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Photos: Alex Cheek. From top: Dan Buchner; Dan Saffer; due to a full house, attendees listened to presenters from the stairs

Guest post by Beth Santos

You now know it as the Design Research Conference--a new name befitting its new identity. The conference, organized by students from IIT Institute of Design, Chicago, Illinois, had just the right blend of cutting-edge user research methodologies and developmental design strategies. This year it was held at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) on September 21-22. Some highlights are listed below, but to view detailed information on speakers and more, visit the site.

Upon entering the conference, at the MCA, I was struck by a neon sign: "I am only describing language, not explaining anything" (Joseph Kosuth, 1991). But, what does it mean? (To 'describe' is to translate; to 'explain' is to give the meaning of.) And so it was: the role of "meaning" was a theme that resonated throughout the conference on a number of levels.

Darrel Rhea, Principal and CEO of Cheskin, kicked off the conference. One of the case studies he presented was of his outdoorsy, twenty-one year old son, who had completely identified with the Patagonia brand due to his trust and belief in the company's mission. (Patagonia's Mission Statement: Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environment crisis.) Distinguishing themselves from other brands, Patagonia embodies these values. Their customers feel a sense of belonging to a community that is creating a sense of greater good for the environment--therefore their purchases have meaning. Meaning transcends culture, ethnicity, geography and time. It enriches our lives and gives us a framework of what customers value most.

Photos: Jordan Fischer. From top: Attendees at Frog Design’s workshop; Cobie Everdell and Jason Severs from Frog Design present a concept-testing workshop; Friday cocktail hour;

Dan Buchner, VP of Innovation and Design at Continuum, also emphasized the need for people wanting to feel valued and listened to. He demonstrated this by presenting three compelling third world examples--one of which was of a woman from South Africa, standing up with a clenched fist, enraged over the development of a new water filtration system. This is the first time she had to pay for water usage, and only three local residents benefited from job opportunities created by the system. Dan participated in a two-week team effort to take a look at the problem. They developed a unit made from recycled water containers and other available materials. By allowing the water to drain from the unit to the ground, the reuse of contaminated water and disease was minimized. One of the women successfully copied it to use for some disadvantaged children in her care. She proudly asked the design team if they would come back in a week, so that she could present it to them.

By the end of Dan's presentation, my notion of 'beauty' within the field of design had been expanded. It's true that the content of his slide show was a direct contrast to the products sold at the MCA store, (Michael Graves Alessi teapot, et al), but there was an empathy that I felt for that South African woman. She was inspired and empowered with the design knowledge to make her own product from what was locally available. (For those that are interested in participating in similar programs, contact the ICSID, International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.)

Dan Saffer, Experience Design Director at Adaptive Path, provided great comic relief as the last presenter on Friday, with an irreverent look at design research. His pitch was that we can skew design research to mean whatever we want it to mean in order to give our ideas credibility. And in the end it's all about the money anyway, right?

Frog Design's workshop was largely attended by IIT ID students. Cobie Everdell and Jason Severs demonstrated a very comprehensive set of concept testing tools. The hands-on workshop was a nice follow up to their earlier lecture introducing their methodologies.

At break, the buzz from many of the attendees was of the ModeMapping presentation by Stuart Karten, Principal, Stuart Karten Design. He gave several compelling case studies of the firm's award-winning, proprietary ethnographic research process. (More on the tool here.) When asked what he felt the tipping point was from the user research phase to the final design, he advocated the importance of involving designers in the user research process to uncover unmet user needs and encourage innovation.

The conference was extremely well organized by Ido and Caroline--we can all imagine how much effort goes into planning an event of this scale. A few logistical conference observations: once the speakers stepped away from the podium spotlight, they were in shadow; the round table discussion groups were replaced by 3 workshops, each with 15 attendees that were lucky enough to show up before 7:45am Saturday morning; and lunch was limited to those that attended a workshop. At last year's conference, the roundtable discussions provided a forum for all of us to interact and connect on a variety of topics--let's bring this back next year, as it provided an additional venue for a dynamic exchange of ideas. And last but not least, a design challenge for the next conference team: What would it mean to hold this conference in a more sustainable setting?

Beth Santos is currently a User Experience Lead/Sr. Art Director at Marriott eCommerce; and attends IIT, Institute of Design's Master in Design Methods program part-time. Thanks to Alex Cheek for his thoughtful insights and photography; Jordan Fischer, photography