Start to Finish| Introduction | Getting involved with the project| 00:00 | Female Speaker 1: We started working with
Cameron Sinclair in 2006, is that correct?
| | 00:04 | Male Speaker: Yeah.
| | 00:05 | Female Speaker 1: Yeah, it was after
I saw him speak at the TED Conference.
| | 00:09 | He won the TED Prize. So, Cameron
Sinclair's wish was to create a community
| | 00:14 | that actively embraces open source design
to generate innovative and sustainable
| | 00:18 | living standards for all.
| | 00:20 | Cameron had this very incredibly
moving speech and he said that he needed a
| | 00:26 | website to do this and they asked the community
if they -- they needed a good design team.
| | 00:33 | And then I went, "We can do that,"
and I sent an e-mail to Amy Novogratz
| | 00:39 | from TED and I said, "Look, well I
have this company named Hot Studio.
| | 00:42 | We design websites. We would be happy
to help design this new website."
| | 00:47 | And to my surprise, I think it was like
that day, I get an email back with, "Great!"
| | 00:52 | And I'm like, "What did I do?!"
| | 00:55 | Female Speaker 2: You had no
idea what you signed up for.
| | 00:57 | Female Speaker 1: I know! So Cameron came and
met us and then we started working on this project.
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| Researching the issue| 00:00 | Female Speaker 1: So, all we knew was
that we needed to design a... I guess
| | 00:06 | we knew it was web-based. We needed to
design a web-based system that would allow
| | 00:11 | architects and other design
professionals around the world to collaborate,
| | 00:15 | to improve living conditions for all.
| | 00:19 | Incredibly lofty goal and we had
no idea how these people did their work
| | 00:25 | or what happened. So the first thing
that we had to do was just make some phone calls
| | 00:30 | and talk to people who were
already working with Architecture for Humanity,
| | 00:33 | which was the non-profit
group, and find out what do you need.
| | 00:38 | Female Speaker 2: What Cameron identified
were a lot of different types of people that
| | 00:41 | would be using the system.
| | 00:42 | Female Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was
like architects, designers. I didn't even
| | 00:46 | know what the difference was, between
architects and designers at that point.
| | 00:50 | Engineers and people who have lost
their homes and there was like all
| | 00:54 | the different ways that people lose their
homes, in the different ways that people
| | 00:57 | would end up needing these services
and then there were all the people who
| | 01:01 | worked for Architecture for Humanity
and the project managers and volunteers
| | 01:05 | and the students and it went on and on and on.
| | 01:07 | Female Speaker 2: And we did a lot of interviews
| | 01:09 | but then there was this opportunity
that we had which was to go to Biloxi
| | 01:13 | with our Architecture for Humanity
to do a little ethnographic research.
| | 01:16 | We really got to experience what it
was like to volunteer and also we got to
| | 01:23 | meet families who had lost their homes
or their homes were being rebuilt.
| | 01:27 | And that weekend that we spent there just
opened our eyes and that's when we really
| | 01:32 | came back with a very clear picture
of what this thing should do and
| | 01:37 | what shape it should be and I remember
we were filled with ideas on the airplane.
| | 01:42 | We were like taking the pens out of
each other's hands, writing things down and
| | 01:47 | saying, "Well, what about this and
what about this?" This one of the early sketches
| | 01:51 | of the drawing space where
you would upload the images and you can
| | 01:55 | click on something and
annotate changes made to it.
| | 02:01 | We are not really designing one site.
We are designing an ecosystem and we said,
| | 02:08 | okay, there is this thing called
the Open Architecture Network, which is
| | 02:11 | the thing that will connect
Architecture for Humanity and chapters around
| | 02:15 | the world to each other and other
organizations and then if we create an
| | 02:19 | infrastructure with similar tools,
it can be more of an ecosystem and they can
| | 02:24 | share user experiences and
interactions and functionality among them.
| | 02:30 | Then this drawing became this drawing here,
which really outlines how these
| | 02:36 | were all connected and the types of
tools and functionality that each one of
| | 02:41 | those sites would share. And then here
is the drawing of the Project Overview page
| | 02:49 | where we came up with the idea
of uploading pictures in real time.
| | 02:54 | Female Speaker 1: This is so great,
because we thought this was so brilliant
| | 02:58 | because we had -- instead of just
being a simple timeline we had everything
| | 03:03 | broken out by the design phase that
we were in and it was actually quite complex,
| | 03:07 | but really cool and really easy,
but then when we started to getting into
| | 03:11 | the visual design we were like,
this is way too complicated.
| | 03:14 | Female Speaker 2: Really too complicated!
| | 03:15 | Female Speaker 1: So we simplified it down a lot.
| | 03:17 | Female Speaker 2: So we together came up with
| | 03:19 | this very rough framework and then we
came back with just this clear idea
| | 03:27 | and that's when things really started
rolling, where we got everybody else involved
| | 03:31 | and we could talk about what
happens next with the full team.
| | 03:37 | Male Speaker: Right, so you weren't the
only one who stepped up after Cameron spoke, right?
| | 03:41 | Because another big one was Sun Microsystems.
| | 03:43 | They came forward and said they wanted to work.
Creative Commons came forward and said
| | 03:48 | they would be able to handle all of the
licensing, so that people wouldn't have to
| | 03:51 | worry about their -- their designs
would be protected and they wouldn't be
| | 03:55 | liable for things, but that people
would be able to use their designs and
| | 03:59 | leverage those designs so that if you
have never been to Sri Lanka, you could
| | 04:02 | find something that had been done
for that environment that you could reuse.
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| Designing a solution| 00:00 | Male Speaker 1: But I remember when I
started this project it was a week after
| | 00:02 | I started at Hot Studio and at the
kick-off, I was told, "This is a very big,
| | 00:06 | prestigious client and Maria is going
to be working on this personally, so go!"
| | 00:13 | Okay, I have no idea what is
going on, but I will do that.
| | 00:15 | And it was not until both of you came
back from Biloxi that there was actually
| | 00:19 | those sketches of an idea. Because
before that, we didn't know if it was just
| | 00:24 | going to be the architecture for a
humanity site or what we were going to do with
| | 00:28 | the chapters or how seriously to
take them and you came back and said,
| | 00:31 | "It is not actually not really either
of those. It is this whole thing."
| | 00:35 | But it was really important to work
with Sun the whole time because we knew
| | 00:39 | they were going to be building it. They
were the ones who were going to make it happen.
| | 00:42 | So we scheduled two-hour weekly meetings
and made everybody come to our office.
| | 00:48 | The collaboration was pretty
intense because everyone had a stake in it
| | 00:52 | for a different reason.
| | 00:53 | Female Speaker 1: Then we were
also doing visual design direction.
| | 00:57 | Male Speaker 2: Yeah, it was about --
at the fundamental level it's architecture
| | 01:00 | for everyone, from the people who have
very little, to people who have very much.
| | 01:06 | Because it is not necessarily in
Sri Lanka where these disasters happen.
| | 01:10 | It's where disasters happen here.
| | 01:13 | So the humanity aspect of Architecture
for Humanity and we said well,
| | 01:18 | if it's designed for humanity then the
perfect human proportion, just like you see
| | 01:25 | in the Acropolis or anything that
is based on the golden mean, is this
| | 01:32 | proportion that you see here. So even
the actual human form, if you hold your arms --
| | 01:38 | you arm/your hand to your forearm,
this is all based on the perfect
| | 01:45 | human proportion and as are
hopefully the designs that the community of
| | 01:50 | designers when they get together, they
are thinking about what is it to create
| | 01:55 | shelter for people in need?
| | 01:56 | So we thought that is a perfect
metaphor for what they are, so it was really
| | 02:01 | just referencing that idea and it is a
globally accepted idea, that bringing in
| | 02:09 | some color to make it unique and
memorable and some clear typography,
| | 02:15 | so that alone was just a symbol and an icon
that could stand for the Open Architecture Network.
| | 02:19 | Female Speaker 1: Well, we did a lot
of design variations on the prototype
| | 02:23 | assuming that there was a visual
relationship between Architecture for Humanity
| | 02:27 | and Open Architecture Network and how
those things work together, because it is
| | 02:32 | connected to that ecosystem metaphor
but they, after seeing the brand identity,
| | 02:38 | which they loved, they realized that
there needed to be a visual distinction
| | 02:43 | between Architecture for Humanity and
Open Architecture Network, even though
| | 02:46 | Architecture for Humanity uses the Open
Architecture Network, they are only one
| | 02:51 | member of the family.
| | 02:52 | Male Speaker 2: Yeah. And it was interesting
in talking with Cameron early on in the project
| | 02:56 | is he says, "We have got chapters
where we do not even know we have chapters."
| | 03:00 | There are people out there.
It's such a proactive and engaged
| | 03:04 | community that they go out and they
will just start a chapter and they can
| | 03:07 | get a startup kit in the mail and they are
on their way. They can take on projects,
| | 03:13 | they can find a need and they can
fill it, just offer up their services.
| | 03:16 | So that kind of an autonomy within the
group is what you really want to support
| | 03:21 | so that people feel empowered that
they can just skip the bulls@%t of
| | 03:25 | the bureaucracy and like let's
start doing things that people need
| | 03:29 | and get busy and get our design services out there.
| | 03:32 | Male Speaker 3: Just don't get
arrested. I think that was in the mantra.
| | 03:34 | Female Speaker 2: Yeah,
don't do anything illegal.
| | 03:36 | Male Speaker 3: Yeah, don't do
anything illegal, but that one is also one of
| | 03:37 | the reasons why they hadn't built a site,
right? It was that all these chapters
| | 03:40 | were doing things autonomously,
they were probably reinventing the wheel
| | 03:43 | and they had all different ways of
approaching the same problem and so this was
| | 03:48 | an attempt to give some guidance.
Like you can always go to the OAN, the Open
| | 03:53 | Architecture Network, and find some
kind of guidance around best practices for
| | 03:58 | hay bale construction or something.
| | 04:00 | Male Speaker 1: Or you can even pose that
as a question, because people will list
| | 04:03 | themselves as experts on certain things.
| | 04:05 | Male Speaker 2: Sure.
Female Speaker 1: And share that information.
| | 04:06 | Male Speaker 1: Yeah.
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| Planning the interaction| 00:00 | Female Speaker 1: So another thing
that we kind of glossed over but it was
| | 00:02 | a lot of the bulk of the heavy lifting
in the project was just fleshing out all
| | 00:07 | the interactions, the details, which Josh
did a lot of that listening to and talking.
| | 00:11 | Female Speaker 2: That is actually
where the rubber hit the road.
| | 00:13 | Because then this is where the
engineers really got engaged.
| | 00:18 | Male Speaker 1: Where we got
engaged with the engineers.
| | 00:19 | Female Speaker 1: We were doing these hand sketches.
| | 00:21 | Female Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, I like those!
Female Speaker 2: We were like well, they look good.
| | 00:23 | Male Speaker 1: I mean, if you compare
just the weight of these two sets of copies.
| | 00:28 | I don't even think this is complete.
I think this is probably about a third.
| | 00:33 | So, here you have a high level concept
and here you have really getting into
| | 00:39 | the details of how the OAN is
going to support conversations between
| | 00:44 | designers and architects and it's going to let
project managers stay on top of the status of
| | 00:49 | their project, communicate with
project status back to the mother ship,
| | 00:52 | the Architecture for Humanity office, if
it is one of their projects. You also had
| | 00:58 | the slideshow, which is for the
displaced families who are in Seattle.
| | 01:02 | So they can see that there's actual progress
happening in New Orleans and that their home
| | 01:06 | is being built, which they didn't have
a view of before. There is now a way for
| | 01:10 | them to know what was happening.
What else? It could also be used as a showcase
| | 01:15 | so that people who might have money
would be able to go to the OAN and see that
| | 01:19 | there is a project that they are
interested in supporting and say,
| | 01:22 | "Hey, I want to write you a check. This looks great."
| | 01:24 | Male Speaker 2: Right. You could
also use it for design competitions.
| | 01:25 | Male Speaker 1: That was actually huge.
| | 01:28 | Female Speaker 2: That was a big piece for them.
| | 01:29 | Male Speaker 1: Because Cameron and
Kate were -- they were running all the
| | 01:33 | competitions, they were supporting
all the little AFH sponsored projects.
| | 01:37 | Totally not scalable, right? There is
only two of them and any time they have
| | 01:41 | more projects and that means they
have to have more of their attention.
| | 01:44 | Female Speaker 1: So it becomes a work
tool for teams to collaborate, but then
| | 01:48 | it becomes a publicity tool for people
to actually show progress to funders
| | 01:53 | and ask for more support.
| | 01:55 | Male Speaker 1: Right. And one
of the cool things that we have heard about
| | 01:57 | was that Autodesk was writing --
was working on plug-in that would allow
| | 02:02 | viewing CAD files through the OAN,
through this interface and that was one of
| | 02:06 | the things we always envisioned.
| | 02:08 | Male Speaker 2: We had always
wanted to do that, that always a real goal...
| | 02:11 | Male Speaker 1: That was a really tough one.
Like Sun, but the developers at Sun were,
| | 02:14 | "We can't do that on our own."
| | 02:15 | Male Speaker 3: Kind of
in a similar way, we got
| | 02:17 | involvement from Google with
Google Earth, saying that once you could
| | 02:22 | use SketchUp to create your models and
then you could put it in the location
| | 02:27 | and there was going to be a
whole syncing of that together.
| | 02:29 | Female Speaker 2: Right, so we were--
as usual we were way ahead of our time.
| | 02:34 | Like there was a lot of things we wanted to do,
but the technology was not quite there yet.
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| Building the site| 00:00 | Female Speaker 1: I am wondering if you
can just show some schematics, because
| | 00:03 | the level of detail that goes into
these diagrams is pretty impressive and
| | 00:10 | they are -- this is the tool that the
developers use to refer to when they are
| | 00:17 | trying to understand the user experience flow.
| | 00:19 | Male Speaker 1: I thought what
was kind of nice, just as we talked about
| | 00:23 | engineering, is the fact that the system
was built on Drupal which is open source.
| | 00:28 | So you have an open source platform
supported by professional developers, giving
| | 00:34 | their volunteer time and then you are
building this open source architectural
| | 00:37 | service on top of that. It's just
sort of showing humanity heading down
| | 00:42 | the right path, helping
each other in a selfless way.
| | 00:46 | Male Speaker 2: Yet, in some respects
I would say this was one of the first agile
| | 00:50 | methodology projects that I worked on,
even though at the time I don't think
| | 00:54 | that's what we were shooting for. This
set of schematics tries to drill into the
| | 01:00 | specific functionality of like this is
the project finding page, this is where
| | 01:04 | you can begin to navigate, and tacit
navigation and you can find different
| | 01:09 | projects on the site. We'd just split up
the different bits of functionality and
| | 01:13 | we go down to Sausalito and meet with
Kate and Cameron, really quickly get their
| | 01:18 | feedback on it and at the same time
the developers. This isn't necessarily ideal
| | 01:21 | but this is what we did.
| | 01:22 | The developers would already be coding
this stuff and so we would be able to give
| | 01:25 | them feedback, schematics, that they
would use this as much as they could
| | 01:30 | while still working with the Drupal framework.
| | 01:32 | So, they're coding in Drupal,
they're taking our notes.
| | 01:36 | Male 3: Which they were just learning at the time.
| | 01:38 | Female Speaker 1: Right! And so were we.
| | 01:38 | Female Speaker 2: Well, see the feedback
went both ways. It wasn't linear at all,
| | 01:42 | because you are learning about
what the client wants us to do and adding
| | 01:46 | that in to the drawings and
then the developers come back
| | 01:48 | and say, "Yeah, but this is
what we can do with Drupal."
| | 01:52 | Male 1: So we could process that and go back to the client.
Female 2: So it was like constantly... Yeah.
| | 01:55 | Male 1: Show them where this thing was
headed but it was always shifting. I think--
| | 02:01 | I know that we don't have a final schematics set
that matches what we had, but we were able to launch.
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| Looking back| 00:00 | Female Speaker 1: I often don't call
Kate and Cameron our clients. I really
| | 00:03 | consider them our partners. I feel like
we were a party of equals even though
| | 00:08 | this was for them. We all were in this
together equally and they had a very
| | 00:16 | clear vision early on and that
vision was consistent in the end too.
| | 00:21 | Usually when we work with people they
have a rough idea what they want to do
| | 00:24 | and it's a very different thing when we
produce. But they had a very clear vision
| | 00:27 | and they were as involved
as designers in this process
| | 00:34 | as Sun and Hot Studio
was throughout the process.
| | 00:37 | Male Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the
things I thought was particularly impressive
| | 00:41 | about this project is that it all
started when you were at TED in 2006 and then
| | 00:49 | it was live and running in 2007, so
within a year just from idea in Cameron's head
| | 00:56 | and then you could come back the
next year later and again be in
| | 00:59 | front of that community, who is a very
impressive and resource-rich group, that
| | 01:07 | he could present like, "Look, we built
this thing, we did it. It's out there working."
| | 01:12 | "There are projects on it. It might
be an opportunity for getting more'
| | 01:16 | corporate involvement from those people." That was
pretty mind blowing to do that in a year's time.
| | 01:21 | Female Speaker 2: Now it is year-and-
a-half later and there's a thriving
| | 01:24 | community of people using the site
and there are thousands of projects.
| | 01:28 | Male Speaker 2: It's not just the --
the other thing is because they use
| | 01:31 | the Drupal system for development, they have
also got the support of that entire community.
| | 01:35 | They are not even necessarily
interested in doing architecture or
| | 01:39 | projects, but because this
application fits their philosophy,
| | 01:43 | they'll continue to evolve the codebase
or to create new modules that....
| | 01:47 | Female Speaker 1: That's true!
| | 01:49 | Male Speaker 3: Which was why they choose--
Sun recommended Drupal in the first place,
| | 01:53 | and so the fact that it is
actually happening like that is good.
| | 01:56 | Male Speaker 2: They are smarty-pants, yeah.
| | 01:58 | Female Speaker 1: Yeah I think today
they have over 13,000 members and over
| | 02:02 | 2,000 projects and I think over
200 countries that represent it.
| | 02:07 | The thing that I found so profound and was
so clear to me after this experience was that
| | 02:14 | you can be a single designer, or you
can work in a small studio, you can work
| | 02:17 | in a large corporation, but you can use
your talents and skills to really help make
| | 02:22 | a difference in someone's life.
| | 02:24 | What we did best at Hot Studio was
all embodied in this project, and then
| | 02:28 | coming back and presenting this at TED
the following year, I felt like I could
| | 02:34 | sit in my chair straight up next to Jeff
Bezos and Al Gore and feel really proud
| | 02:39 | that Hot Studio built something that can
help create a real change in people's lives.
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| Hot Studio's Open Architecture Network| 00:05 | Female Speaker 1: We needed to
design a web-based system that would
| | 00:08 | allow architects and other design
professionals around the world to collaborate.
| | 00:14 | Female Speaker 2: We're not really
designing one site; we're designing an ecosystem.
| | 00:19 | Male Speaker 1: People would be able
to use their designs and leverage those designs
| | 00:23 | so that if you have never been
to Sri Lanka, you could find something
| | 00:25 | that had been done for that
environment and you could reuse.
| | 00:29 | Male Speaker 2: This is where you can
find different projects on the site.
| | 00:32 | We split up the different bits of functionality.
| | 00:35 | Male Speaker 3: The collaboration was
pretty intense because everyone had a
| | 00:39 | stake it in for a different reason.
| | 00:40 | Male Speaker 2: All these chapters
were doing things autonomously. They were
| | 00:43 | probably reinventing the wheel, and
so this was an attempt to give some
| | 00:48 | guidance. Like you can always go to
the OAN find some kind of guidance around
| | 00:52 | best practices for hay
bale construction or something.
| | 00:55 | Female Speaker 1: You're learning
about what the client wants us to do
| | 00:59 | and adding that in to the drawings and
then the developer come back to say, "Yeah,
| | 01:02 | but this is what we can do with Drupal."
| | 01:04 | Female Speaker 2: You can be a single
designer, or you can work in a small studio,
| | 01:07 | or you can work in a large
corporation, but you can use your talents
| | 01:11 | and skills to really help make
a difference in someone's life.
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