Filed under: amsterdam adventure, design thinking, made me think, reading and writing, Red Jotter Work | Tags: birthday, design, experience, redjotter, service design
Redjotter is two today!
This post I wrote two years ago was where it all began. ( hat tip and a smile to Arne ) this year has been pretty hectic ; completed my Masters degree, started up two companies, moved into a new flat in Glasgow, spoke to alot of policemen and went through a pot of red nail varnish … but it’s the people who read what I write, support me and inspire me everyday that make all this possible so thank you very much and here’s to another year of redjotter! Bigger and better!
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: reflect, service design network conference, space and place, university of dundee
This week’s Space & Place will be on today, February 18th in the Reception Room at the University of Dundee.
I will be presenting alongside Qin Han who will discuss her experiences at the Design Research Network symposium in Berlin last year, as well her attendance at the Service Design Conference enable.student workshop in Amsterdam.
I will be reflecting on the conference, sharing my insights, and encouraging the University to enable more students to attend such events.
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, people I like | Tags: designthinkers, holland, tulips
Back in October I planted tulip bulbs given to me as gift from Arne and Marjo at DesignThinkers.
It really made me smile this morning to see they had appeared after all these months…more pics will be coming soon as they become colourful :)
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, service design | Tags: amsterdam, service design conference, service design network
I am off to Amsterdam this morning for the Service Design Conference! Really looking forward to being back in the wonderful city and meeting DesignThinkers again! Be back in a few days with photos and news :)
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, service design | Tags: amsterdam, conference, service design
Very successful afternoon! I have booked my ticket for the Service Design conference coming up in next month.
Thank you to Louise Valentine, Hazel White, Christine Kingsley and Jonathan Baldwin for putting up with my pestering :) and their support in gaining funding.
I must allocate some thinking time to the best way to pass on the knowledge I (hopefully) gain while I am there (especially to the under-graduate students). I would also like to write a review of the conference, I learned lots from writing a review on Intersections which was published by the Art Design Media Subject Centre. If you would like to read my article send me an email or leave a comment!
I am really excited I am going back to Amsterdam…especially after reading this interactive article from the NewYork Times. ( thanks Arne )
My lovely friend Kat will be joining me as she has exciting connections within the world of fashion buying in the city. Learn more about her here.
Filed under: amsterdam adventure | Tags: amsterdam, fun, gardening, tulips
The tulip has come too be a much loved symbol of The Netherlands. Much to my delight, Marjo and Arne from DesignThinkers gave me a wonderful parcel full of tulip bulbs to bring back to scotland…a bulb of every colour :)
These bulbs will always remind me of the wonderful time I had in Amsterdam and I intend to watch them grow faithfully! My gardening experience is very limited…so after some google searching I learned that now is the best time to plant them!
Thank you DesignThinkers :) Stay tuned to watch the bulbs grow…
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, service design | Tags: netherlands, picnic, service design, service design network, users, workshop
Last friday Service Design Network Netherlands gave a hands-on service design workshop at PICNIC08.
Arne has posted up some great pics on the DesignThinkers blog. I wish this had been happening during my stay in Amsterdam :(
There has also been an exciting launch of Service Design Network Netherlands. The creatives involved are : Eden Design & Communication, 31Volts, Creative Cities Amsterdam Area, STBY and DesignThinkers
Since June 2008, in monthly informal meetings, Service Design professionals in the Netherlands exchange knowledge and experiences arising from their work in this emerging field.
Several initiatives to widen this network and mutually promote service design in The Netherlands have already emerged. The network has been officially launched during PICNIC’08 in Amsterdam.
Congratulations to Arne who is the Chairman of the collaboration :)
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, made me think | Tags: amsterdam, branding, city, ideas, story telling
This is the first time an international story telling commercial has been used to profile a metropolitan area such as Amsterdam. The makers choose to sell ‘emotion’ rather than ‘unique selling points’.
The city is unique in many ways. It has a wonderful blend of creativity, innovation and spirit…
This creation is playful and effective.
Filed under: amsterdam adventure | Tags: experience, narrowcasting, travel
Having been doing lots of traveling lately and thinking about narrowcasting this article was really interesting…definately proves this sector needs design help.
“Dublin’s bus information system, overhauled last week by Applied Information Group and Image Now, has been criticised in the part for failing to indicate which direction passengers are traveling in. What’s the worst informtation system you’ve experienced, and why?”
Read more here.
“Extremely confusing, woefully inaccurate and often ludicrously positioned. That’s my verdict on the wayfinding and informational signage at most British airports.” Steve Collis
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, service design | Tags: 31 volts, amsterdam, marc, marcel, tool, utrecht
I was lucky enough to spend some time with the Marc and Marcel from 31 Volts – a service design agency based in Utrecht.
I like to talk about Service Design…lots…this was a great opportunity to see it in action in the real world :) There are lots of interesting projects happening at 31 volts – ranging from tackling obesity in local schools to improving the service of an insurance company.
Since beginning my work in Amsterdam, I have been reading and hearing the word ‘tools’ very often. This was puzzling me slightly….’what is a tool? Surely, a tool can be any single thing at all?’. Part of my task was to design ‘tools’ to encourage interaction, to draw information out of stakeholders etc.
Marcel’s perspective on what a ‘tool’ can be to a service designer is interesting:
“A tool is anything that is not a question. They spark conversations…”
This made my thinking much clearer. I also believe it is important to design ‘how’ tools will be used and ‘when’ and ‘where’.
This is a little tool they designed as a ‘leave-behind’ for one of their workshops.
The participants take this bottle filled with coffee beans, sugar and syrup, home with them. The writing on the front instructs the owner to shake the bottle once a week for 4 weeks. The mixture will then dissolve into a tasty coffee shot.
It is personal, thoughtful and interactive. The kind of thing you need to provide so participants don’t forget about the workshop, and the issues and questions keep ticking over in their mind.
And of course, it is fun :)
Another tool used to bring stakeholders to life. Life sized cardboard cut-outs.
A nice little experiment Marc created: ‘One Line of Service Design’
“If you look closely, most people tend to give a definition of service design. But now what are those practical examples you’d give to your grandma (eg. service design makes you walking out of a hospital with a smile?)”
I like this. I created a similar experiment as part of my dissertation research. I sent out postcards asking the question “What is service design?”
I think these are good examples of how to gather opinions and visually display them.
We need tools like this to help us understand ourselves what it is we do.
The team have excellent blog. It is written mostly in Dutch, but lots of interesting links and images for the non-dutch :)
They will also be part of the Picnic Conference and the Service Design Network conference in Amsterdam.
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In the very short time I was there I learned alot…in particular the challenge all service designers of explainng what they do to other people.
I really liked their studio space, which was in an old school building. The building has lots of creative teams working within it…A great environment!
Thank you for sharing your stories with me and making me welcome!
Filed under: amsterdam adventure | Tags: amsterdam, dsv factory, ethnography, insight, observation technique, project
Big thank you to Willem Bosch for letting me take pictures and learn about DSV solutions. When chatting about the Westpoort Bus service “It is great, without it we have no workers here!”. They try hard to keep their workers happy at DSV, when there are deadlines and lots of extra hours worked the staff get extra yummy food.
There is a problem when workers have to go home because they are ill, because there is no way for them to get to the station to get home!
I had to walk to the Starbucks Factory to get the bus home. Thank you to Harm for arranging that for me :) The walk was fairly awkward because I was unsure where I was going and there was no footpath. Had to walk on the grassI
I also had to cross these train tracks which was quite intimidating as there was no pavement at the other side!
All these touchpoints negative and positive have to be clearly mapped out…
Filed under: amsterdam adventure | Tags: amsterdam, insight, narrow casting, project
Adrian Cotterill has a great blog Daily Dooh on all things Narrowcasting – Digital Out of Home – Insight, Knowledge and Opinion. It has lots of great examples of interactive media, I particularly liked this article on Kodo Mobile
“Waiting for the subway in Montreal is a lot more fun these days: a new campaign for Koodo Mobile uses state-of-the-art technology from iGotcha Media that allows commuters to interact with out-of-home advertising displays.“
Adrian mentions how the self branding in this example is interesting – “You are watching Captivating Network”. Why don’t all mediums do this?
This on-screen solutions website also has some good info. “The potential of digital signage as a powerful medium for information, advertising and entertainment is being recognized by a growing number of retailers, which will cause market revenue to nearly quadruple from 2004-2009″
Types of Travelers: ( each of these needs to be explored and analysed further)
- Holiday Makers: These people will travel to their destination as a ‘tourist’.
- Business Travelers: Commuters
- Back Pack and Adventure Travelers: alone or in small groups on self-organised trips.
- Long Term travelers: missionaries, volunteer workers etc. going to stay several years in a country.
- Travelers with special needs:
- Children
- Elderly
- Pregnant women
- Disabled Travellers
Good article about “Electronic Tickets saving time and worry for travellers.”
In my opinion, that’s what this is all about. Understanding the emotions of travellers. Listening to their stories and experiences.
- Observing them in different situations.
- Find out how the different groups of people feel when they are -
- buying their ticket. standing in a que. grabbing a coffee. reading their newspaper. browsing the shops. running to catch the train. waiting to talk to the information desk.
- Look at all the different options of the kind of messages we can give them -
- What do we want to acheive out of this? Make their experience more enjoyable. Introduce them to something new – a hobbie/ a fact/ a theory?
- Give them information – the weather/ the city/their journey/
- The way the message is made up? is it bright and flashy and loud? I know the things that catch my eye are often subtle and simple. Real handwriting in an advert always makes me look twice.
- Something to make people smile:
A question to think about is – Do we want to give them specific messages? For example, we could encourage people to be kind? to each other? to the environment? to themselves.
I like the idea of giving people a message to embrace life. Being in a train station reminds you that the world is a busy place, everyone has somewhere to be, is in a rush…Would they appreciate reading something like this:
”Life is like a taxi. The meter just keeps ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still.” Lou Erickso
“Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling” Claude Pepper
“Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can” Danny Kaye
Kevin Roberts book Sismo looks like it would be worth a read if you are interested in this field…
Sight, Sound and Motion, the combination that made television the most powerful selling tool ever invented.
Filed under: amsterdam adventure | Tags: amsterdam, story telling, travel, user experience
This story written by Samantha Frietas, tells her story of travelling on a over-crowded bus every day in an unfamiliar country. Such honest and genuine accounts of such experiences are often hard to find…
“I sometimes take myself out of the overwhelming and usually exhausting situation and find it very surreal. Like a scene out of a movie, there are people coughing, babies crying and people shouting on their cell phones – it seems like total chaos, yet if you look around at the passengers they are not even phased. The bus ride for them is not a frustrating invasion of space as it is for me, rather it is a time out of their day in which they have to worry about nothing but getting off at the right stop.”
After reading this story, I would like to sum up my journeys in and around Amsterdam, the Harbour and my journey to the DSV factory tomorrow…
“The journey not the arrival matters.” by T. S. Eliot
Filed under: amsterdam adventure, service design | Tags: amsterdam, city, gps, map, navigator, technology
Thank you to my lovely friend Kathleen, for letting me know about this Travel Service the city of Amsterdam offers.
“Amsterdam is a small town compared to most other European capitals. It is really perfect for walking around. It is small, but big enough to get lost.
Even with a city map it can be hard to orientate to find your way around.
We have developed a simple solution for this problem.
Filed under: amsterdam adventure | Tags: amsterdam, customer, emotions, ethnography, experience, insight, journey, mapping, user
Workers of the Ports who live in Osdorp have to travel to Sloterdijk station to reach the Westpoort Bus. I went on this journey today to experience it for myself. The aim of this is to help me understand the emotions of the journey, as well as how easy/difficult it is. Paying particular attention to signage and the time of journeys.
This map clearly shows the distance from the centre of Osdorp plein to the bus stop Ruimzicht ( about 2 minute walk) From this stop, Bus 19 goes to Sloterdijk roughly every 15 minutes. An easy journey!
This website shows a recent campaign involving the Ports. Although the site is all in Dutch, the people featured in the campaign are famous Dutch people who have been covered in tattoos, to represent the industrial, toughness of the Ports;”a romantic view of the ports”…aimed at people like me and you. I saw a billboard featuring one of the actresses, in Osdorp today.
The number 19 stopped at many bus stops around Osdorp and runs very regularly.
How familiar are the stakeholder groups with a Strippen Kaart?
