The New Idiom | The Student Newsletter of the IIT Institute of Design

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 what’s going to happen, and what the research is going to show. Intuition is important and can help in beginning a project, but keeping an open mind to new insights from seeing what really happens is much more important.

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 what’s going to happen, and what the research is going to show. Intuition is important and can help in beginning a project, but keeping an open mind to new insights from seeing what really happens is much more important.

New IDer: Daniel Erwin

Please quickly introduce yourself in a quick sentence. 

Major, age, etc.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 victory.

Politics?

We always expect the next great leader to make the government work perfectly and to behave himself, as well. In Europe, they have been electing and otherwise giving power to politicians for over 2000 years and nobody has even come close there either. I think the only workable system would be to mandate a complete dismantling of the government every 100 years. Instead of just re-electing the leaders every few years, we'd have to re-confirm the structure of the whole political system on a regular basis.

Religion?

Epiphenomenalism asserts that God, consciousness, and the sensation of control are just byproducts of physical processes. Mind is not a cause of anything and has no effects on the world. It's like foam on top of a wave—it can be ignored without losing the overall experience of swimming in the ocean.

How did you end up at ID? What were your motivations for coming?   Where were you before?

I found out about industrial design when I stumbled on some design museums in Europe. When I was an art major in undergrad, I took two months to see all the museums I could stomach, and in Berlin, Copenhagen, and some other northern countries I found exhibits containing amazing artifacts bridging the vast spaces between art, mass-production, and consumerism. They focused on everything from bridges to cheese slicers to the layout of entire cities. When I realized that there was a single discipline that could qualify me to work with Lego one year and with Boeing the next, I was immediately committed to industrial design. I asked around about where to go to learn industrial design and a professor told me about ID. The website talked about bringing together people from different backgrounds, which I see as the single most effective method of ensuring social progress, and I knew I wanted to be here.

What are your first impressions about ID?

The work isn't as demanding as I had hoped, but maybe the foundation teachers are just trying not to scare us off. I am surprised that most of the students seem well-balanced and socially adept, despite being brilliant. The best part is that everyone seems just as lost and confused as I am, and this doesn't stop them from offering advice as to how to get there.

What do you think you could bring to the people here at ID? (culturally, socially, etc.)

I am a glassblower, and if anyone wants to pay for studio time I'll give lessons or assist. Also, I devote a lot of my time to tangential thinking, so if you want a break from talking about what's reasonable, possible, or even sane, then you can find me on the third floor.

Is there anything from your home that you think people should not miss?

Texas isn't my favorite place in the world, but it has its charms: chili, barbecue, and Austin.

Which designers/thinkers have impressed you the most lately or you are following now?

Buckminster Fuller is my favorite because he had the ability to ignore all emotion, intuition, and other subjective or human factors and focus like a laser beam on function and efficiency.  Morris Klein and Douglas Hofstadter, and a few other writers on the philosophy of science have led me to a more structured way of thinking about creativity and the evolution of the arts. Their most important insight, however, is that mathematics is subjective and can be used to prove whatever one can conceive of.

What are the websites you could not live without?

PBFComics.com
LucidTV.com
Technologyreview.com
aljazeera.com - for a different perspective on current events

What kinds of activities are you planning to do in your free time (in case you have any) while at ID?

I've got a stack of books on philosophy, a bunch of blank paper for drawing, and four half-conceived novels all waiting to be finished at my apartment. But I'll probably just wander around and look at all the musuems.

New IDer: Daniel Erwin

Please quickly introduce yourself in a quick sentence. 

Major, age, etc.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 victory.

Politics?

We always expect the next great leader to make the government work perfectly and to behave himself, as well. In Europe, they have been electing and otherwise giving power to politicians for over 2000 years and nobody has even come close there either. I think the only workable system would be to mandate a complete dismantling of the government every 100 years. Instead of just re-electing the leaders every few years, we'd have to re-confirm the structure of the whole political system on a regular basis.

Religion?

Epiphenomenalism asserts that God, consciousness, and the sensation of control are just byproducts of physical processes. Mind is not a cause of anything and has no effects on the world. It's like foam on top of a wave—it can be ignored without losing the overall experience of swimming in the ocean.

How did you end up at ID? What were your motivations for coming?   Where were you before?

I found out about industrial design when I stumbled on some design museums in Europe. When I was an art major in undergrad, I took two months to see all the museums I could stomach, and in Berlin, Copenhagen, and some other northern countries I found exhibits containing amazing artifacts bridging the vast spaces between art, mass-production, and consumerism. They focused on everything from bridges to cheese slicers to the layout of entire cities. When I realized that there was a single discipline that could qualify me to work with Lego one year and with Boeing the next, I was immediately committed to industrial design. I asked around about where to go to learn industrial design and a professor told me about ID. The website talked about bringing together people from different backgrounds, which I see as the single most effective method of ensuring social progress, and I knew I wanted to be here.

What are your first impressions about ID?

The work isn't as demanding as I had hoped, but maybe the foundation teachers are just trying not to scare us off. I am surprised that most of the students seem well-balanced and socially adept, despite being brilliant. The best part is that everyone seems just as lost and confused as I am, and this doesn't stop them from offering advice as to how to get there.

What do you think you could bring to the people here at ID? (culturally, socially, etc.)

I am a glassblower, and if anyone wants to pay for studio time I'll give lessons or assist. Also, I devote a lot of my time to tangential thinking, so if you want a break from talking about what's reasonable, possible, or even sane, then you can find me on the third floor.

Is there anything from your home that you think people should not miss?

Texas isn't my favorite place in the world, but it has its charms: chili, barbecue, and Austin.

Which designers/thinkers have impressed you the most lately or you are following now?

Buckminster Fuller is my favorite because he had the ability to ignore all emotion, intuition, and other subjective or human factors and focus like a laser beam on function and efficiency.  Morris Klein and Douglas Hofstadter, and a few other writers on the philosophy of science have led me to a more structured way of thinking about creativity and the evolution of the arts. Their most important insight, however, is that mathematics is subjective and can be used to prove whatever one can conceive of.

What are the websites you could not live without?

PBFComics.com
LucidTV.com
Technologyreview.com
aljazeera.com - for a different perspective on current events

What kinds of activities are you planning to do in your free time (in case you have any) while at ID?

I've got a stack of books on philosophy, a bunch of blank paper for drawing, and four half-conceived novels all waiting to be finished at my apartment. But I'll probably just wander around and look at all the musuems.

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 career?

I had aspired to work in a product design consulting role since learning about the profession in high school. I took a long road to that goal, but ID gave me the final skills to get my dream job.

What are the skills learned at ID that you use the most in your current practice?

I use many of the research and analysis tools ID teaches. These skills are directly applicable to the work I do at frog.  The framework I use most often these days is an Insights Matrix. When we present concepts, our clients tend to like to see how the concepts are connected to specific data points collected during research. The Insight Matrix allows us to tag and track data, build insights, and support concepts.

What hard times did you have at ID while a student, and what got you through them?

To be honest, I really enjoyed the ID experience. I got lucky with professors and summer internships, and I valued almost all the classes I took. I did switch from Planning to Product after Foundation but that seemed like a clear choice for me. ID was physically taxing. I ate a lot of frozen meals from 7-eleven and I looked pretty bad. I tried to exercise regularly to avoid stressing out too much.

If you could have changed one thing about your time at ID, what would it have been?

I have nothing to complain about.

How many nights did you sleep at school?

I never spent the night at school but I got close on many occasions. It was a full time experience. During my foundation year registration, an older class-person told me it would be 16hrs a day 6 days a week. That was pretty close.

What presentation at the Research Conference did you find the most interesting and why?   (besides Jason's, of course)

I liked the Mode Mapping presentation by Stuart Karten most. I thought his methodology was both useful and easy to explain to clients.

What other advice do you have for current and/or future ID students?

I would develop a sense of what you want to do after ID early on and make choices to achieve that goal. Think of every project as a portfolio piece – try to create project artifacts that explain the process and highlight the solution.

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 career?

I had aspired to work in a product design consulting role since learning about the profession in high school. I took a long road to that goal, but ID gave me the final skills to get my dream job.

What are the skills learned at ID that you use the most in your current practice?

I use many of the research and analysis tools ID teaches. These skills are directly applicable to the work I do at frog.  The framework I use most often these days is an Insights Matrix. When we present concepts, our clients tend to like to see how the concepts are connected to specific data points collected during research. The Insight Matrix allows us to tag and track data, build insights, and support concepts.

What hard times did you have at ID while a student, and what got you through them?

To be honest, I really enjoyed the ID experience. I got lucky with professors and summer internships, and I valued almost all the classes I took. I did switch from Planning to Product after Foundation but that seemed like a clear choice for me. ID was physically taxing. I ate a lot of frozen meals from 7-eleven and I looked pretty bad. I tried to exercise regularly to avoid stressing out too much.

If you could have changed one thing about your time at ID, what would it have been?

I have nothing to complain about.

How many nights did you sleep at school?

I never spent the night at school but I got close on many occasions. It was a full time experience. During my foundation year registration, an older class-person told me it would be 16hrs a day 6 days a week. That was pretty close.

What presentation at the Research Conference did you find the most interesting and why?   (besides Jason's, of course)

I liked the Mode Mapping presentation by Stuart Karten most. I thought his methodology was both useful and easy to explain to clients.

What other advice do you have for current and/or future ID students?

I would develop a sense of what you want to do after ID early on and make choices to achieve that goal. Think of every project as a portfolio piece – try to create project artifacts that explain the process and highlight the solution.

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 planning track, Sukjun Lim in the communication track, Taeho Wang in product, and Manoj Adusumilli in planning, is seeking to answer this question. The hypothesis: people’s need and use of GPS is different based on language, culture, population density, technology infrastructure and geography. To get at these different needs, the themes will be explored by talking with people in the target markets.

The team will look at how people find and share information by conducting telephone interviews and sharing photos on Flickr or Facebook. He plans to get to know how culture and location influence habits, such as “When they go out, what devices do they bring?”

Jeremy Alexis, faculty adviser for the project, sounded enthusiastic about the possibility for giving a manufacturer the chance to be the first mover and gain a foothold in the fast-growing Asian market. But he suggested that the research may conclude that some markets have no need for GPS technology. In the parts of India and China where roads aren’t mapped or maps aren’t as readily available as in the US or Europe, Jeremy asks, “Is it useful for how people navigate?”

Though the project is still in its early stages, Sang-Ho has already learned how to work with clients. Pressed for details, he would only say that at the beginning of the project, where the goal is to explore all the possibilities, it is not a good idea to say anything too specific or narrow that might excite the client to the exclusion of other opportunities.

The demo project team, which also includes Sukjun Lim in the communication track, Taeho Wang in product, and Manoj Adusumilli in planning, hopes to prototype and seek feedback on a global platform for GPS devices this semester.

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 planning track, Sukjun Lim in the communication track, Taeho Wang in product, and Manoj Adusumilli in planning, is seeking to answer this question. The hypothesis: people’s need and use of GPS is different based on language, culture, population density, technology infrastructure and geography. To get at these different needs, the themes will be explored by talking with people in the target markets.

The team will look at how people find and share information by conducting telephone interviews and sharing photos on Flickr or Facebook. He plans to get to know how culture and location influence habits, such as “When they go out, what devices do they bring?”

Jeremy Alexis, faculty adviser for the project, sounded enthusiastic about the possibility for giving a manufacturer the chance to be the first mover and gain a foothold in the fast-growing Asian market. But he suggested that the research may conclude that some markets have no need for GPS technology. In the parts of India and China where roads aren’t mapped or maps aren’t as readily available as in the US or Europe, Jeremy asks, “Is it useful for how people navigate?”

Though the project is still in its early stages, Sang-Ho has already learned how to work with clients. Pressed for details, he would only say that at the beginning of the project, where the goal is to explore all the possibilities, it is not a good idea to say anything too specific or narrow that might excite the client to the exclusion of other opportunities.

The demo project team, which also includes Sukjun Lim in the communication track, Taeho Wang in product, and Manoj Adusumilli in planning, hopes to prototype and seek feedback on a global platform for GPS devices this semester.

“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 gotten a little too far into bed with business without completely understanding the repercussions.

Darrel Rhea, CEO of Cheskin, in his opening talk asked "What is next?" He described the value that design offers shifting, basically moving up the pyramid of  Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Design moved from making things better to giving people real meaningful experiences. "What's next after meaning?" I thought. What more can a designer really do? Making meaning even feels like a stretch.

Without knowing it, Continuum designer, Dan Buchner, answered Daryl's question. Dan's work with design and industry in Central America is truly inspiring and shows how open and real design can be, not in spite of, but because of the great limitations of the situation. As Dan wrapped up, he said that the cause of the success was obvious, "People just want someone to listen to them. People want to feel valued. And people want to have some power in their own lives." Almost too simple. Sure it works in non-profit work, but what about real business?

Although he is unsure about the real viability of his venture, Lou Rosenfeld's publishing start-up is taking a heroic stand on the issue of user relationship. His talk was one of the few times (really the only I can think of) where I heard a CEO say, "Our users are our peers." It was amazing to see business people, real honest-to-goodness hard-nosed folks, not just paying lip service, but implementing user centered practices in the way that only that kind of person knows how to.

So in answer to Daryl's question, maybe that is what is next. Design might try to create experiences where the user is actually involved, even invested, in the design process. It is not something that we are going to offer them, but something that users will offer us.  

"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 gotten a little too far into bed with business without completely understanding the repercussions.

Darrel Rhea, CEO of Cheskin, in his opening talk asked "What is next?" He described the value that design offers shifting, basically moving up the pyramid of  Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Design moved from making things better to giving people real meaningful experiences. "What's next after meaning?" I thought. What more can a designer really do? Making meaning even feels like a stretch.

Without knowing it, Continuum designer, Dan Buchner, answered Daryl's question. Dan's work with design and industry in Central America is truly inspiring and shows how open and real design can be, not in spite of, but because of the great limitations of the situation. As Dan wrapped up, he said that the cause of the success was obvious, "People just want someone to listen to them. People want to feel valued. And people want to have some power in their own lives." Almost too simple. Sure it works in non-profit work, but what about real business?

Although he is unsure about the real viability of his venture, Lou Rosenfeld's publishing start-up is taking a heroic stand on the issue of user relationship. His talk was one of the few times (really the only I can think of) where I heard a CEO say, "Our users are our peers." It was amazing to see business people, real honest-to-goodness hard-nosed folks, not just paying lip service, but implementing user centered practices in the way that only that kind of person knows how to.

So in answer to Daryl's question, maybe that is what is next. Design might try to create experiences where the user is actually involved, even invested, in the design process. It is not something that we are going to offer them, but something that users will offer us.