Archive for the 'Design' Category

The Consumerisation of Design, the Death of Fitness for Purpose

Published by Ben Kepes on May 14, 2009 in Business, Design, Manufacturing and My businesses. 0 Comments

On my way to the United States, US Airways unfortunately misplaced my bag. Faced with the prospect of a week without my stuff i made a quick assessment of what I really couldn’t do without. Top of the list 9after a NZ/US power adaptor) was my gym gear. I trundled on down to the Denver NikeTown to fix myself up – and therein lies the genesis of this post.

The sales assistant at the store was really friendly and obviously knew everything there is to know about the Nike product line – i heard all about stone protection, Kevlar fibres, midsole impact cushioners and the like – but was surprised at how little the sales banter actually looked at my body, my use case and my needs.

I ended up buying a lovely pair of shoes (a size too large – he didn’t actually check that part) which I’ll go and replace today. My beef however isn’t with this guy, he was only doing his job. It’s with a society that forgets the actual purpose of a product in favour of some aesthetic or vanity induced criterion.

My last experience with buying shoes was at The Frontrunner in Christchurch. That time I was put on a treadmill, slow-motion videoed and the sales assistant (actually worthy of the title technician) discussed the specific traits i displayed and what shoe features to look for in order to correct those traits.

The sad thing is that Nike has its genesis in high level athletics, but now it’s just another label pimping new products every season – and rapidly inventing new “design features” every season to do so.

Ahhh – it makes me proud to be involved with a company that (shameless plug) doesn’t design for planned obsolescence, has an approach of “ethic construction” and is pleased that its products look, and work, similar from one season to the next.

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The Perils of an Echo Chamber

Published by Ben Kepes on November 20, 2008 in Business, Design, SocialMedia, Society and Strategy. 4 Comments

I love social media – it allows me to have interesting relationships with interesting people whom I otherwise might not know. But sometime the send/post/update key is just too easy to tap.

Case in point the recent storm around an advertisement. Motrin is a US brand of painkiller and their (formerly methinks) high paid ad agency decided on a campaign which extolled the virtues of Motrin for parents who use baby slings and in doing so get sore backs. So far so good – I mean the ad concept is kind of lame, but it makes a change from pushing pain killers for period pain I guess.

The ad, for reference and posterity’s sake is below;

It seems however a bunch of mothers (and some father no doubt) see this as an insult, an affront to their front baby wearing preference and an utterly erroneous claim.

Which is fine – they can continue to wear their kids on the front, back or otherwise. They can use another pain killer. They can stop watching the Motrin ad.

Or they can start a social media storm that involved dozens and dozens of blog posts, thousands of tweets and the requisite Facebook page.

Does anyone else out there think that perhaps this is a little over the top?

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The Ultimate Proof

Published by Ben Kepes on November 12, 2008 in Design, Efficiency, IT and Society. 3 Comments

I love blog posts that herald the demise of blogging. I mean no one would expect Ford to come out and say that peak oil marks the end of auto companies (even if it does) so why this self flagellation within our industry.

Most recently Paul Boutin wrote what is, admittedly, a quite interesting post on Wired. The crux of the post is that there is no point continuing to write for blogs, and less point in starting a new blog. Rich media, in the likes of YouTube, Flickr, Facebook et al have made it so much easier to post rich content that no one has time for words anymore. Additionally Paul contends that it’s actually easier to upload a video for example than it is to craft a well written blog post – yeah I guess if you’re a retarded, inward facing cretin who can’t form polysyballic sentences and who considers meaningful dialogue to be pretty much what Homer says on the Simpsons.

They don’t give Pullitzers for YouTube videos Paul.

Paul also contend that microblogging is the new form of communication par excellence and that 140 characters is sufficient to say anything one wants.

And what does Paul do for a living? Yes indeed he’s a journalist (one who uses more than 140 characters at a time) and what forum did he use to preach his vision for the future – you guessed it, a magazine cum blog post!

So sorry Paul but I disagree. I’ll continue to blog (both here and here), I’ll also write articles (with lots and lots of words) for the other dinosaur there, print media. And last but not least I’ll continue to enjoy evenings with a glass of wine, a wedge of my own Roquefort and a crisp, worn and leather bound copy of the most beautiful book ever written.

So I’ll leave you with a quote or two from the same, if your personal bandwidth extends past 140 characters that is!

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees.  My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath–a source of little visible delight, but necessary.  Nelly, I am Heathcliff!  He’s always, always in my mind–not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being

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Why IP Protection is Becoming More Irrelevant

Published by Ben Kepes on November 3, 2008 in Business, Design, Efficiency and Society. 1 Comment
The RIAA Logo.

Image via Wikipedia

How’s that for a linkbait title?

Wired reports of ex-cheerleader Whitney Harper (all_American girl, all-American name), who is being pursued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over some music files she downloaded when she was a teenager. Harper is a little incredulous saying that;

I would do homework on that computer and listen to music. I didn’t know I was stealing or distributing it. I thought I was like  listening to MTV on the internet

In a twist worthy of Oprah, Harper is refusing to settle out of court at the $200 per song minimum charge the legislation allows and is instead eyeing down the opposition and waiting for them to take her to court.

An interesting story but the bigger issue here is the general copyright one. In this day and age the old world way of chasing copyright infringement is just too slow, too unwieldy and two out of tune with the way we use data.

Clearly those who create work (be it music, art or, dare I say it, blog posts) deserve the credit and potential revenue from their creation – but the adversarial and litigation fuelled status quo is definitely not the answer.

So what do we do – how do we, in this hyper connected and mutual sharing world, create an IP model that protects the interests of both creator and user?

Thoughts anyone?

(And in an update the Judge rejected her claim, but her lawyer will appeal the ruling)

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Design 101

Published by Ben Kepes on October 29, 2008 in Design. 2 Comments

I do this sort of in depth research and analysis so you, my dear readers, don’t have to. The hotel I stayed at in Chennai was the GRT Grand, a lovely place that harked back to the days of the empire and England’s best and brightest enjoying ginsling and high tea.

Anyway – I digress. As fellow travellers know the most exciting thing about being overseas is checking out the free toiletries supplies at the hotel. The GRT Grand was no exception and I was stoked to find a shaving kit came with the deal (no need to schlep mine from home after all).

shaveme

Part of the shaving kit was a small sachet of shaving cream pictured below. You’ll note the "cut here" symbol and the picture of a pair of scissors.

cuthere

I’ve got to say Gilette is a cool company with excellent products (I’m a bit out of the loop – does their current premier shaver have 7 or 8 blades?) but there’s something missing here. I was a good Boy Scout who has always adhered to the Scouting mantra "be prepared" but even I don’t shower with a pair of scissors at hand. What’s worse I had no scissors in my hotel room so ended up resorting to spearing the sachet with a pen in order to extract said shaving cream.

User centricity? Not

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A New Friend in the Playground

Published by Ben Kepes on October 24, 2008 in Business, Design, IT, New Zealand, SaaS and Strategy. 4 Comments

I woke up in the middle of the night to take part in a phone conference (NZ 9am is some ungodly hour in India) only to find my time zones were confused and I was an hour to late.

The conference was initiated by Telecom New Zealand and was to announce their partnership with Xero. It seems Xero will now have a presence on the Telecom Business Hub – Telecom customers can get a free 60 day trial of Xero (as opposed to the standard 30 day one).

It’s a big win for Xero in my opinion, despite their bullishness they need to achieve scale (their released half year report show a burn rate that demands scale). Telecom is already in the mind of most New Zealand business customers so this move just increases that presence.

So from a marketing perspective I understand the benefits to be gained from this deal. From a user perspective there are a few things that would really create a value add that a partnership like this could bring such allowing for a single billing point and tight functional integration between the two companies.

Given the economic climate however it’s a great win for Xero that should see them ramp up their customer numbers, and for Telecom it builds the perception that they’re building a complete business needs marketplace for their customers.

(And maybe, the recent announcement about the new WCDMA network will mean that Telecom customers can have those iPhones that Rod has long been saying will be revolutionary ;-) )

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Building Online Communities

Published by Ben Kepes on October 22, 2008 in Business, Design, New Zealand, New business, SocialMedia, Society and Strategy. 2 Comments

The latest issues of Start-Up magazine is out and it includes a feature article I wrote about building online communities. It’s a subject close to my heart and one which I’m currently involved in with a (slightly) stealth project.

The article can be seen here. In it I look at three interesting case studies for both the right way, and the wrong way to build successful online communities.

Suffice it to say we’ll be eating our own dogfood with our community – watch this space!

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Building Successful Online Communities

Published by Ben Kepes on October 22, 2008 in Business, Design, IT, SocialMedia, Strategy and Web x.0. 2 Comments

Mauricio sent me this information and it looks like some fantastic sessions for anyone who has an interest in building online communities that people love (and let’s face it – any online business is, by definition, a community).

Details are;

How to create, develop and evolve a social media presence to increase collaboration, drive awareness and improve customer loyalty

Social networking and online communities have received significant attention in the past 12 months, as services such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn attract and connect communities of people. For organisations wanting to truly bring their marketing and customer service strategies into the 21st century, creating and fostering an online community can be the most powerful –not to mention the most cost effective – marketing tool available.

For marketers and communicators social media is proving effective at reinforcing an organisation’s brand, understanding and capturing customer feedback, and creating and sharing information across communities of interest. Organisations can take advantage of similar technologies to create their own custom community experiences.

Recognising the importance of this trend, Intergen has invited Andreas Stjernström from Swedish enterprise software company EPiServer to New Zealand. He will highlight the reasons why developing a community is important, and give real world examples of organisations that have successfully created and maximised the benefits of online communities.

Intended as an introduction to online community development, these free events are targeted at:

- Organisations that are currently creating or are looking to create or sponsor an online community.

- Agencies who want to offer your customers options for taking advantage of social media.

- Marketers and communicators who are looking for new mediums to communicate your organisation’s value proposition.

Events are scheduled on the following dates:

Wellington Wednesday 5 November, Level 7, 126 Lambton Quay – 4.30pm-6pm

Christchurch Thursday 6 November, Level 2, 158 Hereford Street, 8am – 9.30am

Auckland Friday 7 November, Level 2, 15 Huron Street, Takapuna – 12.30pm – 2pm

To register for these free events, email events@intergen.co.nz.

I’m a starter for the Christchurch session – I’d advise anyone looking to leverage the power of the people to check one of the sessions out.

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PR 101 – Don’t Do It Like This

Published by Ben Kepes on October 16, 2008 in Business, Design, Humour and New business. 7 Comments

I have to blog about this. Good friend, web visionary and generally nice guy Mauricio Freitas, founder of Geekzone, forwarded me this email from a PR person. I’ve removed the details to protect identities but count the number of times Mauricio’s name has been written and how many times it’s been misspelt – PR FAIL!

Hi Maurice,

Thank you for agreeing to meet with xxxxx of xxxxx on xxxx. As agreed, xxxxx will meet you outside the café on the ground floor of the xxxxx.

xxxxx is a start up company based at the xxxxx and has developed a unique online xxxxx application called xxxxx. xxxxx’s very keen to meet with networked technology people in the know, like yourself, who can help point him in the right direction with regard to networking and promoting his company and xxxxx.

Attached is some information about xxxxx, and this link will take you to xxxxx’s bio online: xxxxx

xxxxx, this is Maurio’s bio and blog – there’s also a photo of Maurcio on the page – http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm

Mauricio’s mobile and email are:

021 xxx xxx

Maurice, xxxxxx’s details are:

xxxxx, CEO

:: Direct

+64  xxxxxx

:: Mobile

+64 xxxxxx

:: E-mail

xxxxxx

:: Web

xxxxxx

:: Postal

xxxxxx

Thank you so much Maurice.

Kind regards

xxxxxx

That’s right – Mauricio’s name was written six times. How many times correctly?

Once

A less kindly man than Mauricio wouldn’t even agree to meet someone that employs a PR firm that makes a balls-up like this – they’re lucky they chose a kindly recipient.

Sort it out PR!

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Government Use of Offshore Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Service Providers

Published by Ben Kepes on October 16, 2008 in Business, Design, IT, New Zealand, Society and Strategy. 2 Comments

Now that’s a mouth-full!

Mike alerted me to this interim document put out by the State Services Commission of New Zealand. The document seeks to give some guidance to government agencies looking at using offshore ICT providers and seek to help agencies take a professional approach to considering offshore as an option to improve service delivery. It is intended as a risk assessment resource and aims to retain control over government information systems and assets.

So what does it say?

  • Detailed risk reports should be completed when looking to offshore ICT services. This assessment should determine location of where information will be stored and the specific classification level of any data being transferred
  • Processes should be in place to manage the ongoing relationship to react to "political, legislative, business, systems, environmental, and cultural" changes

The risks of offshoring are split across;

  1. Big picture risks: risks that may put a proposal out of consideration regardless of its other virtues
  2. Trust and public confidence risks: how a proposal may adversely affect the Trusted State Services Development Goal for the New Zealand State Services.
  3. Control risks: the need to maintain control over data as required by, for example, the Public Records Act 2005.
  4. Governance, management, and project risks: difficulties that may arise when management of a business function or project is geographically dispersed.
  5. Economic risks: following procurement policy while considering possible effects on the larger New Zealand economy of an offshore proposal.
  6. Business continuity risks: government responsibilities in maintaining capability in the country in the event of an emergency or a service provider failure.
  7. Security and integrity risks: includes industrial espionage, social disruptions, terrorist threats, and data corruption.
  8. Privacy risks: threats to government held personal information if sent offshore.
  9. Legal and commercial risks: practical and legislation-related risks of doing business outside New Zealand.
  10. Fiscal risks: currency fluctuations, offshore taxes, and other financial risks.

From an initial read it seems that the concerns can be split into two main camps;

  1. Project management, cultural, IT resistance and security risks
  2. Jurisdictional risks caused by offshoring

My take on it is that the first issue has some easy fixes. Clearly there is a need for good management of SLAs, excellent due-diligence of potential providers and a true TCO/ROI analysis of the different options. This coupled with some excellent project management should take what is a complex, multi-dimensional problem and deliver a robust outcome.

That part was easy. The second issue less so.

The fact is under the current cloud computing models, we don’t know where our data is and have no idea of the jurisdictional ramifications of a solution that sees bits stored in multiple locations.

Answer? A domestic datacentre with scale. We already know that there are issues with the limited outbound pipes we have as a nation, and with the imbalance in terms of outbound and inbound data. Seems that that, coupled with concerns by Government agencies about the offshoring of ICT outsourcing, builds a reasonably compelling case for a locally sited data centre – both in terms of traffic management and security assurance.

I’d be keen to hear the sage thoughts of the ICT intelligentsia out there on this one…

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