TANDOT

We were invited to present one of the opening talks at Unconference Sheffield 09, a 20/20 Ignite-style talk as part of the “Stimulus” strand. 20 seconds per slide limits the depth it’s possible to go in to, but this is a brief (some would say, hectic) to how we see the world and the basis of our practice.

In broad terms, we look at how the old top-down message culture (particularly in terms of organisations reliant on PR and marketing) is breaking down, and even being actively undermined, by the shift that online communication has ushered in. A look at Ryanair Vs. Jason Roe reminds us that this democratic environment is also two-way, and as such large organisations do not nescessarily benefit from their scale.

We move on to look at how the architectures of the web are causing a cultural shift towards opennness and more egalitarian communication. We look at the ideas of discoverability, wayfinding and how organisations can create paths and signposts to work with their visitor base, and reinforce those paths for the future.

Finally we remind ourselves that conversation and language are themselves technologies; basic frameworks that underpin the most advanced systems that define our cultural identity and mediate our lives. Jürgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action is built on the ideal of a free public sphere, without external pressures influencing discourse, which empowers participants and leads to an freeer, more informed and consensual society.

Unsheffield

We’d like to thank Jag Gill, the team, and sponsors for organising such an excellent event -  always a thankless task. If you were there, we hope you got something from our presentation and the other delegates.

Contact Dave X Dave
(Also at tandot.co.uk/)
After publishing his first game in his teens, Dave had an eclectic career in arts and technology, as a journalist, designer and strategist. After successfully launching the UK's largest web-based EPG service in the late 90s, Dave earned his Master of Arst in interactive media from the University of Sussex. His thesis project looked at spatial data, bridging physical space with electronic resources using mobile devices. Subsequently he has spoken at a number of conferences, started a Media Arts collective in London, and now heads up the non-visual design department at TANDOT, helping partners anticipate and employ the near future spaces where technology and society meet.Click for all posts by Dave regarding this article.

• 3rd Sector
• communication
• community
• discourse
• engagement
• Lightning Talk
• paths
• Presentation
• Unsheffield 09
• wayfinding

SCANDOT is a QRcode plugin for Firefox 3 and higher. It embeds a dynamic QRcode in every page you visit or print, allowing you to easily scan and revisit the page again on printouts or your mobile phone, without any writing, typing, saving or emailing.

INSTALLATION

Click the logo above to download and install SCANDOT from the Mozilla.org site.

Alternately, click here to download and install SCANDOT manually. Download the file then drag and drop it onto a running Firefox window. It will ask you to confirm the installation and prompt you to restart firefox.

USE

How to customise your toolbar

Right-click the toolbar (or control-click it on OS X) and pick ‘customise toolbar’.

Near the bottom of the list of buttons is the SCANDOT button. Click and drag it to your main toolbar to quickly toggle QR Codes on and off.

How to add the SCANDOT button to your toolbar

The Toolbar Button

Click the button once and QR Codes are enabled. Click it again and they’re disabled.

Configuration Options

The configuration panel is under the Tools menu

To configure SCANDOT, either context (right / control) - click the icon in the Add-ons menu item under the Tools menu and select “options”, or click the “options button”. Quicker access is available from the Tools menu, under SCANDOT.

In the configuration dialogue window, you can set which corner of the page the QR Code is displayed in, and the size of the code. Longer URLs work better and are recognisable by more devices when they are given more space, but generally we’ve found around 200 pixels gives good results for most pages.

Printing a QR Code as part of a document

Make sure the toolbar button is turned on, and just print as you would normally. The QR Code will be embedded on the printed page the same way as it is on your browser window.

REMOVAL

To remove the toolbar button, just open the context menu (right-click or control-click on OS X) over the main toolbar in Firefox, and drag the button from the toolbar back into the “customise toolbar” window.

Uninstallation

If you want to completely remove SCANDOT, go to Firefox’s Tools menu, and pick Add-ons. Make sure you’re on the “Extensions” tab, then click SCANDOT in the list. Finally, click “uninstall” to remove it - this will happen the next time you start Firefox after you close all open Firefox windows (and exit, on OS X).

What’s a QR Code?

SCANDOT home page as a QRCode

A QR Code is a two-dimensional barcode (or matrix code) which can embed a large volume of data into a small space. It can encode different kinds of data; SCANDOT encodes URLs, including HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP - basically, if you can type the address in and Firefox will show a page for it, SCANDOT will encode it.

QR Codes are in use more and more; you’ve probably seen one on a soft drinks can, or similar things printed on bills or stamps. Usually they help product tracking and automation, but QR Codes have become much more prominent for general consumption by those outside the logistics industry.

How do I read a QR Code?

SCANDOT does not read QR Codes. You will need another piece of software to do this; luckily, there are plenty out there, and they’re nearly all free. Google sponsor the zxing library under an open source license, which provides the backbone for many of the more recent ones.

• Android phone users can install one of the following free applications.
  • “Barcode Scanner” (Market link for Androids)
  • “ixMAT Scanner” (Market link for Androids)
• iPhone users have similar zxing-based free applications
  • “Barcodes” (App Store link for iPhones).
• Windows Mobile and j2me equipped phones can use
  • “i-nigma” (i-nigma download page)

Why would I use this?

You want to send a web page from your computer to your phone. Emailing it is a lot of work, and time-consuming, and possibly expensive. Instead you turn on SCANDOT, start the barcode scanner on your phone, point it at the screen, and instantly recieve the page, with no clicking required.

You print a map out. Months later, you realise the URL has been cropped, and would have been too long to type in anyway. Luckily, you had SCANDOT, which embedded the address as a glyph on the page. You use your computer and a webcam to recognise the code and restore the page.

About TANDOT

TANDOT is a strategic design company providing planning, design and production services for social and interactive media. We love mobile, geolocative and innovative new technologies and have a track record in creating and delivering ground-breaking solutions.

About QR Codes

Invented in 1994, the QR Code was designed to provide a machine-readable and robust mechanism to embed data about the manufacturing process into the car production process. Since the format has been released, a number of standardised data formats employing QR Codes have emerged, encoding such data as URLs, email addresses, and business cards.

QR Codes are the patented property of Denso-Wave. Denso-Wave has released the standard under a royalty-free license and promised not to assert patent rights.

License

The current beta version is ©TANDOT Ltd. and may not be redistributed without permission. Once we’re out of beta (early August 2009), it will be released under an open license.
We cannot be held responsible for any loss of data, livelihood, time, or functionality you may consider to be caused by SCANDOT. As much as possible, the software is safe and does not interfere with the normal operation of either your computer or Firefox iteself.

Version History

0.9.0 First beta release

Full-service brand, presence and retail development for an award-winning ceramic designer

welovekaoru, an award-winning new ceramic designer, asked TANDOT to establish their company and provide a website which could both sell their products, and reflect their traditional craftsmanship.

Our analysis showed welovekaoru needed not just an online sales outlet, but the creation of a cross-media identity, emphasising their originality and exclusivity. TANDOT planned a cross-channel strategy which could communicate the essence of the company and its products through a number of customer experiences, both online and offline.

Developing the visual

• On-product identity;
• Packaging;
• Collateral paperwork;
• Brochures and postcards;
• Electronic communications.

The design solution aimed to emphasise the timeless and tangible quality of artisan goods by using high-grade materials and leaving evidence of personal  touches; this is visible in the brand seals and logos - bespoke, sophisticated, yet bold and playful.

The back stamp (in blue, below) presented a set of unique physical design constraints; additionally, it needed to reflect hand-made skill and traditions, while invigorating them with a contemporary sensibility. The solution was to subvert the traditional ceramicists’ seal, adopting the aesthetics of the tattoo while maintaining a link with the heritage of the craft. The seal is reserved for welovekaoru’s physical products, a handcrafted stamp of authentic exclusivity, baked in by hand.

The logo uses a customised typeface to create a bold, clean and solid look, creating a sensation of familiarity with a hint of something different to it.

This modern simplicity combined with art nouveau-inspired ornamentation became the cornerstone of our style guide, which informed an identity covering packaging, posters, business cards, through to web pages, email signatures, and social networking identities.

Implementation of the essence of welovekaoru was extended to all the stationary and the packaging, creating a consistent experience. A style manual of guidelines and motifs leads to unity across the identity - on screen, paper, posters or bone china.

Online Architecture

The site was built based on customer profiling; we broke the audience into three overlapping groups,

• casual visitors who would base purchase decisions on quality and exclusivity;
• recommendation visitors expressing themselves by sharing links;
• cultural visitors referred by high-production glossy magazines (or recommendations links.)

Subsequently emphasis was placed on providing tactile experience, using link-friendly Ajax/Hijax techniques to provide cross-fading, DVD-like navigation without compromising search engine or information visibility. Imagery is emphasised, with both the photographs and the whole site structure dynamically reflowing to accommodate the visitor and show the content as best as possible. Navigation is pared back to a minimum to avoid visitors becoming lost and potential ambiguity when discussing pages offline; to simplify the buying process, the otherwise unobtrusive shopping basket appears only when needed or requested by the visitor.

The background and page flows show a unique feature of the site, aligning the distinctive craft of the site architecture with the product line itself. Ajax-driven navigation avoids jarring page transitions, while algorithmically generated Flash artwork provides a subtle context-sensitive reinforcement of each products’ individual character. This is achieved without compromising an accessible, standards-compliant site, fully search engine ready without precluding those dependant on assistive technologies.

We developed unobtrusive share and subscribe features on top of providing RSS interfaces to the new section; RSS is there for technologists and software-based robots to consume, but the share (facebook, delicious, etc) and subscribe (Google, Yahoo, et al) features encourage the network impact of visitors; those who did not buy may have friends who would, and these systems encourage the message to be shared to people’s second and third tier personal networks.

The site is backed by a flexible administration interface, allowing welovekaoru to add news or adjust prices as needed, as well as manage the entire sales workflow.

Core Technologies

We built the site using a number of open technologies and platforms, as well as spinning out several open-source projects in their own right.

• Flash, Flex and jQuery provide the rich front-end interface
• AMF is used for concurrent live interaction
• Valid XHTML and CSS underpin the rest of the site (providing consistent viewing on internet-enabled phones as well as desktop and laptop browsers)

Space and experience

We provided design support when welovekaoru appeared at the PULSE show (May 31 – June 2 2009, Earl’s Court). We created a brochure, special postcard, and goodie bag filled with old-fashioned sweets to reflect the brand and stand out amongst the competition.

The branding was flexible and distinctive enough to stand apart at a busy trade event, and transferred well to a very different medium. We commissioned a new range of photographs with more emphasis on trade customers than the exploratory images used on the website.

Impact

The brand and online presence have been well-received, by both visitors and customers alike. “TANDOT created a distinctive and manageable online presence, and provided tactical expertise with a number of outlets new to us”, said Kaoru Parry of welovekaoru, “their strategic input has built a 21st century brand – even down to the use of twitter and networks.”

For further information, please contact TANDOT online at TANDOT.co.uk or mail Hwa or Dave using team@tandot.co.uk.

Contact Hwa Young X Hwa Young
(Also at tandot.co.uk/)
Click for all posts by Hwa Young regarding this article.

• artisan goods
• brand
• channel strategy
• cross channel
• customer experiences
• design constraints
• exhibition
• holistic strategy
• identity
• packaging
• product identity
• retail development
• stationery
• website

While it feels like our online lives are unprecedented, at least from a technological perspective, they’re not, from an avant-garde art perspective. From the 1920s to the 1950s, a sadly neglected artist from Hanover, Kurt Schwitters, derived his own practice that has earned him accolades from being one of the first multimedia artists, to a pioneer of collage and objets trouvés. I’d like to afford him a new title; Patron saint of the Social Web.

Schwitters’ work, born between world wars, was partly a response aiming towards reuniting the fragments of a shattered world. Beginning with paper-based collage works, Schwitters selected and combined elements based on the relationships and associations he percieved between them, before extending this process to sculpture, environments and ultimately whole spaces.

What’s really interesting about his merz practice is how much it echoes how we build content online, and how the spaces we inhabit behave - in many ways, Schwitters was constructing social networks, ad-hoc infrastructure, and content built around association using physical objects. He rejected the idea of ‘completeness’ in favour of a constantly expanding and evolving production process, mirroring our idea of web ‘pages’ - what’s the definitive version of a google page? We live in an environment of dynamic ‘pages’, pages no longer with definitive versions but evolving content which changes over time in response to the associations and taxonomy informing it.

Much as there’s no difference in the structure of two pages showing videos on YouTube, divorcing their arrangement from their content, Schwitters treated his collage surfaces. There were no boundaries or judgments passed on the quality of content; everything, from bodily waste to works of art, we treated equally in the eyes of the merz process. The exterior was a reflection of the structural arrangement of the interior, mediated by his own life and acquisition process. This freedom we have only discovered en masse through the recent evolution of folksonomies and personal, free-association organisational structures that have evolved with the web and modern document management practices. Taxonomy is no longer recieved; it is something we evolve, that changes through its use, reflects the user, and responds to meeting others when it becomes folksonomy.

In many ways, Schwitters’ Merzbau is a physical manifestation of a Facebook homepage - a reflection of the individual, emergent evidence of their influences and activity, and ever changing, albeit on a slower scale. Sadly, the original Merzbau was destroyed in an Allied air-raid on Hanover; a second Merzbau in Norway was destroyed, and his final Merzbarn, in the Lake District, fell into disrepair after his death, sadly as forgotten as Schwitters was in his adopted country.

That what was radically avant-garde and rejected at its time has now become the routine way we read, learn about the world, and document our existence shows what a misunderstood and unexplored medium the web has become. Commentators are already lunging at ‘web 3.0′ without fully grasping the implications of the ‘web 2.0′ shift. Schwitters, while never experiencing any of the parts that have enabled global adoption of his practices, would have understood where we’re headed; that when we talk about the ‘web’, we’re exploring all our content in terms of relationships of the signified, rather than concrete destinations and fixed, dependable content. Our global brain is as shifting, fickle and malleable as the human mind itself.

While Isadore of Seville is mooted as the patron saint of the internet (based on completeness and determistic processes), let us respect Kurt Schwitters as the patron saint of the web - completeness an unnatainable (and negative) goal.

Some insightful commentary on this presentation are on The Art of Fiction.

Contact Dave X Dave
(Also at tandot.co.uk/)
After publishing his first game in his teens, Dave had an eclectic career in arts and technology, as a journalist, designer and strategist. After successfully launching the UK's largest web-based EPG service in the late 90s, Dave earned his Master of Arst in interactive media from the University of Sussex. His thesis project looked at spatial data, bridging physical space with electronic resources using mobile devices. Subsequently he has spoken at a number of conferences, started a Media Arts collective in London, and now heads up the non-visual design department at TANDOT, helping partners anticipate and employ the near future spaces where technology and society meet.Click for all posts by Dave regarding this article.

• connectivity
• Inverted Web
• Kurt Schwitters
• Merz
• Presentation
• unfinishedness
• Web2.0
• Web3.0