I get stuck out in the rain more than the average person. Ask me about the forecast and if I’m not near a screen with an Internet connection, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I probably forget my umbrella a good half of the time. When it pours, I either get soaked or I buy one of those inadequate umbrellas they sell on the street for three bucks (in which case I only get soaked from the knees down). I’ve already lost one of said street umbrellas, broken two more and I can feel my fourth coming apart at the hinges. I don’t just need a new umbrella. I need an intervention.
Is the Ambient Umbrella the solution to my wet-sock-woes?
A smarter umbrella.
Maybe. It’s a dead-simple idea: the umbrella glows if the forecast calls for rain. If the blue LED catches your eye on the way out the door, you’ll know to take it with you. The umbrella works by pulling weather data in wirelessly from a reliable radio-frequency network and is made by a company called Ambient Devices. This diagram on their site shows what they’re all about:
I love the philosophy. Pushed information interrupts the flow of our daily lives (annoying email/txt weather alerts). Yet, having to pull the same information requires significantly more effort and attention (find/wait for the weather report on the tv, visit the website). Ambient information, on the other hand, is sorta just… there. It’s a natural part of your environment and stays in the periphery until it’s needed.
What makes the Ambient Umbrella different from some other ambient devices out there is that this umbrella understands context. It’s designed with both location and occasion in mind, and presents helpful information in a form that’s immediately actionable. What if we approached marketing in the same way? Instead of interrupting people or demanding their attention, what if companies figured out a way to stay in the background until they could be helpful, delightful and relevant?
Something to think about, rain or shine.
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By the way, keep your eye out for David Rose, co-founder and CEO of Ambient Devices. He’s going to be speaking here in NYC at IDEA2007, a conference in October on designing complex information. He’s also posted some nice concept sketches of the Ambient Umbrella on his Flickr page, and he’s participating in a fireside chat with the 37sigs dudes as well.
Ambient Umbrella Sketches, from David Rose’s Flickr Page
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