A short story about: Intellectual Property, The credibility of the founder, Asking the right people, An Elevator Pitch, Investors, Company formation, Equity, Risk, Due Diligence.

This is a real Dragons Den

Gold Rush

A big Ulster guy (Robin Hodge) walks into a swing-door saloon in 1859 Denver. He is dusty, unshaven, beat up a bit, checked shirt, horse worn and bedraggled. He walks over to the counter, leans up and says “whiskey”[1]. The bar man slides him a glass. That will be five cents Mister[2]. Hodge hasn’t any money. The bar man guesses this and reaches under the bar for a gun. Hodge pulls a feather from his shirt pocket and bites the quill top. He turns up the quill and pours out a quill full of pure gold dust on the dark counter[3].

The bar goes quiet[4]. The bar man re-racks the gun. A group of well dressed men playing cards in the shadows of the bar stop playing and get up and walk over to the bar[5]. “Can I buy you a drink” one of them says. “That’s a mighty fine quill you got there mountain man”. “I had no bags so this eagle feather was all I could carry it in. I found it high in the mountains”[6].

“Say, how about we go back up there and get some more”

“I was thinking something on those lines alright. It’s far up, we are going to need wagons and provisions. I saw a yellow seem 300 yards long”

“Sounds interesting”

“There’s Indians”

“We can bring guns and 30 men up from Tombstone”

“Its up a mountain creek”

“We can bring ropes”

“It will take us a year or two”

“We will build a camp”[7]

“Are you sure you can find the spot? You got this dust in just one pan, you say? Indians, huh? Are there any other prospectors around the area?[8] Is it above the tree line?”[9]

“How about we form a company? We have connections and money: we could put a pretty good $10,000 team together!”[10]

“Let’s say we give you 10% share finder’s fee?”[11]

“Hodge puffs himself up, I was thinking I would form my own team and give them 10%”[12]

“Robin I like you and think we could work together very well and I would hate to see you die here in this bar” I think if we stick together we could work on a 60/40 share  basis and make a lot of money.”[13]

“Ok, you have a deal”

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[1] Credibility: The credibility of Hodge is built up by his appearance, coming from Ulster, physical size, checked shirt and choice of drink.

[2] Ask the right people: Hodge would have been more comfortable and could get cheaper whiskey in the shebeen at the end of the street but he wanted to raise money so he made an appearance in the fancy swing door saloon where rich people play cards.

[3] Intellectual property: Hodge knows where he got the gold dust and how to get more.

[4] The presentation of the IP: The delivery of the information was made in some style with tension and high impact. (Pouring the gold dust from the feather) You could feel the energy and interest in the bar. The bar went quiet!

[5] An effective pitch: Hodge got their interest. Hodge had made an good “elevator pitch” before elevators were even invented.

[6] High stakes: Hodge has no money and is very nervous. He is rambling here, but he shuts up quick and makes a good recovery.

[7] More than just money: The problems are clearly laid out. The partners are able to show that they can make real contributions and show why they are essential.

[8] Risk. The real risk here is that other prospectors might already have found the site.  How quickly can the new company get formed and get back up there, protect their IP and enforce the claim.

[9] Due Diligence: The investors are carrying out some basic Due Diligence and double checking the story. They could do a lot more but they are blinded by the sight of the Gold.

[10] Valuation: The investors have proposed an initial value for the company. $10,000! It is based on the projected cost of the expedition until it starts making money. Company valuations can be very difficult. Essentially people start to speculate about how much gold there is. They balance this with how much cost will be involved in finding the gold. In this story Hodge is totally struck silent by mention of $10,000. It’s a fortune and certainly enough to put together a very well equipped expedition team. Hodge might of got a better deal if he made more of the 300 yards of yellow seem. However if he plays it too strong the investors may lose faith, Hodge can’t even pay for the whiskey he ordered.

[11] Shares: The opening position for the investors would make Hodge worth $1000 on paper. Hodge wants more than a finder’s fee! He remembers the 300 yard seem.

[12] Hodge proposes a share where he would be worth $9,000 on paper and 90% of all the gold they find. The equity negotiations have begun.

[13] It’s all about the people. An element of trust and liking the other guys comes into it. You need to trust your partners. It’s going to be a long expedition and there will be opportunity to kill the others. To get the gold and to bring down the mountain and sold will require the partners to trust and like each other. Tech start ups quete often sack the founder shortly after the money has been raised.

User context:Who is the software for? How many copies are needed? How much will each copy cost?

Functionality. What is the software supposed to do?

External interfaces. How does the software interact with people, the system’s hardware, other hardware, and other software?

Performance. What is the speed, availability, response time, recovery time of various software functions, etc.?

Attributes. What are the portability, correctness, maintainability, security, etc. considerations?

Design constraints imposed on an implementation. Are there any required standards in effect, implementation language, policies for database integrity, resource limits, operating environment(s) etc.?

Feature list. List of the features that the software has starting with the bare minimum set working through a v1.0 list onward to a it would be great list and onward to an all sing and dancing list.

Much borrowed from:http://www.microtoolsinc.com/Howsrs.php

Paper prototypes:

• are quick to build
• help to resolve useability issues
• can be used to find unspecified items from the performance specifiactio
• help to determine alternative design prefrences
• help to orgainise priorities
• clarify what features are in and what are out

Images from: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/paperprototyping/

Here is the famous crazy ones advert. This is the version (not aired) that has Steve Jobs doing the voice over. i think its better than the final cut

These short design briefs all based around Facebook are the outcome of user studies carried out in DES310 in 2011

1. Drag n Drop/ Drag n Drop photos

2. Facebook sports and betting application: Let’s make some money

3. Face Aid

4. Hobby App

5. Facebook Music/I know what you listened to!

6. Change Me App

7. News feed Filter for Facebook

8. Facebook for Beginners/Face Aid/Facebook tutorial

9. Inplace

10. Facebook Charity

11. Monetisation

12. Nosey button

13. Speed!

14. Bars!

15. Taxi!

Drag n Drop

The drag´n drop box is for people who want to store and collect their web stuff. It mainly stores links, videos, photos, music, likes, pages and all types of file storage etc.

It is an easy way to store interests from the internet that you don´t know how and where you saved on your pc. If you´re connected to the internet, it´s always available and when your interests change or you find new stuff it changes accordingly.

There is a special feature for Photos targeting how people upload images and organizing them into folders. This will allow the operator to upload single images and folders directly by dragging files onto Facebook’s album page, eliminating the current uploading process. With Drag & Drop you can just highlight files and folders and drag them straight into Facebook keeping them organizing in folders as they where on your desktop.

Drag & Drop works on the latest smartphones. By pressing the “F” icon, you will be displayed a selection of options such as automatic organizing which places images into folders based on what dates you predefine, for example all images through summer are placed in a folder called Summer. 

Facebook sports and betting application: Let’s make some money

This app will entice new users to join Facebook with the hope of earning some winnings. It will be available to FBers over the age of 18, who enjoy gambling. The design of the app will fall into two parts, the first being the sports section with details of games and leagues and the second being the betting section. The app will have a desktop version and mobile site so its fits in with peoples lifestyles.

Hobby App

This App is to provide the user with beneficial information related to their hobbies and interests. It requires the user to insert the details of their interests e.g. Motorsport, Music, Football or even Sailing. Once the Hobby App knows what you like it can search for the information that will be useful to you. It will provide event dates and locations, news updates during the event and even photos and videos when the event is over. Keep on top of your football team’s results, know when your favourite band will be playing and where and remember special events through photos and videos. The user can share the information they receive on their facebook wall and even invite friends to events through it. For events such as concerts or football matches this App will be able to direct you to a location online to buy your tickets.

Facebook music/ I Know what you have been listening to:

With FBM you are able to buy music for PC or Mobile. As it‘s already easy to follow bands and their updates on facebook, you will never miss new music and are instantly able to listen to and buy the new songs and share on facebook what you are listening to.

This app shows what you have been listening too the most. It creates charts. It will promote musical debate among friends. It is in the form of a playlist so its easy to use. It enables the user to upload multiple songs. It enables Bands to see what songs have been listened too.

Change Me App

This Application helps people who want to save time when shopping. It helps promote customer satisfaction and helps the stores be more aware of customer needs. The app is as easy to use as the “Face in the hole” application. Where you can adjust a photo to the size of the screen on your phone? Catalogues are already uploading to Facebook allowing you to access all that is out there and receiving opinions before you purchase. Get rid of changing rooms. Knowing what you buy and effectively choosing your cloths quicker. This will effectively change high street shopping and introduce it to a new generation.

News feed Filter for Facebook

This app allows user to enter words or phrases into the search bar and related statuses appear for them to read. It cuts out the tedious activity of reading through all your friends’ status’ and provides the user with only the comments they are interested in reading. A convenient use of the filter would be if you want to know the result in the Liverpool and Man United match you could type in “Liverpool Man United” and assuming someone in your friends list has commented on the match the related statuses will appear in the newsfeed.

Facebook for Beginners/ Facebook tutorial/ Face Aid

FB Expert will be an application designed to take you from absolute novice to complete Facebook know it all. If you are just starting to use the site, Facebook for Beginners will talk you through the sign up process; the application will be found on the homepage.

Face Aid is for Facebook-newcomers and users who have problems with how FB works, but especially for older generations. Actually Face Aid would be useful for every user, because everyone has had to search the Internet for how to handle something related to how to work FB.

It helps to find things and shows the possibilities that Facebook offers. It should tell for example in an easy way how to delete or create something.

This app simplifies the way of finding and using Facebook in the most understandable way.

Inplace

This Application is for a phone. The App works with a business to give its employees a chance to gain information about their workplace through Facebook. The app will work with many businesses where its staff can become members and watch changes being made within the company. The app will work with rotas in your business, so staff can access the necessary information about their working times. Other updates will also be accessed in the app, for example, information for charity work, business announcements, if employees need help with changes to shift, general communication with managers/employee and management within the business. This app is an advantage for any business because it helps with better communication within the workplace. Employees can view rotas and keep in touch with managers if a problem occurs. Encouragement can also be given to employees on the app which gives the employees more motivation to do their job well for recognition. This application will be used by any type of business, from retail to private businesses. The app will be set up by the store owner or business head manager were employees will be added to a private list of “members of staff”. The app is private to the business and only members of their workplace can see the information that is being shared.

Charity

Charity is where you are able to donate money to help out the charity. Any charity can set up a profile on Facebook and at the moment this is to make more awareness of their charity but with the Help Out button people will be able to donate to the that charity then and there! This will save people having to go to their website or down to the shops to donate. It should appeals to the laziness in people! This button is for anyone that is interested in donating to the charity but if this was to work it could expand to a wider audience letting Facebook trade products online. This feature should be available on Facebook’s web page and phone apps. It should be there to make people want to donate. It should be as easy as just hitting the button and entering the amount you want to donate. Simple and easy so people are enticed to use it.

Location Monetisation

So far the standard method for monetising FB is by providing advertising. Facebook has access to huge amounts of user’s data: information regarding user’s “likes”, movements, friends, age and interests. This information could be combined with location data to create less invasive more appropriate advertising. This could be done by  incorporating the user’s location or “check-ins” into their “events” feature. For example, when a user arrives in a new country or city and they are trying to decide what and where to go see it can be difficult to filter the options by what they will likely enjoy more. As Facebook has access to so much information about their user’s interests plus their location they are in the perfect position to provide the filtering service to their users. The service would also encourage sustained and repeated use as by its very nature the more it is used the more accurate the suggestions.

Nosey button

The “Nosey Button” will be fun & quirky, and also very easy to use. Simply one click, type in your friends name and all their latest information will drop down below the type box. The five main features that will appear will be status/tagged or upload photo’s/adding friends/ likes and also events. This feature allows you to take a more quirky approach in viewing your friend’s profiles. You cannot deny that everybody loves a good owl nosey on peoples pages! Usually when you snoop on a friend’s profile, you have to scroll through their whole page to see their latest goings on, or when you first sign into Facebook it takes you directly to the home page wall where all your friend’ lists info is. The Nosey Button is a great way to access that information quicker, it’s got a more fun approach to it, and it’s less time consuming.

Speed

FB should be fast. This will be better for people using both desktops and iphones. Most people upload photos and video therefore if it was easier and faster more people would upload more as it would not take up as much time.

I have 600 friends on facebook therefore my facebook newsfeed is very busy. I need speed!

I spend a lot of my time taking photos on nights out or when I’m with family, so I upload photos a lot. I also like to play games. I would spend two hours, three to four times a week on it. Speed is essential.

Bars

This feature is specifically for a Bar. The sole focus of the app will be to maximize interaction with potential customers. This is done by keeping the bar page fresh, modern and evolve with the current needs of the public with an application that delivers all of the following:

• Event calender – tap would showcase all up coming events taking place in the venue keeping public up to date with whats going on.

• Food and Drinks Menu – tap would tell the public whats on offer in the bar with current pricing keeping up to date with the current season menu. Also offering the chance to book a table for a meal.

• Bar Promotions – tap would show the current adverts and offers.

• Photo – tap showing latest photos of your night out/birthday in the bar noneed to bring your camera as the Bar does it for you.

Taxi!

This App is aimed towards people on a night out who fail to get a taxi home safe. The app allows people to organise times and places to meet up when it suits them best could perhaps be very effective when they can operate FB from their phone without any charge. I feel that this would be successful because when it comes to getting a taxi home from a night out I always seem to have no credit or service in my phone for me to organise a lift.

In DES310 2011 we explored the question: Where does FB and Ordinary Life Intersect?

The exploration was carried out using a defined process. In summary these were the essential steps:

Model building, Ideas generation, Ideas analysis, Design brief writing

Model building:

Build models of 18 “self” users and 18 “guest” users.

models comprised of:

1. Write use case essay

2. Character ppt

3. verbal presentation

Ideas generation:

Ideas generation based on models. Ideas organised according to interaction VIIM “level”

Visual

Interface

Interaction

Motivation

Ideas Analysis

Ideas analysis based on Criteria points count

Design Brief writing

Refinement of Design brief.

This process resulted in this list of Design Briefs:

http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/the-best-definition-of-entepreneurship.html

via Aidan Breslin

A long(ish) video but worth a view great points about Interaction Design. Yes, its about the Nokia 800 but he makes some good general points. There are some dominant design ideas in smart phones? They have captured our imagination, but they are not the end of the story, they are the begining.

Marko Ahtisaari’s speech about ‘Patterns of Human Interaction’ at Copenhagen Design Week from Nokia Danmark on Vimeo.

This document should be a PDF document with links to locations on the web where you have stored your “models” and research materials including presentation power points.

TITLE: the name of your design proposal.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION: Describe the entity you are proposing. What does it do?

WHO IS IT FOR? Who would be the typical user of the proposed entity?

RESEARCH BACKROUND: How did you get to this point?

1. Two users were studied. Describe each of them.

2. Models were built. What did they consist of?

3. VIIM- Analysis was carried out. What was discovered?

4. The models were shown to a group of student who made suggestions. How many suggestions were received?

5. An analysis was made of the suggestions. What was revealed? Show the decision matrix and scatter diagrams.

LIST OF DELIVERABLES: Make a list of the items needed that would describe the finished Design proposal. For example; A storyboard, a movie, visuals, etc

CONCLUSION: A snappy re-iteration of the title of the project, who it is for, what is the central design challenge.

Describe what content should be covered in each item.

Guideline length 5 – 10 pages.

Due date: Jan 12^th. Attach PDF to email to a(dot)hutton(at)Ulster(dot)ac(dot)uk

The MDes major Project Design Proposal document should be concise (5 pages?) but include the following items: Rationale, scope, ambition and a plan of work. The plan of work can be presented as a separate item, for example a *.xls.

The Project Design Proposal could have a layout like this:

TITLE:

RATIONALE/AMBITION: Why are you interested in this project? What do you want to achieve by doing the project?

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: What aspect of the project is the central design challenge?

USERS/CUSTOMERS: This section will deal with the items we covered in the User/Customer presentations. How many users are there? What age are they? What else do they use/read/view? How did they manage without your new design? What are they interested in? What are they trying to achieve? How many times per day will the user use the object? etc

Are the users different from the customers? A customer is someone who gives you money for something? How much will your customer give you for solving this design problem? Who else could solve the problem? What will the customer get in return for his/her investment? Etc

TECHNOLOGY/MEDIA/MANUFACTURE: What are the technical options for making/delivering your design? Which option will make the most money? Which option will cost the most to make/deliver? What technology/media/manufacture does the competitor/alternative use?

TIME/PLACE: Where will your design entity be used? At what time? For how long? How could you change the place that the entity is being used in? How could you change the time that the entity is being used? How could you extend the time that the entity is being used for?

CONCLUSION: A snappy re-iteration of the title of the project, who it is for, what is the central design challenge.