INNOVATION

APPLIED CREATIVITY

USERS

Laura Forlano, Ph.D.

forlanol@newschool.edu
http://lauraforlano.org

September 21, 2009

Design and Management

Parsons The New School
NY, New York
 Innovation by Listening
• Unspoken concerns • Customers wants
(body language, facial (clearly expressed or
expressions, gestures) implied)
• Establishing rapport • Offerings individualized
• Creating a collaborative to meet particular needs
relationship with situations and lifestyles
consumers • Innovation, flexibility and
• Active engaged listening improvization vital
• NOT generically • Know yourself and your
designed products and potential customers
services • Empathy
2
 Innovation by Listening
• NOT information- • Coordination of
gathering of traditional business, information
market research and material processes
• Looking through the • Listening to the
eyes of the customer customer’s articulation
• Keen attention to of concerns
customer’s background • Think about the
and what they believe is Customer, Innovation,
necessary, desirable and Satisfaction and Training
possible

3
 Empathic Design
• Gathering, analyzing and What we Learn from
applying information Observation:
gleaned from the field
• Visual information
• Triggers of Use
• Interdisciplinary teams
• Interactions with the
• Traditional market
research for well- User’s Environment
understood products • User Customization
and services • Intangible attributes of
• Empathic design for less the product
well-understood
products and services • Unarticulated user needs
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 Empathic Design
Process:
• Observation (who, what,
when, how)
• Capturing Data
• Reflection and Analysis
• Brainstorming Solutions
• Developing Prototypes

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 Ethnographic Research
• “Situatedness” or • Qualitative research vs.
cultural location of quantitative research
designed objects • Academic vs. Industry
• Materialized ideologies applications
• Malinowski’s • Visual vs. Verbal forms
“imponderabilia of actual of data
life” • Participant observation,
• Geertz’ “thick field notes, sketches,
description” photos, video, artifacts

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 Examples
Academic/Design Industry Research:
Research: • Media Use Study
• Teen Tokyo • Telecommunications
• Mobile Work Study
• Breakout! • Beverage Study

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 Industry Research
• Media Use Study • Xerox Parc (diabetes
• Telecommunications study)
Study
• Beverage Study

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 In-Class Exercise
Peer Interview: What makes this
• Groups of two person tick?
• 5-minute interview Who are they? Where
• Take notes on a are they from? What
small sheet of paper is important to them?
What do they
• Turn it in at the end love/hate?
of class