IIT Design Research Conference 2010 Review

Internal Creative Meeting
DRC Conference Review
June 28, 2010

June 30, 2013 2
Introduction
Methods
Erica Eden, Smart Design
Rob Tannen, Bressler Group
What’s Next?
Don Norman, Northwestern University
Rick Robinson, E-Lab founder
Heather Fraser, Rotman Group
Kevin Starr, Mulago Foundation
Eric Wilmot, Olin Group (former frog NY)
Tim Brown, IDEO
Summary
Panel Discussion
Conclusions
References
Table of Contents
June 28, 2010Creative Meeting, IIT Design Research Conference 2010 June 28, 2010

June 30, 2013 4
The IIT Institute of Design's holds an Annual Design Research Conference
(DRC) in downtown Chicago. This year it was held on May 10-12th 2010. The
DRC is a professional conference that focuses on:
•  Applied practice-based content
•  Inspirational points of view
•  Practice-focused knowledge-sharing
•  Video of presentation is published online
What is the DRC?

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•  Learn what other design ﬁrms are doing
•  Gain insights from the work presented
•  Understand how the role of design research is evolving
•  Contextualize the work we are doing
Today’s Goals

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Client NameXXXProjectName

6
Methods

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Femme Den, Smart Design
Erica Eden (second from left)

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Personifying a product
Smart Design shared a research method called the “Breakup Letter.” It’s a
tool that they use to understand the emotional connection between people
and their products, services, and experiences. It was developed in the
context of the Femme Den and the work that they have done on gender.
Here’s a pointer to the video clip presented at the conference.
http://vimeo.com/11854531
Breakup Letter
Creative Meeting, IIT Design Research Conference 2010 June 28, 2010

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Erica Eden, Femme Den, Smart Design
•  The Femme Den started as an underground collective of international
women searching for answers in a world that was not designed for
women. The gender dialog is missing from the design world today,
probably because there are so few women in the industry to provide a
female point-of-view.
•  Often design is reduced to feminine styling. This isn’t enough. “When you
shrink it and pink it, you miss the mark.” Designing for women should
focus more on lifestyle rather than products.
Summary

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•  Observing physical movement should be added into research on Service
Design, Gestural Interaction and other areas that require physical
interaction.
•  Our observations of physical interactions could be enhanced through
Qualitative Ergonomics: Posture, Reach, Clearance, and Strength.
Insights in these areas will enhance our toolkit.
•  Documenting gestures in space and time provide challenges that can
be captured through new tools (charcoal gestures, time elapsed video)
•  Movement over space and time can be described in more
sophisticated ways (circular clock view of the nursing station over 24
hour period, depicting ﬁnger travel in oven interface comparisons).
Summary

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25
What’s Next?

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•  The problem is disconnection between disciplines - values, skills, output
and the practical results often don’t align.
•  Translation is key to cross the research-product gap. Norman refers to
this as “Translation Engineering” meaning translation from research
into design, but also translation into the organization. Design ﬁrms
are a way to bridge the gap.
•  Norman feels that most radical innovation occurs with technology
innovations or shifts in meaning (e.g., thinking of a watch as jewelry, to
a tool, to fashion).
•  Look beyond customers and users to those he calls "interpreters" - the
experts who deeply understand and shape the markets they work inside.
•  Gaps in meaning can be ﬁlled with different perspectives. This means
working together in cross-disciplinary teams of experts (like we do at
frog).
Summary

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•  Like Norman, he says that “user needs” are not in a position in the design
process to do groundbreaking innovation. Design Research shouldn’t
aim to deliver insights like commodities.
•  As his t-shirts say, he advocates for us not to self-identify by school (U of
Chicago), discipline (I’m not a Designer), or dogma (e.g., Less is More).
•  IDEO has moved away from a POV of speciﬁc sets of disciplines (HF, ID,
PD, etc) to Design Thinking where the process is worked out with each
client. It’s a stance without a prescribed process.
•  Similarly, Design Research needs a POV statement about who we are,
but we don’t know yet. Three things we need:
–  Comfort with uncertainly at each level (Concrete now, to abstract later, to concrete
again in the future.)
–  Humility. It’s okay to be the support structure behind the engineers and designers. It’s
not un-heroic.
–  Demonstratable + interpretations. This is hardest combination of disciplines.
Responsibility towards the creative parts.
Summary

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Heather Fraser, Rotman School of Management

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Heather Frasier, Rotman School of Management
•  Design Research should evolve to inﬂuence a client organization, not just
the design or design team.
•  Design Research is a human face (ideally) on top of a strategy
report.
•  A strategy report will speak the language of the CEO and this will give
DR more legs than interacting with the design group within an
organization.
•  Incorporating user needs into business strategy is important for the next
round of evolution. There is a new generation of MBA students who
are being trained in Design Thinking/Design Process/Design Strategy.
•  For all these reasons, Market Research is on it’s way out. Design
Research is a sophisticated evolution of Market Research.
Summary

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Eric Wilmot, Olin Group (former frog NY)

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Eric Wilmot, Olin Group
•  This is a way of thinking that is very familiar to frog, so it may not seem
that radical.
•  IDEO has been promoting Design Thinking as the new POV on Design,
but there are many issues with focusing on thinking instead of building
and doing. Design Doing instead of Design Thinking.
•  Prototype early and design by releasing betas into the market (e.g.,
Twitter, Google).
•  Wilmot makes an argument for doing and experiencing as a better spend
per dollar than advertising.
Summary

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June 30, 2013 67
•  As we do more social innovation projects, like Project M, the dynamics
of success shifts since the ground conditions are highly complex and
often not well understood.
•  To succeed in the area of social innovation in third-world countries,
think about the whole system. Start with the need, go beyond the
“thing” and go all the way down to impact.
•  If you get your design ingredients wrong, you can miss the whole point.
For his fund that works like a social impact venture, distribution is
more important than good ideas.
•  Go native and live somewhere for a few years or partner with people
who do. The “on the ground” connection is really critical to knowing the
cultural and political dynamics of the end user.
Summary

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Tim Brown, IDEO

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Tim Brown, IDEO
•  The next evolution of Design is to facilitate behavior change.
•  The model of design has changed. We used to design “for
them” (applied ethnography) then it was that designers were designing
“with them” (co-creation methods) and now designers are facilitating
design “by them” (enabling behavioral change which is self-directed).
•  Design inspiration needs to be broader. Not just users and existing
products, but also bio-mimicry, information theory, synthetic biology,
•  We need to open up our proprietary tools. IDEO is “opening up” their
design processes and developing a network of participants that will be
invited to give input at the different stages in the process. People can
now sign up to be apart of the conversation on their website. Google
“Open IDEO” and sign up.
Summary

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81
Summary

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Panel
Left to right: Spike Jones, time Brown, Rick Robinson, Heather Fraser, Anjali Kelkar, Don Norman

June 30, 2013 83
Panel Summary
Product Trends
Genius inspiration
Market Research
Self Report Qual/
Quant
Design Research
Observational
In-Context
Inform
Inspire
Research:
Interdisciplinary inﬂuence
Broader Inspiration: User
+ Bio-Mimicry,
Information Theory,
Synthetic Biology,
Less Proprietary:
Aggregated insights,
publish results, sharing
methods.
Past Present Future

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Panel Summary
Product Trends
Genius inspiration
Market Research
Qual/Quant
Self Report
Design Research
Observational
In-Context
Inform
Inspire
Research:
Interdisciplinary inﬂuence
Broader Inspiration: User
+ Bio-Mimicry,
Information Theory,
Synthetic Biology,
Less Proprietary:
Aggregated insights,
publish results, sharing
methods.
Aesthetic
Styling of products
User Experience
Product design
Service design
Farther Reaching:
Organizational Design
Societal Design
Past Present Future
eative Meeting, IIT Design Research Conference 2010Creative Meeting, IIT Design Research Conference 2010 June 28, 2010

June 30, 2013 85
•  Design Research needs to think beyond methods to translation,
implementation, and execution. User needs aren’t enough. We need to
translate into design. User insights are being commoditized.
•  The ultimate measure of success is changing behavior not getting a
product to market.
•  Design doing. Design can have very significant impact through shifting
meaning, but you won’t know if it works until you prototype something
concrete first.
•  Market Research is a “dying” field. Many of these firms are moving
towards Design Research or trying to be design/innovation firms (e.g.,
Cheskin).
•  Business is changing and Design is playing a very significant role. There
is a new generation of MBA students who are being trained in Design
Thinking/Design Process/Design Strategy.
Summary

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Methods
Erica Eden, Smart Design, http://vimeo.com/12024110
Rob Tannen, Bressler Group, http://vimeo.com/12211623
What’s Next
Don Norman, Northwestern University,
http://www.vimeo.com/12022651
Rick Robinson, E-Lab, http://vimeo.com/12024499
Heather Fraser, Rotman Group, check online
Kevin Starr, Mulago Foundation, http://vimeo.com/12370459
Eric Wilmot, Olin Group, http://vimeo.com/12023383
Tim Brown, IDEO, http://vimeo.com/12371376
Appendix
Martha Cotton, Gravity Tank, http://vimeo.com/12211218
Usman Haque, http://vimeo.com/12212085
Video References

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Designing for Complexity, Don Norman
Design-Driven Innovation, Oberto Verganti
Innovation X, Adam Richardson
Innovators Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen
Body Space, Stephen Pheasant
Thoughtless Acts, Jane Fulton Suri
Reading References

IIT Design Research Conference 2010 Review

IIT Design Research Conference 2010 Review

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