Days like yesterday remind me how much I do miss living in San Francisco. I had a day all to myself, with no plans, so I headed to SF, and biked around. I’ve drawn out the bike route on Community Walk, and am embedding it here:

CommunityWalk Map – October 14, 2006 Bike Ride

It was a very good day. Highlights include:

glazed raised at Bob’s Donuts — still the best in the city

banh mi at Baguette Express — I liked the ham and head cheese, but the pate made my mouth taste like ass

Hayes Green — the new park on Octavia Blvd and Hayes Street is a true community treasure; Jeff, Julie, Lane, Courtney, and Niall provided the camaraderie

Propeller — a furniture store I’d never been in, and immediately wanted to plonk down $$thous$and$ of dollar$

Frjtz — back patio with a good book, a cone of fries, and a belgian ale (Affligem); this is about as good as it gets

Cafe La Onda — I hadn’t known it was no longer Macondo; also it was closing forever the very next day; spent 2 hours shooting the shit with Mike, Liz, and Maya, all great company

Dosa — Mysore Dosa! And good chatting with Judith

The Homestead — I must admit, I’m sad that this place is no longer Dylan’s (which was my local when I lived in the neighborhood); still this place is very pleasant, and has Fullers on draft

Such a simple day. I had no plans to meet anyone before I came in. Those I did hang out with were coordinated either on a lark via SMS, or, almost literally, running into them on the sidewalk (hi Mike!). Such happenstance is very much a part of SF magic. I could do it every weekend.

Jakob proudly points to an article in The New York Times on Google’s acquisition of YouTube, where he is quoted, “What does a video storage service have to do with search?” Suggesting he doesn’t appreciate the reasoning behind the takeover.

This sentence reveals two drastic oversimplifications. Taking the second, first, Google is as much an advertising company as it is a search company. In fact, without advertising, there would be no search. Google’s true genius is not in the search engine, but in figuring out how to extract massive value from that search engine, with a brilliant approach to advertising that plays directly to the web’s strengths (Think “long tail,” think algorithmic, think decentralized, think results-driven, etc.)

YouTube is not “video storage service,” but a video *sharing* service, much like Flickr is about sharing photos, not just storing them. With sharing you get human interaction, and with such interactions, you get emergent behavior. And with emergent behavior, you get all manner of unpredictability, such as a site becoming the 10th most visited on the entire web in the less than 12 months.

And so, if we ask, “What does a video sharing service have to do with web-native advertising?” we begin to get a sense of why Google was quite smart to pay $1.65 billion.

Last night’s BayCHI panel on the role of design and designers in systems with emergent behavior proved lively, fun, and informative. Tim, Larry, and Joy were great contributors. We touched on a lot in the 90 minutes we had, but even so, I realized we could have spoken for an entire day and not exhausted the subject.

We’re designing tools and rules
Tim used the phrase “tools and rules” to describe what it is that we’re designing when we’re working on systems with emergent behavior. This can be a challenge for designers, particularly those who are trained in the design of form, of artifacts.
As part of this, what we’re designing are containers, vessels for our users to fill with their stuff–the “content,” their commentary, their metadata. We then design other containers for the system to fill with stuff it’s figured out through algorithms — whether products that people have bought, or photos that might be interesting.

There are no good user research methods of emergent behavior
The standard tools that a user researcher has tend to focus on an individual’s interaction with the system. Or, if we do engage with groups, we’re limited to the scope of groups we can interact with. So, how can user research inform the design of systems with emergent behavior? We need new methods and approaches that allow us to work with a crowd.

What do we deliver in a world of ever-evolving designs?
An attendee commented on how many contemporary systems seem to live in perpetual beta, that they continually release new features, functionality, and interface designs, and, well, what do we do about that? I think this is a non-issue for in-house designers — folks that are there everyday and can evolve their solutions bit-by-bit.

But it’s a HUGE challenge for design consultancies (like, say, Adaptive Path). We deliver a system at what is essentially a moment in time in the life of an organization, and, if this is a system predicated on emergent behavior, from that moment of delivery that system is moving away from our delivery. What is the value of a design consultancy in this situation? I think this is one of the reasons that Adaptive Path has pulled pretty strongly in an “experience strategy” direction. While the details of execution are likely to change with some rapidity, the overarching vision that guides the system has greater permanence, and if we deliver at that level, we can deliver longer-lasting value. We can help provide a strategy from which this system can evolve.

Embrace the chaos
Joy, who had the most experience designing interactive systems (in fact, she might have more experience than the rest of the panel combined), has, particularly in her work with Yahoo, come to terms with the realization that you cannot predict response, that there are limits to the utility of user research, and really, what’s often best is just to throw stuff out there and see what people make of it.

I might be a little less cavalier. I’m surprised that most companies don’t take the Amazon.com approach of testing designs with small percentages of the users and gauging behavior before unleashing it on the world at large. Separately, but as importantly, I’m shocked that more companies haven’t followed in Amazon’s stead when it comes to truly capitalizing on emergent behavior, on having that inform algorithms that drive a user’s experience.

Timing is a lot of the thing
Maybe not everything, but boy is timing important. I introduced myself by saying that I worked on a project that involved user-generated content, involved user-submitted ratings, allowed for social networks through trusted friends, provided content based on algorithms informed by your behavior, and even allowed you to place site content on your own blog (kind of like how Youtube allows you to embed video on your blog). And that site was Epinions, which I worked on 7 years ago. And while still around, it hasn’t had anywhere near the success of some of the more recent systems. And I wondered, was Epinions too soon? Was the market just not ready for it?

I think it’s obvious that Youtube is in large part successful because of timing: broadband deployment at such a level that video on the Web is feasible, not a burden; “community” features like comments, tagging, favoriting, etc. are increasingly familiar to web users; the rise of MySpace and people outfitting their homepage with various sorts of multimedia bling.

So what is the role of the designer?
In systems with emergent behavior, I see designers primarily serving the role of facilitator and enabler. Designers can provide immense value by capturing an experience strategy, a statement of the design purpose of the system, for what reason(s) it exists for those who use it. And then doing everything they can to provide an experience that lets the people using the system to do everything THEY can to have an experience meaningful to them.

Technorati Tags: baychi, design, emergence

Suffice to say, I’m excited and anxious about the impending IDEA Conference! We’ve got a stellar line-up, people attending from all over the world (including a group from Thailand!), and a bunch of details to attend to before the big show. The website now has abstracts for pretty much every presentation, and I’m confident in saying that this will be quite unlike other design conferences. Practicing designers from a range of backgrounds discussing their various approaches at helping manage a world of information overload.

I hope to see you there!

Tomorrow evening, I’m joining Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, and Larry Cornett, design manager at Yahoo, for a panel at BayCHI on the role of design, and designers, in developing systems with emergent behaviors.

I have no idea quite what to expect, apart from it being lively and fun!

Last night I took part in a large conversation on the meaning and importance of place and space, and tools that we use to define our relationship to space. There’s been a lot of activity and interest in place — from obvious things like people’s love of Google Maps, to the passion around geotagging photos on Flickr (over 5,000,000 tagged and counting!), to geekier-but-growing tools like Plazes.

(Separately, when I think of the word “place,” I think of the Santa Monica Place, the indoor shopping mall in Santa Monica, where I grew up. But I digress.)

I’ve been thinking about my use of these tools, and why I’ve found them meaningful to me. The primary reason I’ve geotagged a bunch of photos, and that I’m pretty dogged about maintaining my “plaze,” is that I love the idea that they are creating passive trails of where I’ve been. There’s a journaling aspect to it, a way to trace my history without me having to be super-vigilant about it myself.

Now, what’s important about this is recognizing that “place” isn’t all that meaningful in isolation. I’m really interested in the intersection of “place” and “time.” I would pay money for someone to use the Flickr API to create an interactive map that either provided a slider so I could see what photos were taken in what date range, or, even better, something that overlaid an infographic over a map of the world, with arrows or some such, that showed how I moved across the globe taking pictures. Something kind of like the Indiana Jones map.

The other thing that interests me about place is the obvious, “What’s around me?” This is particularly useful when I’m traveling to new cities (often for work), and I haven’t a clue where to get a decent meal, or find free wifi, etc. Obviously, I can get some of this by going to a regional search engine (Citysearch, Yelp, Google Local, etc.), but there’s something just sweet about popping open the laptop and having access to my surroundings.

Anyway, place. What I’m thinking about.

Thanks to the extremely generous efforts of the organizers of the Shift conference (Bruno! Pedro! Hugo!), I have just spent the last six days in Lisbon, Portugal. It was my first time on that side of the Iberian Peninsula. I’m going to save my thoughts about the conference itself for the Adaptive Path blog. Here, I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences on the travel I was able to do.

As a traveler, there were two regions that I loved. One is Belem, a riverfront neighborhood on the western side of Lisbon, home to many cultural institutions (the Cultural Center of Belem, museum of archaeology, ethnology, and coaches (yes, coaches, as in vehicles), beautiful gardens, awe-inspiring monuments, gorgeous views, and the best pastries in all of Lisbon. I spent an afternoon and an evening here, and could have happily spent longer. My Belem Photos on Flickr

The other area of note is Sintra. Tucked in the hills west and slightly north of Lisbon, Sintra was once the weekend getaway spot for royalty and nobility. Now a UNESCO World Heritiage Site, it has a storybook charm that impresses. My Sintra Photos on Flickr.

Visitors to Sintra are obliged to visit the candy-colored Palacio da Pena, an awesome structure atop the tallest hill. The Palacio has exquisite architectural detailing throughout, but more impressive than that was the literally breathtaking views all the way out to the ocean. Photographs do not do justice to the experience. Not that I didn’t try…

Another favorite of mine, which gets short shrift from the guidebooks, was the Quinta da Reguleira, a twisted neo-gothic garden playground. It has the organic-ness of Gaudi’s work, and continually captivates as you roam the grounds. It’s a little off the typical beaten path, but well worth the visit. It’s probably even better with a friend (I went solo), and make sure to bring a light source–there are labyrinths so dark you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face.

The biggest disappointment of the travel was the main city of Lisbon itself. You definitely get the sense that decades, if not centuries, of economic has-been-ness has beaten down this place. The center of town appeals only to tourists. In the neighborhoods near the center live an increasingly aging population. The liveliest urban spaces are massive indoor shopping centers — for good reason, too, as they’re the only place you can buy things truly relevant to a modern existence. Lisbon is awash with graffiti, the sidewalks are in a state of constant disrepair, people drive like maniacs, and, well, apart from the novelty of the narrow hilly streets and some antiquated residential architecture, it’s just not that *interesting*. (Oh, and the same goes for the seaside town of Cascais — it’s perfectly pleasant, but I didn’t feel it was really worth the excursion.)

From a food perspective, if you visit Lisbon, be prepared to eat a lot of pastries. Pastelaria’s dot the entire city, selling tarts, rolls, breads, croissants, custards, and the like. And it’s hard to find anything to eat before noon that isn’t baked. Definitely make time to visit the Pasteis de Belem for the best pasteis in city.

And when in Sintra, go to Piriquita, for delightful traversseiros and queijadas.

Lunch and dinner meals were fine, but nothing special. I had no amazing meals during my stay, though I did have one excellent course — a codfish salad at the CCB. While in town, I ate everything from cod to octopus to beef to goat, and while none of it was terrible, nothing stood out.

In short, I would happily return to the area, but I’d make a point of avoiding the main city, focusing on Belem, Sintra, and some of the other cities that head north along the coast.

I know peterme.com has been pretty quiet. Any number of reasons, including the fact that I’m in Lisbon for a conference. You can download the slides to the talk I gave, Stop Designing Products. (1.2 MB PDF)

That little map over on the right hand side of the blog should place (or, rather, “plaze”) me in Lisbon, Portugal, late tomorrow (well, I’ll be arriving the morning of the 26th Lisbon time). I’m speaking at the Shift conference, and thrilled by the opportunity to visit Lisbon for my first time, and get a better sense of the European perspective on matters of design and technology.

Over on the IDEA blog, I’ve begun a conversation with Jake Barton, the principal of Local Projects, a leading-edge environment and museum design firm, known for incorporating user-generated content into public spaces. Some comments from our discussion so far:

“…Because they occur in public spaces, our projects differ from similar web-based projects, creating a very rich and complicated interaction sequence that leverages the density of urban experience on top of storytelling…”

“…“More is different” is the phrase used by Steven Johnson in Emergence for how scale changes everything, and it fits here too: What happens to an interface when ten people can work on it simultaneously? How can you create a film experience that immerses you from every interior surface of a building?…”

“…Museums don’t tend to lend themselves to persistence, like a community-based site or bulletin board relies on, because people generally visit a site once a year. There is a constant flow of strangers, much more a group of passersby, then a community of people beholden to each other and their reputations. I haven’t seen good examples of digital interfaces for commuters, but they would be an interesting hybrid of these two models…”