Method

Since its launch in 2008, Internet Week NY has grown to become one of New York City’s biggest gatherings of design, innovation and tech communities – celebrating the intersection of digital culture and business.

This year, IWNY will take place from May 20-27 to explore how technology has disrupted and revolutionized every industry from food to fashion, to healthcare to education. Method is in the running to join the conversation to be featured on stage, with our presentation The Experience Tells the Story.

The Mad Men era of advertising has passed. But what does advertising and marketing mean in this new age where there is no such thing as a “traditional” agency?

Today, a brand’s communication and engagement strategy is no longer a separate and distinct practice from the design of a product or service. The two are intertwined. The product is the marketing, and the marketing is the product.

This panel, hosted by Method Principal Ted Booth, will challenge how both marketers and designers approach the development and growth of brands, products, and services. We will bring together both sides of the advertising and product worlds as well as practitioners that sit at the center to answer questions around what it takes to create and grow a successful brand and its products and services.

Help us #makethestage at IWNY and vote for our panel!

When I began writing Brands as Patterns in late 2010, I hadn’t fully realized the potential of the argument.

What I had foreseen was the convergence of interaction design with brand thinking and how that was going to change the business of building brands forever. What I hadn’t foreseen is that that same convergence has the potential to change the face of designing for interaction as well.

It occurred to me after this week’s verdict on the Apple – Samsung patent lawsuit that this goes beyond vilifying copycat design and begins to challenge the underpinning of all design for interaction.

It is, of course, somewhat ironic, that a discipline that was founded upon recognizing and notating the common patterns of users and is responsible for creating the standardized building blocks of design has produced one of the most hotly contended intellectual property battles.

The outcome of this verdict could mean that any designer of interface or behaviors could be financially liable for whether the function or behavior they’re designing is unique, or appropriated from a commonly held usage pattern.

Of course it is the declared goal of interaction design to make use easier, and building upon commonly held usage patterns had been the primary way this was achieved.

Some of the patents being protected—the bounce back behavior, the unlock gesture, pinch and zoom—have quickly become the standard way we all have come to understand touch interfaces. It seems incredulous to design a plethora of permutations as to how a user may perform these standard tasks. But, if you think about it, this is exactly what has happened in the physical world. A pin tumbler lock is pretty much the standard for physical locks and was patented in in the 1800′s by Linus Yale. Yet if you look at your key ring, there must be at least three kinds of keys that all have different behaviors, and that does not take into account numeric combinations, electronic key cards, or biometrics.

Traditionally the choice for any competitive brand, when faced with patent issues, is to license, innovate, or avoid. And because it would be hard to imagine someone like Apple licensing its core patents to the competition, the only real choice is to innovate.

This brings about an interesting conundrum: are we really going to reinvent standard interactions to create differentiation? And do we then pass on this inherent complexity to the user?

But, therein lies the opportunity. By creating a set of behaviors, functions and organizing principles that is unique and protectable, you create a stickiness within the interface that a user grows attached to. They begin to organize their systems through your tools, create value through your functionality, access and respond to your behaviors. Much in the same way that it is easy to become accustomed to the handling of a particular car, users become accustomed to the handling of the interface.

This is the true power behind brands as patterns. Branding has moved away from the tails of planes or the logo on a business card that can only signify the breed of the company. Branding has become the way you use something, the way you interact with a company, and the way you experience their products. So far, it is as protectable by law as a logo, a trade mark, or a slogan.

So, there are 2 implications for the interaction design community to consider:

1. If this thought presents a fundamental challenge to the very core of the discipline and blocks best practices, the user will ultimately suffer. Future users may be unable to convert between interfaces and will have remaster even the simplest of tasks. The adoption of standards solves this massive problem. Imagine the web without http; measurement without standard weights or distances, or currency conversion without a centralized rates. The standard patterns of interaction are only shared between designers with an adhoc agreement to create better experiences for all users.

To protect standardization in the future, we must create a legal entity that would hold the global decisions on which interactions are kept as common and which are created into Brand IP. This would represent the Standards of Common Interaction if you will.

2. If this thought embodies the true spirit of innovation and presents the opportunity to fuel innovation for the coming centuries. It’s clear that we must all begin the race towards creating more ‘brand owned’ experiences and interactions in earnest.

Ultimately, we must delight and engage the user in the uniqueness of the product or service as it relates to the ownable pattern of the brand. To do this, we have work ahead of us.

Check out our latest 10×10 piece, “Who’s the Chief Experience Officer?”, featured over at Co.Design! Principal Reuben Steiger discusses how to manage great consumer experiences through building brands with great products and services.

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.

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.

This morning, our creative team sat down with an eclectic group of designers work across physical and digital media, an interesting combination for a discussion on craft.

Adidas France created an awe-inducing commercial using advanced 3D mapping, high-power projection, and the veil of darkness.

Adidas France – 3D Mapping Projection from The Cool Hunter.

Compost Modern, an AIGA conference with a focus on “Sustainable Design” was recently held in San Francisco. The conference was split into one day of lectures (5 and 20 minute) and one day of participant generated group discussions. Speakers included a broad spectrum of design practitioners – from storytellers to home builders to educators. The lectures presented an optimistic glimpse into design that is currently making a very real difference in peoples lives around the world.

So, what is next? Penguin tells us the best e-reader. Does Apple have the key to order in Chaos and will Android ever unlock its full power? Questions for us all to consider.

So when does Apple become too Apple and Android unlock the key to content chaos?

In the meantime, we’ve got Angry Birds. This Business Insider article reveals what Angry Birds tells us: “Apple Will Be Number One For A Very Long Time.“

Verizon will soon be carrying the iPhone 4. So, what does this mean for AT&T?