Tata AIG General Insurance Company - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
Ā
Everything old is new again
1. everything old is
new again
designing for the future
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/ssoosay/4128397609/
2. ā...it takes on average
20 years for a
technology to make
the transition from
ļ¬rst articulation to
maturity (deļ¬ned as
becoming a $1billion
industry)ā¦the
mouse, for example,
took 30 years. ā
ā Bill Buxton, Principle
researcher Microsoft
Patent 3522664 November 1967
3. take for example
the humble fax machine...
(a technology that may ļ¬nally have outlived its usefulness)
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/mattjiggins/4009310821/
4. 1843
Alexander Bain
The fax machine was ļ¬rst
envisioned and patented in 1843
by Scotsman Alexander Bain...
(image shown is of an 1850 iteration)
Image source: Wikipedia
5. 1843 1848
Alexander Bain
Frederick Bakewell
...then improved on
(and patented once again)
in 1848 by Frederick Bakewell.
Image source: Wikipedia
6. 1843 1848 1861
Alexander Bain
Frederick Bakewell
Giovanni Castelli
Then improved on once again
13 years later, this time by
Giovanni Castelli, an Italian priest...
Castelliās pantelegraph
Pantelegraph image courtesy ITIS Gallileo
7. 1843 1848 1861 1865
Alexander Bain
ļ¬rst fax
service
Frederick Bakewell
Giovanni Castelli
Then in 1865, Castelli went
on to establish the ļ¬rst Paris
public fax service...
(the service worked over telegraph lines
and ran between Paris and Lyon)
Lyon
8. 1843 1848 1861 1865 1876
Alexander Bain
ļ¬rst fax
service
Frederick Bakewell
Giovanni Castelli
...this was still 11 years
before the invention of
the telephone...
(this isnāt unusualāwe donāt always know
the true value of a technology until a
related one comes along)
Photo of
Bell usin
g t h e t e le
phone in
N e w Yo
r k.
Image source: Wikipedia
9. 1843 1848 1861 1865 1876
telephone
Alexander Bain patent:
ļ¬rst fax
service Alexander
Frederick Bakewell Graham Bell
Innocenzo
Giovanni Castelli
Manzetti
Thomas
Six people were known to have been working on Edison
āvoice transmission over a wireā around the J. P. Reis
time that Bell was ultimately successful in Elisha Gray
obtaining the ļ¬rst patent. Antonio
Meucci
Alexander Thomas Innocenzo Johann Elisha Antonio
Graham Bell Edison Manzetti Phillip Reis Gray Meucci
Image source: Wikipedia - History of the telephone
10. 1843 1848 1861 1865 1876 1877
telephone
Alexander Bain patent:
ļ¬rst fax
service Alexander
Frederick Bakewell Graham Bell
Innocenzo
Giovanni Castelli
Manzetti
Thomas telephone
Shortly thereafter, a Hungarian engineer by the Edison exchange:
Tivadar PuskƔs
name of Tivadar PuskƔs invented the telephone J. P. Reis
switchboardāwhich allowed for the formation of Elisha Gray
telephone exchanges (and eventually networks). Antonio
Meucci
Alexander Thomas Innocenzo Johann Elisha Antonio Tivadar
Graham Bell Edison Manzetti Phillip Reis Gray Meucci PuskƔs
Image source: Wikipedia - History of the telephone
11. almost immediatelyāwe began
dreaming up ways to move
phones around
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/qwrrty/3989643653
16. the simplest solution was
of course to distribute the phones
throughout our environment
(a solution that remained useful for more than 100 years!)
Public phone booth: Lancaster county Pennsylvania
17. in a pinch, you could
also build a portable booth
a mobile phone center for reporters in 1960s Chicago
Copyright: Popular Science - via modernmechanix.com
18. Finally, after twenty years of experimentation
(and the invention of microprocessors) we ended up with this....
1983: the $3,995 DynaTAC
the ļ¬rst mobile telephone that
could connect to the telephone
network without the assistance of
a mobile operator
19. ...which was released about the same time as this.
1984: the Apple Macintosh
the ļ¬rst commercially successful personal
computer to feature a mouse and a
graphical user interface
20. ...the following ten years were pretty much devoted to
ļ¬nding ways to combine these two concepts....
+
21. ...until in 1993, IBM and Bell South released the worldās
ļ¬rst smartphone: the Simon Personal Communicator...
ooh, rounded cornersā¦
22. Simon was not just the ļ¬rst device to combine a portable
computer with a phone...it also incorporated many
concepts that are now standard on mobile devices...
clock touchscreen
calendar virtual keyboard
address book electronic sketchpad
email handwriting recognition
text messaging predictive text input
23. Simonās creators also envisioned the concept of
apps to personalise and extend the deviceās capabilities
+
Accounting Music Player Camera
Version 1.0 Version 1.1 Version 1.0
cartridges designed to fit Simonās
PCMCIA slot
Artistās rendering based on photos from āBefore iPhone and Android came Simonā
24. Simon retailed for $899 and sold about 50,000 units
until it was discontinued due to a combination of
ā...technical limitations, product delays, a world-class
corporate meltdown, revolving-door management,
and bad business decisions...ā
Source: āBefore iPhone and Android came Simonā
25. Simonās apps were designed to be installed directly onto
the device...yet around that time scientists at Xerox PARC
were experimenting with a slightly diļ¬erent approach...
Courtesy Xerox PARC press archive
26. ā The most profound technologies are those that
disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of
everyday life until they are indistinguishable from itā¦.
- Mark Weiser (1991)
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/armaggeusa/3176297283
27. To further explore Weiserās predictions of the
implications of ubiquitous computing, PARC
developed an oļ¬ce based context-aware
networked computing environment, and a
device they called the PARC TAB.
Courtesy Xerox PARC press archive
28. The TAB was designed to be carried or worn at all times.
It's size, weight, and features were speciļ¬cally intended to
promote casual, spur of the moment, computing.
Name: Marge Eldridge
Office: [ ] Ext: 518
Manager: chorded keys enabling basic
Manages:
25/1/94 14:39 @ [ 461770] one-handed navigation
ā 14:41 @
ā 14:41 511 462983
ā 14:42 @
ā 14:45
touch screen + stylus
29. This level of portability (unheard of in 1993) was
made possible by several key design decisions.
constantly connected to other Tabs
and computers through a series of
infrared communication hubs
tiny processor = TAB applications
smaller, cheaper & run on a userās (far
more lightweight more capable)
(terminal-style)
added beneļ¬t: desktop system
device contextual awareness
(e.g. location, interactions with
other devices, data and
applications accessed)
(apparently, researchers at Euro PARC were Mac based and developed ways to use and prototype Tab applications on a Mac)
30. This environment also
enabled experiments in
āintimate computingā.
One of these was a context-
aware application prototype
called āForget-me-notā. Name: Marge Eldridge
Office: [ ] Ext: 518
Manager:
The app was designed to Manages:
25/1/94 14:39 @ [ 461770]
serve as an āexternal ā 14:41 @
ā 14:41 511 462983
memory prostheticā, ā 14:42 @
automatically gathering data ā 14:45
(from the TAB or other
devices operating on the
network). This data could be
used by participants to easily Manages:
track and recall important 25/1/94 14:39 @ [ 461770]
aspects of their lives. ā 14:41 @
phone
date time person 1 call number
person 2 dialled
Forget me not: Intimate computing in support of human memory
31. 1983 1984 1992 1993 today
today
Motorola IBM
DynaTAC Simon
PARC
TAB
Apple
Macintosh
....the iPhone, Facebook and cloud computing
were still close to 20 years away...
32. when working with technology
itās easy to believe that if something
is cool, useful or in some way
āsuperiorā it will inevitably thrive
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/remedios/66912941
33. ā
...youāll never hear someone
spontaneously express a wish
for a ubiquitous house or city.
There are days, in fact, when it
can seem to me that the entire
endeavor has arisen out of
some combination of the
technically feasible and that
which is of interest to people
working in HCI.
- Adam Greenļ¬eld, Everyware
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/dodoorg/5023608260
34. ...no matter how cool it may be...many technologies,
ecosystems and conditions must align before an invention
enters the lives of ānormal peopleā.
1937 1962 1971 2012
40 years of innovation including the growth of
āThe Electrocularā the microprocessor, the Internet, the web, something
network data protocols, display technologies.... normal people
will use :-)
Googleās
Project Glass
use of reļ¬ector sights in Virtual reality goggles
cockpits during World War II Dr. Ivan Sutherland
University of Utah
35. Itās worth remembering as well that ānormal peopleā donāt
actually have to use a technology for it to impact their lives...
1937 1960 1962 1971 2012
40 years of innovation including the growth of
Gilbert
āThe Electrocularā the microprocessor, the Internet, the web, something
Klopfstein, a
network data protocols, display technologies.... normal people
French test-pilot
will use :-)
creates ļ¬rst HUD
system for use in Googleās
commercial Project Glass
aviation
use of reļ¬ector sights in Virtual reality goggles
cockpits during World War II Dr. Ivan Sutherland
University of Utah
36. ...the most useful and widely deployed implementations may
also turn out to be relatively mundane...
1937 1960 1962 1971 1988 2012
Gilbert
āThe Electrocularā BMW implements the something
Klopfstein, a
ļ¬rst HUD-integrated normal people
French test-pilot
telematics will use :-)
creates ļ¬rst HUD
system for use in Googleās
commercial Project Glass
aviation
use of reļ¬ector sights in Virtual reality goggles
cockpits during World War II Dr. Ivan Sutherland
(modern day version shown)
University of Utah
37. āTechnological revolutions have
several interesting properties.
First, we tend to overestimate
the immediate impact and
underestimate the long-term
impact.
Second, we tend to place the
emphasis on the technologies
themselves, when it is really the
social impact and cultural change
that will be most dramatic.ā
ā Don Norman, Drop everything youāre doing
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/jordanļ¬scher/61429449
38. learning how to use
a new technology is one thing...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/jcfrog/4692750598
39. making space for it
in our lives is another
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/krossbow/4509414056
40. even when the value proposition
should appear obvious
Bell telephone advertisement in National Geographic, 1958 - via Modernmechanix
41. this not only makes it tricky to market new products...
it can also prevent those who design and develop them from
imagining something completely new...
42. From futurists to product designers...we canāt help but insert bits
of the present into our dreams of the future...
telecommunication in the year 2000
...as imagined in 1910
Utopia: The Quest for the Ideal Society in the Western World
44. Home of the Future:
as imagined by Disney Imagineering, MIT
and Monsanto in 1957
45. The home of the future looks
futuristic and is entirely
made of plastic!
-1957-
Watch the video on YouTube
46. ...the interior however is
designed to feel familiar, with a
ānormalā looking piano and
dining room...
-1957-
Watch the video on YouTube
47. The recurring selling point
however is plastic. There are
plastic countertops,
(motorised) plastics shelves
and a āluxuriousā set of plastic
cups, plates and dishes.
(Monsantoās involvement obviously had
something to do with this, but plastic was also
the modern substance of the day).
-1957-
Watch the video on YouTube
48. In the bedroom āthe lady of the
houseā has her own private
plastic boudoir. On the
counter is a speaker phone,
complete with ultra modern
push buttons instead of a
rotary dial.
(Note how lovingly the wife stares at the phone
while speaking to her husband. On the one hand
itās charming that multitasking as you speak
wasn't yet socially acceptable but it also kind of -1957-
sad that 50 years later, we still spend a lot of time
staring at our phones.)
Watch the video on YouTube
49. The man of the house has the
pleasure of shaving in his ultra
modern bathroomāfashioned
out of one giant piece of pre-
moulded plastic.
Thereās also a ābuilt-inā razor.
(The razor is corded and hardwired to the wall :-)
-1957-
Watch the video on YouTube
51. The lady of the
house browses a
selection of
tempting oļ¬ers via
video display.
-1969-
Watch the video on YouTube
52. Push-buttons and
dials are used to
control what
appears on the
display...
-1969-
Watch the video on YouTube
53. She then uses
another device to
key in her choice
of purchase.
(It was hard to imagine at that
point that devices might just
ātalkā to each other).
-1969-
Watch the video on YouTube
54. (To prevent social
embarrassment...)
the husband
receives an
itemised list of his
wifeās purchases.
-1969-
Watch the video on YouTube
55. ...which he
carefully inspects...
-1969-
Watch the video on YouTube
56. ...he then prints a
copy of the order
and uses a touch
screen and stylus
to sign in approval.
-1969-
Watch the video on YouTube
58. sometimes it may be
exactly what we need
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/davilla/3363343340
59. The āoldā brings with it
familiar metaphors...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/mujitra/6778948371
60. ...and provides a common
conceptual framework.
familiar gesture
says āI get how
to use this...ā
61. ...transforming something alien into something that feels magical,
yet familiar enough that you can see yourself using it.
so many wires...run away! almost like shopping at Nike :-)
Courtesy Makerbot Industries Blog and on Flickr
62. āSuccessful products are precisely those that donāt
attempt to move user experiences signiļ¬cantly,
even if the underlying technology has radically shifted.
In fact the whole point of user experience design is to
manufacture the necessary normalcy for a product to
succeed...ā - Greg Borenstein
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/ducdigital/2892313560
63. with nothing familiar to hold on to
itās maybe not surprising that
some ideas never quite make it
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/jurvetson/302869583
65. Golly gee...with a
contraption like this,
my wife could spend the
whole day shopping! Good
thing I still have to approve
all those purchases!
many new technologies require
features to (implicitly) alleviate social angst
66. Source: Wikipedia
In 1982 GRiD Systems Corp. released the ļ¬rst clamshell style laptop.
The GRiD Compass 1100 cost $8,150, yet thatās not why it failed to catch on...
67. āIt was designed for business executives. And...one of the
biggest obstacles, we had for selling the product was the
factābelieve it or notāthat it had a keyboard.
Business people, who were in their 40s and 50s, didnāt have
a computer or keyboard in their oļ¬ces. It was associated
with being part of the secretarial pool. And so you'd put
this thing in their oļ¬ce and they'd say, "Get that out of
here." It was like getting a demotion. They were really
uncomfortable with it.ā
ā Jeļ¬ Hawkins speaking at the Computer History Museum
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/ducdigital/2892313560
68. according to anthropologist Genevieve Bell
a technology must have the potential to impact us
in three ways to cause social angst...
(or as she calls it āmoral panicā
Women and children ļ¬rst : technology and moral panic
69. it has to change
our relationship to time...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/faceme/2882556082
70. it has to change
our relationship to space...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/shokai/4678255766
71. ...and change our relationship
to other people
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/misbehave/2352753067
72. ...changes in our relationship to time and space
donāt come along nearly as often as they used to....
73. the phonograph
suddenly made it possible
to hear the voices of the dead...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/puuikibeach/7400339252
74. ā...it is really ļ¬ying, and it is impossible to divest yourself
of the notion of instant death...ā
ā The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century
the advent of the railway
caused intense fear of death...
(above and beyond that caused by horriļ¬c accidents)
Train wreck at Montparnasse, 1895, Wikipedia
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/puuikibeach/7400339252
75. ...it also caused what the Lancet medical journal
then termed ānervous fatigueā...
76. ā...even the elementary concepts of
space and time have begun to vacillate. Space is
killed by the railways, and we are left with time alone.ā
ā German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/svensson/601272668
78. ...but changes in our
relationships with people
will likely cause angst for
many years to come
79. ...so what can the past teach us about
designing for the future?
80. we often talk about the future
as if it will arrive, fully formed on
our doorstep one ļ¬ne morning
Public domain: Space colony art from the 1970s
81. residential smart
card entry
4G already
old, organically formed overtaking 3G
neighbourhoods
...and the stories we tell
city-wide wi-ļ¬
contactless Octopus
smart card
but the future is already here...
smart grid and
the old all jumbled up
environmental monitoring
with the new...
paper map from
the hotel
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/milo_riano/4336541309
82. the success of the products we design
will be deļ¬ned not merely by the
technologies we invent...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/preetamrai/5438199316
83. Rate of acceleration/deceleration of technology adoption by country
but by the cultures that
choose to welcome them...
Research by Intel measures the rate at which technology adoption exceeds (or falls
below) expectations for the countryās level of GDP. Rates have been averaged across
three technologies: mobile phones, PCās, and internet users.
84. which brings us back to the humble fax machine...
a technology that now gathers dust in
all but one āmodernā culture
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/mattjiggins/4009310821/
86. culture of
handwritten documents
warmth & personality
instant visibility
tech literacy: 1/5 of the
population is over 65
use of seals instead of
signatures for oļ¬cial
transactions in Japan, fax machines still thrive
in the home and at work
Source: Japan and the fax: a love aļ¬air http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/kankan/55026589
88. Anthropologist Cliļ¬ord Geertz once
deļ¬ned culture as ā...the stories we
tell ourselves about ourselves. ā
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/leweb3/6498812861/
89. The more technology surrounds us,
the more all of us will play a part in
deļ¬ning these stories...
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/leweb3/6498812861/
90. ...the future will not just be deļ¬ned
by the next big inventionāit will be
also be deļ¬ned by our ability to
dream beyond existing ones.
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/leweb3/6498812861/
91. ā
...innovation is not about doing something
new out of thin air. It is about forgetting
that what you are doing is old.
- Dawn Nafus, anthropologist
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/keepwaddling1/3048726936/
92. s
contact u
at
hello@yiibu.com
Presentation deck available @
http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu
many thanks to the
amazing photographers on
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
@yiibu
thank you
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/tinou/453593446