jamin.org

In case you are acronym challenged, that’s Interaction Design from an Industrial Design Point of View. What I’m talking about is the recently Coroflot post Interaction Designers, and How They Got that Way, which takes a few snarky jabs the profession. For example:

“Anyone who’s been following the creative job market at any point in the last few years is probably aware of the feeding frenzy currently going on, as companies large and small seek interaction designers to do…well…whatever it is that they do.”

I read this as more funny than offensive, because to a certain extent, it is difficult to describe exactly what an interaction designer does. Design for human behavior, improve the human condition, and facilitate connections between people are very difficult things to point to.

“David Malouf, the IxDA’s vice president, identified the one crucial skill all Interaction Designers must have as “prototyping.” When pressed for greater specificity, none was to be found, and this in the end may be what makes IxD so useful. It is a continually self-evaluating field, but one content to let the process of asking be sufficient. Similarly, it is a field unwilling to cling to any particular tool, knowing that the selection of the right tool–even if it must be learned from scratch–is in fact the most important step.”

Definitely a funny comment from the IxD graduate student perspective. Learn tools from scratch is now second nature.

But in addition to tools, I would also add that interaction designers are technology and problem domain agnostic. We are useful all over the place, and not, as the articles suggests, indispensable.

Candle Holders

So here is a shot of the candle holders I made during week two of the design fundamentals course.

I don’t have any tea lights at the moment, so I couldn’t light them up.

Again, these are made out of paper and were required to fold flat so that they could fit in an envelope. They also needed to be easy to assemble.

Mine pop open, so they assemble in about five seconds. You can also flip them upside down to get a different shape.

A little past midnight Thursday I had a breakthrough with my paper candle holder design thanks to my resistance to using tabs and finding inspiration in an upright paper grocery bag in the corner of my kitchen. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWait, that folds flat,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I realized (a requirement).

The final design was simple, but elegant, and could go from flat to three-dimensional in about five seconds. I also devised measurements and tools so I could produce them quickly (not a requirement). So I made a few, which are now in the hands of Steve, who was last seen taking photos of our lit products.

I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not sure what Steve is going to do with the photos, but I will take a picture of mine when I get them back and post it here.

It was interesting to see all of the designs together. As a class, we had made noticeable progress since our first attempts. I was very impressed at the diversity and ingenuity of all the designs.

What I Learned

Despite all the nuggets of wisdom that Steve proffered, I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t take many notes since my hands were often occupied with paper, scissors, tape, and glue. Though I will try to summarize some noteworthy points:

• To understand what the material you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re designing with can do, you must work with it directly. Imagining how the design will work or creating a sketch is useless if it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s not possible for the material to do what you want it to do.
• The more you work with the material, the more likely you will improve your design. Each iteration yields lessons learned and improvement.
• Instructions are a crutch. Why rely on directions and customer support if you can create a product that works without them? Or: Why create products that require directions and customer support?
• Designers are the people behind the curtain. That?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s what we are going to become. Most designs are not created by the companies that use them.

Happy Hours

Both to celebrate the end of our week and to introduce my out-of-town peers to Pittsburgh, many of us headed over to Mad Mex for margaritas, beer, and food. We got there around 3 p.m., and I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get home until 12:30 p.m., which is why I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t post this yesterday.

Paper is pretty neat stuff, once you start to mess with it. And that’s exactly what I’m doing, and have done for a lot of today, mess about with paper.

I’m looking to use some translucent paper that’s a bit like plastic for my candle holder, which has been slow in coming. But I keep telling myself the learning is more important than the final product.

Of course, another part of me says my final product should be better than everyone elses. So it’s back to work for me.

Ever try to make a cube out of paper? It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s hard. Add requirements like it must have three-inch sides, fit flat and disassembled in an enveloped, someone should be able to assemble it easily, and the cube should stay intact after assembly, and you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re talking hours of frustration.

That?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s what we did today. We made cubes (without help from the Internet).

Our instructor, Steve, got this idea in the middle of the night last night. He wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t sure if we would go for it for fear that we would think it beneath us. At the end of class he was glad we did it because it taught us something and he learned that we don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t have a clue. He said it was a good thing for him to know.

If he wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t so funny and tactful, I might have found that insulting. Instead, I laughed. We all did. After all, he was speaking the truth.

Steve is the kind of guy you can listen to for hours without ever being bored and most likely with a constant smirk on your face. And he?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s a great teacher because he?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s full of insight but at the same time seems like he?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s learning right along with you, like he doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t know any more than you, or have any of the answers.

Despite the cube-making tangent, we are going forward with creating candle holders from paper that will pack into a flat 9?¢‚Ǩ¬ùx12?¢‚Ǩ¬ù envelope. While the inspiration for the design is supposed to be representative of an industrial design firm of our choice, we are not to make an advertisement, but something of beauty. Honestly, I am very skeptical of my ability to accomplish this. My cube was not beautiful, and it barely functioned.

Orikaso Won’t Make You Sexy

I might have had an easier time creating my cube if I had ordered delivery pizza more often in my life, or perhaps analyzed any flat cardboard box that can be turned into a three-dimensional object that can hold stuff.

One really nifty product that relies on clever folds and tabs is the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìsuperlight, ultracompact, easyclean, unbreakable?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Orikaso fold flat tableware. From their web site:

Buy a product, buy a life! Our product won?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t make you younger, fitter, or more attractive to the opposite sex. Sorry!

The Orikaso products consist of a polypropylene plate, bowl, and mug that fold completely flat and can be assembled for use and disassembled for packing. Inspired by the cube dilemma and Steve?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s enthusiasm, I purchased a solo set tonight.

When I got it home, I immediately tried putting the tableware together. The plate took me about seven minutes to figure out. And I got pretty frustrated during the process because I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t think the instructions were very good. But after I got it together, I was rewarded with amazement. I put together the mug next, which took less time, and was even more amazed by the result. Cool, cool stuff.

I plan to bring the set into class tomorrow. But my ultimate motivation is to perhaps learn something from the ingenuity of the products that I can bring to my candle holder design. But I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m skeptical I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ll pull it off.

What I didn’t say yesterday was that we had to choose an industrial design firm for our one-page write-up. I looked at a half dozen sites before deciding. The determining factors for the company I chose were the site didn’t totally suck, and they had photos of the products and text I could grab for quotes.

Unbelievably, one of the sites I looked at only had a front page that consisted of one image and no content, and another had multiple pages but was still built as all imagines. (Turn off the images, and poof.) It amazes me that these arguably top-notch design firms care so little—or perhaps understand so little—the impact their web sites have on their reputation, and how ineffective their sites actually are.

I’m not saying industrial designer should understand web design. But this is an example of a larger observation. The more sites I look at and clients I work with the more I see a ubiquitous lack of understanding of how and why you should create an effective web presence. And this means there is either a huge opportunity for web design firms or gigantic void (can you have a small void?) in the current ability of web design firms to help companies build effective web sites.

Making Candle Holders

Our objective in choosing a industrial design firm is to create a tea light candle holder from paper that can be mailed in a flat 9″x12″ envelope and represents the spirit of the firm.

Yes, it does sound like a fire hazard. But we created tons of prototypes today and put tea lights in all of them, and none caught on fire. Fun project. Of course, when isn’t playing with fire in a classroom fun?

I had a pretty full day. CMU classes from 9 a.m. until about 3 p.m. Then I had a initial strategy meeting with a new client. Then a lot of post meeting discussion. And now I’m sitting down to do some homework that I foresee taking me into the early hours.

This week we’re being introduced to industrial design by Stephen Stadelmeier. My homework assignment is to choose a design firm from the Association of Professional Design Firms and write a one-page profile of the firm. It shouldn’t take long once I pick a firm. But first I need to pick one. And for some reason I’m procrastinating by blogging.

I’m pretty tired, so that might be a reason. And blogging doesn’t take too much brain power (though this is the second revision of this post). At any rate, it’s probably foreshadowing of what’s to come over the next two years. And it’s made me consider whether I’d rather work late until the night or wake up early to complete a project.

I prefer staying up late than getting up early. At least you’re gauranteed enough time and you can rest assured that it’s complete, rather than worried about finishing in the morning.

What’s your preference?