DESIGNING *for humans

Motion-Tracking for Design Research

Business Week's cover story discusses Motion-Tracking Technologies that are utilized for design, entertainment. safety and research.  Examples including monitoring blinking patterns to detect and manage driver drowsiness (see inset photo), and using hand-gestures to manipulate user interfaces.  The accompanying slide show provides illustrations of various other motion-tracking technologies and applications, include eye tracking and virtual surgery.

User-Driven Innovation

Yesterday's NY Times business section (free registration required) included a brief article titled:  How to Improve It? Ask Those Who Use It.  The article discussed the rising use of user-driven innovation, where companies are receiving input from customers on the design and customization of their products. 

Unlike user-centered design which incorporates end-user input into a company's internal design process, user-driven innovation is externally motivated.  For example, a company may adapt a customization made by a current product user into the next version of its product. 

The article discusses how this has happened for a particular medical device manufacturer, and touches on the logistical and legal challenges to this approach.  For additional information, the article refers to Eric Von Hippel's Democratizing Innovation, which can be downloaded as a PDF.

Morae 2 Launch

Techsmith is launching the latest version of its usability testing and video editing software, Morae.  Among other enhancements, the new version, Morae 2, will include built-in analysis and survey features - but the actual definition and scope of these is not clear at this point.

I've been using Morae for a couple of years and find it to be very effective for screen-based usability testing, but also as a quick way to record and edit interviews and observations.  I've even used it for vehicle-based usability testing of a handheld device.

Will post a review in the near future.

-Rob Tannen

2007 IDSA Northeast District Conference

The list of speakers for the upcoming conference at RISD has been made available.  Inside sources indicate that at least two of the topics will be related to Human Factors/Design research: 

• Craig Vogel will be discussing virtual reality and its impact on experience and design.
• Rob Tannen will be presenting Eye Tracking for Product Design Research,
  discussing the methods and technologies for evaluating visual perception
  of prototypes and products.

Detailed scheduling information is still pending.

The Plasticity of Products and The Products of Plasticity

A couple of recent Core77 articles of interest to the design research crowd - one about the flexible and unexpected ways that people utilize products in everyday life, and the other about the flexible material that goes into making so many everyday products:

• Parallel Universes: Making Do and Getting By + Thoughtless Acts  - Kevin Henry discusses Jane Fulton Suri's Thoughtless Acts and Richard Wentworth's Making Do and Getting By - both photographic examples of how people take advantage of the (often) unintended behaviors afforded by designed objects.  For example, using a bottle cap as an ashtray or a pencil as a lock.  Such examples not only illustrate human ingenuity with found objects, but the limitations and opportunities for intentional design.
• Not Created Equal:A Long, (Loving) Plastics Primer - Carl Alviani provides a brief history and taxonomy of popular plastics used in modern products.  As someone who entered product design from the research world, and not an expert on materials and engineering, this is very valuable background.

Upcoming HF and ID Healthcare Conference

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is co-chairing the upcoming conference - Living Rooms: Human Factors and Industrial Design Contributions to the Home as a Health Care Venue.

More detailed information and registration is forthcoming.  As of now, the goals of the conference include:

• to facilitate interaction between human factors researchers/designers and industrial designers, and encourage them to explore further the potential synergism in their collaboration, and
• to raise attendees' awareness regarding the impending crisis in home health care and the role they can play in designing better home-based health care systems.

IDSA 2007 District Conferences

There's finally some information available regarding the upcoming district conferences on the IDSA site.  As of now, only the Mideast District conference in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Midwest District conference in Kohler, Wisconsin provide detail via working web sites.  More information to come...

IDSA Boston: Speaking of Research

Perhaps too little, too late - as in too little information and too late to post, but IDSA Boston is hosting a panel on design research this Thursday evening, March 8 (Today!).  Will post any information about the panel as a follow-up if it becomes available.

Registration Here

Host:	IDSA Boston
Location:	Wentworth Institute of Technology 550 Parker Street, Bldg. 22, Boston, MA View Map
When:	Thursday, March 8, 7:00pm
Phone:	917-836-3890
Design Research, Business Strategy & Beyond. WHAT DOES DESIGN RESEARCH MEAN TO YOU? Help answer this question and learn from a panel of research experts as they present their current work and explore the impact of design research on product development, business strategy, and more. Speakers include: Mary-Lou Tierney - Farm Design Bill Hartman - Essential Design Beth Loring - Bently College Susan Walters - Gillette Leisbeth Wenzel - Insight PD

An Ethnography Primer

For those new to ethnography, or looking for a simple way to describe it to others, the AIGA and Cheskin have put together an ethnography primer.  The visual appealing PDF has limited content, but focuses on the value, basic steps, applications and terminology of ethnographic research to support design.  Perhaps most useful is the brief descriptions of the respective activities of the ethnographer and the designer during each step of the research process.

Check it out, and while you're there, explore AIGA's redesigned site.