The theme of this year's IDSA Midwest District Conference (March 23 - 25, 2001) was "Designing the Experience." With this in mind, the old adage "careful what you wish for" sprang to mind more than once--the folks who own the site of this year's conference, the Hotel Allegro in Chicago's West Loop, were certainly designing an experience when they decorated the facility from top to bottom in all things theatrical and lyrical in Chicago.
From the salmon-colored rooms and lemon-striped meeting spaces to the carpets reminiscent of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Alice in Wonderland-inspired "Don't Come Around Here No More" video, the Hotel Allegro certainly provides its guests with an experience (and an ice-breaker; the decor was a big topic of conversation amongst conference-goers). For more information about the hotel and eccentricities like its "The Second City" and "Rent" suites, go to www.kimptongroup.com/allegrochicago.com
The Midwest Conference's environs really were as colorful (both literally and figuratively) as the event itself. As terracotta bricks began raining down on Randolph Street from the 45-story Randolph Tower a few short weeks prior, the city constructed giant steel canopies to shield pedestrians, drivers and the "L" train from falling facade. The sprawling protective eyesore (is there an industrial designer in the house!?!) not only blocked the hotel's marquis, but also the entire front of the building along with everything else along that stretch of road. Yet another major "experience" with which to contend. Welcome to Chicago, IDSA!
Dr. Robert Blaich, Principal Consultant for the design management firm Blaich & Associates, delivered a keynote speech that galvanized the overriding mandate of the IDSA in general and the conference in particular--to bridge the gap between practice and education. First, he conducted an ID history lesson, walking attendees through the illustrious past of industrial design as exemplified by certain important individuals in the field. He then described the here and now of industrial design as a time in which individual fame is succumbing to company and conglomerate acclaim (and by naming the fewer individuals of the Starck and Rashid variety and the larger number of companies who now represent the cutting edge of ID). Finally, he looked toward the future and suggested that this trend would continue.
A late addition to the speaking roster was Professor Nirmal K. Sethia of the College of Business Administration and California Polytechnic, Pomona. His talk, entitled "Designing Innovations in the Experience Economy," was clearly tailored for a business school crowd, a fact that left him preaching to the choir on the importance of the designer as a mediator between product and user. Despite this, his push for the business community to acknowledge the importance of designers in defining what a product should be in this age when what a product does depends on what you want it to do, was both welcome and refreshing. One example he cited of the business community's burgeoning awareness of this was the 1999 Harvard Business School publication The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business A Stage www.managingchange.com/guestcon/experien.htmby B. Joseph Pine II and James G. Gilmore. This book recognizes that strategic competitive advantage now comes not from products and/or services that are new, different and unique, but from singular experiences. He also alluded to The Learning Channel's recent program, "It's a Mall World," which detailed how the nature of shopping malls in the US has changed from a purely shopping space to a broader entertainment space.
Relegated shamefully to the bitter end of a very long second day of lectures was the announcement of the pending Library of Congress design competition. The LOC folks brought along a clunky, 1970's vintage cassette player (which they thankfully chose over the 8-track version when the time came to evolve away from phonograph records in the 70's), known as a Talking Book. The Library, in cooperation with its own National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), is currently spearheading a program in which audio books will be recorded digitally--a major systemic change effecting close to three million borrowers. The student design competition, set to be announced some time in early 2002, will consist of designing the actual listening device that patrons use when they listen to an audio book. Though no information is currently available, keep checking the Library of Congress website at www.loc.org for details.
And finally, threaded between the distinguished list of professionals addressing the IDSA membership were the presentations of this year's ten Annual Student Merit award winners. This recognition (and stipend) is given to the outstanding graduating senior from each industrial design program in the Midwest. And the winners are (in order of their appearance at the conference):
1. Kristopher W. Clover
2. Martin Peterson - Southern Illinois University
3. Jin Woo - Purdue University
4. Lori Merzler - University of Notre Dame
5. Hector Rodriguez - Michigan Institute of Design
6. Mr. Vogel - University of Kansas
7. David Price - Kansas City Art Institute
8. Curtis Weirman - ITT Technical Institute
9. Wyatt Cline - University of Illiniois-Urbana Champaign
10. Sean Barnick - University of Illinois-Chicago
The range of designs - from streamlined and straightforward to witty and whimsical - was impressive, but Price's chair designed for a friend of his who paints, and Cline's eyeglasses designed for an individual classmate, seemed to exemplify the user-research-based ideas of most of the conference's speakers. The more carefully and specifically you can target your market, the more likely your product will be well-received. As Marty Gage of SonicRim said, "Design with the consumer, not for the consumer..." Words to live by.
For more information about the undercurrent theme of user-research, see "IDSA Midwest the Underview"