Staging our lives

Having a discussion with John over a couple of beers, we realised that there's little pleasure in designing our own lives. Making a perfect playlist to listen to during the day is too much work, it feels weird and almost phoney. I don' think we're able to fool our selves. In his book The Paradox of Choice Barry Schwartz explains how our subjective experiences becomes less satisfying when we're in control. We're able to enjoy something more if we know we're not responsible. This fits very well with a hunch I've had for quite some time, that customisation is played-up. Yes, we want things in our lives to feel personal, but there's some kind of border where we personal becomes personal responsibility. And that's where the joy starts to fade. And as many of us have experienced with portable music, I think this staging of our lives is just as destructive with tv as it is with music. That's why the iPod shuffle works. And I personally think that's why Apple have fans. Their products, though they all are the same, feel personal because they have been developed with such care. We, product designers must care so that the users don't have to. And the users feel better because we deside things on their behalfs. The real challenge is in finding the balance between too rigid and too free...

What seems to be the problem? v1.0

I'll try to keep an ongoing dialog with myself, to see what I think I'm doing. Ok, here we go:
I will rethink TV. I want to put together concepts for ordinary people, to show good ways for us to use the big screen in our living rooms. My concepts will be centered around the big screen. I think we'll come to use this screen as a stage. When we share media experiences in our living room, whether it is movies, news, music or pictures, I think it's natural that we use this central stage. We would like to use our best screen to share. Of course we can use our laptop or our phone, but in the living room, the biggest screen wins. So how can we do that?

And I think that we will continue to watch TV. I think watching good video content, entertainment or news, is rewarding and relaxing. It adds value to our lives, and it is big a part of our culture. But with the changes that are taking place now, with content being available online, the way we use TV's to relax just won't work. We can't zap because there's an infinite number of things to watch. Maybe even we can't just see what's on because of time shifting. I want to give people the feeling of being in charge, not overloaded.

And the solution will have to be open. It can't be a finished product. It can't ignore the fluent and rapidly changing nature of the web. A lot of brilliant and good people come up with wonderful things every day. My concepts will have to allow for them to improve this later on. But I believe that a good base, a mental model, a basic environment that feel safe is very benefitiary. Good concepts for new TV should be constrained and defined yet provide the benefits from being connected to the web; like a safe home in a big city.

What do our tvs say about us?

Most of us have a tv, but some choose not to. My impression is that there is still something literary and scholarly in not owning one. More common than making a statement by not having a tv, is making statements with what we watch. I have the feeling that it is quite recognised to be passionate about movies, almost at the same level as really being into theater. We also appreciate people who know and understand current world affairs and it is even more politically correct to say "Yes, I have a tv, but I mostly watch the news" than "No, I don't have a tv".

So there are tv choosers amongst us, either by limiting (like "news only") or by selective absorbing (movie buffs). Will they be better off with unlimited choice of content? And if nothing is "on" and everything is available, will the zapping rest of us learn how to choose? And will the acknowledgment of today's choosers fade?

A wired magazine...

To kickstart my diploma I decided to build a mock up of the paper remote. I disassembled a computer keyboard (kindly given to me by the IT department) and wired it to two touchpoints inside a movie magasine. Then I taped two stickers marking where to press inside the magasine and made a quick Flash interface.
So, when I press the sticker on the page with a review of King kong or Narnia, my "tv" loads the trailer and kindly asks me if I want to purchase the movie. Have a look at some images of the mockup.

The paper remote

Discussing my diploma with Timo before christmas, we stumbled upon an idea for choosing tv content using magasines and books with RFID-buttons. The buttons are only active when pressed and are read from your tv, therefore they would be cheap and thin. In this way a tv magasine becomes a remote control, an edited remote control with reviews in it. Not infite virtual options, but definite physical options.

You could for instance buy "the Hitchcock Collection" as a book, make notes in it, lend it to friends and keep it in your shelves.

When increasingly amounts of video content is made available on the web, these paper remotes serves the same function as DVDs do today. You can also cut pages from magasines and keep for later. Or just save it in your tv for later. 

Ambience or attention

Many people I know, my self included, sometimes turn on the tv or radio just to fill the home with sound. I get the feeling that it doesn't matter what's on - it's more about ambience than attention, more about the feed itself than the content. It's an interesting difference between putting on a cd and listening to the radio, and between putting on a dvd and turning on the tv.

If there where no tv-channels, would we feel more cut off from the world?

This is my diploma. Let's play.