The Digital Self: Looking to the Past to Understand the Future.

I am not on Facebook.

This is where you say….”What?!? You’re not on Facebook?” Or you say “Who’s not on Facebook?” And my favorite from those who know my profession, “But you work at a design firm.”

In the beginning, my design school was not on Facebook. In 2006, Facebook expanded registration to the public. By that point, I was sticking with the 80/20 rule.  I exert 80% of my socializing energy to 20% of my network. This means more face to face conversations with friends and longer phone calls with family, leaving little emphasis on online participation. Now, I avoid joining because we are already seeing challenges around managing online identity, with Facebook and other social media at the core.

As features and preferences constantly emerge, controlling privacy and reputation have become more complex. How did we get to this point of complexity? How are people’s expectations shifting? And how are companies responding to these shifts in the digital age? We decided to look back in time to better understand how we got here and what’s to come.

How did we get here? 

Taking a quick trip down memory lane, highlights two developments during the 70′s. First is that universities are conducting computing research with BBS (bulletin board systems) and timesharing terminals as a public effort with little commercialization. And the result of this is that accidental communities emerge online. Slowly but surely during the 80′s and 90′s people realize the potential power of the internet and set up a new industry.  As internet accessibility grows in the 90′s, the industry goes further by providing more intimate, social choices.  The newly commercialized LAN (local area networks) allows anyone to connect from their home. By this time, people are expressing themselves via instant messaging, abbreviations and emoticons.   Social choices are further propelled by mobile-phones entering the market, however the mobile browsers we see during this decade are young, clunky and unusable.

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Do work, and take a pass on the pastries while you’re at it.

Every year I make the same two New Year’s resolutions: 1) Quit Starbucks pastries and 2) Do work.

The pastries thing was tough at first. This is Seattle after all, with the sweet seduction of Starbucks around every corner. But, after reading the nutritional content of Starbucks’ treats, it got easy real fast. Truth be told, I’ve had a few breakfast sandwiches in 911 hangover situations, but those aren’t technically pastries anyway.

My second resolution, do work, gets harder every year as I ooze into the backdrop of operational management. Eek! I’m scaring myself just thinking about it! I started out at a tiny design firm, 10 people tops. We had fun every day, meetings happened impromptu, so did lunches and birthdays. The music was l.o.u.d. We all left at 4 pm for happy hour after a 10 am start. We worked the shows in NYC, London, and Paris, shared hotel rooms, smoked cigarettes in the exhibition halls and stayed out all night. ‘Work hard, play hard” wasn’t a buzzphrase, it was our studio’s doctrine, and we lived it 24/7 together. Oddly, this was one of my most productive jobs.

Now I work 60 hours a week, I don’t smoke, I never leave at 4pm, and I very rarely stay out all night, certainly not when I’m working. I’m too busy. I’m older, decidedly wiser, and I actually love what I do and the people I work with. So, why don’t I feel as productive?

Granted I get a lot done, getting !@#$ done is part of my identity, but Teague is a big firm, with lots of studios, and lots of people in those studios working collaboratively. On the business side of this business, nothing happens impromptu. Creatively, we’ve functioned as a well-oiled machine for 86 years. Operationally however, like most businesses, it’s sometimes a bit of a slog. That said a lot of people love the meetings, the reporting, the training, and the processes. They love the forms, the structure, and even the bureaucracy. There are times I love it as well, it speaks to my mania, it feeds my OCD tendencies unlike anything else, but that question, “why don’t I feel as productive?” comes creeping into my mind every time I draft a meeting agenda, accept a meeting request, complete a travel form, attend a training session…that question in fact, has taken up residence in my frontal lobe for the last 6 months. I go to sleep, and there it is, white noise as I crawl deeper between the sheets to avoid it. I wake up, and there it is again, staring back at me from the depths of my coffee cup. It’s part of me now, like a bullet that can’t be removed after a horrific shooting accident for fear of death.

Because like I said, getting !@#$ done is part of my identity, beyond the ooze, that’s what I’m always thinking about it. And I get why you do less ‘work’ once you start to manage, because the work you’re doing is the management bit. But somewhere down the line, I think work fell out of favor for management and leadership. These days everyone wants to be a leader. Gen X, and god knows Gen Y, were born to lead, or at least they think so. In my mind, today’s ‘leaders’ typically delegate client work, and hire consultants to do their work. Sorry folks, that doesn’t count. And FYI, if you’re not doing work, you’re the definition of dispensable. Eek! I’m scared for you.

Some see bureaucracy as a comfort. Others view it as an epidemic; I see it more as a behavior, one I’m committed to unlearn. This year I’m gonna do more work. I’m gonna work hard to work with more people who like to roll up their sleeves and get dirty, and I’m gonna to do my best to create a culture of action.

When I was growing up my parents had an image of Jesus hanging on the wall with a saying that read “I never said it’d be easy, I only said it’d be worth it.” That’s exactly how I feel about work.

The social generation gap.

Social networking platforms are attempting to ‘help’ us manage our digital selves through various preferences, features and tools. The larger problem of this the lack of social context in social media, and this has yet to be resolved.  We interviewed several industry experts as part of our research, and found there is a growing concern over online context and privacy approaches.  “Fidelity, accuracy and representation are not easily interpreted in a digital world.”  Social media developers and businesses often make it extremely easy to share information, but difficult to curate that information into an authentic, meaningful message.

“Facebook is susceptible to being young and moving fast, without thinking of their privacy model.”  All of this fast movement and constant iteration on privacy often winds up making us feel even less secure than we did before!  How often do we need our settings after all?

Is this good or bad?

Your viewpoint may depend on who you are, your life stage, and your technical understanding of the repercussions of putting yourself ‘out there’ for the rest of time.  Added to this is the fact that digital identities are surfacing at a younger and younger age, and they don’t necessarily understand what is appropriate to share.  In fact they crave a more authentic interaction, and seem to derive a lot of social value from it.  At a certain age they begin to understand that it can serve as a moral compass to some degree:  “Don’t do anything unless you don’t mind it being on Facebook”, said one teen we interviewed.  On the other hand, if we edit ourselves too heavily, are we gaining anything through this social medium, or just creating a bunch of noise?  Another expert we spoke with explained his philosophy saying, “The digital self is less about privacy and hiding things, it is more about respecting your audiences and what they care about.”

As participation online increases, our contacts, connections, and digital audiences expand. Additionally, the amount of information that we share will continue to grow, making our digital identities even more significant.

Does this cause us to relate to others in a less genuine way?  What support will we need to ensure ease and authenticity when representing our digital identities in the future?

Fill the experience gap, follow us & tweet what you think @Wallywants2know

IDSA, Clay Shirky and me.

When The IDSA approached me last December about chairing the 2011 conference I was predictably besieged by a host of conflicting emotions. But after gather my thoughts three things struck me as brutally clear: 1. The chance to drive the conversation around the profession, even if only for a few days, was too good to pass by. 2. The conference theme: Community bubbled up as a no-brainer given the continuing noise and chatter of world events and 3. New Orleans as host city presented itself as the perfect stage upon which to explore the dynamics of Community given the twin factors of Katrina and the BP oil spil.

So, with that intoxicating mixture of dread and excitement raging through my system – I accepted.

Within days of accepting the challenge two of the four programming pillars had already taken shape – at least on paper. The first was the Methods and Means forum consisting of Kickstarter’s Yancy Strickler, Quirky’s Ben Kaufman, Scott Wilson and Tom Gerhardt of StudioNeat. The second was the ‘audacious’ goal of having Clay Shirky speak as Opening Keynote. Both of these programing elements stuck me as pivotal if we were going to succeed in framing Community, not in terms of Pollyanna feel-good sentiment, but as an authentic game changer to the way products and services are conceived and deployed.

Starting with his book “Here Comes Everybody” and more recently with “Cognitive Surplus”, Clay Shirky has emerged as one of the most articulate and ambitious chroniclers on maters related to technology and society.  Whether concerning himself with the facilitating role of social media in political uprisings or the web’s unprecedented ability to coordinate vast numbers of individual actions, Shirky has the rare ability to extricate meaning out of the messy intersection of human behavior and technical possibility.  It was a moment of real joy when I learned we had secured him for the conference. A moment surpassed only by Teague’s generous commitment to get him there by any means legally possible.

We hope you enjoy this video and find it relevant to your own practice of design. If you like what you hear we encourage you to click over to our Vimeo page to check out all the keynote sessions and panel discussions.

Attitudes and Behaviors

• Margaret Gould Stewart
• Kayne Burk
• Aaron Zinman
• Grant McCracken
• Allan Chochinov (moderator)

Methods and Means

• Yancey Strickler
• Scott Wilson
• Ben Kaufman
• Tom Gerhardt
• Tad Toulis (moderator)

Community as Context

• Andrea Chen
• Elizabeth Goodman
• Byron Mouton
• Allan Chochinov
• John Edson (moderator)

Inevitable question.

It seems a bit surreal to be leaving Seattle in less than a week when I have been happily calling this place home for the last three months while interning here at Teague.  As time starts to run out, the inevitable question is asked: how was your experience?

How do you even begin to answer such a question?

For me, intern experiences have never really been about the work. While the projects were interesting and inspiring, projects aren’t what make memories. It is the people, daily epiphanies, and little lessons I will remember. So, between the endless cups of coffee, The Beatles/ dubstep combo blasting from the speakers, and the view of  Puget Sound,  I present Teague Tidbits or:  How I learned to stop overanalyzing and just design.

Thinking Through Making is the first culture item I picked up on at Teague. Being in school, there is a large emphasis on process—conceptualizing a solution without necessarily materializing it. I admit that before my time at Teague, I was guilty of conceptualizing and analyzing a solution to the point of forcing it to work even if it meant I had to change the entire project.  So this idea of mocking up a quick solution was a foreign concept to me but, as they say on Yo Gabba Gabba, once I tried it, I  liked it.

My first few weeks here were full of acclimating to thinking by making. I was under the impression I could save time by over-thinking an idea, because once I starting making it, it had to be perfect. I learned first hand that making a quick mock up may take time, but not as much time as starting over.

There are bad ideas, but don’t be afraid of them

In a making culture, there has to be room for bad ideas and there will be bad ideas, as two co-workers reminded us. We often forget that bad ideas means you’re one step closer to a better solution. I remember going through the process of attempting to visually represent limits, and I came up with an abundance of bad and unworkable concepts. Instead of being hanged from the gallows for them, the concepts were salvaged to see if there were any workable ideas to springboard to something new.

With that being said, it should be no surprise that good ideas don’t happen by accident.  I am reminded of this with Teaguduino (If you don’t know about it you can read more here.) Adam and Matt  reminded me their idea didn’t happen overnight. It took time and a lot of other ideas not worth pursuing before Teagueduino happened.

The solution isn’t always in the problem

As a designer (or one in training), it is sometimes hard to look for the solution outside your area. Just looking at today’s cell phone interfaces will tell you that. Interfaces seemed to be inspired by other interfaces in the same industry for the same services, perpetuating the same problems. How can that line of inspiration ever lead to innovation?

Working at a company that has so many different facets of design, it is hard not to come up with a solution inspired from (what some may say is) left field.

This happened to me all the time. Just a quick look over your neighbor’s shoulder working on a product form or compiling images for a research presentation can inspire a solution for UI. The big idea is that no discipline should exist in a vacuum. Whether it is UI, Product Design, or Research—all of these must work together and be aware of one another in order to come up with the best solution.

There is always room for silliness

I suppose this tidbit might not be in the same vein as the others, but it was just as important to my experience. I am somewhat of a play nut and The History Boys by Alan Bennett  is one of my favorite plays with a fantastic line about this. The general studies teacher Hector describes his class as “sheer calculated silliness.” Nevertheless, these frivolous lessons contributed to these boys getting into Cambridge and Oxford, and it continues to remind me that being impactful doesn’t have to be super serious.

One of the best memories I will have of Teague is at this past all hands meeting when John Barratt gave us the new Teague elevator pitch as if he were pitching it to a man in the elevator. Donning a sock for this stranger, he proceeded to put on this skit to show how quick and easy it will be to talk about what we do. This moment of silliness illustrated his point and made the new pillar of Teague into a memorable moment.

This concept goes beyond trying lighten up business meeting or proposal, it also just means taking time out in the day to have a little fun to refresh your thinking. It could be celebrating birthdays with cupcakes or lunching in the Sculpture Park,  but taking the time out to be silly always helps put the stress of a project temporarily behind you and gives you time to come back and look at it with new eyes.

While I can’t take the people, the view, or the dubstep with me, I can keep these Teague Tidbits in the back of my mind, especially in these next six months when I complete my senior thesis. I am bound to get  caught up in the details and constantly need to remember to stop overanalyzing and just design.

Making things and a night at the Institute of Design.

In my past life I made a lot of stuff. Big stuff.  400,000 square foot stuff that was all over Europe. As a former planner and architect, with several million square feet of buildings that grew out of the ground in places like Stockholm or Madrid, who is now sitting around writing frameworks on how other people need to make stuff, I find myself sometimes missing the old days where productivity was measured in tangible, physical stuff. And in my case, concrete, steel and wood.  But, then maybe that is why I chose to come to Teague and to grapple with the challenges facing the aviation world.

You see, one of the cool parts of my job is that I am part of the group that works with Boeing. And you guessed it.  They make pretty damn big stuff too. Complicated and gnarly stuff that at hundreds of thousands of pounds has to still go 5 to 7 miles miles up in the air while at the same time enable a flight attendant to deliver hot tea without it spilling on you. Combine these two situations, me the former architect and me the strategist, and the fact that I get to work with folks who build and test the latest and coolest plane interiors and you’ve got a pretty excited hombre.

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My best work day is better than yours.

Ok, I’m just going to lay it out here—I bet my best work day ever is better than yours! Now I admit I have a few advantages here. First of all, I’m an Industrial Designer and sometimes designers just get to do cool things. Second, I was fortunate to be invited with a client to an innovation session between non-competing industries, that how it all began.

To start, we stayed at the Dearborn Inn which was built by Henry Ford back in the late 1920’s as an airport hotel designed to keep travelers from the necessity of going all the way to Detroit for lodging. The inn is seeped in history, and it’s easy to imagine the mighty Ford Tri Motors coming in for a loud landing across the street. This is the same hotel I stayed at 40 years ago when I started my career as a Ford designer. Looking around at the Henry Ford Museum and the nearby Design Center was a nice trip down memory lane, and a great start to “the day.”

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Lost in translation.

In our offline lives we desire things like a feeling of community support, recognition of our abilities and talents or just to be ‘in’ on the conversation.

Social connectedness helps us to understand our place in the world, and the physical realities of these interactions can help us censor ourselves appropriately, change our approach, or at least provide some sort of social context.

These inherent social desires don’t always translate well on the web however, and carry a new and scarier set of consequences and or discomfort.  Social cues are not always available to help guide us through.

Enter search on the scene, and shared information can be pulled up with ease, yet without the appropriate context or intended audience (think potential bosses, parents, kids, strangers).  Nowadays, potential boss can Google to see what you’ve been doing online during your time of unemployment for example.  Been spending too much time on Facebook?   How can you know what context your online information will be viewed in?

During our study on digital identity, we asked participants to Google themselves, and many were shocked at what they found.  Often Facebook was the very first thing to pop up.

The convenience of online socializing can make offline experiences less convenient or better than ever depending on how one manages the digital identity in this new social realm.

But what happens when we want to whisper in this broadcast world?   Is this even possible?

Help us translate between offline and online, tweet us @Wallywants2know