Urban Screens

URBAN SCREENS HELSINKI DESIGN CAPITAL 2012 - PALVELUMUOTOILU KAUPUNKIMEDIASSA (SERVICE DESIGN IN URBAN MEDIA) 4.3.2010

HELLO TEPPO KOTIRINTA CO-FOUNDER / PRINCIPAL, INTERACTION DESIGN / NORDKAPP

WE ARE A GROUP OF POST-DISCIPLINARY DESIGNERS, STRATEGISTS AND TECHNOLOGISTS. We are a fast-growing interactive design consultancy with 8 people and extensive network of freelancers in Finland and within EU. In few weeks we’ll be 10 people.

OUR MISSION IS TO DESIGN MEANINGFUL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FOR THE DIGITAL DRIVEN WORLD.

WE BELIEVE THE SUCCESS STORIES ARE BUILT ON UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOUR. At the core of our work are the people themselves. Building success today is all about listening and understanding real people and how they behave.

URBAN SCREENS Urban screens can be many things: shopping mall guide screens, screens in the subways and trams etc. This presentation concentrates on the large displays already in the streets of Helsinki.

These ones. Few people know that these 46” screens are actually single touch touchscreens! (We at Nordkapp have done the current non-interactive map implementation. Sadly interactive design was not possible at the time.)

So the project has stalled a little, and now these screens are only used for one-way advertising.

POSSIBILITIES However, it's easy to see this medium could be so much more. They could provide actual services for the people of the city, instead of just ﬁghting for their attention in the commercial sense. So what to do with them? Sometime ago we at Nordkapp headed to the streets of Helsinki to ﬁnd out.

RESEARCH HELSINKI INFO We heard that a standard visiting time in Helsinki is just one day. For this reason the Info people have designed brochures that concentrate on a certain topic and also a Helsinki Visitors Guide. This guide was mentioned as a really good guide by many tourists later on by the way.

HOTELS, RESTAURANTS HELSINKI INFO The info personnel struggle with other stuff though. They often have to look for accommodation for tourists and the systems they use are limited in features. They also don't have up-to-date restaurant information to offer.

NOT JUST THE CITY Interesting fact was that people very often ask directions to areas outside Helsinki. These include the beautiful city of Porvoo, and IKEA in Vantaa.

THE LOCALS Inhabitants of Helsinki are like in any other city. They get used to their daily patterns and commuting choices. Exceptions are rare.

EXCEPTIONS Sometimes exceptions do happen though. These could be anything like going to a new client's place, friends house warming or any of the many events and festivals in Helsinki nowadays. Much of the information is absorbed from radio, TV, internet and news papers at home. Mobile technology provides possibilities for realtime updates, but they are still not a broadcast way to reach these masses of people.

THE TOURISTS We also interviewed people from country side Finland, Japan, Austria, etc. Tourists seemed to be most interested in using the screens, just a static map pulls them to using the screen.

SIGHTS AND SHOPPING Tourists go sightseeing in the morning and spend the evenings in restaurants and other amusements. Finnish tourists look more for events and exhibitions while foreign tourists seek specialty shopping, markets and design items.

TRAMS Tourists transport themselves by walking and by trams. Busses not so much. Most of them considered the "web" as their main (transport) information source. They mostly referenced www.helsinki.ﬁ, but didn't know www.reittiopas.ﬁ for example.

NO REALTIME They have mobile phones, but don't use them for news or navigation because of the fear of expensive fees (and don't really know about the correct websites anyway).

PATTERNS AND COMMONALITIES We found patterns and commonalities between locals and tourists.

WALKING TIME Both groups would like to have easy access to walking distances visualized in time and, ..

TRANSPORT ... visualizations of alternative routes of walking, and walking versus public transportation, (and the time difference between them).

ACTIVITY Urbanmobs.fr The map should also show "now": where are the people, whereʼs the action, what is happening. This can be events, groups of people or important news happening just around the bend. Both expressed much interest in knowing what is happening right now, where are all other people, where's the action and what are the current events. This can be done by publishing mobile operatorsʼ network usage data. (Example from France)

DESIGN TARGETS FOR URBAN SCREENS Next: Few things that started to rise as possible design solutions, requirements and design targets for the system.

ACTIONABLE MAPS Basis of the system needs to be a map as it is easily understood way of showing context in the city. As said before, we observed the map being a powerful visual cue that pulled people into using the device. A new map style can be designed to accommodate user selectable ﬂuid layers of varying information. Any item in the map needs to actionable: user must be able to save, share, plan routes and do other things with them.

VISUALIZATIONS Here and There by BERG London New ways of visualizing maps and data on them can be used to spark interest in the device and enable new ways of interacting with this huge amount of data. Example: Here and There by BERG London

WITH HUMAN TOUCH * Crowd source * Start the transition towards trusted, practical and reliable source of information. * Show where the information comes from. * Make it accessible for all/most people. * Utilize the social nature, but still respect privacy. * Be transparent, be honest.

CONTEXT IN THE CITY The system and its maps should understand the use case and ﬁt the context: when walking past some information can be provided at a glance, a person planning a journey at a bus stop needs detailed information, and bar hoppers need quick entertainment choices while shoppers in the design district need shopping advice. (Extra: Think also about guides for Helsingin Juhlaviikot, Madonna concert, bus driversʼ strike!)

FULL SCALE CITY SEARCH Think of a full scale city search with emphasis on time and the physical location of the device. A single search box that would tap into every service imaginable: restaurants, street construction, trafﬁc jams, festival timetables, everything.

DESIGN FOR CONVERGENCE Mobile devices are becoming the main device for digital interaction, identity and access to cloud storage. At the same time, web browsers are coming to your tv, touch screen and other devices around your home. This leads to multiple ideas: For example, why not let people plan their trip at home, identify themselves in the city and access their information. Or plan on the device and grab the information seamlessly to oneʼs mobile device. Technologies such as bluetooth, RFID or even SMS can achieve this.

SUPER POWERS FOR EVERYMAN (AKA AR) The screen could provide a window to the real world with extra information. It could give the user Super Powers to see what happening next, nearby, and when. People could see around the corner, or THROUGH the corner! Think of augmented vision about trams timetables, night busses and where which one is going. (And super imposing this data as graphics on top of a photo or live video feed.)

UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING Urban screen will be part of ubiquitous computing too. They can act as a information gathering, display and relay nodes in a networked city. They can be used as means to tap into the information grid and perhaps volunteer information back into it too!

CAN THIS BE DONE, YOU SAY? Pretty much all of the building blocks are already present. The devices are on the streets, they have single touch capability on one side and they can be connected to internet for updates through WIFI or 3G technology. These are things that we Finns can easily build if given the chance. And what's a better opportunity than the world watching Helsinki as the Design Capital in 2012? [PICTURE: impossible like licking your elbow?]

CC THIS PRESENTATION IS CC ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHARE ALIKE 2.0 GENERIC TEPPO KOTIRINTA / NORDKAPP CC PHOTOS HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/JSOME1/3182427631/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/GLOBALTROTTERS/1986155300/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/BUSHKOV/3757055967/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/JAYSK/443274048/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/G-MIKEE/3460125546/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/STUDIES_AND_OBSERVATIONS/3999248192/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/LORDFERGUSON/4209066122/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/TROJANGUY/2553352107/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/KRETYEN/2628104710/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/GODT/3839545268/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/HUGOVK/491323925/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/STUARTPILBROW/3012728170/ HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/24578558@N03/3796579470/ This presentation is CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Teppo Kotirinta / Nordkapp

Thank You! Teppo Kotirinta Teppo@nordkapp.ﬁ @teppo +358 40 762 4009 INNOVATION, INTERACTION, IMPACT

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Urban Screens

by Teppo Kotirinta

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