The End Of Aspirational Advertising?: How Consumers Re-produce Value To Continue The American Dream
Submitted by epicadmin on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 19:16.This essay examines a conscious shift in the cultural flows of consumption practices. It explores the ways consumers are generating and sharing shopping competence as a new form of value. I argue that a shift in consumer consciousness and resulting open social discourse around shopping practices are creating a new consumption narrative in the recession. This narrative celebrates the resourceful and collective acts of people who transform modes of restriction (cutting back) into a positive social value of thrift. As people are practicing more thoughtful purchasing styles they are also more communicative with others in sharing their shopping strategies and ways of savings. Social changes are thus arising out of these adjustments in shopping behaviors. Such emergent shopping behaviors amplify a new sociability that demonstrates more appropriate ways to spend and save on commodities. This change shows that consumers are not just accepting new attitudes and behaviors towards shopping because they have to, but are doing so to be in tune with the spirit of the times.
Lead type, dead type: New patterns of media production for local audiences
Submitted by epicadmin on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 19:16.Newsprint is in trouble. Steep declines in circulation and advertising revenue have forced outright closures, reductions in force, cessation of print in favor of web only editions and frantic searches for new sources of revenue and audience. In this paper, we argue that local news presents a special case of news consumption. The audience for local news media is geographically defined. So too are the editorial concerns. To the extent local news organizations produce their own editorial content, their information may be less fungible than that presented in national papers. In this paper we report results from an interview study focused on the business milieu and everyday practices of local information production and consumption. We outline design opportunities for local news creation and distribution.
Designing for Turkish Consumers OR? Analyzing the Industrial Designer – User Relationship in Turkish Context
Submitted by epicadmin on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 19:16.From the perspective of industrial design, user-centered design denotes more than a methodology to understand users. More importantly, it is a medium to create a relationship between designers and users. While user-centered design has much to offer, user research is not a convention in emerging economies. In this context, this paper puts one such emerging market, Turkey, under scrutiny. Eight case studies give a snapshot of the current status of product design in general and user-centered design in particular in this country. One of the key findings is that, compared to the West, there is a wider gap between designers and users in the Turkish context. Besides economic concerns, the eclectic character of Turkish culture plays the biggest role in the expansion of this gap. The application of Western oriented research methods and concentration on global trends also stand as barriers for user-centeredness. In order to ensure products’ success through research, Turkey needs to develop its own user-centered design model.
Consumerization and Renewing PaPR
Submitted by epicadmin on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 19:16.This paper documents the beginnings of Intel’s recently launched Consumerization project, and uses these early experiences as a way into exploring new paths to business relevance and impact. These paths weave in and out of the now institutionalized position of corporate ethnography as research that takes place before products are designed. To the extent these paths are one response to wider transformations in the business environment, they are not a general prescription, “ethnography should do X.” However, this project does embody a significant move away from traditional modalities of conducting and applying research, and in doing so reveals broader possibilities for ethnography that may prove viable for others in different contexts. We begin by providing some institutional history and exploring the wider industry transformations that compelled us to design a research project in the way that we did. The paper goes on to describe our approach in meeting the challenges of this new environment, both conceptually and methodologically. Finally we reflect on some of the very early partnerships we are now able to cultivate and grow as a result.
TANGIBLE Steps Toward Tomorrow: Designing a vision for early childhood education
Submitted by epicadmin on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 19:16.In 2007 the W. K. Kellogg Foundation engaged the innovation and design firm, IDEO, to design a compelling vision for the future of early childhood education. The foundation was ready for a new perspective on a well-explored topic. IDEO's design thinking approach engaged the foundation and its stakeholders in new ways that promoted feasible yet innovative solutions.
In this paper we describe the combined use of ethnographic-style research and design thinking in a project addressing a complex, systemic and philanthropic
challenge: public education in the United States. We seek to provide the reader
with a clear and convincing case study demonstrating the value of ethnography
plus design thinking in any business context or social system where many
stakeholders need to be brought together to work toward a system wide solution.
