all updated!

finally shook off the post-christmas haze and got round to bringing the blog to up date. lots of posts covering the last few weeks, as well as two new blogs for your reading pleasure; you can find permanent linx to them underneath my profile in the sidepanel

the first blog is for simon's entrepreneurship and professional practice module

http://dfimepp.blogspot.com

the second one is for my research project

http://dfimrp.blogspot.com


if you want to track the updates to any blog, you can find the rss feed at http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml. what is rss?

design for change workflow

my proposed project management for this module is as follows:

design for change proposal

original concept

an alarm clock which scans local radio traffic and weather announcements and adjusts the morning alarm accordingly, e.g. if there were hold-ups that would affect the owner, the alarm would sound an hour early


my original idea is conceptual, and assumes too much intelligence from the device, especially considering current technological capabilities. for a home electronics market, a device that worked as above would be too expensive. the following is a more pragmatic approach to realising the proposed device:

revised concept

a bedside device functioning primarily as an alarm clock, inheriting many attributes already associated with alarms: such as shape, size, interface, and large LCD/LED display. in addition, this device can communicate with a home network/computer and access information from the internet

the primary notion is still that it monitors weather and traffic conditions (in user determined localities) and adjusts an alarm accordingly; achieving this using RSS feeds downloaded to a home computer that are then transferred via bluetooth, RFID or WAN to the clock, which is pre-programmed to interpret XML code

e.g. the device would ship with computer software which when installed allows the device to subscribe to relevant bbc weather and traffic feeds, or feeds from the met office or local radio stations etc

additional proposed features:

• ability to download and play podcasts instead of an alarm or radio
• streaming radio from the internet, allowing almost any radio station to be played through the device
• and/or DAB radio capabilities
• ability to monitor temperature conditions
• device activation when a connected smoke alarm is set off, plus displaying which alarm is in question
• connection to a coffee pot enabling fresh coffee by the time a user wakes
• ability to download and display or play news and weather, perhaps on screen or projected onto a vertical surface
• connection to the World Clock enabling automatic synchronisation after power cuts and seasonal time changes
• link to a users electronic calendar announcing the day’s notes
• connection to in-car device for podcasts to be transferred for commuters
  

this device takes advantage of RSS feed technology, especially relating to the availability of the bbc’s weather and traffic information via feeds. potentially, other software such as itunes or limewire could also be linked

new module: design for change

we recieved the design for change brief today; to identify key changes in the social, ecomomic, cultural or technological environments, and to propose a product to address those change(s) for a hypothetical client

i've decided to run with an idea i've been thinking about for a little while, a web-enabled alarm clock. the idea is to link a digital alarm clock so the internet so that it can recieve web content; this reflects sunstantial developments on the web in the last few years, and will try to take advantages of advancements in web-content syndication

we also split into research clusters for the duration of the project, and i'm in with ray, steve, liz, lou, james, and ciara


brief

Your client, who you can assume is a community, charitable, public or business organization, has commissioned you to help identify key changes in the social, economic, cultural or technological environment and to suggest concepts for products and initiatives which can address those changes

For example, you may consider how people are using technology in their everyday lives, in their own ways and for their own needs. How does choice impact on how everyday thing are used or are likely to be used in the future?

In response to this you are required to identify, describe and evaluate what you believe to be the key changes and possible evolutions in these environments, with a particular emphasis on opportunities for the design of new interactive tasks, systems or products

From this initial audit you must then consider a new or novel task, system or product that you would like to investigate and further develop to concept prototype stage and offer researched evidence in support of your proposal. Evaluate and specify design concepts to capture this opportunity

live brief

we handed in our live brief submissions this afternoon, and i only just met the deadline! in worse fashion than usual, i left starting this project way too late... although i'm very pleased with what i ended up with. this was a great brief, and it was satisfying to have a graphics/conceptual project after the past few months of essays and presentations

i chose one of the d&ad briefs: develop a new media-based marketing campaign for parlophone records to use at outdoor music festivals. parlophone are one of the uk's biggest labels, and the open brief allowed us to explore any solution we wished. steve and lou also took on this brief, and we collaborated on ideas to ensure they were compatable with each other

delivered concept

download quicktime presentation

Location independent, interactive competition invisibly promoting Parlophone artists and sales through SMS-based communications, exclusive prizes and post-festival online content

Parlophone is a marketing campaign integrating SMS messaging, a Parlophone iTunes store, email mailshots, and real-world interaction between Parlophone, artists and fans

• Promote Parlophone label and artists covertly, pushing traffic for online sales after an event
• Easily harvest consumer’s email and mobile details for future communications
• Adaptable concept for any outdoor event or national promotion, with unlimited scalablity
• Minimal setup and running costs, with no limit on the number of entrants

rationale

The Parlophone Game is a unique concept, spanning SMS, email, web and digital music technologies to invisibly promote Parlophone artists and product sales in a festival environment

A festival-goer registers for the competition by texting ‘parlophone’ to 60300, and each day they recieve an anagram of a famous Parlophone artist by text message. They text back the solution, and all correct entrants win a discount code to redeem at the Parlophonte iTunes store (see presentation disc), and are entered into a prizedraw to win two tickets to an exclusive backstage performance and meet ‘n’ greet with a Parlophone artist. Incorrect entrants are notified and encouraged to play again the next day

This generic concept can be adapted to suit any genre, size and length of festival, with no limits on the number of entrants

After the event, successful entrants are emailled the code to spend at the Parlophone iTunes store (one track costs ~79p), thus advertising the new iTunes store, and encouraging further purchases, as well as promoting legal downloads. The email and mobile details collected at an event can then be used for future communications from Parlophone to a growing list of recipients