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

Designing Services for Financial Inclusion

View more presentations from Jan Chipchase.

“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)

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.

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

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

A glimpse ahead: the Microsoft Office Labs

Microsoft just published a series of videos where they envision the future of work and life in the year 2019. From their websites, the Microsoft Office Labs:

Take a step into the future and get a glimpse into how technology may transform the way we live and work in the years ahead. Explore some of our concepts for how leading edge technologies might be used in real world settings – such as health care, manufacturing, banking and retail – over the next 5-10 years.

via The Customer Experience Labs‏

Here is the video that summarizes the different future visions.

Video: Future Vision Montage

Trivial Europe - Five Greatest Cities of the World

What´s the European thing about Europe and how trivial is everyday life? © DIE FABRIKANTEN	A transition of a different kind. From Thessaloniki in the Southeast through Novi Sad, Linz, Essen to Liverpool in the Northwest. DIE FABRIKANTEN Promenade 15 4020 Linz Austria Phone: +43 (0)732 795684 Contact: labor@fabrikanten.at www.fabrikanten.at/trivialeurope TRIVIAL EUROPE ON SCREEN within the 'Stadtkino' Linz09 - films about Linz, in Linz, from Linz. Moviemento3, Linz, Austria. March 20th, 2009 5:30 p.m. ORDER PREVIEW DVD NOW

TRIVIAL EUROPE
Five Greatest Cities of the World
Documentary, A 2007, 60 min.

What´s the European thing about Europe and how trivial is everyday life? There are lots of stereotypes about each European country. What do these images mean to networked and cultural addicted coevals?

In nighttime walks DIE FABRIKANTEN, an artist collective from Linz, are looking for answers: Equipped with headlamps, residents of Thessaloniki, Novi Sad, Linz, Essen and Liverpool lead us to their favourite places.

The result is a transition of a different kind.

In THESSALONIKI, computer salesman and freelance online journalist Kostas Karderinis leads us to his favourite pastry-shop, ex-highjumper Chrisa Theodoridou to her father´s minigolf course and the architect Eugene Balassis into an occupied university.

In NOVI SAD Zelimir Zilnik, Filip Markovinovic, Vladimir Radisic und Zeljka Jovic tell stories about the day of the Nato-barrage, comets and wine festivals. Two Romanies give an account of their sex- und alcohol conflicts during Ramadam.

The journey through the city of LINZ at night is a mixture of red-hot steel and slightly broken 'Schwedenbomben', rusty transport ships and illuminated architecture. Along with us come Florian Sedmak and Michael Rusam.

The artists Karl-Heinz Mauermann und Johannes Gramm lead us through ESSEN in the German Ruhrpott. We get to know their favourite pitch, the very first Aldi store worldwide and the ugly Porscheplatz, which no longer can be called a square.

In the crack of dawn in LIVERPOOL Tamasine Seibold and her musical saw give a concert. Peter Hagerty adores the sea and the calm. The loud and flashy Liverpool is presented by Roger Hill alias Mandy Romero - Liverpools most famous Drag Queen – one of our nighttime escorts.

CREDITS

Director/Producer: DIE FABRIKANTEN
Gerald Harringer and Wolfgang Preisinger
Editor: Julia Pontiller
Musik: Thomas Reinhart
Camera: Kristaps Epners, Gerald Harringer, Dziugas Katinas, Wolfgang Preisinger,
Michael Rusam, Viktoria Schloegl, Miho Sugita, Gert Hatsukov.
Concept: DIE FABRIKANTEN

REVIEWS

'Your film reminded me very much of something that Serge Daney once said when describing his favorite films, the 'one-of-a-kind' films, as he called them. (...) In true travel, what matters are the magical accidents, the magic of the night, the discoveries, the inexplicable wonders and the wasted time. And your film is one-of-a-kind; it's a true travel, a wasted time. And when I say wasted time, I mean that as the most beautiful compliment that I can really give you.' Jurij Meden, film critic und curator, Slovenia

After the premiere at VIDEOMEDEJA in Novi Sad, Serbia, in November 2007, TRIVIAL EUROPE was on screen at the DIAGONALE 2008, Graz, Austria (competition) and at CROSSING EUROPE 2008, Linz, Austria.

Within the 'Stadtkino' series of Linz09, TRIVIAL EUROPE will be on screen again on March 20th, 2009, 5:30 p.m. at Moviemento3, Linz.

THE IDEA BEHIND

After the book BOTSCHAFT LINZ, the documentary TRIVIAL EUROPE is the second part of a project series about places in Europe. Places with a tale to tell.

Since 1989, the artists and designers DIE FABRIKANTEN put their transboundary projects into effect, be it adventures in communication in everyday life, at the internet or at cultural festivals.

Always tightrope walking between art and reality, communication and culture, they find new crossconnections manifested in corporate designs, rooms, situations, films, communication concepts and communication projects. These contentions guide amongst others to Turkey, Greece, Israel/Palestine, Czech Republic, India, Erbia, United Kingdom, Germany and the USA.

via e-artnow

Banking for the grounded consumer

Really nice web iniative by the brazilian bank Banco Itau that taps perfectly into the grounded consumer market. You choose a character to begin with and a series of questions follow: How many minutes do you spend on your mobile every day? Do you know that reducing the costs of your calls could help you saving enough money to buy a laptop?
Long term gratifications and interesting alternatives to teach young people how to save money.

I Can Bank It created by Gringo. via adverblog

Also if you want to know more about the grounded consumer and the impact of the current economic climate on the American Dream check this really interesting report by Context

The words this week: interesting read

Alan Moore's white paper on “The glittering allure of the mobile society” via London Calling


Design revolution or social (r)evolution by Marcia Caines (Cluster). Edited by Mark Vanderbeeken (Experientia) is a round up of the St Etienne Biennale and tries to answer contemporary design questions

- How can design help to develop our lifestyles?
- How to make design work with research and innovation?
- How can design now become a tool for economic development?
via Putting people first

Interesting read of the week an article about Abhilasha a pilot study by New Dehli start up Eko and the Centurion Bank of Punjab that offers an interest earning saving account that can be updated and managed through a mobile phone. In the article Jan Chipchase taps into usability and illiteracy in mobile banking. via Future Perfect

Third-Culture Kid, Obama and innovation

Read this week

I came accross a great post looking at Third-Culture Kid and living on liminality

It does resonate with me, and really sums up my cultural upbringing. It is quite difficult to figure out how you can capitalize on being in born in one country (france), growing up in another (Cameroon) ad living in the third (UK). This article helps me figuring out

And to summarize the qualities of the individual,

I'm going to highlight key statements that articulate the characteristics of a person who embraces liminal space,

• Cross cultural skills such as flexibility, tolerance and strong observation skills
  • As cultures and communities come increasingly into contact, we need to know how to respect, observe and learn from cultural differences.
  • We are life-long learners, and the world is our classroom
• Poised to deal with rapid change. Comfortable with ambiguity.
  
  • The ability think quickly on our feet and can take the initiative to troubleshoot -- but we often do so in a context of understanding the currents and observing the situation first.
  • Flexibility and tolerance don't always translate as strong points in business.
  • Observation in particular seems to be underrated.
  • Tries to figure out which way the river is flowing before jumping in. i.e. sees the big picture.
• Multi-dimensional world view
  • We don't assume that our way is the best or only way.
• Greater "spiritual" perspective or Open to other value systems.
  • We observe that different people's experience has created different truths in their lives -- from how to relate to self and others to how to relate to spirituality.
  • Question those who promote a belief that there is only ONE way to nourish a spiritual life.
  • Rather than be threatened by different belief systems, relish the beauty in the diversity, taking something from everything.

Bruce Nussbaum gives President elect Barack Obama some advice on who can help him get innovation right

Also if you speak French a great three-part radi programme on the The impact of mobile technology around the world (via Putting people first)