, Ed and I both took pictures of the Hotel/bar and showed them to each other, both photos were snapped with our iPhones, yet with surprisingly different results.

My photo on the left, doesn’t look cool, but points out one of the cool features of ACE and it’s brilliant design; the curation of space through text and messaging throughout the space. Such as this great use of the exit sign:

Ed’s photo on the right is much more cool looking and stylized in presentation as that he took it with the new app Hipstamatic which creates some really incredible shots (I have been using it exclusively ever since for all my photos), however his photo doesn’t show how cool ACE is, instead it shows how ACE is just like any other bar, hip or not, across the world, and in essence the backbone to the bar, that it is in the end a “bar”.

There is what you present and there is how you present it. Success is a synergy between the two.

The great poet Terry Hummer once told me the secret to poetry was to take a flower and expand it’s beauty and properties to become as vast as the cosmos, or to take the cosmos out of the sky and wrap into a language and understanding so tight that you can hand to someone like a flower.

Over the weekend, we’ve been conscious of our water and our electricity consumption. Ready for the next tip?

"I am concerned not only with the recycling of products, but also the issues of space around it, and the quality of life for the people recycling my goods. I always make a point to rinse out my recyclable materials, break them down and insert them inside each other so that they take up less space, attract less animals and insects and put off less stench." – Jesse Poe, Associate Producer, DMDxd

Jason’s take:
A large number of communities have taken giant leaps in their recycling programs over the last few years. However, these programs still have many challenges in disposal techniques, collection, sorting and even the ultimate recycling. 

For example, did you know that most recycling programs will not open or sort through any closed bags? Even if you take extra care to clean and shred used cardboard or paper products, if  you dispose of them in an opaque container (standard green garbage bag) they will be taken from recycling and sent to a standard waste facility. Many of the sorting bins systems have specific materials they can take (glass, paper, plastic) and materials not sorted correctly at the start are not placed back into the appropriate recycling stream but sent simply to the waste facility instead. It is important to read specific recycling instructions carefully, and take time to review the policies in detail. Much of the effort we make up front could be wasted if it is sent to the curb in improperly.

E-cycling (recycling of electronics) is an area that has taken a lot of heat in the media due to conditions of the workers and the health concerns about lead and mercury poisoning in foreign countries. This is an area where the consumer must review the standards and practices of the e-cycling company. Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions about what is happening to your electronics once you drop them off. The company should be extremely transparent in their recycling processes, and no material should ever need to be sent to a foreign company for disposal.

Each of us as consumers should expect a clear product stewardship process for our materials, from creation to our usage and ultimately disposal or recycling. It doesn’t have to add costs, but we should be prepared to ask questions!

More Info:
Another great way to recycle is to invent new uses for old things.  Check out all of these creative projects, which take used items and turn them into something new. 

Etsy artist urbanwoodswalker makes pendants, earrings and a ton of other items out of recycled aluminum.

Balls like this one, photographed by Eric Hersman of White African, are filled with recycled materials like rags and newspaper.  The are popular amongst children in Africa, where soccer is the number one sport.  Check out this article from Tonic to see how this recycling model is also a growing business. 

These clever chairs are made of recycled bicycle tires.

This water bottle and CD chandelier is installed at the Arlington Library, in Virginia.

Finally, this bag was salvaged from an old moth-bitten sweater.  The revamp is a project by Kim Taylor, author of the The Sassy Crafter.  Her work has been featured, along with countless other ways to reuse your old clothes, on Sweater Surgery.

With all of these ideas, we’ll be thinking twice before throwing anything out this spring cleaning season.  What’s lurking in the back of your cabinets?

Final White Paper

Today I’m very excited to have Gitamba Saila-Ngita a freelance strategist from San Francisco and founder of the outstanding site: The Retrospective as a guest Blogger for DMDxd.

Gitamba was a part of the Unconference we hosted last month in partnership with Wenovski and Parsons, and will be joining us again next week for our 2nd unconference March 23rd at Parsons.

Last month, while floating amongst the flashing cameras, models, and elite fashion parties that make up New York City during fashion week, I was invited by Jesse Poe, Associate Producer for DMDxd, to participate in a design-centered thought strategy unConference, hosted by Wenovski. I must admit, though, that I rarely enjoy going to conferences because either a) I’m reluctantly there for work or b) the conferences are nothing more than a podium for people to wax poetic on their own importance.

Thankfully, the Wenovski unConference (billed as such due to its largely participant-driven nature that shunned typical conference requirements such as fees and sponsored presentations) fit into neither category. Populated by some of New York’s sharpest minds in anthropology, urban planning, architecture and technology, our group discussed how design-centric ways of thinking can solve every-day problems, and maybe even change the world.


In my view, good design permeates almost everything around us. Designers, regardless of their discipline, strive to solve problems of all shapes and sizes; maybe they’re re-evaulating the placement of a door handle, or envisioning what colors will best echo a brand’s core values. What started out as a loose conversation among 20 guests holed up in a Parsons’ New School classroom turned more serious when we were given the task of brainstorming how we might solve societal and environmental issues affecting New York. Some of the topics we discussed revolved around the utilization of free and unused space, how to galvanize community identity through group initiatives and (my personal favorite) how to to dispel the fear of interaction in gritty New York City.


As a group, we voted on initiatives to battle the ironic resistance to human interaction in a city as populated as New York. Would it be shirts color-coded to specific moods? Or digital umbrellas that would display your interests, giving your fellow man an opportunity to relate? If you’ve ever been lucky enough to brainstorm with design or advertising creatives, you know the pitfalls (and promise) of having so many people simultaneously generating ideas. Luckily, Humantific’s Garry VanPatter set clear parameters that let us tap into our knowledge, stories and experiences in ways that informed our ideas. And even more luckily, Petri Tanninen was kind enough to jot down all the thoughts and ideas of that brainstorm session at the Wenovski Design Thinking Ning page.


For me, the greatest take away from the unConference was the utter ease in which such various disciplines came together, and how new and innovative ideas followed. One amazing perk of the unConference was being able to ideate solutions with other people free of the bottle neck of client approval. What if a meeting to create a new building, park or playground was organized using this interdisciplinary approach? What if rigid governmental bureaucracy was replaced with groups working in balance, rhythm and harmony, all design school staples of thought? I love being challenged and engaged by thinking from outside my realm of experience because it allows me to start seeing a bigger, more holistic picture. Being in a room with someone like Jeremy Barbour of Tacklebox, who works as an architect when not indulging his many other talents, allowed me to tap into his experiences with design and architecture in China. His knowledge was influential in thinking of the ways in which a city like New York could make its populous not just friendlier to each other, but also to isolated tourists and travelers.

There are several more unConferences in the works so take a look and participate if there’s one coming your way. And special thanks to Jesse Poe and Rowland Hobbs of DMDxd for the invitation, and to Arne van Oosterom of Design Thinkers for coordiating the event. When design is truly great we don’t think of it as design, but as the ways we interact with the world around us. Imagine if we got that feeling from every aspect of our day-to-day lives, and how powerful and liberating that would be.

More coming on the next unConference!
—–
As a strategist, Gitamba Saila-Ngita has helped brands develop strategy and content for the ever changing landscape of digital media. Clients have included Odopod & Evolution Bureau (EVB) on such brands as Pepsi, PayPal, and Gatorade.  He cut his teeth in the marketing and branding world at Stage Two Consulting (S2C), a firm that specializes in branding, social media, and product marketing. There he worked on accounts including Boxee, Netgear, and Sonos.  In his spare time Gitamba founded The Retrospective, an online publication focused on uncovering trends and giving insight into global consumer culture.

Today’s UnConference was a smash hit. Hosted by DMD and Arne van Oosterom (Owner and Strategic Design Director at DesignThinkers, a strategic design agency based in Amsterdam, founder of WENOVSKI design thinkers network) at Parsons The New School for Design.

A collection of 20 great cross-disciplinary thinkers from San Francisco to Finland and in between, met for 4 hours to discus solutions for urban design.

The unconference started as a mummer, quickly raised to a rumble of fantastic ideas and thousands of possible directions for making world of design better.

After an hour of this exciting fray of thinking, GK VanPatter (Co-Founder, HUMANTIFIC,  CoFounder, at NextDesign Leadership Institute Founding Editor at NextD Journal), stepped in with his own brand of design, making sense of cross-disciplinary innovation.

And make sense of it we did!

Broken into 3 timed sessions we:

• discovered the issues we all had burning within us and were addressing in our own ways,
• distilled them all down to the most potent and effectual problem to solve, the problem which when solved would begin to unravel the tensions around other problems and open them up for solving
• finally coming up with 50 possible solutions to that one issue.

Amazing day. Amazing minds. Amazing results that got at the heart of not just possible directions for making world of design better, but possibly making the design of our world better through better interactions.

Look for more on this Unconference what we learned, what we can share, and what/when the next one will be!

(Part 2 of Tomorrow Will Change the World)

Well it’s the morning after the day the world would change and well, has anything changed?

Jobs wrangled his illusive tablet unicorn out of Apple’s enchanted woods and it’s called the iPad. The internet exploded not with acclaim, but with jokes. One thing I learned as a musician was never name your band something that can easily be punned upon. Why? because for lack insight or time to investigate, it’s easier for writers to bash something than to support it. If there’s a joke to made then it’s the first step on that slippery path, and the iPad slid right down it.

Was it a game changer? Not really, but we can’t say until it is implemented. My greatest hope was to see 3G packages for existing iPhone users who purchased the Pad, and bundled subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. But there is still hope, even in it’s highly sterilized control freak OS.

It’s also the morning after one of the best speeches since Roosevelt, and if you watched the ignoble arm folding of the right during or Fox news afterward (just for torture), it wasn’t a game changer either, according to them.

However, this morning I was encouraged as I stopped at my local newsstand, and saw the positive headlines topping almost every paper, and it made me think. It’s not so much the product, but the way we react to it. It is not so much what is given to us, but what we choose to do with it.

So my challenge is this, even though Terry McGraw probably woke up with a horse head in his bed, we can still have bundled content, we can have cool innovation. Who will join us?

I’d like to see my favorite print in full glorious color, hyperlinked, and with video all in one spot. We don’t have to wait for Time or SI to lead the way, what about the The Baffler, or Yeti? And new hardware to interface. Adobe, Wacom? How about a slip case that holds the iPad on one side and on the other side a pen tablet to write/draw on, bundled with subscription services for university text books?

It’s the morning after the day the world would change and nothing stopped it from snowing in NYC, but you know the snow looks nice!

So tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT the world will be a different place.

Apple will drag the elusive unicorn out of the woods and unveil their Tablet (whatever it will be called), and the world will be a different place just like it was after the iPod.


Maybe?

I doubt it, but it will be a wonderful new way to create, engage and connect. A new tool to build around to work with, to enrich our lives. Should be a step up or two from it’s former Newton. So game changer or not, it will be exciting.

You can read proposed specs and uses on every site & blog on the web, however the most important thing to think about for this ‘game-changing’ moment is if this does change the world, are you ready for it?

The iPod smashed the music industry and then rebuilt it. It also turned music back into a staple of culture.

Technology, as it advances, changes business and the way we work, how will this new Apple device change your business? And if it is not a game changer, will you be able to use it regardless in an effective way for your business.

Here is a chart showing what others have allegedly filed apps for according to Flurry:

The print industry is rubbing it’s hands in expectation of this glorious day. How are you going to use it?