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Designers, alongside engineers and marketers, are increasingly tasked with adapting a brand or product experience across multiple platforms. Developing a product now means integrating not just hardware and software—but also creating for mobile, gaming consoles, desktop computers, tablets and more. Join us in asking leaders from key consumer companies like Microsoft, Valve, HTC and Amazon: How do you adapt to the consumer universe? What are your greatest challenges and opportunities? Learn more about this joint Microsoft–Tactile effort on October 2nd and get your tickets today.

Fall 2014 will bring some great opportunities to engage with Tactile and our Seattle community. We’re co-producing two events around current design topics: “Convergence II” with General Assembly (yes, the education institution) on September 17, and “Design for the Consumer Universe” with Microsoft on October 2. Our famed annual Halloween party is right around the corner, too—which means it’s never too early to start considering costumes. Registration is free and open for both panel events and we hope to see you there.

They’re back! Once an intern and a contractor, respectively, ace industrial designers Heman Au and Ben Mabry have joined the Tactile team full–time. They have jumped right into CMF, med–tech and avionics projects with gusto—and we no longer remember life without them. Welcome, Heman and Ben.

Last week, we began collaborating with a new client on their first foray into hardware development. They have a very well–respected name in the interactive space, synonymous with quality. Of course, they want their first physical product to authentically represent their high–end brand. Which led to a conversation about what, exactly, does it mean for a product to be premium?

For this particular device, we might indicate premium status with a high price point, luxe materials or thoughtful features (or some combination thereof). Our key question here is, what would this client’s hyper–loyal users consider premium? Our client already has deep knowledge about their customers’ behaviors. With the addition of research, testing, and iteration, we can help them gain a fuller picture of the physical product experience that will meet or exceed their customers’ expectations. Our client will likely have to make a few tough choices about what’s feasible in this first endeavor. In the end, though, the customer will pick up this beautiful, top–quality new product and immediately feel it was created just for them—because it was.

We’re thrilled to announce Part II of our Convergence panel series. “Convergence II: Where Physical & Interactive Design Meet” will take place on Thursday, September 17, 2014 at Impact Hub Seattle as part of the Seattle Design Festival. We’ll bring together industrial and UX designers, architects, urban planners and more to explore the challenges and opportunities of designing for every type of space. Register for this free event—with a deconstructed panel format—at https://convergencetwo.eventbrite.com and tell your friends and colleagues! We’ll see you in September.

The internet was abuzz last week with the announcement of Apple’s Health app and HealthKit data repository—and the multitude of hardware and software integrations likely to follow (like the one with Cue, a “personal molecular-level testing device, which can give you an instant read on your influenza status). Aside from Health’s mass appeal, the most notable news to us is Apple’s collaboration with big healthcare players like the Mayo Clinic and EPIC. EPIC, the 800-pound gorilla in Electronic Health Records software, began pulling data from popular tracking devices like Fitbit and Withings into its MyChart for patients a few years ago. Still, health information interfaces for both providers and consumers, like EPIC’s, remain clunky and substantially less usable than your typical smartphone app. Apple’s foray into health management represents an opportunity for EPIC to stay at the forefront of the data revolution. It remains to be seen, though, whether a partnership with Apple—known for its focus on brand and an elegant user interface–will influence the day-to-day experience of accessing health data beyond the smartphone.

With the arrival of May came a fresh face at Tactile: Aidan, an energetic and laser-focused Industrial Design intern. Following his junior year at Western Washington University, Aidan took a year off to work on advanced concepts in mobile audio at Bose in Boston. He had his eye on Tactile’s nimble, intimate studio environment ever since a student tour two years ago, and he’s jazzed to work on products he’ll actually see through to market. Equally excited about research, synthesis and sketching, Aidan is eager to understand the big picture of marketing + engineering + design + strategy. When he’s not soaking up design wisdom (or, ahem, learning opportunities), Aidan loves to write, photograph and visit museums—and he just happens to be a champion archer.

Meet savvy UX designer Kim Gladow. A Western Washington University grad, Kim is the very definition of versatile. She produces, shoots and edits beautiful videos; she creates sophisticated interface architectures; and she’s a talented graphic designer and front-end developer. What’s more, Kim is equally comfortable shaping UX strategy with key consumer clients and building out visual identity assets for industrial equipment interfaces.

“I love working on projects that disrupt the normal or expected. I have the most fun designing across platforms and disciplines (ID + UX, video + UX) within a single project. In those instances, function governs form and content dictates the platform—and it’s interesting when the outcome is not just a website, but an entire system.”

Kim cites Seattle as a compelling place to be involved in UX because design here is often about relevance over novelty. “Sometimes it’s about innovation. Often, though, it’s updating design for industries with 10–20 year product iterations; they’re not as deeply connected with design, so they’re thrilled with something that’s new and better than before—and it sets them on a brand new path.”

When Kim’s not tackling a multipart project, she’s playing ultimate frisbee in a weird costume, traveling or crushing on cephalapods.

The Seattle Design Festival is working to bring together designers and creatives from a variety of disciplines—and engaging them in building inspired, interactive experiences on the “Design Block” in September. Tactile is happy to support the Design Festival this year. Join the frenzied fun on May 16 (make sure to sign up online by May 9) and get ready to rumble.

SEEKING A BETTER METER

On April 11, the Seattle Department of Transportation will conclude its trial of seven new pay parking stations along Fourth Avenue downtown. In our last post, we pointed out some of the major usability shortfalls in the machines; now we’ll focus on the opportunities that remain in improving the city’s overall experience of parking.

The Tactile team spoke with Margo Polley, Project Manager, who outlined SDOT’s priorities in selecting the new meters. They include options for physical retrofits and technology updates; reliable network connectivity; adaptable pay rates for time-based “value pricing”; a full keyboard for pay-by-plate; and faster credit card processing. The seven pay station models selected by the city are now on the street for testing, and one of those models will soon be installed at 12,000 locations throughout Seattle.

Unfortunately, SDOT didn’t establish any specific usability criteria or define an optimal pay parking experience. Before budget cuts, Seattle had a more centralized design office that might have overseen a cohesive visual system or user experience mandate. Without that, the city is doing its best to create a better driving and parking experience within city limits.

SDOT earnestly wants Seattle to be among the most innovative cities worldwide in terms of parking policy and implementation. Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, have experimented with chips embedded in busy streets to help adapt the price—and therefore parking inventory—at peak times. Calgary and Pittsburgh are phasing in pay–by–plate systems that reduce waste and enforcer time. It’s hard to innovate, however, with a strained budget, a burdensome bureaucracy and limited hardware options.

What’s a forward-thinking (but under–resourced) city to do? In our opinion, Seattle should start by establishing a set of basic usability principles that SDOT can incorporate into future projects: uniform controls, consistent graphics, balanced human factors and intuitive information architecture. Tactile shared our interaction insights with SDOT and we believe even minimal improvements to the trial machines’ interface could make paying for street parking easier and faster.

GOING MOBILE
On the plus side, Seattle has been exploring a new mobile tech approach to parking. First rolled out in August 2013, PayByPhone is a city service that lets drivers pay for parking via smartphone app or by calling a toll free number. At PayByPhone’s launch, Mayor Mike McGinn commented that, “just by using your phone, it’s now faster and easier to pay for parking in Seattle. We’re deploying technology to make it more convenient for people to visit downtown and our neighborhood business districts.” PayByPhone has already been successfully implemented by other cities including San Francisco, Vancouver, New York, Boston and Miami.

So far in Seattle, however, PBP has only seen a 3% adoption rate (about 125,000 parking purchases were made via PayByPhone from August 2013 to April 2014). SDOT and PayByPhone representatives agree that initial marketing campaigns helped jump-start the program, but more word of mouth will be essential for increased adoption. They said that drivers who do use PayByPhone generally prefer it to traditional meters; the biggest barrier is simply lack of awareness. Some of the benefits for drivers include:

•   Drivers can pay for parking from their car—and add time from a remote location.
•   The app sends automatic reminders to a user’s phone when parking time is running out.
•   Motorcycle and scooter owners don’t need to stick pay station receipts to their bike headlights.
•   Quicker transactions, since the app stores previous payment and license plate information.
•   Drivers can look up past transactions and print parking receipts online.

The city, meanwhile, benefits from better data integration, less wear and tear on physical meters (which means fewer repairs), reduced cash collection and easier adaptation to demand–based pricing. Not to mention the fact that more people add time (and therefore revenue) remotely when they underestimate their parking time and would have previously risked a ticket rather than making a second trip to the meter. From a user experience standpoint, the PayByPhone app can also be updated regularly, allowing for new features and fixes.

There are a couple of drawbacks: PayByPhone users pay a thirty–five cent convenience fee for each parking transaction. And calling PayByPhone from a non–smartphone doesn’t really save much time over using a physical pay station (unless coins are the alternative). But for smartphone–carrying, tech–loving, efficiency–craving drivers—particularly those who park in South Lake Union, downtown and Capitol Hill—PayByPhone is a boon.

So how can Seattle increase adoption to take advantage of a technology that seems to be effective and user–friendly? Try some incentives: Waive the convenience fee or discount parking for residents, as Miami has done. Or put energy into a viral promotional campaign that incentivizes Seattle drivers and visitors to download the PayByPhone app before they’re even near a meter. More usage means better parking data and more revenue for the city—and a better user experience for drivers who just don’t want to deal with confusing meters.

SDOT’s Parking Pay Station Trial ends on April 15 (you can take the survey at seattle.gov/transportation/parking/newpaystations). We hope the city will learn from user feedback and make usability tweaks to both the new station interface and any future systems. If the cloud in replacing 12,000 parking meters is choosing among models that are decidedly more reliable but only slightly more user–friendly, then PayByPhone might just be the silver lining.