Analog tools in a digital world

Being a student at design school, the best ideas often came up away from the computers.

Digital allowed new types of interaction. With computers, things became more object-based. Drag and drop. With operating systems came new smart ideas on how we could interact with the world. Sometimes we assume that innovative mindset exists by default. Just because something is delivered in a digital format.

Our idea has been to use the new object-based thinking that digital opened up for, and combine it with the possibility of working in participatory ways in the physical space. The output and the thinking behind it are two very separate things.

Many people were obsessed with the digital format (only). 2012 when MethodKit came to life, most people just LOVED apps, it was the best thing ever. But the format can easily become a gimmick. In the age of digital, we still use analog tools for meetings and workshops, with blank canvases like whiteboards, flip charts and notebooks as the rule. The physical world lacks programs.

MethodKit is a project born out of a digital mindset dragged back into the analog world. Because the format of being able to lay cards out on a table or on a wall just works better. Until smooth functioning AR comes around…