Today I received an e-mail from the AIGA Experience Design mailing list from NextD about their recent research online. It seems very interesting and I’d love to see the results, so if you are a designer and have a few minutes to spare then NextDs website is the place to be.
Here’s a short introduction to Mindscapes from their website:
In all great transformations we find need for sense making and the design of understanding. Given our backgrounds this is not surprising! For this purpose we often create Mindscapes in the form of stories, maps, diagrams and various visual mental constructs. From time to time we will post some NextD examples here in the Mindscapes section of this site.
Recently, we were reflecting on NextD and the broader movement underway in the design community to create paths into the future for design. It occurred to us that underneath all of the turmoil in the industry is really a struggle to redesign the meaning that connects to the word design. To get there some have begun making transparent the need for redesign and that is often a rocky road. At NextD we consider this to be part of new pattern creation work, spanning multiple dimensions and constituencies.
By that I mean we understand our community is now engaged in not only the redesign of meaning patterns but also of opportunity patterns, practice patterns, education patterns and ultimately leadership patterns as they each connect to the word design.
Next design seems to be in that awkward phase were none of the new pieces yet align. If there is new meaning, there is not yet new education. If there is new opportunity, there is not yet new practice. If there is new practice there is not yet trained talent.
Needless to say it will take some time to get all of the parts aligned and like all large transformation efforts, we might not all be on this train when that occurs. Of course when that moment arrives it will likely be time to begin starting over.
As each month goes by it becomes clear to us that multitudes of futures are now possible for design. I guess we are still hoping that which futures arrive for design might depend on which ones each of us chooses to constructively work on. In Mindscapes we float some examples of and from the future we are working on.
It seems everyone is attending conferences these days (Chris Conley just came back from another great one). I just got home after a long day at work which started out with a great conference at the Danish Design Centre. I wasn’t there as a normal attendant, but as a blogger to make a transcription of what was being said.
As I write this my transcriptions are being finished, but until then I just wanted to give you a little "teaser". I shot some photos at the conference until my cameras battery was empty. I posted them to flickr in order for all of you to see them.
Tomorrow here will be much more about the conference. And oh by the way, while we are speaking of conferences, I will be attending another great conference this sunday. This will be the first time I attend a conference with a sponsorship based on my blogging activities at CPH127, so that’ll be very exciting. Thanks Mikkel for making this happen, I am sure we’ll have a blast!
I just made it back from the 3rd annual Front End of Innovation Conference in Boston. Plenty to digest and share. This conference, sponsored by IIR and the PDMA looks to expose companies’ approaches to handling the so-called "front end of innovation" — that time before a specific development project is agreed to and funded. It is where the exploration of what to pursue happens. Big themes from the conference included ethnographic research, cross disciplinary collaboration, prototyping, and experimentation.
Companies like Clorox, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon-Mobile, Visa, and others presented. Academics presenting included Thomke (Experimentation Matters), Chesbrough (Open Innovation) and Senge (The Fidth Discipline). And Jack Welch, yes former CEO of GE, came for a question and answer session and to hawk his new book.
This conference is one of the few that mixes such a broad range of companies and disciplines. Market research, R&D, engineering, product managers are all there. There may be a slight tilt toward the technical R&D community and if the momentum continues, I think they’ll begin to lose the marketing and product development communities.
I’ll follow on with more specific posts from some of the presentations, but I’ll finish this one by highlighting the most impactful talk of the conference. Suprisingly, it was the dinner speaker on Wednesday night that captivated the 500 attendees. His name is Benjamin Zander and is the condictor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchetra. While that seems a major acocmplishment and role in and of itself, Zander seems to have translated his passion for music and education into motivational speaking. He wouldn’t agree with the label of motivational, in fact he calls it transformational speaking.
It is hard to describe what we experienced. He basically worked through a series of stories and activities that included conducting the audience in singing Happy Birthday to one of the audience members, helping us see new distinctions through music, and demonstrating how he works with his music students by working with one right in front of everyone. His main theme is how life is a series of possibilities and how we can make amazing things happen through passion and excellence. He has a book which is now on order called "The Art of Possibility."
It was truly transformational.
I almost forgot – INDEX: just announced the nominated designs to improve life. Definitely some very interesting stuff.
What exits me at the most is that INDEX: talks about design from BOTH the form-and function perspective but ALSO as a business development process.
Is there any ideas or designs you miss on the list?
If you would like to visit Copenhagen during INDEX: please tell me – I would love to make a guided tour for you.
Months ago I made a comment on a book on its way to the stores. It was and is a HIGHLY recommendable book for everyone facing the challenges in the digital economy.
Corporations are built on the assumption of continuity; their focus is on operations. Capital
markets are built on the assumption of discontinuity; their focus is on creation and
destruction. The data present a clear warning; unless companies open up their decision
making processes, relax conventional notions of control, and change at the scale and pace of
the market, their performances will be drawn into an entropic slide into mediocrity.
Foster & Kaplan, Creative Destruction, Currency 2001
How is your business designed – for today’s reality?
Take a look at DOMINATE….
In Alexandras post regarding PostIndustrial Design a link presenting a PostIndustrial Design Competition was included.
After our post Renato Soldenhoff from HyperWerk contacted us and asked us to announce the competition. I think the idea is really cool and HyperWerks definition of PostIndustrial Design is interesting. Is this the new discipline I have been looking for?
So here’s the advertisment…even though the competition has been running for a while you should take a look at it and consider join in!
Read the rest of this entry »
You know it already, Right? But did you know that spicing up your business with a flavour of “old-fashioned” guru-design could make the difference as a business?
That in fact the offering from Yoo. Amazing and then again, expected.
Are you in a business where design does make a difference?
Please tell us.
It seems that our product-driven society has been so in part because of people’s understanding and acceptance of the idea that you “are what you have”. We identify ourselves and speak through our material and product driven choices. This idea may be changing , or rather should change, as we slowly shift towards the idea that happiness and wellness is defined by “what you have access to”, the best example being the credit card… I believe that will change the way we look at systems and objects and inform the design process in innovation and in the development of services.
What do you think, any ideas???