Simple interaction plus great content = winning emotional experience
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 05:51AM I got a sneaky look at the Oxfam Curiosity Shop in Selfridges yesterday. Part of which is being put together by my very good mate Jon Rogers from The Product Design Research Studio at the University of Dundee – ( College of Art, Science and Engineering and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art) in collaboration with Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, University College London, University of Salford.
It’s a celeb donated charity shop in the stylish setting of Selfridges.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/secondhandstore/fashion/curiosity-shop.html
What I wanted to mention was the interactive piece Jon and co. have been working on:
It’s very simple: donated items are tagged with an paper label and RFID tag.
When the scanner is passed over the tag it prompts a video to play.
It’s pretty simple and we’ve seen things like this before. But it’s the combination of the nicely designed equipment, simple interaction and fantastic content that brings it to life.
We scanned Annie Lennox’s dress and saw the video of her holding it and saying where she wore it and how much she liked it etc. 
It’s an incredibly emotional experience. The connection between the item in your hand and the narrative really made you want to buy, it makes you want to give money. A good example of how content, form and interaction need to work hand in hand to produce excellent interaction/service experiences.
In the end though, I decided not to buy the dress, green’s not my colour.
Get down there and try it out.
http://www.talesofthings.com/
http://productresearch.dundee.ac.uk/
Reader Comments (2)
Dear, Rory Hamilton
My name is Bin-na Kim and I am writing on behalf of Sungshin Women’s University undergraduate students from Seoul, Korea, studying Industrial Design.
Lately, the interest and use of service-design has increased so the undergraduate students in our department wish to increase our knowledge accordingly, but service-design is a field with few Koreans skilled in such work.
So several of us are willing to travel London and hope for an opportunity to share some of your thoughts and ideas about service designing. Particularly, how service design is used as a part of work in social business, public sector, and other areas. As well as the present situation of designers’ role in Industry.
If you are in the London in mid-July, some of us would like visit your office (Live|work) and Ask questions about service-design and benefit from your insight.
LG has begun factoring service-design criteria for their products and our department is supported by LG to learn and explore design specialism.
Our national industry is dependent upon the success of effective design and we, as students of industrial design, are the future of our nation. We hope that, despite your busy schedule, you will be able to meet with us and place us on a path of guided fruition.
In Korea we believe that a person’s grasp does not exceed one’s reach and the trail you have blazed has given students throughout the world the hope that they can make objects of ordinary use extraordinary in their application.
In hope and anticipation, I remain your devoted fan.
Sincerely,
Bin-na Kim
Binnakim89@gmail.com
I like the idea that names of the individuals who donated the items are placed on the items displayed. I think it is truly a cool thing to know who previously own the item and I think it is cool to know that we'll be paying for something that we know was owned by so and so in the past, someone whom we know. :-)
Cape Town<