In search of a model

In the last few months, in this blog, we had touched on various ideas attempting to land the concepts behind context aware applications and various reasons that might make the notion a fundamental construct of the way we relate to technology.  

So far we had looked at Joseph Pine value chain, and ideas around what constitutes an authentic experience.  Before, in a very interesting play, Ivan took the notions presented in “The Age of Context” and merged them with Thomas Wendt point of view, and speculated with mobiles being at the centre of the equation. 

After having had quite a few conversations on the topic of Context Aware Apps, and circling back to this idea, I would like to take it a step further and propose it as the basis of a model simple but powerful model for the concept.  Lets look back at the diagram proposed by Ivan (slightly reviewed and translated):

As implied by Thomas Wendt , with the following quote:  

"We have thus moved beyond the theorization of our mobile devices as a type of prosthetic to our bodies — an extension of ourselves out into the material world — but instead have to conceive of our devices as absolutely integral to the very foundations of embodied space in the digital age.”   (Jason Farman).

Is is not difficult to see how this statement, almost a prophetic claim - although taken a "bit out of context," since the original quote referred to the relation of maps and LBS.  Regardless, it is clear in Ivan's evolution of the original idea that now, by combining a Mobile experience with the forces introduced in “The Age of Context,” we can start thinking about an initial model of what a context aware app might constitute.

As my colleague Robert Palmer put it, in this model the App is "the Agent”  that by running in the user’s mobile device, connects him to to a particular context permitting the creation of new level of UX never seen before, a new level of customisation of a service.  UX practitioners often talk in terms of journeys to illustrate how and idea goes beyond a static mock.  Similarly, I propose we look at one to illustrate how this model works.  

Lets take the Banking industry as an example where a user happens to use a Banks mobile App as the main way to interact  In the Age of Context, the day the user needs a loan the experience might be as follows:

• After seeing in my social feed that some of the user's friends are changing cars and realises that it might be time to change it as well.

• Curious, the client goes to the bank’s App on the way home from work to see if there is any info in the topic. 
• From the app he might be taken to the Banks website and maybe asked a few eligibility questions.  
• The journey stops at that point, but it should be possible for the user to go on in his desktop or tablet at home.

• Thanks to the bank eligibility questions already answered it is possible to do a pre-analysis and potentially be ready to provide the user with a response.

• If in the near future, the client decides to go to the bank, and at the door the App detects a beacon and lets the bank know that the user is walking in. 

• With those critical inputs, the experience at the the bank, has the potential to be fully customised and tailored to the client.
• Happy and impressed by the efficiency of the service, the user completes the cycle back at the emotional side of the model: likely going out of his way to share the experience, potentially sparking new journeys for others in the client's sphere of influence.

Under this model and by leveraging the various existing system and customising the experience to the client, this digital Bank is strongly signalling the client that the they care, and have created an authentic digital experience for their clients.  

As a closing thought, Metcalfe’s law states that the value of your network goes up proportional to the square of the number of connected nodes of the system (n²).  This is exactly what this model promotes:  a mechanism to extract more value from existing infrastructure.

What do you think about this simple model?  Is is it too simple?

I would be happy to hear your thoughts and reactions, please share them.

The Google Now effect

Already 10 years ago Joseph Pine came on stage at Ted and explained to the world the really interesting insight: experiences, or the experience economy as he put it, was the new reference model for Economic Value creation.

The reasoning goes that over the last couple of centuries and in particular the last few decades, through customisation, we moved from a commodities based economy to a goods based economy, to a service, and now, to a experience based economy.  This would help explain the success of brands like Disney, Starbucks, Apple, etc.

Slide from Joseph Pine's original talk (2004)

More recently, in an interview and related talk, he introduces the concept of authenticity ( or perceived authenticity ) as the ultimate expression of service to a customer and the perfect mechanism to brand-loyalty creation.  

In other words, what we have is the idea of promoting economic engagement delivered through the customisation of services, to create a memorable or authentic experience that results in brand loyalty.

If you think this is a mouthful, it is more obvious than what you might be thinking and can be explained easily by thinking of the efforts of brands like Starbuks, where the will make extensive use of natural material throughout their shops, or coffee beans intentionally left around for you to touch and remind you of how "authentic" they are.

In the digital space, things get a bit more fuzzy, or do they?   Recalling your first encounter with google now in action might actually be the best way to having had your last Digital Authentic experience.  If you haven't had that experience, I will attempt to explain it in the next paragraph and will likely fail, in which case I will resort to the famous explanation for what porn is:   you will know it when you see it!*

In Android, ever since version 4.3 (if memory serves me well) an ever present part of the OS,  Google Now, regularly delivers messages (in the form of notifications) based on the different things you do in the google ecosystem:   searches that denote interests, emails you receive with appointments, or travel reservations, etc.  

Google Now notifications, at the time I thought, served mainly two purposes:  to further the reach of google services and, as a consequence, to move customers away from other services (or Apps) and into the Google ecosystem.  My thinking now is that Google through Now, is achieving a lot more than just moving people their way. Google is delivering in the promise of a customise service and creating a memorable experience through the use of the information they already have...  the information that YOU (as a user) know they have and want them to put to good use. Right?

Good use you say?  Yes, good use: that being the key (IMO) as to why are we so willing to accept what not so long ago we would have seen as an overreach and a threat to our privacy.  After all, deep inside we know that this level of service is impossible without someone connecting the dots, without someone doing the math.

This "Google Now Effect" is a perfect example of what I would call a Digital Authentic Experience.  

* Justice Stewart was stuck on how to describe pornography, and his clerk said to him, “Mr. Justice, you will know it when you see it.”