How much variety do we desire?

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of the Tipping Point and Blink, and in his TED talk, "What we can learn from spaghetti sauce," he discusses the contributions of Howard Moskowitz, an experimental psychologist who fundamentally changed our understanding of what people want and how the world of marketing can use this information.

For a long time in the food industry there was the belief that people wanted the most “culturally authentic” food: For example, we thought we all wanted thin tomato sauce that sinks to the bottom as the Italians enjoy it. People thought that if we were given this culturally authentic style of food, we would embrace it. We were looking for “cooking universals” but soon we came to realize that authenticity was not actually what we preferred. It’s hard to imagine in this age of excessive choice, but for a long time, products were developed in a way to appeal to all consumers, not specific sub-populations (chunky, garden variety, spicy). I thought it was interesting that Gladwell connected the surge of choices in products to the study of genetics. He says that genetic variability opened the door to understanding variability in a broader sense. We no longer were just figuring out cancer, rather we were at the point where we were asking the question of how one cancer varied from another cancer.

As a designer, what I find interesting is the notion that people are often unable to articulate what they like or want. You can’t expect that interviews with subjects will directly answer your questions or solve a design problem. You have to actually give people the examples of what you are talking about and assess how they react to it. For instance, no one was saying that they wanted chunky tomato sauce. Even when asked directly if they like it, they didn’t know that chunky was what they wanted. But after administering a taste test analyzing numerous variables, it became evident that chunky was one of the most preferred attributes in tomato sauce. This idea that people often can’t explain what they want or need is very compelling to me as a designer. I think about this when I interview people and try to hear what they are not saying. I am learning the value of presenting prototypes and gathering feedback based on reactions rather than just asking what people think of an idea.

Gladwell further explains that even when we think we can articulate what we want, we are often way off. He says that when you ask someone what type of coffee he or she likes, no one says they want weak, milky coffee. The majority of people say they like a dark, full-bodied roast. But the reality is that studies show that most people prefer the weak, milky stuff. Gladwell also discusses the idea of horizontal plane segmentation- the example of the grey poupon mustard popularity- where you turn your back on something you like for something you aspire to. I find this very intriguing.

Gladwell contends that when we pursue universal principles, we are actually doing ourselves a massive disservice. He says that in embracing the diversity of human beings we will find a sure way to true happiness. It’s an excellent talk but I think certain points are arguable. I’ll discuss the issues of having too much variety in my next post. In general, I think that society has a hard time managing excessive options and we’ve gotten to a point where so many options are benefiting the suppliers now more than the consumers.

Design Project 2

This project is for our client, Humana, a health insurance company that's trying to approach health from a wellness rather than sickness management perspective. Our job is to see how we could achieve this by designing a product or system that encourages behavior change.

Our assignment:
- Provide additional insights into consumer attitudes and behaviors relative tohealth
- Identify unmet/unspoken needs relative to health
- Generate ideas for products and service that meet those needs
- Create basic prototypes of those ideas
- Concepts of systems for behavior intervention
- Presentation clearly outlining the system, how it works, and how it can scale

The first steps in this project involved brainstorming and human factors research.
Ethnographic research- I've interviewed over 25 people in the last week regarding the issue of health. As we refine the scope of our design I've been refining my questions and picking more specific populations to interview.

I started by interviewing individuals who spanned the gamut of "extreme users" in regards to insights on health: alcohol addiction, exercise obsession, serious althlete, new mom, pre-diabetic (extreme diet change), very healthy eater, unhealthy eater, unaware eater, single full-time working mother of preschooler, overweight and unmotivated individual, manager of a store that sells pre-made almost-ready meals, hospital cafe staff, Stanford janitor.

I gathered heaps of great information from these individuals that helped us refine our scope.

I'm paired with John and David for this project. In our most recent brainstorm, we narrowed in on an idea that spawned from three of our high-level categories that developed from our preliminary human factors research:

1. ritual
2. uninvolved/inactive kids
3. power of psychological/mental

Our idea has to do with the process of food creation/preparation- the reality that most kids are not involved in the process of making what they eat- also that they are unaware of the origin of the foods they eat. We suspect this lead to adults who are unaware of how to prepare tasty, healthy foods. This results in an unexcitement with food preparation, and an indifference towards the increasingly prevalent unhealthy and wasteful trends of eating.

Since the first round of interviews, we've defined our user group to be elementary-middle school-aged children.
I've moved into interviewing: 5th grader who has healthy eating habits, mother of 5th grader who has an extremely obese sister and niece, 3rd grader who has moderately healthy eating habits, mother of 3rd grader who is very busy with three kids and a full-time job, my own mom on how she raised me to be a healthy eater.
I'm hoping to gain access to a school lunch to observe- or at least observe at a large gathering of children and hopefully introduce some prototypes if we have time.

Images below:

I think the current food pyramid is an aweful design. I remember when it was revealed and I felt the same way then (even before I became a critical designer...). The shape affords no hierarchy of information- apart from the yellow strip (the bad stuff) I have no idea from this chart what stuff I should be eating the most.


















This is a photo of a typical meal order at "delish"- the store that sells fresh and frozen almost-ready meals. The most interesting thing I learned from my conversation with the manager was that the 'psychologial effect of saying "I made dinner" is so critical to this company's success.' I found this intriguing. It's more than just knowing it's healthy food- it's that feeling that you're doing something good for your kids- that you put some time into preparation, that allows you to not get mad at yourself for picking up takeout or microwave a dinner. Even though it might only require 10 minutes of prep, it's enough to allow busy moms and dads to feel like they are good parents. And this is essential in preventing a downward spiral of unhealthy habits.

I'm beginning to observe how exactly kids eat. We brainstormed the types of snacks kids like:
themed, crunchy/crispy, with hands, one at a time, rolled, funsize (mini), inedible looking or named, on a stick, pop it in your mouth.

We are fascinated by the "ants on a log" concept and will be expanding more on this over the course of the next week and a half for our design solution.

through a kid's eyes

:: armpit, background objects, electrical outlet ::



















The four year-old who took these photos may have been trying to capture our faces, but this is what he took, and the reality is that this is what he's also seeing and noticing. These are things that are at his height and capture his interest. I love giving the subjects of my photographs the camera themselves and seeing the world through their lens. I've done quite a bit of collaborative photography in the past as an art student at Northwestern. I think this interest makes a natural progression into my new career as a designer because I'm realizing the value of empathy and being able to see the world from someone else's perspective. A child's perspective is so raw and unscathed by assumptions and jaded views. As an adult, it's easy to overlook so many things that surround us because we are so set in our routine subconscious definitions of how things work. If we put on our child goggles, I think we'll have the opportunity to truly notice and observe our surroundings, even the most seemingly mundane.

translucence

I thought these leaves, which were just beginning to change to yellow for the fall, were so beautifl in the sunlight- I find it interesting how the sun almost creates a white border around each leaf. And the overlapping shapes can get very complex. I like trying to figure out what this new color is that the overlap is creating. In general, I also think translucence can be a powerful tool for design displays or presentations.

Is design only limited to things that are tangible?

Reflection:

In light of our most recent project for Humana, I think this is an interesting question to discuss. DP3 attacks the large issue of health- we’re supposed to make a product or service, but we are getting at something very intangible. A possible design solution could be viewed as a tangible bike sharing program but the scope of the design and impact are much less tangible than moving people around on bikes. Beginning with the background behavioral science research and ethnographic studies phase of the design process, it is evidenced that we are not thinking about tangible things. The way people act, their motivations in life, their values and judgments—are all intangible things. From my interviews, I’ve realized that health is manifested (and recognized) in so many different ways from one individual to another—from weight to disease, fitness to consistency in checkups. We can’t just be focused on something that is clear or definite. We have to ask questions that deal with things completely unrelated to health that will hopefully inform us of how to tap into the issue of health. Lifestyles essentially define much of health but they are not tangible things. Lifestyles are affected by culture, social norming, jobs, families, religion, wealth, etc. When all these things are informing health decisions, we can’t possibly pretend that a design for the issue of health necessarily is going to result in something tangible. If we begin with an intangible concept- like health and lifestyle, it’s likely that the solution will likely also be intangible. Nevertheless, everything is always expressed somehow, in some fashion. So if we take the definition of tangible to be something “real” then certainly all design is tangible. Design is not just a final product or experience but it embodies everything that leads up to its creation.

PEZ or shipping containers? (scale and appearance)

I went to the Alameda flea market today and I loved the location where it is held- the huge shipping containers all scattered around like colored PEZ, and the enormous lifts that pluck them up into the air as if they are no heavier than PEZ. It reminded me of the effect scale has on the individual's sense of reality. It also seemed a bit ridiculous. In light of my thoughts last week about gravity with the Q drum invention- this is just so anti-gravity. To build these enormous lifts only to move a container from one place to another- it seems like such a waste of energy, materials, etc. Maybe it is not, but that's the way these lifts made me feel. It's interesting to think that maybe these lifts are extremely efficient and it's just their appearance that makes me feel like they are wasteful. It reminds me that, in general, an object's design may be efficient and well-made, but if it appears otherwise, it may lose the interest of many users. Even though these lifts seem excessive, I'm still attracted to them because of their sheer scale.

a different perspective

As I took photos of a few projects tonight, I found myself attracted to a yellow rose in my kitchen. I examined the seemingly never-ending folds of the petals. I took at least twenty photos before I decided to turn it around. I was blown away at how much more stunning and unique the backside of the rose was. This type of discovery has happened to me before so I wanted to make note of it, as a personal reminder, to always look at an object or individual or whatever I'm observing, from a different perspective. It's amazing what emerges just by turning your head or putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Perspective is key.