[Music] [Alba Ollé Moreno] Hi, everyone. Welcome to this Adobe MAX 2024 session hosted by Logitech. We're really, really excited to be all here with you today, one more year, and to share with you how is it that we at Logitech MX craft new solutions for creatives in order to really empower creativity. I'll be joined today in a stage by my colleague Giulio Barresi. He's the Head of UX, our design team at Logitech. [Giulio Barresi] Hi, guys. Nice to meet you. How are you doing? Good? Okay. And by Maxime Ellies, he's a freelance Film Director and Photographer with whom we've been collaborating very closely over the past months. [Maxime Ellies] Hi, guys.
So I'll be starting this session telling you about some captivating insights around the concept of flow and telling you really how flow can impact our creative processes. Then Giulio will tell you how is it that we use these insights in order to craft new solutions for creatives. And finally, Maxime will be sharing with you all his amazing content and also how he was able to step up in his creative process and to create being fully immersed into the state of flow. We're going to end up with a Q&A session, so that you guys can ask any questions that may arise during the presentation.
So let me start by telling you a brief personal story. It was April, 2011. It was the very first match organized by my school. The first match actually of a female soccer league organized by my school in Barcelona, Spain. We had been training for months. I was the striker. And finally the moment of truth arrived. The ball fell right before my feet and I had no time to think. I started running, looking only at the ball and the ball. And suddenly everything around me just got muted. I could no longer hear my coach's voice, nor the voice of my colleagues cheering me up. There was only me and the ball and everything else just faded away.
And then I kicked as hard as I could, I started as I could, being fully, fully focused on the goal.
Well, this is the very first time that I recall experiencing the state of flow, that moment when we're so fully immersed in an activity that the world around us just fades away. We completely lose track of time and feel deeply involved in the activity that we are performing.
By the way, I didn't end up scoring.
It was the distinguished psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the one that introduced and investigated this concept. He did interviewed hundreds of creatives, scientists, athletes, and did asked them, what was an activity that they engaged in for pure joy without expecting any fame nor fortune, but which would make their lives meaningful. And I would like to show you one of the answers, the next thread of an answer provided by someone which you're going to see it quite resonates with the way I was feeling during that match. So he said, "You are in an ecstatic stage to such a point," that he felt as though he didn't exist. As though he didn't almost exist. His body seemed devoid of himself and he had nothing to do with what was happening. Well, this phenomenon happens because our nervous system can only process around 110 bits of information per second. Actually, for you to be listening and understanding what I'm currently saying, you're already processing around 60 bits of information. And that's why we cannot comprehend when two people talk to us at the same time. So similarly, when we are so deeply engaged in an activity, we do not really have enough attention left to monitor how our body feels, our problems, whether we're tired or hungry. In a way, it's, as if our identity disappeared from our existence because we don't really have enough attention to the very well something that requires a lot of concentration and at the same time feel that we exist. So we could say that in a way existence is suspended temporarily while we are in a state of flow. I'm sure you can all start thinking of situations where you are experiencing this really amazing state. But really what is it that happens in our bodies while we are in flow? And to understand the science behind flow a bit better, we need to look into our brains more specifically the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. The prefrontal cortex, we could call it the executive center of our brains. It's in charge of processing the most complex cognitive processes such as problem solving or decision making. The limbic system on the other side is primarily associated with emotions. We could really think of it as our emotional engine being led primarily by impulse, instinct, and feelings. So when we are in the state of flow, we actually see that both these brain parts undergo certain changes. The prefrontal cortex activity is actually going to decrease. This is going to reduce inner dialogue and self-criticism, leading to the sense of concentration, the sense of focus and timelessness. At the same time, the activity in the limbic system will be increased. This is going to result in a heightened emotional engagement with the activity that we are performing, higher motivations, and a deep sense of fulfillment and enjoyment in the activity that we are performing.
Actually, this increased activity of the limbic system, it's also believed to release some of the most powerful neurochemicals that our brains can process and generate dopamine and endorphin among them, which are actually associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. And research even suggests that the state of flow is one of the best predictors of happiness and wellbeing.
So the million dollar question really is, how do we get into flow? Well, flow tends to kick in when we are engaging in an activity that is challenging enough for it to require our full set of attention and skills, but not so difficult as to create frustration. The time that it might take from one person to take into flow widely varies from one person to the other. While some can really get into flow maybe after a few minutes of engaging in activity that there is skill team and they enjoy. Some people might take really longer to just block away all the distractions.
And the reality is that in our current digital era, we are exposed to an endless stream of distractions really. Here are some of the very few things that we are up against, constant interruptions from our phones, texts, messages, social media, emails. That's going to really break the very deep concentration that we need in order to be and to get into the state of flow. We also tend to multitask, splitting our attention among different tasks and not really being able to focus in any single one of them. And lastly, as a consequence, we're also going to have reduced attention span. Our brains are getting used to shorter and shorter bursts of information, which is going to make us more prone to get easily distracted.
So in all of this, sit-- Oh, sorry. Let me tell you actually an interesting fact that I'm sure you're gonna love. Research suggests that we check our emails 74 times per day and change between tasks every 10 minutes. That's a lot. But it's actually looking to the bright side of things. Everyone can really get into flow.
The only thing that we really need to do is blocking away all these distractions. You did see how I did fell into flow while I was playing a game. Some other people might doing it where they play an instrument, maybe studying. And I'm sure you can all think of situations where you were into flow while you were maybe designing, illustrating, producing videos for hours and hours, or maybe retouching some images. So while it's super important that we really reduce all those external distractions, something that we have seen when it comes to creativity, is that the tools that we use to create both hardware and software can also impact the state of flow.
So at Logitech MX, we really strive to make creatives work better and we're into really empower them. So we were really curious to understand what is it that makes creatives get into flow, but most importantly, what is it that pulls them away from this amazing state? So we did interview hundreds and hundreds of creators and we actually found some very interesting and consistent feedback that I would like to show you.
So we saw that there's never expanding amount of tools that are being added into our software applications is going to make it harder and harder for us to remember where each of these tools are located within the different interfaces. So every time that we need to make the decision to really find and navigate several menus until finding a tool, we're going to be pulled away from the state of flow.
Now we know that some of you might actually try remembering the keyboard shortcuts for those tools that you use more often. And well, this is an amazing alternative. What we have also seen is that, these shortcuts can take up to four different key combinations. They are not always very intuitive, let's face it. And they can also change from one application to the other. So every time that we need to make a conscious decision to remember what was that keyword shortcut that we wanted to trigger, we're going to be distracted and pulled away from the flow state.
And finally, we know that you also need to perform adjustments on a regular basis. Yet, the tools that you might have available may not always provide with the right physical controls that you need to experience very natural, precise and immersive adjustments, once again not allowing us to get into flow.
So we really thought all these insights were extremely valuable and eye-opening. It made us realize that we still have a big opportunity to improve creative professionals workflows and to make sure that we can help them, help you, create being fully immersed in the state of flow. So my colleague Giulio will now tell you what is it that we did with all these insights and how did we evolve them into tangible ideas.
Thank you, Alba.
How are you doing? Good? Cool. I'm very excited to be here. It's actually my second MAX. And I'm very delighted to be here on stage to talk a bit about design. I'm a creative myself like many of you here in the room. And one of the things that I really like doing is-- As a creative designing products for other creatives and probably this is the thing that really excites me and gets me out of bed in the morning.
So if you know a bit Logitech, I think our purpose is to enable human potential. And we do this in two big areas. We do this in gaming. And you may know our game equipments with Logitech G. We also do it in the world of creation and especially for creatives with our Master Series or Logitech MX as we mentioned this before.
But the stories that Alba were telling you before and how we got interested in this idea of flow and how we research user needs, truly make us I think design-led. When we develop a new solution, we first think about you and then we think about how the tech is going to help you, if there is a need for a tech actually.
And I think this is what makes us really think about user-centered and design-led products.
Let me show you this interface and I don't want to go through the whole history of computer science. But I think this image is really interesting 'cause you'll see here on your left the first graphical user interface that was developed by Xerox in '81.
And it's using a lot of elements of experiences that we know from before. Imagine that this thing was completely new, but we're using a lot of items and elements that are familiar, right? You have files that you can put into folders. You even have like a bin from which you can trash the content you don't want to keep anymore. So all these cues help you sort of navigate new experiences, right? Because you have previous knowledge, although, the context is completely different. And you can see that we quickly entered the space 'cause we saw an opportunity to bridge this gap between this new digital world, and those digital representations of files, folders, and information, with the physical world, our ability to control that. So we launched our first mouse in '81. It was called the P4.
And if you look at this, these interfaces haven't really changed a lot, right? We're not talking about desktop. They're still here. We still have windows and trash can, and files, and folders, but they've complexified overtime.
What we know though is that, in most cases using a mouse remains the most efficient way to control this content, right? So it's not something that we really wanted to-- It's actually something we wanted to build on, right? And think about what is the next step when we see these interfaces complexifying. How can we have a more tighter integration, so that you feel the sense of flow and don't feel like you have to fight with the interface you're using.
And you can see over the years, look, we've been in this game for 40 years developing amazing products.
And slowly we started to evolve our products, right? So content started to grow, it went over your window. We invented scroll bars, and guess what? We invented scroll wheels to move those scroll bars.
And as time moved on, we saw that the complexity of your workflow started to grow. People use a bunch of different apps, jumped from one context to another constantly. And so there was an opportunities for us to look at how can we more tightly integrate the physical to digital integration. So we started to like have contextual controls for some of our buttons, wheels, with the apps you love to use.
But as Alba mentioned, there is a variety of things that we felt were not totally well addressed yet. And when we think of developing something new, we really want to pinpoint down the key problems we try to solve. And I can summarize it into very three distinctive buckets. The first one was like, how do we help you trigger actions now that you have more action than space available on your screen, plus the content you actually need to design or control? So we want to think about a better way to trigger actions.
And the second was, how do we help you adjust? And I think a lot of creative work is about adjustments, find controls, and really enable you to softly do a type of change, so that you come up with the right design. And it can often feel frustrating looking at an interface and trying to move this little cursor there and looking at this thing. And instead of actually looking at what you're actually doing, which is retouching an image can be frustrating and ultimately, it can make you drop out of this flow state. And lastly, I mentioned it. We see interfaces growing. And for all of you that are actually doing video editing, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, having to scroll a massive timeline and right to left and zoom in and out clipping and removing again takes a lot of time and effort.
So with all this, the design team was actually really excited to think about something completely new and we really started from a blank page and tried to address these three problems.
So what I'll do now, I'll show you actually our latest product. It's called the MX Creative Console. And next take maybe a minute to look at this amazing clip that was done by our creative team. [Music] Yay. Pretty cool, know? Okay. There's a lot going on, but let me explain you a bit how we went about it and how we build it.
So this is the MX Creative Console. And you can see it's build of two parts. You've got the MX Creative Dialpad here and on the right you got the keypad. The dialpad really allows you to, as I said, adjust controls, and navigate your interface with its roller. And on the other side you'll see interactive keys that will actually contain your favorite actions, the ones you want to trigger that you never get to find.
You can organize them the way you want and fully customize it.
And if I think a bit about how we built this and how we went about building something that wasn't really existing before.
It was one of the focuses we put was, how can we find this sweet spot between learning curve and efficiency? And do you remember my mouse story in the beginning where I said, the mouse is still the most efficient way to control interface? Do you remember the first time you actually used the mouse and how weird it was? Moving an object on a flat surface that actually moves a cursor perpendicularly is weird.
It's weird, but just for a few seconds, or maybe a couple minutes, and then it actually feels pretty natural. And this is what we call the learning curve. And the idea with the MX Creative Console was, how can we think about a learning curve low enough, but at the same time provide a pretty powerful experience? So if you look at an airplane, there's like 10,000 buttons and controls to move an airplane and fly it, right? You need hours and hours and hours of training, but then you actually get to fly a massive plane and people across the world. And that's pretty cool.
What we wanted was to think about the airplane experience and be like, you're creative, you can fly your creativity and bringing to the right destination without the hours and hours and hours of training necessary to get there. And that was sort of the thinking behind the products.
So we started prototyping very basically. The team just went and took a bunch of buttons and dials and sliders and just connected it with features in your favorite creative apps, right? And I think we quickly realized the things that were working and the things that were absolutely not working. And it helps us iterates. And eventually we ended up with like a smaller set of features of controls from which we evolved into more, actually, tight and compact designs. And we did hundreds of tests with many of you guys. We got you in, we shipped the products to you, you tried it. And I think through these hundreds of different types of feedback, we landed with the solution I just showed you.
Now when we built something at Logitech, we tried to do it in the best way for you and for the planet. And so we acted on three key points. The first one was better materials. We really played with innovation ways to think about contrast and elevating the design, but by minimizing our footprint and that enabled us to think about new method of elevating materials. The second is that it's fully modular. So it's made of two parts. And the idea is that you can use it in your own way. You can place it however you want on the desk here, and you're not fixed with a certain setup. It's also made for the use cases of today, but it's also made for the use cases of tomorrow. And that brings me to our last point. Today, we're launching it with six major Adobe apps, but there's many more coming.
So we're really excited about that. But I think I'll stop here about the product features. I'll be happy to answer a few questions after, but I'll get Maxime come over on stage. So he'll talk about his work and how he's using the product in his daily life. Thank you, Maxime. Thank you, Giulio.
Hi, everyone. My name is Maxime Ellies. I'm a French Film Director and Photographer. And as far as I can remember, I've always wanted independence and freedom in my work. Well, it's been now six years that I'm traveling the world, working under no other person but myself from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the US to create the images that you can see now. Well, this is my first MAX, guys. I'm very excited and proud to be here with Logitech. I'm going to introduce you guys to my work, things that I've created and how the MX Creative Console entered my workflow. So let's start directly talking about my background, who I am and how I've became the artist that I am today. So in 2019, I started my career by doing concert music videos in Bordeaux, South of France. So that's my hometown. At that time, I was really passionate about music and especially rap music. So I moved to Paris. And I worked with my favorite artist and obviously French rappers at that time. In 2020, I signed in a music label in Paris, a rap music label, which quickly allowed me to work on music videos with a team. And as you can see with my friend Ric on the car there, we are just determined to work without limits and safety thread. So at the same time I was doing my concert and music videos. I was traveling a lot, so I was going a lot to the mountains, to the Pyrenees especially. So that's the mountains between my hometown in France and Alba's in Spain by the way. So, yeah, I was hiking a lot, I was traveling and I was trying to create some bridge between my urban environment in Paris and the untouched nature in my work.
That year I left the label I was in because I wanted to work with some other music styles than rap, that led me to meet the artist called Dajak, who is now one of my closest friend. And on that year we went to Morocco for a month to create the image of his first DP. So that project is important in my career as it was the first time an artist fully trusted my vision and had a full confidence in my work. So in 2021, a production company called Obvious in Paris saw my work and we quickly started to collaborate on a few projects together, such as in Belgrade in 2021, where I had the chance to direct a team of more than 100 people during three days. And I was 21-years-old at that time, pretty exciting. At the same time I was doing these bigger and bigger music videos. I was still rigging cameras and friends on cars. And I was trying to push the codes of my music videos to another level, trying to add some narrative to it, trying to rethink about the music itself, trying to put some sound design, voiceovers and everything. Well, in 2022, I've directed, which is now my latest music video in France. And I've used this technology of motion control. So that's the robot you can see here, which offered me new ways of thinking my creativity through technology. So it's for a French rapper called SDM, and I'll show you a bit now. [Music] So, yeah, after that I wanted to go bigger, higher, and I had no choice but to go worldwide. That led me to Los Angeles last year where I've directed visuals for the amazing artist, Amaarae that you might know. So, yeah, it's still a music video, but the styling, the collaborating, the music, everything is different.
[Music] So, yeah, as I said earlier, I was trying to push the codes of my music videos to another level. And with my friend Dajak, if you can remember, that's the friend and artist I worked with in Morocco, we've directed a nine-minute long short film, music video, where I had the chance to have full control, like creatively. As I said, he was very trustfully immersed in my vision. So, yeah, we've directed-- I mean, I've directed this video and I'll show you the teaser now. We have the chance to show it in loads of different theaters along Paris. And I think that's my most personal project so far. [Music] So, yeah, we're now in-- Thank you.
Thank you, guys. So, yeah, we're now in 2023. I've directed more than 15 music videos all around the world, five live session, two short films. And I wanted to do something completely different from the music world. Well, that led me to Nepal in Asia last year where I have directed, which is now my very first documentary. I had the chance to follow out lists, during 50 days. And I've directed this documentary about the mental health issues in the paragliding and the Alpinism world. So it's not out yet, but I'll show you an extract now. [Music] You good? See you.
Yeah. I'm now 25-years-old. I hope you guys like my work, but you also might be like cool. All of this relates with Logitech today. Well, all of this project were edited by me on Premiere Pro and I'll try to give you a little example of my workflow on Premiere to show you guys the potential of the Creative Console. So first, this is how I've always done on Premiere. Before starting the process, I like to organize my clips and sequence that helps to keep my brain organized. So to do so I move each clip to a different line. And to do so I used the shortcut, Alts and arrow up. So, yeah, here I'll put the motorcycle scene on the third line. I'll put the aquarium scene on the second line. And I'm going to put this-- Yeah, motorcycle scene as well on the third line. So once that is done, what I like to do is to label my clips. So put different color, that helps me on the next workflow to, yeah, to have a better organization. So to do so, I need to right click, label, and select the color I want each clip to be. So, yeah, this is how I've always done and I never really questioned that process. So it's now a bit different with the MX Creative Console. So this is my keypad that Giulio introduced you earlier. I have five different pages for Premiere here, but we'll focus on that one for this example. So here I have two different buttons. So they help me to move to the previous and next editing point. So that helps me to travel through my timeline. Two different buttons to move the selected clip up and down, which is basically a replacement for the Alt and arrow up or down on my keyboard. And three different buttons for color labels, which is basically a replacement for the right click, label, and color options. So now let's get the same example, but with the MX Creative Console. It's going to be kind of quick. Well, I select my clip, I move it to the line I want and I simply press the color I want each clip to be. It's pretty easy, right? So here I'm only saving a few seconds because this is only the pre-production process. But over the course of a day of editing, you quickly end up saving a lot of time and beyond time spent. But even if I think to really understand that, you'll have to experience it. It does present a real change for me in the way I stay immersed and focused on the work I'm doing.
Not having to navigate through sub menus present. Yeah, massive change. This is only 1% of what you can imagine doing with the Creative Console. Things as like, coping and pasturing attributes, changing the speed of a clip to 50% or also creating the 10 folders you've used to work with on Premiere. Yeah, you can think of all of that just with one click. Well, I haven't had the time to show you guys my work as a photographer. But as you can imagine, all of these photos were shot by me and edited on Lightroom Classic and I found amazing ways to use the MX Creative Console as a color grading console on Lightroom Classic. Well, that's it for me guys. Thank you for listening and let us know if you have any questions.
[Music]