designBytes 8.17.09

8.17.2009
Welcome to designBytes, the electronic newsletter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). Here's the latest design and design-related news we've collected from around the web.

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• Things Are Getting Better: Really? They are...if 324 of you are to be believed. According to AIGA’s most recent Design Leaders Confidence Index, the confidence of design leaders in the design economy (following 2Q 2009) is up for the second consecutive quarter. What’s more, that confidence up from 67% to 88%. Here’s hoping they—rather, you—are correct. Full details on this report are available via AIGA’s site: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/news-080709.

 

• A More Perfect Union?: Co-design, or customization, is not a new concept. It’s been around for ages in all sorts of forms in all manner of places. Where it meets with the evolving capabilities of rapid manufacturing processes, Alice Rawsthorn informed us, could be the point at which users and designers work together to improve the usability of certain products. Or...maybe not. Jury’s still way out on this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/fashion/17iht-DESIGN17.html?hpw.

   

  

• Show Your Stuff: Next month, at IDSA’s International Conference in Miami, we’ll host the First Annual Designers’ Art Auction on Thursday, Sept. 24. It will be your chance to contribute your finest work to benefit undergraduate ID education through the Design Foundation. Track down that moment of brilliance you had years ago that never saw the light of day...or, dust off one of those incredible flashes of insight that you’ve never shared. Check out the Call for Entries for details: /ProjectInfusion/PDFs/IDSA-09_Designers-Auction.pdf.

 

• It Wasn’t Design, It Was the Fame: When stories of famous designers are told, argued Teague’s John Barratt, IDSA, they tend to promote the popularity of the people doing the design work rather than celebrate the complexity of the work being done. It’s a sad imbalance, he told us in one of his posts last week to Fast Company’s design blog compendium: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/john-barratt/design-day/balance-anyone.

 

• NIMBY, Not Even Frank Lloyd Wright: In 1940, Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a bold way to build up what was then the undeveloped Temple Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington DC. The project—whose towers were more than double the District’s height limit—was scuttled by the zoning board and stands as one of the 20th century’s most famous unbuilt projects. How would a similar design fare today? The current director of DC’s Office of Planning thinks it could work—with some modifications. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081304132.html.

 

• Remembering Les Paul: As icons of music mourned the passing of the original guitar hero last week, the rest of the world re-visited the story of how the man many call “the father of modern music” found zero and designed the product heard ‘round the world. This piece from the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s archives explores Les Paul’s legacy: http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2008/11/story_of_his_life_time_and_aga.html.

 

• How to Build a Human Synthesizer: A collaboration between the Royal College of Art and musician Calvin Harris has yielded a participatory synthesizer system that may or may not compare with Les Paul’s innovation, but it is a pretty cool application of current sound-making technologies. The second of the two videos posted here provides an explanation of how the paint, the people and the ‘puters all interact. (It is work-safe.) http://www.switched.com/2009/08/13/humanthesizer-turns-half-naked-women-into-musical-instrument/.

 

• Just Say No: Georgia Tech is currently planning to eliminate the undergraduate degrees in industrial design, building construction and architecture in favor of a generic BS in Design. A generic degree would be detrimental to the individual programs and their reputations. A move in this direction could also have significant negative implications for ID programs across the country. Design educators and professionals from across the US and Asia have voiced extreme concern endorsing a petition against the proposed changes. You can help save the integrity of Georgia Tech’s ID program, one of the oldest in the US, by joining those who already have signed the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/No-BS-in-Design.

 

• Separating Sticky Ideas from Cold Spaghetti: During the average ideation session, bowls and bowls of spaghetti—ideas, concepts, etc—are thrown against the wall. Every idea is...(how can we put this?)...not good. Some stick. Others slide to the floor forming a pile of discarded, cold spaghetti. How can a company separate the sticky ideas from the ones that ought to slide away? Whirlpool has figured it out. This BusinessWeek story opens the lid on their processes: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2009/id2009083_452757.htm.

 

• Designing Better Libraries: In the greater London area, IDEO has been hired to help rethink and redesign the library experience for residents of Camden. That project has sparked a mildly controversial dialogue about the job of the librarian and expectations for the future library experience. If we really are to apply design thinking to the concept of a library, we would probably have to stretch our imaginations to help a library deliver a WoW experience. But it could be done. This blogger outlines how: http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/2009/08/13/libraries-can-learn-from-wow-providers/.

   

  

• The Happy Fail Whale: On Aug. 6, a massive cyber-attack took down Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and even Google for an extended portion of that Thursday. While the Twitter-verse was less than pleased about the attack, few seemed to be outraged—or even surprised--that the site went down. How could that be? The story of the beloved Twitter Fail Whale offers insight into how user expectations can be imbued with a high degree of empathy. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17578-innovation-why-dont-users-mind-when-twitter-breaks.html.

 

• Thar Be Monsters: Have you ever used a product that satisfied 90% of your expectations, but had a very prominent, confusingly tangential component to it that muddied your user experience or ruined it altogether? A game designer ran into that problem and he shows us there’s a lesson all designers may draw from regarding product expectations and how to effectively teach consumers to use the things you design. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24765.

 

• What's Happening This Week(s)?:
  
  • Aug. 18: Futur(s) 9: PeclersParis Long Term Trend Immersion (San Francisco)
  • Aug. 19: Center City Sips (Philadelphia)
  • Aug. 19: Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting (Chicago)
  • Aug. 20: Northern Engraving Manufacturing Tour (Wisconsin)
  • Aug. 20 + 22: DXR at Mint Museum (Charlotte)
  • Aug. 25: Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight (Kansas City)
  • Aug. 27: IDSA Designer Spotlight: Bruce Bradtmiller (Online)
  • Aug. 27: Futur(s)9 with PeclersParis (NYC)
  • Aug. 27: Designers Accord Townhall Meeting (Charlotte)
  • Aug. 27: IDSA and HFES Joint Event at HumanCentric (Carolinas)
  • Aug. 31: Design Lecture Series: Andy Spade (San Francisco)

  For more info, visit the Events Page at /events.htm. To include your upcoming event, please email it to designBytes@idsa.org.

 

• POLL: Visit the buzz at /buzz.htm and answer today's question: "How would you rate your confidence in the design economy right now?

designBytes is a service of IDSA. If you have any news for dB email designBytes@idsa.org

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is committed to advancing the profession of industrial design through education, information, community and advocacy.