Small Data Group

In a thought provoking interview with CNET published this past week, Fitbit designer Gadi Amit explores the use of wearables in everyday applications – and introduces the notion of “wise” devices that provide just the right information, when and where we need it.

Beyond the fact that Amit’s firm is designing wearables for unique markets like babies (well I guess really for their parents) and pets (!), what struck me in this piece was Amit’s perspective – certainly shaped by his role as president and lead designer at design firm NewDealDesign – on the state of wearables, their future, and our relationship with them. Specifically, in response to a question about how wearables will be integrated into our daily lives, he states:

The interesting thing is when I say that, people immediately jump to the conclusion that we will be cyborgs. My goal with designing this is that we won’t be cyborgs. We actually will become more human and more free from the technology. What we have now in the design business is two camps: there is the camp that wants to create a lot of data and wants to analyse a lot of data; and there is the other camp which I belong to that tries to create devices that are not smart, they are actually wise. They are more than smart, they are wise enough to understand you, to filter and allow you to go on with your life with all their data processing in the background giving you hints of what is essential when it is essential.

Having data processing in the background and focusing on what information is essential is of course very much in line with the small data “aesthetic” we’ve been promoting here and in a number of venues over the past 2 years, so it’s cool to hear validation from another corner. As a former AI/machine learning guy, I also like the idea of “wise” devices that understand context and personal preferences, and can make a case that small data will in fact be the new “OS” for these devices (more in a future post).

But even more so, if we think of the cyborg comment as a challenge to all of us, I think we need to consider the element of “humanness” as we create new apps and digital experiences. And perhaps provide better opportunities and incentives to untether/unplug (partially?) from our digital devices, even as consumers clamor for faster, more personal, more portable, and ultimately more satisfying data-enriched experiences.

Designing Data-driven Apps

Speaking of the new data consumer, I’ve been spending more time with developers and those thinking about the future of customer facing apps, and recently created a talk on design principles that builds on some of the work you’ve read about on this very blog. As always I believe that data-driven design is an art and a science, so it’s been fun to brush up on the science/tech part for sure.

Of course our first job is still to think about the end-consumer, and how we can inform, connect, and motivate them to get involved or take action. As an aside, if you’ve paid attention to how I’ve presented this last point, I’ve always used Nike Fuelband as my example, so with news that Nike is getting out of the fitness hardware business (good analysis in this Gigaom piece), it’s been interesting to see Fitbit and even Samsung step up their efforts ahead of the likely fall iWatch debut.

On the business side, beyond understanding the value of data along the customer journey and focusing on “last mile” functionality, having a scalable foundation that can potentially support millions of users and large data sets from many sources (before it is transformed into useful small data) is essential as we look to bring powerful, yet human-scale, smart (wise) apps to the masses. So is a community to drive innovation – like the 3.5 million BIRT developers, or 600K+ Drupal users and coders.

Many of these ideas (and some examples) were covered in the talk I did with SD Times recently. There’s a link to the replay and a summary by my colleague Fred Sandsmark on the Actuate blog – which you can read here.

I also presented a longer version focused on bringing the power of advanced analytics to “everyday tasks” at the CAMP IT  big data event this past week, (a well-produced event by the way) and plan to post those slides to my slideshare shortly.

Finally, I will be moderating a very cool expert panel on “building the next big app” at a special event Actuate is hosting in San Jose on the evening of July 10. Scheduled to join me on stage will be Eclipse Foundation Executive Director Mike Milinkovich, plus industry watcher and enterprise apps futurist Esteban Kolsky, along with 1-2 other special guests. We’ll explore how consumer experiences will (and are) be shaped by new devices and data, open source driven innovation, and next-generation design tools and practices.

Be sure to let me know if you’ll be in the area and want to join us, since I have a limited number of VIP passes to share.