Thanks to everyone who made it out of bed and to our presentation at 9 am on Saturday! We appreciated the attentive ears, questions and discussion after the early morning presentation. For those of you who maybe had one too many caipirinhas at Luminaire, or couldn’t make the conference altogether, we wanted to share our paper and presentation with you. While this is a pretty mild substitute for the real deal, together they should give you a pretty good indication of what we were about. Enjoy!
After spending four days in beautiful Miami, sitting in freezing cold conference rooms, listening to a diverse collection of intelligent people talk about the field of industrial design, I noticed a few recurring themes. I recognize that there were probably many young industrial designers, much like myself, who didn’t have the opportunity to go this year due to budgetary constraints. So I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the themes I picked up on while I was there…
HumanCentric contributed to an article on industrial design in the September issue of Appliance Design magazine. Dr. Barry Beith, founder and CEO, along with Brian Chiarizia, IDSA, Manager of Industrial Design, and Dr. Christina Mendat, Manager and Senior Human Factors Specialist, contributed their thoughts to the importance of functionality and human factors when it comes to product design of professional and commercial appliances.
In the article titled Design that Means Business by Steve Wichelecki, Brian noted that the size and use of many professional/commercial appliances have potential safety hazards that must be considered in the product’s functionality. Barry added to that by stating, “regardless of whether the design of a professional/commercial or consumer appliance is in question, products need to be safe, perform to consumer quality expectations, and be intuitive/easy to learn.”
Christina expands on the approach of designing appliances by discussing various methods to uncover user needs. “Within each area there will be a great amount of variability in terms of day-to-day interaction, pain points and general perceptions; therefore, it is important that research involve as many participants as possible, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data.” She cites ethnography and task analysis as methods for understanding user needs.
Brian and Christina represent the complimentary skill sets of design and research at HumanCentric, where the integration of these disciplines is leveraged on all projects for a variety of clients in the following domains: consumer products, transportation, telecom, web/software and medical. While at HumanCentric, Brian and Christina have partnered on such diverse products as small cooking appliances, a dry powder inhaler, a zero-turn lawn mower and a next-generation gaming console interface.
Appliance Design is a publication with a focus on design and engineering in the appliance industry. For more information, read the full article at http://tinyurl.com/yapq4p5.
Evidently a war has ensued over IKEA’s switch to Verdana font as opposed to the Futura font that was used in the earlier catalogs. There are a lot of individuals who are “up in arms” about this switch. We decided to take it to the streets (or the cubicles as the case may be) and see what people thought…
As a human factors practitioner, I completely and whole-heartedly support talking to users as an integral part of the product design process. I think it’s the best way to make sure a product is useful, usable, and desirable (the holy trinity, in my book).
However, I’m not living under a rock. I know these days companies have tighter budgets and even tighter timelines. The pressure is on more so than ever to produce products that will sell while spending the least amount of money developing them. Product teams are looking at their budgets and trying to trim off anything they can do without. Many times it’s easy and tempting for user research to be left out to save money and time in the development process…
In the 1960s, Walter Mischel created one of the most famous psychological studies: the marshmallow experiment. In the very first study, a group of four-year-olds were given a marshmallow and told they could have another if they waited 20 minutes before eating the first one. Here’s a fun video of the study being repeated:
I recently attended an open house at my daughter’s middle school. It was one of these events where you get to wander around the school campus and learn about the curriculum and school environment. We ended the evening in the media center. At first I was looking for a computer lab, only to learn that what I saw as the library is now considered a media center. It was there that the differences between my education experiences and that of my children will be worlds apart. But it didn’t start in the media center.
I have played computer sales associate for my family for years, helping guide them when they buy a new computer and translating the technical jargon that goes into computer specifications. I’ve patiently explained that the new laptop probably comes with an 80GB hard drive, not an 80GB CPU, that RAM is for running programs and not storing photos, and that you don’t need a high-end graphics card designed for gamers if all you’re going to do is watch a few YouTube videos. So I’m very excited to see that AMD is launching an ad campaign focused on tasks, rather than technical specifications.
From their site: “SPARKcon is a showcase of creativity, talent and ideas of ‘The Creative Hub of the South,’ The Triangle NC.”
SPARKcon has great events that are worth checking out. Here are the basics:
Who: Volunteer-organized, local work is represented. What: A series of events which span Art, Music, Independent Businesses, Writing, Fashion, Food, Graffiti, Dance, Gaming…the list goes on. Where: Downtown Raleigh. Most events take place on Fayetteville street. When: September 17-20 (Thursday-Sunday) Why: To bring creatives together, showcase work and have fun
It’s rare to watch a fashion show in Moore Square, or sit outside watching local films. BazaarSPARK is also a great way to support Triangle vendors. You’ll probably see people who participate in the Handmade Market or the Rock and Shop Market.
HumanCentric provides design solutions with.a focus on products, users and goals. Our process brings designers and researchers together to implement a customized approach for user and business needs. These are our thoughts on process, practice and life.
