• Editorial
  • itches and scracthes
• ID News
  • official ID news
  • AWF 2006 update
  • introducing welcomeID
• Recent events
  • ID t-shirt design party
  • Lecturette Motorola SLVR
• Showcase
  • "Towards Richer Images" by Alex Cheek
  • special: "FAQ for Job seekers" by Rebecca Hoffman
• IDers: Past and Present
  • New IDer: Yoo-Jong Ahn
  • IDer's Spring Break
• Of interest
  • Around Town. "First Slice "
  • Observed

"Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch". This is a quote from Eric Raymond (oh yes, we love this guy) talking about how usually the person that uses something most frequently knows best what it needs to better meet needs.

When editing and deciding what content goes in every issue, we try to have the same approach: what we would like to read about now?

This newsletter is done by students and for students and hence in every issue we want to publish content that is relevant. Not surprisingly, as time goes by, what matters for all of us changes. That's why every time we go live we want to adapt the sections and the content to fit the itches of the students at that time. In every one of our editorial meetings we try to think what could be valuable for us at this moment and how the same content can be valuable over time in a way that can inform students in the future when faced with similar situations (call it RecruitID tips, general advice from alumnae, insight about faculty, etc...)

This was the thought process that sent us asking the uber-reliable Rebecca Hoffman what to do when the abyss of the post-RecruitID is in front of us and we have no experience dealing with employers, negotiating offers or just managing emotionally and logistically the whole situation. And she delivered more than expected. The article turned out so well that from now and on we will try to have a section where you can all ask Rebecca your questions and she can reply everybody. If she doesn't know, we will direct your question to the appropriate faculty. They are all on board for this one.

We think that tweaking and adding new content is a great way to evolve and adapt and both the students with their feedback but also the administrative staff and faculty are helping us a lot to deliver useful stuff. So, as long as we have energy, and you stay with us, we will come with the freshest content possible

Your editors,

Alex Cheek
Enric Gili Fort


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Just in case you never check the news at the bottom of the ID homepage, here are some news items that may interest you, pulled straight from the official school propaganda aparatus:

Upcoming event
The Changing Nature of Innovation and Design, April 12th.
Discussion with Larry Keeley, Craig Sampson, Denis Weil and Patrick Whitney.

Latest Patrick Whitney's article on businessweek:
"Design revelations from Shanghai"




see more news and events at http://id.iit.edu/news/


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Jordan and Irene

EngageID

After some confusion on what to properly call this new student initiative, it is clear now that the name that will stick will be 'welcomeID'. Andy Kim started this in fall 2005 when inspired by the activities that students in MBA programs receive when they start school. He did an amazing job last year putting together a mentorship program, a very interesting architectural boat tour, an IIT campus tour and a Chicago-themed scavenger hunt for teams, which made newcomers go all over the city to spot as many landmarks as they could.

This next fall it is going to happen again. Last Tuesday we had a meeting with people that want to volunteer and by the big turnout we can tell it is going to be even bigger and better. Everybody gave lots of input on how to smooth new students' adaptation to school and to the life in Chicago.

To support student's school entry, we are planning to improve the welcome information package, give student advice on registration day. We will have people around to answer students questions about in specific areas (where to live, where to go out..). We will put up a blog where people can share worries and questions. On the events tip, we are hoping to have a beach party, picnics non-stop, city tours a go-go, tshirt design and scavenger hunt, an IKEA shopping day (Max will facilitate this), parties to help people loosen up and meet current IDers, swimming pool parties at either Chelsea's or Ms. Jung and Ms. Fan's buildings, and probably way more casual hangouts that will spark spontaneously! So if you,reader, happen to be someone considering coming to ID next fall 2006, bring your swimsuit and get ready to be more than welcomed.

Call for mentors! we need more people to volunteer to mentor new students and help them. If you want to do it, send an email to anyone from welcomeID. Last year it worked quite well and the only thing you will have to do is to answer their questions by email and maybe going for lunch together when you meet in school.


the welcomeID posse
David McGaw, Hyuniee Jung, Woojin Park and Enric Gili Fort

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As the year goes on, it seems like people not only know each other a lot better, but also get along way better. One reflection of this has been the big turn out at the last few events and initiatives organized by students: think Valentine's party, ID dodgeball team, and, most recently, last Friday at the ID t-shirt party!

Organized by the pointy trident formed by socialID, insideID and the always receptive and supportive Vince Laconte, the event started with Thai food and beer for everybody. No registration required. Some minutes after the kick off, no one had begun to design anything, as probably everybody was thinking, a designer can't think when his stomach is roaring. So, after few drink rounds and some chicken curry, people started to warm up their grey matter, turn on their computers, and stretch their creative neurons. At one point someone shyly grabbed a marker in one hand and doodled something on the white board. Something insignificant maybe, but it broke the ice, got everybody pumped and from here the rest was all flow. Some got their laptops and started sketching ideas, other filled up the white boards while discussing and drinking a little more. Others were just walking around and giving unsolicited advice and opinions on designs, how to apply it on the t's or even about food choice. Trusty Eric facilitated the printing process by queuing the files and as the iron-on were coming out printed, everybody started cropping their patterns and ironing them on colorful t-shirts (when was the last time you have seen someone at ID grabbing an iron?). Fact: even Emmanuel got his IDgang t-shirt! We missed the photo-op but surely you will see him around school wearing it.

After 3 hours of food, talk, beer and fun-work we all proudly walked out of the Steelcase room with a couple of t-shirts on us and willing to bring it to school next week to show it to the rest of IDers and even faculty that were features on the t-shirts (PW and VJ). There were a lot of ideas and we don't know which one will be at the end the official chosen by Vince and Grimes. What it is sure is that we had a hell of a lot of fun working on it.



Some t-shirt Designs: Kristian heart run over, Joyce, Waew( front + back), Vince on IDgang, Rishabh, Sara ( front + back), Aurora, Mario (front + back), Vijay

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Lecturette by Sung-Gul Hwang
"The design story behind Motorola SLVR"

On Wednesday, Sung-Gul Hwang came by to tell us about the design of Motorola's SLVR phone. He pointed out all sorts of details that designers need to pay attention to, but they hope that users will never notice. Good design transforms intent into a greater effect which nets a greater result. In counterpoint to the lecture by Aaron Marcus where he advocated products customized to a specific culture, he showed how Motorola attempted to create a single product that empathized with considerations from multiple markets.

He alluded to doing another talk in the future about some exciting products still on the hush-hush, so hopefully we'll be able to hear about them sometime next year!

by Eric Niu
insideID

Towards Richer Images
by Alex Cheek

When I open iPhoto on my computer, I am, now more than ever, greeted with the slow grind of nearly 10,000 images being opened at once. Sure, I could just browse by file name and save myself a lot of waiting, but my collection is disorganized, and visual scanning of images is the best way for me to find the picture(s) that I am looking for. Soon, that will change.

As of now, if I want to organize my photos, I have to do it by hand. There is only a small bit information that is attached to every picture that a digital camera takes. Depending on the camera, it probably includes info on the way the camera exposed the picture, what kind of camera was used, when the image was made. There are other kinds of info that can be used to tell more about the image, all of this is known as metadata. Metadata literally means "data about data." In the case of my photographs, the exposure information is data about the data in the image itself. For most people, the only piece of image metadata that they care about is the date and time.

Right now, all of my images are sorted using the date and time that they were taken. That way, if I can remember when I took the picture I want to see, I can scroll up my list until I am in the right year or month and then start to scan the pictures individually until I find the one that I want. Contrast this process with the process of finding a song in you mp3 player. There you can sort using all sorts of metadata: Title, album, artist, genre, year of recording, all of which are automatically attached to the files either from data on the original CD or through online databases that recognize song files. I keep thinking, wouldn't it be great if there was some way to automatically add more useful metadata to your images automatically?

Online photo-sharing websites like flickr.com are using tagging, or user-generated metadata to allow users in the community to sort, group, and find photos of particular things. While some groups are dedicated to using fairly strict rules for tagging, for the most part, tags are inherently inconsistent not only because different people see different things in images and have different vocabulary, but because some people fail to tag their images at all, leaving theirs blank. I don't really blame those people. Tagging is fun if you're in the mood, but a lot of times I just want to post my pictures and get off of the computer. It would be much better if my camera or iPhoto could automatically tag my images with different information that might be more useful when I want to find a picture.

There are a few people that are working on this problem already and doing some very interesting things. Some enter latitude and longitude by hands, but this sounds like a lot of work (geosnapper.com, platial.com). Some cameras can be coupled with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver to tag photos with location information. But they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so we would need more than location to describe a picture in a way that help me find it. One interesting site is called riya.com. They are using face recognition technology to identify any face in photos and tag accordingly. I just read this afternoon about a device developed at MIT's Media Lab that helps autistic people identify the mood of the people they are talking with. It uses cameras and complex face recognition to identify emotion on a face based on a variety of criteria. That would be a great thing to tag photos with. Imagine trying to find a picture of someone frowning! It would be like a needle in a haystack among all of those "cheese" smiles. It wouldn't make sense for every picture,but an emotion metadata tag might fix that.

Today, most of these tools function as independent things and cannot be cross referenced, but as we at ID know, there is great power in bringing together what may at first seem like unrelated info. Cross-referencing google.local information with location tags could tell a business' name or a street address in a picture. Many cameras can record audio, why not have speech recognition to tag photos on the fly, or just a way to analyze and classify ambient noise as quiet, noisy, birds singing or not. We could put a thermometer in a camera to tag with temperature. The more the merrier. I see no reason that metadata couldn't become an part of the way that photographs are experienced. As we reach the limits of image resolution, we will find new ways to make pictures more realistic and more meaningful.

The applications of tagged photos and possibly tagged video are not limited to personal ones. The potential functionalities are numerous and important to us at ID. It would be very useful if user research photography and video could be tagged more automatically. It would so much easier and save so many hours if we could let a program automatically tag the photos we take , letting the researcher get back to work more quickly and analysis to be more fluid.

There is no way to know how the progression to richer images through metadata will proceed, but we know that it is happening. Many are banking the future of the internet on metadata with projects like the Semantic Web and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. This will surely carry further into the world of images. I will be paying attention.

By Alex Cheek

special post-RecruitID: FAQ for job seekers
by Rebecca Hofman

The time following spring break is often a nervous and busy one for ID students. Everyone is focused on classes and projects. On top of classwork many ID students are giving serious thought to the best way to spend the summer or the best way to find the right job for those who are graduating in May.

To be sure this is stressful and the path is not always clear at first.
You might have a sense that everyone knows what they are doing once classes end.

They don’t.

You might have a sense that everyone had perfect, dream interviews stemming from RecruitID.
Some did, it’s true, but many others are still searching for the right spot.
It might look like everyone has an offer from an employer. This is also not true.

What is true?

This is a great time to be an ID student as your skills are highly sought by many, many organizations who want creative thinkers with good business/organizational sense.

I’ve been asked to answer questions relating to interviewing by the editors and would be happy to answer additional questions you might have in future issues.

How many follow up interviews (average) I should expect before receiving an offer ?

There is no perfect answer to this. Sometimes offers come quickly and sometimes a recruiter will ask that you have a number of meetings prior to the offer. The more complex the organization the more interviews you will likely have since there will be many stakeholders who will touch the role you are being considered for.

What should I try to know about the company that I am talking to?

During the interview and offer process pay attention, of course, to the recruiter and the people you meet with leading to a potential offer. See if you can discern what the organizational culture of the company is and decide if it’s attractive to you. Be sure to pay close attention to what you want (as opposed to what you think you should want, this is nuanced but important). Every organization has its own “culture”. Be true to yourself and seek the best possible fit for you to grow professionally. Many companies that recruit at ID have strong brands but you might find after getting to know them that some are a better fit for you than others. Listen to your instincts and play to your strengths. This will ensure your decision-making is grounded in what makes the most sense

What do I do if I receive an offer?
Keep in mind that it is always good to be wanted when you are job hunting. Thus any job offer is better than no job offer. When you receive an offer thank the recruiter for it. Be gracious and charming. Show a deep interest in what they have to say (even if there is a company you would rather receive an offer from). This is a time to ask questions regarding:

• Salary,
• Signing bonuses,
• Annual bonuses, (and don’t forget to ask how frequently the company has met its bonus targets as many companies brag about bonuses but don’t frequently meet targets),
• Relocation expenses covered?,
• Retirement plans (is there matching, a vesting period, etc.)
  

It’s also good form to ask for a little time to think through the offer. You do not have to accept the offer on the spot. In fact, in most instances a little negotiating is expected especially relating to salary. Again and again I hear stories of ID students accepting offers on the spot when they could have negotiated for a better package. It’s always important that the package you accept be the best possible one for you. In the United States it is customary for the recruiter, to “sweeten the offer” with more salary or paid time off or other benefits that will be bankable and meaningful to you once you accept the offer.

What do I do if I receive an offer from a company that is not my first choice?

Most candidates have a first choice employer. This choice often changes as you gain more information via interviewing and researching prospective employers. It is acceptable to contact a recruiter if you have an offer in hand and your first choice company has not yet made you an offer. Sometimes companies are slow to make offers and in a good hiring market, as this one is for ID students, the early bird gets the worm. Contacting an employer when you have an offer in hand will often aid you in clarifying if they will also offer you a position.

Note that it is extremely important to be fair with recruiters, too. If you ask for 2 weeks to decide about an offer, be sure to respond to them in the amount of time that they grant you for this decision.

I have several offers. How do I decide which one to select?

Again, there is no right answer to this question. I always recommend that candidates pay careful attention to their instinct. Be sure that the position you select is one you will look forward to. A good measure for fit is if you feel excited by the prospect of a position and if you feel a little afraid of it. This type of moderate anticipation and nervousness will propel you toward success. After all you don’t want a role that you know so well it bores you to think of it and conversely you don’t want a role that terrifies you. A little nervousness is a good thing and you will grow into the role that’s a bit bigger than your previous experience.

I have not received enough interview requests or offers? What should I do?

First, don’t panic. It may seem like everyone has all of their plans figured out. Trust me, this is not the case. Take a deep breath and begin to think about the process you have been engaged in to date.

• Have you made a great effort to meet recruiters during the informal portions of RecruitID?
• If so, what was that experience like?
• Do you have complete confidence that your resume conveys the skills and experiences you possess? If not, ask colleagues, friends and professors to review it and refine it to make it more telling of what you have to offer employers.
• Do you have compelling ways to tell your story? If not, think about colorful ways to find meaning in all that you already know so that when you are in interviews you are verbally painting a picture of yourself and your capacity for the interviewer.
• Are you applying for opportunities that are posted at ID? On other web-sites?
• If you are not, you should be. Many, many recruiters respond to cold replies from postings. Each year ID students receive offers from the simple act of submitting their resume and cover letter via the “official” site of companies. Of course it’s always helpful to know people who can assist you but as they say, 90% of success is often just showing up.

Very frequently it takes time to find a good fit for employment so expect to dedicate real amounts of time to the process. Also, note that the more variables that weigh in to your decision the more time you will need to conduct a great job search. Factors such as desire: to remain in a given city, to land a specific professional role, to earn a certain salary, to work for a given type of company etc…can add time to a job search.

What should I try to know about the company that I am talking to?

During the interview and offer process pay attention, of course, to the recruiter and the people you meet with leading to a potential offer. See if you can discern what the organizational culture of the company is and decide if it’s attractive to you. Be sure to pay close attention to what you want (as opposed to what you think you should want, this is nuanced but important). Every organization has its own “culture”. Be true to yourself and seek the best possible fit for you to grow professionally. Many companies that recruit at ID have strong brands but you might find after getting to know them that some are a better fit for you than others. Listen to your instincts and play to your strengths. This will ensure your decision-making is grounded in what makes the most sense.

What if I accept an offer and then later receive another, more compelling offer?

Try to avoid accepting offers and then declining them for a better offer. If at all possible try to line up your options prior to making a decision. Sometimes candidates accept an offer only to find they then receive another, perhaps better, offer. If you really feel the second offer is better then you might accept it but understand that recruiters invest considerable resources into the hiring process and you will burn bridges that are very difficult, if not impossible, to rebuild by changing your employment selection. Of course, if you have not signed any sort of contract with an employer your employment is at will and you have the right to choose among offers at any time.

I don’t have a lot of “relevant” professional experience, how do I negotiate with employers so that I am not at a disadvantage?

This is always a challenge for candidates to overcome. It’s easy for corporate recruiters to meet with you and express an interest in you but then state “you don’t have corporate experience”. To this you should also identify and articulate all of the wonderful transferable skills which you possess. Think about this prior to interviews. If you only have worked in a restaurant, a family business, a summer camp or as a freelance designer, find the nuggets of transferable skills within these experiences and tell the recruiter about them. In all of these instances you can find tremendous team work, deadline goals achievement, organization, and behavioral skills which you can apply in new employment situations.

What do I need to know about expanding my job search?  Is it a good idea to work with headhunters?

Sometimes it helps to enlist the services of headhunters, a playful name for independent recruiters, when looking for employment.  Headhunters are recruiters who serve as matchmakers.  They generally specialize in a field of expertise and work very hard to identify people who they think make great candidates.  They also maintain relationships with organizations who "retain" them, hence the technical term retained search, to match candidates with opportunities as they arise.  There are lot's of things to keep in mind when working with recruiters. One of the main concepts to keep in mind is that they are selling in two directions.  They are selling candidates to companies and they are also selling companies on candidates.   When the process is working well it really sings and can help candidates identify opportunities they would not otherwise know about.  Should you decide to enlist the services of a headhunter note the following:   

• There is generally no fee to join the candidate pool
• There is very likely a fee paid by the hiring organization to the recruiter once a successful placement is made.  This is typically a percent of base salary.
• Should you accept employment and then decide 4 weeks later that you want to leave and go climb mountains you may be liable for the "fee" that was paid to place you

• RitaSue Siegel Resrouces:  http://www.ritasue.com/
• Wert & Co.:  http://www.wertco.com/home.html   
• Janou Pakter:  http://www.pakter.com/english/
• Roz Goldfarb Associates:  http://www.rgarecruiting.com/rga/
• Filter Talent:  http://www.filtertalent.com/main.asp

Should you find you have additional questions feel free to email them to me or to the editors of this newsletter and we will be happy to answer them.

by Rebecca Hoffman
rebeccah[at]id.iit.edu


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new IDer:Yoo-Jung Ahn
MDM, December 2006.

My name isYoo-Jung Ahn. I am 31 years old and an MDM student in Planning, Class of Winter 2006. I was born and lived in Seoul,
Korea. My background is in Industrial design, especially product design.. Married: I have been married one and half years.Children?: Not yet.Politics: World peace. Religion:A kind of history, freedom of worship


How did you end up at ID? what were your motivations for comming? where were you working?

I worked at LG electronics for 5 years. Last year, I became a senior designer and I decided to study design planning because I recognized the importance of design strategy. I asked advice from a senior who was worked and studied in America. And he recommended this school to me.

And what are your first impressions about ID (people, faculty, the space, the city..)?

Actually this is my first experience of living away from home and everything was unfamiliar to me. In time, I felt everybody in ID is so kind and Chicago is a beautiful city.

What do you think you can bring to the people her at id (culturally, socially,..)?
I can introduce to iders Korean food and games. I enjoy cooking and actually I made and gave some Korean food to people last international party.

Is there anything amazing from your culture or where you come from that you think people should not miss? (music, culture,design, food, cities, believes...)

Although Korea has long history and high level culture, many people don’t know about it. I’d like to introduce Korean craft, pottery, music and movies.

Which are the designers or thinkers have impressed you the most lately or you are following now?
Frank Owen Gehry. I really like his artistic and experimental works. I think he is a true artist.

What are the websites you could not live without?
In fact, I visit many Korean site…but I recommend these website…

http://www.designboom.com/
http://www.earlyadopter.co.kr/
http://www.theyrule.net/

What kind of activities are you planning to do in your free time in case you have any while at ID?
I like go to movies and museums. I have been to movie theater in Chicago but I haven’t visited museums. During spring break I’ll visit a few museums near Chicago.

Is there anything you think everybody should know about you?
I didn’t know other culture and other country well because I have lived in Korea only. However I am really interested in other cultures and people. I want to talk with IDers about them.

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IDers Spring break

We announced it: IDers wanted a break and hell yes they had it. Here some stories and pics to remember what happened just a week ago and looks already so far away.


Joyce Chen

"I drove down the beautiful Oregon coast with a high school friend, tested my new ACL out on the trails, and frolicked in nature. Oh, and stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for some dairy-fresh huckleberry ice cream....."


Sarah Jones

"after sleeping off the jet lag, it was time for a 15km hike in the beautiful
Malvern Hills. The trail featured 5 peaks, and yes, we had to hike up and down each one. The trail is about 340 meters high, and covered with snow (which is really rare for the area). Four hours and three lunches later we were all ready for a hot cup of tea. While in England I also spent time visiting Bath and Salisbury, but spent most of the time in Bristol (where the International Airport has 6 whole gates!). Photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/isispx/sets/72057594086356487/

Jose Sia, Laate Olukotun and Henning

"Jose, Laate and I returned to Frisco, CO this year to ski Summit County. We skiied Keystone, Vail, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain over the course of an eight day trip. Highlights included near perfect conditions at Vail, as well as near blizzard conditions at Breckenridge both days that we were there. Geoff Colbath, who was with us last year wasn't able to make it, but we managed to find a 3 inch tall stand in action figure to take his place. The ladies loved him.

As with any ski trip, there were several spectacular crashes, including Laate getting taken out by a 4 inch tall tree and me hitting a fun box at high speed which resulted in what can only be described as a perfect 10 face plant. Jose "All Talk and No Air" Sia actually managed to keep his helmet on this year. See more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/exdeco/sets/72057594081962729/

Eric, Chung-Yi, Hyuniee, Maura, Tin and Enric

"we went to Costa Rica for a week and we had plenty of activities: canopy, thermal waters, horseback riding, snorkeling on the pacific coast and most important laying down for hours in virgin beaches and getting a nice tan that hopefuly will last till the good weather and sun comes to Chicago" See more pics at chung-yi's flickr and enric's flickr

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Around town: "First Slice" Cafe
by Alexa Curtis

We have a new restaurant critic this week. Alexa Curits

First Slice is a cafe, but not just any cafe. It is just one part of a very cool building. This intimate eatery shares a space with a ceramic art gallery in a building that is otherwise all artist studio space (and they teach classes too).

But that's not even the coolest part yet...

First Slice is dedicated to feeding homeless and low-income families with good, healthy, delicious food. They are worth checking out for their unusual business plan if nothing else. But the potential gold mine for you, dear ID student, is that they offer meal subscriptions: wouldn't it be nice when you get home at 11pm and you can actually have a delicious meal waiting for you rather than just heating up another can of soup? What they offer is 3 three course meals each week for $25. That $25 helps feed many, many, many other families that week. And you even get dessert (yum!).

First slice
corner of Damen and Ravenswood
www.firstslice.org

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Observed

Joel Trusell creates music videos that synchronize perfectly with break-core jazz-sampling music.
http://www.joeltrussell.com
http://www.ipecac.com/archives/videos/kid606_the_illness.mov
http://www.cockrockdisco.com/JFDSwpweb.mov

Going visual blog: technology and visual communication
http://goingvisualblog.typepad.com/

Music engine that suggests new related music
http://www.pandora.com/

Street photography
http://2point8.whileseated.org/


Send us your design related links to our emails below


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