Conviviality

Ooooh! CES Preshow Planner!

I see gadget people. It's that time of year, not when the dead arise, but the geeks bubble up and saddle up and head to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. And finally, in 2011, I am riding that pony into town!

 
Every January I watch the coverage of CES and think, "why am I not there?" My inner geek fidgets, a kundalini snake wanting to burst forth and...

Well, today my CES conference preplanner book arrived. Now all I need is a crackling fire, two fingers of single malt scotch, and my weekend has arrived!

Where will I go? What will I see? When I surface again Monday morning, we will know...

Wants vs. Needs of Consumers "Aging-in-Place"

Liz Boehm's recent post on "The Intersection of Healthcare and Aging-in-Place" got me thinking about the digital ecosystem surrounding the consumer who chooses to "age-in-place."

An aging parent may want to enable one or more of their children to have access to medical records, medication details, finances, nutrition details, therapy appointments, and other systems/offering requiring decisions or transactions. What's the delicate, HIPAA-compliant balance between the consumer's electronic health record, external caretakers' inputs to the consumer's medical records, and family member/trusted guardian access? How do we architect these information flows to ensure meaningful two-way exchange between the medical providers and the consumer and his/her advocates?

And then, how do we safely/securely mobile-enable this access for better response from all actors involved in the ecosystem?

Mining Cooperation

As I watch the Chilean miners rise from their emergency shelter into the spring sun and beaming faces of their loved ones via BBC.com/news coverage, I keep contemplating all the concentrated effort that made this day and this rescue possible and am curious about what we've learned about "purposeful confinement."

 

In particular, what did these miners do while confined to keep focused on the goal of getting back to the surface? What were their activities and their interactions with those above ground? What worked to keep them in good spirits and good health?

The data we can mine from this experience (so sorry, but that's my one pun per day) could be studied along side findings of individuals and groups who agree to be confined for a specific period (for example religious/spiritual retreat, rehab, etc.) and those involutarily confined (prisoners, for example). The key factor of confinement construed as "deprevation," is a powerful motivator for turning inward. How we cope with that inward journey is the measure of our sanity. What are the pivotal examples that guide the behaviorial choices of confined indivduals?

Could the stories of survival in the Chilean mine help inform our incarceration practices?

Soaking and Generating Ideas at Usability Week

I've been attending some of NielsenNorman/group's "Usability Week" tutorials this year.  In Feburary I sat in on Jen Cardello's "Integrating Social Features on Mainstream Websites" tutorial given in Atlanta, and this week I'm in New York sitting in on Raluca Budiu's "Designing Mobile Websites" (which also covers off on mobile usability methods) and "iPhone App Design,"along with a cognitive science primer from Hoa Loranger and Raluca, "The Human Mind and Usability: How Your Customers Think."

A good set of mobile design guidelines can be derived from the research and examples presented and discussed in "Designing Mobile Websites." An upgrade to this course would be to ask participants to do a homework assignment, analyzing a web site of their own for "mobilizing," comparing their analysis to tools that "mobilize" a site by simplifying its code, such as Mobify.me.

Key takeaways from the mobile course:

• Do you know the motivations your users would have to access your digital content from a mobile device?
• What are tasks/transactions/interactions your users want to do while mobile? 
• Can a mobile site/app augment a physical offering/process your business/organization offers? (shopping aid for a retailer, data gathering/input device for enterprise software, "living aid" for basic human tasks--directions, location finder, review finder, merchandise finder, etc.)?
• What are the tradeoffs between branding and simplification? What's the impact of a Amishly plain and simple mobile site/app on a strongly visual digital brand? What elements of digital branding need to be applied to the mobile experience to provide overall digital strategy continuity?

Special Report on Social Networks, 28Jan Edition of The Economist

An excerpt from a special report on social networks in the 28Jan edition of The Economist:

"In his book “Weaving the Web” Sir Tim (Berners-Lee) explained that the internet was always meant to be more of a social creation than a technical one. The ultimate goal, he wrote, was to come up with something that, first and foremost, would make it easier for people to collaborate with one another.

This special report has argued that social networks have already done much to achieve that goal. They have created trusted online venues where people can meet up using their real identities. They have provided firms with new ways to reach their customers and those who influence them. They have reduced friction in the labour market by allowing employers and prospective employees to connect more easily than ever before. And they have speeded up the flow of information within companies.

All of these are impressive achievements. But arguably the most important contribution that the sites have made is to offer a free and immensely powerful set of communication and collaboration tools to everyone on Earth who has access to a broadband internet connection. This democratisation of technology is driving the socialisation of the web and fundamentally changing the way that people interact with one another, as well as with businesses and governments.

It has also made it easy for anyone to form a globe-spanning discussion group of their own with just a few clicks of a mouse. Not so long ago that would have been the preserve of an elite group of companies and institutions which had the necessary financial and technical clout to perform such feats. Now, thanks to the technology created by Facebook and its peers, millions of these conversations can take place simultaneously with the greatest of ease. The world is better off for it."

Optimizing Patient Experiences

"How can I humanize the health care experience?" is the question Bridget Duffy, former Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, answers in her Gel Health 09 conference talk, in which she shares her inspiring approach to creating, nurturing, and maintaining an optimal patient experience both within the health care system and in an individual's overall living environment. If you have 27 minutes to spare, click the link above and listen to Duffy's talk; it's practical, inspiring, and will encourage you to be part of the effort to transform the patient experience.

Much of what Duffy advocates for improving and optimizing patient experience is to simply implement compassionate, humane interaction amongst all the "actors" in the system. Her observations of the intake process at a typical ER reception desk illustrate the lack of humanity displayed in many ER reception desks.

"What are you asked when you, as a patient, approach the ER desk upon arrival?" How often does someone say to you, "You seem to be in pain; how can we help you?"   Imagine how the ER experience could be transformed with that sense of care from the first interaction. Instead, most folks approaching the ER desk hear something akin to the following: "Do you have insurance?" 

Duffy's talk at the prior year's Gel Health conference focused on the need for an optimized patient gown (can you visualize the last time you had a gown on and how undignified it felt?).

Bridget Duffy's work illustrates the effectiveness of both listening to and observing the customer/patient in the health care environment. The rest of the lineup at this year's Gel (Good Experience Live) Health conference have some terrific stories to share too. Conference organizer and host Mark Hurst brought together an incredible group of people who focus on the design of systems, processes, and environments. Take a look.

Social Media Usage and Promotional Intentions

Researchers at Center for the Digital Future at USC's Annenberg School reported the following web insight November 9th:

"Web Insight 58: Why do you visit social networking or video-sharing websites such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and Hi5?"

 
Where's the RESEARCH reason? When asked in a non-task directed way, users in this cohort didn't volunteer using social networking sites for research/information seeking purposes.

The social media data point above is drawn from a dataset used to compile the annual Digital Future report that the Center for the Digital Future has been publishing since 2000. From a Center press release: " The Digital Future Project surveys more than 2,000 individuals across the United States, each year contacting the same households to explore how online technology affects the lives of Internet users and non-users. It also examines how changing technology, such as the shift from Internet access by modem to broadband, affects behavior."

I've been thinking about the answers in the graph above compared to the expectations and experiences discussed at last week's FDA Part 15 public hearing on Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products using the Internet and Social Media Tools. The hearing was FDA's first step toward developing guidelines for digital marketing in this regulated industry. 

I know, the data presented above is an orange compared to the applied use of social media in healthcare (an apple)!  Manhattan Research recently presented findings that note 35% of US adults use social media for health information. There's plenty of market research that shows health information seekers use the Internet, search engines, and online communities in their quest for information. Social media--blogs, chat rooms, social networking sites, message boards are starting to gain traction for information seekers interested in patient testimonials and stories. Yet the Pew Internet and American Life project's June 2009 report, "The Social Life of Health Information" notes that "Social networking sites are used only sparingly for health queries and updates."

Regardless of the speed of acceptance by consumers of using social media for health information, how do pharma/CPG organizations promote their products, services, mission, et al in a digital environment that increasingly demands transparency and inclusion of user-generated content (i.e., stuff organizations cannot control)?  Can promotion mix with "conversation," conversation being the primary mode of most social media environments?

Many pharma companies are taking a "wait and see" stance on these questions.

At the FDA social media meeting only four Pharma/CPG companies presented--Lilly, J&J, sanofi-aventis, and Pfizer; the remaining 70+ timeslots were filled by healthcare information agencies, pundits, patients/patient advocates, and healthcare IT vendors. The suppliers working with pharma and CPG companies are doing their best to help these organizations use digital channels such as social media effectively--but can healthcare social media sites/tools become trustworthy, authorative problem-solving/research destinations for healthcare information seekers? Or are they simply ethnographic waystations, offering patient color commentary to an information seeker's goals/needs?  

Jonathan Richman keeps track of the pharma and healthcare social media sites as they emerge on his Pharma and Healthcare Social Media wiki. This wiki is a great resource for those who want to watch use of social media in pharma/healthcare evolve. Most of the sites listed here are not destinations for "relaxation, social interaction, and escape." Some are promotional or educational; many are helpful resources for information seekers with specific conditions and caretakers of those with specific conditions. 

Just a couple of the key questions that remain for Pharma/CPG organizations:

1. Are all digital utterances of an organization by individuals within it legally a "promotion" or a "promise/offer?"
2. How does a digital conversation within an online community or social network site differ from a phone call or conference call?

Is the answer as easy as Stewart Brand's sign-on message for the The Well, back in 1985?  "You own your own words..."