Designdrives

“Cross-pollination is the best thing for creativity.

- Rob on his creative process.

In episode 43, we chat with Rob Harrigan, Lead Designer at Y Media Labs and former Design Principle at IBM within the Data & AI organisation.

In the episodes he shares how designers can see, explore and visualise potentials and visions of technology - making ideas tangible and tell stories that make people see potentials and drive believe in new technologies. In his personal experience he was driving multiple design initiatives at IBM focusing on explaining AI and exploring long term visions and opportunities - by crafting and design great stories.

From art school to AR, Rob has over sixteen years of experience as a creative in a multitude of forms, from advertising to technology. Prior to his role at IBM that was the Associative Creative Director at advertising agency Ogilvy, gaining many experiences in the New York Design scene.

Rob discusses how he moved into the field of design and technology from his education background as a fine art graduate, and how his background strengthens his skillset in his work.

With so many years of design experience, Rob gives insights into the three design principles he has learned throughout the years and why that is relevant and important for designers nowadays.

On the role and impact of design in business, besides designers simply ‘having a seat at the table’, Rob posits that designers can be a voice of reason for businesses and in early-stage technology developments.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized byIxDA- the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by theIxDA Milan & Turinlocal group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

"How do you democratise not only access to technology, but also pay attention to the diversity and richness that is important for technology to adopt or adapt, rather, to different parts of the world where it’s going to be used, and designers can effectively impact that situation as well."

- Scott on the importance of user experience in creating access to technology.

In episode 43, we chat with Scott Nazarian, Design Director at groundstate. Scott spent his formative years in design at frog, working his way up to Executive Creative Director at the design agency. He most recently was the Experience Design Director at McKinsey, leading teams in building design capabilities within enterprise-level scale companies.

Scott discusses his work as a designer in corporate organisations like Microsoft and McKinsey, especially touching on what makes working at McKinsey – a consultancy – so unique, compared with his work at frog – an innovation design firm.

We look at his views on how the designer brings value to the table, within large-scale organisations, as well as how designers can drive impact and bring change to organisations that are stagnant and slow changing.

Looking ahead into the future, Scott discusses his views on how design practices will change in the next five or so years. Placing his bets behind machine learning and AI development, Scott argues that designers are the key to humanising these new intelligences, because of their role in human-centered research and human-centered design.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized byIxDA- the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by theIxDA Milan & Turinlocal group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

"What should we be building to provide the most value to people in this product space?"

In Episode 41, we chat with Kristie Fisher, Staff UX Researcher at Google. Kristie is currently building the UX Design Research at Google Stadia, and has previously worked on Google Suite and Google Ads, and has previously worked at Xbox and Microsoft.

With a background in cognitive psychology, Kristie’s research interests center on gaming, human-computer interaction in the context of AI, and human learning.

Initially pursuing a career in academia, Kristie discusses what initially drew her into the field of gaming, and how her background in psychology plays into that.

The experience of gaming has changed vastly in the last few years; games are no longer a simple linear experience of the player completing levels. They are far more complex, and many are built around social interaction, which we can see with the rise of e-sports. Cloud gaming is a relatively new field in gaming, Kristie gives some insights on what Google is doing in this field with Google Stadia.

Designing a game provides many challenges, especially because it is such a creatively focused process. Research plays a very large role, but there may also be times where data can’t provide all the information and Kristie talks about what happens during those challenges.

Games are often early adopters of new technology, using them in new and exciting ways which other products could take away from. There is an overarching reason why games are so successful, and Kristie discusses what that is and why games are so powerful.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized byIxDA- the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by theIxDA Milan & Turinlocal group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

“There’s a lot of great realisation in the design industry around the ethics of design. We know the power of design, but how do we use our power for good?”

In Episode 40, we talk with Janaki Kumar, Head of Design of Commercial Bank at JPMorgan Chase, and co-instructor at Stanford’s LEAD course on Customer Experience Design, and has previously led the Design and Co-Innovation Center at SAP, helping businesses transform through design.

Janaki discusses her experience working in corporate organisations, and the intersection of design and business; how to bring design to the table and how to work with other stakeholders to grow the value of design.

Through her 17 years at SAP, Janaki and her team at SAP came to the conclusion that there are four stages in organisational readiness for design. When established multinational organisations start to see new start-ups with new design and technologies entering their industry and taking market share, these large corporations begin to realise they need to evolve and bring in designers to support this. In doing so, designers should be patient with themselves and with the organisation, as it can take time for organisations to fully accept these new designs and processes.

Janaki also discusses where she sees design heading – how the design community itself needs to evolve in order to take on new opportunities. The role of the designer is evolving – instead of being given a clear design brief, designers are now being brought in to a project during the early stages to develop the design brief alongside the organisation. What does this mean for the designer and how do they add value?

Thanks for your time Ben and IxDA Milan and Interaction20 where the episode was recorded for the support!

“Design is an activity you do in response to some information about thinking what you might do next, and it’s almost like a pause in between some data and a need or a problem and an action, that allows people to consider a range of different options.” - Ben Reason

In episode #39 we talk with Ben Reason, Founding Partner at Livework, a service design & innovation consultancy.

Ben and Livework where one of the very early adaptors and drivers of the “service design” discipline, bringing a new approach to designing experiences.

Livework has three studios located in London, Rotterdam, and São Paulo, and has clients across a multitude of sectors, including: BBC, NHS, Experian, Fiat, WWF, Gucci, JPMorgan, Vodafone, Johnson & Johnson, Lufthansa, public sector bodies and government departments.

In this episode, Ben talks about the evolution and future of service design, as well as the link between design and sustainability – the evolution of human-centric design to design that also takes into account the environment around us.

Ben discusses his early days in service design, including a few stories of brands Livework has worked with, such as London Underground and Streetcar.

A unique element of service design is the frequent crossover to non-design related disciplines. Most of Ben’s work is more related to those working in different disciplines, such as in healthcare when they work with clinicians. Livework facilitates the service design process, helping clients then use the new framework to do things differently.

We also discuss the impact design has on business. As design becomes more prominent for a business, designers need to have a seat on the table in order to know the objectives and metrics they are designing around.

Thanks for your time Ben and IxDA Milan and Interaction20 where the episode was recorded for the support!

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized by IxDA - the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by the IxDA Milan & Turin local group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

“Design is a privilege - As designers we have been given a space to question. And a belief that we have a role to play in changing the world around us. And most people don’t come in with those opportunities.” Robert on both opportunity and reponsibility of being a designer.

In episode #38 we talk with Robert Fabricant, Co-Founder & Partner at Dalberg Design in New York, and former VP of Creative at Frog.

With 25 years of experience in design, including 15 years co-leading the design team at Frog, Robert’s design work has spanned everything from interactive environments and virtual worlds to medical devices and civic services.

Most recently he is using his experience in human-centred design to work on social issues, social innovation through collaboration and empowering local stakeholders in the process.

In this episode, Robert shares about the process, importance and outcomes of social design and innovation.

These days he is leading design teams at Dalberg Design, a unique design and innovation practice focused on social impact, with teams located in London, Mumbai, Nairobi, and New York, aimed at making positive social change for and with under-served communities around the world.

Their projects have been recognised in the 2019 Fast Company World-Changing Ideas Awards. We also discuss his highly acclaimed book, “User Friendly - How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play”, released in 2019 and selected by Amazon as one of the Top 100 books for 2019. Written in collaboration with Cliff Kuang, “User Friendly” unpacks how design has changed the world, and how it shapes our behaviour.

Told through fascinating stories such as what the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island reveals about the logic of the smartphone, “User Friendly” is a must-read for designers and innovators.

Read more about Robert and his work on his website: https://www.fabricant.design

Thank you Robert for the great episode and thanks to Interaction 20, where the episode was recorded and IXDA for the support.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized by IxDA - the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by the IxDA Milan & Turin local group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

“We live in a 3D world, but as children we were taught to think in 2D.” - Ana on the importance of re-learning to think and shape in 3D.

In episode #37 we talk with Ana Sofía González, Senior Designer at Microsoft on designing future mixed reality experiences in the B2B space.💡

We chat with Ana about what excites her about Mixed Reality and the applications of it. MR brings together real world and digital elements, allowing us to interact with and manipulate both physical and virtual items and environments.

Ana believes that Mixed Reality can empower people in their professions and activating that power for them can simplify so many processes 🛠

In the podcast Ana shares about her design process when designing mixed reality experiences with low fidelity paper prototypes and quick explorations - but also highlights the importance of user research. Understanding the user interaction in the B2B space and problems is key to come up with mixed reality experience that make a difference.

We also touch on how to designing interaction modalities for mixed reality is very different to designing for VR or touch experiences.

Thanks to Ana for the great time and IXDA and Interaction 20 for the support.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized by IxDA - the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by the IxDA Milan & Turin local group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

“How do we take things that are very inhuman by nature and make them more human. Tweak algorithms to make them seem more human, more interesting, more weird.” - Dan on designing with AI and robotics.

In episode #36 we talk with Dan Saffer, Product Design Leader and Author of 4 influential design books.

He gained work experience as a Senior Staff Designer at Twitter, Creative Director at Jawbone, Smart Design and AdaptivePath.

He also gained experience leading larger product initiatives as VP of Product at Mayfield Robotics.

As an accomplished author; his insights and approach to design expressed in four books that he has written.

His latest book, Microinteractions, about the details and intricacies of design, was published in 2013 to critical acclaim.

With Dan, we talked about the intersection and differences of digital Product Strategy and Product Design based on his learnings being responsible for the product but also for design efforts.

We also touch on how to design for robotics and how different product verticals might evolve considering challenges in the interaction design of these products and engineering challenges.

Dan highlights how designing with AI systems changes the design process and how he incorporates this in FTU and Onboarding aspects at his more recent work experience at Twitter.

If you want to learn more about Dan or buy his books head here: https://www.odannyboy.com/

Thanks to Dan for the great time and IXDA and Interaction 20 for the support.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized by IxDA - the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by the IxDA Milan & Turin local group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

In episode 35 we talk with Mark Rolston who is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at argodesign as part of a series of conversations at Interaction 20 in Milan by IXDA. Formerly he served as Chief Creative Officer of frogdesign, founding the firm’s software business and guiding its transformation into a modern strategic design organization.

Mark shares insights from over 30 years of design experience: how he experienced the transformation of technology, society and design in the last 30 years and where he sees it going. We touch on the mixed reality and how technology and computing at large are changing human behaviours in both positive and negative ways. We also explore invisible interfaces, how present AI is already in our today’s life and how digital design systems have changed the way software is designed. Mark also shares inspiring perspectives on the role of design and why it is a more “designable” world than ever. We also talk about where he sees design evolving and the role of user experience moving forward. Exciting insights and inspiring perspectives.

Thanks to Mark for the great time and IXDA and Interaction 20 for the support.

About Mark Rolston:

Mark Rolston is cofounder and Chief Creative Officer of argodesign and a renowned designer with a 30-year career of creating for the world’s largest and most innovative companies. He was an early pioneer of software user experience, helping forge the disciplines around user interface design and mobile platforms. His current focus is addressing the modern challenge of design beyond the visible artifact – in the realm of behavior, the interaction between human and machine, and other unseen elements. Prior to founding argodesign, he served as Chief Creative Officer of frogdesign, founding the firm’s software business and guiding its transformation into a modern strategic design organization.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized by IxDA - the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by the IxDA Milan & Turin local group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org

Episode 34 kicks off a series of conversations at Interaction 20 in Milan by IXDA. I had the outstanding opportunity to sit together with Doug Powell, Vice President of Design at IBM.

Doug shares insights on how he is focusing on building a framework where designers can grow into leaders and the importance of excellent design leadership.

Also, we talk about how he grows a design team of over 2500 designer with studios around the world and manages to create an international design community.

Based on his experiences he shares why design is key for businesses and why designers need to understand business aspects to grow into leadership positions.

To demonstrate the value of design to other stakeholders Doug shares his principles to measure design impact and how to communicate this to other parts of an organization.

Doug also touches on the importance of diversity, inclusion, new growing fields of design and his views on the future of Interaction Design.

Thanks to Doug for the great time and IXDA and Interaction 20 for the support.

About Interaction 20:

Interaction 20 is the annual Interaction Design conference organized by IxDA - the largest community dedicated to interaction design - and in 2020 hosted by the IxDA Milan & Turin local group. Interaction Week 2020 brought together the brightest minds in design, as well as science, philosophy, psychology and business.

Interaction 2021 will happen fully online. You can get more details here: https://interaction21.ixda.org