STEVE PORTIGAL
Portigal Consulting | steve@portigal.com
Principal of Portigal Consulting. Expert in
capturing and reframing user insights.
JULIE NORVAISAS
Portigal Consulting | julie@portigal.com
Consultant with Portigal. Passionate about
bringing a humane vision to business problems.
The Omni Project
March + April 2012
interactions
We have recently embarked on a
self-funded research and innovation project called the Omni project. Working in an agency, we find
the notion of a self-funded study
frightening (at least financially)
but also liberating. This effort
emerges from our desire to work
unbounded by the very necessary
constraints of time, budget, and
curiosity that restrict the put-food-on-the-table work we primarily
are focused on. The seeds for this
project spring from unexplored
avenues in our consumer research;
in nearly every study we have
been involved in, people use powerful language to describe their
relationship with technology. How
is technology affecting people?
Erica, a participant in our
Reading Ahead study on the future
of the book, told us, “I’m worried
that all of these devices that are
supposed to make our lives easier
and connect us more are, you
know, in a sort of sci-fi way, mak-
ing us a little bit zombied out.”
We consistently hear similar awk-
wardly humorous remarks. People
muse about their own addictions
to technology or comment on
the ways in which their devices
are integrating with their bodies.
Although there is a celebration
of the benefits, there is also an
uncertainty about the costs. For
understandable reasons, these
larger issues are not ones our cli-
ents are in a position to address
directly. Yet the data keeps pour-
ing in, in study after study. As
avid culture watchers, we are also
noticing these issues in the zeit-
geist, in media of all types.
