Implosion Labs

Principles of User Research for VR and AR

danyaglabau — Wed, 16 May 2018 14:02:13 +0000

What do people want from VR and AR? What makes some experiences “work” at creating immersion and embodiment? Where does VR fit into the lives and habits of busy people? And how can technologists and designers make VR more closely meet the needs and desires of all users?

On Tuesday, May 15, 2018, we dug into these questions and more in our first-ever VR research techniques workshop, Principles of User Research for VR and AR, held in collaboration with our friends at Jump Into the Light VR Cinema and Playlab. In this workshop, we did a deep dive into two qualitative methodologies, open-ended interviews and participant observation.

We started out with a short talk about these methods, looked at some examples of data collection instruments and real-world data from an original Implosion Labs study on the VR theater experience, and then got hands on with trying out VR experiences and research techniques. Our group was interdisciplinary and multi-industry, including UX researchers and designers, service designers, music composer, creative technologists with experience in VR, artists, and health technology entrepreneurs.

Read the full story on Medium.

Cyborg Anthropology Workshop: July 12-13 in NYC

danyaglabau — Wed, 02 May 2018 14:14:28 +0000

We’re pleased to announce our first-ever workshop in New York City! Join us for our Cyborg Anthropology Workshop July 12-13 in Brooklyn, NY.

Please sign up through Eventbrite.

DESCRIPTION

This workshop provides a deep dive into cyborg theory and cyborg anthropology. The figure of the cyborg is, in the words of Donna Haraway, a “condensed image of imagination and material reality,” and in a cyborg world, “nature and culture are reworked.” To that end, the workshop will explore how a cyborg anthropology approach uniquely combines grounded research on the realities of human-technology interactions with an openness to speculation and imagination. We will also discuss how to use the lessons of cyborg anthropology to jumpstart innovation and reinvigorate established research programs.

Participants will leave the workshop with new knowledge and experience in research techniques used in ethnography and design research for studying human-technology systems.

Schedule

Thursday, July 12th, 2018, 6-9 pm

Friday, July 13th, 2018, 9:30 am – 5:30 pm

What You’ll Learn

The workshop will cover topics including:

Overview of anthropological ethnography
Cyborgs in fact and theory
The ethnographic toolkit
Ethnography and technology
Case studies: medical cyborgs and driverless cars

Participants will learn through:

Background readings provided before the workshop
Reading periods during the workshop
Facilitated discussions about readings and research techniques
2 guided ethnographic activities
Library of reference materials available after the workshop

Who Will Benefit

This workshop will be most useful for people with some qualitative research experience, both in-house and independent, including:

Practicing ethnographers
Scholars exploring applied ethnography
Design researchers
User researchers/UXers
Qualitative researchers
Market researchers
Branding consultants and brand managers
Product and project managers with research responsibilities

Details, Details

Snacks and meals will be provided for both days of the workshop.

The Human Show: From Patients to Users

danyaglabau — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 13:13:16 +0000

What does it mean to be a patient in healthcare today? How can researchers and healthcare professionals better approach patients as powerful decision makers in control of their own destiny?

Implosion Labs founder Danya Glabau discusses these issues and more in episode 1 of The Human Show, a new podcast that seeks to understand innovation through social science.

Listen to the episode here or subscribe on iTunes.

Danya Glabau is Rethinking Design Anthropology

danyaglabau — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:15:32 +0000

Implosion Labs Founder Dr. Danya Glabau will be presenting on the future of food and leading a design anthropology workshop at the Social Innovation and Social Justice: Rethinking Design Anthropology conference, March 29-30 at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH.

During this three-day event that brings together design, anthropology, environmental studies, and other professors and practitioners from the University if Cincinnati and beyond, Dr. Glabau will be presenting research on how to think about the future of food and leading a cyborg anthropology workshop. Workshops at the event are open to the public with registration.

In the talk Moon Dust and Rainbows, Dr. Glabau will discuss how food consumption and production are not only issues of individual choice, but, in fact, help to maintain and reproduce durable structures of difference and exclusion in society. These structures matter for who has access to health and happiness in the contemporary United States, a society marked by increasingly unequal access to the resources necessary for both biological and social flourishing. As technology-driven proposals about the future of food proliferate, the issue of what social forms they may reproduce should be problematized in innovation, research, and public discourse.

In her workshop How Like a Cyborg: Rethinking the Agency of Users and Things in Innovation, participants will get an introduction to “cyborg anthropology,” a research methodology that proposes deep integration of the analysis of humans and machines, stresses the responsibility of researchers to pay attention to how technologies can perpetuate difference and power dynamics, and centers collaboration. Through short readings by theorists like Donna Haraway, Joseph Dumit, Natasha Myers, and Bruno Latour, participants will gain an appreciation of the philosophy and ethics behind this approach to research. Special emphasis will be placed on recognizing the agency of non-humans and what that means for human users and societies. Then, a structured ethnographic activity will allow participants to test out these theoretical propositions in the material world.

Matt Bernius talks Open Source at Libre Planet

danyaglabau — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:08:16 +0000

Implosion Labs Affiliate Researcher Matthew Bernius will be presenting at the Free Software Foundations’ LibrePlanet conference in March. He will share findings from his ethnographic research, sponsored by Mozilla, into Open Source literacy on college campuses.

Find out more about the event and register for the conference here.

The Brand Hole Podcast: How and Why to Ask How

danyaglabau — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:04:03 +0000

What can ethnography-driven research do for brand strategy? We explain in a two-part sit down with Caitlin Barrett at the Brand Hole Podcast.

Part 1: How to Ask How

Part 2: Why to Ask How

How Patients Drive the Future of Healthcare

danyaglabau — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 14:59:31 +0000

In a recent conversation with Kistein Monkhouse from Patient Orator, Danya Glabau discussed patient activism, how to listen to patients, and how to improve healthcare.

Cyborgs and the Future of Technology

danyaglabau — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 14:56:30 +0000

Are we all already cyborgs?

That’s what thinkers like Donna Haraway believe. In her classic essay, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” she argues:

By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism – in short, cyborgs… The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centers structuring any possibility of historical transformation.

But what does this mean for the future of technology? In a recent talk at Nerd Nite NYC, Implosion Labs Founder Danya Glabau explained for an audience of tech and culture enthusiasts in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Among the many implications for real-world technological development, the philosophical figure of the cyborg encourages us to:

Rewrite our origin myths. As technology changes, our traditional stories about how the past informs the present and what counts as progress become less useful for the decisions we currently face. Cyborgs, as hybrids of machines and living beings, encourage us to rethink our origin myths and understanding of progress to better match the tools and possibilities that we currently face.
Rethink the mind/body divide. Consumer tech like wearables and the ubiquitous use of smartphones extend our memory and knowledge base, even though we interact with them through our hands and bodies. These are great examples of how technologies are breaking down traditional divisions between mind and body.
Understand the changing face of labor. With outsourcing, miniaturization, automation, and now artificial intelligence, the jobs humans do are changing, as are the kind and number of people who are doing them. Technological changes are forcing us to have difficult conversations about what work will look like in the future.
Invent new metaphors. We might not yet have all the words and mental frameworks we will need to think about the future of technology. Cyborg theory encourages us to experiment with language to come up with new metaphors for the relationship between humans and technology.
Finally, remember that technology is made by people. We should never forget that most technologies changing our world were conceived and made by people. People have control over future technologies – and can reclaim control over old ones that seem to have run amok.