slava kozlov - selected project porfolio

Slava Kozlov - Selected Projects

Informing and inspiring design A selection of projects

(*) Due to the confidential nature of some of the projects I often can not provide the real data; in such cases I instead present the ‘faithful reconstructions’ of those.

I selected a few design research projects to demonstrate how I informed and inspired design and business teams with the insights into people’s activities, attitudes and beliefs.

I also present the tools and methods I used (and often developed) for these purposes.

The stories are presented in a ‘before & after’ format, starting with an initial brief or a context and then showing what - and how - was done (*).


How smooth is your skin?Understanding sensorial self-perception

To enhance the experience of their products, business wanted to understand how people perceive ‘skin smoothness’.

It was believed by the business that ‘smoothness’ is equal to the length of stubbles, the thing they could, and always did measure experimentally.

I asked people to record and describe their daily activities and routines related to skin care (not only about shaving, a specific area of business interest).

I then asked them to bring to the interviews the pictures and objects that would help to explain their feelings about ‘smooth skin’.

Some of these images and objects were quite obvious (baby skin, smooth surfaces etc), but many (like a piece of wood, or plastic dolls that were seen as ‘fake’) helped me to challenge the initial assumptions shared by business, and discover many new factors that impact people’s perception skin qualities.

In addition to the rich set of data that inspired design teams I also developed a new, multi-dimensional model of how people perceive skin qualities. The model also demonstrated individual differences of skin perception.

“I liked the project, it was a good bridge between academic study that researchers would understand, and a design exploration that design could use.”

Research partner from the Personal Care Institute


How people use computers to collaborate in the office?

Corporate IT wanted to introduce a new software tool for collaboration and asked to check the user’s attitudes to its certain features…

but they also admitted that they know next to nothing on how people

actually use IT tools in the offices.

I designed and supervised a conduct of a global study (EU, US, Asia) where we made observations of peoples’ activities in the offices related to ‘collaboration’, in a broader sense than mere IT use.

We also asked people to keep diaries and take pictures & print-screens of the different business tasks they do (in their offices or elsewhere).

Based on these rich data we developed a set of personas, each representing a certain type of an office worker, and presenting in a more human way what and how people use IT tools in their daily lives.

The personas had been widely used, both for development of applications and for internal communication.

“I don’t want to see the faceless diagrams anymore! I want to see these ‘days in life’, with human faces!”

- Director of Corporate IT Infrastructure


Distributed computing -and ‘intimate media’ ?

Distributed computing is a fairly complex technological concept, typically a realm of engineers.

What value can it bring to a delicate and intimate business of reminiscing and recollecting?

MIME was a joint EU-funded project (with Xerox Labs and Nottingham U.) where as a part of a team I studied how and why people collect and display ‘intimate media’, i.e., valuable personal objects, where they store them and whom they tell their stories about these personal objects.

Based on these data, we than searched the ways to enhance this very human activity with the new digital technologies - not to replace it by so called ‘memory management tools’, but to bring new dimensions to the existing rituals.

Initial concepts and story-boards were validated with people, and a revised version of the GlowTag concept was later developed into a (nearly) working prototype.

“MIME was a very interesting project because of its content, but it has also shown that research and design should

work together during an entire process.” Design Director

See more: www.mimeproject.com


From co-research to co-designMultiple Encounters Approach

Projects like MIME demonstrated that the existing model of a design process, with separated stages of Research, Ideation, and Execution should be replaced by a more integrated, interwoven design flow, where people research is present in multiple forms along the process, and I actively participated in developing and disseminating this new approach in the company.

Research Ideation Execution


How to study ‘experiences’ ?People research for experience design

During the design process the teams increasingly develop early prototypes that can serve as the ‘experience demonstrators’.

But how to make sure that they convey the expected experience, and perceived as such by people?

As a rule, such early prototypes are fragile, and often can be shown in the lab environments only. The idea was to re-enact the real experience cycle that people undergo when the encounter and interact with new products or services.

Before the test we ‘acted-out’ the way people usually learn about new gadgets (e.g., learning from the media, or from word of mouth); then they ‘personalized the testing space, in such a way that would resemble their own home spaces.

The concept was therefore presented and discussed in a much broader context than the mere use. Designers were also able to learn from these discussion in a real time.

Finally, we asked people to place a ‘memory token’ of the concept in their real home settings, and talked about their attitudes later, via phone.

Memory token in real home

“Design team found a pragmatic way to re-play an experience loop - from discovery to sensorial encounter, and to memory, and evaluate the experience targets.”

Lead Design Director

See also the paperPeople Research for Experience Design


Virtual ‘home visits’ In-depth insights delivered in a real time

The challenge of the study was to collect rich examples and stories of how people arrange light in their homes.

The usual way of home visits would be too lengthy - and too costly, too, because of the global nature of the project.

We decided to complement the usual home visits and observations with an on-line tool that would let people to capture their own ideas and experiences and share them with us.

The online platform allowed people to take pictures of their homes and submit them online, write their stories, interact with researchers and designers - and with each other.

“I had an impression of a real conversation with people, who were all over the world at this moment - in New York, Shanghai or Amsterdam.”

Client from the Lighting Business

In a short period of time we were able to compile a large volume of data, about current use of light -both pleasant and frustrating moments, and future desires and aspirations .

The tools also enabled an ongoing dialogue between designers and people.


Understanding ‘digital experiences’ by building on-line communities

Philips Design was eager to explore the potential of the emerging 3D virtual worlds (such as Second Life). However, the first prevailing ideas had been that these worlds are either places of perverse activities…

…or that there is ‘nothing special’ about them, and one can do ‘business as usual’ there.

Instead of jumping into this virtual world and building yet another huge corporate castle, we entered with a humble and curious attitude.

We, a small team from Design, immersed ourselves into this world, trying to understand its dwellers and their ‘way of living’. We organized a community with regular gatherings of its member, where we shared our practices and projects, and learned from people.

After we gained an initial trust, we invited people to participate in an in-depth study of Second Life and its culture; not another quick survey, but a joint journey of exploration and discoveries.

We understood the daily practices and rituals, the language people use in this world, their interests and motivations, attitudes towards design and business.

Not only we learned multiple lessons, we also shaped a foundation for the next steps, of co-design and co-creation.

“They've engaged a group of volunteers in active discussion, they've listened to us, and they've rewarded us for our time

with their attention. My only criticism is that I want more of that!”

Participant of the Second Life study

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See also the paperTo Play or not to Play: Can companies learn to be n00bs, LFG and lvl-up?


Serious game to bring ‘Spark’ into innovation process

Innovation is the motto in many companies these days, and Philips was not an exception.

Tremendous efforts have been made to generate ‘user insights’, yet the process of translating these insights into innovations is often referred as too strict and often plain boring.

Together with a few colleagues we developed a simple but interesting board game called Spark, to make innovation workshops more playful and fun to run - but ultimately to generate more innovative ideas.

The game consists of content cards, describing various ‘contexts’ and situations from people’s lives (this part is based on ongoing people research program); a set of mini-personas, small figurines representing various people and their stories; and a board that allows to construct a journey of a particular persona through both very usual nut also quite unexpected situations in life.

The gameplay helps the participants to better understand how people would behave in different situations, and stimulates them to think about new ideas, generate future scenarios and appropriate solutions.

“I like Spark because it forces people to think in different directions, and come up with the ideas they otherwise wouldn’t even imagine!”

Director of marketing, commissioner of the study


Towards open designTransforming design - and designers

Open innovation is a buzz-word these days, yet a few people (designers including) understand what are the changes to be made to transform the design process into more open and inclusive - including the changes

of the designers themselves!

The task was to explore current ideas and assumptions of the design community about ‘open innovation’ and ‘open design’ (co-design), and to develop a tool or a method helping them to transform toward these new mindset and new practices.

Based on the interviews with designers and observations of the real design process, we developed an exercise (a workshop) whereby we could update them on the latest tools and methods of ‘open design’ but also let them experience some of the qualities of open design in a playful way.

Because we knew the initial assumptions and concerns about open design before the event, we can clearly see how it changed the attitude of the designers, and added new dimensionsto their thinking about ‘open design’.

“I was pretty skeptical about co-design before this exercise; I thought this approach can only worsen design quality. I guess,

I now have more dimensions with which to think about this concept.”Designers,

participant the workshop

Note: See also the paperTrans&: Playing Futures

slava kozlov - selected project porfolio

Documents

people research

experience people

design process

experience design

design exploration

smooth skin

new products

skin care