Reports: Latest

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Luxury mobile phones: all in the best possible taste?

In only 33 short years the mobile phone has gone from yuppie lightsaber to everyday technology. But is there space for luxury in such a broad and rapidly evolving category? And, if so, what form will it take?

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Self & System

After hovering in academic and design circles for decades, systems thinking is going mainstream. Recent technological developments are now giving us a tangible, global picture of how we as individuals fit into a broader ecosystem.

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Technology and trust in China: an interview with Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang has spent over ten years observing the impact of technology on human interaction and behaviour. She speaks to Canvas8 about how Chinese internet users disseminate information online, and issues around trust and sharing.

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Democratising innovation: an interview with Fabian Hemmert

After his talk at the Lift conference on democratising innovation, we spoke to Fabian Hemmert of the Design Research Lab in Berlin about his mobile design research work with underprivileged kids, women and seniors.

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Forever Now

How has nostalgia been affected by the digitisation of culture? People are using the internet to focus on curating their own histories, viewing every moment as ripe for potential documentation and attempting to create an online legacy.

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Frictionless intimacy

How has the way we communicate online evolved? In the midst of raging debate around privacy and frictionless sharing, what does ‘ambient sharing’ tell us about modern forms of communion and intimacy?

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Samsung's semiotics across three continents

This analysis of the semiotics of Samsung smartphone adverts from three different markets (India, the US and the UK) highlights some fascinating differences in how the same product can be marketed to disparate global audiences.

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Txt and the city

Today’s cities are pervaded by a variety of visible and invisible media technologies, and the boundaries between distinct urban domains like work, home and travel are becoming less clear. What are the implications of this for brands?

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Holding digital attention

Successful campaigns masterfully build anticipation before a launch, capitalise on buzz during the event, and find ways to extend and maintain communities afterwards, turning ephemeral moments into cultural totems. Those which don't, vanish.

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Inside Track

With the global network comes the prospect of inclusion for everyone, forcing both consumers and brands to find new means of acquiring and delivering an ‘insider’ status that can only exist when others remain outside.

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Dark tourism

For better or worse, the sites of tragic events have long had a mysterious draw on people. But as the phenomenon of grief tourism seeps out of the real world and into the online realm, are we in danger of losing any sense of propriety?

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Rudeness and reputation

The prevalence of smartphones raises questions about etiquette and sociability; they are everywhere, but do they need to be? Digital anthropologist Krystal D’Costa investigates the social rules of engagement in mobile media use.

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Changing TV habits

Technological developments have brought about a paradigm shift in television viewing habits. But has our relationship with the medium fundamentally changed, or are these new behaviours simply new ways of doing old things?

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Identity Games

Online, switching between multiple seemingly inconsistent personas is an acceptable and authentic expression of the self. These multiple identities can be used as a means of engaging others directly, or maintaining an air of mystery.

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Brand Me

At its most basic, having a digital presence is a necessary precondition for inclusion in the economy. A well-managed personal brand can elicit authority and influence over others; and people are beginning to understand this and capitalise upon it.

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Being+

The drive for mental and physical self-improvement has been accelerated by data tracking. Whether it is through ‘levelling up’ or the distant promise of biotech, people are determined to be the best version of themselves possible.

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Privacy and panopticons: a conversation with Andrew Keen

Andrew Keen bemoans the end of privacy as a consequence of the social web – “Human happiness is really about being left alone,” he argues in Wired. We talk about these ideas at the Jeremy Bentham pub. Where else?

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Emotional betting and social currency

The rising popularity of social betting, and its transition online, has shifted market emphasis away from hardcore gamblers. As in the rest of the gaming industry, the casual sector is proving lucrative.

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Selling the essentials online

The self-help market shows no signs of abating, and this is particularly true online, where more primal urges are being catered to by marketers making millions. What can be learned from their success?

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Clip and save: coupon culture and brand affinity

The humble money-off coupon is now over a century old. We track the growth of a global coupon culture, via the introduction of group buying sites. What impact will changing perceptions of coupon use have on brand affinity?