Michael Roller

The Ideal (Junior) Industrial Designer

Being a great industrial designer requires a nuanced balance of many important skills and personality traits, but which matter the most?

A few weeks ago, I initiated a project with the goal of uncovering information about how industrial designers process and evaluate the complex, nuanced combination of skills and traits that are thrown at them every time they look at a portfolio or meet someone for an interview. I sent out surveys to senior designers to get feedback that would help students and young designers understand where to focus their energy. After receiving 100 responses, I’m happy to say that this document confirms some things intuitively believed and also uncovers some interesting surprises. How important is good sketching relative to a good personality? As it turns out, they’re neck and neck.

Even though this document uses scores and percentages to organize the information, it’s important to remember that the study is still largely qualitative. With that in mind, I hope you’ll leave your comments and help me start a constructive discussion on what’s important to the young designers for which this project was created.

Tags: definitions, interviews, personality, presentations, student work

All the “ID” work at the 2010 DAAPworks

Last week, University of Cincinnati seniors showed off their final projects. Here is a selection of the industrial design projects. (I wish I could have documented the whole show!) There was a great range of work, with a strong interest in furniture this year. My main criticism is with some of the critics themselves, who still think “ID” is defined only as products and tangible objects. Sure, it’s always great to casually walk through the space and breathe in beautifully considered medical devices, consumer electronics, or juvenile products, but industrial design has evolved far far beyond the final object. Some professionals still don’t even consider soft goods a legitimate endeavor! If anyone would like to weigh in on this point of view, I’d love to have a spirited conversation about it.

I believe no matter what the capstone topic, there is potential for both success and failure. Many of the students uncovered opportunities involving retail, brand positioning, experience design, new business ventures, and more. The product is not always the solution, and this new generation of students understands that. Congratulations to all the new graduates! Check out the full set of photos on Flickr.

Tags: furniture, presentations, student work

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

As a consultant, our business lives and dies with each presentation. Each time we speak with a client, no matter how formal or informal, it is an opportunity to leave an impression that inspires them to ask us for help solving with their latest challenge. I also stress the importance of the public speaking to my students, and I often cite Steve Jobs as the best source of inspiration. Jobs is a great example for design students because he must always relate his message back to something tangible, whether it is one of Apple’s interfaces, products, or a retail experiences. The keynote of the original iPhone is my gold standard for tone, structure, and details of how a student should present their own work.

Recently, my design director lent me a copy of Carmine Gallo’s The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. This is the second book on presentations that I’ve read in as many years, the other being Jerry Weissman’s Presenting To Win. Where the latter is a better reference, Gallo’s book is filled with inspiring examples, most of which can be reviewed on YouTube. The two books share a lot of the same points on preparation and structure, but there are some nice additions that come out when specifically studying Jobs.

Plan Plan Plan

As with many books on presentation, Gallo recommends that planning for a presentation is best done on paper, not on powerpoint. Jobs is a relentless planner, not a natural. A good presentation answers the questions, “What’s the one thing that matters most?” and “Why should you care?” for it’s audience. I’ll continue to promote this point only until I stop hearing speeches that fail to answer these questions.

Be The Protagonist

Products are not just products, they are solutions to some problem. We designers know better, but too often we forget this when it matters most. Through the lens of storytelling, solutions are the protagonists that save the day. Paint a vivid picture of your audience’s pain point (the antagonist) early in your presentation, always before you present your solution. Finally, end your speeches as Aristotle would, with a call to action.

The Holy Shit Moment

Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Scientist John Media reports, “The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things…it does pay attention to an emotionally-charged event.” Plan a holy shit moment by telling a personal story, revealing some unexpected information, or delivering a demonstration that will be a memorable experience for your audience. Make sure you build up to the moment properly and rehearse to make it come off effortlessly.

Tags: books, consulting, presentations, student work, video

2010 DAAP Student Merit Finalists

This week, the top industrial design students from UC’s DAAP program presented their work as a part of the IDSA student merit awards. A group of professionals judged the work and selected Tracy Subisak to represent UC at the upcoming district conference in Grand Rapids. Having worked with all of these students, I’m sure it was a difficult decision, even just to narrow it down to this group of seven. This is an extremely talented group of soon-to-be graduates, and I wish them luck as they prepare for their capstone presentations at DAAPworks this June.

Tracy Subisak

Cody Stonerock

Sylvia Spencer

Jeff Engelhardt

Kristen Beck

Dave Heyne

Sam Amis

Tags: daap, presentations, student work, transportation

Wanderlust: Kaleidoscope’s 2009 Furniture Design Trends

Earlier this year, the Kaleidoscope team attended the ICFF and the Salone in Milan to check out the furniture. Collecting and organizing our observations, we put together this trend document, now on slideshare:

At Kaleidoscope, we think trends are great, but identifying them isn’t enough. We believe that documents like this one are only as useful to the extent that they’re actionable. With that in mind, we supplemented the trends themselves with three guidelines for applying them (slides 40-44): Assess how the trend overlaps with your work, Immerse yourself in the trend, and last but not least, Create something informed by the trend.

We hope you enjoy this document and welcome any feedback!

Tags: design tools, furniture, kaleidoscope, philosophy, presentations, strategic aesthetics, trends

UC Student Merit Awards

The University of Cincinnati recently hosted this year’s Student Merit Awards, where the top product and transportation design students presented their work to local professionals. Not only was the ID impressive, but my colleagues and I were all surprised by how polished the presentations were both visually and verbally. Congratulations to everyone who was selected to present, and to Hannah May for being chosen as the student to represent UC at the upcoming district IDSA conference. With work like this, I’m really looking forward to their capstone presentations at June’s DAAPworks.

Elizabeth Kern

Hannay May – Student Merit Winner

Lukas Yates

Jonny Wicks

Don Herzog

Jennifer Ashman

Tags: presentations, student work, transportation

Computers for Emerging Markets: UC x HP

Last week, University of Cincinnati’s College of DAAP held it’s final critiques. Fourth-year industrial design students sponsored by HP created computer concepts for emerging markets in China, Africa, Brazil, Turkey, and India. I was at the critique and thought everything looked really nice. Here are a few photos from the crit. If you have more pics from the crit, leave a link in the comments section!

Carly Hagins presents to the legendary Tony Kawanari

Tracy Subisak

Ed Mangum

Jacob Nitz

Aaron Ricica

Nick Rudemiller

Tags: consumer electronics, design making, presentations, student work

Because

I recently met the guys at Open Field Creative at a DAAP alumni gathering. Naturally, I was interested in learning more so I found their website. The work is solid, but I was most impressed by their section titled Because.

Open Field’s Because piece is a series of slides that simply answer the question, “Why?” It succeeds in delivering their point of view in a clear, easily digestable format. As ironic as it seems, we design consultants struggle to create a strategic point of view for ourselves, even though we do it every day for our clients. Congrats to the Open Field team for having an opinion and having the confidence to put it out there.

Tags: marketing, philosophy, presentations

Godin: The Two Elements of a Great Presenter

1. Respect (from the audience)
2. Love (for the audience)

The presenter who loves his audience the most, wins.

In my Design Communication class, students are preparing for their final critique with HP. Seth Godin’s latest post on presenting is perfect timing for them, so I wanted to link to it so they can read through it.

Tags: presentations