Introductions - Please introduce yourself in this thread

Please introduce yourself in this thread.

Who are you?
What kind of work do you do, or what are you studying?
What has your experience been with “innovation”?
Anything else you’d like to share!

I’m Steve Portigal.

I studied HCI in grad school; but I wasn’t prepared to do “design” - which is what a lot of the work out there was about. I had more of a theoretical or critical perspective on the field. I became involved in user research (or ethnography or design research or whatever you want to call it) because it drew me in with a consideration of the larger questions - what should we be making? It wasn’t the activity of field research as much as the opportunity to reframe the question, to identify needs and to figure out how to address them with products or services.

I worked at a consultancy for a few years where we branded this as an “innovation” offering. We struggled forever to define innovation (and frankly I’m not so interested in solving that one - but go ahead if you are!) even though we were offering it as a service, supposedly.

I’ve been running my own small practice (Portigal Consulting) for more than four years now. I describe the consulting work as the synthesis of user research (ethnography), design and business strategy.

I work from a home office, in a small town with no cell coverage and an alpaca ranch around the corner.

I’m LukeW (Luke Wroblewski)

Currently Principal Designer at Yahoo!, author of Site Seeing and Functioning Form, and design consultant through LukeW Interface Designs.

I create Web experiences and have designed new products for many heavy hitters and small companies. I’m one of those “do it all” designers: visual design, information architecture, interaction design, Web programming, etc. My experiences with innovation are best articulated by those wiser than myself. As such I quote Jim Leftwich:

"I have always believed in the speed, breadth of integrative power, and just sheer purity that a single strong design lead can bring to a problem. I’d qualify that further in saying that similarly strong leads in all the necessary aspects of product or system development (that understand the value of the others - i.e.: engineering, business, etc.) is even more powerful, but in my long career, fairly rare. What separates truly extraordinary and transcendent products or systems from the merely adequate (I won’t even talk about poor efforts) is vision. Until such time that the communication and coordination between separate minds can reach the speed and integration of neurons within a single mind with vision and experience, the latter will always be capable of creating and inspired solution.

The higher up the food chain this capability and leadership resides (or is consulting into), the greater the likelihood of an inspired and elegant solution. Now this doesn’t by any means insure larger business success, because there are many extenuating and complex forces at play in the product world. It also doesn’t imply that such a leader is always right, but in the long term, and especially when it comes to significant or revolutionary innovation (as opposed to the overwhelming majority of development that is merely “me too” or evolutionary feature creep), a design leader with vision will very often drive a product or system to greater and more successful heights."

I’m the same “csven” listed on the Core77 contributors page for those who haven’t made the connection.

And Infini is my log in name, I also use Niti Bhan to sign checks over to the landlord. As csven says, profile in the contributor’s section.

I’m Chris Gielow.

I’ve moved from Industrial to Interaction to Experience Design over the years. Now I’m heading up a User Experience Design group at Cardinal Health. I enjoy the large sandbox I get to play in, but the design community is small here in San Diego, which is why I’m a regular here.

I’ve quickly become known as the “innovation guy”, but I never realized how difficult it could be to change an entire culture–especially when most people don’t know what design is (and some don’t care to find out.)Needless to say it’s become my singular purpose to make innovation happen, and I’ve been soaking up everything I can on the subject. That may mean that in a few years “Experience Designer” won’t cut it for a title either.

The most important advice I can give to anyone right now is to constantly re-invent yourself and find the place where you can offer the most value as a designer. This is a pivotal moment for designers, and we need to show business that we can step up to the plate and deliver on all of our promises.

On Design and Innovation:

I had a conversation with (author/professor) Jonathan Cagen and he actually suggested that I ditch the “design” in my group name and replace it with “innovation.” He might be right, but I just can’t bear to do it. It’s interesting that the name of this forum, like at BusinessWeek, includes both labels.

A great quote from Nussbaum I frequently highlight when selling design and innovation internally: "When people talk about innovation in the ‘90s, they really meant technology. When people talk about innovation in this decade, they really mean design” -Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek

That’s a great point. I find people like Nussbaum also throw in ‘ethnography’ to that stew of overlapping words/concepts/processes. I’m not entirely happy with the slipperyness between them, myself. Although if you are perceived as being in one box or the other, then sometimes the conversation gets very difficult very quickly.

Hi, I’m a Senior Industrial Designer at Kenwood UK and have just started a blog here: www.ferraby.com

I’m going to be posting about design as strategy within a business having worked for the last 5 ish years to see process change here at Kenwood, it’s been a ride…

Please take a look and comment, thanks, Robin

I am Sivam Krish

I am into Generative Design. I blog about it in https://genoform.wordpress.com
I am interested in changing the game of design.

My name is Jason Boon, and I am an internal industrial designer/design manager for Kimberly - Clark on our consumer brands (Kotex, Poise, Kleenex, Pull-ups to name a few). I am passionate about using process and rigor (maybe a better way to state this is defined, repeatable steps) in design to create innovation, of which using design research is critical. I am currently working to highlight areas in my company where we don’t do that, and compare to a handful of good case studies that have been building in the last few years, with the hope of creating an efficient, strategic, and reliable design engine for our businesses.

Before coming to KC four years ago, I worked for two years at a small design consultancy outside of Madison WI after graduation from UW-Stout.

I would love to start some conversations about design research and market research - this directly relates to where I am at in the corporate culture of KC.

All the best,
Jason

Hey

Derek Crenshaw (dcdesign4u)
Product Design Director - SI Jacobson
Design and develop soft goods products. Range is wide; Backpacks, Luggage, Custom Cases, Coolers, Sportbags, Golf, Apparel and anything that comes my way.

Innovation-experience-Shared thought;
Designed the first cooler to sell over 3 million units at Walmart. Designed and developed the first backpack approved by the WFC. I have worked on numorous products that have had awesome innovation. I just wish I worked for companies that protected the innovations. I have worked with alot of great designers, that have lost alot credit because of fast followers and no protection. So, my experience, if it’s worth the title innovation…protect it.

nuff said!

Hey
My name is Roozbeh, graduate student at ASU, AZ.
Before moving to US, I worked for several years as Industrial designer, Director and Instructor.
At this time , I am challenging picking a research topic up within my several research interests.
I would love teaching design!

Hello!

(ELEVEN) is a small product development studio based out of Boston, MA. We are industrial designers, researchers, strategists, and engineers. Our objective is to improve and create experiences and products that will engage users and ultimately improve their lives. http://www.eleven.net

Why would 11 post this here? Makes no sense.

Take a look at the profile when you get a second.

I’m the Queen of England.

Evenin’! :smiley:

I’m a mature student with The Open University in the UK. I’m currently studying design - just coming towards the end of the module, with my final assignment under way and an exam in around six weeks’ time. This is my first formal experience of studying ID - it’s had its ups and downs, so far - but I’ve had a passing interest in various areas of design for most of my life.

I joined here on the recommendation of one of your members, and am hoping to make the most of it as a neophyte designer :smiley:

Hullo!

I am an aerospace engineer, currently employed at NASA, with a distracting interest in ID. I frequently invent and develop products, but am still working out how to find time to work on them. I enjoy bespoke recycling (that is, I find trash and make stuff out of it), and I think recursion is the coolest thing in the world.

I also value obedience, hence I have introduced myself.

Hello there,

I am Ralph Zoontjens, product designer, with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Eindhoven University of Technology.
My education was very diverse, basically what we did was creating future concepts for innovative interactive products and communicating these with visualizations and experiential prototypes. So there was a strong focus, next to the ‘classical’ aspects of ID, on electronics, programming and user testing. A very hands-on approach and also inspired by various fields to come up with innovative interactions such as music and dance.

I worked as a product designer for a firm focusing on consumer products and mobility. So I have worked on vehicle concepts and designed several products. Next to that I have worked with fashion designers to integrate electronics into clothing and doing research into 3D printed textiles, and currently I am an independent entrepreneur/designer working on various products and seeking to develop my own product.

Hi there,

I’m Sandra,

I’m a Website, Graphic, Identity and soon to be fully qualified Interaction Designer, presently studying an MA in Interaction Design in IT Carlow, Ireland.

I’m interested in Co-Design/Co-Creation, the Health Sector and making some sense of social problems.