Challis Hodge’s UXblog

The Talent Hunt
Desperate to innovate, companies are turning to design schools for nimble, creative thinkers

Designed in China
With more than 400 design programs in Chinese schools, Asian design education is undergoing its own revolution

Tip Sheet: How To Hire a D-School Grad
Headhunter RitaSue Siegel tells you what to ask — and what to listen for

When MBA Meets Designer
A GE manager learns to think creatively: INSEAD graduate Sameer Agrawal shares his story

Inside the Volcano
Carnegie Mellon graduate Maggie Breslin brings her innovative thinking to the Mayo Clinic

Designing to Help
Georgia Tech design grad Janna Kimel works as a design researcher at Intel

Joining J&J
Justine Dube Donnelly’s joint MBA/Master’s of Engineering Management prepared her for her role in strategic marketing at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals

about, with & for is a collaborative forum hosted by the Institute of Design to discuss emerging topics, methods and issues in design research. The core values of research and discovery methodologies have been embraced by leading companies wishing to increase brand legitimacy, capacity, and impact. What challenges are on the forefront for these leading institutions?

More than ever, companies look to designers to lead the way in strategy and innovation. about, with & for 2006 remains on the forefront of business by introducing and challenging topics such as simplicity in design, do-it-yourself research methodologies, design in education, social responsibility, design thinking in public policy, and structured decision making.

A platform that fosters cross pollination of new ideas and concepts of user-centered research methods, about, with & for is imperative when facing today’s demanding market challenges. This year’s conference will offer insight and meaning through lectures, roundtable discussions, workshops, and networking sessions.

Only a few seats left! Register hear.

MacDonalds is taking advantage of the ubiquity of clell phones in Japan to introduce QR codes on its sandwich wrappers. The codes, commonly used to code business cards for scanning by cell phones, will contain nutritional information for each of 19 sandwiches. They’ve also created cell phone friendly URLs for those with out cameras in their phones.

I think MacDonalds’ is smart to get out ahead of the curve on the nutritional issue. At a time when obesity is creeping around the globe and local government in the US are banning transfats, it makes sense to be prepared to embrace new trends. Placement of nutritional information on wrappers and websites makes it easy to change ingredients in response to local trends without incurring huge printing expenses. Not to mention the opportunities to build their brand through online and wireless channels. I’m lovin it!

The Hand Hygiene Voice Module mounts on a restroom wall, reminding you in a “non threatening, non-intrusive” male or female voice to wash your hands after using the toilet.It says, “Hand washing reduces the spread of germs. Thank you for washing your hands!”

The manufacturer, Kimberly-Clark, claims it increases hand washing by 12%.

George Orwell would be proud!

Santiago Chile agency Perfil BTL recently launched a new guerilla anti-smoking campaign for the Instituto Nacional del Tórax. The campaign promotes the Tórax Institute which offers therapy for highly addicted smokers.

The campaign was simple, fake cigarettes were littered about on heavily trafficed Chilean streets with the message rolled up inside: If you need a cigarette that bad…you need help!

It’s a facisnating idea though I’m not sure it will work. First, addicted smokers are typically pretty deep in denial. Second, have you ever tried to open and read a small piece of paper that has rolled up? It is almost impossible!

Ironically I believe Perfil BTL calls Lucky Strike a client as well. That’s a win-win-win…:-)

Microsoft believes the demand for consumer, research, and military robots will grow significantly–and it wants to own the market, with Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) and the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE).

MSRS is a visual programming environment, similar to the LabView-based software provided with LEGO’s Mindstorms NXT kit. It allows users to drag and drop box-like symbols for simple, low-level behaviors and services (such as accessing a sensor) and string them together to create complex robotic programs.

MSRS also uses the AGEIA PhysX physics engine, which powers many PC games, to provide a visual simulation of the robot and its environment, complete with realistic friction, drag, gravity, and other factors.

These require no introduction.

Rule #1
Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anything else. If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do the best you can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you - like a fever.

Rule #2
Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations.

Rule #3
Motivate your partners. Money and ownership aren’t enough. Set high goals, encourage competition and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs.

Rule #4
Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they’ll understand. The more they understand, the more they’ll care. Once they care, there’s no stopping them. Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitors.

Rule #5
Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.

Rule #6
Celebrate your success and find humour in your failures. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up and everyone around you will loosen up. Have fun and always show enthusiasm. When all else fails put on a costume and sing a silly song.

Rule #7
Listen to everyone in your company, and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front line - the ones who actually talk to customers - are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. You’d better find out what they know.

Rule #8
Exceed your customer’s expectations. If you do they’ll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them. Make good on all your mistakes, and don’t make excuses - apologize. Stand behind everything you do. ‘Satisfaction guaranteed’ will make all the difference.

Rule #9
Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you’re too inefficient.

Rule #10
Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction.

…thanks Joyce!