SXSW: The Talks, Tech and Trends

isobar.com
#SXSW2015
The Talks, Tech and
Trends

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Table of Contents
Introduction
Isobar on stage
The mind and body
• Technology’s impact on our psyche
• Quantified self
• Extreme bionics
• Computers and immortality
A new reality
• Cybercrime
• Hardware
Transportation
• Uber/Lyft
Digital design
• Evolution of the web
• Digital inclusion
• Animation and experience
Internet of Things
• Designing for the IoT
• Smart clothing
• IoT in retail
Nature
• Commodifying the ocean
• Technology and nature
Best in show
• Breakout app
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Introduction
Welcome to Isobar’s SXSW report
for 2015!
It’s worth asking why we pay so
much attention to SXSW, why we
invest heavily in a large team from
across the agency to spend a week
out of the office at the mercy of
sunshine, sleep deprivation and
beef brisket.
The short answer is Inspiration.
No matter how exciting and
challenging our daily work is, or
how interesting, knowledgable
and provocative our colleagues
may be, the realm of digital is
evolving at a pace we can barely
keep up with, its tendrils creeping
across more and more of our
daily experience. SXSW offers the
chance for our team to harvest
ideas and innovation from many of
the brightest and best leaders from
the industry, and to gather broader
perspectives on consumers and
technology, from big data to the
evolution of the web. Our teams
find that once we have processed
the information overload, we are
renewed in mind and spirit with
fresh ideas and inspiration to bring
to our client work.
And digital is not just creating
me-too services on the web.
The mass scale of mobile and
web technologies has the
power to address some of the
biggest societal, human, and
environmental issues we face
today. At SXSW it’s OK to think
the unthinkable, to dream the
impossible dream. Because
someone here is probably working
to make it a reality.
The ethos of SXSW is particularly
imbued in our Isobar NowLab, and
it’s a particular pleasure to meet
with and exchange ideas with our
other innovation specialists from
around the world. As always we
had a strong presence from Japan,
Poland, the UK, Australia and many
more outposts of the Dentsu Aegis
Network.
Until we return next year, we’ll be
bringing the best of what we’ve
discovered into our client work, and
harness its positivity, innovation
and hacker mentality to solve
real problems and inspire real
audiences.
Always discover. Have ideas
without limits. There are wilder
skies than these.
Tim Dunn, Director of Strategy and Mobile, Isobar US

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Discussing Art vs. Purpose: Innovation in Marketing
Leigh Christie, Lead Innovation Engineer, Isobar US

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Workshop about decoding design feedback and avoiding UX quagmires
Doug Hopkins, Director, Experience Strategy and Design, Isobar US

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“Humans are technological by
nature from agriculture, to cooking,
to financial systems.” - Koert van
Mensvoort

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What is all this stimuli from tech doing to
our heads? What are the implications for
recall and memory and communication?
Dan Machen and Felix Morgan cited
one word as coming up repeatedly
when trying to answer these questions:
neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a
physical change in the brain where your
brain adapts to whatever stimuli you’re
exposed to. So whatever behaviors you
habituate, your brain will adjust to mold
to those behaviors to make them easier
to repeat in the future. Everything done
to us, and everything you do continues
to change the brain into adulthood.
For example, studies have shown that
London taxi drivers have better memories
than the average Londoner. Learning
maps and directions of a complicated
city like London is a months-long
process that was found to significantly
increase the size of the hippocampus
(the memory center of the brain).
Technology’s impact on our psyche
Additionally, the idea of multitasking is
actually a misnomer. What people are
doing every day by switching tabs and
devices is actually “task-switching,” which
has serious implications for long-term
memory. The challenge is that in a high
stimuli environment a lot of information
goes to the straeta – which is the learning
center of the brain – and never makes it
to the hippocampus (the best section for
memory recall). This means that information
that should be getting processed and
stored for easy access is getting lost.
Machen and Morgan argued that what
we’re witnessing with technology is almost
a devolution. We default to Google to
find an answer for something we should
know, essentially turning our devices
into our transactive memory partners – a
position previously held by other humans.
A few questions posed include: Does
technology allow us to multitask more
efficiently or just distract us? Are we more
nimble or just addicted and habituated to
shallow interactions that challenge our
long-term memory? And what does the
shortened attention span and heightened
distraction level mean for brands?
Essentially, the mission for brands
boils down to one thing: keep it simple.
Digital devices have complicated as
much as they’ve simplified, yet people
gravitate towards ease. Brands should
make communication easy again.
“Knowing an email is sitting
unread in your inbox, can
reduce your effective IQ by
10 points.” - Glen Wilson
“info-mania” research
Megan Madaris, PR Manager, Isobar US

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Quantified self
This is about helping people see a reflection
of their own lives in a digital experience
and glean insight and assistance to improve
their own well-being. Despite the fact that
few people at SXSW could claim to be
taking great care of their health during the
indulgent festival, the quantified self was a
hot topic on the agenda.
The quantified self movement is not just
about tracking exercise, sleep or diet. The
innovators in this movement including Chris
Dancy, Healthways and others are already
demonstrating the benefits of drawing a
wide circle around personal data to feed into
the system. However, the wider the circle the
more challenges there are in delivery. Yet
there are several recent developments that
should propel the viability of products and
services in this area.
Challenges
The most obvious challenge of course is
access to personal data. Today, each device,
application or service owns its data and most
do not share with each other or even with
the consumer. Dedicated “quantified selfers”
are solving this problem in myriad ways, but
most solutions are hacks, expensive or both.
Sensors today are also limiting. Wearable
blood pressure and blood sugar sensors
are not yet available, but if so, could
revolutionize treatment of several chronic
conditions. There is still not a good, low
friction, way to track calories consumed. It
is either a manual process, or a paid service
that reviews photographs of your meals and
assigns calories, carbs, etc. For those willing
to pay, it would still not be integrated with
the other data sets.
Then there is the tradeoff of privacy for value.
The quantified-self concept creates value
from a variety of data types representing
various facets of our lives. Consumers are
making that trade more than ever before.
They are likely to do so with exercise data
or even biometrics for common conditions
(blood pressure, for example). But what
about calories, locations, sleep patterns,
spending, etc., as part of an enterprise or
health plan sponsored program? To make
the data for value trade work will require
new or tweaked business models, including
direct to consumer models, with subsidies
from employers or health plans.
Perhaps the toughest question is what is
the right insight or perspective to deliver?
What motivates one consumer under one
set of circumstances can be discouraging
to another, or to the same consumer at a
different time in their life. This may not be
an area that technology can completely
solve in the near future. It may be that the
technology helps create perspective and
then encourages the consumer to seek the
guidance of an expert.
Innovations
Despite the challenges, we see progress
in this area accelerating rapidly. Apple’s
HealthKit now provides a common place for
health and wellness apps to stash data for
use by each other. This should go a long way
toward breaking down the walls between the
tools collecting data. We also see wearables
becoming increasingly sophisticated and
including the types of sensors that could
revolutionize preventative medicine and
treatment of chronich conditions. The
major providers of enterprise health and
wellness programs are starting to integrate
the quantified self concept into their set of
interventions and they have the expertise
and capacity to offer a layer of coaching
and support that builds on the perspective
enabled by the technology. And most of all,
there are active and passionate contributors
to the movement who are hacking their
personal data and advancing the craft.
Colt Whittall, Vice President, Isobar US

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Extreme Bionics
SXSW was full of intensely futuristic
thinking and visionary speakers, pushing
into the extremes of technology, and
not without controversy.
Professor Hugh Herr from the MIT
Media Lab for ‘Extreme Bionics’ weaved
his moving personal story (he’s a double
amputee and wears bionic prosthetics)
into thoughts about the future of this
technology and the opportunity to
completely eliminate disability.
He described bionics as involving an
interplay between design and body,
moving towards a point where organic
tissue can be readily incorporated
alongside non-organic materials: skin,
muscle tissue, polymers, synthetics.
Research is working to ‘map’ the
molecular detail of human tissues
for replication in labs, and also to
model the physics and physiology of
movement: from walking to sprinting.
Herr is an avid climber, and continued
to defy the expectations of doctors
after his amputations. With an array
of specialised limbs he has achieved
climbing feats not within the capability
of ‘normal’ competitors.
Herr’s is a great personal tale of
optimism and determination, but one
which reveals the potential for future
body augmentation as enhancement,
going ‘beyond what nature intended.’
Herr made a disturbing passing
reference to people actively requesting
limb amputation in order to benefit
from enhanced bionics, alluding to
a possible future scenario where a
wealthy elite enjoy increasing physical,
biological advantages.
It’s one thing to use technology to
liberate people from disability, but
flipping this into active enhancement
raises massive ethical questions.
Mark Linford, Strategist, Isobar UK

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Computers and immortality
Martine Rothblatt is an extraordinary woman
of many accomplishments. She is currently
the highest paid female CEO in the U.S.,
created Sirius Satellite Radio, is a highly
qualified lawyer and astronomer who broke
off her career to earn a Ph.D. in medical ethics,
has formed a global leading biotech company
to save the life of her own daughter, and
somehow found the time to become a leading
advocate for transgenderism.
Her core belief is Transhumanism – the
belief in and desire to transform the human
condition by developing and making widely
available technologies to ‘enhance’ the human
condition.
The main tentpoles of this new human future
include:
• Mind Clones – the idea that we can and
should create copies of our personalities
that live on digital formats
• Artificial Intelligence – Rothblatt’s vision
has humans not only becoming immortal,
but also can easily copyable while still
living. Imagine having a copy of yourself
to do all your work while you goof off, or
having a conversation with someone who
is exactly like you in every way.
• Artificial organs – Rothblatt’s
organizations are advanced in developing
pig-based organs to replace human ones,
and sees a future where there would be
enough to replace the hearts of everyone
in America if needed
While this may seem like so much sci-fi,
Rothblatt is closer to achieving these goals
than you might think, and is as capable as
anyone of getting there. Yet Rothblatt’s vision
of the future, according to many of the Isobar
staffers present, is not universally popular.
Why do Rothblatt’s ideas feel so intuitively
wrong?
In my opinion, Rothblatt’s ideas are
dangerous, untested and naïve. The irony
of Rothblatt’s delusions is that they are
founded on fundamental misunderstandings
of humanity. This rose-tinted vision of what
we really are is self-deceiving and utopian
to the point of dishonesty. She was unable in
any real way to answer fundamental areas of
objection to her plans.
Resources – Transhumanism has immortality,
or extending human life unnaturally, as one
of its fundamental tenets. In a world suffering
from catastrophic overpopulation and over-
consumption, how does the world deal with
people living significantly longer, or even
forever? Her answer was that we will colonize
other planets and that the universe is plenty
big enough for more of us was staggering. If
a fundamental element of her belief system
is founded on technologies and organizations
that are nowhere near any attainable horizon,
then that belief system is a house of cards.
The Democratization of Tech – Rothblatt’s
ambition is to release as much of the
new technology as possible to the open
community, with the belief that as a species
of collaborators, we will only deliver human
augmentation that works in the best interests
of all. While the Internet can be a great force
for good, every Google is balanced out by a
Gamergate, every Kickstarter is counterposed
by a Silk Road. You know you’ve been at SXSW
too long when you start believing the notion
that the Maker community is populated by
angels.

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Regulation – When questioned on the governance of the
new technologies, Rothblatt stated, with no hint of irony, that
‘Regulation will have a role to play’. This understatement belies
the more fundamental truth that Regulation Always Fails.
Considers some of the other seismic leaps in technology, and
then think about how they have worked out for the human race
as a whole:
• We learn how to split the atom, and instead of boundless
free energy, we are left with Hiroshima, 40 years of Cold
War, and a host of rogue players holding the world hostage.
Generations have grown up under the shadow of the bomb,
with no end in site.
• We develop the internal combustion engine, promising
horseless locomotion for all. This leaves us with 50% of
the total surface area of cities such as Los Angeles buried
under the tarmac of roads and parking lots, and a global
environmental catastrophe driven in large part by our
addiction to cars.
Martine Rothblatt is cresting the wave of human knowledge
– there is no doubt that if she wasn’t developing these new
capabilities, someone else would. The fact is that there is little
we can imagine that we cannot achieve.
However, when passion and vision is not leavened by reason, it
becomes obsession. When an idea is all-consuming, it becomes
a cult. No matter what Martine Rothblatt’s motivations are,
she is determined to open the Pandora’s box of the human
condition at its most fundamental level.
In any event, immense credit goes to SXSW for presenting us
with an excellent, controversial speaker and such fundamental
issues to address. This is a debate which has only just begun.
Computers and immortality (cont...)

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“Siri, where should I
bury a dead body?”

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Marc Goodman spoke about the future of
cybercrime, which includes ‘biohacking’, where
our own DNA could be weaponised against
us. On a less dystopian note, Genevieve Bell
and Mimi Ito gave a fantastic talk on digital
anthropology, which allows us to get closer
to real people and their behaviours. Looking
at technology use in a human context, rather
than in an artificial research situation, or in the
mechanical sense of “users.”
A few interesting comments about cybercrime
throughout the festival:
• The dark web consists of sites
that Google doesn’t pick up on.
It’s also 90% of the Internet.
• Individuals who hack may not be doing it
for financial gain. They may be trying to
build up credibility within the community.
• PDF’s can be weaponized.
• Supply and demand dictates the
cost of credit card information on
the black market. The U.S. is targeted
because the info is cheaper to buy.
• Credit card info can be sold for $25
per CVV on the black market, while full
info and date of birth cost up to $40.
• Security reporter Byron Acohido
says the state of global cyber
security is “really, really bad.”
• Mitigate risks by hiring a Chief Information
Security Officer, developing security
policies, and monitoring credentials.
• One of the most important ways to
secure your data? Use a private VPN.
“We’re witnessing
a paradigm shift in
crime: as with business,
tech facilitates
cybercrime at scale.”
- Marc Goodman
Cybercrime

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Several companies joined forces with
Misfit to throw the Hardware Happy
Hour event, which was a smash hit.
TrackR showed off their latest release:
Bravo. The device uses crowd GPS
to help detect your lost or stolen
belongings. Keys, wallet, bags, and
pets are popular applications.
OlloClip was a big hit, with many
people testing out the shockingly good
macro and zoom features of the tiny
lens ad-ons designed for iPhone 6.
Narrative, the always-on wearable
camera, received a huge amount of
attention as well, despite privacy fears
related to “sousvalence” cameras.
Narrative fans seem comfortable
with the persistent recording of
everything we look at in our daily
affairs. Anyone watch “Black Mirror”?
Misfit was the bell of the ball with
their fitness and activity trackers.
A humorous vision included one
man desperately tried to trade his
pink Misfit while dub step music
blasted in everyone’s ears.
The frenzied environment at the
Hardware Happy Hour was preceded
by a 300+ person lineup that had
formed outside on 6th Street over
an hour in advance. It was surely one
of the hottest events of the festival.
Additionally, at a separate event
SparkFun founder Nathan Seidle
presented his arguments for
open source electronics and why
patents are bad for innovation.
Meanwhile, a sizable “anti-robot”
protest took place where people
carried signs such as “robots won’t”
care. In truth, the group was
actually protesting unrestricted
artificial inelligence, upon which
future robots will surely rely.
Concurrently, Dr. Cynthia Breazeal,
from the MIT Media Lab presented
“The Personal Side of Robots.”
Hardware developers and hardware startups had
a surprisingly strong showing this year at SXSW.
Hardware
Leigh Christie, Lead Innovation Engineer, Isobar US

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Uber vs. Lyft
In Travel, the sharing economy is still nine
minutes away…
Monday’s keynote was a conversation with
Logan Green, the CEO of ‘ride-sharing’ start-
up and Uber competitor, Lyft.
Likeable and honest, LA-native Green gave
an account of how Lyft was born from his
childhood spent in gridlock on highways in the
back of his parents’ car. Even at a young age,
it struck him as illogical that all the cars were
headed (slowly) in the same direction with
only one person in each.
Green spent years trying to foster change
through membership in local government
transport committees, but realized there
was no way through the inertia of the public
sector to deliver anything of meaning. After
enjoying minor success with ride-sharing
through his first company Zimride, the arrival
of the smartphone finally offered him the
combination of location and immediacy that
ride-sharing needs.
Lyft (which I have used throughout SXSW this
year) is now in 65 U.S. cities, and has pulled
in over $800m in funding. It’s not a small
business, but is still in a fraction of the cities
that Uber services.
Green claims a kind of moral high ground over
Uber. While Lyft is billed as a ride-sharing
service, a true part of the sharing economy,
Uber is a glorified taxi service run through an
app.
In reality there is currently very little
difference between the two, with both players
aping each other’s product offering as well
as, to some degree, their predatory business
practices.
The most positive sign for me that Lyft will
have the benefit on our crippling transport
problems that Green hopes it will, is that Lyft
Line, the multi-passenger ride-sharing feature
that IS actually more than just a taxi service,
is gaining traction, with Line users already
greater than regular Lyft drivers in parts of
California. Green himself habitually becomes
a Lyft Line driver on the way in to work, and
told the audience (to much ironic chortling)
that he often makes “an extra $20 per day!”
It still puzzles me that Lyft and Uber have
been so slow to foster true ride-sharing. Right
now they may be impacting somewhat on the
number of people declining to buy cars, and
the number using regular car services, but
the fact is, there aren’t any fewer cars on the
road, there are just different cars. Until Lyft
and Uber can make actual true ride-sharing
prevalent among people who are travelling
anyway, the sharing economy in transport will
remain just around the corner.

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“Interactions aren’t just between a person
and a device. A whole world of cultural
context is involved.”
- Genevieve Bell

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The web, as we know it, can sometimes
feel like it has barely evolved in a decade
or more. Sure, we have better design
standards, we have more streamlined user
pathways, and everything is a bit faster, but
essentially we’re still following the same
‘load page – read page – click link – repeat’
formula. During this period we have, I feel,
subconsciously found ourselves hampered
by the linear and relational nature of HTML.
Happily, brighter times may be around the
corner. And they certainly are if the likes
of C.J. Gammon are to be believed.
His fundamental argument is that “there’s a big
gap between what’s possible on the web, and
what most people achieve.” By demonstrating
the emergent standards for web development
and design, I think he is trying to show
us ways to break out of the linear design
straightjacket towards a web that is more
intuitive, more rewarding, and more fun.
And, uniquely, he delivered his presentation
through a beautifully crafted site directly
connected to Photoshop and other tools in real
time – genuinely walking the walk – and giving
grateful delegates a break from the PowerPoint
that plagues SXSW. The fact that he managed
to do this live despite SXSW’s laughable
Wi-Fi provision gets him bonus points.
The future of the web was brought to life
with excellent examples of how virtual and
augmented reality can be integrated into
the browser experience. WebGL can now be
used to create detailed fly-around worlds,
perfect for exploring real world locations
virtually. Think resorts, hospitals, cruise ships.
And for agencies, or anyone who works
in production, C.J. demonstrated plug-ins
and libraries he has built for tools such as
Photoshop which deliver updated amends
directly into Canvas. For an industry that needs
to integrate design-and-build much more
closely, there are many lessons to be learned
about how we imagine our clients’ work,
and how we deliver it in a more agile way.
I recommend everyone has a flick through
C.J.’s deck here, and developers have a look
at his GitHub where he has posted all the
tools he made to render these experiences.
Evolving web design

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Digital inclusion
While making digital experiences accessible is something we strive
for as digital designers, there are often factors like time, competing
objectives, and sometimes ourselves impeding our ability to do so.
The Inclusive AppRoom workshop led by Cristen Reat, Co-Founder
at BridgingApps, and Hannah Rosenthal, Teacher and Consultant at
Teaching2Gether, was on a mission to rectify that.
The session highlighted the challenges of having a disability,
something one-fifth of the worldwide population experiences,
through a variety of methods. Blurry glasses to mimic poor vision,
fingers rubber-banded together to mimic limited fine motor skills,
and a strobe light to simulate ADD. They also brought in experts to
share a variety of products helping to create an environment of digital
inclusion.
The goal of inclusion is to remove the barrier to entry for all -- to the
latest trends, independence, knowledge, and the global community.
Our world has made it such that disabilities no longer have to be
dibilitating. In one story they shared, Chris Hills, a young man born
with athetoid cerebral palsy, hand mobility is that barrier to entry.
Through the use of a singular input device called the Tecla shield,
Chris is not only able to be part of the interconnected digital society,
but he can thrive in it. The Tecla Shield affords Chris the opportunity
to interact with his computer, an otherwise unusable device to
someone who is quadriplegic, allowing him to become an expert
video editor.
We’re putting the challenge out there to ourselves and our fellow
designers. Before that first idea has a chance to strike, walk a mile,
a block, a meter in someone else’s shoes. Discover what amazing
solutions you can come up with.
Mary Remington, Experience Design Lead, Isobar US

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Animation and experience
Digital experiences are increasingly using animation to delight
users. I attended two sessions at SXSW that spoke about
Disney’s principles of animation and how to better integrate
these principles with digital experience design.
In the 1930’s, Disney set out to answer the following question:
How do you make animation good? To answer this question
they observed animals in zoos and watched old films to better
understand real world physics and motion.
Their research ultimately led to the publication of a book
titled, “The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation,” which introduced
Disney’s Principles of Animation. Squash & Stretch, Anticipation,
Staging, Straight Ahead Action and Post to Pose, Follow
Through and Overlapping Action, Slow In and Slow Out, Arc,
Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing, and
Appeal.
A few of these principles translate exceptionally well into
digital experience design. For example, staging is akin to
setting up a stage and placing all of the props in the right
place. Staging helps orient user with their environment. Proper
staging clarifies the relationship, such as hierarchy, between
elements.
The key takeaway from these sessions is that digital
experiences need to be architected to support a system of
animations. Thinking holistically, the animation architecture is
ultimately an expression of your brand. Every aspect of your
digital product - the copy, the experience, the functionality, and
the animation - must be aligned. Finally, animation architecture
must serve the dual goals of informing and delighting users.
Amha Mogus, Senior Experience Designer, Isobar US

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Designing for the IoT
“Designing the UI for the Internet of Things” was an
especially strong session at SXSW. It was led by
Tim Lynch, Design Lead for Mobile and Consumer
products at Nuance, Inc., a Boston based developer
of a variety of natural language understanding and
reasoning systems. He focused on the displine of
Dialog design.
Tim did an excellent job outlining the core
consideration areas when planning and conceiving
the various aspects of speech-driven user
interfaces. The eight areas of consideration are:
1. Define and understand user expectations.
Understand the specific tasks, needs and goals
that the user has for the device in question,
such as a voice-command-capable television
set.
2. Identify areas that can best leverage the
strengths of speech-driven UIs. Speech lends
itself well to complex queries that would be
onerous or difficult for a user to compose
using a more tactile form of input, i.e.,
“restaurants my friends like in San Francisco.”
3. Partner speech with other modalities and input
methods. Tim shared that the user research he
has led at Nuance has repeatedly shown that
users are uncomfortable and awkward with
having to repeat the most basic of navigational
command (e.g., next, next, up, left) to navigate
an array of titles. Any type of highly repetitive
and unnatural, non-conversational forms of
inputs should be best left to non-speech forms
of inputs
4. Frame the scope of speech and make it clear
to the user. Using the example of the speech
shortcuts on the Xbox Kinect, Tim stressed the
importance of clearly demonstrating to the
user what areas and domains of the product
are served by speech commands. This helps
the user understand what aspects of the
product are speech-driven, and prevents their
frustration levels from “dead ends.”
5. Support what is natural. Users will tend
to speak in ways and methods that are
comfortable to them, and their natural speech
patterns – especially when talking to inanimate
objects – can vary. The visual Tim used to
make this point was of Captain Picard from
Star Trek the Next Generation, requesting
“Tea. Earl Grey. Hot” from the kitchen on the
Enterprise. Another person may phrase this
by saying, “May I please have a cup of hot
Earl Grey tea? Thank you.” In this context, the
AI that supports the responses to the speech
commands must be suited to recognizing and
translating numerous forms of inputs into the
same product functional responses.
6. Provide conversational feedback. People
prefer to hear language back from any speech-
driven experience that is human sounding and
not alien, like speaking with a robot. While
they may choose to speak to the product in
terse commands, they don’t enjoy hearing
something similar back. A good example
of this would be the response of Siri stating
“Okay” when something is understood rather
than something more machine like such as
“Accepted” or “Recognized.”
7. Treat “errors” as opportunities. Rather than
providing oblique or opaque statements
when an error occurs, it is best if the speech
UI provides some insight as to that nature of
the problem and how to use the UI better the
next time. A good example of this might be
something like “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand
that. Could you speak more clearly or get
closer to the phone?”
8. Consistency in the UI point of view. With
speech-driven UIs and verbal-device
feedback, the tone and appropriateness of
that personality is even more critical than
within interfaces the utilize text and images. If
a product uses a tone and personality that is
either a) inappropriate and not aligned with
the product category or brand positioning or b)
inconsistent in tone, veering between different
aspects of a fractured personality, the user will
not trust the experience and begin to doubts its
effectiveness and quality.
Overall this was a very effective, in-depth
exploration of how to create speech-driven
interfaces for the growing number of smart
connected products that require them. As we begin
to interact and engage with devices in a multitude
of environments – moving beyond just the office
and living room to the car, kitchen, bedroom, etc.
– the prominence and importance of non-screen-
based systems of interaction will only take on
more of a central role. Getting a glimpse of the art
and craft behind dialog design and voice-driven
interfaces was incredibly insightful.
Doug Hopkins, Director, Experience Strategy and Design, Isobar US

27
Smart Clothing
Given the extensive conversation at SxSW
around connected devices and the IoT as
‘smart objects’, it was brilliant to hear a lively
panel discus the impact of technology on
clothing, ‘smart materials’, and just how
diverse the applications are in this field.
Future fabrics will range from from
traditional materials tweaked and enhanced
at the molecular level, through to more
dynamic, responsive, and visibly high-tech
textiles and garments.
Balancing the proliferation of this technology
with the demands of personal style and
fashion can present a challenge; together
with considerations of environmental impact
and scalability for the everyday, some
interesting tensions emerged.
Founder of Wearable Experiments Billie
Whitehouse appeared on the panel wearing
a jacket which gives haptic feedback –
essentially a tap on the shoulder to indicate
directions for navigation. Arguably more
discreet and convenient than staring down
at a smartphone screen, but the challenge
these dynamic garments face is ‘overcoming
the battery pack’; something deeply uncool
for anyone with the slightest sense of style
beyond immediate practicalities. Technology
is moving towards ‘self-generating’ fabrics
though, so as you walk you could also be
charging your smartphone through your
bodily movements.
Another aspect of future fabrics will be eco-
friendly properties in terms of production
and washing, attractive to eco-conscious
customers perhaps, though food industry
by-products – fish skin, eel skin – will require
some deft storytelling to overcome pre-
conceptions. There was a strong sense from
this SxSW panel that smart clothing could
help drive a shift to sustainable clothing and
away from the wasteful consequences of fast
fashion.
Several times discussion returned to the
important but oft-forgotten principle of user-
centric design, especially when faced with
the novelty of tech-augmented garments.
Rebecca Pailes from the Interwoven Design
Group New York explained: “everyone is
a textile expert – you know what feels
comfortable on your own body”, an
observation later reiterated by Billie
Whitehouse: “we need to design for touch,
the body’s largest organ, rather than just
extracting data.”
Panelists also spoke to the tension between
the avant-garde couture of a designer like
Iris van Herpen, utilising 3D-printing and
future fabrics, or the niche ‘edge’ use cases
fuelling the development of new materials in
performance categories: sport, outerwear.
It seems we need balance the spectacle
of innovation and experimentation with
the realities and demands of everyday
clothing. Given the debatable aesthetics of
Apple Watch and Google Glass, a sense of
technology enhancing in a subtle way, rather
than awkward augmentation, felt particularly
relevant to the nuances of fashion and
personal style.
For brands looking to experiment the clue’s
in the word: make sure your wearable
is actually wearable; ‘smart’ doesn’t
automatically equate to style.

28
IoT in Retail
Phil Terbay, Engagement Director, Isobar US
All segments of retail are vying to get products
to market like MisFit’s Shine or Apple’s Watch.
Additionally, if the representation at various panels is
to be believed, every retail brand is actively working
to develop their plays in the IoT space whether that is
around new product, servicing options or selling and
commerce. The question for brands and retailers is an
age old question: how to go to market in a way that
is meaningful to the customer, representative of the
brand and makes a profit.
The problem with IoT for retailers and brands is that
they lack a fundamental understanding of how IoT
adds to their customers lives in relevant ways. When
you add in the need for structure around usability,
product development and customer insights (e.g.
lean startup or agile) in businesses that are focused
on traditional methods of brand building or product
sourcing, selling and servicing, a fundamental
disconnect occurs. For retailers and product designers
or traditional, non-digital goods there are some key
findings that may help point the way.
1. The physical department store format has not
changed in over 100 years. Healey Cypher from eBay
showed side by side pictures of a 1910 department
store and a 2014 department store… and they
looked nearly identical. The model for engaging the
customer and driving them to conversion is still based
around getting the customer to a product, answering
questions in ways that are designed to sell and ringing
up the customer. This model is becoming less and less
successful as customers begin to use show-rooming
and web-rooming in ways that makes the traditional
conversion funnel loo like a roller coaster. Additionally,
loyalty to brands and specific retailers is disappearing
(even prestige brands) as routing customers into
the standard funnel in store or online has become
complicated as customers become more savvy. Any
reader who has been on planet earth for the last 20
years will likely react with a big yawn as the problem
is not new. However, one proposed solution that uses
RFID, touch enabled mirrors, an integrated customer
profile that follows up with customers and a customer
driven interaction model to solve for their specific
needs puts customer service (not selling) back into the
retail equation as a differentiator. Which leads me to
my next point.
2. Serve the customer in the way that works best
for them. Rebecca Minkoff’s SVP for Retail and
Omnichannel Innovation, Emily Culp, puts it like
this, “Know how your customer wants to be served
and act accordingly.” Is your customer a surgical
shopper (the person who goes in and knows exactly
what they want)? If so, provide her with the tools,
recommendations and even a path to addressing
her needs without getting in her way. What about
the experiential shopper on the hunt to discover
something beautiful? Create an environment that
guides this shopper to new ideas or products that
fulfill her wishes, on her terms with just a few clicks,
data points or digital interactions. In either case,
integrated technology is the key to getting to know
the customer, facilitating her shopping experience
and purchasing choices on her terms. The human
interaction comes only when the customer asks for
it. Finally, since we are doing so much work to know
the customer, continue the relationship with a recap
of her visit…and once she buys, add that data to your
understanding of who she is and communicate with
her only when it is relevant and useful.
3. Beacons suck (when used incorrectly). Everyone is
currently using them to annoy customers, not enable
or engage them. David Newman, Director of Target’s
Innovation Lab thinks Beacons may have some use,
but they need to be employed to engage the customer
very specifically… like when you are in the store and
the technology pops up an offer, just for you, on one of
your favorite products that you happened to just walk
by. In this way, he hopes to show Target customers that
Target cares about its customers needs and is looking
out for them.
4. Use wearables to distill the data onslaught into
the most meaningful and relevant outcomes. Intel’s
Sandra Lopez, Dir of Wearables, Biz Dev & Mktg
Strategy for Fashion, said, “I have way to much data in
my life and it distracts me from the people and things
I care about.” Sandra’s view is that wearables should
be treated like a component in an overall digital
ecosystem. In the case of wearables, we actually put
them on our bodies so use them to communicate only
the most personally relevant data, like a text from
your children or a call from your boss. Additionally,
the wearables should also be able to help you with
personal goals like getting more productive sleep or
keeping a personal fitness goal. All of the data can be
aggregated and displayed elsewhere along with the
recommendations for change, should that be your
choice.
5. Synthesizing the findings: Brands and retailers
must be on point with their customers and use IoT to
fulfill on their brand promise whether that be lifestyle,
value, security or identity. If any brand or retailer is
going into this space, define the roadmap and build
to an integrated IoT ecosystem in a similar way that
we have been talking about omni-channel for the
last 8 years. Brands and retailers also have to get a
lot more serious about integrating usability, product
development, engineering and consumer insights
into their operating models. There can be some quick
wins, but anything gimmicky just to get a first mover
advantage will hurt a lot more than ever before. IoT
is a way to get out of the spiral of the web-rooming
to price-shopping spiral. Even the biggest of big box
stores can create a meaningful customer relationship
to reduce some of what Michael Porter calls the threat
of substitution.

30
Commodifying the oceans
If SXSW has its sights set on solving big problems,
then our oceans currently represent a very big,
very blue problem.
The fact is that every part of our ongoing existence
is fully governed by the health of our oceans, from
the rain that falls in Kansas to the sustenance
of billions of people, to many of the medicines
we use. Oceans cover 70% of our planet,
incomprehensible in their scale. For example, if
you stand on a headland and look out to sea, that
vast expanse before you represents only 0.0002%
of the ocean’s area. More people have been to the
moon than have seen the bottom of the Marianas
Trench, and more than 60% of the oceans’ species
remain undiscovered.
Yet even a natural resource of this size is not
immune from the careless exploitation of man.
• Acid rain and pollution have driven down the
overall PH value of the ocean. It is now 30%
more acid than it was 50 years ago. If a similar
change happened in your body you would be
dead, or very close to it.
• 75% of fisheries are fully exploited, over-
exploited or depleted, and forecast that all
global fisheries will soon be exhausted.
The ocean represents a variety of existential
problems for mankind, which makes it ironic that
the funding received for ocean research and
technology is a fraction that of space travel.
Some of that funding is controlled by the bouncy
and energetic Paul Bunje from xPrize, who
spoke about their approach to marine problems,
radiating positivity and a love for the ocean itself.
With an annual amount running to some millions
of dollars, xPrize declare challenges to the tech
and marine biology community, and award
funding to the best responses after a careful
program of lab and field trials. One example
of this was a recent program to modernize
techniques and equipment for scooping up spilled
crude oil. It was observed that after the recent
massive BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, contractors
simply de-mothballed the exact same equipment
they had used to clean up after the Exxon Valdez
disaster decades earlier.
The challenge was met by enthusiasm from some
unexpected quarters. One team who made the
final round was headed by a tattoo artist from
Las Vegas. Another team was from landlocked
southern Illinois.
Of the nine teams who entered the competition,
most were able to double the speed of oil
recapture (including the Las Vegas team). The
Illinois team won with a capture rate of four times
the previous industry standard.
But therein lies the greater point. The reason this
problem was attractive as a solution for xPrize
was simple – it promised money for the oil
industry. The fact is, oil companies historically
pay clean-up contractors by the hour. A quicker
solution becomes a cheaper solution.
Another area of great interest for Bunje is
undersea mining. With most of the world’s
surface area submerged, it stands to reason there
are huge undiscovered resources under the sea.
Yet current efforts to mine them generally cause
vast damage to the sea floor and wildlife. He
is enthusiastic about mining as people can “still
make tons of money, but they can still do it right.”
A dispassionate observer might be forgiven for
thinking that environmental issues may not be
worth solving unless there is a buck to be made.
xPrize has had to adapt to this reality and has
done so ingeniously, harnessing the best and
brightest minds in a series of PR-worthy scoops
that drive awareness of the broader issues as
much as they supply tactical remedies for the
ocean itself. They have a bold plan for more prizes
to be awarded through 2015, so keep an eye on
xPrize.
However, I found both the relatively tiny level
of funding that xPrize Oceans receives, and
the techniques they deploy to raise awareness
of existential issues for humanity somewhat
depressing. I asked Paul Bunje after the session
if he felt the same. With a faraway look he said,
“No, you’ve gotta do something, you’ve just got to
keep trying.” Paul is a major evangelist of techno-
optimism, the idea that technology can be applied
liberally to address the really big issues we face as
a species. My view is that it’s too little, too late.
I think in some areas innovation is as much about
perseverance despite insuperable odds than it is
about sudden inspiration and success.

31
Nature and technology
There’s a sense from this year’s SXSW that
technology is moving steadily closer to nature and
organic forms, which includes our own bodies. Paola
Antonelli of MoMA kicked off this thought with her
Friday keynote showing several examples of design
based on the ‘metabolism of nature.’ She spoke
about silkworms manipulated to spin geometric
structures, speculative designs which imagine more
eco-friendly objects and ways of living.
The range of reference was broad - drawn from
art, architecture, fashion – but with a clear message
aimed at erasing the traditional opposition between
natural forms and the things we manufacture. I also
attended a panel session where academics and
artists discussed ‘biodesign’ and how art acts as an
important feedback loop for the commercial and
industrial development of bio-technology. Heather
Dewey-Hagborg highlights the dangers of genetic
surveillance technology by taking DNA samples
from the street – cigarettes, chewing gum – and
building facial profiles of the people who left behind
these forensic ‘artefacts.’ To me that’s gross and
also terrifying. But again, disciplines thought of as
separate or distant are combined. As Daniel Grushkin
put it, “bioart brings life, art and technology back
together.”
In the UK, I’m less sure how this technology will
start to play out. What is clear is that the growing
affinity between nature and technology, with
its accompanying opportunities and dangers, is
sparking amazing creativity across fields - art, design,
service, research – as we speculate just where it will
take us.

33
Meerkat was the buzziest app of SXSW
by a wide margin despite being cut off
from Twitter’s social graph at the start of
the festival. This means that when new
users come on board, they will no longer
be automatically connected to the other
people they are already following on Twitter,
hampering the new app’s growth potential.
While still nascent within the larger social
networking landscape, Meerkat’s popularity
among the media elite means it’s only one
|LIVE NOW| Kardashian stream away from
bubbling up to mainstream consciousness.
Breakout app
Megan Madaris, PR Manager, Isobar US

34
Amha Mogus
Experience Designer
Isobar US
Mark Linford
Strategist
Isobar UK
Colt Whittall
Vice President
Isobar US
Doug Hopkins
Director, Experience Strategy and Design
Isobar US
Mary Remington
Experience Design Lead
Isobar US
Megan Madaris
PR Manager
Isobar US
Phil Terbay
Engagement Director
Isobar US
Tim Dunn
Director of Strategy and Mobile
Isobar US

About Isobar
Founded in 2003, Isobar has since become the world’s most global
digital agency powered by 4,000 people across 43 markets.
Isobar is a global full service digital agency and is passionate
about creatively tackling client’s complex and critical challenges
in the brand commerce era. We are driven by the purpose of
delivering “Ideas without Limits” -- ideas that are enabled through
technology, powered by people, and deliver business results.
Supported by 13 NowLabs and a deep relationship with MIT Media
Lab, we fuse insights and creativity with technology, to come up with
innovative ideas. In Q4 2014, Isobar was identified as one of the 10
most significant innovation agencies in the Forrester Research, Inc.,
report, The Forrester Wave™: Innovation Agencies. Isobar was also
featured as an industry leader in Gartner’s 2014 “Magic Quadrant for
Global Digital Marketing Agencies,” and led the field in Completeness
of Vision. In January 2015, Isobar was recognized by RECMA at
the top of consultancy agency ranking, in the digital sector.
(800) 700-0098 | info@US-isobar.com | @isobarUS | isobar.com

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