Pixels and Place

by Kate O'Neill

  ***

  The big takeaway is: it’s all about the human experience. So we must be mindful when we create human experience to make it rich, with more nuance, more meaning, more connectedness.

  I’ll see you on the other side of the convergence.

  Kate O'Neill has a rare expertise: she can recognize and articulate the potential for meaningful human experiences in everyday marketing strategy, and in doing so, can help companies make more money and add lasting value. She has a history of pioneering big ideas in the marketing industry: she was an early voice for advocating empathy combined with data to guide experience optimization, and brought a meaningfulness model to marketing strategy. Her career has likewise been a series of firsts: after building the first departmental website at the University of Illinois at Chicago, she was recruited to Toshiba in San Jose, California, and built their first intranet, shortly after which she held the first content management role at Netflix. Kate also founded digital strategy and analytics firm [meta]marketer, led cutting-edge online optimization work at Magazines.com, and held leadership positions in a variety of digital content and technology start-ups.

  Now founder and CEO of KO Insights, Kate describes herself as a tech humanist and cultural strategist, and helps organizations develop their approach to data-rich experience design so that it is successful for the organization as well as for all of the people who interact with it.

  Kate writes prolifically and contributes to a variety of outlets about a wide range of topics, primarily at the intersection of data, humanity, and meaningful experiences. She has been profiled in CNN Money, TIME, Forbes, USA Today, and other national media. In addition, Kate is a vocal and visible advocate for women in technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership—she was featured by Google in their global campaign for women in entrepreneurship. She speaks regularly at industry conferences and private events, providing keynotes, participating in panel discussions, and leading workshops.

  More information about Kate, including ways to connect, can be found at:

  http://www.koinsights.com/about/about-kate-oneill/

  Notes

  1. Peter F. Drucker, Management, Revised Edition (New York: Collins, 2008), 99.

  2. Peter F. Drucker, The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008), xii.

  3. Chris Buettner, “Where It’s At: An Interview with Two Place-Based Experience Designers,” Create.Adobe.com, http://create.adobe.com/2016/6/3/this_must_be_the_place_an_interview_with_two_place_based_experience_designers.html.

  4. See Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977).

  5. Kerry Bodine, “How Does Service Design Relate To CX And UX?” Forrester (Kerry Bodine’s blog), October 4, 2013, http://blogs.forrester.com/kerry_bodine/13-10-04-how_does_service_design_relate_to_cx_and_ux.

  6. “Gartner Says By 2017, U.S. Customers’ Mobile Engagement Behavior Will Drive Mobile Commerce Revenue to 50 Percent of U.S. Digital Commerce Revnue,” Gartner.com, January 28, 2015, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2971917.

  7. “Experience,” Wikipedia, last modified June, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience.

  8. See B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, The Experience Economy: Updated Edition (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

  9. David McCandless, “The beauty of data visualization,” TED Talk, 17:56, July 2010, http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.

  10. Marcus Foth, “Why we should design smart cities for getting lost,” TheConversation.com, April 7, 2016, https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-design-smart-cities-for-getting-lost-56492.

  11. Martin Lindstrom, Brandwashed (New York: Crown, 2012) 46–51.

  12. Tony Costa, “Brief: Disney Leads The Charge Across The Digital-Physical Divide,” Forrester.com, April 24, 2014, https://www.forrester.com/report/Brief+Disney+Leads+The+Charge+Across+The+DigitalPhysical+Divide/-/E-RES115793.

  13. “Internet of Things to overtake mobile phones by 2018: Ericsson Mobility Report,” Ericsson.com, June 1, 2016, https://www.ericsson.com/news/2016987.

  14. Michael Chui, Markus Löffler, and Roger Roberts, “The Internet of Things,” McKinsey.com, March 2010, http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-internet-of-things.

  15. Chante Owens, “Stranger hacks family's baby monitor and talks to child at night,” The San Francisco Globe, August 4, 2016, http://sfglobe.com/2016/01/06/stranger-hacks-familys-baby-monitor-and-talks-to-child-at-night/.

  16. James Bamford, “The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say),” Wired.com, March 15, 2012, https://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1.

  17. Max Knoblauch, “Internet Users Send 204 Million Emails Per Minute,” Mashable.com, April 23, 2014, http://mashable.com/2014/04/23/data-online-every-minute/#BNn9JfIDzSqx.

  18. See Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds. (New York: Doubleday, 2004).

  19. “What is Placemaking?,” Project for Public Spaces, http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Jan Gehl, Lars Gemzøe, Sia Kirknæs, and Britt Sternhagen Søndergaard, New City Life (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag [Danish Architectural Press], 2006).

  22. Paula Segal, quoted in Oscar Perry Abello, “Finding the Value of a Vacant Lot by Tapping Into Neighborhood Memory,” NextCity.org, December 1, 2015, https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/new-york-vacant-lots-neighborhood-use-596-acres.

  23. Jennifer Valentino-Devries, Jeremy Singer-Vine, and Ashkan Soltani, “Websites Vary Prices, Deals Based on Users’ Information,” WSJ.com, December 24, 2012, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323777204578189391813881534.

  24. Walt Hickey, “Be Suspicious Of Online Movie Ratings, Especially Fandango’s,” FiveThirtyEight.com, October 15, 2015, http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fandango-movies-ratings/.

  25. Adam Withal, “Uber knows when your phone is running out of battery,” Independent, May 22, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/uber-knows-when-your-phone-is-about-to-run-out-of-battery-a7042416.html.

  26. Mark Prigg, “Am I boring you? Google Glass app can read the emotions of everyone you talk to (and tell you how old they REALLY are),” DailyMail.co.uk, August 28, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2737090/Am-I-boring-Google-glass-app-read-emotions-talk-tell-old-REALLY-are.html.

  27. Jay Bennett, “‘Facewatch’ Security Cams Give Store Owners a Taste of What It’s Like to Be Big Brother,” PopularMechanics.com, December 18, 2015, http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a18636/facewatch-facial-recognition-identify-criminals/.

  28. Lee Rainie and Maeve Duggan, “Privacy and Information Sharing,” Pew Research Center, January 14, 2016, http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/14/privacy-and-information-sharing/.

  29. Ibid.

  30. David Chaum, “The Next Social Media We Want and Need!” Backchannel, January 19, 2016, https://backchannel.com/the-next-social-media-we-want-and-need-2d03a7e0551c#.3wrzcbb99.

  31. PSFK Labs, “Finding the Line Between Data Collection and Authenticity,” PSFK.com, December 16, 2015, http://www.psfk.com/2015/12/mastercard-safety-and-security-data-collection-authenticity-online-protection-tim-hwang-interview.html.

  32. Ibid.

  33. George Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).

  34. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 5.

  35. Josh Friedlander and Cara Duckworth, “Vinyl (Still) Rocks m/!” RIAA, March 23, 2016, http://www.riaa.com/vinyl-still-rocks/.

  36. Diana Budds, “Rem Koolhaas: ‘Architecture Has a Serious Problem Today,” Fast Company, May 21, 2016, http://www.fastcodesign.com/3060135/innovation-by-design/rem-koolhaas-architecture-has-a-serious-problem-today.

  37. David Owen,
“The Psychology of Space,” New Yorker, January 21, 2013, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/21/the-psychology-of-space.

  38. Erin Kissane, “Content & Curation: An Epic Poem,”

  39. Christopher Thomas, “Maps: The Key Ingredient that Aggregates the Internet of Things (Industry Perspective),” GovTech.com, June 27, 2016, http://www.govtech.com/applications/Maps-Key-Ingredient-Aggregates-Internet-of-Things-Industry-Perspective.html.

  40. Chris Milk, “How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine,” TED Talk, 10:16, March 2015, https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_milk_how_virtual_reality_can_create_the_ultimate_empathy_machine.

  41. Justin Jouvenal, “The new way police are surveilling you: Calculating your threat ‘score’,” The Washington Post, January 10, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/the-new-way-police-are-surveilling-you-calculating-your-threat-score/2016/01/10/e42bccac-8e15-11e5-baf4-bdf37355da0c_story.html.

  42. Byron Spice, “Questioning the Fairness of Targeting Ads Online,” Carnegie Mellon University, July 7, 2015, http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/july/online-ads-research.html.

  43. Eli Pariser, “Beware online ‘filter bubbles,’” TED Talk, March 2011, 9:04, https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=en.

  44. Maria Popova, “The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a Hard Time Changing Our Minds,” BrainPickings, http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/05/13/backfire-effect-mcraney/.

  45. Michael Nielsen, “Is AlphaGo Really Such a Big Deal?” QuantaMagazine.com, March 29, 2016, https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160329-why-alphago-is-really-such-a-big-deal/.

  46. John Markoff, “A Learning Advance in Artificial Intelligence Rivals Human Abilities,” NYTimes.com, December 10, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/science/an-advance-in-artificial-intelligence-rivals-human-vision-abilities.html.

  47. “Machine-Learning Algorithm Identifies Tweets Sent Under the Influence of Alcohol,” MIT Technology Review, March 16, 2016, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601051/machine-learning-algorithm-identifies-tweets-sent-under-the-influence-of-alcohol/.

  48. Alex Kantrowitz, “Google Is Feeding Romance Novels To Its Artificial Intelligence Engine To Make Its Products More Conversational,” BuzzFeed News, May 4, 2016, https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/googles-artificial-intelligence-engine-reads-romance-novels.

  49. Rick Robinson, “3 human qualities digital technology can’t replace in the future economy: experience, values and judgement,” TheUrbanTechnologist.com, April 12, 2015, http://theurbantechnologist.com/2015/04/12/3-human-qualities-digital-technology-cant-replace-in-the-future-economy-experience-values-and-judgement/.

  50. Linda Poon, “Finally, an App That Gives You Directions Like a Human Would,” Citylab, December 16, 2015, http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/12/finally-an-app-that-gives-you-directions-like-a-human-would/420792/.

  51. Sarah Guo, “The Conversational Economy Part 1: What’s Causing the Bot Craze?” VentureBeat, June 13, 2016, http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/13/the-conversational-economy-part-1-whats-causing-the-bot-craze/.

  52. Venkatakrishnan Balasubramanian, “Five Dimensions to Conceptualize Your Idea to Make it a Successful Innovation,” InnovationMangagement.se, http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2012/01/23/how-to-build-a-framework-to-conceptualize-your-ideas-into-successful-innovations/.

  53. Karl Gustafson, “Why Measurement Alone Will Not Lead to Better Marketing,” AdvertisingAge, February 23, 2010, http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/measurement-lead-marketing/142261/.

  54. “Space Station 3-D Printer Builds Ratchet Wrench To Complete First Phase Of Operations,” Nasa.gov, December 22, 2014, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/3Dratchet_wrench.

  55. “Don’t Go There. Live There,” YouTube video, 1:00, posted by Airbnb, April 19, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtjOKph7-k.

  56. Donal Power, “GE and Hitachi see IIoT unlocking the next industrial revolution,” readwrite.com, July 1, 2016, http://readwrite.com/2016/07/01/ge-hitachi-see-iiot-unlocking-next-industrial-revolution-il4/.

  57. Abi Mandelbaum, “Can Beacons Inspire Guests to Digitally Interact with Hotels?” Lodgingmagazine.com, March 3, 2015, http://lodgingmagazine.com/can-beacons-inspire-guests-to-digitally-interact-with-hotels/.

  58. Jim Shea, “True Detective: First Insight Finds What Consumers Really Want from Retailers,” FirstInsight, August 12, 2015, http://www.firstinsight.com/press-releases/true-detective-first-insight-finds-what-consumers-really-want-from-retailers.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Neha Malik, “How Hotels can use Beacons to Enhance Guest Experiences,” beaconstac.com, July 8, 2014, http://blog.beaconstac.com/2014/07/how-hotels-can-use-beacons-to-enhance-guest-experiences/.

  61. In his 1957 book, Interpreting Our Heritage, Freeman Tilden defined six principles of interpretation:

  1. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile.

  2. Information, as such, is not Interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However all interpretation includes information.

  3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art is in some degree teachable.

  4. The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.

  5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase.

  6. Interpretation addressed to children (say up to the age of twelve) should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best it will require a separate program.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_interpretation

  62. “Deaths From Unintentional Injury Among Adults Aged 65 and Over: United States, 2000–2013,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 2015,

  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db199.htm.

  63. Eric Boodman, “To keep seniors living independently, sensors track their home habits,” STAT, December 31, 2015, https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/31/remote-monitoring-elderly/.

  64. Matt Phillips, “No one cooks anymore,” Quartz.com, June 14, 2016, http://qz.com/706550/no-one-cooks-anymore/.

  65. Melanie Evans, “Hospitals face closures as 'a new day in healthcare' dawns,” Modern Healthcare, February 21, 2015, http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150221/MAGAZINE/302219988.

  66. “Fact Sheet: Two-Midnight Rule,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, July 01, 2015, https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2015-Fact-sheets-items/2015-07-01-2.html.

  67. “E-health in practice,” World Health Organization, March 10, 2016, http://www.euro.who.int/en/data-and-evidence/news/news/2016/01/e-health-in-practice.

  68. “Free super fast Wi-Fi. And that’s just the beginning,” LinkNYC.com, https://www.link.nyc/?_ga=1.255514632.1499394577.1467406494.

  69. Lauren Walker, “The Risks of Connecting to New York’s New, Free Wi-Fi,” Newsweek.com, November 19, 2014, http://www.newsweek.com/risks-connecting-new-yorks-new-free-wi-fi-285377.

  70. James Manyika, Michael Chui, Peter Bisson, Jonathan Woetzel, Richard Dobbs, Jacques Bughin, and Dan Aharon, “Unlocking the potential of the Internet of Things,” McKinsey.com, June 2015, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/business-technology/our-insights/the-internet-of-things-the-value-of-digitizing-the-physical-world.

  71. “Retail Spend on ‘Internet of Things’ to Reach $2.5BN by 2020,” Juniper Research, September 1, 2015, http://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/retail-spend-on-iot-to-reach-2-5bn-by-2020.

  72. “Top retail holiday trends: Holiday shopping survey results 2015,” AccentureConsulting, https://www.accenture.com/insight-top-retail-holiday-trends-holiday-shopping-
survey-results-2015.

  73. David Kaplan, “Target Rolls Out Beacons At 50 Stores—With Bigger Plans To Come,” GeoMarketing, August 5, 2015, http://www.geomarketing.com/target-rolls-out-beacons-at-50-stores-with-bigger-plans-to-come.

  74. “The IKEA Pop-up is open. Come on in!” IKEA.com, http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/great_offers/popup.html.

  75. Amar Toor, “Amazon plans to open more retail stores,” The Verge, May 18, 2016, http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/18/11699544/amazon-new-retail-locations-prime-bezos.

  76. Lauren Johnson, “Here Are 4 Tips From a Startup That's About to Go Global,” Adweek, November 6, 2015, http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/here-are-4-tips-startup-thats-about-go-global-168001.

  77. https://casper.com/naptour

  78. Lauryn Chamberlain, “Online to Offline: How Opening Retail Stores Helped Rent The Runway Spike Site Traffic,” GeoMarketing, February 29, 2016, http://www.geomarketing.com/online-to-offline-how-opening-retail-stores-helped-rent-the-runway-spike-site-traffic

  79. “Smart fitting rooms: AdvanFitting,” Keonn, http://keonn.com/systems/view-all-3/smart-fitting-rooms.html.

  80. Simon Davies, “The Smart Fitting Room Is the Future of Retail,” Tech.co, December 17, 2015, http://tech.co/smart-fitting-room-future-retail-2015-12.

  81. “Food Trucks Primarily Replace a Quick Service Restaurant Visit, Says NPD,” NPD.com, August 19, 2013, https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/food-trucks-primarily-replace-a-quick-service-restaurant-visit-says-npd/.

  82. Promothesh Chatterjee and Randall L. Rose, “Do Payment Mechanisms Change the Way Consumers Perceive Products?” Journal of Consumer Research 38.6 (2012), http://jcr.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/6/1129.abstract.

  83. Elena Wang, “The Origins of Pop-Up Shops,” Zady.com, https://zady.com/features/the-origins-of-pop-up-shops.

  84. “Placemaking Meets Preservation,” Project for Public Spaces, July 15, 2010, http://www.pps.org/blog/placemaking-meets-preservation/.