Awayday
We're in Manchester enjoying the delights of Futuresonic with Jamais Cascio, Usman Haque, and Christian Nold. Curry Mile (Punjab Palace) also features!
Lots of photos here.
2009.05.15
2009.05.08
Made in Sheffield
RIP David Mellor, 1930—2009. A man with an eye on the quality of everyday life.
Waiting in the rain for a bus to arrive.
Sitting at a table to eat.
2009.05.01
Mapping language
Just love the Portsmouth Vernacular map by Jodie Silsby.
2009.04.24
Warstories getting entries
We've been sending round a little goodie bag to get people thinking about their war stories, and they're coming in bit by bit.
Please come and have a look at the 37 questions we've put together to get you to think about, and to jog your memories. Be anonymous if you like publicly, and anonymise the companies if you need to.
Most importantly, have a read of what others are saying - it's a chance to talk about our work.
Add yours here.
2009.04.20
Playing with money
We're been playing with the Phoenix Cinema on raising cash in hard times for their centenary refurbishment. We're working with them on fundraising ideas, methods for engaging people in the campaign, and making a coherent project of it all. Our starting point was getting some of the kinds of communications and storytelling devices into a local project.
The special thing about the Phoenix is that it's survived so long, and is still an independent cinema. It puts on great films and events, like Peter Hook being interviewed by Paul Morley after a showing of Control - not bad for a local!
Here's us putting the campaign explanation around the totaliser, a classic thermometer style collection-in-progress, aimed at grabbing the attention of the cinema goers and keeping them connected to the progress being made.
The next phase is a physical and digital interaction timeline project - connecting personal stories, Phoenix cinema and film history. Prototyping now. More soon.
2009.04.10
Any excuse to redevelop the Arndale Centre
And no, it wasn't us, just an example of the free press we seem to get.
I was in city centre Mcr last time the Arndale got hit, hence the caption.
Here's another!
2009.03.30
Men working online
IMG_0320.JPG
Originally uploaded by gill wildman
Originally uploaded by gill wildman
Found this at Bletchley Park on a visit - completely missing the irony of the huge amount of women who were tasked with the decoding work.
A wonderful place to visit if you like nissen huts and modest english exhibitions. And a wonderful toy exhibition, complete with wartime packaging.
2009.03.24
Hedy Lamarr for Ada Lovelace Day
For Ada Lovelace day (and Nick's birthday), I'm nominating Hedy Lamarr.
Beautiful and a brilliant scientist, she was responsible for inventing spread spectrum communications, and frequency hopping, without which our now mobile lives would simply not be possible.
Her patent no. is U.S. Patent 2,292,387
Stunning, in every way! What a girl!
AdaLovelaceDay09
2009.03.19
Thankyou fellow travellers Peter, Tim, Roger...
Probably the best podcast we have ever listened to. Clicketh here (mp3). This is where Plot comes from...
2009.03.17
Making something of our warstories
We're well into our book writing time, with at least 80% written.
We're now seeking help in getting some input from others from your real working experiences.
Each couple of days we'll post a question about some of the patterns we see in the people side of design projects. Each question is a prompt, and if it occurs to you that you have a story to tell, please tell us and share it.
We need to keep the stories non-libellous, so please feel free to mask the names of companies, organisations and people in an interesting way.
You can see the questions and contribute to the stories here.
More very soon!
Recent Posts
Nick Durrant
- Nick Durrant has worked in interaction design for over a decade.
After several years in Silicon Valley, via Taligent, IBM, and 280 Inc. developing group, collaboration environment, and social software such as 'Places for project teams' and 'Meeting Centre' he returned to the UK to bring interaction design strategy to Metadesign, Icon MediaLab and Futurebrand Digital. Client work at from this time includes research, strategy and design for Bristol Legible City , Orange, Skoda, Bosch, Telia, GSK, MSDW, Bank of America, Artranspennine 98, Netaid UN/Cisco, Telefonica, Lastminute.com, UPC/Chello, and Peoplecom. Bristol Legible City won an environmental design effectiveness award and is widely held up as a best-practise example in urban design.
His design research projects include 'The bubble engine - Net Archaeologies, Web Geographies, and Active Networking – Issue Network Mapping at the Jan Van Eyck Academy, Maastricht, in 1999, and FLIRT, location-based recreational media, at the RCA and Helsinki in 1998.
More recently Nick has been a Visiting Professor to Innocence/Interbrand, an 'Agent Provocateur' for Orange, and an ongoing Advisor to, and Mentor for, the Design Council's Humanising Technology project. He graduated from the Computer Related Design programme at the Royal College of Art in 1994. Contact Nick via: nick at plotsite dot net
Gill Wildman
- Gill Wildman's passion is the design of people-centred systems.
Gill believes businesses and other organisations need to realise the value of both end-user participation and interdisciplinary collaboration to succeed with their innovation strategies and design initiatives. Her early work, as a researcher and developer of local services, used the community development approach, which emphasises linking local networks and agencies to user-needs. This was amplified and extended by the pioneering use of social visualisations, and other design methods. Later, expanding on these practices as a designer, and then as a strategic design management consultant, Gill has influenced the direction of many public and private sector organisations.
The Humanising Technology initiative for the Design Council introduced user-centred design approaches to early-stage UK technology start-ups and brokered collaborations between many talented designers and scientists.
Gill was Assistant Director of the Design, Strategy and Innovation MA at Brunel University, has been active in shaping the definition of Service Design for the British Standards Institute, and is currently an Industry board member for Innovative Product Design and Interactive Media Design at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee.
Contact Gill via: gill at plotsite dot net
When to call Plot
- If you are developing or reviewing strategy, have a new technology, are developing products and services for new markets or initiatives, starting a project, or simply need an external perspective or expertise. Call us on 07966209615.
Plot in print
We've been reading
Matthieu Ricard: Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
Peter Morville: Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become
Else/Where: Mapping — New Cartographies of Networks and Territories
John Maeda: The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)
Case studies
Spies like us and ones we like
- Ponoko make and sell stuff
We've been using these guys for all sorts of things, and their elegant careful and attentive service is a case study in itself - cultureby
Grant Mcracken's thought space for inspiration - Schulze & Webb
Makers and thinkers, extraordinary! - BDH | Home
Our award winning Happy Towns collaborators! - Dirt Café chef compadre Arthur Potts Dawson cooks up some inspiration!
Arthur's brilliant eco-restaurant venture has showed us how you just have to get out there are do it. His passion is stunning! And the cookbook's not bad either! - firsthand
We've collaborated on more than a few projects, and Matt's incisive work always makes a huge difference! - Jim Smith's undepressing observations
Jim's got this amazing way of seeing and playing back the crazy world we're in. Then he puts it into beautifully witty illustrations. Irresistable. - Live|work
Spearheading the service innovation space, live|work raise the game for all of us! - Storytellers at large
Some wonderful tales about thinking and doing (and sometimes not too much of the former!). - Mr Davis – a rather fine draw-er.
What this man does with painfully insightful observations of real life is stunning. - City Mappers
Seeing Mike Rawlinson and his talented designers — expert mappers of Bristol and other city spaces is a treat for the eyes and feet, and a delight for travellers. - Coming Next
Garry Van Patter and Elizabeth Pastor are making waves in innovation. Their recent AIGA appearance is reviewed here. - In-depth creativity
Roger Martin, from the Rotman Business School, says why business leaders need to use "design thinking" - Strategy by Design
Tim Brown of IDEO on using design thinking to create business strategy - Purposive Drift
Richard Oliver muses on cybernetics and everyday life - In the bubble
John Thackara says "To do things differently we need to percieve things differently" - Three Wishes
Alex McKie's UK wish-list discovery recovery programme
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