September 2007
20 posts
Editor's Note
Everyone, even my mom, has some type of social networking profile. (She’s on MySpace if you’re wondering). Basically everyone under 70 takes pictures. We live in a society that, according to Michael Beirut, makes things with “words and pictures”.
While this is really nothing new, what is new is that the masses have joined the professionally trained designers and...
Lou Rosenfeld: New Approach to an old industry
In all your rethinking during your time at ID, have you ever stopped to consider the book as a candidate for redesign? Can you think of the last innovation that hit the hardback since the paperback? Lou Rosenfeld, founder of Rosenfeld Media, is doing just that: innovating on the book.
Lou visited ID last week and started his Thursday afternoon lecturette with a few questions: What do you like in...
2007 Design Research Conference
As you all (hopefully) know, the ID Design Research Conference wrapped up this past weekend. If you haven’t yet, be sure to thank Caroline Little, Ido Mor and the other volunteers for doing an outstanding job with the conference. A number of blogs have commented on the conference, and be sure to check out the article that ID’s own Beth Santos, Jordan Fischer, and Alex Cheek wrote...
Biomimicry Workshop
In lieu of lunchtime table top discussions, three hands-on lunchtime workshops were offered. Capacity was limited to 15 people (5 students) per session. Those lucky enough to sign up for one had a chance to participate and rub elbows with Frog Design, the Biomimicry Guild, and Mayo Clinic. Eric Niu talks about the Biomimicry workshop that he attended.
Tim McGee of the Biomimicry Guild suggests...
Stuart Karten: Mode Mapping
Stuart Karten’s talk about mode mapping presented a practical approach to understanding user experiences. Modes are akin to the user’s various motivations and states of mind during a task. Karten followed users to see how people spent their time during these tasks, which usually involved a day’s worth of shadowing. Afterwards, he plotted the various modes they went through the day and...
Dan Saffer: On Making up Research
Humor is a great tool, especially among designers who have a tendency to take themselves too seriously at times. Dan Saffer, from Adaptive Path, demonstrated this in his talk on “How to Lie with Design Research” which you can view on his blog. Designers can have great intuition, making it hard sometimes to look at things objectively. This certainly happens at ID; you think you know exactly...
2 tags
Past IDer: Cobie Everdell
My name is Cobie Everdell. I grew up in San Francisco but attended high school and college in the East. I graduated from ID in 2005 and I have since been in California – first working for Mattel, then IDEO and now frog design where I am a senior design analyst. I got engaged in January to Lillian Askew, my sister’s college roommate.
In which ways and dimensions do you think ID changed your...
2 tags
New IDer: Daniel Erwin
Please quickly introduce yourself in a quick sentence.
I’m 24, in foundation, and aiming for a focus in planning.
Married?
Today I passed a teenager on the street with a shirt that said, “Game over” underneath a picture of a bride and groom. This sums up my attitude, though it’s possible that some woman will distract me from the game long enough to snatch away my...
Demo Project: Global GPS Platform
Global positioning systems have been infiltrating our planes, boats, and cars for years, more recently becoming small enough to make their way into outdoor recreational gear. But will they make their way into India and China, parts of the world where there are relatively few cars and even fewer snowboarders?
The demonstration (demo) project team, which includes Sang-Ho Lee, from the design...
“What’s next?” thoughts from the DRC
With all of the story lines running through the conversations in and out of the lecture hall, I thought that I would share one that was especially salient for me.
I have been straining to hear the ways that designers’ human centered perspective can have an effect on business since I got to ID. In many ways, I feel that it is the other way around. Design, at least in some circles, may have...
Of Interest: Observed
http://www.twentyonepictures.com/gallery/shoeproject/index.html – apparently you don’t need the midsection
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0709/lunation_ajc.gif – a full lunar cycle. wobble wobble http://www.taubaauerbach.com/howtospellalpha.html – how to spell the alphabet http://very-appealing.com/misc/subwayhistory/SubwayHistory.gif – satisfying use of gif animation (timelapse map of...
Welcome back, reader. The semester has barely begun, and we are already in existential mode here at the New Idiom.
Last year, two colleagues of mine and I participated in an online conversation that questioned the trend in design education towards “design thinking” and away from finish level design. Recently this conversation has resurfaced on designobserver.com, where Michael...
Upcoming Event: What’s On Your Shelf?
User Experience Book Show and Tell with Lou Rosenfeld Which UX books are essential to your work? Which ones leave you a bit disappointed? Which books would you like to see published? Who should write them? And which books are on your colleagues’ (and competitors’) bookshelves? To get some answers, Lou Rosenfeld, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and...
Emergence 2007 Conference
This past weekend, I went to the Service Design Conference, hosted by the Carnegie Mellon School of Design. Similar to ID’s Design Research Conference (DRC) - formerly ‘about, with and for’ (AWF) - this is a completely student run event, but there are two differences. First, Professor Shelly Evanson chairs the event. She has input in crafting the vision of the conference each...
2 tags
New IDer: Patricia Kelton
Please quickly introduce yourself. Where are you from? Married? Children?
Milwaukee, WI. Single, no children
How did you end up at ID? What were your motivations for coming? Where were you before?
I was a professional ballet dancer in the Chicago City Ballet until a career ending injury sent me back to school at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. After school I was fortunate to work...
2 tags
Past IDer: Jennifer Joos
Where are you now?
I recently moved to Auburn, Alabama where I continue to work as a freelance Design Researcher. Currently, I am employed on a project for Ethnographic Insight studying customer experience for a major US department store chain.
What program and when did you graduate from ID?
I received my Master of Design degree with a concentration in Human-Centered Design Planning in 2002.
...
Around Town: Pecha Kucha Night
Pecha Kucha, a show-and-tell for creatives, is making its second appearance in Chicago on Tuesday, September 25th. The idea here is to gather creative people and give them a venue to easily and informally share their work. Started in 2003 by Tokyo-based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, Pecha Kucha Nights have spread to over 80 cities around the world.
In case you’re wondering, the...
Helvetica: The Documentary
Helvetica A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll design!
It wouldn’t stand a chance in Hollywood and probably wouldn’t play so well in Peoria, but this feature length documentary celebrating the “birthday” of the typeface Helvetica, (born in Switzerland, 1957, at the Haas Type Foundry and designed/midwifed by Max Miedinger) broke the Siskel Film Center’s all-time...
Frikadeller (Danish Meatballs)
Frikadeller take me right home. These Danish meatballs are not smothered in tomato sauce like their Italian counterparts but are just as homey and offer something unique, which I attribute to the cloves. If you are intimidated by or squeamish about making meatballs, get in the role by putting yourself in a “Little House on the Prairie goes to Denmark” episode. It’s perfectly...
Of Interest: Observed
“Get out from behind the curtain” - Great article about client relationships and participation by former IDer Sarah B. Nelson. Spotted on A list apart
Meth Minute - Great. Now can we put all of these guys to rest? How many of the “Internet People” do you recognize? Google Public Policy Blog - The law of web.
idealist@blinkr.net - Just put it out there. Even if it is...