Freeform notes:

Frank Nuovo
Vice President and Chief Designer of Nokia Corporate Design
More than just voice calls. "Mobility industry". Total mobile sales will grow from 400B in 2003 to 600B in 2008. Technology platforms. Mobile phones, multimedia, networks, and enterprise solutions. Strategic: expand mobile voice, drive consumer multimedia.

Life to Go Mobile vision, combines products: basic, expression, classic, premium, fashion, active; functional dimensions of phones, imaging, etntertainment, media, business applications.

Nokia; 1865; from paper to mobile communications through renewal and innovative use of technology. Toilet Paper and Rubber Boots (?!); 139 year history for Nokia. Original Nokia style, around 1987, was pre-Designworks USA. Mobira. Charles Pelly, founder of Designworks/USA. Nokia principle DN elements (?); Friendly designs, blind operation.

in 1995, a "new beginning"; maintained a relationship with designworks, but created an internal team dedicated to consistent design development.
DNA is the information necessary for the organization and functioning of most living cells; the "DNA of the Nokia brand". Nokia sold 50,000 phones in the united states when first starting (1995) - an unknown brand; now, millions per week.
DNA is ease of use, performance, and utility. CMG - Colors Materials Group; not about corporate color, but instead about individual color. Personal reflection. Forecasting accuracy. Understanding trend forecasting; what are possible future communications.

Created a vision to create the Millennia Gallery; establishing vision in virtual department store.

Active category evolution. Fun outside. Serious inside.
growing towards two billion users (!) in 2005. 2003, sold 179 million phones; 3,442,307 per week. 5 phones a second. eek. Interbrand ranks Nokia as the 6th largest brand.

Nokia future vision, digital convergence. moving from voice towards multimedia. Mass volume technology evolution; Experience mapping. Mechanics / Design / UI all equal on a triangle. 100 million camera devices; Nokia became the worlds biggest manufacturer of cameras!

Trend towards collections, understanding style and technology. the world of fashion and the world of design.

What if we embrace precision craft, what if service became worth heralding in high tech, what if products were worth keeping? vision of Nokia in the future; fusion of craft and technology. obsessively crafted. Vertu signature instrument. Luxury, fashion and technology coming together.

Utopian "pocket space" - what is carried in the pocket.

freeform notes:

What does method acting have to do with interaction design?
Bill Mak

Ethnographic related methods to interaction design
Envisioning. Why are we paid? Paid to envision. Practical solutions, creative, and innovative. Paid to live in the future - paid to understand what the fugure is supposed to be. We are the poeple who are supposed to create it. Understand how people use products. A technique to understand people - to understand immersion - is that of personas. Actors are trained to immerse themselves in the "user" - in the person they are supposed to be. What's my motivation and what's their motivation.

A persona - a sketch of a fictional person who represents a segment of your cusotmers. A narrative that describes the flow of a person's day. Attempts to paint a picture, using a person to represent a much larger group. Personas keep yourself focused on your customers throughout the design process.

The rich data from a persona comes from ethnography.

Acting! Genius! Act out how the persona wants to feel when using a product. Character development, and understand whats my/their motivation.

Leave yourself at the door.

Method acting involves immersing yourself in the life of your character by doing what your character has done.

Freeform notes: International Product Development Session

Stefan Andren, Nike Techlab

Brand Design (Cows and Bridges)
Tania Aldous, Whirlpool Brand Studio Manager, Whirlpool Corporation : Brand Design
How Whirlpool is transforming towards a branded company. 75 years old, leader in the $106 billion global industry; #1 in global market share; more than 20 brands globally. Whirlpool has over 60,000 employees. Traditionally, high fixed tooling costs, slow growth, little consumer loyalty, and the standards are centered around cost and quality. a "sea of white"; no differentiation or emotional connection. Quantitized market space. Design as a change agent; "Design is everything to everything" (George Nelson). Brand design becomes increasingly important as a way for consumers to find things that they trust and can understand. Hence the cow; cows are "branded". A flame or torch was used to brand cattle for recognition, quality, trust, and identification => value. A bridge - a means of getting from one place to another; a dynamic, creative, and cross functional represntation. a totality of design. Design as a noun describes the form and the aesthetics; design as a verb is the systematic process. Both are obviously necesary for a brand design.

Brand identification => Great Design means Great People. Create the organization, and the structure of the organization. Design needs to be understood as a strategic business tool. Global Consumer Design indicates an understanding of the various disciplines that make up design.

Process => Discover > Define > Develop > Deliver

Positioning. Thinking/Feeling, Extroverted/Introverted. Understanding who we are and where we want to be, as compared to extending (and overextending) the brand away from the core; focused brands have the obvious advantage.

Benchmarking, and looking outside of the core industry; benchmark outside disciplines.

Consistency of experiences. Every experience makes up the brand; each time the consumer hears about the brand, the message needs to be consistent. Sameness of experiences. Proucts, services, communications, environments.

Strategic toolkits. Elements, Principles, Positioning, Core Values. Particularly important for lines of products that are made up by multiple products. Reduce manufacturing costs, cycle time, leverage parts across products; focuses the three gorups internally on a same plan (plan of sameness).

For example, Kitchenaid. Being introduced into Williams Sonoma; building on other tools, applying form language across brand products. Understnading when products within a brand aren't living up to the standards set for the entire brand. www.lovemarks.com (?)

Brand architecture. Allows for focus; the quadrants have products, the products have meaningful experiences. This is an organiztaional structure, dictating roles and responsibilities acros all aspects of the brand. For instance, Jeep; there are various consumer segments, etc.

3
2
1
A B C

Innovation; invests in company wide innovation. Believes that innovation is not just for a few bright people, but can actually be found within any parts of the organization; that from the wild to mild. Create the love and hate (polarities). For example, the Gladiator garageworks; an organizational system.

Creating dream spaces, places to work towards - the otopian vision. North stars. Future focused, looking outwards. Designers can be dreamers. Ensures that design has the oppourtunity to work on creative products. "In Kitchen" (beautiful!).. exhibits Whirlpools boundary pushing aspects for kitchen design, intending to aspect the emotional aspects of product form.

User Experience. Useful, Usable, Desireable.

Change management. Understanding the path from contact, awareness, understanding, positive perception, implementation, adoption, institutionalization, and internalization. The path from Acceptance => Understanding => Commitment.

Chris Conley, Assistant Professor, IIT, Contextual understanding intergrated product def
Gravity Tank

International Product Development - A Rough Sketch of Relevant Factors.
Challanges of developing international products
Explore how understanding people helps
Outline a reliable working process

15 years in working in the front end of innovation - contextual research; interested in removing the mystery of design and innovation, as well as improvig the reliability of innovative projects.

Innovation. The introduction of something new that becomes widely adopted - a new market success. Comparison - Newton vs. Palm; which is more innovative? Newton was designed, sweet, etc - and didn't sell at all; interaction wasn't understood.

What is an International Product? Designed in one coutnry, for use in another; for use in one country, imported to others; design in one country for use in many countries; by an international team for use in many countries.

What makes it difficult? Understanding the context of another country. Contextual research is difficult. Making the argument for particular ideas. Dealing with differences across ocuntries. Getting feedback about directions. Coordinating among the team.

Fit and Resonance. Fit indicates acceptability within the place in which it will be introduced; Resonance implies that it means something to the people who will be adoptng it. Design is strong, individually based; "I think it should be like this". Doesn't work cross culturally because it doesn't hold the same cultural resonance.

Standards .. Physical environment .. ways of doing .. aesthetics. All issues to address when developing international products.

Understanding context. Design has traditionally been slow in making use of contextual research to inform design; this is true both for functiona and form making. Development of international products and their form make the value explicit.

How do you evangalize (and thus gain budget) for user research in another country?

People / Market and Business / Technology and Design

The goal of understanding context is to inform the design team of the context in which they are playing; to inspire theteam with new meaning from the context; to break down stereotypical understanding and see the category with fresh, valid eyes

We need a new way of working. There is no accepted and reliable way of defining innovative products. Is there a way of working that can more reliably lead to succesful international products?

We turn to the succesful startup:

1. cross disciplinary, really working together
2. Intimate undewrstanding of the context
3. Iterative, analysis and synthesis; almost maniacle about iteration
4. Flexible, adapts idea as they go; end up developing something susbtantially different than the initial idea
5. Constant evaluation and promotion

So why can't big companies do this? .. Uncertainty, ambiguity, over reliance on analysis (as opposed to synthesis), vertical organization, lack of tangible specifications

Integrated Definition. A new business process for the front end of innovation. Facilitates the right way of working.

Understand Context =>
Create Concepts =>
Refine Ideas =>
Validate Directions =>
Deliver Results

All of this needs to occur before development begins (that's why its different)

Alec Bernstein, BMW Designworks, Director, Advanced Communications and Concepts
Composer, electronics
BMW purchased Designworks to learn about global innovation. Believed everyone bought BMW because it was a German car; this doesn't sound very global. 300 designers, 11,600 engineers. Time and Place; Language and Terms; Corporate and Consultant; Product and Trans. "Far away and different". Dealing with time becomes a problem. Different. Cup holders.

Personal bonding overrides all cultural differences.

Freeform notes (eek, not even spellchecked!)

Jack Kyser, "guru of los angelos economy" .. forcasts economic trends in the LA "5 county area". Economy is slowing down on its own; in fact, this applies to Japan, developing asia, latin america, european area; "creativity cannot be offshored". How do you communicate this creativity to business owners? (why would this be necessary - is it really important to pursuade people of the importance of creativity?) .. Creative class needs to communicate what creativity can do.

Luc Plamondon. VP of Cirque Du Soleil (?). zumanity. Packaging must have the "power of attraction". Design of the "jewel box" must be designed before the show has been fully developed. Create an environment that is more "intergrated into your sensory element", so everything from the parking lot to your seat is equally as designed; forget the business of daily life, and instead awaken the imagination. Calls the creation of this state as "contamination", but in a good way (?); intended to create the conditions where the experience provkes our imagination and our imagantive universe (?). The theatre should give the first goose bump :) intangible .. pay close attention to comfort, as the smallest details can become a series of irritants. Five categories to development of the theatre internals:

1. visual comfort.. visual stimulation for the audience member. visual detail must be highly refined.
2. acoustic comfort.. the soundtrack is vital for the audience. the acoustic quality and clarity is the determining factor.
3. your head cannot absorb more than your backside.
4. temperature. not too hot, not too cold; however, much of the stage action takes place around a pool; 88 degrees with 20% humidity. auditorium, however, must be 72-74 degrees for comfort of the audience. difficult to achieve between two airspaces.
5. space or volumn comfort; cubic feet per person.

Dr. Mark Adler, Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena California
Operates rovers on Mars
Life / Climate / Geology / Human
"Follow the water strategy"

Mars exploration rover
"best remote control toy ever". 100% completely functional, as every single inch is precious commodity. Robotic field geologist. Geology is the way we understand the history of mars. History of, a few billion years ago, how they were formed. Six wheels, each about 10" in diameter, and attachde to a suspension system. Allows the rover to drive over items that are as large if not larger than the diameter of the wheel. The wings are solar powered; solar energy is collected and then used / stored over night; Mars is -180 degrees at night, and the power that is stored keeps the rover warm over night. The periscoping head can see 12 colors (as opposed to humans 3?); Rover also has a cutting tool so it can cut through several billion years of built up rock. Wheels are anodized alminium; spirals on the outside, connect the hub to the outside of the week; the spirals actually absorbe lots of the shock in the spiral ribs.

Rover folds, enters into a holder in the shape of a tetrahedreon; this has a self righting feature, and can land on any of its side.

Last night was fun; after an interesting opening presentation of various pomp and poor presentations - including a terrible commedian whose name escapes me (but her three minute rendition of somewhere under the rainbow still lingers painfully in my memory) - we were treated to a thirty minute keynote by Chris Bangle, BMW Group Director of Design. His presentation was passionate and enlightening, and his capabilities of drawing diverse connections between polar, seemingly unrelated domains is excellent. Chris touched on topics of designer hubris (perhaps all too much of it today), form giving (and a distinct lack of originality in vehicle design recently, perhaps even a stagnation of form), and the importance of listening to consumers in an effort to build a brand. Chris also discussed various ways to keep a brand strong yet dynamic, and began hinting at the rejection of the "solid" brand in favor of a leaner, more diverse set of offerings. He hinted at the BMW expanded line of cars, rather than just the 3-5-7 series that had existed in the past, and constantly focused his thoughts around a single, yet highly dynamic image of a woman dancer moving with long, elegant piece of fabric; the woman is caught in tension of a sleek pose, and that tension hints at the potential and capabilties of the form giver.

Needless to say, I left highly energized :)

After the keynote, we enjoyed an open bar of martinis courtesy of Bombay Sapphire, and schmoozed for the rest of the evening.

This morning looks to be equally as interesting, and includes presentations from Jack Kyser, Luc Plamondon, Mark Adler, Elaine Ann (who I think I went to school with?), and Kathleen Brandenburg.

Blogging the IDSA conference :)

After waking up early, I left the hotel and found my way to the convention center; Heather was helping some others set up in preperation for the portfolio reviews which were to follow.

I decided to check on our crates, so I went downstairs to the unloading area. The materials had not yet arrived, but I was able to get a feel for the overall area; it is a large, rather generic space, and I could see how our booth could easily be ignored or be considered obstentatious (?!). The crates, and some students, finally arrived around nine in the morning, and the next five hours were spent trouble shooting and unpacking the materials. In all, the booth looks wonderful; there were no crisis to speak of, although the damn banner did take about four tries to get right. People seem to respond to the booth well, although the main event tonight should really dictate the overall results and feelings about SCAD and IDSA. I've been mistaken for a student nearly a dozen times now, and I'm getting used to it - I may simply say "yes" when next asked if I'm a student or not :)

After setting up the booth, Heather and I went to the Alias Education summit, where representatives from Alias demoed some new materials for us and we had a nice discussion about the needs of education and 3d modeling software.

Now I'm unwinding and getting ready for the evening; I think we have drinks in the gallery, followed by an evening of relative freedom, so perhaps I will get a chance to explore Pasadena.

k.fitz got married :) click to see some purty pictures, but be careful: there are about two hundred of em, and they all preload..