On Monday we received a new brief – putting aside, for now, our coffee research we were asked to research into clothes shops and bars. Not being a particular proponent for the flowing trends in fashion and its surrounding sub-cultures, I knew I would prefer the latter research to the former but regardless, off we went on a shopseeing tour to Shoreditch.

In contrast to our analysis of coffee shops, we found the retail research a bit of a struggle primarily due to none of us feeling overly inclined to buy into the faux-vintage aesthetic so prominent in Shoreditch. It was interesting that, as more often open-minded designers, our prejudices seemed to get in the way a bit when it came down to fashion. Perhaps this is due to clothing very much being a public display of your identity, whether intentional or subliminal, however, once we noticed this was happening we had an understanding that we should not be looking into this from a personal perspective but as design researchers.

The next day we went to Covent Garden and Carnaby Street giving us the opportunity to see some more diversity in style. We parted ways, each went to see different shops and regrouped to discuss any insights making for a much more successful approach. Ben and Chris have already touched upon the madness that was the Build-a-Bear shop and I was quite drawn towards the madness of the Ted Baker décor (though, disappointingly, not so much the clothes). It was also interesting to see comparisons in aspects such as staff service, changing rooms, window displays and floor layout – all aspects clearly designed and implemented with the intention of effectively promoting sales. A few routes for development emerged from here but they are currently being developed so will plan for them to fully emerge, making a bit more sense, in a later post.

Anyway, returning to the previous day in Shoreditch, that night we went out to explore some bars with the idea being that there would be some clear comparisons with our coffee shop insights but there would also be some fresh ones. As with coffee shops, bars are also a place to socialise and can have scope for you to be educated about the product being sold however the outcomes of a lecture in a bar is usually somewhat more detrimental than that of a café or clothes shop!

The first port of call was Book Club which had quite a trendy and lively vibe about it so I ordered a cocktail from their list doing my best to pick one requiring obscure ingredients. The barmaid was unfamiliar with how to prepare the drink (possibly down to a mean choice) but when it arrived it was rather tasty! The bar was host to an eclectic mix of people, from goths to businessmen, and as such had a laid back and welcome atmosphere. In contrast, our next destination – Shoreditch House (fancy pool-on-the-roof image of it at top), had a very exclusive feel to it, primarily down to its paid members only policy (conveniently there was a member in our midst who managed to blag his way in along with surplus guests!) Again, I ordered a cocktail and again it was a purposefully persnickety one. This time, however, there was no hesitation and the preparation was as professional as the presentation. We stayed for a game of table football (Chris beat Genis and Ben beat Utku – though Utku will probably deny this) and had dinner to get a full appreciation of “the research”. Finally we rounded of the night at a near by pub called “The Owl and The Pussycat” so that we could meet up with a few other Mint’s out and about but mainly so that Chris could have his much sought-after pint of ale.

As hazy as insight finding became towards the end of the night, it was great to see comparisons between the three very different venues. The one key thing they had in common however was the aspect of sociability – the seating was always arranged in groups around a table and there was scope to also play games with friends via pool tables, foosball tables, board games and even a ping pong table which was found in Book Club. It was interesting though to consider the solo aspect of bars, it’s something which is still even considered slightly taboo yet is having a drink at a bar on your own so dissimilar to going to a café on your own? We will be further exploring some thoughts on bars this afternoon so I’ll finish up these musing for now.

-Tim

Somewhere in the midst of this caffeine-fueled riotous week, we visited the lovely Caravan to gather a bit of comparative research to aid our investigations into the dark and glorious world of coffee. Our objective was simple: How do the good folk of Clerkenwell interact with that thick brown liquid they love so much?

After settling down in the uber cool surroundings of sufficiently rusticated tables and pre worn floors, the first thing that immediately struck us was the shear amount of machines and devices being used by both staff and customer alike. Now, this should act as no surprise - walk into any east London coffee shop and you wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the number of trendy media cats on their various Laptops, blackberries, iphones, etc. I think this only became a subject of interest because of the slightly clashing context they seemed to exist within. What I mean is that there seems to be a fairly well matured trend at the moment of attempting to re-create the good old days when men were real men with moustaches, and bicycles were bicycles with baskets full of freshly baked bread. Whether this springs from a nostalgic longing for a time when society wasn’t crumbling around us, or simply an unjustifiable attraction to impractical footwear and facial hair is not the point here. The point is that it all just seems slightly odd when Captain rustic pants struts into the coffee shop you are observing, and whips out the latest and greatest advancement in high end digital devices.

This is interesting to me because at a basic level, no matter what time period you’re in (or think you’re in) there is a highly individual and personalised interaction with machines and devices that spans decades of evolution, thought and development. Captain Rustic pants will have an amount of personal nuances, shortcuts and settings on his Mac, just as the barista at the bar will have an extremely unique and identifiable style of making fantastic coffee on his espresso machine.

I find these personal variations fascinating when doing design research because it gives a focused insight into a single process or means of production. It’s a bit like watching a single individual’s episode of ‘How its made’ and because of this, you feel like you’re learning a much greater deal about the audience you are observing and how you may be able to create or gain some value with that experience.

For example, as Tim mentioned in the previous post, there can be a common assumption of pretentiousness when it comes to high-end coffee shops. I held this assumption when I went into both Prufrock and Caravan. I would probably still hold it had I not spent a significant amount of time pestering Dan the Barista about how he made his coffee, why he did certain things and where it was roasted. It is conversations like these that break down any notion of pretension because it makes the levels of value, passion and dedication to any process transparent. Making you realise they’re not just pretending to be really good at what they do, they just are really good and don’t want to get all preachy about it.

Dan then directed me downstairs to meet Sam the coffee roasting man. This was yet another fascinating example of man and machine. Caravan has a large-scale coffee roaster in the basement, right next to the kitchen. It is truly awesome -basically a massive steampunk tumble dryer that you can change certain parameters on to achieve different results. A wealth of data can be gleaned from this process such as how long the coffee is roasted for, to the exact temperatures at which certain chemical reactions begin to take place. All of this can be meticulously logged by the roaster and used to re-produce certain popular batches if need be.

I thought this had some potential because it turns the routine of just having a coffee into a highly unique time based experience, where certain batches acquire different colours, tastes, smells, and densities. The thing is, I wouldn’t have known about any of this, had I not gone and chatted to the staff of Caravan and had my pretentious assumptions shattered by their welcoming, friendly and patient attitudes - so thanks chaps. The other thing is, it was extremely rewarding for me as both a customer and and observer to gain first hand knowledge of all these processes because I can appreciate the value of the final product that much more. Like this guy.

So maybe there is something there we can play around with. It’s still early doors yet, and for the moment we still have a great excuse to sample the delights of London’s finest coffee establishments. Let us know about any hidden gems you know of, we’ll be sure to pop down when the shakes wear off.

As Chris has already mentioned in the last post, there’s been rather a lot of caffeine consumed this week, all for the cause of research though! Whilst he provided a summary into a few of our idea generation techniques experiments, Ben and I will give you a bit of background into where we got our insights…

Firstly, on the suggestion of Tom and Utku (who deserve some grand introduction as they will undoubtedly crop up a lot throughout this blog) - the guys that tell us what to do - we went off on Tuesday morning to check out Prufrock Coffee. Having no knowledge of what to expect other than “don’t ask for a cappuccino with chocolate, you’ll find out why”, we entered, prepared for the pretentious, and were met with a welcome aroma of fresh coffee, friendly faces, and a whole heap of pseudo-scientific-coffee-contraptions. Their minimalistic menu consisted of either espresso or espresso with various volumes of milk so we ordered a round of coffee– none of us ordered a cappuccino.

Our task here was to gain an understanding of the place and highlight avenues for potential development through observations and taking to people so we began by enquiring about the coffee machines but ended up learning a whole lot about coffee. It turns out that the flavour of a coffee is not only dictated by the beans but also by the filtration process – hence the array of machinery. Each one provided a different means for the water to interact with the ground coffee which in turn meant that each one created very different styles, textures and tastes within coffee. Alongside the recognisable general coffee machine there was one which filtered cold water though ground coffee over around 8 hours to result in a caffeine intense yet very smooth chilled coffee; one which required the coffee and water to be manually pumped through a filter into the mug; a device for weighing out to-the-milligram quantities of ground coffee then pouring to-the-millilitre volumes of water at equally specific temperature; and one which worked through an iterative process of evaporation, filtration and (seemingly) magic. There was also a nifty wee device called a refractometer which was used to calibrate the automated machines each morning though analysing water temperatures and the coffee extraction rate. We were further informed that the owner of this small chain of coffee shops is world renowned among barristas having won a number of worldwide lord-of-the-coffee awards (not the official title but this conveys the general idea and my impressed reaction).

What came from this crash course in coffee was an understanding that the team behind the bar really were the experts in what they do. They were not pretentious, they were passionate and happy to share their passion! What’s more, the minimalist menu was really just a result of their understanding of how coffee should be made – not with chocolate sprinkles. This was an interesting area: they are a business trying to educate people about the diverse complexities of coffee though many customers will be content with just an americano. This provided a starting point for us to develop our ideas – “how do we share the passion and knowledge of the staff at Prufrock, to generate a wider community of coffee lovers, without sounding like a dickhead”.

One approach to this was inspired by a handy visual map / shelving unit on the walls of Prufrock connecting coffee packs to their place of origin and their recommended preparation device. We felt this was a great means to make background knowledge in coffee more accessible to your usual coffee drinker. Another point of interest was that elsewhere on the walls around the café, there were pictures of other coffee shops around London. These places were not united under the same business banner, they were cafés which Prufrock admired as peers, with staff which Prufrock were mates with. This chivalry among competitors was pretty admirable and another great kick start for ideas.

Anyway, we left Prufrock buzzing on caffeine and ready to embark on some idea development. Not to give everything away right now, we will save the ideas for later posts as we begin to develop them but, for the time being, Chris’s post shows a few methods we used to approach the idea creation. Thanks to the team at Prufrock for providing a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, tea and coffee masterclass!

I’ll hand you over to Ben now to continue.

-Tim

On Tuesday we spent the morning in trendy coffee outlet Prufrock and, as a bit of starting research, started to observe the interactions between people, products and services that we saw played out in there, with a view to designing things for that particular space. Two hours later, we knew a hell of a lot more about coffee, and were somewhat buzzing after drinking so much of it.

Using our observations as a catalyst, we spent the afternoon working through different ways of generating ideas around this location. It was really enjoyable and productive, so I thought I’d share some of the methods we used…

1. Idea Carousel

You have a set amount of time to come up with a loose idea for a product and draw it on some paper. When that time is up, you pass it along to the person next to you, and they have the same amount of time to further iterate that idea. You keep passing it around the group until everyone has contributed.

2. Ask a Question

Similar to the previous one, except it starts with a question relevant to the topic you’re interested in. The second person tries to offer some answers to the question, giving a springboard for the next person to generate ideas. The final person then takes those ideas and tries to culminate the process into a more fully-formed design.

3. Convergent Drawing

A technique that Ben and I learnt very early into our Goldsmiths Design careers, convergent drawing involves starting to use the process of drawing as a way of thinking. You start by drawing an object at either side of a piece of paper, preferably very visually different to each other. Then, over time, you begin to merge the two forms into new things with your pen, allowing those forms to inspire possible functions or novel interactions.

I found that by mixing up the way you generate ideas, and making it into something of a game, you could achieve a lot more than if you just sit around discussing things. If you have some of your own interesting methods for coming up with ideas, we’d be really interested hear about them!

- Chris