What can we learn from shortcuts?
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0:01 - 0:03When we're designing new products,
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0:03 - 0:05services or businesses,
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0:05 - 0:08the only time you'll know
if they're any good, -
0:08 - 0:09if the designs are good,
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0:09 - 0:14is to see how they're used
in the real world, in context. -
0:15 - 0:19I'm reminded of that every time
I walk past Highbury Fields -
0:19 - 0:20in north London.
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0:20 - 0:22It's absolutely beautiful.
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0:22 - 0:23There's a big open green space.
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0:23 - 0:26There's Georgian buildings
around the side. -
0:26 - 0:29But then there's this mud trap
that cuts across the middle. -
0:30 - 0:33People clearly don't want to walk
all the way around the edge. -
0:33 - 0:35Instead, they want to take the shortcut,
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0:35 - 0:38and that shortcut is self-reinforcing.
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0:39 - 0:42Now, this shortcut
is called a desire path, -
0:42 - 0:45and it's often the path
of least resistance. -
0:45 - 0:46I find them fascinating,
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0:46 - 0:52because they're often the point
where design and user experience diverge. -
0:52 - 0:54Now at this point, I should apologize,
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0:54 - 0:57because you guys are going to start
seeing these everywhere. -
0:57 - 1:00But today, I'm going to pick
three I find interesting -
1:00 - 1:02and share what actually it reminds me
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1:02 - 1:05about launching new products and services.
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1:05 - 1:09The first is in the capital city
of Brazil -- Brasilia. -
1:09 - 1:11And it reminds me that sometimes,
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1:11 - 1:14you have to just focus
on designing for a real need -
1:15 - 1:16at low friction.
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1:16 - 1:18Now, Brasilia is fascinating.
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1:18 - 1:21It was designed by Niemeyer in the '50s.
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1:21 - 1:23It was the golden age of flying,
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1:23 - 1:26so he laid it out like a plane,
as you can see there. -
1:26 - 1:28Slightly worryingly,
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1:28 - 1:31he put most of the important
government buildings in the cockpit. -
1:31 - 1:34But if you zoom in,
in the very center of Brasilia, -
1:34 - 1:36just where the point is there,
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1:36 - 1:38you see it's littered with desire paths.
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1:39 - 1:41They're absolutely everywhere.
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1:41 - 1:44Now, they thought that they
had future-proofed this design. -
1:44 - 1:47They thought in the future
we wouldn't need to walk anywhere -- -
1:47 - 1:49we'd be able to drive --
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1:49 - 1:52so there was little need
for walkways or pavements. -
1:52 - 1:55But as you can see, there's a real need.
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1:56 - 1:57These are very dangerous desire paths.
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1:57 - 1:59If we just pick one, in the middle,
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1:59 - 2:03you can see it crosses
15 lanes of traffic. -
2:03 - 2:05It won't surprise you guys
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2:05 - 2:08that Brasilia has five times
the pedestrian accident rate -
2:08 - 2:10of your average US city.
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2:11 - 2:12People are resourceful.
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2:12 - 2:16They'll always find the low-friction route
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2:16 - 2:18to save money, save time.
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2:18 - 2:20Not all these desire paths are dangerous,
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2:20 - 2:24I was reminded flying here
when I was in Heathrow. -
2:24 - 2:26Many of us get frustrated
when we're confronted -
2:26 - 2:29with the obligatory walk
through duty-free. -
2:31 - 2:32It was amazing to me
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2:32 - 2:36how many people refused to take
the long, meandering path to the left, -
2:36 - 2:38and just cut through to the right,
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2:38 - 2:40cut through the desire path.
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2:41 - 2:43The question that's interesting is:
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2:43 - 2:46What do designers think
when they see our behavior here? -
2:46 - 2:48Do they think we're stupid?
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2:48 - 2:50Do they think we're lazy?
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2:50 - 2:53Or do they accept
that this is the only truth? -
2:53 - 2:55This is their product.
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2:55 - 2:58We're effectively
co-designing their product. -
2:59 - 3:03So our job is to design
for real needs at low friction, -
3:03 - 3:06because if you don't,
the customer will, anyway. -
3:07 - 3:09The second desire path I wanted to share
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3:09 - 3:12is at the University of California.
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3:12 - 3:13And it reminds me
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3:13 - 3:16that sometimes the best way
to come up with a great design -
3:16 - 3:18is just to launch it.
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3:19 - 3:23Now, university campuses are fantastic
for spotting desire paths. -
3:23 - 3:26I think it's because students
are always late and they're pretty smart. -
3:26 - 3:28So they're dashing to lectures.
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3:28 - 3:30They'll always find the shortcut.
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3:30 - 3:33And the designers here knew that.
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3:33 - 3:35So they built the buildings
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3:35 - 3:37and then they waited a few months
for the paths to form. -
3:38 - 3:39They then paved them.
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3:39 - 3:40(Laughter)
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3:40 - 3:42Incredibly smart approach.
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3:43 - 3:46In fact, often, just launching
the straw man of a service -
3:46 - 3:48can teach you what people really want.
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3:49 - 3:53For example, Ayr Muir in Boston
knew he wanted to open a restaurant. -
3:53 - 3:54But where should it be?
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3:55 - 3:56What should the menu be?
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3:57 - 3:58He launched a service,
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3:58 - 4:00in this case a food truck,
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4:00 - 4:02and he changed the location each day.
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4:02 - 4:06He'd write a different menu
on the side in a whiteboard marker -
4:06 - 4:08to figure out what people wanted.
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4:08 - 4:11He now has a chain of restaurants.
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4:11 - 4:13So it can be incredibly efficient
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4:13 - 4:15to launch something
to spot the desire paths. -
4:16 - 4:19The third and final desire path
I wanted to share with you -
4:19 - 4:21is the UNIH.
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4:22 - 4:24It reminds me that the world's in flux,
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4:24 - 4:26and we have to respond to those changes.
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4:27 - 4:29So as you'll guess, this is a hospital.
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4:29 - 4:32I've marked for you on the left
the Oncology Department. -
4:33 - 4:37The patients would usually stay
in the hotels down on the bottom right. -
4:38 - 4:40This was a patient-centered organization,
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4:40 - 4:43so they laid on cars for their patients.
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4:44 - 4:47But what they realized when they started
offering chemotherapy -
4:47 - 4:50is the patients rarely
wanted to get in cars. -
4:50 - 4:54They were too nauseous,
so they'd walk back to their hotels. -
4:54 - 4:57This desire path that you see
diagonally, formed. -
4:58 - 5:00The patients even called it
"The Chemo Trail." -
5:01 - 5:03Now, when the hospital
saw this originally, -
5:03 - 5:06they tried to lay turf
back over it, ignore it. -
5:07 - 5:10But after a while, they realized
it was an important need -
5:10 - 5:12they were meeting for their patients,
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5:12 - 5:13so they paved it.
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5:13 - 5:17And I think our job is often
to pave these emerging desire paths. -
5:17 - 5:20If we look back at the one
in North London again, -
5:20 - 5:22that desire path hasn't always been there.
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5:23 - 5:24The reason it sprung up
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5:24 - 5:28is people were traveling to the mighty
Arsenal Football Club stadium -
5:29 - 5:30on game days,
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5:30 - 5:32from the Underground station
you see on the bottom right. -
5:33 - 5:34So you see the desire path.
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5:34 - 5:37If we just wind the clock
back a few years, -
5:37 - 5:39when the stadium was being constructed,
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5:39 - 5:41there is no desire path.
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5:42 - 5:46So our job is to watch
for these desire paths emerging, -
5:47 - 5:48and, where appropriate, pave them,
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5:49 - 5:51as someone did here.
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5:51 - 5:53Someone installed a barrier,
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5:54 - 5:57people started walking across
and round the bottom as you see, -
5:57 - 5:59and they paved it.
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5:59 - 6:00(Laughter)
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6:00 - 6:03But I think this is a wonderful
reminder as well, -
6:03 - 6:04that, actually, the world is in flux.
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6:04 - 6:06It's constantly changing,
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6:06 - 6:08because if you look
at the top of this image, -
6:08 - 6:10there's another desire path forming.
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6:11 - 6:14So these three desire paths remind me
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6:14 - 6:17we need to design for real human needs.
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6:18 - 6:20I think empathy for what
your customers want -
6:20 - 6:24is probably the biggest leading indicator
of business success. -
6:24 - 6:26Design for real needs
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6:26 - 6:28and design them in low friction,
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6:29 - 6:32because if you don't offer them
in low friction, -
6:32 - 6:34someone else will, often the customer.
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6:35 - 6:39Secondly, often the best way
to learn what people really want -
6:39 - 6:41is to launch your service.
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6:41 - 6:44The answer is rarely inside the building.
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6:44 - 6:46Get out there and see
what people really want. -
6:47 - 6:49And finally, in part
because of technology, -
6:49 - 6:52the world is incredibly flux
at the moment. -
6:52 - 6:54It's changing constantly.
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6:54 - 6:57These desire paths are going
to spring up faster than ever. -
6:58 - 7:01Our job is to pick the appropriate ones
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7:01 - 7:02and pave over them.
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7:03 - 7:04Thank you very much.
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7:04 - 7:08(Applause)
- Title:
- What can we learn from shortcuts?
- Speaker:
- Tom Hulme
- Description:
-
How do you build a product people really want? Allow consumers to be a part of the process. "Empathy for what your customers want is probably the biggest leading indicator of business success," says designer Tom Hulme. In this short talk, Hulme lays out three insightful examples at the intersection of design and user experience, where people have developed their own desire paths out of necessity. Once you know how to spot them, you'll start noticing them everywhere.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 07:20
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What can we learn from shortcuts? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What can we learn from shortcuts? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What can we learn from shortcuts? | ||
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Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What can we learn from shortcuts? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What can we learn from shortcuts? | ||
Maggie S (Amara staff) edited English subtitles for What can we learn from shortcuts? |