Brock Craft talk at Metropolitan Works, London

Last night I attended a talk by Brock Craft, one of the partners at Tinker. It.


He talked about the development of the digital world and how they are trying to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds.

This is particularly of interest to me at present as I am working on a project at the moment that is attempting to bring elements occurring in virtual platforms such as Second Life and World of Warcraft into the physical world.

After I had a number of questions (Unfortunately I wasn't picked to ask!)

How do Tinker. It see their role? It strikes me that at present they are creating really interesting and engaging ideas that are almost exploring applications for new technologies. The applications they are producing are fun and interesting and suggest possible uses for the technology- but how will this develop? Their are limitless uses for the technology their using but how does he see his role developing?

Designers have always been interested in exploring new technologies and throughout history they are often the people that experiment and test how things could be used- but I am unsure whether this is how Brock See's his role.

He also talked a lot about systems problems, such as those at Toyota and in medical institutions where lethal doses have been administered accidentally- and discussed these as interactions design problems. I like Brock cannot understand, especially how the later example can occur. How are designers being involved in creating these . No system should be designed where these things can occur, and prototyping and user testing as well as designing the equipment and process with the staff (Co- design) would reduce the risks massively. These are interaction design problems.

Anyway I digress, but it was a great talk in a great venue. Thanks Brock.