Juicero, a connected IoT cold press juicer, is closing its doors and offering refunds. As a frequent topic early on the podcast, Guus and Joe reflect on Juicero, its supply chain, dreams, and contribution to IoT.

In todays episodes, we skim the surface of design research, specifically ethnographic research. We discuss common problems we've seem, how to avoid these, and why a lot of design research fails to lead to quality insights. We focus on design research being a separate discipline from design itself and why "immersion", or understanding an industry, is not the same as research itself.

In todays episode we explore the bespoke nature of design consulting and what design managers, teams, and consultancies can learn from larger business consultancies in how they approach programs, clients, and services. We cover a little in our approach at Raft and how we've built our culture of close client partnerships while streamlining programs.

Guus and Joe look at how designers must start to analyze components, primitives, and utilize design research to create a vision for new customer journeys. The duo use the recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods as an example showcasing 3 steps for focus.

• 1. Drivers of latent needs – use a customer journey as a foundation for design research to uncover latent needs and drivers for users.
• 2. Develop a vision – leveraging trends from business, economics, technology, and more, designers must have a vision for where a product or service can go.
• 3. Breaking down primitives – Break down products and services into primitives to understand the building blocks to be leveraged. Then use those to build new customer journeys and create new product offerings.

The guys return with a view on two of the critical announcements from WWDC. The AR Tookit and the Homepod. They discuss four critical points stemming from these announcements.

• 1. All hardware is a commodity, Services are now the differentiator
• 2. Designers need to think about reversing the paradigm of the hub and spoke device model
• 3. The Service is now the hub and hardware is endpoints
• 4. Designers should see Service Design as the design of the service and not the abstraction or pure coordination of the service.

This week Paul Skinner, Creative Director at Tellart, joins the show to discuss designing experiences in the future based on global macro-trends. Paul gives his view on designing experiences for the future and shares perspectives from his work with the Government of Dubai. The group discuss design in the broader context of climate change, government policy, and challenge designers to creates events that can generate a positive future.

Guus and Joe discuss designers ability to construct effective arguments and how design should be embedded with discussions on regulation, terms of service, and policy. They go through how designing scenarios is not always what it appears and context matters more than people realize. They then break down topics from Facebook policies, to emojis, to Twitter on how context, point of view, and diversity make a huge difference in create successful outcomes.

• Facebook policies - https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/21/revealed-facebook-internal-rulebook-sex-terrorism-violence
• Lawsuit over emojis - https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/21/israeli-court-emojis/
• Minecraft and birds - https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/minecraft-parrots-patch
• Twitter, ugh - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/technology/evan-williams-medium-twitter-internet.html

For two years Joe led the digital efforts on the IKEA TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting product recently released world-wide. Guus and Joe look at IKEA's new smart lighting product from the view of selling stories, difficult problems in connected devices, and technology shifts. The opening features a quick overview and thoughts on the new Microsoft Fluid Design System

IKEA TRÅDFRI - www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/27/15071562/ikea-tradfri-smart-lights-gateway-ethernet-cheap-dimmer-remote

Microsoft

• https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15615812/microsoft-fluent-design-system-project-neon-features
• https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15625970/microsoft-fluent-design-desktop-email-app-ui

After a short hiatus Guus and Joe return to discuss Juicero, a connected juicer recently in global news, giving perspectives from multiple design angles explaining why news headlines don't always do the company justice. The duo cover how the changing nature of design is reflected in the product, looking at the beautiful physical design followed by the slightly lackluster service and business design aspects.

Starting the show off, is a point / counterpoint session about the Twitter and Bloomberg partnership, explaining why it's a great experience design idea, but perhaps a lousy business idea.

• Juicero - https://www.juicero.com
• Bloomberg on Juicero - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-19/silicon-valley-s-400-juicer-may-be-feeling-the-squeeze
• Twitter and news - "Twitter says it wants to be "what's happening in the world and what people are talking about right now."" - https://www.wsj.com/articles/snapchat-leaves-it-to-rivals-to-connect-the-developing-world-1494257835

Dave Benach joins the podcast to discuss what happens when the worst ethics results in the best user experience. Using Uber as an example, the group explore what's good for the user, good for the industry, and good for company cultures. They share insights on why designers should pay attention and address conversations on these topics.