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| September 8th , 2006. Issue #16 |
| Summary |
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| We have a request for you... |
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Welcome back, IDers. Both returing and new ones. With the new year, the newsletter remains. |
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| ID News |
| recruitID: Help yourself get a job! |
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recruitID is coming up and you better get ready. In the coming weeks there are a lot of key activities that will help you prepare for this fall recruitID event. Add them to your calendar: |
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| Basic InDesign basics for foundies |
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Mr. Max and Mr. Gabriel have graciously allowed themselves to be conscripted into hosting a session on InDesign basics next Wednesday, September 13, from 12:30ish until they go mad. They should be camped out in the 3rd floor round room. |
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| IDers going to Wrigley Field |
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On the horizon, we have heard that the amazing socialID team is putting together an evening at Wrigley Field to see the Cubs lose again. But who cares about who wins or loses as long as the people that make the game fun are actually there? |
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| Recent events |
welcomeID, official ID reception (and unofficial as well...) |
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For a second year, the Institute of Design's students came out in full force to welcome the incoming class. In fact, before the new students even arrived in Chicago, they were posing questions to current IDers via a blog set up by the newly formed welcomeID posse. This new group was formed not only to welcome new students to the ID community, but to ease their transition into a new workplace. During registration, the current crop of students made themselves available to answer any and all questions about registration, classes, Chicago, dating, etc. For the experiential learners in the group, Dave McGaw organized and guided a great architectural tour of the city from the early skyscrapers in the Loop to the immersive landscape architecture of Millennium Park. The series wrapped up with an excellent teamwork lecturette that has already been repeated for those who missed it the first time. (See the review below for more info on that topic.) welcomeID hopes to continue this process of inclusion, and to do so, they will need your help. Volunteer for everything you can, and make the experience of next year's new students' matriculation better than ever.
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engageID team builds Community site at Strategy 06 |
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The engageID editorial team (basically Alex and Enric) expanded the knowledge offering of the Strategy Conference 2006 by putting together a community site with a blog where attendees could participate, and using that site to publish presentations and podcasts that they recorded. All of this resulted in unanimous praise that encourages us to keep on doing it for both AWF and future conferences (as long as we get a larger team, because as you can see by looking at Alex's face, it was great to do it but it was not all fun). Also note that during the breaks, attendees such as Mr. McGaw spontaneously took the stage and turned it into their personal soapbox. |
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| Lecturette: Teamwork Core Principles by David McGaw |
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A group of students at ID, confident that there must be a good design solution to the current team situation here, spent last spring and part of the summer applying User-Centered Design Methods to teams. We did user research (you know, talking to all of you), looked at industry best practices, learned from gurus like Larry Keeley, and informally prototyped some methods. We think the underlying challenge with teams at ID is that peer teams are really different from other kinds of teams each of us has been on before. They require a different set of assumptions, and slightly different tools than we've been trained to use. An initial approach at helping teams function better is to provide a common set of teamwork principles that students can all draw on—enabling us to work effectively despite being a bunch of very different kinds of people. In fact, we think we can leverage those differences to become better teams. We propose three key principles—each with a description, an “enabler” (a practical application to the princple at ID), and some “magic words” that signal that one of the princples is being invoked:
That’s the heart of it. We have some other suggestions and best practices to recommend, which you can see in the Teamwork Effectiveness Presentation PDF file . But it all comes down to each of us taking the time to learn about ourselves and respectfully interacting with others as peers—not as subordinates or as supervisors. We’re all in this together, and becoming a better team member will not only reduce the stress level at ID, but also help us become more effective in taking good design into the world when we leave ID. |
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Teamwork Effectiveness Presentation [ PDF | 725 Kb ] socialID: Improvisation workshop |
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Innovation relies on the forward flow of information from its practitioners. In order to learn techniques for keeping the conversation going, Joyce Chen and Chelsea Holzworth of insideID offered a lunchtime lecturette for all IDers as well as the youth participants. Already being hailed as the best workshop of the semester, the improvisation workshop will continue into the far future if all goes as planned, with advanced techniques for some, and more introductory classes for all interested. Be on the lookout for future editions.
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"Watch that finger!": Safety sessions at ID |
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Andrea apparently managed to cut herself during the actual training itself. Don't worry, Andrea, we know the feeling. After all of the stress and fatigue of school, accidents happen. |
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| Showcase |
Job postings at ID |
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| Each issue in engageID, we spotlight a helpful client application or web technology that might help you as you collaborate, conduct research or synthesize design concepts. If you have ideas for a technology that you would like to share, please send an email to engageID's Technology editor. |
Forget about Facebook – |
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There has been a lot of buzz lately about Web 2.0 tools and all the social networking tools that build on this new technology. But what the engageID investigative team has found out is that none of these tools work half as well as ID. Why do we say that? Look at the picture. Do you recognize the two girls inside the circle? Take a look around ID and try to spot the same two girls with a few more years. Now, do you know who they are? Indeed. Alexis Baum and Amanda Huhn met each other at a summer camp some years ago and they hadn't seen each other until they both came to ID. Isn't it amazing? So to you prospective students who are pondering whether to come to ID: be aware, because in case you decide to come, you might be reunited with old friends, skeletons from the closet or even worse, old boyfriend or girlfriends. You have been forewarned! back to top |
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| IDers: Past and Present |
| With every newsletter we will try to bring to you a profile of a new ID student as well as one from the past, so we have the chance to get to know each other better. Our aim is to reflect how varied and interesting every member of the ID community is and how much we can learn from each other, as well as to bring the whole ID community closer together. If you are interested in being profiled, or know someone who would be willing, drop us a line (email below). |
new IDer: Swapnil Jadhav |
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My name is Swapnil Jadhav. I am 24 years old and an MDes student in Product, class of June 2009. I was born and raised in Pune, India. My background is in Mechanical Engineering (Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering). I am not married and have no children. Politics: Apolitical. Religion: Hindu (Agnostic) How did you end up at ID? What were your motivations for coming? Where were you working before? Truthfully primarily because they were the only design institute to accept an application without a portfolio attached. My biggest motivation was and still is to get into automotive design. To this end I took mechanical engineering as my undergrad major. I have no prior work experience. What are your first impressions about ID (people, faculty, the space, the city...)? For a student from a very different kind of educational system the entire environment at the ID has been a revelation. The professors are very accessible and easy to approach, the grading is based not on one's capacity to memorize large texts but on a person's understanding of a certain concept. My first contact at ID was with Amy Flakowski; she was responsible for sending all the documentation I required. Her patience with me during that period was simply astounding. Is there anything amazing from your culture or where you come from that you think people should not miss (music, culture,design, food, cities, beliefs...)? Indian food is amazingly varied but it might be a tad too spicy for a lot of people. There are places in India that I believe everybody should visit if an opportunity arises; some of them are Goa, Kumarakkom (Kerala), the Taj Mahal (Agra), Leh (the Himalayas) and Mumbai. Which designers or thinkers have impressed you the most lately or that you are following now? Designers: Sir Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Massimo Tamburini. What are the websites you could not live without? - Gmail.com What kind of activities are you planning to do in your free time in case you have any while at ID? Cycling around town while I still can. Reading and listening to the fabled Chicago jazz musicians and expanding my knowledge of jazz by possibly attending some live concerts, etc. |
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Past IDer: Paul Nini |
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My name is Paul J. Nini. I graduated as a MS Visual Communication Design from ID on Autumn 1988 In which ways and dimensions do you think ID has changed your career? I don't recall any particularly tough times, but it did take a while to pay off those student loans. If you could have changed one thing about ID while a student, what would it have been? What's the best anecdote you have from the time you were at school (professor or student related)? Please consider higher education as a career path. We desperately need more educators willing to bring a user-centric approach to design programs. While many of us realize that the fine art-based model is obsolete, quite a few schools are still stuck in that philosophy. Even part-time teaching would help, and is a nice way to share one's professional expertise. If anyone is interested in education, please feel free to get in touch with me. I'd be happy to advise.
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| Of Interest |
Around Town: Ed Debevic's |
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How would you like being yelled at by your waiter when you go out to eat? Apparently, a lot of Chicagoans love it. My friend Eric, a fellow IDer, took me to Ed Debevic's one afternoon for lunch before classes began. I had been in Chicago for all of a day and was ready to explore anything the city had to offer. "There's a diner that I've been wanting to try out," he offered, "but they treat you like jerks." Sure, why not, can't be so bad. The place has the look and feel of a typical diner: loud colors and tons of kitsch decorating the walls. Upon closer look, a few things may tip you off. One of the signs reads, "Be nice or get out." Hey, that's kind of funny. Another says, "If you think you have reservations you're in the wrong place." Then you hear a waitress near the bar shouting to some people at a booth something to the effect of "Shut up and sit down!" This place looks like fun! We were fortunate enough to be seated in the middle of a birthday party of about 15 kids. One of the wait staff brought a helium balloon to a boy and let go of it right before giving it to him, sending the balloon up to the ceiling. The kids were thrilled as the waiter pointed and laughed at the boy. Shortly after the waiter led a rendition of the "Happy birthday" song that involved knowing few of the words and not remembering the birthday girl's name. The girl was besides herself with excitement and then giggled as she posed for a picture with him. Ten or fifteen minutes passed before our waiter came by. Actually, he shouted to us from the drink dispensers in the outdoor patio for our drink orders. When he came with our drinks he noted our discontent and said he had a surprise to cheer us up. Eric, clearly annoyed, responded by slowly lifting his eyes up towards the waiter, pausing, and lowering them back down. A little later the waiter showed up with two paper hats, one which he put on my head. He simply placed the other hat on the table and left. Eventually our food arrived. Another deviation of Ed Debevic's from the typical diner: not so typical diner prices. I had a $6 hot dog and Eric had an $8.25 cheeseburger. The food was all right, but not worth the price, especially for two ID graduate students. Perhaps we were not in the right mood to enjoy the festive atmosphere that casts a spell on customers and makes Ed Debevic's the institution that it is. But a $6.00 hot dog isn't enticing me to come back try it again. I guess all that attitude comes with a price.
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Spotlight on Technology: LinkedIn |
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http://www.linkedin.com
You might be familiar with Friendster or Facebook, the social networking websites that enable you to create a virtual profile, add your friends/family, and continually expand your network. How it is helpful Many of us have been involved in professional networks in the past. As we know, it takes a long time to build up a network, but a very short time to let it fall to the wayside. With LinkedIn, you can keep your profile up to date and maintain connections to your network from years prior. You will have updated contact information from everyone in your network, and people will be able to contact you. When you need to meet new people (for a job or a partner for a startup), you can meet via the connections you already have (the FOAF model). Tips
back to top |
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Observed |
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For all you Post-it fans that love to come up with 200 ideas and cluster them! |
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About engageID |
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