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| November 3 , 2006 . Issue #20 |
| Summary |
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Editorial |
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We are at that deceptive point in the semester when the end is in sight, but it is not yet near. We are writing this the day after Halloween, which seemed to be, like we mentioned last issue, a chance for ID students to lift their heads and take a little gasp of air before diving back into work. The costumes were really excellent and the morning's bagels and coffee in the newly christened Student Lounge (!) were just right. Speaking of the new Student Lounge, it is awesome. If you haven't heard, Eric Niu and the insideID crew took the initiative and pulled the chairs, a futon and coffee table out of the old Lounge (a.k.a. Make-out Room) and turned the once stiff and horribly-named "Cyber Café" into a comfortable and welcoming place to read, chat and listen to a little music on the stereo. One more sign of the active student body this year is that new Student Activity Board (IDSAB) officers are being selected now and will be announced soon. According to one source, this is a bumper crop year for nominations, and we are not surprised. IDSAB as a group has been working non-stop to provide students and non-students alike with great events, including the International Dinner, AWF, the upcoming recruitID, and much more. As for our staff, we humble editors could not be happier with the upsurge of support that we are experiencing. We are experimenting with new features, and new writers—staff and students alike—are contributing great work to this unique publication. Behind it all is a great group of students who take time from their personal work to share their time with the ID community. As always, we welcome your feedback. engageID has no reason for existing without you, our readers, so please let us know what is missing and what you appreciate. Your proud editors, Alex Cheek & Enric Gili Fort back to top | ||
| ID News |
RecruitID is here! |
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Indeed, it has arrived. It's that time in the semester when you rush to finish the damned portfolio that you have not managed to make headway on for months (and, for some, even years!)... ...the time when all these existential questions distract you from your work and you are forced to think what you want to do with your life: "What company do I want to work for?" "Where do I want to do an internship?" Or, simply, "What's the meaning of life?" ...the time when you are going to have an intense, deep-cleansing shower and you are finally are going to try to speak in proper, professional English-training yourself to unlearn "like" and sitting on your hands whenever you are inclined to use air quotes. Yes, it's that time of the semester. It is time to try to land the job or internship you have been dreaming of. It is recruitID time! Constant emails from the recruitID crew have warned you to be prepared and to practice your spiel, and now, suddenly, recruitID is upon us. We know the fall session is low-key but, hey, everybody wants to feel a little bit of corporate love. My advice to you: don't stress too much, just get ready, stay calm and good luck to all those that will have interviews next week! As a final note, I want to highlight the fabulous work that, once again, the recruitID chairs are putting into this event. There is no way we can thank them enough for all of the energy they have put into giving us more job opportunities. Working on a student group is completely voluntary, so they have essentially chosen to take on this work to benefit all of us. What should be mandatory is saying "thank you" to those who give so much of their precious time to this effort-it's the least that we can do! So, if you come across the current recruitID chairs--David McGaw, Kristy Scovel or Jereme Dumm--around school in the next few weeks, be sure to thank them. Most likely, they are going to be one of the factors that will get you that great job next summer. |
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| Recent events |
'Rapid Immersion': Design for the BOP Workshop |
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C. K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart first coined the phrase 'The Bottom of the Pyramid' in 2002, to refer to approximately four billion people around the world who live on less than $2000 USD per year1. In the book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Prahalad argues that "despite the fact that these people subsist on annual per capita incomes of less than $1,500, this 'bottom of the pyramid' represents a multi-trillion-dollar market."2 It is believed that the bottom of the pyramid could grow to six billion people over the next 40 years. Taken together, nine developing nations -- China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa and Thailand -- have a combined GDP that is larger in purchasing power parity than the combined GDPs of Japan, Germany, France, the UK and Italy. The bottom of the pyramid, Prahalad writes, is "the biggest potential market opportunity in the history of commerce." The Institute of Design has been doing research in BOP (Base of the Pyramid) markets in India since 2003. This project has been presented in many conferences globally, as well as at individual corporate events, as there is growing interest in companies wanting to understand how to develop strategies for entering this market. More recently, however, I have opted to speak less and interact with the audience more via workshops so as to encourage greater participation and sharing of knowledge about the BOP. I first developed the Rapid Immersion process for a BOP protocol meeting organized by the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University in July 2004. I had noticed in the past that representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia and multi-national corporations (MNCs) often argued bitterly with each other about BOP because each had their own language to describe needs, goals and issues at the BOP based on the nature of their work. My goal for 'Rapid Immersion' was to bring various stakeholders -- in this case, MNC's, NGO's and academia -- on the same page by sharing with them ID's BOP research, which is comprised of photo studies of daily life in the BOP. This process of viewing visual data simultaneously in multi-disciplinary teams ensured that when the context for discussion remained consistent, varying approaches to address BOP issues complemented each other in concept generation! It brought a discussion that was often abstract, theoretical, and largely based on statistics, down to the ground realities as illustrated by design research. These photographs showed entrepreneurs in slum areas participating in mundane, day-to-day business, the locations where they worked or socialized, the people they interacted with, etc.
This process by no means substitutes for traditional ethnography and immersive design research methods, but only acts as a technique to rapidly introduce the BOP to a new audience. In cases where the audience is familiar with BOP, Rapid Immersion encourages a proactive discussion using a shared context to reach a mutual understanding, if not a mutual agreement. In addition, it also illustrates how some of the research methods used for design thinking can transform assumptions about a new market, often leading to out-of-the-box approaches and outcomes for identifying new market opportunity. Last weekend, I facilitated a similar workshop at the Net Impact conference, this time with ID students Enric Gili Fort, Ido Mor and Joyce Chen, all part of the BOP team here. This was a two-and-a-half-hour workshop and consisted of a brief presentation of our project at ID and the methods and approach used in the first phase of the project (for more information see http://id.iit.edu/profile/gallery/design_for_BoP/). Participants were given a packet of 'Insight Trigger' pages, each with a slide from the slide show that followed. The participants were then "immersed" and shown 30 slides on slums dwellers conducting life and business in slums and the city. Verbal stories accompanied the slides to help provide a deeper context to what the participants were viewing. Participants viewed each slide for 30-45 seconds and had to briefly note down their observations in the Insight Trigger packet. After the slide show, participants were split into 5 teams, each with an ID facilitator. Each team was asked to share their observations amongst themselves and generate as many insights as possible. These, written on post-it notes, were then clustered into high-level patterns -- true to ID fashion. The patterns guided the teams towards identifying opportunity space for service and product innovation for companies wanting to enter the BOP. Each team was encouraged to brainstorm and sketch out as many concepts as possible without casting judgment. Three to four concepts were then selected for further discussion. Simple business models were developed for each concept to determine which would be most viable. Each team then presented their best concepts to the entire group. Amazingly enough (given the combination of a short workshop and intense content), teams didn't stop short of concepts but, instead, charged ahead to develop concept systems, plan implementation roadmaps, and one team even created a physical prototype of their product idea! All in all, the workshop proved to be extremely fruitful for the participants as well as my team. It is gratifying to know from survey feedback that most participants found this workshop useful and enjoyed the interaction. Some even asked us to do the same workshop at their individual business school. I hope that, through this workshop, we helped ID grow its reputation of a graduate school that successfully bridges business and design. I also hope that the BOP rapid Immersion workshop we do next week with the University of Illinois business school is as good as this last one, if not better! |
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about, with & for - a month later |
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t’s hard to believe that nearly a month has passed since the about, with & for conference. As the dust settles and we are (almost) caught up with our class work, we can’t help looking back fondly on what the ID student body put on. This year's conference featured an excellent mix of academics and professionals, who touched on topics such as simplicity in design, do-it-yourself research methodologies, design in education, design thinking in public policy and challenging the use of ethnography in design research. The feedback we've received from everyone has been very supportive, and if you were there, hopefully you enjoyed yourself too. Attendees and presenters alike seemed to enjoy the close quarters, which by our observation, caused instantaneous eruptions of conversation and collaboration. Todd Wilkens of Adaptive Path, and also one of the presenters, wrote a review on the Core77 blog. "The key feature of the conference is its collaborative approach, so this event is much more about talking WITH others than talking AT them. Most presentations sparked discussions that ran past allotted time--a good sign." We agree. Some presenters, like Todd, Valerie Casey of Frog Design and Jennie Winhall from RED, Design Council, presented to a room that was standing room only! Thank you again to all those who attended and volunteered at the conference. This past year has been a wonderful journey for both of us, and we have learned a lot. As much fun as we had, the time has come for us to pass the baton, to the new fearless leaders of about, with & for. We are pleased to announce that Caroline Little and Ido Mor will be co-chairing the 2007 conference. Hats off to you! Both are brimming with ideas for next year, and look forward to taking on this awesome challenge. From us to you, thanks. Signing off on our final entry for about, with & for 2006. |
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insideID lecturette: John Paul on the Bottom of the Pyramid |
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John Paul, an MBA student from Cornell University's Johnson School of Business, came to Chicago for the Net Impact conference that took place last weekend (Oct 27-29). While he was here, he gave a lecturette on the BOP (Bottom of the Pyramid) from the lens of a former employee at the World Resources Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. John also worked for N-logue (http://www.n-logue.com/), a 3-tier franchise internet service provider in India. With its LSP/Kiosk model, it is a pioneer in internet connectivity for underserved rural communities in India. In his talk, John spoke about business models that are created around BOP markets. Engaging the BOP markets requires a deep understanding of constituents, and there are challenges like finding the right personnel and scaling the business. John gave examples of how diaspora-enabled development-initiatives that tap into the resources of emigrants to other countries--can be financially sustained. For example, Thamel.com is an ecommerce portal based in Kathmandu that, among other activities, enables the Nepalese diaspora to buy gifts online that are then procured and delivered locally to family and friends still living in Nepal. We at ID are thankful to John for his willingness to come and speak with us about developments in the BOP world.
If you are looking to learn about the rapidly changing face of social entrepreneurship and the 4 Billion people who collectively have tremendous buying power, add NextBillion to your favorites http://www.nextbillion.net or suscribe to the RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NextBillion/blog |
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International Iron Chef |
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This year’s International Dinner party rocked out. More food, more people than ever before! The Korean Contingent picked up the most votes in savory as usual (they kept bribing me until I was about to explod). Natrina won an pair of six-shooters for her Raw Fish Salad. Jordan & Deena represented Florida with a Key Lime Pie that tied with a kicking Pumpkin Cheesecake (they tried to bribe me too with multiple pre-event sample) concocted by Kristy & Alexa. The rockstar of the party was Curtis MacDonald who smashed everyone with his balloons! |
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Web Portfolio Lecturette |
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Everybody in ID has some work pending, or is scheduled for the lunch time meeting. On Monday of last week John Kestner took some time out of his schedule to give his fellow IDers a brief introduction to creating a online portfolio. John's premise to a online portfolio is based on the fact that you already have a paper-based portfolio that you need to display to a wider audience. Most of us foundies in the lecturette are nowhere near having a porfolio let alone a online one. In attendance were several of the in-house gurus of various specialities, Gabe Billar (inDesign guru), Alexa (product design). John used his personal website as an example of thing to do or to avoid. He is a Mac user so his tilt is towards using Mac software (which in ID is totally normal). He also cautioned against using Dreamweaver for first-time users due to its inherent complexity. There is webspace available for every ID student on the ID server; for those of you who want to put up a online portfolio but are stumped by question of where this would be the best place to start. John has graciously offered his advice on a one to one basis for people interested in setting this up. |
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IDers stay young for Halloween |
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The statistics say that the average age of the ID student is 28 years old. But by looking at the last Halloween costume competition that happened at ID this last Tuesday, no one would dare to say that we behave like people our age.
A bunch of IDers, each channeling the child that all designers nurture inside of them, found time in between meetings and deadlines to pick themes and great costumes and put together a parade of characters. Costumes were not particularly scary but excelled in execution and play with inside (ID) jokes. Even Professor Judith Gregory came with her multicolored stockings and her "love" shoes and danced the Can-Can with Steve-SM. All of this in great fun and amidst Halloween candy and fun music in the newly premiered tiki lounge on the 4th floor. ...And to finish, a little game. Click on the picture and try to guess what each disguise is all about. If you guess correctly for all of them, then chances are that you are either a true IDer or that you spend too much time with IDers.
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| Showcase |
An interview with Chuck Owen |
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I had the pleasure of sitting down with Distinguished Professor Charles "Chuck" Owen this week to learn more about his tenure at ID. Despite the fact that I am both a student and colleague of his, I knew little about how and why he chose to teach here. This short article cannot capture all of the compelling stories Chuck has to tell - fortunately for us, he is working on a longer description of his time at IIT and ID. However, this piece will outline the origins of Structured Planning and highlight Chuck's continuing contributions to our school and the design community in general. Professor Owen originally came to ID as an undergraduate student in 1951. At that time, ID was located at what is now the Excalibur nightclub, and was in a period of change: Maholy had left many years before, and Chermayeff, who took over the school from Maholy, had also recently left the school to teach at Harvard. In high school, Chuck excelled at Chemistry and the arts, and looked to a respected Chemistry teacher to help him find a college program that blended science and art. Based on his teacher's recommendation, Professor Owen attended a student show and quickly decided that this was the right place for him. Once he started at ID, however, he realized that the curriculum was not as balanced as he had hoped. Also, Professor Owen notes, "like always, the school was short of students and money..." He decided that he needed a better grounding in science before he could pursue the more art and design based curriculum, so he went to study engineering at Purdue. Upon his arrival at Purdue, he was informed that the general engineering program he wanted to take was eliminated. Instead, he studied chemistry, but also took many classes in set design, philosophy, and social science. After Purdue, he signed up for the Navy. Due to his background, he was asked to teach at a school in Maryland that prepared candidates for the Naval Academy. He taught math and science to the candidates and, according to him, "there is no better way to learn something than to teach it." After three years and achieving the rank of company commander, Professor Owen decided to spend one more year in the Navy. He explained his choice with the following question: "How do you tell people you spent three years in the Navy and never made it on a ship?" He spent a year on a Destroyer in the Pacific, which was part of a fast carrier task force. He took this opportunity to improve the operations of the ship, primarily through optimizing and rationalizing the propulsion systems. He notes that "to go into a propulsion room on a destroyer of that era is to see complexity in its boldest form." The stories from this tour of duty are too numerous to mention here, but Professor Owen recalls that leading a fleet (this was his destroyer's position) at night with no lights, at full speed, while launching airplanes from a carrier, is quite a memorable experience. While Professor Owen was in the Navy, Jay Doblin took over ID and began to make changes in the curriculum. After the Navy, Professor Owen went back to ID to see what changes had been made, and potentially get an undergraduate degree, since he was still in interested in design. On his return to the school, Jay told him that he could get a Master's degree. Chuck immediately signed up and began to take classes in the new curriculum. In the next issue of Engage ID we will detail Professor Owen's thoughts about Jay Doblin, the development of Structured Planning, and his thoughts about what's next for ID and the design profession. |
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| ResourceID: Business Process Management Institute magazine by Enric Gili Fort |
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Recently, we discovered that a handful of ID faculty and adjunct faculty have published several articles on the Business Process Management Institute website, an organization that was previously completely unknown to us. Since the full name of the aforementioned Institute didn't contain any of the words we usually associate with ID--"design," "strategy," "planning," "frameworks," etc.--our curiosity propelled us to find out more. A bit of research concluded that, more than just an organization, the Business Process Management Institute is a professional resource website. In their own words, "BPMInstitute.org is a peer-to-peer exchange for business process management professionals...and endeavors to expedite the adoption and implementation of business process management solutions and practices." While this might seem like a field that is not relevant for designers at first glance, it is actually extremely appropriate for designers at ID. Designers who are interested in how companies innovate and what processes are needed to deliver customer value should start looking at it. It is definitely relevant knowledge for those of you enrolled in the Design Planning track. We have read the articles written by ID friends and family, and even though you may think you know what they have to say because you've attended their classes, we think that there's more value to be gleaned from their contributions to BPM Institute. These articles are written with a totally different audience in mind and, though a bit more technical, are informative and important. Full list of articles you can find on bpminstitute.org website written fully or partially by ID faculty:
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Featured Class: Interaction Design Methods; Systems and Systems Theory in Design - Kei Sato |
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I loved pretty much all of my classes from last semester because they gave me a fresh introduction to ID methods and idea. These two courses were especially good for me start with since they gave me an overall understanding of what ID teaches-that is, something different from what I've learned before. Before coming to ID, my concept of design was more like "what/how I'm making" and all the issues I was concerned with involved styling or planning/managing projects. I had a hard time trying to fill the gap in the process between these. In Interaction Design Methods, I learned about the interactions between users and devices, and the distinction between interaction design and experience design, which is something I had always wondered about. (Kei explained experience design as an equation: Experience=Event*Expectation.) In System and Systems Theory in Design, I learned to see service as a whole system with various elements, much like an eco-system. I had never made those connections before. Overall, it was a great introduction for me to get the idea of "who I'm making for" and "what's the big picture as well as the component elements of what I'm making." |
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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: John Ekholm |
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My name is John Ekholm and I am a full-time MDes student, Product Design, class of 2008. I am 26 years old.
I was born in Urbana, IL and have lived in Urbana, Oak Park, and Chicago. |
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| Shout-outs |
| Kicking off a new section
of the newsletter, in which we let know our peers
know when their efforts have been appreciated. |
Care to thank a fellow IDer? Shout it out.
Email us at newsletter [at] id.iit.edu. |
| Of Interest |
Observed |
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http://gigaom.com/ http://www.halfbakery.com/ http://www.stuffonmycat.com Send us your design-related links to our emails below. |
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About engageID |
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