Design Council UK asked me to give a digital provocation to their sounding board about the importance of digital in design

1. Being connected
Design Council Sounding Board
19 May 2014
William Perrin – a personal view
@willperrin

2. http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/stronger-digital-leadership-required-arts-reap-full-value-digital-revolution-evolution/

3. All expenditure on computer games £2.2 billion
Paid content downloaded to games consoles - £1.17 billion up 17%
West End Theatre receipts - £529 million
UK Box office receipts 2012 - £1.1 billion
DVDS £1.4 billion
Digital Album sales £233 million, all album sales £772m
Total video sales £2.06 billion
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/01/uk-entertainment-spending-film-music-streaming
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/bfi-stats-yearbook-shows-uk-film-excelled-2012
Vast consumer appetite for purely digital
products and services with no tangible form
Indicates huge utility derived by people from
digital attributes
Digital products still infra dig. For UK
mainstream media commentators. Despite
the numbers

4. Objects with terrible physical design but sublime digital design
Objects with sublime physical design but terrible digital design
Objects that seemed previously to be innately, definitively physical
where digital connectivity now adding massive utility for the
customer

5. Sony PRS 500 – early ebook reader
2006, launched in UK 2008
Nice physical design, leather case etc
But no digital design to back it up
Software buggy
And, most importantly few books
worth having

6. Original Kindle
2007
Ugly
Bezos kept telling designers to make it like his
Blackberry
But sublime digital utility and design overcame
hideous physical product design

7. Beo6 remote control
‘Your Beo6 remote control is like your house key. Your
key is cut just for your front door, and suits its purpose
exactly. It works as an extension of your hand; not
something you have to think about.
‘Your unique Beo6 unlocks exactly your mix of audio and
video equipment, whether it is a single BeoVision 7 or a
full link system. The same Beo6 can be as simple as you
want and as flexible as you need.
£600

8. Support ecosystem for Beo6
A man and a van has to come to your house just to add a DVD player
Hierarchical, B&O in charge, assumes customer is stupid/incapable.
Design arrogance out of kilter with modern digital times

9. User in charge
Self service
Connected – database totally up to the minute
Support forum – assumes users will want to help each other
Loyal following
But product itself being superceded by phone apps
https://setup.myharmony.com/

10. View from house in rural
Oxfordshire
Remote
Quiet
Stunning scenery
Lovely garden for the kids, safe
place for children to play
Remote location – no DSL so
satellite broadband which is slow

11. “Your kids will just come to know
this as the house with the
shit internet”
…as they grow up

12. http://daddystractor.com/
Modern contractor’s
tractor will have several
screens
Tractors one of many
objects being
transformed by
connections to networks
and control devices
Big data now becoming
an issue for arable and
dairy farmers

13. Huge and valuable new class of services that are innately digital with little
or no physical manifestion
Increasingly utility of objects arises from their ability to connect to
networks
Bad physical design can be outweighed by brilliant digital design
Objects previously unconnected to networks are starting to get connected
But often do so in a clunky way with poor design
Can give rise to whole new range of issues
Digital capability will be key differentiator of future products and services

14. Do you think your company, your organisation, your sector has the right digital leadership?
How are digital issues affecting your business, products, services, customers
Do your boards have the digital people?
Do your executive teams have digital makers and doers
Where would you go for help if your clients suddenly wanted a strong digital component to their
products or services?
How do you recruit digital talent?
How can design be put at the core of digital products and services?
What can the Design Council do to help?