1. I have a deep emotional relationship with my phone. You’d have to make something that will provide a better relationship and feature set.

2. No call drops and coverage in more areas.

3. You’d have to be considerably cheaper than the iPhone service, period.

So Research In Motion, when you get your Storm 3 and it has the capability to create a stronger emotional connection than my iPhone, then you might have me if you:

1. Pay my AT&T bill for 6 months.
2. Give me the Storm 3 device and service free for 6 months.
3. Automatically port my existing phone number, contact list, apps, pictures and music to the new phone, with complete rollback undo capability in case your product sucks.

Then, and only then, will I give you a shot. So my prediction: not going to happen.

So dear readers, all 4 of you (and you know who you are!) let me know what you think in the comments below.

As some of you are aware, I have been helping with the design and development of an Alternate Reality Game about pandemic flu called Coral Cross. In light of the recent outbreak of swine flu we’ve had to adjust our approach. I’m excited to write we are continuing our work, shifting from an “alternate reality game” to a “reality game” - and are exploring methods of engagement and very-near-future-forecasting that can be applied in real-time to this emerging health crisis. The landing page now reads:

“Coral Cross was designed as the world’s first global flu pandemic alternate reality game. However, just weeks before the scheduled launch, an extraordinary coincidence occurred: an actual global outbreak of swine flu made the fictional premise redundant.

The flu crisis is now real. And so is Coral Cross.

On behalf of the Hawaii Department of Health, the design team at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies is now adapting the game to provide a unique site for real-time futures exploration. Coral Cross will help people actively respond to the risks of the current influenza threat (as well as future challenges), keep informed, share stories and concerns, and maintain vigilance as the situation unfolds.”

For some more background, read This is not a game by Stuart Candy.

You know, for libraries!

I would love to get one of Amazon’s Kindle 2 wireless reading devices, but I’d rather download books from my public library, books that I’ve already paid for with my tax dollars. Here are my thoughts on how it might work.

You see, I used to buy books. I liked to keep score by having a well-stocked bookshelf of tattered, well-read books with crinkly spines. Then I started watching my spending, and realized that it would be quite a savings if I used the library instead. So I gave our library a shot and discovered to my delight that we have an outstanding library system. I’m able to get most of the books I’m interested in reading, I just have to temper my impulsive 9:30 PM run to Borders for a new book, while I wait for my request to be fulfilled. So not only am I spending less, but I’m also taking advantage of something I’m already paying for.

Which brings us back to the Kindle. How great would it be if I could connect to my public library (secure login of course) and browse their catalog for electronic downloads? I could finish one title, and then download the next, even while traveling to Vancouver, BC or Terra Haute, IN, provided a 3G wireless network is available.

I imagine the business model and process would work something like this: The library decides it wants to support Kindle. The library buys a Kindle license for each book, much like buying printed copies. The Kindle version of the book is then available for download, and everyone gets paid - Amazon, the publisher, the author. But the community benefits as well.

So what about infinite downloads of the same content for the price of just one license? We could solve this problem by imposing a model that is similar to how it works with real books. If there is just one copy, then you wait in line for someone to return it. If it is a popular title, and the library wants to keep the lines short, then the library gets multiple copies.

For the Kindle approach, the license would be for 1 download per day. The library can buy multiple licenses to keep the lines short, and people who are in a hurry can go to Amazon and pay the $9.99. And to prevent people from downloading a gazillion books at one time, there would be a limit on the number of downloads per day. So for me, as a Library cardholder, I could download just one title today, and then another tomorrow. If there is a waiting list, I put in a request, and then the title is downloaded automatically once it is available.

What are your thoughts?

Moleskine 04: Further refinements of the interface. Drawing on right shows affordances and triple encoding of played cards: color, location and context.

In addition to sharing the design process and concepts, I also hope that this will serve as a forum for feedback and suggestions, not just from peers and colleagues, but also from thought experiment participants. All comments, critiques and suggestions are welcome in the comments section of this post.

[Before you get bored with all this text, there are lots of pictures down below.]

Project Overview

Client: Institute for the Future
Game Concept & Design: Jane McGonigal
Scenario Development: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Scenario Research: Signtific & IFTF Staff
Chief Signtist: Mathias Crawford
Signtific Team: Jane McGonigal, Mathias Crawford, Natalie Villalobos, Cesar Castro, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Technical Architect: Afraaz Ali @ Appnovation
Drupal Web Development: Appnovation
Timeline: December 2008 - February 2009 (approx. 8 weeks)
Hard Deadline: Webstock keynote address, February 18, 2009
Public Launch: February 18, 2009
First Day Stats: 1,414 cards played / 202 players from 5 continents / 2,295 unique visitors
URL: http://lab.signtific.org

Principles

1. serious science
2. does not appear to be a game
3. play fast
4. tweet-length to make contributions less daunting and easier to riff
5. scan card text fast
6. reload page obsessively to watch score
7. 100s of simultaneous players
8. conference key note announcements to launch
9. players can play as many cards as they like
10. video introduction
11. content managed by game masters
12. cards can be embedded on blogs
13. cards have their own urls
14. experiments have limited timeframe
15. publicly available in read-only mode afterward
16. game masters can ban players and remove all their cards
17. game masters can highlight cards
18. optimized for google analytics and seo
19. javascript support required, degrading ajax is not
20. let content stand on its own
21. avoid popularity and digg effects

Description
[You may want to skip ahead to the mind maps and wireframes at the bottom of this post, and then refer back to this text description. My words may fail where my diagrams succeed. You may also refer to this blog post titled "I Want: Signtific Lab" by Nikki Pugh, which provides a clear, concise description of the site.]

The core concepts for the game are thought experiments, cards and players. Each thought experiment is a provocative question about a research-backed possible future or trend. (For an example, see Facts Behind Free Space, which provides background for the first thought experiment.) The context for the question is set with a movie explaining the scenario. The players then respond to the question by playing “cards” with their ideas on what might happen as a result of the scenario/question. Each “card” is a short, Twitter-length response. At the first level players are able to play 2 card types: Dark Imagination and Positive Imagination. After the first level a chain reaction is created where players can play 4 card types in response to the previous cards: Momentum, Antagonism, Adaptation and Investigation. As cards are played, players earn forecasting points and can monitor their progress on their dashboard, which also provides feedback on the ratio of card types (strengths) played. The combination of forecasting points and strengths serve as a feedback loop to keep players engaged. At the end of the thought experiment, researchers are able to mine the cards to uncover interesting ideas and outliers, information which can be used by futurists to create forecasts for a particular technology.

From the Moleskine: Original Notes & Concepts

Moleskine 01: Notes and sketches from the first meeting with Jane in December 2008.

Moleskine 02: More notes from the first meeting.

Moleskine 03: Starting to get a sense of the interface at the turn of the new year. Scribbles contributed by Phoebe, age 2.

Moleskine 04: Further refinements of the interface. Drawing on right shows affordances and triple encoding of played cards: color, location and context.

Mind Maps
The following models were created using NovaMind Platinum. NovaMind, in my opinion, is an excellent modeling tool when you want to develop maps rapidly (in minutes) and keep them simple. These models were instrumental in communicating the core concepts to the development team, so they could develop the domain model and underlying architecture before the rest of the design was completed.

Mind Maps for the core concepts of the site: Experiment, Trial, Card and Player Profile.

Wireframes
The following wireframes were created using OmniGraffle. OmniGraffle, like NovaMind, is hands-down the best tool for rapidly creating wireframes. Again, in minutes, not hours. The large library of user interface design stencils and the smart-guides that are displayed as you move elements make OG a must-have. (In the interest of full disclosure, I’m ashamed to admit that until recently I was a PC guy and struggled with Visio, the cramped usability of PC notebooks, and the annoyances of Windows. If you’re doing interaction design on a PC in Visio or PowerPoint, do yourself a favor and STOP RIGHT NOW. Microsoft should just shrivel up and die - just leave us with C#, XBOX and MS Office.)

The wireframes were circulated for feedback. Once reviewed and discussed, they were passed to the development team so they could implement the user interface blocks, nodes and rough out the themes, and also to visual design to create the comps.

Wireframe 01: The experiment page with the video, initial provocation and ability to play two card types.

Wireframe 02: Showing the AJAX drawer open.

Wireframe 03: Showing the second level, once a card has been played.

Wireframe 04: Details for the card and AJAX response drawer.

Wireframe 05: The player profile / dashboard showing score, favorites and cards played.

Visual Design Comps

Comp 01: This is the original comp for the landing page which routes players to different experiments. Credit: Big Wide Sky.

Comp 02: This is the original comp for the experiment page with the video and initial provocation. Credit: Big Wide Sky.

Comp 03: This is the original comp for the card page. Credit: Big Wide Sky.

Implementation & Playtests

The site was implemented in Drupal by Appnovation. We had two rounds of playtests, which tested the usability of the design, as well as the concept itself: is good content generated by the design. As a result of the playtests we identified a few bugs in the implementation, some missing features, and some usability flaws.

Issues Identified:

1. Insufficient affordance on the card tray
2. Insufficient feedback when a card is played
3. Trays hidden at 1024×768
4. Forecasting points are hidden
5. No indicator when a card has follow-ups: drill-in only to hit back when no follow-ups
6. Truncated tweets a distraction
7. Text difficult to read on some displays
8. Top navigation is crowded
9. Listing of cards needed in one place
10. Display issues in Internet Explorer (shock surprise: YOU SUCK INTERNET EXPLORER)

Each of these issues were addressed for the final version of the site, as you can see in the screenshots below. And props to the Appnovation theme-team for their serious CSS Jedi skills on the display issues.

Screenshot 01: In this screenshot of the experiment home page, you can see the adjustments that were made as a result of testing. The text is higher contrast, the forecasting points are persistent in top right on all pages, the tray affordances are pronounced and visible at 1024×768, and the top navigation has been broken up into two sections: primary nav in the top right, and secondary nav in the “more future” menu. Taken 19 FEB 2009 1024×768 Mac OSX Firefox 3.

Screenshot 02: In this screenshot of the card page, you can see the additional adjustments that were made to this page. The first list of follow-up cards is visible at 1024, the phrase HAS FOLLOW-UP CARDS! is included and the entire tweet text is displayed. We purposely use the binary HAS FOLLOW-UP CARD! instead of an account to avoid players gravitating to popular content - we want each item to stand on its own and be read by all. Also note the primary nav includes a real-time card feed, which provides an RSS listing of all cards played. Taken 19 FEB 2009 1024×768 Mac OSX Firefox 3.

Additional Features

• Ability to favorite cards for easy access on dashboard.
• Leaderboard showing the top 100 in forecasting points.
• RSS feed of cards marked super-interesting by Lab Guides.
• Complete Drupal CMS for managing content, including blocking players and editing/deleting content.

Additional Features for Lab Guides
The game is not completely self-contained. There are a handful of Lab Guides who monitor the site for exciting content and “stoke the fire” of engagement. Features provided in-game are a super-interesting flag, which allows Lab Guides to feature content. Lab Guides can also delete offensive content on the spot. We use Twitter to broadcast tinyurls to interesting content, and live blog game progress and achievements. The Lab Guides use Google Reader to monitor cards in real-time, and tag them to create hands that can be used in blog post storylines at a later date.

Analytics
In addition to Google Analytics, we also use StatCounter for real-time monitoring of the site. Two of my favorite features in StatCounter are the Recent Visitor Map and the Recent Visitor Activity, which automatically performs reverse IP lookup for visitors, so if their IP is associated with a particular company or organization, it is included in the report. Here’s a screenshot of the Recent Visitor Map, which shows the global reach of Signtific Lab on the first day.

Recent Visitor Map on Signtific Lab on 18 FEB 2009.

Conclusion
I hope this post provides sufficient background on the design of Signtific Lab, a process that was completed in a very short timeframe. I am fortunate to have worked with such a talented group of individuals on this project. It is far from perfect, but it successfully meets the objectives of generating interesting content and keeping players engaged.

All comments, critiques and suggestions are welcome in the comments section of this post.

Once you create your player, you can embed your profile and cards that interest you on any website. Here’s the embed for my profile, the first card that I played and an interesting card I stumbled upon. You can click on the card text to view responses from other players.

I have the good fortune to be working with Institute for the Future and Jane McGonigal on a forecasting project called Signtific Labs, which is part of a site I am currently helping to redesign, Signtific.org. The project uses game theory to facilitate online brainstorming of implications of future scenarios. These micro-forecasts can then be analyzed to identify outlying ideas, trends and possible futures. Signtific Labs is going to be launched at Webstock 2009 after Jane’s keynote on Gaming Reality.

To whet your appetite before launch, check out this trailer for the lab.

UPDATE 2/26: Thanks to everyone who attended. Those I have heard from said they enjoyed. I’ll update this post with the recording when it is available.

———-

I’ll be doing a Perficient Perspectives webinar on February 26th. Checkout the marketing team’s writeup below, and then head over here if you want to register to attend. (It’s free.)

In today’s economic environment, it’s more important than ever to ensure your customers have the best user experience possible. An online solution like a website can lose credibility if it doesn’t “look and feel” as good as other sites, when it isn’t easy to use, and when support costs skyrocket due to technical issues and poor user satisfaction.

With budgets tight you may not be able to begin new projects just yet, but you can make sure the experiences you do offer keep your users coming back for more. You need a customer experience that scales well to larger markets, is sticky for both old and new customers alike, is pleasing to the eye, easy to use and much more – all without increased support costs.

Join us for this installment of Perficient Perspectives as Nathan Verrill, Perficient Solution Architect, Interaction Design, shares insight and experience gleaned over the last 12 years as a User Experience professional. Nathan will share his observations on the most common customer experience mistakes to avoid in order to keep current users happy while engaging new users in a tough economy.

Speaker Nathan Verrill is a Solution Architect, Interaction Design in Perficient’s nationally renowned User Experience practice with more than 12 years of experience across a wide range of consulting projects focused on identifying and delivering web-based and other user experience solutions. His areas of expertise include interaction design, contextual inquiry, usability testing and persona development. He has participated across all project phases including discovery, design and production at marquee clients including United Health Care, Anheuser-Busch and Charter Communications. Nathan has presented at numerous conferences and events including the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, Usability Professionals Association, and is the co-founder of the St. Louis chapter of the Interaction Designers Association.

Ethics of Simplicity: The AK-47
This is a presentation I’ve been cooking for awhile. I want to talk about the simplicity of design, and when that can be a bad thing. A perfect example is the AK-47. Thanks to Brad Nunnally for a link to this article on the subject: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the AK-47.

Mobile Augmented Reality
Worked with Jake Dunagan, Stuart Candy, Matthew Jensen and Eliot Frick on a project in Hawaii in early 2008. During that trip we brainstormed some concepts for mobile augmented reality. Eventually I’ll get off my ass and post the concepts.

iPhone App: Nature Browser
Here’s the problem I want to solve: I’m on a hike, see a purple flower, and I have no clue what it is. But I want to find out, and that’s hard. So in this case the interface works like this. IPhone > Nature Browser > Plants > By Color > Purple. Pretty simple right? Here’s the real power: the result set is already filtered by what the phone knows: location, season and time of day. So the huge database of animal and plant life is already wittled down based on my context - automatically. Once I arrive at the matching flower, I can click to learn more, I can report an observation (which is reported back to a nature survey database, for a crowd-sourced nature survey), take a photo, tick it off on my scavenger hunt, etc.

Hey Canon Your Video Switch Sucks from Nathan Verrill on Vimeo.

Figure 1: Illustration of the current design.

Figure 2: Illustration of my changes to the design.

Two interaction designers (George Luc and myself), along with a handful of Indians, show us why the Camera-Video-Review switch sucks on what otherwise are great digital cameras.

In Figure 2, the video and camera modes are swapped and nubbins are added between the video and camera position. Swapping mode positions makes it more likely the user will switch to the camera mode accidentally, which is probably their intent. The nubbins assist this further by requiring additional effort to push the switch into the video position.

It is presumed these adjustments would require fewer changes to the engineering and manufacture of the camera.

“Each urinal at the Amsterdam airport has the black outline of a fly etched into the porcelain-”This improves the man’s aim,” says Aad Kieboom, an economist. His staff conducted fly-in-urinal trials and found that etchings reduce spillage by 80 per cent. The Dutch will transfer the technology to New York. “It gives a guy something to think about,” says Jan Jansen, the new Dutch general manager in New York. “It’s a perfect example of process control.”

My pants are dry and the floor was clean. Brilliant.

UrinalFly.com

I did more research and found some interesting things. First up is a website that sells stickers of the flies, www.urinalfly.com, which states the following benefits:

• Keeps Bathrooms up to 85% cleaner
• Reduces spillage in Men’s restrooms
• Made famous in the Amsterdam International Airport
• Cleaner, Safer restrooms in minutes
• Includes specific location information for maximum effectiveness
• Long-Life, fully tested materials used
• Easy to Install

You can order custom urinal flies with your own logo, name, url, phone number or message. Classic. A gazillion guerrilla marketing campaigns come to mind:

• Vote for Obama (with McCain face)
• Vote for McCain (with Obama face)
• Hillary, Paris Hilton and other women in the news
• “Widgets That Won’t Be Missed!”
• Interaction Designers Association Meetings
• World Usability Day Events
• Class president campaigns in high school
• BossFace

The Piss Screen

Another interesting find is the “Piss Screen - An Interactive Urinary Experience” which is a driving video game controlled by left/right sensors inside the urinal. The intention of the challenge is to try and encourage people to take a taxi with Frankfurt Taxi Services after they’ve had a few drinks, rather than get behind the wheel of their own car. So not only is it a public service, but is also a promotional piece for a specific taxi company - brilliant work by Saatchi & Saatchi.

Check out the vids, complete with a bitchin’ soundtrack:

See their website www.piss-screen.com for more information. Those crazy Germans.

More Urinal Links

Here are some interesting mentions of the urinal fly I found on the net:

• World’s Best Ideas by Brian Eno in 1999
• The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology by Kim Vicente in 2006
• “Easy Does It - How to make lazy people do the right thing.” April 9, 2008 issue of The New Republic
• Urban Legends on about.com
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Designer Daily
• In an Ipod World
• Inside Chris’ Head

And check out this exhaustive list of urinals on Urinal Dot Net.