Method

We’re very happy to announce that our web design work with Teaching Channel and AIGA have both been selected as winners in the 2011 Pixel Awards Competition. The awards take a look at a number of categories ranging from Apps to Fashion, selecting the best work that represents “a creative and technical blend of impeccable graphic design, artistry, technological expertise, and a powerful, simulating user experience.”

The Pixel Awards honored our work with Teaching Channel and AIGA in the student and community categories, respectively.

(image from FastCompany.com)

Fast Company recently posted an article on the developing tech war between innovation giants, Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon, discussing in detail the various factors working for and against these companies. It sheds light on the fact that these organizations, originally known to operate within one vertical are beginning to expand their business and design thinking into other markets.

The article was keen in pointing out that we’re finally seeing once siloed technologies beginning to merge. Companies that once were known for doing one thing, and doing it well, are finding opportunities to compete in places where many never imagined possible. Using their core offerings as a foundation, product, services, and content providing are become one industry, and the current companies who didn’t embrace or acknowledge the change are going to struggle to catch up.

“To state this as clearly as possible: The four American companies that have come to define 21st-century information technology and entertainment are on the verge of war. Over the next two years, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will increasingly collide in the markets for mobile phones and tablets, mobile apps, social networking, and more. This competition will be intense. Each of the four has shown competitive excellence, strategic genius, and superb execution that have left the rest of the world in the dust.”

Read the full article here. What do you think? Who will come out on top in the innovation economy. Comment below or tweet @method_inc.

As I visited www.apple.com to check on iOS 5, I was greeted by Steve. Or, I should say, Steve’s picture greeted me from the home page. It was made all the more poignant by the fact that the dates made it clear that I was looking at a memorial to a man, one who has certainly had a huge effect on my life.

For the past decade, I have continually heard clients talk about how Apple has totally grasped branding, experience design, product design, innovation (insert any variable that matches your context). In his passing, bloggers, pundits, and the media in general have begun to look back on his contributions. NYC Mayor Bloomberg even compared him to Edison and Einstein with regard to how his work has changed our world.

At Method, we live and breathe experience design. We live and breathe branding. We live and breathe innovation. And we live a lot of our work and non-work lives with Apple products. As I think of the contributions of Edison and Einstein, my mind raced to bridge a gap — Steve Jobs’ contribution to our world is not just for the benefit of designers, or “early-adapters” or “Mac Fanboys” or any other demographic/pyschographic segmentation that would allow the contribution to be reviewed with an asterik (*Steve’s innovations changed the world for 60% male/40% female, 24-37 yrs, $150K household income, urban/suburban, creatively inclined professionals).

There is a lot of information, from Steve verbatim, and from those who worked with him, about what the goal of all of this was. And it may be that it shifted over time as technologies matured, digital media disrupted industries and business models, and the nature of the network began to be woven more and more into our daily lives. But as I looked at Steve’s picture on the Apple web site, I had a profound realization for what he had done and how important has been to my life, our business, and the world at large: Steve brought the best of the opportunities enabled by the computer — processing power, digital media, connection to the network affect — and put it at our finger tips. From the early adoption of the mouse and the WIMP user interaction model, to the control wheel of the first iPods, to the iTouch, the iPhone, the iPad, literally everything Apple has done has been creating the best in experience design that brings the power and benefits of technology and putting it at our fingertips.

What a brilliant stroke of genius. While everyone struggles with balancing form and function of technology to deliver technology, Steve went straight to the heart of the matter. We are visual beings who see our environment and use our hands to take control. The hand-eye relationship underlies our specialization amongst animals, it part of the heart of every creative craft on which we have built our cultures and civilizations.

Yes, the iPad is a genius piece of design. Yes the iPod and iTunes changed an industry and will affect future generations — how will you hear that song that marks your first love? But in the final analysis, perhaps the most important thing that has been accomplished has been showing the world what technology can be, how it should approached from human terms. What we see, what we touch, he we manipulate; these are the core components of the human experience.

And Steve seemed to know that if these can be engaged in the right way, the world is your oyster.

Director of Strategy, Kaihaan Jamshidi, talks about the radio experience with Mark Ramsey from Mark Ramsey Media. They look at both the brand and design perspectives on the radio experience and the possibilities for innovation within the space.

View Part 1 below. Part 2 launches tomorrow.

Link to original story.

After the enthusiasm from our last workshops with Etsy on physical computing (read up on the basics of physical computing here), we teamed up with IxDA last night to host a session on physical computing and product prototyping on the Arduino.

The workshop brief was to solve a real-life problem within the themes of sustainability, therapy, health/wellness, education, social change, and communication. Split into small groups, we began to solve for a selected problem through a compressed brainstorming and concepting session. Participants began refining ideas through testing and applying the Arduino and the kit of sensors and outputs we had available.

The IxDA community took to the challenge with alacrity and creativity, discussing challenges, users, business benefits, marketability, and feasibility within their theme, and narrowing on a solution to the identified problem that could be prototyped in the session.

The ideas and proofs of concepts?

One group addressed the problem of nightmares, conceptualizing a device that would comfort children when they wake up from bad dreams. The group created a soft switch out of conductive thread and fabric to hook up an LED light to a doll, and programmed the Arduino to make the light blink when the fabric inside the doll was pressed. The idea was for the child to simply hug the doll, activating the bulb to shine a friendly, comforting light.

Another group chose the theme of sustainability, focusing on how to eliminate the waste of food. They conceived a piece of hardware with an ethylene sensor that could detect ripeness of produce and signal whether it should be eaten immediately or not through LEDs. The hardware could then be attached to a reusable shopping bag to bring grocery shopping. Their prototype used a gas sensor to detect gas values of surrounding objects, which would trigger a light to go off if it hit a range within ripeness.

The groups were all able to create some great prototypes, showing how their products would work. We loved to work with such a creative group to think of and actually begin testing innovative solutions using the simple tools we had.

At the San Francisco PSFK Conference last week, one of the strongest themes that emerged was that of equitable access…access to content, devices, to the global community, affordable lodging, even to outer space.  As a result of advancements in technology and the recent proliferation of social media, people who have historically been on the fringe of trends in the developed world are now actively contributing to – and thereby shifting – the conversation.  Where the “Western” perspective once dominated the globe, a more diverse story is now emerging, adding a rich texture to what may have become familiar tales for many.

These stories are the underpinning of what may be considered an emerging discipline in the design world – Emotional Design.  Donald Norman wrote a book on the subject, positing that attractive products work better because they make people feel good and put them in a creative frame of mind where they are more apt to solve problems independently.  The concept of Emotional Design goes one step further when we consider the power of infusing emotion into products through storytelling – inspiring brand loyalty, ambassadorship, and ultimately, brand love.

Chris Riley, founder of Studioriley, cited Majority World as a powerful example of an innovative new business that gives a voice to talented photographers in developing countries by providing an alternative to traditional photo stock houses.  This organization fosters a more inclusive dialogue by nurturing talent and ultimately helping its partners build successful creative enterprises.

Patagonia is one company that has successfully embraced storytelling as a core tenet of product design.  The Footprint Chronicles document the good, the bad, and the ugly realities of certain products for their sustainably-minded consumers.  Infused with images and photos documenting the people and places of the supply chain, the company makes it easy for people to forge emotional connections with the brand.

As content becomes more ubiquitous across a steadily increasing array of devices across the globe, we can expect to see the more innovative brands leverage this unparalleled access in creative ways.  Emotional design applied to product development is a nascent space that will be interesting to watch in the coming weeks and months.

I recently teamed up with Khoi, our Creative Director based out of the NY studio, for our trip to Hyper Island in Stockholm, Sweden to speak to a group of branding students. We took a slightly different approach to the idea of branding giving a lecture on “What Every Designer Needs to Know,” discussing the process of communicating, creating and extending a brand’s value through different digital products.

The students were very eager to learn about our view on branding from the design innovation perspective. We talked in depth about the Method process and culture, highlighting a few of our projects including Time Warner Cable, and Marimekko.

Twitter, at the surface, feels like a repository of people’s random, of-the-moment thoughts and interests. However, a recent study shows additional layers of information regarding the emotional state of Tweeters. The emotional tones of our tweets may follow a rhythmic pattern – not only throughout the day – but also throughout the week and even the changing seasons.

The New York Times recently highlighted telling research that shows connections between Twitter and our moods. Sociologists at Cornell University compiled a report based on Twitter messages posted by more than two million people in 84 countries. The report finds that our collective moods over time are driven in part by an innate biological rhythm, unbiased of culture or environment.

It’s interesting to think that the aggregate of global microblogging can become a source of data that can even begin to point to innate biological drivers in humans. However, I am more curious around how the act of publishing our “moods” to an audience actually may align us closer with each other as we communicate in ways and with a frequency that was previously unavailable.

It seems that others share a similar concern around whether the “moods” are purely natural or if the mechanism is shaping them:

“Tweets may tell us more about what the tweeter thinks the follower wants to hear than about what the tweeter is actually feeling,” said Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist. “In short, tweets are not a simple reflection of a person’s current affective state and should not be taken at face value.”

The report does prove interesting, but I am looking forward to the deeper conversation around how platforms such as Twitter are influencing behavior and culture and the strength of our biological tendencies.

What do you think? Is Twitter telling of your mood patterns?

SXSW may be in 2012, but we’re already looking forward to it. Method is in the running to lead panels at SXSW Interactive, and we need your support to get us on stage! Our team has submitted panels for stimulating discussions on brand patterns, the smart home, and designing for context.

Lead by our Director of User Experience in New York, Claudia Bernett, this talk explores emerging trends in transformative television. Claudia will guide you through a history of interactive TV in the context of the rapidly evolving “smart home,” and then map out the route to successful cross-platform experiences.

Brand as Patterns

Following our recent 10×10 piece, Method Principal, Marc Shillum, will dive deeper into the theme of “Brand as Patterns.” Lining up an exciting panel of speakers, who include HP’s Global Creative Director, Greg Johnson, and acclaimed writer, Peter Sims, this panel will challenge the traditional views on branding. The panel will take a deeper look at the concept of brands as patterns, discussing how organizations must establish consistency, not by simply repeating a central brand message, but instead through building brand patterns structured around smaller, cohesive ideas.

Designing for Context

Ben Fullerton, Method’s Director of User Experience in San Francisco, has been invited to join the lineup for a panel on “Designing for Context.” Curated by Andrew Crow of Razorfish, this panel will examine the challenges of designing products to accommodate the varying needs and wants of the user. Discussing the notion that products are accessed through multiple devices, different channels and a wide audience, the talk will focus on how designers can accommodate the context of use.

Voting ends today. Click on the panel links above to vote now and help us secure a spot at SXSW 2012!