The document discusses how rapid technological disruption and the democratization of knowledge through the Internet have challenged traditional models of design, business, and control over products and ideas. It argues that successful design going forward will require flexibility, simplicity, enabling user customization and experiences rather than strictly defined products, and building platforms that can evolve beyond their original contexts. Complexity and interdependence may no longer confer advantages if they limit responsiveness to constant change.

1. Letting go...
on design in a time of disruption
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/basheertome/5557362895

2. napoleon bonaparte
for much of human history, we have
been on a quest for perfection + control...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghewgill/5046616680

3. much of it
started with this...
movable lead type
http://www.flickr.com/photos/purdman1/2875431305

4. “...there were perhaps 30,000 books
in all of Europe before Gutenberg
printed his bible...less than 50 years later
there were as many as 10-12 million"
“Gutenberg’s Legacy”, University of Texas
gutenberg parenthesis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmwk/3517373312

5. fewer books
printed in Latin
democratisation spread of
of knowledge v.1 knowledge in local
languages
standardisation wider access to knowledge
of spelling for women and the poor
development of
formal grammar
the knock-on effects were
nothing short of revolutionary
http://www.flickr.com/photos/humblog/452238876

6. but our ability to capture,
store, and constrain knowledge,
also led us to believe that knowledge
might be a finite thing...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2938685296

7. ...that if we experimented
long enough, we could discover
"the truth" about all sorts of things...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/4127624763

8. iso certified
...and "the best way"
to do just about everything...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigbirdz/4507266406

9. google patents
we protected ideas, and
claimed them as our own...
http://www.google.com/patents

10. design thinking
six sigma
we created processes, enabling us to
duplicate what we'd learned...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/siliconbeachtraining/3925458997

11. industrialisation, automation and
globalisation further amplified this...
chongqing china
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fungleo/4771589650

12. ...once you can duplicate
something you can scale it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/3009516045

13. ...and if you can scale it,
you can make money
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daverugby83/4478007023

14. bruce mau massive change
thanks to the Internet,
much of this is starting to unravel...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadmagiera/265752353

15. ...scale is still important,
but the knowledge + power in
the network are now more
important than that of any
one group or individual...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5129303018

16. social networks act as "amplifiers"
spreading messages and ideas...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28misguidedsouls/5522310921

17. let a product, or idea loose online,
and it's likely to grow...
crazy frog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardoalvarez/229045487

18. the annoying thing
but ideas don't just grow,
they self-replicate and evolve...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardoalvarez/229046257

19. swine flu mexico
often at a pace and intensity that
is normally associated with viruses...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eneas/3479302322

20. this is actually
bacteria...
and while viruses can be contained,
it's impossible to contain ideas
once the power of
the network sets in...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/2679758872

21. http://www.flickr.com/photos/altemark/39593706

22. portable, always on,
always connected devices
have only amplified this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/misbehave/2352753067

23. combine all these things and
you have the perfect storm...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nebraskasc/3659328702

24. an endless, often over-connected
feedback loop...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/311744213

25. propelling unexpected
ideas to greatness...
angry birds
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yghelloworld/4965465016

26. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcVyvg2Qlo
enabling new voices...
it gets better

27. egyptian revolution
...accelerating change
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahmadhammoudphotography/5410375058

28. market crash 2011
economic crisis 2008
...or causing chaos
on a global scale
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccun934/2899155411

29. "events, threats and opportunities aren't just coming
at us faster or with less predictability; they are
converging and influencing each other to
create entirely new situations..."
"...these first-of-their-kind developments
require unprecedented degrees of creativity"
Capitalising on Complexity - 2010 IBM CEO Study
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmv/3371886

30. nathan road hong kong
this new environment presents engineers,
designers, (or anyone who makes products)
with some decidedly unique challenges...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/z_wenjie/5602616401

31. the balance of power
is shifting...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/5661879987

32. “The idea that someone can
program our consumption is becoming
obsolete, and fast.” - Seth Godin
“The extraordinary revolution of media choice”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/3275235423/

33. we can no longer expect customers
to interact with our creations
in a linear, exclusive, or
predictable manner...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/3496433929

34. users no longer have to wait for us
to create experiences for them...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncanup/3526550845

35. if something doesn't suit them...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessehull/163703252

36. kindle teleprompter
...they can change it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24763767@N03/3907937027

37. "The world is split into websites that
work with Instapaper, and stuff
that has now been rendered
irrelevant to me.” flipboard
@killdozer
readability
instapaper
...they can improve it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanl/4818276266

38. ...enhance it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramus/5222185714

39. Curation & Social discovery
tech support Shopping mall
app store
Serendipity...(and fun!)
...even compete with it
http://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora

40. makerbot thing-o-matic
3D printing
...very soon, they will
be able to go much further
http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/4955025544

41. ...this is not
necessarily a bad thing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/salty_soul/4737350118

42. "Issuing your customers with something that is rough,
incomplete, and possibly even substandard seems
counterintuitive but there is growing evidence that
people don't necessarily want the perfect product..."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiseb/13541804

43. "...they prefer to deal with something ragged
around the edges that they can adapt or improve."
Loose, Martin Thomas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emerson12/2682480262

44. caricature
personas
in our quest to create perfection,
scenarios
we've also tended to presume users
behave in a generally homogenous way...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/2206470413

45. complex vs. complicated
...this is increasingly
far from the truth
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/3832910201

46. marketers often use an audience
of 50 million to mark the "penetration"
of a product into society...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexnormand/5913845927

47. historically, market penetration took time,
(which was usually a good thing)
traffic 1963
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerzombie/5173624489

48. traffic 2011
with time came stronger mental models,
development of social norms and an understanding
of how a product might fit into our lives...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/highwaysagency/4542411761

49. time also enabled us to work out
those embarrassing mistakes...
sinclair c5
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachronism_uk/853247355

50. for better or worse
time is now a luxury...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vvvracer/4436798901

51. ...the big shift
as coined by John Seely Brown
stability
creation of new
infrastructural
technology
followed by
rapid
disruption
stability
years
S curve - stable over decades
Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison http://www.flickr.com/photos/vvvracer/4436798901

52. ...the big shift
as coined by John Seely Brown
stability
creation of new many new infrastructural
infrastructural technologies
technology
followed by frequent disruption
rapid
disruption smaller periods of stability
stability
years years
S curve - stable over decades the present (and likely future)
Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison http://www.flickr.com/photos/vvvracer/4436798901

53. it took radio 40 years to reach
a market penetration of 50 million...
Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/5510707992

54. by comparison, we had only
10 years to 'adapt' to television...
Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahreido/4566354684

55. iconic
while the iPod took only 5 years...
Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen

56. star wars kid
and YouTube,
less than 6 months...
Source: ReWired, Larry D. Rosen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU

57. Google+ may reach that milestone
in less than half this time...
Google + in fact reached this
milestone in about 3 months...
to the tune of 2million new
users a day!
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

58. researchers are discovering that our rapid
technology adoption is creating 'generation gaps'
at a pace that was once unheard of...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3156948184

59. "People two, three or four years apart
are having completely different
experiences with technology."
Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center, Internet and American Life Project
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tocaboca/5523598823

60. we've always had different
tastes than our siblings
...but this is different.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57123627@N04/5818687047

61. "My 2-year-old daughter surprised me
recently with two words: "Daddy's book."
She was holding my Kindle e-reader."
The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s, NY Times
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafaelrobles/4791344184

62. "I just opened my Moleskine
and looked for the search box."
- @aral
these changes are not
limited to our children...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smaedli/5953114412/

63. add to this the global nature of the Internet,
and those blind men with that elephant
really had it easy...
information deficit
different perspectives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

64. each of us experiencing, understanding
and engaging with products
in a slightly different way...
interpretations
http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiobeerhorst/5929704093

65. still
while companies such as Apple are successfully
designing multi-layered and tightly
interdependent systems of experience...
apple store
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparker/460227098

66. their success relies in great part on
their ability to control and contain
most touch points and interactions...
magic kingdom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdharrison/2407640646

67. most products will not
have this luxury...
rubber ducks lost at sea
android china
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanj/4432327487

68. mental models
OLPC
design by committee
today the most perfectly
orchestrated products may in fact
be the first to fail...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_and_selena/5051157647/

69. for each layer of experience
there will be trade-offs
in complexity
nespresso coffee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnus_d/3162046451

70. nespresso vs
george clooney nespresso
and an increasing reliance on other
actors in the ecosystem...
cost of aluminium
fair trade ethics
recycle nespresso capsules
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavouz/3137171590

71. volcano UPS delivery
...reducing a product's ability to react
to the abrupt changes in environment
that have become all too common
fuel costs
union UPS handbook
carbon costs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zyphbear/446780548

72. bodum
bialetti
french press
in an increasingly complex world,
the most successful products may
in fact be the simplest–or most flexible...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22179048@N05/5211091279

73. enabling pathways for users to find
meaning and enrich their lives, through
experiences they create for themselves...
toca boca
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tocaboca/5523734441

74. cardboard box play
"the best designs will set the stage, but
stop short of fully defining the experience."
Adam Silver, Frog Design
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hodac/2243470147

75. newspaper publishing
print media process
the most valued products will be designed to live
beyond the device, context or technology
they were originally intended for...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform

76. they may even be designed
with no primary context at all...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/3151369718

77. domino falling
but letting go of 'experience' as we once knew it
should not absolve us of responsibility...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/466394182

78. and developers
in fact, as designers we now have more
responsibility than ever before...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/2455551478

79. "A responsibility that is directly proportional
to the number of people we may affect
with every product we create."
Video Games and the Human Condition, Jonathan Blow

80. and the Internet
the more technology weave their way through
our lives, the more important it will be for us
to consider the implications of our work...
segway
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterkaminski/181721075

81. "We are creating a blueprint together
–a design for our collective future."
Douglas Rushkoff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaykayess/4294959440

82. minority report interface
natural ui
twitter URLs
each meme, pattern, metaphor, gesture,
script and API becomes a part of that future...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghewgill/5046616680

83. "We shape our tools and
thereafter our tools shape us."
Marshall McLuhan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghewgill/5046616680

84. ...what future do we
wish to create?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickflashphotos/3393880262

85. there's no guarantee that the work
we do will have an impact...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stickwithjosh/5288115744

86. but there's the very real risk
that it may...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/3543419506

87. "Learn from yesterday, live for today,
hope for tomorrow. The important thing
is not to stop questioning."
Albert Einstein
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brostad/3547607847

88. @yiibu
s
contact u
at
hello@yiibu.com thank you
many thanks to the
amazing photographers
on
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0
licensed under
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
available on
http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu/letting-go-9109114
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinou/453593446