The Maltese Product

In our newly-made world of always on, real-time services, something interesting has happened: we're increasingly nostalgic for a slower, idealised past of shared personal experiences. Whether it be playing records; a passed-on paperback; Sunday night telly together; or something else entirely, we increasingly find ourselves playing the role of digital sleuths, chasing a half-remembered treasure.

As the creators of the next generation of online products, how do we create experiences that are delightfully informed by our past but not weighed down by it? With seven years of experience in online music, and using their latest product This Is My Jam as a case study, Matthew Ogle and Hannah Donovan will demonstrate how to choose the right constraints for your product and build a story that will attract users.

Transcript

1. HANNAH DONOVAN & MATTHEW OGLE, 28 SEPTEMBER 2012
   MALTESE PRODUCT
   The
   

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2. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   We’re living in a realtime world. It’s pretty great.
   

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3. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   We’re living in a realtime world. It’s pretty great.
   

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4. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   Increasingly, they don’t fit in with our realtime
   world and some, we’re nostalgic for.
   

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5. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   Have you ever wanted to (or been asked to)
   recreate an experience like this online?
   

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6. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   

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7. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   

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8. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   

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9. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
   

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10. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    How can you take in new music at this pace?
    If you don’t have time to listen to a song right now,
    then how do you find it later when you do?
    How do you know what the good stuff is?
    What about all the extra personal context?
    

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11. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    A couple of years ago, web browsers advanced to
    a point where simultaneous synchronous listening
    experiences were finally within reach.
    

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12. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    A couple of years ago, web browsers advanced to
    a point where simultaneous synchronous listening
    experiences were finally within reach.
    

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13. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    A couple of years ago, web browsers advanced to
    a point where simultaneous synchronous listening
    experiences were finally within reach.
    

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14. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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15. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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16. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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17. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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18. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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19. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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20. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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21. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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22. 1. CAPTURING THE EXPERIENCE
    

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23. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    One explanation is these products reproduced the
    offline experience too faithfully, and didn’t take
    advantage of existing online behaviour.
    

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24. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    One explanation is these products reproduced the
    offline experience too faithfully, and didn’t take
    advantage of existing online behaviour.
    We need better models for creating online
    experiences that evoke the offline ones we miss.
    

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25. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    In 1930, Dashiell Hammett wrote a novel called:
    

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26. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    In 1930, Dashiell Hammett wrote a novel called:
    

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27. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    Shortly after, it was made into a talkie called:
    

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28. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    Shortly after, it was made into a talkie called:
    

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29. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    In 1936 it was again adapted for film, titled:
    

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30. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    In 1936 it was again adapted for film, titled:
    (That one didn’t do so well).
    

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31. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    In 1941 it became a major motion picture called…
    

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32. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    In 1941 it became a major motion picture called…
    

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33. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    

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34. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    

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35. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    Hammett’s was a new type of detective story.
    

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36. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    “WE HAVE A NAME IN THE STUDIO…WE CALL IT THE ‘MACGUFFIN’” – ALFRED HITCHCOCK
    

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37. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    “WE HAVE A NAME IN THE STUDIO…WE CALL IT THE ‘MACGUFFIN’” – ALFRED HITCHCOCK
    MacGuffincNⓒ㷦HⓞG㸍Oc(also McGuffin)
    noun
    An object in a story which serves merely as a
    trigger for the plot.
    

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38. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    “WE HAVE A NAME IN THE STUDIO…WE CALL IT THE ‘MACGUFFIN’” – ALFRED HITCHCOCK
    MacGuffincNⓒ㷦HⓞG㸍Oc(also McGuffin)
    noun
    An object in a story which serves merely as a
    trigger for the plot.
    

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39. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    “WE HAVE A NAME IN THE STUDIO…WE CALL IT THE ‘MACGUFFIN’” – ALFRED HITCHCOCK
    MacGuffincNⓒ㷦HⓞG㸍Oc(also McGuffin)
    noun
    An object in a story which serves merely as a
    trigger for the plot.
    

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40. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    MacGuffins have effects that ought to interest us
    as product makers.
    

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41. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    MacGuffins have effects that ought to interest us
    as product makers.
    ✦
    They attract an audience
    ✦
    They trigger action
    ✦
    And everyone has fun along the way
    

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42. 2. HAVING FUN ALONG THE WAY
    Product MacGuffinc㷦QS㷜EⓞLU Nⓒ㷦HⓞG㸍Oc
    noun
    A trope in an online product which serves merely
    as a trigger for the user experience.
    Often evokes a real-world experience we’re
    familiar with.
    

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43. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    About a year ago, we started thinking about what
    our version of a ‘records & friends’ product would
    feel like.
    

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44. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    About a year ago, we started thinking about what
    our version of a ‘records & friends’ product would
    feel like.
    

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45. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    

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46. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    

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47. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    

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48. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    ✦
    Happens in the same room
    ✦
    Happens in real-time
    ✦
    You need friends
    ✦
    Works best with 1-10 people
    ✦
    You need a record player
    ✦
    You need records
    ✦
    You need to choose at the pace of a song (3 min)
    ✦
    You have to pick from someone’s collection
    ✦
    You can only share one thing at a time
    Constraints:
    

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49. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    ✦
    Happens in the same room
    ✦
    Happens in real-time
    ✦
    You need friends
    ✦
    Works best with 1-10 people
    ✦
    You need a record player
    ✦
    You need records
    ✦
    You need to choose at the pace of a song (3 min)
    ✦
    You have to pick from someone’s collection
    ✦
    You can only share one thing at a time
    Constraints:
    

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50. 1
    3. THIS IS MY JAM
    Share one song at a time.
    

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51. 1
    3. THIS IS MY JAM
    Share one song at a time.
    2
    

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52. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    The song stays on your profile for up to seven days.
    

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53. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    The outcome is incredibly high quality of music.
    

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54. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    But maybe we should have given it a better name.
    

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55. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    People have fun along the way, and feel like they’re
    sharing records with friends.
    

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56. 3. THIS IS MY JAM
    People have fun along the way, and feel like they’re
    sharing records with friends.
    Chris Thorpe @jaggeree
    @ThisIsMyJam is closest thing I've felt for a while to the John Peel
    show I remember from youth. You may not like all but discovery is key.
    27 Jan 12
    

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57. 4. CONCLUSION
    The next time you, or someone you work with,
    gets the urge to build something like “That
    ________ we used to do before the internet”
    

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58. 4. CONCLUSION
    Don’t sweat it. Go from “this is the product itself”
    to “this is our product’s MacGuffin”
    

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59. 4. CONCLUSION
    Don’t sweat it. Go from “this is the product itself”
    to “this is our product’s MacGuffin”
    

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60. 4. CONCLUSION
    Interrogate the real-life experience. List the
    outcomes, behaviours and constraints.
    

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61. 4. CONCLUSION
    Pick the smallest number of constraints you
    feel are necessary to evoke the experience.
    

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62. 4. CONCLUSION
    Pick the smallest number of constraints you
    feel are necessary to evoke the experience.
    

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63. 4. CONCLUSION
    Experiment! Build a prototype and see if you
    chose the right constraints to elicit the behaviours
    and outcomes of the real life experience.
    

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64. 4. CONCLUSION
    And you might just create an experience that –
    like Hammett’s groundbreaking new type of
    detective story – might be new.
    

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65. 4. CONCLUSION
    A product delightfully informed by the past but
    not weighed down by it.
    

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66. 4. CONCLUSION
    A product delightfully informed by the past but
    not weighed down by it.
    

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67. 4. CONCLUSION
    Thanks for listening. Have questions? Get in
    touch online: @han & @flaneur
    PHOTO CREDITS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
    Postcards – Silvia Sala on Flickr
    Watching TV together, c. 1950s – The Telegraph
    Students relax with a newspaper and a portable record player, c. 1950s – Vassar College Archives
    Young couple listening to music, 1962 – Daily Herald Archive, National Media Museum
    Kids listening to records, 1958 – Adventures in Indoor Color Slides (Kodak), via Antiquarian Holographica
    Alfred Hitchcock, 1942 – LIFE Magazine, via Retronaut
    Students listening to records in their dorm, 1930s – Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
    

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