Manifest Digital Human Experience Society

We are often told to “think globally, act locally.” But rallying people to save the creek in their backyard is a very different proposition from asking them to reduce their carbon footprint and stop global warming. Somewhere between the individual and planetary levels can be found the most appropriate actions for companies, cities, states, and nations to take – but what are they? That was the problem facing the Illinois Commerce Commission last December when it partnered with Insight Labs, the non-profit initiative conceived at Manifest. In conjunction with thinkers from the private, non-profit, and public sectors, the Lab developed various ways that the ICC...

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Each year the member banks of the Federal Reserve publish reams of data that could be used to better understand the American economy. But much of that information has yet to be made easily accessible on the Web, much less presented in a way that a wide variety of users could put to work. Several Manifest employees helped the Fed take a step toward solving that problem earlier this month. Brandy Taylor, Tanarra Schneider, and Laura Blaydon gave a presentation and answered questions at the annual Federal Reserve System Editors and Designers Conference, held this year at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. The Manifesters’ talk...

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In the early 21st century, the act of radical re-branding has become so common as to be a cliche. We have already grown weary of a world in which entertainers, politicians, and corporations act as if changing a name or a logo erases the past. Yet they keep trying. What’s worse, as part of these radical rebrands, many companies discard products, services, or aspects of their cultures that form key components of their users’ experience. Without a thorough understanding of that experience, it’s easy to dismiss anything that doesn’t contribute to the bottom line. Insight Labs, the non-profit initiative housed at Manifest, has seen many...

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Designing video games might not sound like a occupation that requires a lot of work – it’s every 12-year-old’s dream job, after all. But it begins to sound more challenging when you consider that those 12-year-olds are becoming increasingly sophisticated consumers with more potential distractions than ever before. On top of that, designers who are building games to promote a product must balance the needs of their clients, the kids, and the parents who make the purchasing decisions at the end of the day. It’s a familiar space for Manifest, whose suite of clients includes well-known children’s brands like LEGO and Mattel. The agency recently...

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  Motorcyle Dialogues – Part 3   When last we left our philosophical adventurers, they were discussing the ways in which companies’ marketing and user experience are often worlds apart. In this discussion, Insight Labs Content Director Andrew Benedict-Nelson brings Manifest founder Jim Jacoby back to the root of the dialogue: the role symbols and their manipulation play in the company’s culture. They go on to discuss what the world will look like when people view entire companies in the way they currently view networks of computers (which are themselves only networks of symbols). Click here to circle back to Part 0 and read about...

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Symbol: Explore Species: Glyph Text: “To investigate, study or analyze: look into; to become familiar with by testing or experimenting; to travel over (new territory) for adventure or discovery; to examine especially for diagnostic purposes.” (Merriam-Webster) Interpretation: The Internet is giving every human being who is connected to it new opportunities for exploration, some of them as significant as those undertaken by Christopher Columbus, James Cook, or Neil Armstrong. What’s so startling about our time, though, is that those opportunities have opened to so many of us equally and simultaneously. Columbus wouldn’t have gotten very far without Ferdinand and Isabella; today our exploration is more...

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Symbol: Connect Species: Glyph Text: “To join, link, or fasten together; to unite or bind; to establish communication between; to have as an accompanying or associated feature; to cause to be associated, as in a personal or business relationship; to associate mentally or emotionally.” (American Heritage Dictionary)  Interpretation: Frankly, we’re getting tired of hearing about it. We’re reminded every day that we live in an increasingly “connected” world. Powerful people are referred to as “connected” as if they came with outlets. As a verb in the social media space, it has become as ubiquitous and empty as “friend” and “follow.” But the connections that underlie...

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                                         The Motorcycle Dialogues  - Part 2   In our last episode, Manifest founder Jim Jacoby was discussing why so many companies are good at coming up with technological solutions but forget the human aspect. In this conversation, Insight Labs Content Director Andrew Benedict-Nelson delves into that subject further, asking Jacoby about the gap between the aspirational messages of corporate marketing and users’ actual experience. It’s part of an ongoing conversation about viewing Manifest’s various activities as forms of sophisticated symbol manipulation. Click here to go...

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Symbol: Protect Species: Glyph Text: “Keep safe from harm or injury.” (New Oxford American Dictionary) Interpretation: Digital technology is re-ordering just about every industry today. Those embracing the spirit of “creative destruction” may say that to Protect should be one’s last instinct; instead, nearly every aspect of an organization’s operations should be reconsidered in the new glow of the Web. We get that point of view – we’ve told plenty of clients that a cherished product or practice is about to become irrelevant – but we’re over it already. Companies are going to be disrupted by digital whether they hire a digital agency or not....

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