No Photos Please

Jan Chipchase talks at the Economist’s Human Potential 2010 conference in New York about Afghanistan, “extreme research locations,” and a shift in how design researchers do work. 

frog Executive Creative Director Jan Chipchase gave a keynote presentation at the Economist’s Human Potential 2010 conference in New York on September 16, 2010. The talk was born out of his recent trip to Afghanistan where he did a field study on how people use cell phones to do their banking — known in the industry as “mobile money.” While he is still processing the findings of his research, he revealed new insights on the practice of design research — specifically on doing research in unusual and “extreme research locations” such as the Middle East. “Five years ago when we were conducting street research, one of our team would document the research with a camera; it was a one way process,” he said. “Three years ago …[people] would bring out their camera phones and start documenting us…. In three year’s time you’ll be able to point camera phone at someone’s face and know within a reasonable time-frame and level of certainty who they are, their history and their history of interactions.”

Below, is a version of his speech. You can find slides of Jan's full presentation here. The Human Potential 2010 conference is part of the Economist's "Ideas Economy" series of events. Tag line: "The Economist believes that human progress relies on the advancement of good ideas."

No Photos
By Jan Chipchase

Today I’d like to share something that is fundamentally changing the way I work, and that will fundamentally change the way each of you think about and interact  with the world around you.

Many of you are no-doubt familiar with the quote from William Gibson — “The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.” In my role at frog design I spend a lot of time with the people and places that for one reason or another are likely to be provide a clearer glimpse of the future.  Most people associate this kind of research with global hotspots like London and New York, Shanghai or Tokyo, but increasingly it involves travelling to places that are off the beaten track.

So a month ago today I headed out to Afghanistan to explore mobile banking — which is when people do financial transactions through their mobile phones. This is a society where less than three percent of the population have bank accounts, and where there is very limited trust in the formal banking sector. There are also high levels of bribery. In this environment mobile phone banking has the potential to be a highly disruptive technology.

One of the things I love about more extreme research locations is how they force us to deal with issues that are prevalent everywhere, but just not quite so obvious. You can apply this dynamic to the data but also to how we collect the data, and how we deal with that data within our organization.

As you might imagine of my time in Afghanistan, gaining access to the different demographics was difficult enough, but it was also Ramadan and the temperature was in the low 100s. Plus, the extreme gender split makes the usual modes of this kind of contextual research very difficult.

This is also an environment where personal weapons are very much part of the urban landscape, and where there is always a bigger picture to what you see on the ground. Having a team on the ground without security backup is not a decision to be taken lightly.

All that said, the fundamental shift in how I do design research came into clear focus in the field during this trip, and it was this:

• Five years ago when I was conducting street research, one of my team would document the research with a camera; it was a one way process.

• Three years ago — pretty much anywhere my team and I were in the world — when our cameras came out to document other people, they would bring out their camera phones and start documenting us. Their interaction with us was just another experience to share with their friends.
   
• Today, what is being shared is far more likely to end up online. Not only that, it is searchable and linkable, and it is typically associated with a person, time, and place.

This shift changes the questions I ask as an individual. As representatives of an organization or client, it also changes how we think about and use the data. And yet, I believe an even more fundamental shift is coming….

In three years time you’ll be able to point camera phone at someone’s face and know within a reasonable time-frame and level of certainty who they are, their history, and their history of interactions. And the same goes for them of you.

The questions then become: Who is pointing the camera?

Who are they sharing with?

What motivates them?

And ultimately, who are the gatekeepers of the relationship between you and them?