Photo by: Ryan Pavlovich www.ryanpphoto.com

I accepted my first job out of school way back in 1991. When I drove into downtown Grand Rapids for the first time, I tried to get a lay of the land, find the key intersections, where the hotspots were and what life was like downtown. GR was much more of a sleepy town back then and to be honest a major letdown to me as an impatient, early 20-something too allergic to live anywhere other than at the heart of a pulsing city. I distinctly remember seeing the Junior Achievement building on the corner of Fulton and Division during that drive and marveling at all it could be but simply wasn’t…yet.

I didn’t realize the potential of GR at that time but rather quickly I saw the things that were already in motion, first it was the people I was fortunate to meet, the creative minds I got to work with and share many cherished conversations. Then it was the little nooks, Kava House, San Chez, Vinyl Solution, Founders (the mere existence of the Reptile House was a remarkable relief to me at the time) and events like Festival of the Arts. Then came the big changes, the new UICA(s), the new GRAM, the Ecliptic, the downtown growing into a burgeoning hub and the people I’ve known for years coming into their own as artists, designers and business owners. GR has blossomed.

And there still, stands the JA Building. Adorned briefly with the beautiful installation ‘Project Propagate’ by Sally England and Nick Stockton during the inaugural ArtPrize, and a note of what is to come. When Paul Amenta mentioned that the JA was a possibility for the next SiTE:LAB, I realized that the site was going to become something I couldn’t even have imagined back on my first drive into GR all those years ago. As Paul said, “25,000 sq. feet of heaven!”

I was proud to be a collaborator for the first SiTE:LAB back in October and I am geeked to again work with Paul, Tom, Eric, Terry and all the artists, designers and volunteers who will help transform this icon into unique site-specific Art exhibition space over the next few months.

Join us for SiTE:LAB Praxis and Art.Downtown April 15th to become part of what’s in store for the old JA.

When I was digging into Omnigraffle on the iPad last year, this song is what I flowed out, which you can view here:

Little Room

Creation, building something, can take on it’s own momentum and complexity will inevitably weigh in. This song is a reminder to not let the process take you, remember the purpose, the goals, the soul of what drove you (or the team or the project) in the first place.

The White Stripes are Artists but they also had the deft sensibilities of a Designer. Every song, every album cover, is a story and a study in reductive elegance. It’s fitting that their second album name is De Stijl. Red. Black. White. “…a backyard with nothing in it, except a stick, a dog and box with something in it”. The White Stripes show time and again that a simple palette and a deceptively banal scene can hang intrigue on its bones and invite a deeper gaze. While rocking out.

Find the story and magnify in the purest form possible what matters. That is my inspiration from The White Stripes and the challenge for all designers.

“I guess you have to have a problem if you want to invent a contraption…”

“Effect and Cause”
The White Stripes

Grand Rapids is ready

There is only one more day to nominate Grand Rapids as a potential site for a test launch of Google Fiber which would offer speeds 100x typical broadband. What I see when I look at what Google Fiber can bring to Grand Rapids is a big opportunity. This was further reinforced in my mind after I was invited to join the steering committee for this effort and witnessed tireless dedication and enthusiasm from a diverse cross-section of the community, something I’ve seen again and again in this town.

If you also see this as a huge opportunity, I encourage you to nominate Grand Rapids by 7pm Friday 3/26. Also, be sure to check out goog616.com and the Facebook page of GoogleFiber4GrandRapids for more information.

If you aren’t so sure yet, here is my take on it that I hope you will take into consideration…

I am a User Experience designer. In order to design a user interface or product, I need to observe and discover what a person’s goals are, from immediate needs in a particular context to life or experience aspirations. By gaining this understanding, I have a better chance to design an experience (UI, process or space) that can empower a person to see a way to achieve their goals.

If we, as a city, were to look at our goals and hopes across the spectrum of perspectives – those of us that live, work, learn, create or play here – how should we see the potential of GoogleFiber coming to Grand Rapids?

A good way to identify our collective goals, is to look at what we value and how this has been expressed in some of our best community accomplishments.

I think one stand-out example would be the inaugural ArtPrize event from this past fall, one that I was fortunate to be involved with as part of the ACTIVESITE artspace collaborative. With only five months from first announcement to event kick-off, ArtPrize went from an idea to an event that registered 37,219 voters, logged 334,219 votes, awarded $449,000, attracted 200,000 visitors and 1,262 artists from 41 states and 14 countries to 159 venues for 16 days. And it was like we have been hosting this event for years. Stunning. Could ArtPrize have been a huge hit were it not aligned with the hopes and aspirations of all those who made it happen? Whether you went to it, enjoyed it, talked about it, hosted artists, created the pieces, coordinated with the city, covered it or were part of the vision and sweat that started it all, we all made it happen and we all wanted it to be a success. And it was.

If I were to make a persona of the Grand Rapids community based on what I observed during ArtPrize and the months leading up to it, I would summarize that some of the life goals would be:

• We want to express ourselves
• We want to work together – knit together people, businesses and government
• We want to attract community-minded people
• We want to embrace new technology
• We want to step up to a challenge
• We want to rock on a national, nay, worldwide stage
• We want to reach our potential and remain true to our values

Sure, it’s an incomplete list and more data would be needed to prioritize it, but if you look at ArtPrize, you can see how it’s success aligned with our goals as a community. We leapt on the potential, in this case an idea put forth by Rick DeVos for a radically open art competition and who, with others, designed a rollout in a way that really enabled us to leap upon it.

Google Fiber is another one of those opportunities where we have to ask ourselves, “Can you imagine what we could do if we had this?”. Looking back at our goals, would Google Fiber allow us to express ourselves, work together, enhance education and retain talent, generate new business innovation and allow us to grow and share our ideas and ideals with Google and the world?

Perhaps the question should be, “Can we afford NOT to find out what we can do with Google Fiber?”. So leap on it we must! And I hope you will too.

This year’s IXDA conference, Interaction ’09 in Vancouver, became not just the venue for such a question, it was a ground-zero event that helped me connect some of the dots scattered around in my head. Yes, there were the great discussions on research and methodologies and flow diagrams and wireframes that I craved. But the big take away for me over the 5 days and 6 amazing keynotes was the direct linking of how our way of life is changing fundamentally and that the experience designer is in an ideal position to help people transition with the changes ahead. Regardless of where you stand on the economy, climate change, overpopulation or resource depletion, change in how we are going to live is inevitable and we just have to decide how smoothly we’re going to adapt along the way. This is a tall order, but one by one, each keynote and many sessions set the seeds for how this can start and how we can contribute.

Robert Fabricant of Frog Design summed up in his talk that “IxD is about behavior”. And this is why experience designers are suited to the task, because we are user-centric in our approach, and at it’s core we must focus on empathy. Discover a person’s story and unveil their attitudes, motivations and values to learn their goals and understand their behaviors.

How do we do this? 

• With immersion. We need to step out of our comfort, norms and culture.
• Interview, listen and engage by going to their environments – live in their lives. 
• Bring our prototypes back to see them interact.

When we provision for this and take these steps, we rely less on “Genius Design” and instead uncover realities that might not be captured in a quantitative analysis or idle assumptions. You can find the gems that are completely missed, or as Dan Saffer put it, “see the moonwalking bears“. One example by Marc Reddig from Fit Associates, showed that while testing an in-home medical device, his team learned that users changed their lifestyle, even hairstyles, due to the device. But the real discovery was that any device is not the cure, the social network is and the household is the patient. This kind of reframed thinking is where more organic solutions can begin.

Rob Fabricant also said that, “Design is not just about coming up with a solution, it’s figuring out the right way to look at the problem”.

One moving example Rob cited was Project Masiluleke, where his team immersed themselves all over South Africa as part of an effort to figure out how to empower people with knowledge to prevent HIV where only 5% of the populace have been tested. 

• They discovered the barriers of men testing themselves and scarcity of healthcare resources
• They discovered tech inroads: that 95% of the people use cell phones and created a communication practice of sending messages even when minutes have run out

They designed an experience centered around a product that can be locally built with off-the-shelf diagnostics

• Piggyback a testing message on the free messages sent by most of the population to start awareness. And encouraging cellphone followup in the test kit to deliver a message of pride form local personalities.
• Planning out the levels of service to cover the two user outcomes.
• Discreet in-home testing provided in a simple kit that unfolds with positive messaging that helps show them how their actions will strengthen the community whether they are ready to test now or not. 

Frog had the unique opportunity to test the kit concept with people who hadn’t yet been tested for the disease. The word of mouth spread quickly as these people shared their experience and brought their friends. The increase in testing was a major success and you could see the power of design enabling immediate change for this community.

With empathy, you can tell stories that connect and craft experiences that matter. Reduce feelings of inadequacy or fears or even discover touchstones that may be mental models just awaiting vast adoption – is the next “aha” gesture for a UI, ‘grating cheese’, as Nathan Moody from Stimulant postulated? Are we a Zipcar away from reducing global reliance on the automobile and it’s continuing impact on the environment?

So after immersion into the spectrum of UX professionals and issues, my mind is invigorated with questions and eager to apply new methods. But most importantly, I’m thinking more about how can we collaborate as designers to discover how to help foster positive change in people’s lives.

There’s much more to touch upon – whether inspirations like Kim Goodwin’s call to mentoring or how we can bridge disciplines to collaborate harmoniously among ID or developers – every session was very worthwhile and peppered with amazing moments. But I’ll leave these for future posts.

A big side note was that this was a shared experience (Crowdvine and Twitter integration was a master stroke) and I was fortunate to meet many great people and there was no shortage of big ideas to discuss! 

Needless to say, I would heartily recommend Interaction ’10 in Savannah GA Feb 4-7, 2010. Please look me up if you plan to go!

interaction09.ixda.org

I will be tweeting my experience: @thinkxd