Figure: Founder and Chairman of IDEO design company David M. Kelly)
Editor's note:
China is gradually moving from "Made in China" to "created in China ". Standing on the shoulders of "Made in China" as the world's factories, it is both an opportunity and a challenge for China. The core of creation-to put it bluntly, is a broad design capability. Looking at the world-renowned top brands, all of them use brand experience and user experience design capabilities as their core competencies. In this topic, we try to understand their design philosophy through the conversation with Western masters. How can Western design be linked between technology and multi-national culture, how can academic circles cultivate design elites required by emerging markets, and what is the design philosophy of tomorrow's world, and their common views on the emerging Chinese market. We hope that we can find some inspiration from the conversations of these design masters. To this end, we visited the University of Denver.
. IDEO is an American design leader, Chairman David Kelly (David M.
Kelly) for us to talk about the design axis of "Understanding human nature". How does IDEO extend this design philosophy to the Denver Institute of Design (D-
School) to share his views on the impact of cross-domain training, group division of labor, building innovative thinking processes on design education. David Kelly, founder and chairman of IDEO design company
(David M. Kelly: Visitors: Hong Ruiyin and Jiang Xianbin
Sorting: Hou Rushan
Q: How do you define "design "? How are your practices different from those of others?
A: design is an interesting word. When someone asks you what you do? I 'd rather say that I am an engineer.
People will not ask you any more, but if you say you are doing "design", I keep avoiding such an answer (SMILE), and you will ask me: "How is the color of my dress today?" Or
"What do you think of LAN ni ?" Then you replied, "No, no, I am not the idea I made." It takes a lot of effort to figure out What design you are doing. The reason for such confusion is that the design is not similar to other majors and has the scope of academic training. In definition, designers
It is the person who integrates the system, and the person who integrates the system. Their ability lies in the breadth. They are not specialized in any traditional academic training in the past. Of course, professionalism is very important because designers are very professional in solving problems.
Or the drill-down problem needs to be solved by experts in various fields. In my opinion, the designer is responsible for system integration. It is capable of understanding each part. It is a binder that combines all the things together and makes details.
Before you come, you can have the entire blueprint.
Figure: IDEO is a mouse designed for Apple computer companies.
Q: Is the design only a real celebrity?
A: Traditionally, design definitions include industrial design and art design. Does the art school have an aesthetic design?
There is a reason, just because of inspiration, you can decide what your design should be like. Of course, we believe that people with such unique talents exist. This is like a rock star, however, we believe that
Beautiful people also believe in their existence, but we also believe that design can be taught, and they can learn better and better. IDEO and the University of Denver believe that they should create a process of thinking ", each person has a knowledge internalization experience.
If you have an empty bucket, What experience do you have? For example, how to interview people, how to observe people, how to create prototypes, how to use a certain machine, and how to evaluate the market, you can put these buckets.
So the University of Denver and IDEO think the design is: If you have a process in your mind that creates a "process" in your mind, then you can do better. Why did IDEO succeed? Because I
They have always believed in the "process", not just a beautiful result. design is a process, an innovative method, not just an appearance but a whole thing, so the secret to success is that we have built a good company
We don't need to be smart. If we build this process, we can put all the good things of our four thousand customers into the barrels of these processes, we are not stealing the intellectual property of these companies, so we may be sent
Go to jail (Laugh), learn how they do things, like Apple P & G)
How does an office design company (Steelcase) do things, steal the methodology of the scholar's house, see the successful people's place, and then correct their own process. Q: designers are T-type talents.
A: Because the design is very complicated, we need people with expertise and breadth to do this.
We have created T-shaped talents. here you have the ability to analyze assets. For example, in the teaching of English Literature, Denver attaches great importance to the ability to analyze. Then we will take a vertical line (professional knowledge) from T-shaped) talent to establish
The horizontal line (wide thinking and system integrated thinking), Integrated experience and design allow people to have the two at the same time, so that they do not plan so much, but are willing to try, new products can be made very well
Great things focus on innovation. The goal is to make the company or organization more innovative, not just implement it. Denver follows the city of Plato on earth (Palo
Alto) IDEO defines itself as a Design thinker (Design
Thinker), instead of simply designing. Traditionally, we design like others, but when you hire us, we can change your company and culture.
We can provide you with innovative services and products, because we have a completely different set of ideas that are different from the original one in your company. Speaking of China, I can't see what China is discussing.
And the company will let everyone do innovation. This is crazy, but I think from the very beginning, as long as we only focus on vertical analysis, it is enough to focus on creativity and integration.
Because it needs to be trained. A group of people only need to be nurtured.
Figure: daily necessities designed by IDEO.
Q: We now see that human behavior and sociology are gaining more and more attention in the field of design, and are viewed as a scientific research, right?
A: If you asked me this question ten years ago, I wouldn't leave design thinking and sociology very independent from human nature.
Let's discuss it, but now you go to our website and write around to integrate the value of "scientific and commercial thinking and human nature ." More than a decade ago, we brought in psychologists, the so-called "Human Factors ".
They can understand human empathy and have the ability to understand the latest potential needs of mankind. As engineers, we are often highly technical and very excited when developing products.
Some people will accept this world because we are all human beings who can still understand certain human needs. However, these scholars will understand what people need, and business people pay attention to reality.
Usability feasibility, they pay attention to whatever product you give him, how to push it to the world, business people will think about the right channels to use and the right prices to push them to the market. We hired
More cognitive scientists (cogitative psychologist)
With anthropologist, we found that the entire product design process would be much easier if you could give organizations confidence in their real needs.
Technology will not accept the market, but know what people want. For example, if you know that you let the Organization know that there is a demand for two low-cost cars in the market, you can accept technical challenges to construct such
The car. I still have many good examples. For example, if we are a cola vending machine or a beverage market manufacturer, then a female psychologist in our plan will say to me: "Have you noticed that cola is
Isn't it strange to drop your ankle ?" But I never thought this was a problem because I thought as an engineer: "Cola is put on the top, and then the gravity relationship is used from top to bottom.
The idea is really amazing !" It took her several hours to get someone to use a video recorder to take a picture from the knee point of view. From a technical point of view, I never thought that I missed her entire point of view! In IDEO, we have a few
Thousands of such examples point out this. Designer Don Norman (Don
Norman wrote a book about the impact of psychologists on design for us in Denver. In the past, we were engineers, we will do our final work without focusing on video recorders.
Design, and then proceed to the next case, but this is a big mistake! I will never do this case again. We can't do less work now than we can do it now. We must first send out the job as a socialist.
Go, first, find out what "Needs" are, What Are people really excited about, and what are the real internal human reactions? Let's talk about technology again. Of course many things require people, but now we are looking at creative design.
This field discusses the importance of human nature. When we talk about people-oriented design, this is a great progress.
Figure: daily necessities designed by IDEO.
Q: more than 10 to 15 years ago, people who teach engineering at school had to think about human nature to find the "demand". Now, you suddenly say you should not let engineers do it, is it just to hire experts to do this part independently? Is this a revolution?
A: This is totally different. This is A great step. The point is that we bring human thinking into design, just like you.
You may think it is interesting to watch football, but you don't feel it. But if you go to play football on your own, you will feel that the player is really pitiful and you want to catch the ball, etc, you will feel the same feelings for players. Me
We will still think that we are the least experienced human factor, but we are not afraid to come up with new ideas that can make me rely on. Now the design has become a team movement, in the team, we need professional people to do everything.
Block, if you look at this, I want to become this person, there is a strong technology, I do not want to continue very weak, but still need to have empathy, we need to have really strong professionals, such as cognitive science and PhD in anthropology,
However, we still need to think horizontally, so design schools put these people together. Denver is a good place, because we are an adhesive in every field, let's teach them the design methodology. Most
What makes us surprised is that we have been discussing cross-domain training for 30 years, but it is hard to make it come true, but the point is that we brought these people in the past, we respect the deep expertise of each of them, but design the school's
Methodology is based on a lot of common sense, so everyone is willing to accept it. Therefore, another school tries to put biology, commerce, and chemist together to call them: "Start! Cross-Domain Consolidation
But they don't want to, but we put designers into this group, however, we know how to make a professional level, observe users, create product prototypes, and evaluate the market for some reason.
We know that we have been doing this for three years. For some reason, even the most serious physicist and the most difficult business professional are willing to accept our methodology, whether they win in the market or not
No. This is related to what we will do in the future. They are not the major of integration, but the major in their field. As long as someone is willing to integrate the proposal with methodology, these are serious techniques like surgery.
Professional people are willing to accept our methodology, and we have no problem at all.
The figure shows the electronic products designed by IDEO.
Q: Do D-schoo design schools inherit the business thinking of IDEO or the academic environment of Denver?
A: It is mainly based on IDEO's business thinking. Of course, D-school will be related to Denver. IDEO is a ten-fold larger design company. If you look at the Design Award, we have covered almost all
For example, the business weekly (Businessweek)
Awards) magazine Design Award, if you are going to talk to a journalist who knows the design award very well
Nussbum), you talk to him about some of the business ideas that will be very interesting. When some small companies say that because IDEO is larger than other companies, they can offer most of the design awards each year, or even connect to me.
In this case, he said to them, "Have you ever wondered why they (IDEO) are ten times the size of a general company ?" The idea of business people is that growth and company scale have great indicators in business,
To answer your question, if the company size is really an indicator, we are very successful. If you look at our hourly fees, we chat with the company's insiders, and we are talking to the CEOs of these upper-level management levels.
Level-1 people, not just senior engineers chat, then you can ask other people's opinions on us. Many people say that we have transformed their entire company, we are trying to make innovations for each other and sell them to their methodology instead
It's just a new product or service. If you think about it as a product, such as a graduate from an art design school, you sell the same item, however, we sell company transformation and experience. Of course, we also hope
We hope it is a small company, so we can divide it into several pieces. Yes, design is a good business. We can prove that I am not the kind of person who keeps looking at numbers. Someone in our company tells you that we did this year.
What is the annual revenue of 40 million US Dollars? Let's say that we have grown 115% in years because of that case.
The figure shows the work environment of IDEO.
Q: Is a person's story more important than a number?
A: I believe in people's stories. For example, in hospitals, we have many customers in hospitals and we don't have many furniture.
Design companies, but we have a lot of hospital customers who don't compete with each other, so we are working in Boston for medical service agencies Kaiser and Mayo
Clinic) the appointment case, when we walk into the hospital, you will soon find a great group of people inside, that is, nurses, who are grass-roots employees in the hospital, they generally do not talk to them,
When our methodology is very important to users' ideas, nurses are very important objects to talk about. They are people who do things according to information, implementation of Kaiser, a medical service agency like me
Long known, you can ask him, he said that you just walked into the medical center, you can see the results of your design, you can see that these authorized designers are creating new products, new processes, and bringing patients to professional medical care.
It is incredible that the distance between people is closer. I will give you some articles to report to the magazine: Metropolis magazine
Magazine) thinks this is a big deal, they said: "IDEO Medical Care Center ." But how often I try to communicate with people to see what they want? So we need to understand how users can make
With these products, you don't ask, but how do you observe them and see where they are used. For example, if you go to a gas station, if you ask if you have any questions about how to refuel, everyone will say there is no problem,
If you stand there and observe a person to see His refueling process, it is not enough to ask if there is a problem when using a credit card, you can look at his appearance and ask in a sociology way.
Where the question is, you are like a software, like a camera photographer. When something goes wrong, you record it in the software, and then you can check and find the problem and correct it, this is simple. Q: Looking at the commercial feasibility, regardless of the number, your customers have many large customers. What kind of company will benefit the most from the design? Is there a specific scale, or at what stage is a company suitable for cutting IDEO idea and doing the best in investment compensation?
A: We will have special benefits with large companies, small startups, or large companies.
Companies, when they are willing to accept your ideas, they can absorb a lot of quantifiable knowledge and do a lot of quantitative analysis for them, so small and newly started companies, because they can accept a lot of things, they
It can create very new things. Of course, medium-sized companies will also make a lot of good profits, but I will think that a very large company and a small company just started up, in particular, cooperation with design companies can benefit a lot. We have
Many people go out to start a company and pay great attention to social science. They are especially focused on analyzing human factors. If you go to our customers and ask the CEOS what IDEO features, they will say IDEO
We place special emphasis on customers and users, which are different from others. Many large companies are very good at market research. They are marketing people with preset assumptions and opinions, and then can get them from market research.
All the information we need to prove or deny this point of view, but our approach is open-minded and we will not set the problem. We just want to observe where the problem occurs, let's look at hundreds of possible problems, instead
Is to test our assumptions, right. Small companies are even more interesting, because everything is possible for them. They want to make a toothpaste market, but we can tell them that we find that the market for mouthwatering is very large, and they also
It's amazing to accept it. Therefore, many companies are very happy to know us because they have many opportunities for innovation. Because of this, many companies like us because we play a good role.
The role that we should do.
Figure: IDEO sample workshop.
Q: Based on the company scale and time point, is there any optimal time for IDEO to intervene and contribute in the product life cycle?
A: Of course, because we are discussing innovation, we are involved in the early stages of product concept development.
Manufacturer
Liaison) Departments, many of which are related to the Chinese manufacturing industry, are generally used to help small companies, then our large companies take us to the Chinese market and introduce them to their vendors, they are in China
There was a manufacturing relationship. The small company came to IDEO and said they also wanted to go to China for manufacturing. Then we just went there and we could be an intermediate role, help them contact big companies and indirectly
China. This is where IDEO is strong. You don't have to be smart, but you need to be more focused than other companies. China is very strong at the backend and executes it. It brings manufacturing into the market. That's the Denver design course.
It is not very strong in that field with IDEO, just like an operation. You will want to have an innovative plan before you lie on the surgical platform, so that you can have the tool to perform the operation on you, so let's look at the next step.
What is it, and whether the execution is good or not is used to check whether the front-end is well done at the beginning, the designer cannot just come up with some impossible plans, which is very impractical, they must be clear about what each step is.
We mean that we must have the same empathy for the next step, that is, we can't make anything, but what the cost is. Instead of being an expert, the person who has no manufacturing will be directly present, we won't start a new plan. We
Knowing that we are definitely not experts, or these people will oppose us in the end, we hope these people will return to their group and say, "You see! We are about to have something so cool !", Instead of waiting for the past
If we can't do this, we just need to have a leader present at the backend. The results will be very different. Here there is innovation, and there is innovation that can set the price right, I am very tall to finish the work within a certain period of time.
We are doing something like this, or we will not have business, or because someone in the United States is doing better than us!
Figure: IDEO office environment
Q: Is there a natural combination between your manufacturing department and China's emerging departments? But can you directly extend your services to the new market in China?
A: Of course I would like to. I'm not sure if they will need it now.
We, at present, are most ideal for us to help China make innovative products suitable for the U.S. market, and finally our methodology can help Chinese companies to make the Chinese market. It depends on how we go
Because it is difficult for a company to get in with the scale of our company, because it is not easy to get an entity company in China, so we will enter China through the hard-working customers
Instead of entering the market.
Figure: Design workbench of IDEO designer
Q: Well, you said you don't know when China will be ready. How do you know when the Chinese market is ready to accept you?
It takes a long time for the U.S. market to be ready, but you can tell it. What I want to talk about is that we must
In the market, I heard about user-oriented design and human-oriented design. At that time, the market was ready. We did not go there to talk about it as a consulting company, instead of doing something, we IDEO really want to make something,
But we don't want to do anything wrong. We have to ask them to trust our methodology. If you don't really need a vacuum, we make toothbrushes, depending on their confidence in our methodology, like the American media
We know that we are HP, P & G, Pepsi, and Eli
Lily) A lot more. You can call these CEOs. They will say that IDEO has changed my company. Then we make millions more because we follow their approach, that is very convincing. In
In the long run, we will enter the Chinese market, but if we finally want to enter China, we will first establish a good reputation, at least we should first let them prove our value, start with some small plans, and then I
We know the overall strategy of the company. We can start with some small plans at the very beginning, and then look at the results, so that the executives of these companies can discuss strategies with us, so what we do is more important.
Things. I am not an expert in the Chinese market. The maturity of the Chinese market is that when they begin to embrace this design idea, design should be to promote innovation.
After they have a concept, they will ask us to make some plans. But from the selfish perspective of IDEO, when we are ready to enter, we have made many plans, some of our customers already have
For example, we can say that this company was originally made by a logging company, and now they are making iPod. Do you want to be the same with them? For us, we have enough key groups
(Critical mass), you see that flextroonics, a manufacturing manufacturer, will buy Frog.
Design, they have a lot of manufacturing knowledge, they must know something.
Figure: indoor environment designed by IDEO
Q: there is a discussion about whether to allow western companies to enter China and continue using local talents. It is not good enough to get out of school. Now we are back in the United States. From the perspective of education, what is the relationship between design education and business?
A: When I graduated from the engineering department in my early years, I was surprised to find that I was led by A business student.
Direction, because I used to teach in school that the world is A field of science and technology, and physics and mechanics are all about A. Then I think it cannot be better, however, when I enter the company, I find that the upper-level business school is complete.
Industry. The way they treat you is as if you are just a technical expert. At best, you are an interesting component and not a person who cares about the overall macro strategy. My idea for education is to establish group cooperation. For example, in the past, our examination was to finish teaching books on the stage, and then
Other students can't open textbooks. I don't know what to prove, but I just want them to take exams on their own. But these students are not dummies. They have reading groups, they have friends and they will go
Focus on everyone's mental power, get the best information, and then take the test of the individual tests we force them to take. When I first started working in Baum, I had some problems. I tried to contact them and they told me to go back.
I just want to say that I have a problem. What you really want to do is to bring together all the smart people to solve the problem, whether I get credit or not, the more education I actually get
The more you come, the more you work with your team, not your personal education. In addition, you need to look at your final position with empathy.
Figure: indoor environment designed by IDEO
Teach the student team I have been teaching at the design school for three years. This is incredible and you can hardly believe it. I was seen as a good teacher,
However, I did not understand that my design course style was ranked as the best course by students. I finally found out that it was intended for students to perform well !! The design school has three different fields: technology, business, and human value,
Our professors represent experts in each field, so this is a team of professors who teach students. In the past, we had ME210 courses (Design Division courses). They did group courses,
All students are mechanical students. What team is this? What solutions do you think they can make? As a result, all the solutions they can propose must be mechanical engineering methods to avoid drunk driving? Mechanical Division
Learning. How can we make queuing at the Safeway supermarket not boring? Mechanical Science. Based on temperature, liquid pressure, and so on, we are now composed of psychology, business school professors, computer engineering departments, and me.
Professor with their students, then we set up many teams with 50 children, each of which has five people. They love it! They came to my office and told me it was a great course! I found out that they have the opportunity.
It will be okay! Their entire team has professional knowledge! That happened when my students could go to the studio to create a prototype of product and put it in front of everyone. No one in the room could make it.
I feel so good about myself! Business school personnel can understand the channels, Market evaluations, and reports, and view the impact of new products on the market through macroeconomic and micro-economic analysis,
Psychologists and social science students can go out to interview people, because business school students feel that they are too busy to interview people and analyze their human nature, if we mix these combinations
Is the focus of this lesson. I don't have to do anything. My friends will.
Figure: indoor environment designed by IDEO
We do not think that it takes six years for a university or research institute to complete such training, but there is such a cross-domain
Training is good. Our idea is to have an original master's degree, take three more courses, and then get a certificate from the Design Institute. This makes sense for the people who hire them, because after training, these people except their peers
In addition to dedicated capabilities, there are also cross-domain integration capabilities. This is also a meaningful experience for our professors. They are very excited because they have expertise in their own fields, but they have not
Have experienced such cross-domain experience. For example, we have a great business school professor Jim
Patell), he was a great guy. He once worked as a vice president and knew how to plan. Even if we were going to take classes in winter, he was preparing for the summer vacation. He even paid the TA one semester in advance, because he started doing this very early.
Classroom preparation. One day in class, he said to the students, "if you don't put it into words, everything is nothing, and everything does not exist ." Then he was discussing the schedule and budget. I sat there and thought, no, I didn't recognize it like this.
Yes, I want to refute this statement. I stood up and said, "This is not the case. You have intuition and experience. These are things that you have been bringing in your mind... And so on ". Then, Professor at the Computer Science Department, Terry winnorge
(Terry
Winograd) suddenly stood up and said, "What is your so-called existence ?" Then we started to quarrel. The students really liked these chaotic results, and the students liked it very much. They used to get used to it.
People stand there and talk about it. On the other hand, at the University of Denver, one of the top skills that students have learned is that they know how to please the teacher who scores, vote for it, and get it from him.
In class, partel will show you how many things you write, and I will see how many creative ideas you have. Terry will want to see your technical performance, students start to ask who scored them. For them, we become
With the goal of moving, students cannot please a specific teacher. In my dream, students will do what they think is right. Think about the difference between personality conflicts and only one strong leader.
. The core is to transfer schools to the industry, which is the focus, so that students should be exposed to each other's special characteristics. For example, an electrical engineering student told me why a business school student is standing and waiting for management.
We only have three people. Who are they going to manage? But in the end they were very happy because they completed the work together. They used to have no cross-domain training and they were not used to it. So I am very excited about this result, because I think
This is the core of transferring schools to the industry. There are many strong individuals in a team, resulting in interactions and changes. This is a process of transferring creativity to business. For example
In the future, MBA students who work in the room will not be afraid to go to the manufacturing floor even if they have read the manufacturing studio in the photo. If you have used mechanical oil to smell mechanical oil, it will be different.
Understanding training can help students transfer their abilities to a real business environment. Q: Can you talk about your thoughts on the design school?
A: The contribution of creative teaching is to let our students leave.
The foundation of law, what they have done before, combined with what they learned in Denver, so that they are confident that they can do innovation, they will not worry when encountering problems, I think there must be a way to solve this problem. I don't need to go alone.
The solution is to work with the team to solve the problem. I can't say what they can do after graduation, but they can do it with this "Confidence.
Figure: indoor environment designed by IDEO
Q: What is the next step in addition to three courses and major fund-raising for the design School D-School?
A: Our design school hasn't started yet. We are still just A prototype. We are still raising funds, maybe
We need to find another building worth 20 million US dollars. Now we only need to use it for the time being. You can't hide it. So we have a building problem to solve. We need to find the professor, we now have
Now we have three courses for the meeting. We will have six classes next year, but we will officially start the meeting, probably two years later, when the meeting was opened at the same time with the building. Q: Does the design school provide a master's degree?
A: It's A certificate. I can't see it yet and we will give it A master's degree. Because at this stage, if you want to give the Master's Degree
There is no such preparation in the industry. They do not expect a master's degree in design, and it is not easy to find a job after graduation. Steve James of Apple Computer
Jobs) is also my consultant. He told me not to turn it into a master's degree, but to the knowledge that every department can go, this design will not become a secondary degree in the eyes of others,
Instead, we are engaged in cross-domain training on the basis of everyone's knowledge. I can foresee that when the world embraces design methods and recognizes him as a professional, and design thinkers can have a certain position in the industry, it does
There is such a master's degree. It's just that this road is still quite long and I may not be able to see it in my life. Q: Isn't it because of the University of Denver?
A: Well, you can apply for A professional primary course at the University of Denver, and then associate the certificate of the Design Institute, or if your company is A sponsor of the Design Institute, your company will have 4-6 places for you to obtain the certificate from the design institute. |
