Sessions

Collaborative Genius | Nicholas Paredes, IDSA

We live in the experience economy. Designers are struggling to understand the complexity created by sensors, processors and network connections. Companies struggle to design desirable experiences. Nicholas Paredes says designers alone cannot create these complex experiences. Companies cannot sell irrelevant experiences. Through collaboration and empathy, he shows how organizations can learn to create products that people love.

Designing the Field | Joel Kashuba

As business grows more savvy to the value of great design and Design Thinking, the roles of designers and design firms has changed. 

Opportunities have evolved for the design industry that place us at the spearhead of what's next, influencing at every level of the organizations we serve. To prepare and seize the moment, designers will need to understand the value of their work, empathize with the needs of their audience, and drive visions of the world we wish to create and our future place within it. Joel Kashuba will show us how.

Distal Design—To Crazy Land and Back Again | Jason Tennenhouse

Design principles and methods have a broader application and are more powerful than commonly practiced. Jason Tennenhouse finds that by understanding how to navigate the concentric nature of various fields of design, one can engage multiple disciplines for a more holistic solution, as well as apply design thinking in unconventional fields. He will explore the benefits of varying our distance of abstraction, by analyzing the design of a community co-working space.

Flex Yourself | Richard Gresens, IDSA

So you’re working on a car like the Ford Flex; it’s something you’ve dreamed of doing ever since being a kid, but suddenly there’s a detour with your design ride.

Fusion 360 Workshop | Jeff Smith, IDSA

Please join Jeff Smith, IDSA for a hands-on workshop/introduction to Fusion 360.  This program is the next generation in CAD/CAM Software.  Mac and PC-native local program with cloud-based collaboration and rendering.  Also, learn how Fusion and Sketchbook play together!

How to Break into the Design Industry While Maintaining your Integrity, Pride and Emotional Stability | Michael Kahwaji, IDSA

Michael Kahwaji, IDSA, says getting a job in the design field is becoming exponentially more competitive every year; it can break you down! He will share soft and hard skills needed to put your best foot forward when seeking an internship or full-time employment. Kahwaji will review what works and what doesn’t during your student years and during the job hunting experience.

Whether you’re a student or a professional in the market for a new job, this is a must see presentation. Come for the cold, hard truth of what you’ll need to get your dream job. There won’t be any sugar coating or shoulders to cry on in this workshop, during which professionals are encouraged to join and share their thoughts.

How Where we Live, Will Reshape How we Move | Megan Neese, IDSA

Increasingly, the cars of today are developed for the scenario of commuting and driveway parking—but cities are planning for a very different future. Across the world, we are living in congested, sprawling metropolises where challenges of congestion and pollution are inspiring changes in how we choose to live and therefore how we move.

Megan Neese, IDSA of Nissan Motor Ltd.’s Future Lab finds that in this new era where products are also assumed to be harmonious integrations of software, hardware and service—we imagine a new frontier for the future of mobility and the auto industry as we know it.

Mind to Market: FirstBuild | Mary Beckmann

FirstBuild is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GE Appliances that aims to bring more innovations to the home appliance market. The global co-creation community allows GE engineers to team up with enthusiasts to design, build and sell new appliances.  Its Microfactory in Louisville, KY prototypes and manufacture sellable products in low volume—to find new markets and scale into mass production. Anyone and everyone can come, share ideas, see what we FirstBuild is working on, and develop with FirstBuild. Mary Beckmann will answer the question: Why would a big company like GE do this?

Workshop | Designing For Those In Need

FirstBuild, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GE Appliances, aims to bring more innovations to the home appliance market. At its Kentucky Microfactory—anyone and everyone can come, share ideas, develop projects and check out what's going on.

FirstBuild Community Manager Mary Beckmann will lead a hands-on workshop about the global co-creation community that allows GE engineers to team up with enthusiasts to design, build and sell new appliances. She will take a closer look at social impact design. "We have had a few Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) projects lately," she says. "They are very functional, so I'd like to throw a challenge out of what is the best interaction to open a front-loading washer for someone with disabilities." 

Beckmann is looking forward to "seeing the creativity come to life."

Quiet Power—The Key to Managing Difficult People and Situations | Kate Webster, PhD

Industrial designers often are called on to lead and navigate discussions within multi-disciplinary groups that include management, marketing, engineering and manufacturing specialists. For the most part, these conversations and negotiations go smoothly. However, what happens when they turn stressful or stagnate?

Kate Webster, PhD, finds dealing with difficult personalities and broaching intricate discussions takes skill, tact and confidence. She will provide concrete tools to take control of the situation while managing reactions and navigating problematic interactions with ease. This interactive session will provide skills to find your own Quiet Power to address conflict and communicate effectively in workplace situations, making day-to-day interactions run more smoothly.

By the end of the session you will:

  • Identify four communication styles and how they apply to your work situation
  • Develop effective communication strategies that fit your temperament and personality style

Outline skills that facilitate respect and understanding in workplace interactions

Sketch On! A Workshop | Jeff Smith, IDSA

Sketching is a visual language, capturing ideas on paper, and these days, on a screen. There is a foundation and there are rules to this visual language. Come sketch with Jeff Smith, IDSA, education manager for Autodesk, in a hands-on workshop. He will lead participants through a series of drills followed by the “how” and “why.” Smith has a simple theory—practicing with the right skills, everyone can improve!

The Design of Development: Building a Career in Social Design | Ann-Marie Conrado, IDSA

A new generation of designers is showing an interest in pursuing careers that make a difference while nonprofits, community groups and governmental organizations are more interested than ever in design thinking methods. So how do designers pursue opportunities in social and humanitarian work and forge careers in development?

Ann-Marie Conrado, IDSA, assistant professor in industrial design at the University of Notre Dame, will explore what it means to build a disruptive career and walk a different path in life.

The Future of Work is Learning Agility | Heather McGowan

We have been disrupted. The current rapid cycles of accelerated change require we continually update our mental maps, contextual references, and overall cognitive operating system. Education led to being educated. We were once educated—a linear path to expertise—for known career trajectories. Today we must develop learning agility. Learning is continuous and infinite. Design is a constant pursuit of discovery and, as such, uniquely suited for such a new paradigm. Design lives in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) with a sharp focus on honing the uniquely human skills that cannot be automated. Heather McGowan's talk will explain why there has never been a more important time for design, both the design of new artifacts as contextual references morph and new mental models merge as well as the design of interventions, systems, processes, business models, and experiences.

UX and the ID-IOT | Paul Hatch

For many years, industrial designers seemed to be the sole defender of the user and all that is good, keeping engineers and marketers away from the dark side. Meanwhile, there was a bigger battle raging between user interaction designers and developers. It ended with a new peace treaty which called User Experience. UX puts the user squarely in the center of all decisions, prioritized above other debates on cost, timing and shelf appeal.

Traditional industrial designers may frown at UX as being “what we were doing all along.” Maybe so, but in UX the whole team is on the side of user, and not just us. Paul Hatch, IDSA’s presentation will explain how to utilize this newfound power, and how this can help us with our profession’s next mission—putting ID back into IOT!