DESIGNING *for humans

IDSA 2007 Conference Research Project

If you're an IDSA member, you must have heard by now, but if not, the 2007 IDSA/Icisd World Design Conference (Connecting07) will take place in San Francisco, CA from October 17-20.

I'll be coordinating an effort to evaluate the conference from a service design perspective and envision the future conference experience.  And I'm looking for your help - we need designers and researchers  who can spend a bit of their time at the conference documenting their experiences.  You don't need to be an expert - students and first-time conference attendees are welcome.  If you are registered, or even just planning to attend, and would be interested in getting involved, please contact Rob Tannen, vice-chair of the IDSA Human Factors section via email: [email protected]

2007 EPIC Conference Preview

A quick note: A partial program for EPIC, the " third international Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference, to be held October 3-6, 2007 in Keystone, Colorado, USA", is available online.  Unfortunately the site requires a lot of back-and-forth clicking to drill down to individual detail sessions.

2007 HFES Conference Preview

The 2007 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society conference will be in Baltimore, Maryland from October 1 - 5.  You can get basic information about the conference here:

http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESMeetings/07AMregistration.html

There are several presentations that fall under the Product Design Technical Group, including the sixth annual User Centered Design Award.  The easiest way to browse information about these sessions is to follow the link below, then select "Product Design" under the technical group selection:

http://submissions.miracd.com/hfes2007/Itinerary/SearchHome.asp

But don't limit yourself to just those presentations that fall under Product Design.  There are a number of relevant presentations and posters in areas such as aging, healthcare, industrial ergonomics, and safety, to name a few.

IIT Design Research Conference for 2007

The conference formerly known as "About, With & For" is now appropriately renamed as the Design Research Conference.

From the conference coordinators:

"Please join the IIT Institute of Design Friday, September 21 - Saturday, September 22, 2007, for our sixth annual Design Research Conference (formerly: 'about, with & for'). We are delighted to announce that the new home of the conference will be Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, a wonderfully appropriate venue for the engaging nature of the work presented.

The Institute of Design has long been a visionary in driving the advancement of user-centered design practice. This conference will provide a forum to feature the applied design research in some of the world?s most forward-thinking corporations and academic institutions. It will emphasize the importance industry and academia share in generating value and advancing the role design research plays in the development of future generations of products and services. A compelling facet of our new direction is to share insight about challenges to implementation within organizations.

Early registration opens May 17th. We will begin to announce our speakers in about two weeks."

For more information visit: http://www.id.iit.edu/events/drc/2007/

FYI - The IDSA Human Factors web log covered last year's conference here and here.

Eye Tracking For Product Design Research

As a follow-up to the research presentations at the IDSA Northeast District conference, I am posting a PDF version of the slide sets related to my presentation on Eye Tracking: 

Download tannen_eye_tracking_for_product_design.pdf (PDF presentation)

Download audio_panel.avi  (example video, AVI format)

Sample of  other  information sources about eye tracking:

Electronic Ink Eye Tracking Information (basic description and examples)

Rochester Institute of Technology - Visual Perception Lab (mobile eye tracker)

Research on Mobile Phone Design Preference

- 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.

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

Call for Human Factors Speakers and Topics - IDSA 2007

IDSA's Human Factors professional interest section is soliciting input for next year's joint IDSA/ICISD conference in San Francisco.

We're asking for your suggestions on human factors-related speakers and topics that you'd like to hear about at the conference.

Please link to this brief form for submitting your suggestions: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=145049035E10737

Thanks for your help, and feel free to forward this link to anyone who might be interested.

Human Factors Product Design Award

Two medical devices are the winners of the 2006 User-Centered Product Design Award. Submitted entries are judged in terms of application of Human Factors process and the effectiveness of the resulting design.  There was actually a tie this year between two medical devices:

http://www.hfes.org/web/DetailNews.aspx?Id=116

The winning devices are the Medtronic Straightshot M4^TM Microdebrider and Hospira's Symbiq™ Infusion System. Contributing to the winning designs were Metaphase Design Group (Straightshot M4 Microdebrider) and HumanCentric Technologies, Inc. (Symbiq Infusion System).

As a committee judge I can tell you that the overall quality of entries has increased over the years, a sign that HF and user-centered design has a growing presence in industry.

-Rob Tannen

World Usability Day - 2006

The second annual World Usability Day will take place at various locations around the world on Tuesday, November 14th.  Local events will include presentations, demonstrations, exhibits, etc focused on awareness of usability.  There will also be events accessible online.

For more information:http://www.worldusabilityday.org/

Interview from about, with & for conference

Following-on from the preceding post, here is an interview with Michael Flanagan (audio file) regarding his presentation on hybrid research tools.  The interview provides some depth on the workshop that Flanagan presented at the conference on Friday.

about, with & for conference (Chicago)

Sorry about this being last minute - the about, with and for conference is currently taking place in Chicago (October 6-7):

"about, with & for is a collaborative forum hosted by the Institute of Design to discuss emerging topics, methods and issues in design research"

The conference includes a workshop by Michael Flanagan of Bressler Group on creating hybrid user/design research tools and a presentation by Stephen Wilcox, PhD, IDSA on pairing information graphics with ethnographic research.

Presentation on Technology for User Research (NYC)

Rob Tannen, PhD, IDSA, will deliver a presentation on the state of user research technology.  The presentation is Tuesday, October 17th @630PM, and is hosted by the New York City Chapter of the Usability Professional's Association (UPA).

The presentation will cover the following topics:

• The goals and limitations of current user research technologies
• Overview of some of the latest user research tools (e.g. remote testing, eye tracking, digital ethnography)
• Criteria for evaluating user research technology
• Discussion of emerging technology trends (e.g. ubiquitous computing, product integration) and their impact on user research capabilities

For more information on the event and required registration, see the New York City UPA site.

IDSA Conference - Sound Quality and Noise Presentation

Attached is David Bowen's presentation on sound quality from the IDSA national conference session on Sound in Product Design. 

Download SoundInProductDesign.pdf

You may contact David at [email protected]

IDSA Conference - Bats in Austin

For those of you who weren't able to join us in Austin, you also missed the opportunity to see the daily dusk-time ritual of about a million bats flying out from a city bridge overpass into the night.  Apologies for the poor camera phone quality, 

You can follow the arc of the bats from the lower right of the photo, counter-clockwise up towards the center of the photo.

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Ergonomics Expo in November

IDSA and Human Factors will be represented at the National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition, which takes place Nov. 28- Dec 1 in Las Vegas, Nevada:

• Stephen Wilcox, PhD, FIDSA, chair of the IDSA Human Factors section, will be offering a course on Where Human Factors is Today in Product Development
  
• Ronald Kemnitzer, FIDSA, and current president of the IDSA, will be offering a course on Humanizing Human Factors for the Aging Population
  
• Mark Dziersk, IDSA, executive editor of IDSA's Innovation Magazine will be presenting Ergonomics & the “Wow” Factor in Product Design
  
• Bill Moggridge, co-founder of IDEO, will be discussing - "What Do They Want?" Integrating Ergonomics for Successful Design Innovation

Human Factors at 2006 IDSA Conference

The detailed schedule for the 2006 National IDSA Conference in Austin has been posted.  Here are the highlights and relevant topics for those with an interest in Human Factors.  Monday definitely seems to be the day for user/design research topics:

Monday, September 18th -

• 10:00 am-12:00 pm
  Live General Session: "The Human Element"
  
  Presenters:
  Stephen Wilcox, PhD, FIDSA, Principal, Design Science (Live Session "Catalyst")
  William (Bill) Green, emeritus professor, University of Canberra
  Jamer Hunt, director, Graduate Program in Industrial Design, The University of the Arts
  Bill Moggridge, IDSA, co-founder, IDEO
  Maureen Thurston-Chartraw, IDSA, Access International

• 2:00-3:00 pm
  Touch. Smell. Hear. See. Taste. Feel. Dream. (This is a hands-on session; participation is limited to 60.)
  
  The goal of product innovation is to develop a unique offering that makes an emotional connection with the consumer. Participatory design research using multi-sensory stimuli offers one means of achieving this goal. A product experience is multi-sensory; design research should be multi-sensory, too.  An engaging "hands-on" creative activity to express an ideal experience using a multi-sensory toolkit will allow you to experience first-hand the process of building and expressing an ideal experience.
  
  Presenters:
  Justine Carleton, design researcher, Lextant
  Joshua Norman, industrial designer, Procter & Gamble
  Jooyoung Oh, design researcher, Lextant

• 3:00-4:00 pm
  Some Principles for the Design of Sound in Product Design (Human Factors Section)
  
  Industrial design focuses primarily on the visual and tactile aspects of products. Designers typically have little training regarding the auditory characteristics of product design, but sound can be an important attribute to communicate brand and support usability and safety. The session will cover: background regarding the physics of sound and sound production; principles regarding the perception of sound; examples of notable uses of sound in products; tools and methods for researching and incorporating sound into products; overview of the principles of alarm design; a variety of actual auditory demonstrations and hands-on experience with sound-generating devices.
  
  Presenters:
  David Bowen, Senior Consultant, Acentech Inc., RH Lyon Div.
  Rob Tannen, PhD, IDSA, director of human factors, Electronic Ink
  Stephen Wilcox, PhD, FIDSA, principal, Design Science

• 4:30-5:30 pm
  THE NAKED INTERFACE: Liberating Brain, Body and Digital Interactions
  
  In many senses, physical objects are becoming more important. In an immediate way, they can help us define new systems of relationships with digital information. This presentation will examine how perceptions and gestures formed through our experiences with physical products can effectively bring liberty to the relationship between brain, body and digital media interface.
  
  Presenter:
  Luke Williams, associate creative director, frog design, inc.

• 4:30-5:30 pm
  Universal Design Boot Camp (Universal Design and Human Factors Sections)
  
  A summary of the business case for universal design, including design that puts non-disabled people at risk at work and at home; the growing elderly population facing "dependence by design"; the economic costs of "exclusion by design"; business examples of successful universal design; tours and demos of internet resources for inclusive/universal design; how to include seniors and people with disabilities in participatory design; and hands-on demonstrations of tools and techniques for helping colleagues and clients “get it” (e.g., empathic exercises such as Ford’s Third Age Suit).
  
  Presenters:
  James Mueller, IDSA, principal, J.L. Mueller, Inc. and Chair, Universal Design Section
  William (Bill) Green, emeritus professor, University of Canberra
  Vicki Haberman, PhD candidate, Georgia Tech\

And on Wednesday the 20th:

• 10:00 am-12:00 pm
  Live General Session: "The Design Element"
  
  Presenters:
  Uday Dandavate, IDSA, principal, Sonic Rim (Live Session "Catalyst")
  Lorraine Justice, PhD, FIDSA, Swire Chair & Head, School of Design,
    Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  Bruce Nussbaum, H/IDSA, assistant managing editor, BusinessWeek
  Klaus Krippendorff, professor of communication, Annenberg School for Communication,
    University of Pennsylvania
  M.P. Ranjan, senior faculty member, National Institute of Design
  Anne Kirah, senior design anthropologist, MSN/Microsoft Customer Design Center

IDSA National Conference - The Human Element

Taking a new approach to the Austin-based IDSA national conference sessions, Monday September 18th will focus on "The Human Element".  This will be a panel session led by Stephen Wilcox (Human Factors section chair).  Panelists will include Bill Green (an expert on inclusive design), Bill Moggridge, Maureen Thurston, and Jamer Hunt.  They will be discussing how addressing humans has changed in design over the past few years.

Design for the Hand - Event

On Saturday May 13th the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware (about 30 minutes from Philadelphia) will host "Design for the Hand", a seminar on ergonomics and design for the hand.

According to the IDSA Philly site:

"This event features presentations by Rachel Delphia of Carnegie Mellon and Carnegie Museum; Bryce Rutter, Ph.d. of Metaphase Design; and a design charette for attendees."

The event is scheduled from 11AM-3PM and  pre-registration for IDSA members can be done through  this form.

MOMA Exhibit - "Safe" Design

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) current has an exibition "Safe - Design Takes on Risk".  It focuses on products designed to improve security, safety, protection and such. The exhibit runs through January 2nd:

The exhibition covers all forms of design, from manufactured products to information architecture. Featured products include refugee shelters, demining equipment, baby strollers, and protective sports gear. Designers are trained to balance risk with protection and to mediate between disruptive change and normalcy; good design goes hand in hand with personal needs, providing protection and security without sacrificing innovation and invention. SAFE redirects the pursuit of beauty toward the appreciation of economy of function and technology.

For more information: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/safe.html

There is also an interactive, although non-intuitive online exhibit:

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/safe/

DesignAbout - The 0ther 6 Billion

The IDSA Design About will be November 2-4 in Palo Alto, CA:

The IT industry typically designs for the 600 million people in the world that have access to connected computing. What about the other six billion people? How can design, technology and innovation enhance their lives? But this question doesn't apply only to computers and consumer electronics. How can design reach the masses? What has worked in the past?

http://www.idsa.org/design_about/overview.htm

Technology 1, Me 0

Unfortunately I won't be able to provide the video of the Blogs presentation I gave at the IDSA conference or last week - or rather I should say, I can only provide the video - unfortunately I did not record the audio succesfully.  So rather than adding a nice soundtrack, I've decided not to post the video at all - but as you can see (click photo to enlarge), it was quite an exciting presentation.

You can still access the presentation slides here:

http://humanfactors.typepad.com/idsa/2005/08/idsa_conference_1.html

Chalk one up to bad design and/or human error.  Apologies for this - no one is more dissapointed than myself.

IDSA Conference - Blogs as a Research Tool

Thanks for the good turnout (see photo in previous post) and great questions at the presentation today.  There was a balanced mix of interest in blogs from both the research and design/technical perspectives.

Download a PDF of the presentation "Blogs as Reference and Research Tools for Designers":

Download idsa_blogs_presentation_2005.pdf (3.5 MB)

I'll be adding the audio and video from the presentation next week.

Here are links to some of the key sites discussed in the presentation:

·       Feedster (blog search)

·       PubSub (blog search)

·       Technorati (blog search)

·       Catalyst (research on blog use)

·       Pew (research on blog use)

·       TypePad (blog publishing tool)

·       News Gator (Web-based RSS reader)

·       You Subscribe (Outlook-based RSS reader)

IDSA Blogs Presentation...Washington DC

IDSA Conference Blog

The 2005 IDSA conference next week will feature a conference blog at - http://idsa.blogs.com/reaction/

Upcoming Human Factors Presentations at IDSA Conference

There will be two collabroative Human Factores-related seminars at this year's conference:

Human Factors and Medical Design - Thursday, August 25th @ 2PM

This presentation will show you three new exploratory methods that are being used in a medical context that have the potential to apply in a variety of circumstances. Medical and user research design experts will show you how they used "standard patients," games to identify unmet needs and operating room simulation to understand the real desires that may not be identified through typical interviews or observations.

and

Human Factors and Interactive Design - Friday, August 26th @ 330PM

So, what are blogs or RSS feeds? Why should you know what they are? Because user researchers and designers can use blogs to gain amazing insights into people's lives. There are tens of thousands of blogs on the Internet today, and blog content varies dramatically, but few are used by user researchers and designers to better do their work.  An introduction of the new Human Factors Section Web site that uses a blogging format and discusses how blogs can be used to disseminate information as well as to gather it will also be included.

Blogs as Reference and Research Tools

I'm currently gathering data (albeit, informally) for research on how industrial designers use blogs - specifically around learning about design research.  I'm also interested in hearing whether anyone has directly used blogs as a design research tool - for example, in place of traditional journals.

I'm collecting input via the Core77 boards and I'm also planning on launching a brief survey to HF section within IDSA.  I'll post the findings here, but my the primary purpose behind this is for a presentation on blogs (see p. 9) that I'll be making at the IDSA conference on August 26th.