Appreciative Inquiry Cycle

The Basics

Appreciative Inquiry aims to search for the best in people, their organizations, and applicable situations which affect each of their immediate worlds. It is a systematic discovery that allows a ‘best of scenario’ approach through the practice of asking questions that support an ecosystem’s positive outlook and the ability to increase its potential and harness positive forward momentum. AI assumes that every problem has a rich ecology of purely inspirational but untapped components. Instead of negativisms which spawn criticisms that often nullify opportunities, AI leads groups to iteratively discover, dream and design their own destinies. Appreciative Inquiry should also be applicable, provocative and collaborative.

In practice, Appreciative Inquiry is the art of crafting and asking questions that will strengthen the ability of an ecosystem to better anticipate, capture and amplify positive potential. ‘Positive change’ is the core of this practice which focuses on the following four processes:

1. Discover | The identification of organizational processes that work well.
2. Dream | The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.
3. Design | Planning and prioritizing processes that would work well.
4. Destiny | The implementation (execution) of the proposed design.

A Case Study – OCADU

On June 09, 2010 I participated in a DwD session led by Dr. Douglas Reid, a strategy professor at Queen’s University School of Business. Our goal that night was to help OCAD with their rebranding.

In its past OCAD had difficulties in transitioning from the ‘Ontario College of Art’ to the ‘Ontario College of Art and Design’ and now they were faced with the new name of the ‘Ontario College of Art and Design University’. This problem was detailed by an OCADU Director and is best summed up by mentioning that there is great passion for the University at all levels.

So for the next couple of hours we spent the time determining the conditions, forces and factors that made OCADU a great experience. We thought about the process first and then decided that 3 characteristics would best help the challenge of creating a new identity for the school. These characteristics were:

• Receptivity to all ideas
• An iterative-based solution
• The idea of ‘fun’

In short we decided to take in everything that was said, we didn’t rush to conclusions because we knew the solution was going to be iterative and we fully embraced the process. We talked a lot about what OCADU was doing well and what it could do even better; we never dwelled on its mistakes, or invited any ‘blamestorming’. We worked hard at asking useful questions that helped to reveal more about the positive nature of the University and did so without having to justify (in a defensive position) anyone’s ideas. Very quickly we got to a common ground and even if it wasn’t always entirely on point, many of the tangents we went on were productive. What we came up with was the following:

Positive thoughts about OCADU

Our conclusion after this exercise was not about what needed to be done differently this time or what needed fixing. Instead the Appreciative Inquiry process lead us to name the positive attributes of the University and further distill which of these could best be harnessed for marketing the change from a College to a University label. The OCADU Director left with a plethora of thoughts and positive insights into the merit of the institution and now has a generous platform on which to begin the new marketing transition process.

On a personal note this is only the third or fourth time I have used this process but it certainly gave some of the best results I have ever witnessed. I believe the difference in this session was that the participating group signed on to the AI methodology and understood its potential from the start. Thanks to everyone who participated and thank you to OCADU for the real life challenge.

But very few companies see beyond these statements of the bottom line. They ask the ROI question from their perspective and often only pay lip service to their clientele. I am not suggesting the companies don’t want the best for their consumers; it’s just that the consumers are relegated to the second part of the equation. For all the common jargon used, companies want to sell you a product or service first and then help you second. And this may be a great strategy for the quick buck or impulse buy, (i.e. the Slap Chopper – can you still hear him yelling at you?) but it can be vastly improved upon by integrated services delivered via the internet.

One of the most frequently used statements I make to clients is that they must deliver a memorable user experience to their clientele. And along those lines I also state that they must increase the user’s ROI through greater relevance to receive more business. And here is the catch, companies must first increase the user’s ROI and in turn the user will increase the company’s.

Traditionally companies handed out promotional literature that contained their product or service information, the value proposition, the technical information and testimonials. This brochure was great propaganda for general usage and could be given out at any event. But times are changing and people are experiencing their first glimpse of products and services online.

However many companies are not changing their attitudes towards their clientele and are still delivering a sales approach to an online audience. For example how many online ads have you seen in the last weeks which interfere with your browsing? With so much more potential these companies are still yelling at you to get your attention in an increasingly crowded online atmosphere. And guess what? This tactic has become the digital version of static background noise.

“Buy me” instead of “Let me help you” is too often the message. But the internet allows one to ignore the shouts in ways the consumer could never do before. There is so much more potential to be had on corporate sales sites in which the products and services are pushed on the users with only basic information, i.e. description and price. Companies need to take advantage of simple tools to help their potential clientele:

1. Teach them how the product or service can help them solve an existing problem
2. Allow them easy access to any helpful internal training material
3. Explain everything in plain, every day English, not hyperbole marketing speak which only creates more confusion and sometimes distrust if the product or service doesn’t work as they imagined
4. Showcase ways in which others (professional or amateur) have solved their problems
5. Allow individuals to showcase their unique view on problem solving or allow them to ask questions of the community
6. Explain potential issues that may be confusing to the consumer (I cannot overemphasize this one; time and time again people have questions about the product or service because it is written from an advanced perspective)
7. Connect the dots to other products or services which may have to be used with the one they are about to purchase (again it may be obvious to your company but not to the individual; besides this is a wonderful opportunity to cross-sell)

As a side note, I purposely left off the content point which explains why this particular company’s product or service offering is better than an other company’s for the very simple reason that I know companies will always include this information in the basic description.

Depending on your company’s situation this list can be improvised and expanded. But what is important, is that the creation of content that pertains to your products or services should be tuned towards creating a more helpful and memorable experience for your potential clientele rather than the spec sheet and list price approach. Give your clientele something useful, create a community of knowledge around your offerings and invite them back to comment on their experience.

Your clientele should become your focus. Although it may sound old-fashioned, if you keep them happy they will keep coming back.

Photowall Snapshot

My Impetus

I love my family and friends but I don’t really like family photos spread all around a home and for me the problem with photo albums is that I liken them to corporate art stored in vaults… no one gets to appreciate them. I wanted to showcase my life with family and friends so that I could let them all know I appreciate them and to make myself smile knowing that there are so many people and situations that I have enjoyed. So I set out to create an anamorphic, film dimensioned 2.35:1 photo wall that I could easily update that contained many photos – besides I had the wall space.

The Requirements

I wanted this process to run smoothly so I knew I had to do a little research upfront. I wanted showcase my snapshots but not the frames because with a repeating pattern of photos the frames would seem heavily weighted in the end product. I also needed them to be inexpensive because I was going to have to buy a lot of them. I choose frames from IKEA called ‘Clips’ they fit my need perfectly. These frames can be hung either vertically or horizontally which is great, they have no frame whatsoever, they are extremely light and thankfully inexpensive. I only bought the 4”x6” frames… 220 of them of which 204 are on the wall.

When I examined the frames I realized that I would have to get nails that supported each of the frames well enough so that if the glass frames were poked (by little kids and big ones), they would not easily fall off the wall. And this is where I had to do some research. To make a long story short I found a company called Under the Roof Decorating that produced a product called ‘Deco Nails’. The reason I choose this particular product was that it did a few things to make my life easier:

1. The nails don’t make a large hole in the wall.
2. They have a double ‘saucer’ type head in which they secure themselves to the wall and also make a more secure hanging point for the ‘Clips’ frame hanging mechanism.

I actually think that these nails are rather ingenious, although a little pricey so I worked with a woman named Linda at their main office in Calgary to bring the price down significantly for the quantity that I needed.

The Procedure

And I am sorry folks this is where I could start writing volumes but I am going to be extremely brief in this section. However the pictures at the left of the screen match up to the steps below.

• Step 1 | Since I needed to make sure the whole picture wall would be evenly hung and accurate because of the sheer number of photos I decided to make a template in Adobe Illustrator that I could easily print out and tape together. This template contained all the markers I needed to both align the separate sheets of paper into one large sheet and also highlight each specific point where a nail was to be hammered into the wall.
• Step 2 | Next I taped the whole sheet upon the wall and make sure it was level. By the way, this is why I went through the pain of ‘Step 1’ because afterwards the rest was very simple since everything was aligned and leveled and nothing more needed to be measured.
• Step 3 | Another close up of the whole sheet upon the wall.
• Step 4 | I used one of the nails to make a smallish imprint or sometimes a hole into the wall at every point in the template where a final nail was to be hammered in. I then removed the large sheet from the wall and hammered the Deco Nails in one at a time. This took awhile; having more arms would have helped. There was also a bit of wall cleanup involved.
• Step 5 | This is a sample of the first two ‘Clips’ frames on the wall, one with a photo and one without. Notice how the nails sit flush against the wall.
• Step 6 | At the beginning I had only a few pictures to place in the frames, but I still placed the empty photo frames on the wall.
• Step 7 | This is how the frames look on the wall. When designing the template I spaced every frame about 3 centimeters from each other in both the x and y axis. (some of the frames contain a white piece of paper, some do not)
• Step 8 | All the frames up but only half the pictures.
• Step 9 | The finished ‘family and friends’ photo wall.

The Result

Thank God it is done. It took some time and good old-fashioned elbow grease but I am extremely happy with it. I have already begun to place in new photos and I am looking forward to my photo wall’s evolution. I think I have the most fun though when the younger kids see it because they quickly start scanning the wall and always let out an excited shriek when they find themselves.

Welcome to BoockCamp Toronto 2010

When I arrived at Robarts I wrote myself a name badge, gathered a schedule and walked over to the main auditorium for a welcome speech by Hugh McGuire. All around me was chatter but the one conversation I picked up on was a person explaining why his iPad was not such a good thing. He was upset at Apple’s closed ecosystem and limited standards.

Hugh started to speak. He explained that all the sessions were to be one hour in length. The first 15 minutes being an intro of the topic by the guest speaker and the final 45 minutes being a participatory discussion which would include everyone in the room.

Note: these are my thoughts on each session that I sat in on. I believe I’ve accurately paraphrased what was said in these groups but I am sure that others interpreted the sessions differently. I sat in on a total of six sessions.

Session One: The Shifting Role of Design in Publishing

Ingrid Paulson of Ingrid Paulson Design

Ingrid had the following thoughts on the state of the industry:

• eBooks are poorly designed, reasons are many including poor technology, and a limited number of typefaces
• Book jackets are a big question for the eBook’s digital future
• How are publishers going to build an electronic brand without an actually physical presence (i.e. a pBook is a physical object)
• The ePub format is currently really limited, it compares well to early web browsers
• Designers are not involved in a proper manner. Most publishers are trying to mass convert pBooks but the technology is not quite there and ePub books are full of errors and not well designed.
• Too often publishers are thinking of the size of the files and the formats for their eBooks and that restricts creativity
• On the plus side there are no physical page restrictions with eBooks
• Customers will not need so much shelf space for their book collection as their eBook reader will contain hundreds of books represented by only a small icon referred to as a pseudo cover

The audience wondered if:

• the future book cover will be more informational or more akin to artwork
• designers will become less valued

After writing my synopsis of the day’s events I finally made it to Ingrid’s website. Her work is wonderful and unlike other people who claim to be designers or care about good design, she does care and is a damn good designer. Please visit her site to understand what the difference between design and ‘technologists with templates’ is all about.

Ironically the shifting role of design in publishing was shifting all day.

Session Two: Digital Workflow

Sharon Balley of Anansi, and John Maxwell of SFU

Sharon started this talk and John, who was a last minute pairing, chimed in occasionally but tried to keep his dialogue separate from that of his presentation later in the day. Immediately questions were raised becuase print production has been the same for decades with only minor differences and evolutionary steps due to technology. But how would that change with the advent of electronic publishing?

• Where does the epublishing fit into the traditional publishing workflow?
• How does this added responsibility affect the traditional editorial and production workflow?
• How will the roles of designers, marketers, editors, sales, distributers, etc., and other departments change with electronic publishers?

Sharon’s company, Anansi, converts printed books to ePub documents using Oxygen as a tool for ePub conversion and they have learned a few things along the way (John also participated):

1. Third party converters make unfortunate judgment calls and the indexing is spotty
2. MSWord to printer doesn’t work well at all. (note: MSWord was roundly criticized as a helper production tool but no one seemed to realize that authors like to use it for writing because it is the most robust tool and that they are already comfortable with it) In fact they believe that they have to get a printer ready document into an in-house style guide slightly before the print version because it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for a print book and 2-3 weeks for ePub version.
3. Agile work flow allows for both print and electronic versions at the same time and perhaps it is best to create PDF, XML and ePub formats specifically for flexibility and mass print conversions

Issues affecting conversions are that publishers have to notify authors if a conversion is going to be made due to the growing authorship/copyright legalities. And for the moment retailers are signing only short term agreements for electronic publishing because the landscape is changing so fast.

Some of the technology used is:

• Adobe’s PDFXML Inspector is best used to edit the ePub format
• oXygen is best used as a pure XML editor
• Sigil is good for only tweaking ePub in XML files

Other thoughts on Agile publishing:

• It starts with the Web and then gets passed to Adobe InDesign
• After changing the extension of the ePub to ZIP and then separating the necessary information, one can import an unzipped ePub format into InDesign
• IDML in InDesign is useful publishing cross format
• One might want to produce templates in Wordpress first the move to the pBook format

Of course with the ever changing landscape of publishing tools I would take most of this advice with a grain of salt. As various technologies evolve, the answers to the publishing workflow will change with them. John Maxwell’s session later in the day would prove to be only a temporary solution for specific instances of workflow only.

Session Three: Print-on-Demand Workshop

Rob Clements of Lightning Source Inc.

I didn’t know what to expect in this session, but I figured it might be a little marketing heavy and I was correct but never-the-less intrigued by Rob’s proposal. Rob works for Lightning Source which is wholly owned by Ingram, the largest book distributer in North America. Rob juxtaposed the way LSI uses digital printing to its advantage over the traditional way publishers currently print books.

• Traditional Method (front loaded, many books printed): Many copies after the initial print run stay at the publisher’s warehouse then these books get delivered to the retailer and finally to the customer.
• Print on Demand Method (8 hours to 3 days for a limited run of 1+): Publisher receives a request of (x) amount of books through an online web store, the publisher then requests the print on demand (POD) company for those books and for them to be delivered to the client of the web store. The POD printer holds the electronic files which consist of the PDF for printing, the printing rights, the native currency amount, the type of paper, the spine width, etc. And then sends them directly to the end client.

Someone in the discussion noted that currently the law states that a Canadian publisher/distributer must be sourced from a Canadian vendor but that this law may be changing. So this brought up the next question as to how Canadians protect our own interests? Is it more important to print the book in Canada or allow the book to become freely available to the world through digital publishing mechanisms? If we primarily choose the latter many of the existing POD companies have multiple print houses around the world.

Other interesting tidbits of information that came to light were:

• 5 publishers own about 50% of the total market and another 16000-20000 own the rest
• For books to be printed at many POD companies the author/publisher needs to get them an ISBN number

I found this session interesting because it’s tone and much of its content was self-serving but I still learned a lot. But for next year I hope that people who do directly represent companies give more holistic talks about their industry in general.

Session Four: eBooks: From Structure to Typography

Scott Boms (designer) and Joe Clark (author)

I really liked this session. I thought that although at times it was pessimistic it really encouraged the audience to see past the present day technology and tools and ask the tough questions that make us all want more from the electronic publishing world.

The point was made that we currently have web standards that can be used to create books online but that there is a conceptual shift from design to structure with eBooks that is going unanswered. Sometimes a complete restructuring of a pBook is required to place it in its electronic form, but at other times the book only needs to be repurposed. Knowing which one to choose is the challenge in front of us.

Currently regular linear prose books are the standard for eBooks on line and that they are the first of their kind to be reproduced without proper typography in mind. Many of these eBooks are getting mass converted and the quality of those conversions is poor without any human interaction whether it be from an editor or designer.

Some of the questions asked:

• What then is the designer’s role for ePub eBooks?
• What does a designer do when moving previously well known graphic type books to an eBook format?
• How do the dimensions of the pBook, the colour reproduction, the type selection, the layout of singles vs. spreads and text within images affect the transition of the electronic version?

It is already apparent that although web standards can separate structure (HTML) and presentation (CSS) the ePub format still has lousy mechanisms for typography, pagination, etc. What is worse is that web standards today dictate that the user has the control over the display of their information, therefore reading devices dictate what a page looks like which is not necessarily in the best interest of the book’s brand.

Joe mentioned that we should all be using DAISY instead of ePub for the design of eBooks for “… any E-book that includes a reading of itself, as DAISY allows us to avoid reinventing the wheel.” DAISY has the added advantages in that it contains structural markup, it is speech capable, printed page numbers are preserved and the speech can be linked to specific sections within the eBook.

Towards the end of the session the big question was asked: What are the choices for heavily designed books that we want to translate into an electronic format? And the answers given were:

1. Give up
2. Use ePub
3. Make them applications

After leaving this session I came up with one more answer which I think is the right one: Just don’t copy the original, instead make it an entirely new entity that challenges the reader on its own merits. But alas there is always the other plausible answer that not all books are meant to go digital.

Session Five: The sBook – OCAD initiative

Bob Logan and James Caldwell (I was filling in for Greg Van Alstyne)

sBook can be best described as a cross platform for reading, writing and publishing. The goals of the sBook project are to develop a unifying information architectural framework for readers, writers and publishers that ties together emerging standards; and to invent new forms of functionality and interoperability to achieve our design vision. The name “sBook” refers to the qualities of the intended experience:

Simple: the pleasure and beauty of human readable pages
This would be an open format container which includes not only the book format, but also the information for it being printed anywhere in the world into any format with the book’s and its owner’s rights firmly adhered to.

Social: developing context and community through social media tools
Meaning that the author or authors could build a community around their published work, complete with granular commenting.

Searchable: the power and practicality of electronic text
For all images and text contained within or any other content that may arise.

Smart: intelligent recommendations both within and beyond the work
Capability to jump to other published works that are pertinent to the present work.

Sustainable: effective use of material and energy throughout the lifecycle
One open format that can be updated or change with graceful degradation.

Synchronized: can be updated by author and publisher
Editions and versions of author and publisher can be fully tracked.

Scalable: open platform supporting new products, services, experiences
Open and extensible format to ensure that the format of the sBook will be around as long as the traditional pBook. To the point, whatever the open format is, it needs to be open sourced and headed by a public governing body.

I won’t say much more here because I was directly involved. However I would like to criticize our use of ‘The sBook’ as the title in the session schedule. I thought it actually looked like a miss print because there was no further description given. We will have to change that for the next time because the points that we are trying to make are far more important to think about than what the title entailed.

Session Six: The Book of Mpub (An Agile Process)

John Maxwell (SFU)

A team of University students and their professor from Simon Fraser, John Maxwell decided to publish a book. At the outset they understood part of the problem but found that they wouldn’t understand all the issues until the end of the process.

To get started they used an Agile process adapted from Agile software development to create their pBook because it allowed them

• Cheap fast prototyping
• A cyclical, iterative and lightweight processes

John believes that the ‘Agile Process’ is how the web came to be and so his team moved from the traditional qualities of pBook publishing with linear change to an internet structure. He rightly understands that although books haven’t changed, the media sphere has and therefore the book has a different function starting in this decade.

Recounting the Mpub book he says that it was:

• Born on the web and developed there
• First started in Wordpress and still exists there
• Initially developed as a blog for the belief that the web is the best starting point for ePublishing
• Collaboratively built
• Produced with simple open web technologies like XHTML
• Mechanically very simple to produce a pBook from the XSL translation from web to Adobe InDesign
• Created with workflows that were cyclical
• Engineered so that they could make editorial changes up to the last minute

During their process both the editing and production overlapped and even now there is no ‘final’ state to their book but it exists in multiple formats simultaneously that were all produced on a magazine type schedule. For marketing help they received feedback from various people on the web and these contributions helped a great deal during and after the launch. They allowed open permissions to those who wanted to contribute more and used InCopy within InDesign to edit the document at a more granular level when it came time to print the book on paper. Towards the end of the project they made print proofs at their in-house Espresso Book Machine.

John mentioned that the most difficult aspect of the process was the inventing and discovery curve.

To sum it all up

It was a long day, full of interesting people with great insight and thoughts about the publishing industry. At the end of the day Hugh McGuire thanked all the contributors, the volunteers and the audience for attending. There was definitely more detail this year and more specifics. The industry is moving quickly whether or not we have proper standards or not and whether or not anyone even agrees on what should be happening. The hype and forward momentum seems to have caught most people in a frenzy but because we are in the early years of electronic publishing there are still formats to be ironed out and procedures and process to be developed that will satisfy everyone’s needs.

I hope this event is held again next year, as I believe it is necessary to bring the community together.

Lastly I will say that I learned something very important today: my personal electronic publishing process could use a little reworking. Next time I will take my laptop to an event like this because transferring my notes from paper to final electronic form took way too long.

LG Philips LCD e-Ink Flexible Paper

Throughout this last year I have been fixated on the technology, media and publishing news that never seems to rest. Major shifts in technology and their acceptance are happening so quickly that even as the writers in traditionally established publishing houses publish their articles, their scribing becomes nothing more than the thoughts of mere pundits. The following are some of those article titles taken from two months in early 2010.

Headlines of the ebook’s relentless digital march

January 08
The Gurdian | CES 2010: The ebook revolution

January 9
NYT | A Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing

January 10
NYT | Optimism Takes Charge at Consumer Electronics Show. From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale?

January 11
Wattpad Release | Wattpad Closes Funding Round

January 13
All Things Digital | Sony’s E-Reader Opens New Chapter in Kindle Rivalry

January 25
The Millions | Confessions of a Book Pirate

January 26
Technology Review | Amazon Expands the Kindle with Apps

January 27
NPR | Will An Apple Tablet Heat Up E-Book War?
NPR | In An Era Of Immediacy, Why Fear The E-Book?

January 28
PCWorld | Apple’s iPad Ready to Challenge the Kindle
Neowin | Is the iPad Apple’s iFail?
The Economist | The book of Jobs
The Economist | Steve Jobs and the tablet of hope
Daring Fireball | Various and Assorted Thoughts and Observations Regarding the Just-Announced iPad
NYT| Despite Changes, Many Still Oppose Google Books Deal

January 29
Itbusiness | Apple iPad — 5 setbacks and two show stoppers
The Guardian | Palms, Kindles, Nooks, iPads – none are as cool as Gutenberg’s gadget
WSJ Blogs – DIGITS | E-Readers Fall Short for News, Study Says
The Journal | Measuring the iPad’s Potential for Education
Learning Solutions Magazine | Apple’s iPad: What does it offer for e-Learning?

January 30
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home | Apple’s iPad DRM uncertainties make the Financial Times: ePub gummed up

Jan 31
Mediaweek | The iPad: Great Type Hope? Optimists see iPad’s promise, but where’s the video?

Feb02
NYT | Rosensweig Lands at Textbook Renter Chegg.com

Feb 03
Mashable | Amazon Buys Touchscreen Company for Its Kindle Division
PC World | Five Reasons Why the iPad Won’t Change Higher Education

Feb 04
All Things Digital | PBS’s “Frontline” Considers the “Digital Nation”–A Lot of Handwringing Over the Inevitable, but Watch It Anyway

Feb 05
Wired | Panacea or Poison Pill: Who Gets to Decide About $10 E-Books?

February 07
Guardian | As I start to write my latest book, I fear for the future of publishing. Retailing pressure and the emergence of the ebook are threatening the future of authors and their work
The Sunday Times | British Library to offer free ebook downloads Jane Austen: Originals cost £250

February 8
NYT | Kindle Books in Snack Sizes
NYT | Publishers Win a Bout in E-Book Price Fight

February 10
Inside Higher Ed | E-Library Economics
NYT | E-Book Price Increase May Stir Readers’ Passions
NYT | Do School Libraries Need Books?

February 12
NYT | Do E-Readers Cause Eye Strain?

February 15
The Guardian | Why I’m an ebook convert
L.A. Times | Apple to wrap digital books in FairPlay copy protection [Clarified]

February 16
The Australian | Don’t resist e-books, Carr warns

February 21
NYT | Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally

February 22
The Phoenix | Holy Scrollers! The future of e-publishing can be found in one of the world’s oldest books.

Feb 24
Inside Higher Ed | A Win For Publishers

Feb 28
NYT | Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book

March 01
The Independent | Here’s to the small print: The past and future of compact literature

March 02
Gigaom.com | Books Now Outnumber Games on the iPhone

March 4
The Globe and Mail | A lament for the bookshelf
Publishers Weekly | Barnes & Noble to Test Bundling e-Books, p-Books

KAOSPilot’s Intelligent Ecology

Uffe gave us only a quick synopsis about KAOSPilot and referenced it as a school whose purpose is to ‘create positive societal change through personal growth and enterprise’. He also gave us a small diagram on where he believes KAOSPilot is situated. This he calls ‘The Intelligent Ecology’.

But for the majority of his talk Uffe Elbaek led a frank discussion for three hours on his experience of birthing an extremely large and socially sensitive project from point zero to fruition in a condensed time line of only two and a half years. During this time Uffe had to not only deal with the many third parties involved, such as the political organizations, vendors, sponsors, and citizens of the city of Copenhagen but also the very basics of putting together a team from scratch. I mention this because when he started the team it was only one person deep – himself. As the key organizer he had to start by resolving some of the key issues such as time, money and people. Was there enough time to get this event off the ground, was there enough money to support the event and who were the people that would support and participate in the Games to make them a success.

He viewed all these questions as if he was forging long-term relationships with every stakeholder that he encountered. He wanted his team to become the nucleus of a communications hub for lively two way discussions and not just a central hub where directives were given. He encouraged the organizational structure to help strengthen conversations between the stakeholders themselves. This he believed helped augment the stakeholders’ relationships within the greater Games community.

Because of his belief in openness Uffe didn’t start this undertaking with his own concept of what the Games should be but instead he developed a plan of action that he calls the ‘Dehok Project Model’.

It starts with the ‘idea’ and ends up with the ‘how’ – how to implement. You will of course notice in the diagram that the ‘concept’ does not get recognized until the ‘need, purpose and value’ get realized. As a side note he quoted a common saying in Denmark for ‘purpose’ which I will have to paraphrase: “Your purpose must be so succinct you can pee it in the snow”. (this one I will always remember)

Uffe believes that the Dehok model is useful to combat what he calls the ‘Project Paradox’, whereby most projects start with an ‘end date’ but very little accumulated knowledge with which to make proper decisions. Here the goal is to compress the gap between the decision and knowledge curve as best as possible.

The Dehok model allows the core team to realize an open outcome rather than a predestined one because it indulges varied experiences to manage change. More specifically, this model does not focus on the final concept but instead encourages the team to focus on a consensus allowing them to work together in an atmosphere containing less internal conflict. He believes, as do I (and most of us I imagine), that a cohesive team structure is best united to solve a set of problems when they all believe in their common goals. This process starts with an idea but consistently appreciates the requisite variety of ideas that develops through different personalities. Of course the end goal is a mutually beneficial outcome.

This talk was one of the better more comprehensive ones that I have ever been to. My suggestion would be to go see him if you have the opportunity. Thanks Uffe.

The other week the following question was asked of the group: “What does (a) design(er) offer to a process of transformational change?” As a group of individuals we spent some time writing down our independent thoughts about this question on post-it notes and then pooled our ideas on a wall. We each talked briefly about our ideas and then afterwards our group attempted to coalesce our results into a minimal number of unnamed but broadly defined categories.

Results

These results are uneditied and in their raw form taken from the post-it notes.

Group A
Open Mind
Deep Listening
Overcoming the fear
Space to challenge assumptions

Group B
Cross Discipline
Fresh Perspective
Consensus

Group C
Inclusive
Collaborative
Different Perspectives
Collaboration

Group D
Make Decisions
Curration
Intuitive
Efficient Organization of Ideas
Analysis
Understanding of when to keep going and when to leave it alone

Group E
Work optimally within constraints
Functional Solutions
Constraints can be operational or creative

Group F
Appropriation/Adaptation
Ideas can be borrowed and adapted

Group G
No Starting Point
Sense of Randomness
Divergence then Convergence
Adapt to the Unexpected
Welcome emergence
Explode it open then narrow it back

Group H
Contextualize
Synthesize

Group I
Iteration
Refine, review, refine, review

Group J
Elegant
Esthetics
Harmony

Group K
“Simplexity”
Make it clear, coherent and comprehendible
Feels effortless
Clarity

Group L
Multiple formats of presentation
Give Ideas Context
Communicate for mutual understanding and progress
Tell ideas as stories
Illustrative explanations

After inspecting this list I can say we failed at keeping the groups down to a minimum, but I think the content of the list speaks volumes about how design can help create solutions to issues. Too often we think of design as an end result but it should be part of the conversation that helps us evolve better solutions. Just as it is a designer’s job to create something worth taking notice of, when applied properly, the process of design can help concepts or ideas be more readily understood.

Thank you again on behalf of the 150+ excited clients of da Costa Talent Management.

da Costa Talent hired Thirst to help realize their potential online.

Book Spines

The more interesting spines hold my attention firmly while the others usually get nothing more than a quick glance. Visually, I note the colours on the spine, how clean the design is and how clearly I can read the typography. But not until the other day did I ever note the publisher’s logos. I don’t know why they seemed so visible on this particular afternoon, but they were suddenly obvious and unavoidable. I stopped looking and reading the spines and started scanning them for the incredibly variety of logos instead. Most had artwork except for the academic presses, which generally consist of only the name of the press. I noticed that many of the publishers had designed special logos for alternate audience segments and other publishers had refreshed or modernized versions of their logos represented on their more resent print runs. Generally all the logos were one colour line work, using only positive and negative space to make themselves recognizable.

Now for a sobering thought. I can’t help but think that this lovely collage of book spines is going to go the way of the dodo when eBooks become the standard. There will simply be no more jacket art nor spines to peruse, no more colour, line and type to hold my attention. There really is something I enjoy about the tactile quality of the printed book and I am certainly going to miss it if or when it is gone.

A book spines analogy

When the paper book disappears, and some form of eBooks replaces them it is going to be a dark day. I believe it will be a sore reminder of the day when ‘vinyl’ was no longer available on mass. I enjoyed flipping through all that vinyl, there was an art to quickly flipping through hundreds of albums at my favourite record store. Every so often one of the covers would hit a chord with me, I would stop and stare at that album and maybe even pick it out of the bin. If I did, I would lift it up gently and slowly slide the vinyl and lyric page out of its jacket and read the poetry. [Sound of record needle scratching across vinyl goes here] Now we have music downloads so the love of the format is gone, it is mostly about money and distribution now, and not the listener’s experience. Sigh… what follows is a sample from a friend’s bookshelf.

As a request, Dr. Scolari was asked to give several lectures while in Toronto with interface being the topic of his last presentation. The topic of interface for Carlos is not just about computer interfaces but about the complete ecosystem of what an interface is. From his research he has developed seven laws that govern their existence:

1. The interface is a metaphor.
2. Interfaces are not transparent.
3. Interfaces form an ecosystem.
4. Interfaces don’t disappear, they transform.
5. If an interface can’t do something, it will simulate it.
6. Interfaces co-evolve with their users.
7. Interfaces are subject to the laws of auto-organization. Interfaces are subject to the laws of auto-organization. Interfaces are subject to the laws of auto-organization.

It is interesting to note that dictionaries primarily define an interface as “a surface regarded as the common boundary of two bodies, spaces, or phases”. Of course in the 1960’s computer scientists claimed the word and redefined it as a device which allows the exchange of data between two different systems. Today this is regarded as a hardware definition but more recently with the explosion of computer software applications and their devices, designers have developed interface to mean the graphic control panel with which people use to interact with a hardware device. This evolution of meaning is interesting because it certainly substantiates Carlos’s sixth law of Interfaces.

The Laws

First Law: The interface is a metaphor.

We have already seen how the dictionary definitions of interface are evolving to include more diverse meaning. Perhaps time is shaping this definition but a specific definition does not yet exist. If anything it is actually expanding. One can use the term to make it applicable to almost anything they need.

Some say that the best interface is an intuitive one that does not need instructions; others believe more to the point that it is the place where the interaction occurs. Carlos believes that an interface functions as a membrane, an instrument, a conversation, and a place. He asserts that they are dynamic in the hands of the users and very much conversational interchanges. This is why he believes that they are not so much a membrane (as most designers and technologists would have you believe) but more comprehensive as a space “in which semiotic and cognitive processes take place.”

Second Law: Interfaces are not transparent.

This is probably my favourite law because it adds so much controversy for designers. Designers and researchers have insisted that the best interface is the one that disappears. Unfortunately I think this is a rather vague statement because there is a physical and intellectual side of this equation. A better definition would be that the physical interface is so intuitive that when the user is communicating within the interface, they can easily manipulate the device without being distracted by the learning curve of that interface. The end result is to focus on the task at hand and not think about the details of communicating.

But as Carlos points out “Even the simplest example of interaction – such as clicking on a button or transferring a document to the trash – hides an intricate network of semiotic negotiations and cognitive processes.” I think we generally forget this idea. Just ask yourself how many times you have used a gadget only to have to relearn its communication syntax.

Designers and usability experts know that users invariably find new ways of using the interfaces. The ‘usability expert’ (I use this term loosely) tends to try and govern the user’s experience but the user will end up interpreting it their way and coming up with new ways of frustrating the intended purpose. Carlos notes that these relationships between designer and user are ‘political’ and that interfaces are an ‘ideological extension of the vision of the designer’s world’ which allow users to perform certain tasks but not others that may be the wish of the user.

Third Law: Interfaces form an ecosystem.

Simply stated, when multiple technologies make contact with each other an interface is produced. This can happen between technology devices and between technology and human interaction. If there is no communication between two or more devices then the interface would be considered ‘latent’ until that time when an interaction restarts them.

This ecosystem is more of an evolutionary process. The method of communication within interfaces can easily be borrowed from one system to another without boundaries. In fact we tend to use older type interfaces with newer technologies before they develop their own interactive language. Carlos notes that many times interfaces do not find good ‘interlocutors for dialoguing’ and that sometimes there must be a confluence of technologies to birth one single interface. One of his examples was coming together of the original WYSIWYG Macintosh computer in 1984, the HP Laserjet and Adobe’s Postscript language. It was the union of these three technologies that revolutionized computing.

Fourth Law: Interfaces don’t disappear, they transform.

Touched on in the third law, Carlos states that “interfaces can rise from their ashes and reincarnate into new devices.” Interfaces are constantly adapting to different material formats in different technology devices. This law is historical in nature and I believe it is explained well in the following quote by Carlos Scolari: “In order to understand how an interface works and develops, first we must be archaeologists. A webpage interface can only be understood as a device that synthesizes six thousand years of writing technologies: it is read vertically like a papyrus, it organizes the text in columns and it employs the typography variations to communicate just like a Middle Age codex or a newspaper. From this perspective the World Wide Web could be considered a metamedium that concentrates and integrates many other interfaces and communication experiences.”

Obviously people create and employ new interactive strategies on a daily basis. But all these environments are created from our past history and knowledge. This adaptation is necessary to bridge the gap between old and new so that we as users may more easily understand what is required of us to use a new technology. That being said there are old interfaces that are latent for decades but under the right circumstances get readopted and adapted onto new devices. Of course this creates a generation of new users learning an old interface.

Fifth Law: If an interface can’t do something, it will simulate it.

Interfaces are restricted to their technological medium and they cannot always simulate the best ‘real world’ interaction, and when this happens, designers and engineers copy established protocols and processes to make the interaction seem more natural and relevant. For example we live in a physical three dimensional world but many times technology is presented to us in a two dimensional technology plane. So because we use paper, folders and buttons in our real world, designers tend to mimic them by creating three dimensional effects in our computer-restricted, two dimensional interface world. In this way users do not have to relearn a completely new visual vocabulary.

Carlos gives the following example: “A good example of interface simulation may be found in newspaper pages. In the last decade many printed publications have modified their graphic style to resemble that of web pages in order to adapt to a new generation of readers. In these publications the articles are shorter, small icons identify the different sections, there are more photos and infographics and the page explodes in a myriad of textual fragments that the reader must recompose like a puzzle. ‘Reading’ these publications is like navigating through a webpage. However, it is not an ‘interactive newspaper’: it’s just a traditional newspaper simulating a hypertextual environment.”

Sixth Law: Interfaces co-evolve with their users.

Users will apply their knowledge and understanding to any interface presented to them. Then they can choose to either accept the interface and perform interactions as the interface was designed to do, negate the interface and ‘under use’ its capabilities or lastly to ‘over use’ the interface and try to make the interface conform or take action on things that it was never designed to do.

The users therefore either cooperate, under use or exceed an interface’s abilities. Perhaps it is every designer’s dream that an interface gets used for its intended purpose but Carlos surmises that it is best when users push an interface to do things that it was never intended to do. When the interfaces are ‘pushed’ evolutions occur that allow for new devices, practices and metaphors that may not exist. The resulting evolutions may or may not be an intended consequence that the original creator thought of.

Seventh Law: Interfaces are subject to the laws of auto-organization.

This final law is interesting. Carlos believes that applying linear models to technology evolution is less effective or true than applying a networked model. He believes that applying a simple linear model generates a simplistic (and sometimes mythical) view of the present and future state of a technology. Whereas as the “socio-technical network is composed of technologies, subjects, grammars and interpretation processes” that allow us to look at the interactions between the various relationships. Where a linear viewpoint helps us navigate forward and backward in time (i.e. MS Word 1.0 -> 7.0) the networked viewpoint helps us understand the confluence of the users, technologies and various internal conversations.

New interchanges may produce new usages and allow the interface to grow with unintended reward and future purpose. Carlos terms this phenomenon, the interfaces state of ‘effervescence’. Obviously the viewpoint of interfaces as a network means that their environment can be quite complex and unpredictable but growth oriented.

Final Thoughts

After writing this article I performed an Internet search on interface laws. To be sure I found many references but Dr. Scolari’s seems to be the most comprehensive. I also wish to mention that it is refreshing to hear someone speak about interfaces as it relates to all things not just solely to the computer industry. In fact, Carlos gave his talk to a diverse audience that understood it as it related to their own fields of interest, just as I used his newspaper examples.

Carlos has written several books in Spanish but he is currently preparing his first book in English. I will update this article when his book is released – I for one, look forward to reading it.