Designing The Future of Things & Experiences

title slideDesigning the Future of Things and Experiences

University of Kansas

Think & Make

Michael Eckersley, PhDMarch 2012

© HumanCentered 2004, All Rights Reserved

about me

about us

OUR WORK INVOLVES IMPACTS

contextual human research brand brand equity

design planning products & services consumer experience & behavior

strategic design planning architecture & engineering systems behaviors

visualization / simulation management systems business performance

what we do

about you

art school

design school

Marc Newson

an art school designer

“Ultimately, my job as a designer is to be able to look into the future”.

“I grew up in a generation...when they landed on the moon. I can’t deny that that was massive event in my life. All of my dreams were about the future. What I want to do is to be able to have things that don’t exist. Things that you can’t go out and buy.

Things that irritate you, anger – or dissatisfaction, at the very least – play such an important role in motivating what we do as designers.”

“My job is about what is going to happen, not what has happened.”

Duchamp, Baldessari

Encouraged exploration and discovery, a way of looking at

problems with fresh eyes, without the burden of conventional ways

of dealing with them.

(business & innovation)

the form

the idea

the system

the people• beware the designer’s

ego

multiple points of view

critical, independent thinking

iterative problem-solving

cultivated imagination

“Art school: the last resort of

malingerers and bluffers, and

those who don’t want to work.”

“Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at

changing existing situations into preferred ones.”

–Herbert Simon

so what’s design?

productsservicesbrands

communicationssystems

experiencesetc.

conceivedprogrammed

organizeddeveloped

builtcrafted

engineeredfashioned

etc.

functionalityreliability

beautyelegance

profitabilityefficiencyviability

etc.

so what’s design?

“Design is a complex problem solving process whereby artifacts

are structured to attain goals”–Herbert Simon

so what’s all the fuss about design?

“Design is not incidental to modern

economies, but integral; not part of

success but at the heart of success; and not a sideshow, but the centrepiece.”

Gordon BrownUK, Prime Minister

In most people's vocabularies, design

means veneer. It's interior decorating.

It's the fabric of the curtains of the

sofa. But to me, nothing could be

further from the meaning of design.

Design is the fundamental soul of a

human-made creation that ends up

expressing itself in successive outer

layers of the product or service.

– Steve Jobs

"Design is only secondarily

about pretty lumpy objects

and primarily about a whole approach to doing business,

serving customers, and

providing value."

"Design... has become

central to enterprise

strategy."

–Tom Peters

Design at the level of

strategy, policy and

mission

Design at the level of

tactics, products,

services, processes

Design at the level of

operations, tangibles

and touch

what form(s) should these things take?

what value offerings should we develop?

what subjects and opportunities should we pursue?

problem scope

analytic

creative

material conceptual

ubiquitousdesign

commercialchannels

software

consumerproducts

consumer/ businessservices

lighting systems

smart, adaptivesystems

computingsystems

weaponssystems

business models

screen/stageplays

scents

music

fine art

entertainment

film/mediaproductions

brandexpressions

consumerexperiencesfashions

guidedtransformations

play/relaxationenlightenment

games

medical/surgicaldevices

pharmaceuticals

moleculardevices

bioengineeredtissues

industrialprocesses

knowledge/skillenablers

publications

gm seeds

materials

foodscommunity

organizationsnetworktechnologies

aircraft

environmentsmarketingcommunications

vehicles

recombinant systemstransportbiomolecular machinesmicrobes, moleculesbiopharmsprogrammable materials, matterartificual organs, tissuesmicroorganisms

•

designer, don’t be

parochial

sound great?

sound great?what’s not so great?

We live in a time of fertile change and tremendous anxiety…

AmbiguityComplexity

Volatility

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

knowing how to engineer virtual

anything

innovation gap

not knowing what to make that would be desirable to people & viable

to businessPatrick Whitney, IIT

business has a problem with the future

OUR WORK

Now

Q2-2011

Next

Q2-2012

Soon

Q3-2013

Later

Q1-2014

Who knows?

Q1-2015

offering offering offering offeringoffering offering

design helps here

1. understandingusers and the context

of the problem

4. prototyping the innovations

3. creating concepts that build experiences

for users and economic value for

the company

2. identifying patterns and reframing the

problem

OUR WORK

Now

Q2-2011

Next

Q2-2012

Soon

Q3-2013

Later

Q1-2014

Who knows?

Q1-2015

offering offering offering offeringoffering offering

–Patrick Whitney, ID, IIT

design business

“There is a huge river of misunderstanding between the design world and the business world. You have to start building a bridge between them.”

“What designers need to learn–and this is the most important thing– is the language of the business world. Only by learning that language can you effectively voice the arguments for design.”

Peter Gorb, London Business School, 1993

www.vimeo.com/5750600

Patrick Whitney on the value of abstracting design problems

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

“Informational displays/systems and the future of the driving

experience”

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

MAKEUNDERSTAND

REALIZE

articulate vision/intent

research & discovery

Knowledge > Insights > Ideas

“Informational displays/systems and the future of the driving experience”

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

http://vimeo.com/16227154

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8biQ8dfC_U&list=PL93019A1526FC1BE6&inde

x=36&feature=plpp_video

© HumanCentered 2007, All Rights Reserved

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvZTSnT5Qus&list=PL93019A1526FC1BE

6&index=37&feature=plpp_video

title slide

Thanks!

University of Kansas

Think & Make

Michael Eckersley, PhDMarch 2012

Designing the Future of Things and Experiences