The view from the user side

Using stories to inspire imagination, and visual clues and probes to get people talking, we've finished the user studies. A range of deep interviews with hedonists and responsibles; young and older; cynnicals and new agers. Now we're pulling out some of the insights they reveal and getting on with designing and building.

Did you know that people really, really hate to be bombarded with unsolicited material? That's pushy advertising to the rest of us. So we have to go careful in those advertising routes to make these things make money - there are ways they do work - that's what our users told us. But there are hundreds of ways that they don't.

It's complex picture of things people are attracted to, and things they just don't want anywhere near them. Using materials to open up the conversation, and getting people to imagine themselves in this pervasive world is where we get our inspiration.

There are clues in what people already like to do, and some of the best technology apps are where these are the things you work with. More very soon…