"Wired to Care", a recent book by Jump's Dev Patnaik, is the response that came to a young grad student's lips after she heard my answer to her question yesterday on how I was liking being in Finland. Her explanation was that the book talked about small companies that grew around really really wanting to meet and exceed their customer's expectations but facing the challenge of holding on to this quality after growing beyond a particular size. Yes, that can be a problem but the topic on hand was the Finnish bureaucracy.
Let me explain: My answer to her question led me to expound on the biggest difference I've found here in Helsinki compared to living in a few 'hotspots' around the world (San Francisco, Singapore, Bangalore etc) What stands above and beyond any experience I've had elsewhere has been my interactions with the local government or public services. Call it service design, customer or user experience, the fact remains that the Finns have somehow managed to find an answer that works when it comes to leaving the end user feeling on top of the world. Yes, I may digress into hyperbole here but as any of you who have faced the experience of dealing with customer service that's so regimented according to prescripted interactions that if you miss some required paper or information you're instantly incapable of being assisted would recognize, the opposite is bound to be a pleasure.
We've all seen those product development firms that purport to take your idea and turn it into manufactured reality; do they really work? One of them did for Joy Clymer, who's not even a product designer--she's a medical transcriptionist. But she had an idea for a product:
[Clymer] wanted a neat and simple way to transport deviled eggs to get-togethers. She had taken a dozen deviled eggs to a barbecue in a pie pan covered with plastic. By the time she arrived, they were a mess. Joy knew there had to be a better way, but she couldn't find a proper container in the stores, so she decided to invent one....
She brought her idea to product developers Davison International, and the result was the "Party on the Go" food/dessert travel caddy seen above. Following its invention it was licensed by Davison collaborator Xtraordinary Home Products (XHP), and subsequently featured on QVC, which virtually guarantees massive sales and, you know, cha-ching!
So, guys and gals--if a medical transcriptionist saw a market hole and filled it herself, surely a trained product designer can do it as well, no? Put those thinking caps on!
Swissmiss points to a really good video of Michael Bierut discussing design and the economy, prior to his AIGA Philly lecture. Pretty short, and pretty great.
Core-fave Ralph Caplan has a sweet essay on the role (and limits) of empathy in design up on the AIGA Voice site. Here's a taste:
Empathy in design focuses on the user as a person, not just a consumer. And because it can be very difficult to imagine someone else's needs, we try getting the necessary information directly. This endeavor is supported by the wisdom of the ages, or at least by a Native American legend admonishing us not to judge anyone without first walking a mile in his moccasins. But, with moccasins as with so much else, one size doesn't fit all. Once I was researching an article about prisons in Connecticut. The state was at the time experimenting with a program that encouraged lawyers and judges to spend a voluntary weekend in the jug in order to better understand the sentences for which they were responsible. It was a well-meaning experiment, but I doubt that being locked up taught the prosecutors and judges much about incarceration that they didn't already know. Their experience would have been nothing like that of the real inmates, who did not wish to be there and did not know when they would get out. Empathy would have to supply what a weekend behind bars would not.
REFLECTING the design and branding organisation of its Italian partner Fiat, Chrysler has given each of its three brands - Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - their own design bosses, reporting to Senior Vice President of Product Design, Ralph Gilles. The new design heads are Brandon Faurote at Chrysler, Joseph Dehner at Dodge, and Mark Allen for Jeep. Faurote, the youngest of the trio at 37 [sic], was previously Vice President of advance design for international models, with the Dodge Neon, Chrysler PT Cruiser and the 1999 Jeep Cherokee in his folio.
(TMR lists Faurote's age at 37, though our records indicate he's actually 38.)
Previously Faurote has not been the subject of heavy press, though we were able to piece together bits and pieces from a now-defunct Chrysler website and various other sources:
Brandon L. Faurote was born Aug. 30, 1970 in Canton, Ohio. He grew up loving to sketch and with an avid enthusiasm for cars. Faurote joined the Chrysler Group in 1993 after receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich. From June, 1993 to Jan., 1997, Faurote worked in Jeep design, working on all Jeep models but most notably, the 1999 Grand Cherokee.
He then transferred to Passenger Car Design from Jan., 1997- April, 2000, working to design the 2001 Chrysler and Dodge Minivans.
In April, 2002 Faurote was named to manage the Small Car mid-cycle development on vehicles that included the Dodge Neon, the Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus coupes.
Faurote was Chief Designer - Advanced Product Design from Feb., 2003, leading the advanced design team to complete a series of concept vehicles and future products. He led the team that completed the Chrysler Firepower and Chrysler Imperial concept vehicles, both debuted at the North American International Auto Show. He was appointed Director - Advanced Product Design in Dec., 2004.
The key to coming up with good ideas is to stay current, says Faurote, who tries to keep up with the latest stuff. "Looking at trends in society, such as music, architecture and fashion, helps me keep on the cutting edge of design." From a design standpoint, Faurote predicts vehicles will become a blend of the organic and the crisp. "The focus will be on fit and finish quality and cleanliness of design."
The Reflexive Generation: Young Professionals' Perspectives on Work, Career and Gender
London Business School's Centre for Women in Business
Organisations know they do not yet understand the needs and perspectives of Generation Y and need to know how this generation can be managed. In a time when old structures like jobs for life are breaking down or disappearing for good the individual is increasingly in charge of shaping his or her own career, skill set and financial planning. In this research we find that Generation Y are in a 'feedback loop' where their past influences their present and future experiences. The 'feedback loop' allows them to re-invent themselves. Consequently we have called them the "Reflexive Generation".
The Wall Street Journal in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management Review explore the topic of innovation.
"When companies try to come up with new ideas, they too often look only where they always look. That won't get them anywhere.
The article proposes nine examples of practices with the potential to produce a company's eureka moment: build scenarios, spin the web, enlist lead users, deep dive, probe and learn, mobilize the staff, cater to entrepreneurs, start a conversation, and breed diversity.
Sustainable Minds will be holding two workshops in the next few weeks, titled "Mastering Environmental Impact Assessment in the Design Process." Here's what you'll learn:
1. Ecodesign principles and product innovation through ecodesign strategies
2. Life cycle thinking and a whole product systems approach to product design
3. To have a deeper and practical understanding of what life cycle assessment (LCA) is
4. How to conduct a Sustainable Minds, Okala-based LCA to produce quantifiable environmental impact results to support design decisions
5. How to consider integrating SM LCA in your design process and service offerings
The workshops will take place on June 26th in NYC with Joep Meijer and Terry Swack (Andrew Dent guest presenter!), and on July 10th in San Francisco with Philip White (lead author of Okala).
Core contributor Alissa Walker moderates a panel discussion of (Fast) Company Men as they discuss the future and impact of the holy cell phone. Here's a good bit courtesy of Robert Fabricant:
How have cell phones changed our behavior? It is remarkable to me how it has taken the iPhone to create this momentum in the U.S. market: to get people to engage with mobile experiences outside of basic communication. When I travel outside the U.S., particularly in the developing world, the engagement with mobile devices is so much higher. Mobile minutes are quickly becoming the most liquid currency in Africa and other emerging markets. Even in very remote regions, you see people using their devices to transact and fulfill a broader range of needs than we see here in the U.S. And that is with the most basic Nokia phone. Forget multi-touch.
John Emerson writes about the power of visually mapping power as a tactic to effect positive social change. In the article published in Communication Arts, he uses a variety of different examples such as how Friends of the High Line used visuals to raise the funds to save the elevated rail line in Manhattan and transform it into a unique, elevated public park; the effectiveness of Al Gore's message as designed by Duarte Design; a chart providing the power relationships contained within the civil strife in the Congo or even the process of domestic violence in households. As he says,
What is power? It's an abstract dynamic, an engine behind the visible world. Power can be found in relationships, in the flow of resources or information, in signs, symbols and ideas or built into the environment. There's no doubt that visual media has the power to influence an audience, but visual media can also be used to visualize power itself. Visualizing power is a way of interpreting and understanding it. And this understanding can become a basis for challenging it. Design can be used to describe and locate power, to pressure those who hold power, and ultimately to facilitate and generate power by bringing people together.
The Economist writes about jugaad, referring to an innovative, low-cost way of doing something - as goods and services are provided in India at a fraction of the cost of those in developed countries. From the Tata Nano to the Chinese lithium-ion battery that's easier to make at less than one third the price, its the domestic conditions of scarce and expensive resources and materials coupled with less than wealthy customers that drive these jugaad innovations.
But its not all high tech or corporate R&D, says the article, as rural innovators are also coming in the limelight with their cost effective, grassroots solutions to everyday challenges,
Anil Gupta, of the Indian Institute of Management, helps run the Honey Bee Network, which encourages grassroots innovation in a number of countries. The projects he has been involved with include a refrigerator built from clay, which uses no electricity yet can help keep vegetables fresh for several days, and a cheap crop-duster in the form of a sprayer mounted on a motorcycle.
Many of these were demonstrated recently at a workshop held to promote Grassroots Innovation Design and Sustainability (GRIDS) in the Indian city of Pune. They hold a very real potential for sustainable solutions, developed as they are under conditions of scarcity, often repurposing or reusing materials, using the minimum of fuel or even recycling energy - for example, figuring out how to charge a cellular phone from the exhaust of a motorcycle. But the problem of funding remains as they're often under the radar of investors nor have the capacity to raise money. One hopes they'll find a way to inspire a new approach to product development in these recessionary times, a jugaad solution to conserve the future of our planet.
When I saw that diagram above, which is an approximation of the product development teams at Sun and Apple, I thought the same thing as you: Where the heck's the industrial designer?
Even in diagrams, it seems, we are invisible. Sigh.
The diagram is from an article on corporate product development processes in Product Design and Development. If you've ever wondered how stuff gets made outside of design firms, in situations where you've got literally dozens of departments that all have to sign off on various parts of the process, then this will make fascinating reading for you.
Of course, if you've already lived this process, as a designer it can be just plain frustrating. An excerpt:
Example #2: (Industrial Design vs. Mechanical Engineering)
At Sun we had a very talented Industrial Design (ID) group. On a new "Thin Client" computer project, the manufacturing and design strategy called for utilizing an external OEM partner in South Korea. A problem came up during development which highlighted the very different views (assumptions) we had of each other's processes.
Early in the project the ID group released a cool looking 3D surface CAD model of the enclosure. The OEM ME's began adding detailed features such as wall thickness, mounting bosses, ribs, etc. However when they came across a problem they did what they normally do - they fixed it! ...but didn't tell us.
A month and a half later the ME's sent back 3D CAD models of the finished enclosure for our review and approval. I setup a design review which included the lead Industrial Designer. The ID person noticed that a change had been made to the top vents. The change violated the new corporate "design language".
This was bad because the new computer was one of a family of products that were being introduced with the new look. The vent shape was a key design element used to identifying the next generation of faster/better computers.
It turns out that the OEM's mechanical engineers discovered early on that the vent shape would have prevented the parts from coming off of the plastic mold so they changed it. Apparently, they considered the change minor, not worth mentioning, and in the interest of time simply made the change.
The lead Industrial Designer was angry that he hadn't been informed of the problem. He assumed he would be consulted whenever a change affected aesthetics which was modus operandi for all previous projects where the mechanical design was done internally....
Support existing needs, values, networks and experiences.
Cultivate Accurate Mental Models
Design interactions that do not rely on western conventions and metaphors. The system should rely on organization principles, communication methods and iconic representations that are relevant to local experience. Recognize the cultural norms of verbal communication and spatial memory.
Evolve a Known Technological Experience
Create a solution which builds on experience with culturally familiar objects: cars, radios, calculators, televisions and bicycles instead of computers, websites and video games. Explore direct feedback, single-button functions and mechanical clarity.
Emphasize Local Adoption Styles
Create technology and interfaces that can match how people live; India is not discreet or quiet so a solution should be vibrant and expressive of Indian society, culture, religion and way of life. It should also assume the mobile devices are shared and that conversations may involve many people speaking to many, rather than one to one conversations on a personal device.
I don't mean that everybody has to be a great designer, but everyone has to be literate in it. In the same way I consider it up there with numeracy. That is, to be in business, let alone to be a fully-functioning member of a democratic society, you have to be numerate, you have to know a little math. I think the same thing is true now about design thinking: You don't have to be a great designer, but you have to be design-literate. I think the capacity to explain what design is, to show what design is, to tell stories about design, to educate people about design, does a hugely important service. It's actually helping designers by educating their clients for them.
One way to educate your clients? Pink talks about keeping a design journal, which he uses as a way to sketch out examples of good and bad design that he encounters throughout the day. But is it a Moleskine, we wonder?
Pink will be headlining Dwell on Design, on June 26-28 in LA, and Core77 readers can save $15 on Exhibition Plus with DWELL8B and $50 on Dwell Conference Plus with DWELL987M. Register at dwellondesign.com.
How do you kickstart innovation and economic growth when all the world is hurting? You open the door to your larder to the community with a generosity of spirit and sense of openly sharing for the greater good.
Every major corporation in the world has a larder full of Intellectual Property, projects that emerged from the depths of R&D or design that never make it to light for one reason or another. The majority hold on to their patent portfolios seeking to maximize the return on their investment dollars, both in terms of time and money, one day. Then there are those who take that famous Finn, Linus Torvald's 'open source' philosophy to heart.
Nokia has just announced plans to give away all the concepts, IP, designs and ideas that emerged from their R&D but will never make it through their production lines. They see it as a form of CSR or even 'recycling':
There is a direct link to corporate responsibility though. Not only does this impact consumers (more ideas developed into products) but it also impacts employees (see the previous note on scientists and developers seeing their ideas come to life) alongside giving more local businesses a helping hand. This initiative can't be underestimated for its potential impact. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out over the next three years. We're hoping to keep tabs on those ideas that get passed out and what happens to them in the next stage of their development cycle.
but its more than simply corporate social responsibility or giving back to your community and roots. For all of us who may have felt the frustration of 'non disclosure agreements' or ideas that gathered dust on client's shelves, its a message of hope that if an idea or concept does not make it to development, it can still see the light of day, somehow, somewhere.
Its also an exercise in social and economic development of an industry sector, since this 'donation' of IP will be accompanied by funding and business development support by other players such as Tekes, Technopolis and the local cities themselves. Here's different snippet for an idea of the kinds of products and services being shared,
The innovations released by Nokia are in areas such as environmental and energy-related solutions, location based services and advertising, near field communication, mobile security, health care applications and future internet services, among others. The objective is to evaluate the thousands of available innovations and select around one hundred to be matched with a company which demonstrates the best ability to exploit them, and which is then granted funding for further development and commercialization.
Imagine turning the whole 'startup approaches the VC' concept on its head - demonstrate you've got the ability and competence and we'll not only give you the concept developed with the kind of resources no start up could ever command but there's funding available as well as business development support. Or to put it another way,
"Speeding up the economy calls for a new degree of openness. We hope that the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill sets an example that companies across other sectors will follow. The current economic climate is just right for a critical evaluation of intellectual property portfolios and the release of the innovations that are more suitable for others to exploit," continued Aho.
Who was it who said that 'Ideas are free, its what you do with them that counts' ? I don't recall, but I do look forward to seeing what happens when idealistic concepts of openness, sharing, community spirit and doing good are manifested so tangibly with the euros to back them.
Humin is a programme developed for Flemish SMEs and start-ups that creates competitive advantage through people-centred innovation. Sponsored by Limburg/Genk, Design Region Kortrijk, and FlandersInShape, Humin puts design at the heart of every business, enabling Flemish managers to become more effective and more successful. The focus of the programme is on understanding the people who use an organisation's products and services, using design methods to translate these insights into tangible, bottom line benefits for business.
Over the next two years, Humin will have 1.4 million Euro available to connect businesses and designers, providing innovation tools and methods to SMEs and innovation training to designers. Through intensive workshops and one-on-one interventions, designers will coach organisations in the skills necessary to identify opportunities for innovation within their businesses. They will then help their clients to develop these insights into new products and services through design.
If "Consumption" is about the moment of acquisition, "Unconsumption" simply describes everything after that.
Unconsumption means the accomplishment of properly recycling your old cellphone, rather than the guilt of letting it sit in a drawer.
Check out Rob Walker's Unconsumption (some great definitions of the term on the right column), and then hop over to their new Wiki, "with a focus on links and tips for fixing it, making it last, repurposing it, getting rid of it responsibly. (Whatever 'it' may be.)"
The Royal College of Art's Industrial Design Engineering is looking for a new moniker; they're thinking of switching it to Innovation Design Engineering. Why?
'Industrial design has changed dramatically over the past 20 years,' says [designer Miles] Pennington. 'We are no longer approaching design as a purely object-orientated activity. The experience, system, service offering - indeed, everything around and supporting the product proposition - is now within the designer's influence.'
Miles Pennington is the new IDE department head and co-founder of the UK's Design Stream product/packaging consultancy.
Kay S. Hymowitz writes in City Journal about how the design economy has turned bohemian outsiders into a new marketplace elite.
"If industrialization turned design into a modest profession, technology and globalization have expanded and glamorized it into its own economic sector. Call it Big Design.
Computers are the heart of Big Design. They propelled designers from the ranks of ink-stained wretches to those of postindustrial knowledge workers.:
NEW YORK DESIGN WEEK 2009
MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2009
PICTOPIA FESTIVAL 2009
HOME AND HOUSEWARES SHOW 2009
TRANSVERSALE 2009
NEW YORK CITY TOY FAIR 2009
IMM COLOGNE INTERNATIONAL FURNISHING SHOW
NORTH AMERICAN INT'L AUTO SHOW '09
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2008
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2008
BICYCLE
100 PERCENT DESIGN SHANGHAI
