Design as Common Ground
In the briefing session for persona development this morning mentor Matt Marsh concluded his introduction by arguing that we need to focus on making user experience our common language.Read more »
March 21, 2006
A Novel Approach
Well we're well into day two which is about half way through the "pulling your idea apart process", so looking forward to tomorrow when we get to put it all back together again!
There's been a few novel experiences so far - having somebody else pitch your idea to the other teams whilst you sit in silence is definitely valuable, even if it is also incredibly frustrating!
Today we're getting into the shoes of some of our users and pitching the ideas from their perspectives. We're yet to decide which one of us is Harry the boffin and which is fun-loving Debbie, but I think we're in for an interesting afternoon...
Where are the ladies?
I spent most of my youth hanging around with young boys. Not that there was anything paedophilic about that, as at that time I too was a young boy myself, so hanging around with boys was generally considered normal. But as most young boys do, they grow up and like to spend their time around young ladies. Frustratingly for me, when I attended university, the computer science courses I took were so absent of females that I was forced to loiter outside ladies toilets just so I could ‘accidentally’ have social (yes, social) intercourse with one.
Since those days, I like to think I’ve progressed, and now socialise with girls and boys in equal measure. Unfortunately for the Manchester BBC Innovation labs, as with the vast majority of the computer science industry, it is still excessively male dominated. I’m not sure why this is, but I’m sure it’s not a good thing. Today at the labs we’re currently looking at the ‘user’, a horribly geeky term for ‘people’. You know, men and women, your mum and dad, your girlfriend, your husband and so on. My worry is that we’ll turn the ‘user’ into a commodity, a collection of data, an over-simplified demographical reference to be packaged and digested rather than concerning ourselves with the real human, emotional side that makes us different from the machines. “What would a woman think?” we’re asking ourselves. I’m optimistic that it won’t turn to that because I have a plan. If by Thursday I haven’t said more than two words to a real woman, I’ll have to start loitering outside the ladies again. And then we’ll really know.
Paul Neave
Character Building
After an exhausting first day we're feeling a lot more positive about the rest of the week. The long journey from Liverpool up to this remote spot was a draining start to the labs for us.
We'll echo Magnetic North in that today has been a lot more fun than yesterday - the "character-building" exercise was enjoyable and useful for development of the idea. However the food hasn't been quite that bad, the Sea Bass in bright Dulux yellow custard was an interesting experience.
The Good Cop/Bad Cop session was intriguing, although more painful than we had thought it was going to be - it was interesting to get a real deep understanding of someone else's project and what they are aiming at, then pick it to pieces in front of their astonished faces!
Our idea has changed dramatically already from where it began just one and a half days ago, it will be interesting to see where it ends up by the end of the week.
Taking Shape
The opportunity to spend uninterrupted time developing an idea, with help from a set of mentors and the other teams, is already proving fruitful a day and a half in. Our idea is starting to take shape.
The thought of fridays pitch to commissioners who can give the go ahead to our project there and then, is rather scary. Although my biggest fear is what is on todays lunch menu. Yesterday we had black pudding hot-pot!
Although the setting is beautiful this is no holiday. We are following an intense schedule, and there are even fines for being late. Which means sadly we may not have the opportunity to bother a badger at Trotter's World of Animals which is next to the hotel.
Adam Todd
Aint no picnic in the lakes
This is the second day of the innovation labs and this morning has been a lot more fun than yesterday, creating imaginary users such as a shotgun wielding, opinionated farmer from Barnsley. It's certainly been challenging so far and really makes you think, allowing you to step back and question your ideas etc. BUT I was asking myself after the first day - where's the joy? It's all very serious, yet for me and the rest of the team having fun is a big part of the creative process - I mean nobody is going to die. That said I'm encouraged by this morning so lets see what the rest of the week holds...
The only other thing is the food is really awful - so much so last night we buggered off to The Pheasant and had a lovely meal that didn't look like it was created in the seventies.
Ashley Highfield on BBC Innovation
Ashley Highfield, Director of New Media & Technology at the BBC, shared a platform with Bill Gates for the Keynote speech at Microsoft's Mix06 conference. He showed a prototype of 'MyBBCPlayer' - an on-demand TV platform - built within Microsoft's new Vista operating system. Its well worth checking out the webcast of the speech (Ashley comes on about 36mins in) it shows the player as a widget on the desktop - demonstrating the kind of 'beyond the browser' interface that we're building on the Innovation Labs. There's also a news article in the Guardian on how the BBC plans to work with external partners to overhaul its website for the Web2.0 era. Well worth reading to see how the BBC is committed to external innovation, and to give a strategic context to projects like Backstage and Innovation Labs.
Day 2 of the North-West Lab
Tuesday at the Armathwaite Hall in Keswick, and the 9 teams on the North-West Lab are settled in, and already used to having the legs pulled off their projects. Yesterday was devoted to introductions and initial pitches of the ideas to the group. Today is dedicated to building user personas and exploring the idea from a user's perspective. Matt Marsh kicked off the day by giving a breakneck introduction to User-Centred Design (the pictures from his flipchart drawings will be on flickr shortly) and the groups will spend the rest of the day building profiles and scenarios to pitch back at the end of the day. Here's the timetable:
10:00 Introduction/overview of day
10:10 User-Centred Design overview from Matt Marsh
10:30 Break into groups to build user profiles
11:45 Reconvene in Library
12:00 Discussion: characters
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Reconvene in Library: Introduction to Storytelling
14:20 Group Work
17:00 User Pitches
17:30 Finish: Homework briefing
