George Bernard Shaw on the dangers of self-centric design

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
  - George Bernard Shaw

Who knew that GBS had Customer Experience insights...

The Mouse That Roared! (and still does, 40 years later)

The Guardian reports that the computer mouse is celebrating its 40th birthday.

(Photo reproduced from The Guardian)

Forty years later, we're using the same basic idea to manipulate things on our screens.

Will the mouse disappear, as touch sensitive screens and other technologies become cheaper and more widespread? I have a feeling that we'll continue using the mouse for many years to come. We're used to it and history shows that a "good enough" technology can hold its own quite well against "better" technologies that follow. However, I doubt that the mouse will have quite the same longevity as the keyboard. (I can get proficient at manipulating things on an iPhone screen very easily... but every "new way" of inputting text that I've come across so far seems less than satisfactory or quite challenging to learn).

Hotels with "character"

I got home last night from a trip to Amsterdam, Brussels and Seoul... It was an enjoyable trip, but It feels great to be back!

During this trip, one of the challenges that I faced was the fact that I had to a couple of late night Webex / Teleconferences with customers in Asia. I imagined that it wouldn't be too difficult to just wake up in the wee hours, get on the phone, deliver the presentation and go back to sleep.

I hadn't banked on the "characterful" European hotel rooms that I'd be staying in ...

(1) Amsterdam - The Gresham Memphis Hotel

A very "old fashioned" room, with a phone by the bed and wired internet at the desk. But no phone on the desk...

I spent an interesting evening trying to drag the phone from the bed to the desk (even the 5m cable that I tried wasn't long enough), and then trying to extend the LAN cable to the bed (couldn't plug my LAN cable in because the socket was buried under the carpet).

Long story short - I ended up dragging cables from two corners of the room and working in the middle.

(2) Brussels - The White Hotel

A much "cleaner" look than the hotel in Amsterdam (although I think the all-white decor would get a little old after a few nights). Wired Wireless internet allowed me to work anywhere I chose too... But once again, there was a phone by the bed but not on the table. And again I played my game of stretch the cables...

The modern hotel that I stayed at in Seoul was cheaper than the European ones... and better in all respects. (Wireless internet, cordless phone, large desk, beautiful furnishings, excellent restaurants, attentive staff, etc, etc, etc ... I guess I can thank the collapse of the Korean Won for that).

I hate to say it, but I'll be steering clear of hotels with "character" on my future travels.

Why does every second newspaper article on Japan have to be a "Wierd and wacky Japan" story

I'm in Europe on business this week ... and saw this headline in the Guardian

Japan Blood Craze

Idea that blood type defines personality sweeps the country

For what it's worth, this superstition has been around for donkey's years. It seems that there are a lot of popular books on the topic right now... but that's surely no more interesting than the publishing trends in any other country. (A friend pointed out to me last year that there were entire sections in British bookstores devoted to "abused childhood biographies"... which struck me as far wierder than anything I've seen in Japanese bookstores).

What is it about Japan, that makes English-language newspaper editors hunger for the silly stories - at the expense of the real news from Japan? Am I just imagining this, or does the reporting on, say, France, Germany, India also lean towards the frivolous?

Japan loses interest in Social Networking?

Jeff Lippold at Diamond Agency has written a post to examine some new data from Synovate that suggests that Japan may be losing interest in Social Networking.

I need to read the Synovate report for myself, and I will look at the next results from Forrester's surveys of Japanese consumers to see if I see the same thing... Can't do that right now, I'm afraid.

I think Jeff is spot on with his view that Japanese Social Computing is often Web1.0 at heart. In particular, I agree with his observation that anonymity and lack of segmentation (trying to cater for the "general population") hold back the possibilities for Social Computing.

Could Japan's fickle consumers decide that SNS was just another fad and "move on"?

Somehow I cannot imagine it. (Move on to what? Long socks and tiramisu?). Is it possible to have a "camel" shaped adoption curve...?