Mobile Phone Practices & The Design of Mobile Money Services for Emerging Markets

Designing Services for Financial Inclusion

View more presentations from Jan Chipchase.

The Prosthetics Project: Re-designing the prosthetic arm

This past fall, Allan Chochinov, a partner at the design blog Core 77, ran a course at SVA which challenged students to rethink the prosthetic arm. Today, The Prosthetics Project launched as an online exhibition, showing the work of all 21 students that took the class. As Chochinova writes:

The students took different approaches to the problem: some attacked it directly with mechanical improvements to existing prosthetics. Others offered devices and garments that introduced alternative modalities or provided new functionality. Some students took a more abstract approach, creating formal, often sculptural, gestures as a way to help us think about the notion of 'prosthetic,' while others took an extremely conceptual approach to investigating the paradigms and cultures around prosthetics and amputees.

The intent wasn't to create solutions that might pop right into the current market--but rather, to challenge students who otherwise might never have encountered such a difficult and unique design problem. The hope, according to Chochinov, was that the young greehorns would have ideas that would never occur to an engineering pro.

The projects are organized along four basic approaches: Decorative, Playful, Utilitarian, and Awareness. Here's a sampling of each category:

In the Decorative category, Tonya Douraghy & Carli Pierce designed the "Feather Cuff and Wing Arm"--which aims to tackle the stigma associated with a prosthetic, by turning it into a fanciful accessory.

In the Playful category, Ekta Daryanani designed a sleeve for a prosthetic arm which kids can draw on--thus making it into a canvas for self-expression, not unlike a cast which all your friends sign.

The Utilitarian category emphasized function over form. Giho Lee began his investigation by experimenting with a "trainer"--a device that gives a two-armed person a sense of what it's like to have a prosthetic hand. Then he began devising a clever, willfully "dumb" and low-tech method for wire attachments to adapt the trainer to different tasks. It's not a design solution per se, but nonetheless, documents the process of how you'd start developing improvements on the "hook" (thanks to Allan for the clarification).

The most abstract category was Awareness, which investigated the cultural mores that amputees live with. Meital Gueta created three pieces that aim to reflect the body image of amputees.

You can see all of the projects--and more images--at the Prosthetics Project Web site. Kudos to Allan for leading such a well thought-out class, and to the students, for coming up with such a wealth of interesting ideas!

[Via Core 77, fastcompany]

“Waste Not” by Song Dong (MOMA)

An installation currently on the 2nd floor of the MOMA, unveiling the life of a typical Chinese woman through the objects she collected in her lifetime. “It is at once a record of a life, a history of a half-century of Chinese vernacular culture and a symbolic archive of impermanence.” It is mind blowing to see how much one can accumulate throughout their life if they do not dispose of the unnecessary/impermanent objects – “a time capsule of a lost era of Chinese culture.” – via NY Times

The installation is the work of Chinese artist Song Dong, in which he exposes the contents of his mother’s home acquired over 50 years, “during which the Chinese concept of wu jin qi yong, or “waste not,” was a prerequisite for survival.” Waste Not” is Dong’s first solo museum show in the U.S.

See the stop motion video of the installation coming together HERE

A Culture of Sharing: the HCD Toolkit by IDEO

IDEO partnered with International Development Enterprises (IDE), Heifer International, ICRW, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a toolkit for applying Human-Centered Design to inspire new solutions to difficult challenges within communities of need.

The Toolkit is divided into four sections:

The Introduction will give an overview of HCD and help you understand how it might be used alongside other methods.
Download the Intro Guide.pdf

The Hear guide will help your design team prepare for fieldwork and understand how to collect stories that will serve as insight and inspiration. Designing meaningful and innovative solutions that serve your customers begins with gaining deep empathy for their needs, hopes and aspirations for the future. The Hear booklet will equip the team with methodologies and tips for engaging people in their own contexts to delve beneath the surface.
Download the Hear Guide

The Field Guide and Aspirations cards are a complement to the Hear guide; these are the tools your team will take with them in order to conduct research.
Download the Field Guide
Download the Aspirations Cards

The Create guide will help your team work together in a workshop format to translate what you heard from people into frameworks, opportunities, solutions, and prototypes. During this phase, you will move from concrete to more abstract thinking in identifying themes and opportunities and back to the concrete with solutions and prototypes.
Download the Create Guide

The Deliver guide will help catapult the top ideas you have created toward implementation. The realization of solution includes rapid revenue and cost modeling, capability assessment, and implementation panning. The activities offered in this phase are meant to complement your organization's existing implementation processes and may prompt adaptations to the way solutions are typically rolled out.
Download the Deliver Guide

Also check the article by Alissa Walker (Fast Company)

Links

How to get that Plane off the Tarmac

Blogger Jessica Gottlieb sat in JFK Airport waiting to see the plane her kids were on take off, but it just sat there. Not one to keep her grievances to herself, she tweeted her situation and implored her nearly 10,000 followers to retweet. Within minutes, she received a call from the airline explaining the weather situation and assuring her everything is being done to depart. This would have been unheard of even five years ago, but today it is surprising yet believable. Gottlieb is one of the many people taking advantage of the third wave of customer service development. The evolution from forums to blogs to microblogs has amplified the need for on the spot customer service. In the competitive airline industry, companies have had to listen to their customers to avoid any bad PR.

The full story at MSNBC

Making Food Culture from the Times Magazine: Home Sweet (Urban) Homestead.

In Oakland, where backyard menageries and D.I.Y. charcuterie are the new garage band, the term “urban homesteading” doesn’t need an explanation. “It fits into the Oakland sort of self-defined vibe or aesthetic of doing things from scratch and being kind of hard-core,” she said, tugging at the false eyelashes she hadn’t had a chance to remove since judging “Iron Chef” in Los Angeles the night before. But to a visiting New Yorker, a definition was in order. “It’s figuring out how to feed yourself with what’s available,” she explained. “I feel like it’s about people transforming food in their home, conserving it, knowing the smart thing to do,” using simple, old-fashioned techniques like curing meats and canning and drying fruits and vegetables.

“There’s a hunger,” she continued, stirring a pot of Sicilian fava-bean soup that started with a few cubes of soffrito that Sardo makes in bulk and freezes in ice-cube trays for quick soups and sauces. “I don’t want to make generalizations about it, but people want to learn these skills so much. It’s from a lot of different ages and communities right now.”

Fernald said she believed that her generation and the one following were interested in food activism and urban homesteading because they felt that it, unlike politics, was one area in which they can effect change. “We’ve become so disconnected from everything,” said Sardo, who is 40 and who has been busy finding tenants for the 70,000 square feet of food retail space in the nearby Jack London Market. “We need to reconnect with something, some material. And food is the thing you do most.”

Highline Opens in New York

30 feet up in the air and 10 years in the making, New York City’s newest park: Highline is a wonder in urban development and an example of how to meet the changing needs of society. The Highline was 1.45 miles of suspended railroad track that was built in the mid-19th century and then discarded in 1980. In 1999, a community-organized non-profit formed to start plans on saving the tracks from demolition.

Check thehighline.org for a complete listing of events.

Underscoring the idea that the kitchen is both a social hub and a place of innovation and transformation, Dornbracht, manufacturer of premium kitchen and bath faucets, has created a novel exhibit celebrating the diversity and ingenuity of actual street “kitchens.” Entitled Global Street Food, the installation includes a Vietnamese market boat laden with soft drinks and fresh vegetables, a Sudanese tea stand made from recycled tires and tin cans, and a charcuterie cart from Argentina, crafted from a shopping cart and bulletin board. It is part of the acclaimed Art Basel expo, debuting June 10, in the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, and open to the public until July 12.

Conceived by Dornbracht’s creative and brand director Mike Meiré, the project highlights the contrast between industrial perfection and total improvisation.
By examining these widely varied displays, dismantled and shipped from their native countries and reassembled in exacting detail within the context of a pristine white space, visitors can evaluate the importance of function over form in kitchen design.

“The possibility of creating a mobile, functional unit in the smallest of spaces is fascinating,” Meiré explained. “Can we manage to create a complete kitchen in two square meters? What should it look like and how should it work? These explorations lead to new and more complex kitchen solutions. It’s about being aware of the kind of kitchen you really need for your lifestyle, and then developing the design.”

Global Street Food, which premiered at IMM Cologne furniture fair in January 2009, marks the latest cultural coup from Dornbracht and Meiré. In 2007, they offered the antidote to a high-tech, minimalist design aesthetic with The FARM Project, a walk-in kitchen stocked with live farm animals and housed in a simple barn-like structure. Intended to reconnect visitors to the source of their food and return vitality to lifeless kitchens, The FARM Project was presented at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2006, followed by coveted spots in 2007 at the Sculpture Projects Münster and Art Basel Miami. Both Global Street Food and The FARM Project are part of Dornbracht Edges, a series of projects that reflect the intersection of architecture, design and art. The Edges are platforms for designers and architects to depict their visions and utopias, with projects as diverse as they are eye-opening.

The promotion of art and culture has been an integral part of Dornbracht’s corporate culture since 1997. The company’s commitment is divided into several areas, which have developed separately and parallel since the first edition of the Statements Projects in 1997. As part of the Statements series, between 1997 and 2003, Dornbracht regularly presented free interpretations on the subject of “cleansing rituals” by internationally renowned artists, photographers, writers, musicians and designers. Since 1998 Dornbracht has addressed the general public with the Dornbracht Sponsorships, which included supporting the German project for the 48th and 49th Biennale of contemporary art in Venice. Since 2000, the exhibition series Dornbracht Installation Projects® has been based on the idea of presenting contemporary artistic positions in the field of installation. In 2005 Dornbracht launched the Performance series and transported its commitment into a new discipline: the temporary, situational character of a performance.

Further information on the Dornbracht Culture Projects on the Internet at http://www.cultureprojects.com.

Images: Dornbracht

How to stimulate creativity? Go live abroad

Cultural borders and mental barriers: The relationship between living abroad and creativity.

People who live abroad are more creative; and the more time they spend away from home, the more creative they become. That’s according to a recent study done by William Maddux in collaboration with Adam Galinsky.

Current TV: de la liberte de la presse

North Korea Sentences U.S. Journalists to 12 Years in Labor Prison

North Korea found two American journalists guilty of illegal entry and sentenced them to 12 years in a labor prison, its official KCNA news agency said on Monday.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who worked for Current TV, were arrested in March while working on a story near the border between North Korea and China.

On a pas mal parle du fait que Current TV n'ai ni soutenu ni meme mentionne les 2 journalistes arretees il y a quelques mois en Coree du Nord.  C'est officiel, les dits journalistes on ete condamnees a 12 ans de travaux forces par la justice coreenne.

Resonance by Continuum

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

Evolution of Office Spaces Reflects Changing Attitudes Toward Work

By Cliff Kuang

Since the dawn of the white-collar age, office designs have cycled through competing demands: openness versus privacy, interaction versus autonomy. Here's a brief history of how seating arrangements have reflected our changing attitudes toward work.

Illustration: Harry Campbell

1Taylorism (ca. 1904)

American engineer Frederick Taylor was obsessed with efficiency and oversight and is credited as one of the first people to actually design an office space. Taylor crowded workers together in a completely open environment while bosses looked on from private offices, much like on a factory floor.

2 Bürolandschaft (ca. 1960)

The German "office landscape" brought the socialist values of 1950s Europe to the workplace: Management was no longer cosseted in executive suites. Local arrangements might vary by function—side-by-side workstations for clerks or pinwheel arrangements for designers, to make chatting easier—but the layout stayed undivided.

3 Action Office (1968)

Bürolandschaft inspired Herman Miller to create a product based on the new European workplace philosophy. Action was the first modular business furniture system, with low dividers and flexible work surfaces. It's still in production today and widely used. In fact, you probably know Action by its generic, more sinister name: cubicle.

4 Cube Farm (ca. 1980)

It's the cubicle concept taken to the extreme. As the ranks of middle managers swelled, a new class of employee was created: too important for a mere desk but too junior for a window seat. Facilities managers accommodated them in the cheapest way possible, with modular walls. The sea of cubicles was born.

Virtual Office (ca. 1994)

Ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day's LA headquarters was a Frank Gehry masterpiece. But the interior, dreamed up by the company's CEO, was a fiasco. The virtual office had no personal desks; you grabbed a laptop in the morning and scrambled to claim a seat. Productivity nose-dived, and the firm quickly became a laughingstock.

5 Networking (present)

During the past decade, furniture designers have tried to part the sea of cubicles and encourage sociability—without going nuts. Knoll, for example, created systems with movable, semi-enclosed pods and connected desks whose shape separates work areas in lieu of dividers. Most recently, Vitra unveiled furniture in which privacy is suggested if not realized. Its large tables have low dividers that cordon off personal space but won't guard personal calls.

via Wired

Tokyo Fashion Map by Uniqlo

Nice new site by Uniqlo

link this week

Do we really need architects, your new home from a web site not a studio?

The behavioral change's killer app: Obama, the Science of Change and Behavioral Economy.

Simplicty becomes a selling point: foodmakers emphasize uncomplicated ingredients

Also, India potential for luxury, but not yet: A combination of global downturn, domestic red tape, regulatory hurdles and a thriving trade in smuggled goods means it will be a long time yet before India becomes big business for Europe's luxury retailers, experts said
Wealthy Indian shoppers have long preferred to buy their designer handbags, sunglasses, clothing and shoes abroad, avoiding Indian import duties of up to 45 percent which are another impediment to growth.

America New Found Optimism: Americans have grown more optimistic about the economy and the direction of the country in the 11 weeks since President Obama was inaugurated, suggesting that he is enjoying some success in his critical task of rebuilding the nation’s confidence, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Try GE adventure, science is fun.

Frugality to outlast the recession, according to WSJ:

Some companies are already repositioning themselves for a more frugal consumer. "The current economic conditions have created a fundamental shift in shopping behavior," Kathryn Tesija, Target Corp.'s executive vice president of merchandising, said in a recent conference call with investors. "We are allocating more shelf space to nondiscretionary categories" like food, health care and baby products, she said, and drawing attention to the store's low prices. "Guests won't come to us for everyday necessities if those necessities aren't priced right."American consumers are traditionally resilient, and may yet return to their old ways. But the borrowing boom of the early 2000s ended badly, and the searing memories may shape consumer attitudes for years.

And what about enjoying chocolate without its calories: try inhaling it with Le Whiff

Arts Co: The New Dealers

links this week

In the Indian Times this week, an interesting study on Millenials in India.
They are multi-disciplinary and goal-oriented. Yet, they identify strongly with their parents and are even proud of Indian traditions and culture much more than their western counterparts, according to a global research conducted by The Futures Company of the WPP-Kantar Group.

Only 6% identify with celebrities. Instead, they look up to real-life heroes and their parents. They appreciate companies and brands that are trustworthy and authentic and stay true to their values.

Standing out in the crowd without being too different was much more important for the Indian Millenials than their counterparts in the uk and the US. It was to be achieved through diverse tastes, interests and not just brand choice.
All of them also said trying new experience and sensations held more novelty factor than possessions — 62% in India, 59% in the UK and 64% in the US.


The emergence of trickle-up innovation in BusinessWeek
This month, General Electric's (GE) health-care division will begin marketing a first-of-its-kind electrocardiograph machine in the U.S. Although packed with the latest technology, the battery-powered device weighs just six pounds, half as much as the smallest ECG machine currently for sale. It will retail for a mere $2,500, an 80% markdown from products with similar capabilities. But what really distinguishes the MAC 800 is its lineage. The machine is basically the same field model that GE Healthcare developed for doctors in India and China in 2008.

As such, the diagnostic tool exemplifies a way of thinking that may be ideally suited to dealing with the widening recession: creating entry-level goods for emerging markets and then quickly and cheaply repackaging them for sale in rich nations, where customers are increasingly hungry for bargains. The term for this new approach is trickle-up innovation.

The Convenience Store, much like the city dweller, has decided to take time out from its high rise roots to have an exclusively chic affair at the St Martins Lane Hotel. From March 19 to April 9 the high concept store will take over the Front Room at St Martins Lane and create a transitory showroom featuring the one-off, coveted designer pieces it is famed for.

Spaza-De-Move-On by Doung Anwar Jahangeer

Design Indaba 09: architect Doung Anwar Jahangeer won the South award for his mobile, fold-away shop at the Design Indaba conference and expo in Cape Town last week.

Called Spaza-De-Move-On, the product is intended to give dignity and convenience to street hawkers.

It incorporates a seat, trolley handle, wheels and fold-out display table.

Design Indaba took place 25 February -1 March.

via Dezeen

global march with Uniqlo

With H&M hitting Japan last September, UNIQLO is battling its toughest competition yet. At the same time, it is aggressively expanding its international store network in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing. With its latest global campaign, put together by GT Tokyo it aims to connect with people across every age group, in every country that the brand is available… a very ambitious task.

UNIQLO March is an online ‘presentation’ format showing a group of 33 people spanning a wide range of ages, sex and occupations marching across the screen. Footage was filmed with an ultra-wide RED ONE lens, never used for online content before. The lens allows video footage of scenes covering more than 50m in length. Viewers can interact with the marching group to make them run, walk backwards or wave at each other.

By clicking on an outfit that they like, users can see a profile of the marcher and get taken directly to the online store to purchase any of the items the model is wearing. Users can also choose to keep their involvement online as an icon in a virtual Google Maps march through the streets of Tokyo or apply to take to the ‘real world’ streets as a model for the next element of the campaign.

via Contagious Magazine

www.uniqlo.com/march

Unusual Shaper of Talent for a Changing Art World: Nicky Vassell

Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times


This is the fourth in a series of articles in the NY times that follows people trying to begin careers in the arts and examine how that process may have changed over the years. This one is about Nicola Vassell former model turned gallery director.


The article also mentions a possible collaboration between Puma and the artist Kehinde Wiley
to create a collection of clothing and accessories for the 2010 World Cup — to be held in Africa for the first time — the kind of deal that Ms. Vassell sees as essential to the economic future of the contemporary art world.
Art trends to watch.......

















Photo: Alex Quesada for The New York Times













Photo: Alex Quesada for The New York Times












Photo: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times




see slideshow
via NY Times

Museum of Design and Applied Arts Opens Packaging - Wrapping to Design

Panier de la ménagère 2009 », concept : mudac, 2009, photo : Marie Humair/Olivier Laffely.

LAUSANNE.- Packaging is a concept that goes well beyond wrapping. Even if its ultimate aim remains the protection and transport of its contents, over the course of the decades certain more subtle elements have been added to this list of specifications. Thus, one can attribute to it six main functions: to contain, transport, preserve, identify the producer, inform about the content and authenticate the origin of the product. Yet, before everything else, firms seek to put on to the market wrappings or packagings that will encourage the consumer to buy. It is this particular “design” that interests us in the exhibition staged at the mudac. Packaging thus plays a role as a showcase, adding short-lived value to an object that makes it stand out among a plethora of stock which can sometimes be intimidating for the customer. And even if brands know that it will very often end up in the trash can once the sale has been made, they do not hesitate to change the packaging frequently in order to renew interest in a product. Incidentally, one needs to know that investing money in research into packaging is often less expensive than updating or revising the product itself. An interesting testimony to a way of life that involves planned obsolescence and a time when change and speed are valued above all else, packaging is revealing of contemporary trends. It represents a direct consequence of industrial development and of a type of consumption that goes through numerous intermediaries: when purchases are made at the supermarket, in big quantities, and transported by car, the packaging of a product is of necessity different to one that is sold at the local grocery. We are currently witnessing a phenomenon of “over-packaging”, which runs counter to concerns about the environment. Hundreds of packagings pour into the marketplace every year and sometimes only remain on sale for a few months, since they are subject to the verdict of consumers. Analysis of these design creations is fascinating, and the mudac has for several years been observing the evolution and impact of packaging on our lives as consumers and citizens. The exhibition is deliberately focused on two sectors that are highly dependent on the impact of packaging: food and cosmetics. This bias is dictated by practical reasons, among other factors, since these sectors have a huge volume of output and the variety of approaches guarantees the possibility of a high-quality selection. But what is most striking is that these products are for the most part in everyday use. The public’s familiarity with this type of packaging makes an in-depth analysis all the more interesting. How people look at an object, known from first glance, is different. Parallel to the products sold every day in supermarkets, the exhibition presents a choice of more luxurious objects, the packaging of which is astonishingly close to more commonplace objects. Packaging – Wrapping to Design presents hundreds of objects, for the most part drawn from the contemporary marketplace, local or international. Multiple comparisons can be made between these objects, whether regarding their use of colour, form and typography or the use of photographs and illustrations. One products that would like to appear sophisticated: packets of coffee or tea, luxury grocery products, perfumes. Despite – or because of? – its opaqueness, black is currently synonymous with luxury. The purity of white, on the other hand, has always been associated with cosmetics, but this colour also appears in certain foodstuffs packaging. As for gold and silver, they certainly symbolise luxury and “bling” but also maturity, including in the case of cosmetic products aimed at the “mature” skin. From the perspective of form, only luxury brands can allow themselves to produce unexpected packaging in more “noble” materials. One thus finds perfume bottles with seductive curves. But this deliberate originality is also reserved for alcohol and, since a short while ago, for mineral water, sold as a rare product. Already for some time now, producers have been practising a sort of confusion of genres that is definitely worthy of attention. Certain shapes and forms traditionally reserved for foodstuffs have been assigned to cosmetics, and vice versa. This, for example, is the case with certain Body Shop creams, sold in packaging which resembles that of old-fashioned preserves in glass jars. On the contrary, olive oil and balsamic vinegar presented in the form of sprays evoke the world of hairdressing. can see, for example, that there is enormous enthusiasm for black, associated with products that would like to appear sophisticated: packets of coffee or tea, luxury grocery products, perfumes. Despite – or because of? – its opaqueness, black is currently synonymous with luxury. The purity of white, on the other hand, has always been associated with cosmetics, but this colour also appears in certain foodstuffs packaging. As for gold and silver, they certainly symbolise luxury and “bling” but also maturity, including in the case of cosmetic products aimed at the “mature” skin. From the perspective of form, only luxury brands can allow themselves to produce unexpected packaging in more “noble” materials. One thus finds perfume bottles with seductive curves. But this deliberate originality is also reserved for alcohol and, since a short while ago, for mineral water, sold as a rare product. Already for some time now, producers have been practising a sort of confusion of genres that is definitely worthy of attention. Certain shapes and forms traditionally reserved for foodstuffs have been assigned to cosmetics, and vice versa. This, for example, is the case with certain Body Shop creams, sold in packaging which resembles that of old-fashioned preserves in glass jars. On the contrary, olive oil and balsamic vinegar presented in the form of sprays evoke the world of hairdressing. When it is necessary to economise on packaging, there’s nothing like making it attractive by devising an original graphic presentation. Whether this is done by recourse to humour (a dimension that can be observed in many British products) or by using photographs or carefully chosen illustrations, a very simple packaging can be transformed thanks to its graphic design. The Greek cosmetic products Korrès, which have won several awards for their original design, are a good example of this. Closer to hand, we must point out the intelligence of the Sélection product range sold by Migros. Their graphic design building on simple principles – gold line and white background – is able to promote elements that make their contents particularly attractive. Another section of the exhibition traces the evolution of certain packagings, notably thanks to a batch from the design collection of the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich, which has loaned objects from the Swiss marketplace of the 1960s to 1980s. An exceptional collaboration with the patrimony of LU [a French biscuit manufacturer] permits us to analyse a specific case, that of the packaging of the famous Petit Beurre chocolate biscuits, devised by Raymond Loewy among others. In parallel, we present works by designers and artists who tackle the theme of packaging in their own fashion. The “Pack Sweet Pack” furniture range by the Big Game designer group hijacks the world of packaging’s standard reference systems and transforms them into furniture. As for the installation constructed from Tetrapack cartons by the graphic designers Bark of London, it develops a completely imaginary visual language and makes us aware of the impact on the observer of the graphic presentation of packaging. Finally, the “Supermarket” photographs by Frenchwoman Floriane de Lassée take into account the effect of massing with which we are all faced as we walk round a supermarket. All these deliberately off-centre observations on the theme permit the visitor to place a finger on the artificiality of packaging, while revealing to him/her the touches of inspiration offered by certain brands which have made their packaging into little treasure chests. via Artdaily

Consumers in a downturn: a new spending habit? (part 1)

The business channel of The Atlantic Online published this weekend the first of two articles by Grant McCracken on the implications of the recession on consumer habits. This article just deals with three variations of a mere quantitative change. The qualitative change — where consumption patterns might change in kind and not just in quantity — will be addressed in a second piece. What will the current downturn might mean to consumers? Will their habits change in lasting ways? Could we return from the downturn to discover that consumers are a very different animal, that our economy runs on new principles. David Brooks wondered recently whether we might someday look like abstemious Amsterdam. There is a scarier prospect: that we might go the way of Japan. [...] Consumers scales back existing consumption habits. They buy the same things, roughly speaking, but they shift from expensive to cheaper versions, from big quantities to small quantities. This suggests a shift from European luxury cars to Japanese sedans, from luxury goods to something more generic, from national brands to store brands, from eating out to eating in, from steak to hamburger. The logic is a simple diminution, a quantitative change that produces no qualitative change. The world of consumer demand remains what it always was, scaled back for the moment in a managed retreat. When trust, job confidence, credit and prosperity are restored, the consumer will come charging back. All is forgiven. All is forgotten. We will party like it’s 1999. Read full story (alternate link) via Putting People First