The Curious FellowJJs on about design

It’s a wee while ago now, but Social Media Week was a big success for us. We did over 20 presentations during the course of the week and invited several guests to speak too.

This was a great experience fort he team; getting everyone thinking about what social media means for individuals and businesses now, as well as visualising what the future holds.

I was pretty busy, leading a presentation on the psychology of social media and another on how crowd involvement will evolve brands in the coming years.

• Read the Psychology presentation
• Watch the Psychology presentation Livestream
• Read the Brand Meme presentation
• Watch the Brand Meme Livestream

These are both subjects that I feel strongly about. As a designer I am passionate about working collaboratively with other experts to create online social environments that are a force for good. As an agency person, I’m fascinated by the idea that the future of branding, as with corporate reputation, could be in the hands of the impassioned customer.

The psychology evening was a great success. I invited a few friends to join me on the stage, each brought a unique perspective to the subject. Craig Hepburn, Global head of Digital and social media at Nokia talked about how Nokia is applying a wider view on social networking tools – creating enablers that can transform peoples lives in developing countries.

Catriona Campbell, Founder of Foviance, the international customer experience agency, explained social media from the perspective of the generation that has grown up with it.

Lauren Wagner, graduate of Oxford Internet Institute, talked about her exploration into the power of social media to tackle the one of the worlds biggest social problems – depression. She described how social media can not only help people connect, it can make those connections more rewarding.

All in all it was a fascinating week. I hope that we can do it again next year (although I might not leave my preparation until the last minute next time. Who am I kidding…)

Today I did an Equator Academy on Brainstorming. 

Take a look at the presentation

We do a lot of coming up with ideas here and I felt strongly that we could do it better with a few simple guidelines distilled from the ton of information that’s out there.

Brainstorming is one of those things that everyone thinks they know how to do but few few do well. I like to think that we do it pretty well at the moment but could do it even better.

I have beg, stolen and borrowed from around the web to create this presentation which I hope neatly describes the most important tools that we employ when doing brainstorms.

I hope you find it useful too.

Here are a few of the things I looked at when putting this together. Very useful reading when you’re preparing to do a brainstorming session:

• Warm-ups
• More warm-ups
• Brilliant Frog Design presentation about brainstorming (blatantly plagarised, sorry!)
• Ways to suck at brainstorming
• Some good notes from IDEO
• The paperclip story – an amazing true story that shows the power of lateral thinking
• Really good article on idea generation and block busting
• The brilliant book Gamestorming by Dave Gray; Sunni Brown; James Macanufo
• And finally… the brainstorming song that my son Stanley loves - Imagination Movers!

I don’t pretend that this is the be-all-and-end-all of brainstorming. Please add a comment if you can share anything that you think makes for brilliant brainstorming.

Responsible Capitalism

or

How to re-invent the way business works so that it does some good along the way

There was a strong message at the TEDx Oxbridge that to change the world we must change business.

Business as unusual

It’s no longer enough to make money. The world is too interconnected for this to be a long term plan for the future. This is a good thing. The fact that the technology that brings us all together, (to play farmville amongst other things) is having an effect so profound, that it’s causing the foundations of business itself to shift, is really exciting.

The message is really simple. If you do bad things in the name of making money, everyone will know pretty quickly and soon you won’t have many customers. If you do good things, everyone will know pretty quickly and soon you’ll have lots of customers.

So what were the important discoveries?

Continue reading →

The following is courtesy of trendwatching.com. I thought there were some really interesting insights here. Probably most interesting to me was the extent that these consumer trends are driven by the growing influence of the internet on our lives.

1. Business as usual

Forget the recession: the societal changes that will dominate 2010 were set in motion way before we temporarily stared into the abyss. More »

2. Urbany

Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will lead to more sophisticated and demanding consumers around the world. More »

3. Real-time reviews

Whatever it is you’re selling or launching this year, it will be reviewed ‘en masse’, live, 24/7. More »

4. F(luxury)

Closely tied to what constitutes status (which is becoming more fragmented), luxury will be whatever consumers want it to be over the next 12 months. More »

5. Mass-mingling

Online lifestyles are fueling and encouraging ‘real world’ meet-ups like there’s no tomorrow, shattering all cliches and predictions about a desk-bound, virtual, isolated future. More »

6. Eco-easy

To really reach some meaningful sustainability goals this year, corporations and governments will have to forcefully make it ‘easy’ for consumers to be more green, by restricting the alternatives. More »

7. Tracking & Alerting

Tracking and alerting are the new search, and 2010 will see countless new INFOLUST services that will help consumers expand their web of control. More »

8. Embedded Generosity

This year, generosity as a trend will adapt to the zeitgeist, leading to more pragmatic and collaborative donation services for consumers. More »

9. Profile Myning

With hundreds of millions of consumers now nurturing some sort of online profile, 2010 is a good year to introduce some services to help them make the most of it (financially), from intention-based models to digital afterlife services. More »

10. Maturialism

2010 will be even more opinionated, risqué, outspoken, if not ‘raw’ than 2009; you can thank the anything-goes online world for that. Will your brand be as daring? More »

It’s been a long month. I’ve been pelted every day thanks to my hairy upper lip. Thankfully it has retained stiff britishness.

Along with my moustachioed compatriates I am very proud to announce that our efforts have not gone unrewarded.

This month thanks to the amazing generosity shown by our friends and family, we have raised an awesome £550.00! That’s more than 10 times what I thought we’d raise.

I for one will miss the satisfying stroke of the top lip, but not the taunts. The moustache has been tried out for size but I unfortunately am not man enough for it and shall retreat, as of tomorrow, for the safer waters of a slightly unkempt stubble.

And finally, thanks again to everyone who donated to this great cause. I hope we’ve made a little dent.

Farewell my friend. Until next year.