Body and mind
Written by Simon Clatworthy
I just saw this on the BBC site (link) describing the connection between movement and cognition.
It seems like finally body and mind are being re-connected, and its about time. I think that Service Design has understood this for quite some time, in terms of how it runs workshops and uses artefacts to improve workshop results. The visualization of ideas is one way of doing this, and so are the multiple tangible tools that are specifically designed for workshops.
I have written earlier and researched the touch-point cards, and each time I use them, I realize how much the physical holding and manipulation of the cards aids memory and cognition. Not only this, the shared visual and physical nature helps create shared understanding. In research terms, these are described as boundary objects – objects that have shared understanding across disciplines. For the researchy among you, here is a (link) to some of the research I have been doing including the touch-point cards.
We are presenting a paper at the ServDes 2014 conference (link) about using tangible objects to assist strategic conversations, and this will be uploaded when published. There are also other things worth noting at ServDes, including a workshop by my heroes Jacob Buur (link) and papers by Eva Brandt (link) and  Mette Agger Eriksen (link).
We are also just about to carry out some work looking at the development of tangible tools that can be used to assist companies in understanding what it means to deliver memorable customer experience as part of the experience centric-organisation (link). Â More on that later, but until then, think hard about going to ServDes 2014 to find out more about co-design using body and mind.