A lot of people I’ve spoken with over the break agree 2011 was a tough year.  A year of relative slog and frustratingly slow progress. A year we optimists – just about all designers and entrepreneurs are optimists by definition (im a bit of both so god help me!) – would describe as all about ‘ground work’. A few steps forward and at least one (or even two!) back.  And like every good optimist the world over  i am already seeing the signs that 2012 is the year that we might just start breaking through on the many progressive issues we focus on and really consolidate on the hard work of the past few years.

And you know what, those two steps forward could become four, eight – or even a stampede if more people took up their seat at the optimists’ table – after all it’s the failure of imagination and our lack of belief in our ability to change that is the first, and i’d suggest most formidable, block that prevents us from changing everything. We could then get on to amping it up and seriously leveraging the ground work done to date. Making this the year we gain serious traction on our responses to the climate crisis and chronic (and the inextricably linked) social justice issues and finally begin to transform our personal, political and business systems for the greater good.

I always find i’m extra optimistic after taking stock of what our little company in Surry Hills was able to achieve in just one year. So in the interests of being able to boldly take my seat at the optimists’ table again this year  i’ll ask you to join me in taking a moment to look back on the great work Digital Eskimo, our clients and community of collaborators produced  in 2011.

If you’re a subscriber to our DE updates and invite emails you would have already seen our end of year email (there’s a few additions and link fixes though so might be worth a  second squiz!).  If not here it is and here’s to another year at the table!

View the ‘Annnd its a wrap!’ 2011 end of year email from Digital Eskimo.

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Digital Eskimo and the Australian Human Rights Commission have just launched the Something In Common project. The initiative incorporates an unusual double website approach; the first – Tell Me Something I Don’t Know – is a uber-sharable mouse-stopper of a microsite delivering surprising info bites like “1 in 4 retirees are living in poverty”. People can then dig deeper to learn more about the issues through inspiring videos of real Australians, take action on the issues that they feel most strongly about and tell their own story on the Something In Common website.

“Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” summed up an attitude that prevails in society where people are looking for new ways to creatively engage with human rights outside of traditional media.  It was this and other research-driven insights that led Digital Eskimo to develop the online strategy that underpins an exciting shift in the way the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is promoting the understanding of human rights issues through social media.

Check out the sites here and spread the word:

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Something In Common

Bigups to the team!

Digital Eskimo is proud to have co-designed the online concept, social media strategy, brand and user experience of this ground breaking project with the team at AHRC.  I’d like to especially thank our technical partners on the project  Morgan who went above and beyond the call in building the site on a shoestring budget. Finally my gratitude and respect to the masterful team at DE who put their blood sweat and (just a few!) tears into the project; Ben Crothers, Senior Design Strategist and lead Experience Architect ; Liam King,  Experience Architect, Anika Ebner & Yvonne Lee, Producers;  Ben Hoh, Lead Designer; Mark Elizondo, Designer ; and Chris Oates, Technical Lead (DE).

More info:

Media release (from the Australian Human Rights Commission)

Listen to a podcast with myself talking to Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes about the project

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Our Founder and Creative Director, David Gravina, was today named (for the second time) among Sydney’s top 100 most influential people by the Sydney Morning Herald’s the(sydney)magazine.

The article recognised the work of  David (and the crew here at Digital Eskimo!) on the Your Rights at Work and Raise the Bar campaigns and mentions our awesome online campaign platform, Do Gooder. The awards recognise people across a broad range of disciplines and pursuits and then categorises them accordingly, with Dave garnering a slot in the appropriately named ‘Altruist’ category.

From the article:

David Gravina’s design firm, Digital Eskimo, has driven successful online campaigns like Your Rights at Work and Raise the Bar. Now he’s giving his secrets away. In July, DE launched Do Gooder, a platform that allows other campaigners to build websites using DE’s most effective tools.

It’s already having an impact: the NewsStand campaign used its Do  Gooder site to get 3500 people emailing their MPs about a national media inquiry; just days later, an inquiry was announced. Gravina, 41, tasted his first such win when he was just 10, succesfully lobbying his local council to build a BMX track. “I hope Do Gooder will contribute to people experiencing the power i felt when the BMX track was announced”, he says.

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1. The (Top 100) Sydney’s most influential award
2. The (sydney) magazine 100 Most Influential List 2008
3. Doing good at Digital Eskimo

Here at Digital Eskimo, we’re finding more and more success in the power of storyboarding to help us and our clients to think more creatively … and then to help us communicate to others exactly what it is we’re thinking. A very useful tool when your job is to ‘imagine that which is yet to be’ (one definition of Design i like)

We sketch out storyboards as a way of generating ideas and solutions for client projects. We also use it as a fun and insightful activity in our co-design sessions, where all participants get to illustrate their own experiences on storyboard templates. We also find storyboards to be a really compelling way of communicating user experience and business strategy to our clients and their teams, from designers and developers, through to business analysts, project managers and executive decision-makers.

We love them so much that Senior Design Strategist Ben Crothers has just written a series of articles on storyboarding over at Johnny Holland that show you how you can make storyboarding work for you and your team too.

Have a read, then try storyboarding for yourself:

Storyboarding & UX – part 1: An introduction
Storyboarding & UX – part 2: Creating your own
Storyboarding & UX – part 3: Storyboarding as a workshop activity

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This Thursday 29th September we’ll be hearing from John Seed – Australian environmentalist, director of the Rainforest Information Centre, recipient of an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to conservation and the environment and prominent figure in the Deep Ecology movement.

Deep Ecology is a philosophy of nature that invites us to experience ourselves as part of the living Earth, rather than separate from it, and supports us to find our own role in powerfully protecting the planet.

The late Arne Naess, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy from Oslo University, Norway who coined the term “deep ecology” pointed out that our “ecological ideas are not enough to protect the Earth, we need ecological identity, ecological self”.

Through music, film and poetry, John will show us how to nourish our ecological identity and align ourselves with Earth.

When: Thursday 29th September from 6:00pm
Where: Our studio – Level 2, 44 Foster St, Surry Hills
RSVP: Through Eventbrite by Tuesday 27th September

RSVP now

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How many people get to say their day job lets them build devices capable of travelling through time?

Well, that’s just what we did for the Sydney Institute as part of their recently launched “Sparkies, Foodies & Fashionistas” exhibition.

The exhibition, which is essentially a celebration of the organisation’s rich 120 year history, is more than just a display of artefacts and photos (many of which haven’t been on public display before). It’s a showcase of the latest techniques and technology that the Institute uses to train their students across a broad range of areas, from engineering and fashion to electronics.

After seeing our successful Water Worx display at the Powerhouse, the Sydney Institute approached us to design an interactive element that would provide an informative and playful user experience while promoting TAFE Sydney Institute as the past, present and future-ready leader in vocational studies.

Inspired by HG Wells and TRON, we built the iTime machine – an interactive iPad app that effectively turns visitors into time travellers, letting them journey through the Institute’s 120 year history to explore the expansion of study areas.

You can read more about the iTime Machine here, or see it in person at Ultimo TAFE’s Muse Gallery (until the 28th August).

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1. TAFE iTime Machine

As passionate supporters of cycling and champions of Sydney’s cycle ways, we were happy to crank up our support by nominating our Chief Design Strategist Anthony Ditton to be one of the faces of the City of Sydney’s Cycle Ways new “Everything’s Connected” campaign.

Anthony features in one of four new films produced by CoS that celebrate the stories of real people who cycle in Sydney. The personal vignettes demonstrate not only how diverse our cycling population is, but also show how riding bikes has an incredibly positive benefits for lifestyles and the city.

The films will be shown at local cinemas starting from late August, but for those of you who can’t wait that long, check out the other videos here.

And if you’re wondering, YES that is a Do Gooder t-shirt he’s wearing. Nice product placement!

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The countdown has started! In less than eight hours, we’ll be launching Do Gooder, our new online campaign web site building platform. In the lead up to this momentous event, Sally Hill who has been getting the good word out for us has put together a great article that explains just how Do Gooder gives enviro-warriors wings.

Here’s a bit of a teaser…

The digital landscape has changed the campaigning and activism worlds forever, as this wave of change pours through politics, engagement and civic life. The sharing culture of online communities is aiding activism as messages are spread, best-practise is shared and the overall standard and effectiveness of campaigning is lifted.

However, a great deal of campaigners still hit a wall when it comes to building strong websites and online tools. They either don’t have the skills or money, or waste valuable resources on websites that could be spent on campaign creative and strategy. Do Gooder aims to address this.

Read the article in full here

In case you’re keen to come along and kick it with us at the launch party tonight, there’s still a few tickets left! Jump through to our Eventbrite page now before they all take off!

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1. Do Gooder
2. DE’s founder amongst Sydney’s most influential

So we’re up for nomination in the City of Sydney 2011 Business Awards. And it’s really exciting because it means we’ve been recognised as a business that’s positively contributing to the community & helping to make our city more green, global and connected.

May seem like an unlikely fit for a design firm in Surry Hills (and to be honest we’re not that into competitions and rarely enter), but if you look a little closer at who we are and what we do, you’ll begin to understand why this one makes sense.

If you already love us then vote for us now! (it takes a few seconds and you’ll go in the draw to win $1500!)

If you need more convincing .. read on …

We use design to positively change society (and the world)

Our mission as a company is to harness design and technology to help change the world.

Over the years, we’ve worked with some of Australia’s most respected and progressive organisations to design projects that have had a positive impact on people and the planet.

We’re especially proud of the client work that we’ve done to change our local community for the better. One such example is ‘Water Worx’, the outcome of a recent collaboration with the Powerhouse Museum to educate children about the challenges associated with managing Sydney’s water supply with a growing population. Another is ‘Reduce Your Footprint’, an initiative that seeks to reduce the ecological footprint of residents living in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney (which are sadly some of the biggest in the world!).

We’ve also begun to engage with the Sydney design community as we seek to understand how we can better harness our creativity to solve some of the messier problems facing the world.

We’re passionate about re-localising and reconnecting communities

We created and are ongoing supporters of The live local Foundation – an initiative that encourages people to take more time to connect and engage with their community. The project provides a forum for local residents to document their experiences and adventures (‘experiments’) meeting neighbours, discovering neighbourhoods, supporting local economies, saving energy, water and much more.

Over 170 experiments have been documented so far, and hundreds of active community members, largely from the Sydney area but some as far as the UK, have been using words, pictures and videos to show how they improve and enjoy their communities.

We’re passionate about sustainability and building a green(er) Sydney

If you’ve ever visited our studio, you’ll be aware of the fact that it’s been designed with sustainable principles throughout . For example, there are worm farms in our garage, the floors and desks are made from bamboo, we grow our own herbs and buy organic, locally sourced produce and all our furnishings are procured according to the strictest of sustainability requirements . It makes it a lovely place to work, but also means that we have a relatively low carbon footprint (something which we measure and offset every year). In fact we’ve offset the entire history of our company since 2001.

We hold frequent events that bring together people with a passion for design and sustainability to watch a film, have a lively chat and take away new ideas to spread through our community.

We’re proud to return a portion of our profits to progressive organisations, campaigns and causes as part of our commitment to promoting sustainable communities. We are a founding member and ongoing supporter of the green networking drinks greenUps which has helped grow the community of passionate progressive ‘green’ people in Sydney, something we felt the city really needed. In its third year, crowds of up to 300 meet to discuss sustainability, share ideas and inspire each other.

We’re passionate supporters of Sydney’s cycling community

It won’t come as a shock to our friends, but bikes are an integral part of who we are. We actively encourage cycling for daily commuting purposes amongst our staff (all staff are given a company bike when they join the company).

What’s more, we’re keen for more Sydneysiders to embrace the cycling culture. So in addition to initiatives like the Keep it Wheel ride last year which saw hundreds of riders connect with local businesses on Sydney’s new bike lanes, we have a bike repair workshop under our studio that we’ve made available for any cyclists who live or work in the community to use if their bike needs a bit of love.

We do these things because we’re passionate about making the world a better place and believe that effective, widespread change must come from the bottom up as well as the top and we need to start (and ultimately end) at a local level. Designers have a central role to play in helping society craft creative responses to the challenges of our times and Digital Eskimo is at the front lines collaborating, prototyping and ultimately making change happen.

So vote for us !

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1. Mixed mobility transport

“The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.” Thucydides, Greek historian

You have to hand it to those Ancient Greeks. By the time the Bronze Age was underway, they had figured out that training grape vines on trellises was much better than letting them grow hither and thither on their own. It made for easier cultivation and harvesting, less diseases and higher yields.

I really enjoy visiting wineries. Not only for the tastings, but to see the science, discipline and care that goes into growing and harvesting the vines. And I think viticulture has some lessons that can be applied to that digital vine often found running rampant in organisations: the wiki.

Wikis are an attractive online asset. They’re one of the pillars of corporate collaboration – a silver bullet sent to unleash everyone’s ideas so that they contribute to the greater corporate good. They’re organic by nature and can take on a vibrant life of their own. But they can also sink silently unused into a corner of the server somewhere.

Clay Shirky in his book Here Comes Everybody enthuses how well wikis can support group conversation and mobilise group action in ways not possible through traditional institutional thinking and other conventions. But like many digital tools in corporate environments, wikis need to be deployed and maintained with all the care that viticulture pays to the grape.

Here are some ideas to bring out the best in a wiki, as well as the people who use it.

Don’t call it a wiki

Call it a project space, a workspace…. anything but an esoteric nerdy name like wiki. Using a potentially cryptic term just gets the relationship off on the wrong foot with your stakeholders. Imagine if winemakers gave us bottles of Vitis vinifera? I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather taste the subtle blackberry notes of a Grenache or a Cabernet Sauvignon, than a domesticated Vitis sylvestris.

There are no McVineyards; plan and tailor yours to your environment

Treat the wiki just like any other website to design, rather than a generic tool. Design in this context is all about the information design rather than visual design. Think of the audiences, the tasks they need to perform, and the journeys they will take through this website. Think of the ‘soil’ as it were: what’s the organisation culture like? How open are people to collaboration? What’s the general tolerance level for putting draft content ‘out there’ for co-creation? Careful thought and planning always pays off.

Vine to wine is a team effort

Wikis provide an excellent way for people to contribute to projects, ideas and other materials and to centralise these online. Projects and teams can move (nearly) at the speed of thought, not the speed of the institutional process and approval structure. But the open and unstructured nature of wikis can leave people confused about what’s up for discussion, what’s work in progress, and what’s a final product.

Make sure you cater for the different roles and responsibilities involved in your project team so that it’s clear to everyone where and how they do their particular job on the wiki.

Separate what’s vine and what’s fruit

With that in mind, think about the different types of content you are producing, and who needs to contribute to which type, and keep them separate. One easy distinction for wikis is separating actual deliverables from work in progress. There are going to be some audiences who are only concerned with the fruit, not the vine. Wikis are still quite esoteric to many people, so make it obvious what’s the ‘product’ up for review and what’s the discussion that lead to the ‘product’.

Design the trellis, not the vine

Devise an easy-to-understand structure of separate spaces for different content types, different functions and different audiences. The trick is to embrace the fact that wikis do grow organically, but create just enough structure to keep it easy to learn and remember. Think of it as designing the trellis that the vine will grow over. The trellis governs the areas the vine can cover; the rest is up to the vine.

This will provide the balance between the freedom that wiki authors and collaborators need, and the constraints to ensure it remains usable and sustainable as a corporate asset.

Depending on the context of your organisation as a whole, or a specific project, you may want to think about orienting the structure by project role, or the particular objects involved, or by topic, as long as it reflects the most common mental model that people have.

Here’s one site map suggestion, which includes space for project background, project management, project assets, and pages to help people use the wiki:

Appoint a gardener

Make sure someone is responsible for keeping the wiki neat and healthy. This may mean some seasonal pruning from time to time, where some pages need to be removed or combined with others, or transplanting and rearranging, where some sub-sections need to be split and relocated.

Plant rose bushes in the vineyard

Viticulturists will tell you that it’s wise to plant rose bushes at the ends of the vineyard rows because they serve as early indicators of fungal diseases, to which both roses and grape vines are susceptible. Or just that they look nice. Or both.

What we can take from this is that we can use some pages within wikis to attract specific attention for specific purposes. There may be some assets you have, such as some sketches or visual designs that you could put up front for people to see, rather than just slabs of text. Judicious use of assets like these could help foster a healthy reputation for the wiki. Or you could use some handy plug-ins such as task management visualisation and dynamic charting to provide informative and aesthetically attractive pages that show the wiki’s ‘pulse’ at a glance.

Provide a map of the vineyard

Be clear to all the people involved in your project what part of the system is for what purpose. People will know what they’re responsible for, so use this as a foil for pointing them to the parts of the system they should pay attention to. If there are those who want to be involved way down in the detail, show them the working collaboration areas. If they’re only interested in providing feedback on a draft design, point them to the project assets area.

Take people on a tour

A request made in a meeting or a scattergun email may not get the right people moving to participate on the wiki the way you want them to. Take the time to line up a chat at their desk, and show them how to access the wiki, what it’s for and how to use it. For all the benefits of intranets and inboxes, it can be hard for online channels to model the sort of behaviour we’d like from people involved. Harness the power of the social proof psychological principle: if people are unable to determine the appropriate behaviour, they tend to look to others to lead them.

Reaping the rewards

Like many wine lovers, I have my idea of Wine Graceland, and for me it’s Hill of Grace at the Henschke winery in South Australia. It covers only eight hectares, and most of the shiraz vines are well over 100 years old. They’re stumpy, dark and gnarled, but the fruit they produce is…well… I’ll leave the hyperbole to others, but you should really try it yourself.

Careful tending and curation of a well-structured wiki should produce a quality yield that will show bright complex spice and colour, as well as great depth and texture that should stand the test of time, and… well, you get the idea.

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