John’s vision 2
SPEED
From Real Time to Quality Time
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Time is a key issue for the information society—but perpetual acceleration is not a given. The accelerated innovation of new tools is of diminished importance if the quality of relationships among the people who use them is where the real value resides. Trust accrues through time and is built during encounter and interaction between people; it cannot be digitized, and it cannot be rushed. “People will only pay for what is scarce, personal, customized, tangible, non-reproducible” says Esther Dyson, one of the wisest of the Internet gurus; “intellectual value is often simply the presence of other people, specific ones, interacting casually or formally or both. The key success factors are presence, time, attention … what you sell is interaction with your company.” Social capital takes time to grow. Local knowledge cannot be imported from somewhere else in a Boeing 747.
The design challenge is not to slow everything down, but to enable situations that support an infinite variety of fast and slow moves—at a rhythm dictated by us, not by the system. Slowness does not have to be a drag on innovation. Products and services that incorporate selective slowness, and that are consistent with economic growth and continued technical innovation, are already being developed.
Slow Wash
A recent project by Whirlpool exemplifies multiple-speed design. Few industries are as competitive and no-nonsense as the white-goods industry, with its do-alike and look-alike refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, and the like. But Whirlpool Europe’s ambitious design director, Richard Eisermann, was determined to rethink the clothes-washing process as a whole, including aspects of its “social speed.” In Project F, the notion of washing as a social event is emphasized, and a notion of “clean” has emerged that involves more than just hygiene or a process for eliminating dirt. “Clean” is linked to a feeling of well-being. Eisermann told me, in 2002, when I talked to him after his presentation about Project F at a big trade fair, HomeTech, in Berlin, that “we all feel the need to slow down sometimes, to tune into natural rhythms, connect more fully with our actions, add quality to our experiences. When we spend time over a task, it shows. If we take things slowly, and step outside set schedules and routines to seek independent cycles, we find continuity.”
Project F is informed by insights into new ways of living developed by Francesco Morace, a Milan-based researcher. Morace is fascinated by what he described to me (in a discussion at that same trade fair) as “the new domesticity.” His investigation into the changing social contexts in which we wash clothes began with an open exploration of the washing process and of new relationships among products, spaces, and humans involved in it: “Container + Water + Detergent + Agitation = Clean.” Teams of designers then proposed scenarios for every aspect of the process. Tactile, organic forms, inspired by the body, emulated the softness of human touch. Nanotechnology was exploited in semitransparent, iconic shapes to provide a “waterless approach to washing.” And hydroponic purification of water was coupled with fuel cell technology to provide a “slow wash” approach called BioLogic, based on natural principles of regeneration and efficiency. Nature transforms sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients into action: plant germination, growth, and the production of oxygen. It is a slow, steady process, but it is auto-regenerative and chemically efficient. Morace explained that “BioLogic is a design that embodies a sense of care. Being based on cyclical principles, it grants the necessary time for system regeneration while keeping harmful by-products to a minimum.” BioLogic uses phitodepuration (a technique used to clean used waters, first separated according to their different origin, that uses aquatic and earthly plants—and time—rather than strong chemicals and speedy but energy-guzzling electromechanical processes) with hydroponic plants to renew wash water and fuel cells for power. A self-contained receptacle containing clothes is low to the ground and emphasizes the “garden effect”: One tends to one’s wash as one would tend to one’s garden. Instead of a single wash drum, the wash load is distributed to a number of wash pods, allowing for continuous, overlapping cycles. Loads of various sizes can be simultaneously accommodated, and washing can take place as the need arises. A pod may be easily removed, loaded, and replaced at any time. Rather than remaining an isolated event in a more or less anonymous box, washing recaptures its lost significance and becomes part of an ongoing process that can take place anyplace in the home. In this way, BioLogic creates space, rather than just occupying it. The sound of gently flowing water, the scent of the plants, and the glow of lights: All make for a product experienced through the senses and emotions.
Fluid Time
Fluid Time is a project to design an infrastructure for multiple speeds in a variety of services. Most of us pass many hours a week waiting for things to happen: waiting to see the doctor, waiting for a bus to arrive, or waiting for a package to be delivered. Waiting occurs when our personal time schedules do not coincide with the schedules of the people and services with whom and with which we interact. Because both people and services are in constant flux, precise appointment times are not the most useful means of coordination. When people are provided with continuously updated time information about a service or appointment, the activity of waiting becomes more tolerable. With accurate time information, people can adjust their behavior accordingly and take control over how they wish to spend their time. The unpredictable nature of events requires a more flexible system of time than the published schedule.
Fluid Time, a project led by Michael Kieslinger at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, in Italy, explores the creation of a wireless-based service structure that links people to dynamic, personalized time information about public services and private appointments. Using the capacity of pervasive computing networks to deliver real-time information to remote locations, the service delivers accurate time information where and when people need it. The project investigates a new way of interacting with time; instead of arranging appointments in reference to the clock, Fluid Time users flexibly arrange and adjust their appointments by coordinating their own schedules with the availability of the services they are seeking. By connecting people to critical time-based information, the service supports flexible time planning according to personal needs. By accessing data in real time, the system delivers accurate information about when and where a desired service might be available.
Accurate, dynamic information has a dramatic advantage over traditional static schedules. A system that accesses information in real time should be able to deliver accurate information about dynamic services. Fluid Time works with the unpredictable nature of events, constantly updating users with the most recent, most accurate time information on the availability of services such as transportation, delivery, or health. Relevant, personalized information is an important characteristic of the service. Users should not have to search through dozens of train schedules if they are only interested in a single line. Similarly, they should receive truly personalized information about their doctor’s appointments, dry cleaning, and other services. As companies compete for the attention of their customers, they are discovering that more information is not necessarily better. People need information that is relevant to their unique situation. New technologies such as 3G and Bluetooth enable the delivery of such demand-responsive, location-sensitive information.
The potential markets for Fluid Time–type infrastructures is enormous. To take just one example: A better time regime is a key factor in the modernization of costly public services, which account for up to 65 percent of the economy in industrialized countries. A 2004 survey by Britain’s National Health Service has identified five “key dimensions of patient experience”—and time and speed issues dominate. The top two issues are first, waiting times for appointments and access to services, and second, time given to discuss health and medical problems face to face with health care professionals. A third priority, safe, high quality, coordinated care, includes a need for after-hours calls as a major determinant of satisfaction.
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