// engageID // 03.26.04
the institute of design bi-weekly newsletter

--> id news
--> student activities: Recruit ID; About, With and For
--> alumni spotlight: Ron Ascher
--> of interest: Kathleen Brandenburg, Help Needed!
--> student projects: Gold Peak, Iraq

Hello B session!

First a disclaimer:
To those of you who are not Institute of Design students and are just reading the newsletter online, this newsletter is in transition. It has, until recently, been strictly an internal communication for ID students, but we are now trying to reach out to a broader audience that might be interested in getting a peak into the ID goings on. So, please, if we have trouble breaking old habits (using ID lingo, unexplained acronyms, etc.), please be patient with us. Any feedback you have can be sent to newsletter@id.iit.edu. Most of all, thanks for taking interest and for reading what we have to say!

Next, an apology:
My apologies. It has been over a month since our last “biweekly” newsletter (you’ll notice that some of the articles in this issue are somewhat dated). During that time, we all experienced the stress of the final 2 weeks of A session classes, and then a week long Spring break. The newsletter was hurting for content – obviously getting class work done comes before writing for the newsletter – and so I (Phillip) made the executive decision to hold off until we had more to say. I have since received feedback that getting the newsletter out, even with less content, is better than waiting till we have something beefy. Honestly, I agree. So that is how it shall be from now on. To top it off, we are also without photos for this issue. But the news must be delivered. The show must go on.

Speaking of feedback, there is white butcher paper all over the walls of ID. Please take a few seconds to write on it. This is one your opportunities to have a voice on how ID spends its time and money. Thanks to ID inside for tearing away at the walls of bureaucracy.

Happy reading!

- engageID posse.

--> id news

All this news and more is available on the ID website at: http://www.id.iit.edu/news/news.html

April/May, 2004
Who: Cukit and Grobot projects
Where: Dwell Magazine, April/May 2004
What: Two ID projects are featured in "Product Design 101", a survey of three top design programs worldwide.
Download at http://www.id.iit.edu/news/news.html

April, 2004
Who: Keiichi Sato
Where: CHI 2004 Conference, April 24-29
What: Professor Keiichi Sato and Ken Douros of the Motorola Human Interface Lab are organizing a Special Interest Group Session on "Context-Sensitive Design and User-Centered Interactive Systems" at the CHI2004 Conference in Vienna, 11:30-1:00 on Thursday, April 29th. Your participation to the session is very welcome.
Download abstract at http://www.id.iit.edu/news/news.html

March, 2004
Who: Aaron Marcus
What: Sharon Poggenpohl talks with Aaron Marcus about the evolving field of interaction design.
Read the interview at http://www.id.iit.edu/news/marcus_interview_march04.html

March 12, 2004
Who: Victor Lo (BS 1972)
Where: Hong Kong Economic Times, March 12, 2004
What: Alumnus and Board member Victor Lo is profiled in this article about Hong Kong as the emerging design hub of East Asia.
Download article at http://www.id.iit.edu/news/news.html

February 27, 2004
Who: Patrick Whitney
Where: NextD Journal, Issue 3, March 2004
What: "Human-centered Innovation", a conversation between Patrick Whitney and NextD founder GK VanPatter, about the ID program and the future of the design field.
Read the interview at http://www.nextd.org/02/03/01/index.html

-Vince LaConte

Below you will find the list of companies and titles of individuals coming
for recruitID. We haven't included names so no one gets unwanted emails. Besides,
that's what the event is for...to make appropriate, personal, professional introductions.

All companies have been provided the resume book that Brandon Schauer put
together (thanks Brandon). They are in the process of reviewing it and are
contacting Laate to schedule interviews with individuals they have
identified as potential candidates. Some companies are offering postings in
advance for the event. Be on the lookout for these.

IMPORTANT!
Please attend Friday's 12 pm Q&A session on the event to find out other ways you
can seek interview/employment opportunities at recruitID. There are other
ways.

Following the event students and alumni should conduct follow-up as
appropriate, ie: thank you notes for interviews, sending links for
portfolios, etc...as invited by the recruiters.

Here is the list:
There are currently 46 companies, 69 attendees. Thank you to all who helped
with contacting companies (Brandon Schauer, Sara Cantor, James Schulman,
Alex Kinnebrew, Sean Phillips, Yi Leng Lee, Chris Conley, and Rebecca
Hoffman)

Abelson-Taylor
ABN AMRO/LaSalle Bank
Agency.com
ChaseDesign
Cheskin
Chicago Tribune Interactive (Design & Product Dev.)
Corporate Design Foundation
Design Continuum (Design Group)
eBay, Inc.
Ecco Design
Fiskars (Global Product Management)
GE Medical Systems
Gensler (Chicago office)
Hewlett Packard
Hitachi Consulting
IA Collaborative
IDEO
Ignite Design
IIT Stuart Graduate School of Business
Insight Product Dev
InThuse, LLC
Johnson Controls (Interactive Products Studio)
Jump Associates
Lipson Alport Glass & Associates (Structural/Product Design)
Lotus
Maya Design Group
Mayo Clinic
McDonald's (Worldwide Training and Development)
META Design
Microsoft (Office Group)
Motorola (several departments)
PDT
Pitney Bowes
Polyvision
Prairie Packaging, Inc.
RitaSue Siegel Resources
Sanford Corporation
Sapient (User Experience)
Semaphore Partners
SRAM
Steelcase
StillSecure
Teague
Wert & Company
Wilson Sporting Goods
Yahoo! (Design Practice Development)

-Lucas Daniel

About, With and For Update

Organization for AWF is totally happening early this year! It's great.
We have a newly re-re-re-re-re-edited mission statement and a serious
tagline. Here goes:

MISSION:
About, With and For is a collaborative forum where students and
professionals gather to share experiences and methods for understanding
people. By bridging social research, design and business, we strive to
continually improve a human-centered approach to design.

TAGLINE:
About, With and For
Advancing the practice of design research

Our dates are set for October 22 and 23, a half-day on Friday and a
full-day on Saturday, with a social event on Friday evening. The venue has been selected as the Marriott Courtyard at 30 East Hubbard at State Street and the website is going up soon. Pretty
exciting.

Cheers to our team: Phillip Lafargue, Laura Patterson, Aurora Tallacksen, Kris Marich,
Akilah Williams, Nate Block, Samantha Ruiz, Geoff Colbath, Lucas
Daniel, Doug VanderMolen and Sara Cantor.

-Sara Cantor

After graduating form ID in 1962, Ron Ascher became a film and video director. For the past thirty years he has created and produced hundreds of retail TV spots, many of which have been for companies right here in Chicago, such as Marshall Field’s, Walgreen’s, Carson Pirie Scott, Subway Sandwich Shops, Sears and McDonald’s. His other corporate credits include ALCOA, Coca-Cola, Ford, Chrysler, Ralston Purina, Standard Oil (now BP) and Hewitt Associates.

After graduation from the ID, and some inspiration from designer Mort Goldsholl’s early film efforts, he applied and was accepted to the USC Graduate Film School in Los Angeles where he majored in film directing. After several years as a freelance corporate video and television commercial producer/director, Ron went to Toronto to study 70MM IMAX film production and become proficient with the IMAX cameras.

Today, Ron has his own production company named Ron Ascher Productions, LTD. He and his creative collaborator, wife Mary Lou, work together as a creative team writing and developing 70MM and HD for television programming, educational and corporate audiences.

Some of the most important things he learned at the ID were to keep an open mind as to visual solutions to design problems. He says that, “you learn much more and open your mind further than you ever thought possible if you keep cranking and exploring different directions.” He believes that designers have the ability to combine several ideas from outside sources together with their own to create new, exciting experiences or even a desired response in a target audience. He defines quality as the product of integrity and intensity.

He also emphasizes the importance of networking, which is more important than ever right now for us students. He recommends creating a contact list of people who can advise you, refer you and occasionally connect you with employment opportunities. This list he says “can be your life-line for possible new jobs, special projects and unusual opportunities”. He sees networking as a two-way street, that as you benefit from your contacts it is equally important that you give back to the others on your list by helping them achieve their own goals.

E-mail: ascher@ix.netcom.com

-Eric Holubow

--> of interest

IA Collaborative: Applying ID’s Learnings
Kathleen Brandenburg, Dan Kraemer

On Wednesday, February 17th, Kathleen Brandenburg (ID ’98) and Dan Kraemer, co-founders of IA Collaborative, spoke at the Institute of Design (ID). Similar to the presentation given last fall at the HITS conference, Brandenburg and Kraemer tried to relate the presented projects to ID’s focus and methodologies. IA Collaborative focuses on the commonly referred to intersection between business, design, and users, unique though is there belief that rather than representing overlaps these areas more accurately depict the gaps in thinking of many companies and organizations.

The first example project given was work done for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) to create their website. Initially the CSO had rather limited goals for the site, but IA’s research reveled that visitors and potential buyers had no one standard approach to ticket purchasing. Visitors often have concerns related to seat, view, and price, but not with any obvious pattern. IA’s answer was to design an interactive interface that will show the view from any seat in the hall, also showing seat price and availability. Not only though will this tool benefit CSO patrons, but also it can be proprietary income-generating software.

Brandenburg and Kraemer went on to detail their work with Nike on the Ascent line of ice-climbing watches. Finding that the product was selling poorly to its target market, Nike asked IA to investigate why and what might be done to remedy it. IA found through firsthand user research and study of the outdoor enthusiast market that the watch had faults in its functionality, manufacturing, and marketing. IA’s systemic solution included an almost complete industrial redesign of the watch, development of a new target market, and avenues to reach that market. In the end Nike took the advice whole-heartedly and introduced the Endurance line of watches to be marketed to the outdoor adventure sport enthusiast market, going so far as to partnering with Balance Bar and sponsoring adventure race competitions and teams.

Contact information for Kathleen and Dan can be found at www.iacollaborative.com.

-Taylor Lies

Okay, so i've bombarded you with this already, but I need help! This semester I am participating in the IPRO program. As a part of IPRO 339, we are planning IIT's Spring 2004 IPRO Projects Day Conference and need judges and volunteers! Sounds fun, right? It is on April 30th and would be from approximately 7am to 4pm. This is an opportunity for you to see what IPROs are all about and see what students at IIT are doing (plus, some AWESOME ID students are involved in IPROs this term). We are looking for teachers, students, people in industry (pass on the info—all the cool kids are doing it). Email me with any questions or let me know if you are interested. More information is below.
Thanks,
Hillary
hillary@id.iit.edu

IIT’s Interprofessional Program
An emphasis on interprofessional education has been growing within academia and the professions over the years. IIT is one of the competitive schools that offers a program in interprofessional education. One aspect of IIT’s program that makes it distinctive from many of the other schools offering interprofessional education is that it involves students from ALL of its academic disciplines. These students range from engineering, to the physical sciences, to the social sciences, to business, to law, and to design. Students from different disciplines work together on a project over the course of a semester. At the end of the semester, students showcase their work and products from their projects.

IPRO Projects Conference
This year, students will be showcasing their work on Friday, April 30 at the IIT IPRO Projects Day Conference. The conference will be running from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm in the Herman Union Building on IIT’s campus. Thirty-four teams will be hosting exhibits and will be presenting on their projects throughout the day. Some examples of projects that will be presented are: Applications of Pervasive Computing, Electric Hybrid Car Conversion Using Ultra-Capacitor Augmentation, Home Monitoring of Spinal Cord Injured Patients, Building a Garage Door Simulator and Data Acquisition System, and Portable Systems to Generate Potable Water and Power.

Awards
To reward the teams for their accomplishments, seven cash awards of $500 will be given to the exemplary teams. The first six awards will be given to the top team in each track. The final award will be given to the top team from all of the tracks combined. The winning teams will be determined through judges’ scores of the team presentations and exhibits.

Judges
In order to determine the winning teams, many judges from academia, science, industry, and business will be participating in the IPRO Projects Conference. There will be several teams of judges that will be asked to sit in on about five or six presentations in the area of their choice. IIT would like to extend you an invitation to participate in the IIT IPRO Projects Day Conference by being a judge. As a judge you will be able to see what IIT students have accomplished and are capable of accomplishing in the future. You will be able to speak with them about their projects, their experiences, and their future goals. You will be able to see not only what wonderful students we have, but also all of the wonderful things that IIT students can contribute to the community and society as a whole.

Volunteers
We need volunteers to help with registration, monitoring the rooms where the judging will take place, helping with lunch, and assisting in handing-out awards. Volunteers will be paid $25.

Please let me know if you are interested in joining us as a judge or volunteer on Friday, April 30 so that I can reserve a space for you. Also, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at any time. I look forward to hearing from you!

-Hillary Schuster

Gold Peak
Sean Phillips, Jeff Gershune, and Tamara Bohorquez

Gold Peak is a Hong Kong based holding company that owns a variety of manufacturing companies. One such company, Clipsal, is the demo client for Sean Phillips, Jeff Gershune and Tamara Bohorquez. One of Clipsal’s current offerings is a luxury lighting control system called Ulti. It can store and save different lighting “scenes”, which are manipulated by a simple, wireless remote. With the click of a button, the lighting in a room, such as a TV or dining area, can be changed to a variety of different pre-programmed light settings. For example, a theatre scene can be programmed to dim specific lights, which is conducive to watching a movie, or the remote can be programmed to have kitchen lights or dining lights automatically set to make those areas brighter while darkening other areas of the house.

Regardless of demo track, the first three deliverables are a context paper, observation paper, and concept paper. The context paper analyzes trends and current market sectors that may affect the client’s future business. It also identifies interesting technologies that may be useful for the client, and identifies opportunities in the market where the client could leverage emerging trends with new technologies to come-up with improved or new offerings.

Last fall, the original research team, consisting of two product designers, one communication designer, and three strategic design planners located four families that met the demographic criteria for observation. After the initial visit and orientation with the families, the group studied the home management of these families using a remote observation method by using disposable cameras. A workbook was created to capture user observation information using two major frameworks: POEMS and the four human factors frameworks. The workbook was used as a tool to collect and organize data during the family interviews.

A couple of key findings were discovered from the observation work. First, the time to discuss every photo taken by the families was underestimated, and second, the scope of the project was too large. Because the families were asked to take photos of home management, many of the photos that were developed were pictures of birthday parties and personal events rather than photos of light usage and other home controls. Using the ID methods and relevant findings, the observation data was analyzed and then synthesized to formulate ideas for product offerings. In total, 40 different concepts were developed, which are discussed in the concept paper.

Four of the original team members from last semester recently met with Grace Lo, their client contact at Gold Peak, to discuss their work going forward. As a result of their meeting with Grace and their advisors, the focus of the demo deliverables has been honed to look more closely at the home control market. The client has sponsored three team members to take a trip to Hong Kong during spring break to perform additional contextual and observational research. They plan on taking design members from Gold Peak out into the field, so that they can integrate these methods into future development projects. Further, the team will meet with key members of Clipsal’s Ulti line to discuss the merits of their final deliverable, called the strategic design plan. The third team mate, Tamara Bohorquez, will share her communication plan with the same stakeholders at Clipsal. Though her work is not a typical deliverable for communication majors, the team is learning that her work will be equally useful in helping Clipsal to improve current offerings and potential future offerings.

-Christine Choi

Strategic Design Planning
Spring, 2004
Taught by: Larry Keeley

A Nation Empowered: Envisioning a Future for Iraq
Class Project (18 students)

It sounds like the plot for some new reality show on A&E. Take a class of 18 design planning students, and have them work on a project where they deliver recommendations for how to rebuild Iraq. When the idea was first posed to us (we had a choice of five projects for the class), I think we all had an "oh wow, ID is really getting too big for its britches" reaction, but then Larry Keeley posed that really elegant challenge. Let's see if designers can take a better stab at providing solutions for this complex mess than the U.S. Government with all the money and resources they have. Pretty gripping, huh?

It was impressive to see an entire class structure and restructure itself week after week to tackle the project. We were given little direction as to how to do it. Teams shifted every week, you were never working on the same topic, you spent 15+ hours each week researching, working on the next week's presentation, or rehearsing. It was a ton of work, and a ton of stress. But it was impressive to see unfold.

We started with the basics: Read anything and everything about the subject. We combed library databases, magazine articles, opinion pieces, anything that mentioned the word Iraq. But that wasn’t enough and we focused as well on other nation-building events in history. The point was to become as educated as possible on the subject and the current status in Iraq.

In the end, we took more than 30 individual design ideas and boiled them down into 5 visions that looked at what Iraq is good at culturally and historically and how it can propel those into potential future industries. We had to answer the basic question: how would life be different for the average Iraqi?

The ideas (loosely) were:
1. An Islamic financial center of the Middle East
2. A sustainable high-tech agriculture system
3. A center for Islamic studies and academia
4. A cultural Mecca
5. Unique industries fueling trade

If any of these sound high and mighty, they are. We realized that we needed a lot more implementation in presenting the ideas. Every idea takes into account the necessary steps to get from current conditions to realizing the visions. It’s the great attention to detail that makes the process of design planning such a compelling problem solver.

Does anyone have Paul Bremer’s email?

- Lucas Daniel

back to top

HTML Authors: Geoff Colbath, Lucas Daniel

Contributors: Sara Cantor, Jenny Fan, Philip LaFargue II, Christine Choi, Taylor Lies, Hillary Schuster, Lucas Daniel, Eric Holubow, Vince LaConte

to send newsletter submissions: newsletter@id.iit.edu