This presentation was presented at BNO Spellbound Amsterdam in march 2011 and dives into the subject of Meta Products. It explains what Meta Products are and how they can be designed. The introduction contains some portfolio cases of Booreiland.

1. PLATFORM FOR CREATIVE PRODUCTIONS
all content 2011 Booreiland

2. Design & strategy for
web, print and meta
—Booreiland
Hi there, we are Booreiland. We design web experiences, visual identities & print work, and Meta Products.

3. WHAT WE DO
—Some selected works

4. Ungatoys.nl
Unga toys is an Amsterdam based toy development studio. They develop toys for big brands such as Chupa Chups, Tomy and
lately for Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn as well. Unga asked us to transform their company ethos into an adventure that
could be directly transformed into a blasting online experience.

5. DUTCH CREATIVE
dé indexering van de Nederlandse creatieve industrie
www.dutch-creative.nl
Dutch-Creative.nl
Dutch Creative is the ultimate index of creative agencies from Holland, covering practically all creative disciplines. This
initiative founded by BIS Publishers aims at businesses that outsource creative work and for that purpose need an overview of
Dutch creativity. Consisting of a series of eight books and a complete web index makes Dutch Creative the best of Holland.

6. Vormator.com
Vormator is the ultimate design challenge that requires artists all over the world to create dazzling visuals by using only eight
shapes within a set of given rules. This project was kicked off by ourselves, together with the amazing Zeptonn. From over 500
contestants we made a selection of nearly 80 to appear in a book, called Vormator, the elements of design.

7. Okimok.com
Okimok is a fun community where you can instantly share your photos with your friends. With the Okimok iPhone app you can
easily upload photos to your photo stream on okimok.com. Your friends can follow you and keep up to date with your
adventures.

8. RandomWordMachine.com
Generating random words is easy. Producing pronounceable words is a whole other story. The algorithm of the Random Word
Machine is based on neurolinguistic theories. This ensures that the whole space is explored of theoretical words that could
have been. You can use this machine as a general brainstorm tool, for producing brand names, or just for fun.

9. WHAT’S NEXT?
—The future of the web

10. THE physicalWEB
The MOBILE web
The physical web, the internet of things, Meta Products... all names used in the context of products getting connected to the
web.

11. WHAT CAME BEFORE
—A brief overview of history

12. THE MOBILEweb
The mobile WEB
Meta Products are a direct result of the web becoming more mobile.

13. The social web
HET SOCIALE WEB
The rise of the social web (especially Facebook and Twitter) has allowed users to add data to the web as well.

14. The INTERNET
rise of internet
The internet as an endless source of information, directly accessible.

15. Software
SOFTWARE
Software in combination with hardware opened up many new possibilities, first for industries, later also for consumers.

16. Plastic fantastic
PLASTIC FANTASTIC
With the invention of plastics, products could be given any possible form, and standardization of products really set in.

17. Industrial revolution
INDUSTRIËLE REVOLUTIE
The Industrial Revolution was the first sign of machines taking over, as goods were produced for the masses.

18. WHAT IS IT EXACTLY?
—Meta Products explained

19. Touchpoints of The Cloud
The Cloud has many physical and virtual touchpoints.

20. Meta product
A Meta Product is a symbiosis of the physical and virtual worlds. The physical part often consists of sensors, actuators and/or
interfaces, while the virtual part is a set of data hanging in The Cloud.

21. Meta Products are web enabled
product-service systems
People, products and the web form a mutually interdependent system. In this light we should not talk about user-product
interaction anymore but rather about user-network and product-network interaction.

22. WHY NOW?
—Where does this trend come from?

23. Data is abundant and instantly available
People upload photos, videos, music and much more.

24. Tons of communication technologies
Lots of communication technologies make connectivity nowadays a given.

25. Storage & bandwidth prices have dropped
Storage and bandwidth have become almost neglectable.

26. META ARCHITECTURE
—Five classes of information streams

27. Class 1 PRODUCT WEB
Sensors Interface
Class 2 PRODUCT WEB
Actuators Interface
Class 3 PRODUCT WEB
Sensors & actuators Interface
Class 4 PRODUCT WEB PRODUCT
Sensors & actuators Server Sensors & actuators
Class 5 PRODUCT WEB
Tag Interface
Meta Products consist of 5 classes, depending on how the information flow goes.

28. EXAMPLES
—Meta Products in the wild

29. EPOC neuroheadset
—by Emotiv
Sensing wearables
The EPOC neuroheadset controls a digital interface by means of brainwaves.

30. Wattson
—by DIY Kyoto
Ambient intelligence
Wattson measures your energy consumption in your home.

31. Skål
—by Jørn Knutsen et al.
Ubimedia
Skål is an RFID controlled bowl that triggers digital events by placing tagged objects in it.

32. PokenSpark
—by Poken
Identification
Poken is your digital (social) business card that lets you instantly swap contact info.

33. TomTom Go
—by TomTom
Navigation & location
Tomtom lets you navigate your route while being updated via the web on road traffic.

34. SenseAware
—by FedEx
Monitoring & tracking
SenseAware tracks package conditions during distribution.

35. A.R. Drone
—by Parrot
Toys & games
AR Drone is controlled with your iPhone while digital content is added on the screen of the iPhone.

36. COMPLEXITIES
—Nobody said it was easy

37. Unaligned life cycles
DESIGN
PRODUCTION E USAGE
S AG
U US
AG
E
DISTRIBUTION PRO D
AG
E
U
US
C
U SA
TI
DESIGN
ON
PURCHASE
GE
AGE
M
US
USAGE
AI
NT
AG
US
ENA CE
N
E
U
REPAIRMENTS GE SA
SA U GE
USAGE
END OF LIFE
Traditional linear product design processes seem to be unaligned with the more agile and iterative web design processes.
However, with Meta Products, atoms and bits are forced to be friends.

38. Designing black boxes
More and more value is shifted to content rather than to the product itself. Products become merely service avatars. How
should product designers cope with this?

39. HOW TO APPROACH?
—Tackling design issues

40. Network Focused Design
Designers interested in designing Meta Products should look at the total network. They should map what resources entities in
the network exchange and look where the chain can be optimized.

41. NFD tool set
At Booreiland we made a game out of this approach, using method cards.

42. Combine disciplines
In the end, it’s all about leading cross-discipline teams.

43. From context to technology
...and designing outside-in instead of inside-out.

44. Applying data as a material
Also, product designers should think of data as a material they can apply onto their products.

45. Business modelling
For business modelling, all the traditional models can be mixed and matched resulting in new interesting revenue models.

46. PUBLICATIONS
—What’s been written

47. MetaProducts.nl
Follow metaproducts.nl to stay up to date with our findings.

48. Inspirational blogs
nearfield.org | arduino.cc/blog | designmind.frogdesign.com | berglondon.com/blog | asmarterplanet.com
Some inspirational blogs...

49. Meta Products book
Expected summer 2011
We are currently writing a book called Meta Products.

50. Inspirational books
This Is Service Design Thinking | Smart Things | The Value and Meaning of Meta Products
Some inspirational books...

51. PLATFORM FOR CREATIVE PRODUCTIONS
booreiland.nl
metaproducts.nl
@booreiland
all content 2011 Booreiland