Saw that Nest thermostat?
The amazing aspect is it combines both the Physical and the Digital world into a single product.
Maybe your goal is to deign a Book 2.0 and you intend to completely reinvent books as we know them today by combining the best of paper books as we know them today and digital books.
Or maybe your goal is to connect all the different devices in your home and make life better for you.
Your dream could be inventing a smart glass that we wear during swimming.
Or it may well be how different new devices interact with customers at a supermarket to provide personalized recommendations.
Why not invent a Stethoscope 2.0 or Blood pressure Measuring gadget that connects with the Internet and takes care while you are sick. (Or maybe a tricorder!)
These are all what a "Physical Digital Interaction / Experience / Product Designer" is going to do.
Looking for an exciting and challenging future job?
Why not become a Physical Digital Interaction / Experience / Product Designer?
The goal of a Physical Digital Product Designer:
how to design products
that interact with humans and other products (through networks)
to achieve a set of goals fulfilling a set of constraints.
But a "Physical Digital Interaction / Experience / Product Designer" does more than that.
He / she designs "experiences" for humans with these devices.
Physical Digital Computing [1] is all about
putting microprocessors, sensors inside products and connecting them through network
with the goal of improving those products.
The main goal is to make existing products better and even invent new class of products (that were not possible in the "only physical" products age).
What we have done thus far is digitizing "media" products (digitizing books, digitizing music, etc.) so that consumers with devices of different screen sizes (from the Smart TV to Smart Phone) can consume those "media" products. That is, we have been bringing the Physical World to the Digital World.
Now it's time to go the other way round - bringing digital world to physical products.
Let's name the role "Physical Digital Interaction / Experience / Product Designer".
As a Physical Digital Interaction / Experience / Product Designer, your task would be to find out
how you could use chips, sensors and networks to invent better products.
When you start putting processors and sensors (and maybe actuators depending on whether you feel there is a need) inside everyday products, amazing new possibilities open up!
Two fascinating aspects of Physical Digital products are
1. "Data" and
2. "Platforms and Services".
Data
When companies sell shoes, they just sell shoes.
But imagine a pair of shoes that has sensors, chips and network connections.
That Shoe 2.0 would generate "Data" that could be used in a lot of ways - for example, for fitness purposes.
The data could be stored in Cloud.
So each Shoe 2.0 sold would add value to the company - because it would continuously generate data - which could be used in a variety of ways.
As I ways saying, when a company sells you a pair of shoe, that's all for the company.
But when a company sells you a Shoe 2.0, that Shoe 2.0 would generate data which would be stored in the Cloud and continuously add value to the company.
Platforms and services
Another fascinating aspect of Physical Digital products is "Platforms and services".
Imagine an app platform for Shoe 2.0 (like Apple Appstore or Google Play Store).
Now, the Shoe 2.0 is a "Platform".
Developers would start developing apps as "Services" for Shoe 2.0.
Keep these two aspects:
"Data"
and
"Platforms and services"
in mind, while designing Physical Digital products.
Because when you design Physical Digital products, you no longer design only the "product" but the "platform" as well.
(5/27/14)
References
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