PSFK CONFERENCE LONDON: Speaker Matt Jones Talks About Metaphorical Inspiration And Design
On the morning of September 10, PSFK will gather the people behind some of the most inspiring British and European projects that we have covered on PSFK.com. These brilliant creative minds will present their work that explores innovation at intersections of fields that include art, design, branding, retail and technology.
Get tickets here: PSFK CONFERENCE LONDON
One of our speakers will be Matt Jones, Director of Design at BERG. Matt will talk about his involvement in the recent development of the Michel Thomas iPhone app, and the challenges associated with intuitive technological design.
With the Michel Thomas iPhone app you worked to build an intuitive tool for learning new languages. What design considerations did you find particularly challenging?
I guess the main thing was maintaining the method employed by Michel Thomas – and particularly because the man’s voice is so distinctive – we didn’t want the design to get in the way of that. So, the brief we gave ourselves in the studio extended that idea into don’t let *anything* get in the way of that voice. If you’re using an app you’re probably mobile, and frequently interrupted. So one of the things we aimed to do was to make ‘the world’s best pause button,’ so that the harm of interruptions and distractions on your learning progress would be minimised.
What emerging trend, idea, or technology are you excited to see develop in the future?
One of the tenets of the studio is ‘material exploration,’ and I often look to materials science and engineering for both direct and metaphorical inspiration. Biomimicry at the material, mechanical and system-level is an ongoing ‘trend’ I guess that I can’t get enough of.
What other projects are currently inspiring your work?
I find I’m mainly inspired by science-fiction and fiction in general, rather than contemporary design or media. Engineering, computer science and game design are usually where I get practical inspiration for work. I’m lucky to work with people like Tom Armitage and Nick Ludlum who, as well as being amazing developers, are serious and critical in their appreciation of games. So there is an ongoing conversation about these things in the studio. We’re really influenced by mass-culture and manufacture – the Argos catalogue is probably our main inspiration…
Do you have thoughts to share on how 3D might develop on mobile devices, or any types of uses that will emerge successfully?
3D is odd. We’ve spent several thousand years perfecting technologies and disciplines to abstract the world around us into 2D symbols – which has proved to be incredibly efficient and culturally-powerful. I’m not terribly interested in ’3D’ for its own sake.
Immersion in 3D simulations for fun or profit works out well though in certain vertical applications, whether you’re doing drug-discovery research or playing burnout:paradise. 3D on mobile? Well… again, games are the obvious use, but I guess I’m more interested in how that processing-power— all the number-crunching that a chip has to do to draw a world in 3D— can be used for other applications.
Like, letting a phone see the world like we do, computer vision techniques being employed to give your phone eyes to understand its surroundings and mediate the world accordingly. Not AR, but something more than that. Something where you have a powerful mobile computer constantly absorbing the world around you, building a model of it, and responding to that with options for you.
Thanks Matt!
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