Transforming brands, companies and whole industries towards a digital future definitely has one big drawback: no one knows where to find enough good talent for this epic undertaking. That’s why I have always supported progressive, digital education through organisations such as Tractor Design School, AGDA or AWARD. And it’s nice if you get support from your colleagues. My fellow Reactive Sydney creative David Brown for example is now working with the University of Sydney, and has just joined the judging panel of global student design competition OzCHI.
The acronym CHI stands for Computer HumanInteraction and is a vital component of our daily work. Knowing how humans understand, learn and use computer interfaces is crucial for digital success. And this year the OzCHI competition asks a pretty interesting question “What’s the future of email?”. Indeed, what’s the point in all of these 150 Billion (!) emails we send every day. Today workers spend on average 28% of their time in their inbox. And yet, we never seem to really catch up with it. And even if we manage to work through all emails in a day, there is always a fresh new batch coming in tomorrow.
As a special rule of OzCHI, students can only work on their ideas with a 24-hour time frame. Although a pretty exhausting mental sprint for all teams, it also forces them to rapidly test assumptions, discard some of them and learn what will stick. Acquiring these agile techniques will prepare them well for the real world of businesses and brands reinventing themselves.
I can’t wait to see the ideas of the class of 2013.
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