The word “innovation” is brandished everywhere. It’s a compelling concept and every day we enjoy working with our clients to deliver them its promise. According to Google Ngram Viewer (which calculates the frequency of word use in publications between 1800 and 2008), “innovation” was used 73% more frequently in 2008 than it was in 1908.
Following the “It” convention of the NE IDSA conference we move to some of the trends from NYCxDesign week 2014. To echo our observations from last year the underlying trend was simplicity, the less is more mantra is still holding strong in 2014.
TO HEAR RAYMOND TURNER tell it, we design leaders have an awful lot on our plates. Not only do we frequently find ourselves as the sole interpreters between disciplines that rarely communicate if we are not involved, but we also manage budgets that can be “the largest single sum that the board of most companies knows the least about.”
NYCxDESIGN Week was buzzing with great events this year! May was all about design in NYC. Starting off with a well timed IDSA North East regional conference focused on Industrial Design and its relationship with startups and entrepreneurs.
The current state of the health experience is fragmented and limited in scope- failing to connect disparate sources of data into one cohesive system that paints a clear picture for individuals and society as a whole.
Recently I read Storytelling for User Experience: Crafting Stories for Better Design, a book [Whitney Quesenbery] co-authored with Kevin Brooks. As a researcher and a designer, storytelling has been part of my life for a long time. However, I found her book to be a comprehensive source of inspiration about how a compelling story can establish a common ground of communication among all the stakeholders.
The April issue of Fast Company has a thought-provoking blurb about an acquisitional approach to R&D. As the Lean Startup method gains traction and permeates into corporate culture, big companies are passing up long-term investment in R&D strategies and acquiring startups instead.
Measuring work in time is a topic that has interested me for a while now. Work is iterative and collaborative and yet we reduce it to the simple unit of an hour.
So I’m picking out one common theme I heard across the panelists that resonated with me: If design will be everywhere, then designers will be everywhere, and we need to know how to create supportive working relationships across disciplines.
Three months ago, as a recent graduate with a degree in human-centered design and a passion for a career in research, I started an adventure with the Essential Design family. Here is a condensed list of necessary tactics that I have learned.
