2.65MB - iDSA SF

Transcription

2.65MB - iDSA SF

a publication of the san francisco idsa
winter
view from the chair
Gerard Furbershaw / Lunar Design
editor’s letter
Tanya Damm Bokobza / TM, Inc.
p.2
p.3
the golden age of silver
Stephen Hooper & Lori Hobson /
designafairs USA
multipurpose designs
for miltipurpose times
Barry Katz
p.4
p.10
./05
understanding the customer’s
mind, one category at a time
Rashmi Sinha / Uzanto Consulting
attractive things work better
Donald A. Norman
future perfect: the contours
of the new designer
Cece Iandoli
sponsors directory
see our 2005 sponsors
p.17
p.24
p.28
p.32
trading up
Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske /
The Boston Consulting Group
p.13
Chair: Gerard Furbshaw
Editor: Tanya Damm Bokobza
Contributing Editor: CeCe Iandoli
Magazine Design: Mine™
Issue 02 Design : Smart Design™
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.minesf.com
www.smartdesignusa.com
director’s letter
view from the chair
as 2005 begins, the san francisco chapter of idsa is excited to publish the second issue
of its re-introduced InCA online publication. I believe it is one of the best publications in the
IDSA. We have received many compliments and positive feedback on the initial issue. Stuart
Constantine of core77 wrote a review of InCA and stated it was “highly recommended.” Both
IDSA and core 77 will be featuring InCA on their websites.
In this issue we are introducing a new section - IDSA-SF sponsors. We are thankful for their
financial support which provides the Chapter’s officers a bit more flexibility in instituting
more compelling programs and initiatives. These sponsors are not only supporters of IDSASF but are vital partners to the industrial design profession at large. Please consider them
when you are looking for services or products within the markets they serve.
I would like to thank Tanya Bokobza and all of the volunteers and writers who make InCA
possible. It’s a Herculean task - especially when everyone involved has a day job.
I hope you all enjoy the Winter 2005 issue.
Gerard Furbershaw, Lunar Design
chair, idsa-sf
inca / winter 2005
p.2
view from the chair | editor’s letter | the golden age of silver | multipurpose designs | trading up | understanding the customer’s mind | atrractive things work better | future perfect | sponsors
above: Friday Market in the town of Soloa, one of the largest Maya
cities in Guatemala. Pine needles; motion activated fragrance.
editor’s take
Next month, the San Jose Museum will host a discussion guru--we could not figure out why people would buy
titled: “Two Icons, Two Perspectives, One Conversation: this assortment of pine needles. We later saw the
Karim Rashid and Hartmut Esslinger” in conjunction pine needles scattered on floors in shops and houses
with the Museum’s first ID exhibit titled: BLOBJECTS & everywhere, in no particular “arrangement” or design
BEYOND http://www.sjmusart.org/blobjects/. I met “aesthetic”. Puzzled, we did not see what was clearly in
Karim Rashid at RISD when I was enrolled in his technical front of us: As you walk atop these branches their scent
drawing class--or as he coined it, mechanoexpressionism. is released, in effect, creating what we commonly refer to
At the end of that year, Karim Rashid left RISD on his way as: a “room deodorizer”. At this pure junction, of natural
material and human interaction, an experience is created;
to become the man, who wants to change the world.
a product is born - minimal cost, maximum effect.
I would argue that designers are given the opportunity
to change an individual’s world, with every new project.
Question is do we seize that opportunity? Can we? Do
we simply adapt to occurring changes translating them
into a physical language? or do we introduce a whole new Enjoy,
language inspiring change? In this issue we take a look
at life style and culture, emotions and mental models , Tanya Damm Bokobza
historical and present day symbols to help us understand InCA Editor
our ultimate critic – the consumer.
[email protected]
This past Christmas - the holiday (practice) that more
than any, celebrates design achievements on a consumer
level - I traveled to Guatemala. In indigenous markets
everywhere, we noticed piles of pine needles displayed
for sale. Between the four of us--a product designer,
mechanical engineer, marketing executive and a finance
We are in the process of creating a bay area student newsletter
(more on p.28) for design students who are interested in getting published, heard, and listen to their design peers. If you’d
like to work on this project with other student/designers, contact
[email protected] for further information.
inca / winter 2005
p.3
feature
Stephen Hooper & Lori Hobson
designafairs USA
01
the golden age of silver
if design is about telling a story, then color and material are surely the
anecdotes that bring the story’s plot to life and give its characters personality.
Material makes product innovations visible and palpable. Colors express the
feeling of an age, the manner of a specific group, or the prevailing attitude of
the masses. As design solutions increasingly reach diverse global audiences,
the number of color and material “subplots” designers must understand has
become astounding.
Given the variation among each culture’s response to
color and material, it’s a wonder that silver-tone metallic
color has captivated the world. Silver-colored mobile
phones lined the shelves at U.S. retail outlets for the
past two years. Virtually all of the early small-format
LCD TVs--whether from Samsung, Philips, Sony or Sharp-were painted silver. Automotive coating suppliers report
that 38% of 2004 vehicles sales worldwide were silver,
including a whopping 65% of sales in Malaysia. In the
United States, sales of silver vehicles surpassed white
(the perennial favorite) starting in 2000 and remain
dominant.
Among designers, the mere suggestion of a silver finish
today is likely to solicit a yawn unless, of course, it is in
regard to employing authentic metal. Ever since low-cost
offshore vendors mastered the dubious art of painting
plastic, the silver-look has become as cliché as the flip
phones and DVD players to which it is applied. While
inca / winter 2005
the widespread use of silver paint may have tarnished
the trend, understanding the socio-cultural, market, and
manufacturing factors that spawned these silver-toned
surfaces gives us a view into how design trends manifest
themselves as well as a glimpse into what might be next.
The Socio-Cultural Drivers
Although color and material speak a universal language,
their message is laden with variations and subtleties.
While the properties of light and pigment - as well as the
basic anatomy of the eye - mean that surface qualities
are more than simply a matter of individual interpretation,
no finish is perceived the same way by any two people.
Our personal experiences combine with social context to
shape our reactions and preferences. With this in mind,
we asked our team of geographic and culturally diverse
researchers to consider the recent popularity of the silvermetallic finish and share comments about the trend from
their unique demographic perspectives.
p.4
above left: M65 outdoor mobile phone designed by designafairs
above right: Siemens CF62 flip phone designed by designafairs
Europe
“The biggest attraction of the silver surface is its
association with advanced technology and its neutrality
of color,” according to Susanne Ebling, director of
designafairs Color & Material Unit in Munich. Her
comments foreshadowed the main themes from all
three regions we polled. “Silver is not loud, demanding or
aggressive. Silver treatments blend in most atmospheres
and product families. And silver expresses luxury, a noble
elegance and distance,” she said. “It is a cool metal, so it
makes me cool, too, right?”
Americas
For an American perspective, our team traced uses of
silver-aluminum surfaces through influential products,
beginning with “classic” audio equipment. During our
inquiries, a researcher at Marantz’s PR agency in the
US told us he could answer our questions about the
company’s Model 10B tuner but, “It may be tough to get
you 300DPI images as this product is over 3 years old.”
We smiled and realized that--while academics might
begin this socio-cultural background with a view into
silver’s importance to the Incas or its use as currency-our American “historical” perspective could start with a
The designafairs Color & Material Unit conducts venerable piece of audio gear introduced about 40 years
worldwide research into the factors that shape design ago.
trends. The group provides our clients with insights
into emerging trends, color and material roadmaps, and Hi-fi equipment from the 1960s and 1970s comes to
strategies for future product generations. Among the mind quickly when we consider the influences that
group’s ongoing clients is Siemens Mobile, which uses shaped Americans’ current association with silverdesignafairs extensively for planning its product families. colored finishes as high value and high technology. Early
In recent years, the Siemens Mobile color palettes have companies founded by Saul Marantz, Sidney Harman,
tended toward silver-oriented concepts for mass market and Avery Fisher selected true metals as much for their
phones like the CF62, its first flip phone. Expressive beauty as for their lack of suitable alternatives. Molded
color has been reserved for lifestyle segments, including plastics were neither as prevalent nor likely to have
the design of the M65 outdoor phone that uses a true been as appropriate due to low volumes and prevailing
magnesium frame to reinforce the extremely impact- production methods. A well-regarded example of the
period, the Marantz’s 10B tuner was a coveted item in
resistant plastic housing.
1963. Considered remarkable for its time, the 10B was
While silver surfaces are enjoying popularity worldwide, the first tuner to be equipped with a built-in oscilloscope,
the Color & Material Unit finds that this color choice has signal location, and stereo separation. Marantz chose
emerged truly as the “lowest common denominator” for a brushed aluminum face to ensure that the aesthetic
products seeking a global audience. The coolness of pure quality of the tuner’s exterior paralleled the innovations
silver-aluminum treatments are too hard, faceless, and inside. “Plus, at the price we were charging, there really
distanced for many Europeans and others. Ebling’s group wasn’t another choice,” explained the company.
believes that the expression of technology will become
warmer and the expression of luxury will find a new
palette.
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p.5
Early companies
founded by Saul
Marantz, Sidney
Harman, and Avery
Fisher selected true
metals as much for
their beauty as for
their lack of suitable
alternatives.
The coupling of silver with advanced technology endured
and has been reinforced by later products. One notable
case occurred when Canon introduced its first Advanced
Photo System (APS) camera. Five companies, including
Canon, had jointly developed APS, a technology that
used 24mm film in a cartridge that enabled simple dropin loading. The Canon ELPH was released in America in
May 1996 and was 30% smaller than the conventional
compact cameras. Canon explained that the camera body
was purposefully made of a stainless steel alloy to add an
appropriate heft to the small device, enhance its stability
when shooting, and provide a sense of luxury. This
material selection elicited a feeling that reminded people
of the sumptuous metal cameras from prior decades. The
ELPH’s design caused a sensation upon release, making
it the market leader and Canon’s name synonymous with
APS.
In February 1999, the introduction of the iconic Palm V
brought silver’s influence a little closer to our IDSA chapter.
Lawrence Lam, manager of industrial design at palmOne,
explained that thinness was one of the main reasons for
choosing the Palm V’s anodized aluminum--which shaved
2mm off the product body. Lam said that the neutrality of
the metal also turned out to be important. Early concepts
considered building-in more exotic textures like leather,
top left: Marantz Model 10B tuner introduced in 1963 featured a
high quality brushed aluminum finish and genuine walnut enclosure.
Photo courtesy of Marantz/D&M Holdings
middle left: Canon ELPH/IXY introduced in 1996 had a stainless
steel alloy body. Photo: Nelson Au.
inca / winter 2005
p.6
Give me a blue suit, and I’ll
choose my own tie.
but focus group participants said they preferred to do their own “accessorizing.”
One participant said, “Give me a blue suit, and I’ll choose my own tie. Don’t sew
the tie onto the suit.” So the final solution sought both simplicity and elegance: a
sleek metallic look which Lam said was inspired by small portable music players
and digital cameras.
With products like these building an image of high value and desirable technology,
it’s not surprising that silver-toned surfaces have taken over our Best Buys and
Fry’s Electronics. Yet, with silver coatings plastered on a myriad of low quality, metoo products, we anticipate a renewed emphasis on authentic materials. Plastic’s
advantages--cost, design flexibility, durability, and light weight--suggest that its
mass application will continue, but with more sophisticated and environmentallybenign treatments that avoid painting.
Asia
Generally speaking metals have not been the most common materials used in
Asia. There has always been a preference for natural materials like wood, stone,
or ceramics and regional materials such as bamboo, clay, or rattan. Historically,
metals were used sparingly as decorative elements for religious or ceremonial
objects like urns, to make weapons, or in useful products like door or cabinet
locks, teapots (Japan) and chopsticks (Korea). In Asia, there has always been a
an appreciation for the traditional material and crafts. Widespread adoption of
metal has never matched that of Europe or America.
Even so, in the Asian market today, it is generally agreed that adding decorative
shiny metal helps the product sell better. The popularity of silver metallic
surfaces is, in part, an interest in following trends in Western design and, like
their Western counterparts, Asians generally associate silver surfaces with
advanced technology and high value objects.
Many Asian cultures also like “metals” because shining objects connote
traditionally high-value materials. This is one reason why painted plastics with
metallic effects rose to popularity: The value is not in the material itself but in the
glimmer it produces. Research also showed that silver-metallic surfaces appeal
to an Asian “obsession” with cleanliness. Metal surfaces look clean or offer the
perception of being easy to clean.
Although Asians have been drawn to the silver-metallic shine, they generally
don’t like it in large amounts. Traditionally, Asians have not wanted to stand out
individually, which might appear to be crass or arrogant. So the silver-metallic
effect is most popular on small, more discreet electronic products like digital
cameras and mobile phones, or when the material has a neutral pearl or matte
effect. These subtle effects will become more prevalent as material-pigment
manufacturers make advances in controlling the flake size, shape and coatings
that create shiny and iridescent effects.
above: Palm V handheld, photo courtesy of palmOne
inca / winter 2005
p.7
the market and manufacturing drivers
While people enjoy the elegance of metal’s luster and associate its gleam with the latest technology, we have often balked at
its price tag, driving manufacturers to look for alternative solutions. The high cost of manufacturing consistent, cosmeticallybeautiful metal parts has relegated the use of authentic metals to relatively expensive goods like high-end audio equipment or
design-driven products like those from Apple. (In fact, the cost of producing the Marantz Model 10B was so significant that,
despite the tuner’s success and relatively high price, it drove Saul Marantz to sell his business.) Once lower-cost alternatives
became available for creating silver-toned surfaces, manufacturers and the mass market were poised to embrace these
treatments that resonate with our emotional and psychological attachment to their true metal counterparts.
The use of metallic pigments in coatings and plastics grew out of a desire to emulate metal’s characteristics in a way that is
affordable to the masses. Metal pigments are flakes, strands or spheres of solid metal that retain most of the attributes of the
bulk metal: opacity, color, sheen, and malleability. To realize silver-colored surfaces, aluminum flakes are the primary choice of
pigment. The two dominant processes for using metal pigments are “mold-in-color” pigmentation - incorporating the flakes in
molten polymer that is subsequently injected into the mold-- and coating via painting.
Metallic Painting. Metallic painting has the advantage of a
high degree of brilliance. Because the coating is relatively thin,
aluminum flakes become oriented parallel to the substrate
on which they are applied. As the coating evaporates more
flakes are forced into this orientation. Ultimately, many of the
flakes have their large flat surface facing outward, maximizing
the amount of reflective light. Painting can hide flaws in the
substrate. However, it suffers from being environmentally
problematic due to its emissions of volatile organic compounds,
the disposal of solid paint residues, and the difficulty recycling
painted plastic parts at the end of the product’s life.
A New Approach. In-mold decoration techniques have evolved,
offering a promising alternative to either paint or mold-in-color
pigmentation. During the in-mold decoration process, a thin
pigmented film is placed into the cavity of the tool. When
molten polymer is injected in the tool, the heat and pressure
shape the film to the tooled part. The approach offers a great
deal of ingenious flexibility since the insert film is generally
printed with pigment and open to all of printing’s creative
options. Also, the approach means that metal flake pigments
printed on the film can be oriented by stretching the film
during its extrusion, achieving a uniform, bright visual effect
that is close to painting and is free from flow and weld lines.
Mold-in-Color Pigmentation. By contrast, environmental Companies like Japan-based NISSHA have demonstrated the
considerations are key advantages of the mold-in-color success of this process for mass production.
approach, in which metallic flakes are embedded directly in
the molded polymer. This process has negligible emissions and
waste disposal issues since scraps can be reground and reused.
Unfortunately, mold-in-color does not offer the same brilliance
as painting; the relative thickness of the polymer means the
pigment flakes are oriented more randomly, which reduces
the surface’s reflective qualities. This same thickness, though,
makes these parts impervious to scratching, unlike painted
surfaces that easily chip. The biggest issue adopting a moldin-color approach is visible imperfections of the substrate, i.e.,
flow or weld lines that disfigure the surface’s appearance.
inca / winter 2005
p.8
As the current silver look
wanes, designers will become
more focused on truth in
materials.
The End of an Era
Signs of decline are surfacing in the silver phenomenon.
Automotive coating suppliers report that silver auto
sales probably peaked in the US last year. Cell phones
now feature colored face plates in front of their silver
bodies. And the general overexposure of the aesthetic is
bound to drive product manufacturers toward new color
choices.
As the current silver look wanes, designers will become
more focused on truth in materials. Cost-sensitive use
of true metals will reemerge. Advances in materials and
pigments will lead to more controlled choices for metallic,
pearlized and other effects. In-mold decoration will open
the door to more variation and brand-focused solutions.
Environmental responsibility will regain importance,
forcing new approaches not only to surface treatments
but also to part design for better material recovery and
reuse.
In terms of color, designafairs Color & Material Unit sees
tones as becoming warmer but still infused with hightech expression. For example, cool metals will evolve
towards warm metals. There will be “cool golds” that
will appear very intellectual and refined. Our team also
sees the expression of luxury as changing; we anticipate
that a very colorful interpretation of luxury will emerge.
Luxury brands will adopt very strong, intense colors in
high quality materials.
So the story goes with design trends. An influential style
emerges that sparks an emotional response. People show
interest and compel its adoption. Manufacturers tap
into the trend’s appeal to maximize its market potential.
Competitive pressures lower costs; the trend proliferates;
uniqueness is lost. What was unique becomes common.
Silver today, and tomorrow?
The authors would like to thank Marantz/D&M Holdings, palmOne,
Canon USA, Knovel Corporation, Phil Hobson, Susanne Ebling of
designafairs’ Color & Material Unit, and researchers at designafairs/
s.point in Shanghai for their valuable insights, images, and research
support. s.h & l.h.
inca / winter 2005
p.9
Barry Katz
Professor, California College of the Arts
feature
03
feature
02
multipurpose designs
for multipurpose times
I’m not sure how many Swiss Army Knives I have donated to airport security checkpoints in
the past three years, but it is probably enough to equip a small regiment of the Swiss Army. The
number, in any case, is large and growing and as surely as one is confiscated at the departure
gate, I go out any buy another upon arrival. The tiny black objet-with its decidedly non-lethal
1.25” blade, its rather ineffectual nail file with a torqueless screwdriver tip, a pair of completely
useless manicure scissors, tweezers that do not tweeze and a toothpick I would certainly never
put in my mouth-is indispensable and we all know why: The multipurpose Swiss Army Knife is
an emblem, a powerful spring-loaded metaphor, a signifier in carbon steel alloy of the intricate
multiple identities that characterize our time. The very model of “convergent technology,” its
multipurpose blades promise to cut through the tangled webs...
Most simple tools are inherently multifunctional, which is what
enabled our ancestors to live out Marx’s pastoral fantasy of being
able to “hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in
the evening [and] criticize after dinner” without hauling around an
enormous bin of equipment. Indeed, it is one of the hallmarks of
modernity that as our professional roles become more specialized we
have tended to trade the versatility of, say, the quill for the productive
capacity of the linotype machine. Even though it may be designed
with Alias and assembled by robots, the multi-purpose pocket knife
is a link to an irretrievable past, to a time beyond what the Industrial
Age called the division of labor and what the Information Age calls
multitasking.
a modern world whose outlines were just coming into focus: Visitors
to the famous Crystal Palace could see, among its multitude of sociotechnical anachronisms, a “Sportsman’s Knife” with no fewer than 87
blades. [p.11] The proliferation of edged appendages sprouting from
this grotesque bit of Victoriana reflected the proliferation of tasks
the middle-class Englishman might be called upon to perform in the
course of his working day.
But if the multipurpose Swiss Army Knife is not without precedent,
its story is. It grew out of a cooperative venture organized in 1884
by Karl Elsener. Some years later, following the death of his mother
Victoria, Elsener combined her name with the European designation
for “stainless” (inoxydable) and renamed his company Victorinox.
Here, as so often in the history of design, the Great Exhibition of 1851 Today, from its hyper-modern factory in Ibach on the shores of Lake
offers a bifocal view of a preindustrial world fading into oblivion and Lucerne, Victorinox turns out around 100 distinct models ranging
inca / winter 2005
p.10
it is the symbolic, more than the functional
character of the Swiss Army Knife, that
commands our attention.
transferring computer files with a detachable 128-, 256,
or 512 MB flash memory USB drive [above right]. Having
already adapted their product line to the predictable
needs of anglers, mountaineers, waiters, and handymen,
the designers at Victorinox are now trying to anticipate
emerging user categories and to equip them.
from my ritually-confiscated 7-function “Classic” to the
terrifying 72-blade “SwissChamp XXLT” which includes
such indispensable accoutrements as a fish-scaler, a
watch-case opener, a wire-stripper and a snort-sized
pharmaceutical spatula.
But again, it is the symbolic, more than the functional
character of the Swiss Army Knife, that commands our
attention. Among other things, it seems to portend
the end of the classical period of design specialties:
“transpo,” “telecom,” “medical,” “lifestyle,” “industrial.”
The culture of postmodernity has returned us to the
ancien régime of multifunctionality and interoperability
that was supposed to have vanished with the Industrial
Revolution. Automobile manufacturers are snooping
around to find out what’s going on in healthcare and
entertainment; furniture designers are worrying about
mobile communications; biology is showing up in the
curricula of design schools and even among a few of
the more venturesome consultancies. Long before
the personal computer paraded itself as the universal
machine, before the present-day product confusion that
turned a telephone into a camera, and a fax machine
into the office copier, scanner and printer--the multipurpose Swiss pocketknife crept forward, spying out the
landscape of the post-professional era.
It is its survival into the 21st century, however, rather than
its origins in the 19th, that is remarkable about the Swiss
Army Knife. This results from the innovation engine that
drives all of its products and results in a seemingly endless
array of new configurations recent breakthroughs include
the SwissFlame(tm), with a blue-laser lighter activated by
Piezo technology; the MidniteManager(tm), whose red
LED illuminates the path of a tiny ballpoint pen; and my
personal favorite, the state-of-the-art SwissMemory(tm) left: Sportsman’s Knife, 1851
which allows cyberdandies to trim their cuticles while right: SwissMemory™
inca / winter 2005
p.11
The inevitable trajectory is
toward user groups of one,
the dream (or nightmare)
that has been widely heralded
as the coming age of masscustomization
The Swiss Army Knife, whether the platinum Série I
encrusted with 800 Bonfort diamonds ($113,118.20, at
current exchange rates) or the entry-level “My First
Victorinox” for kids (rounded blade, no corkscrew),
remains the definitive emblem of an era which has seen
us pass from sequential to concurrent careers, where the
boundary between home and work has nearly vanished,
and in which each individual has become the manager of
a complex network of barely-overlapping social roles (a
condition once known as “schizophrenia”). It reminds us
of the past, while equipping us for the future.
The innovators in Ibach, cutlery capital of Switzerland, the
site of well-publicized pilgrimages by presidents, princes,
and popes, can no longer be content to turn out one new
combination of blades after another in the futile hope of
capturing the next, ever-smaller niche. The inevitable
trajectory is toward user groups of one, the dream (or
nightmare) that has been widely heralded as the coming
age of mass-customization. Rather than wait for the
knife designed for stamp-collecting professors with
persistently high cholesterol who bike to work and enjoy
sushi, why not a system of dial-in modules that will enable
each of us to order the knife that corresponds exactly to
our needs? Will Victorinox rise to the challenge? Will its
shiny blades remain at the cutting edge of innovation?
Barry katz is a professor of Humanities and Design at CCA, consulting professor in the Design Division at Stanford University, Fellow
at IDEO, dean of IDEOU, and contributing editor to I.D. magazine,
Metropolis and LIMN: The Magazine of International Design, and
the author of three books, most recently Technology and Culture: A
Historical Romance.
inca / winter 2005
p.12
feature
03
trading up
Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske
The excerpts that follow are extension of BCG’s continuing research on consumer
behavior--focused entirely on the travel industry research update 2004
the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) published a bestselling book entitled Trading Up:
The New American Luxury which details how the convergence of specific socio-economic phenomena
(increased discretionary wealth, changes in family structure, and the heightened influence of women)
coupled with a shift in consumers’ purchasing behaviors, resulted in the ascendance of a new category
of goods and services. BCG coined this new category New Luxury goods which refers to companies
providing premium goods and services for people who are not affluent.
IN OCTOBER 2003,
Now that most American consumers can afford to buy goods that fulfill their survival
needs and still have some available cash, consumer behaviors have also changed. BCG
asserts that today’s consumers rely on three behaviors to maximize their spending
capacity: (1) Trading Up implies spending money on luxury items which result in
emotionally valuable experiences. (2) Trading Down occurs when consumers choose
the low-cost alternative for a product with little importance to them (to conserve their
money for Trading Up experiences). (3) “Rocketing” behavior occurs when consumers
spend a disproportionate amount of their income on one category of goods.
Travel is a growth sector for both Trading Up and Trading Down. Although pressed for
time, consumers have found ways to insert short trips into their busy lives. They also
splurge on their major vacations by taking a premium cruise or an extended hotel stay in
an exotic or resort destination. Even within a single trip, the traveler/ consumer willingly
makes Trading Up and Trading Down trade-offs. But, above all other considerations,
they are anxious to have a travel experience that delivers special delight.
inca / winter 2005
p.13
For travel channels that are ailing or have poorly
differentiated brands, the association with a New Luxury
product can add strength and emotional engagement.
Therefore, travel is an important category for New Luxury
goods, because of its intense emotional content. Travel
fulfills several emotions associated with the New Luxury: it is
primarily about taking care of me (the need for time alone,
reward, and renewal). Such travelers say that travel makes
them feel “rejuvenated” and “less stressed out.” Secondarily,
travel is about questing (the search for new experiences,
learning, and personal growth). These respondents say that
travel is about “fun” and being “adventurous.”
brand L’Occitane, for example, with its placement in the
bathrooms of some upscale hotels.
These benefits accrue not only to the branded consumer
products, but to the travel brands themselves, as
travelers begin to include branded amenities as one of
their decision criteria. For travel channels that are ailing
or have poorly differentiated brands, the association with
a New Luxury product can add strength and emotional
engagement. This is the effect of United Airlines serving
Starbucks coffee, for example. But this can be a risky
tactic for the stronger brand. Does the Starbucks brand
lose or gain luster by being served from a food service
Travel Channels as the New Retailers
An intriguing Trading Up development in travel is the cart banging into your elbow? (Could this be an opening
emergence of travel channels – including hotels, airlines, for tea?)
and cruise ships _ as showplaces and de facto retail
outlets for New Luxury goods. More and more, travel There can also be a parity of brands, where a strong
channels are associating themselves with premium travel channel partners with a strong New Luxury brand
goods, particularly personal care items, food, and to create a very powerful combination, such as the Ritzbeverages, but also fashion accessories, and automobiles. Carlton “Key to Luxury” program, which provides the hotel
For New Luxury brands, especially new or emerging ones, guest with a Mercedes as part of the room rate. This is a
placement with hotels and airlines is a very positive successful cross-market pairing of two complementary
step, because it generates trial and awareness of the New Luxury brands that benefits both.
product. This is what has happened for the personal care
Travel Channels Associated
with Premium Goods
inca / winter 2005
Product brand
Category
Partner Travel brand
Product brand
Aveda
Personal Care
W Hotels
Hotels
Kendall-Jackson
Wine
Windstar Cruises
Cruises
L’Occitane
Personal Care
Four Seasons
Hotels
Molton Brown
Personal Care
Mandarin Oriental
Hotels
Starbucks
Coffee
United Airlines
Airline
Stonyfield Farms
Yogurt
Song
Airline
Todd English
Food
Queen Mary II
Cruises
Wolfgang Puck
Food
American Airlines
Airline
p.14
This trend toward the placement of premium brands in
travel outlets is largely driven, as is much of the Trading
Up phenomenon, by the influence of women. Although
the majority of business travelers are still men, more and
more women are traveling as part of their jobs. These
travelers are particularly discerning about the personal
care amenities in their rooms as well as the foods and
beverages available in the mini-bar. When they find a
product they like while traveling, they are likely to buy it
when they get home and recommend it to others.
Their association with the Soho Grand and Tribeca Grand
hotels added a new dimension to their well-established
brand, as the choice for visitors to stylish hotels in New
York’s trendy downtown.
Selling personal care items through hotels does more than
just create awareness; it can also be a profitable business.
The sales are often made at a lower cost to the seller, and
the orders are for large volumes to a single location. This
is possible primarily because the sales can be made direct
to the hotel, rather than through a distributor, and hotels
What Women Want: A Room with a SKU
do not charge commissions for stocking the brands, for
William Reith, Director of Fragrance for Hermäs, is a hotel placement as many department stores do
strong believer in the value of hotel placement for the
company’s new personal care products. “Because Hermäs Hot Spot: W Hotels
does not advertise its bath products and has a very Starwood, the large hotel group, has tailored its portfolio
limited distribution in the U.S with the hotel program,” he of brands to capitalize on the Trading Up phenomenon
says, “we’re introducing the product without doing it in a and avoid being stuck in the middle as the hotel market
commercial or vulgar way. I can’t tell you how many times polarizes. Their W hotel brand is directly aimed at the
a customer will walk into a Hermäs store requesting a New Luxury consumer. It is a group of 20 properties,
soap or shower gel she just tried in a hotel.”
located in prime business destinations (5 of them in New
York and the majority in the United States) and priced
New Luxury personal care brands and premium hotels are at a premium to Starwood’s Sheraton and Sheraton
a natural fit. The placement leads to trial and awareness Four Points brands, but with lower rates than their
by a very important set of consumers _ upscale women superpremium offerings, The St. Regis and the hotels
travelers. It is also likely to add luster to the goods by of The Luxury Collection. W hotels feature a number of
association with the brand of the hotel. Kiehl’s cosmetics, technical differences. In the rooms, guests find oversized
for example, is a premium line of all-natural personal desks with cordless speakerphones, beds with pillowtop
care products, from a company founded in 1851, and mattresses and duvets stuffed with goose breast feathers,
packaged in simply labeled, utilitarian tubes and bottles. spacious bathrooms with extra large shower heads, and
What Women Want: A Room with a SKU
Brand name bath amenities
56
Mini Bar
71
47
Spa services
39
24-hour room service
Must Have
inca / winter 2005
41
25
48
47
Would like to have
p.15
minibars stocked with New Luxury treats, including
microbrew beers. The lobbies are designed to look like
hip living rooms, rather than stuffy, formal spaces. Every
hotel offers a healthclub and spa, open early and late.
Starwood went so far as to acquire Bliss Spas, so they
could offer them as part of the W hotel New Luxury
experience. These features, along with many others,
combined with the premium but affordable room rates,
make guests feel that they are “taking care of me” and
expressing their own individual style.
The Trading Up Management Practices
Starwood’s Westin mid-price brand is much larger than
W, with more than 100 hotels in 25 countries, and it caters
to a wider range of consumers. But Westin has been
very successful at using New Luxury elements to attract
travelers away from competitive conventional brands,
especially Hyatt and Marriott. In August of 1999, Westin
began introducing its “Heavenly Bed,” a combination of
a premium mattress and box spring, high threadcount
sheets and pillowcase, duvet set, hypoallergenic pillow,
and decorative skirting. By our estimate, the ensemble
costs Westin about $1,010, in comparison to the $690
we estimate the hotel chain spends on a conventional
bed.
3. Be totally authoritative and expert in your category. New
Luxury leaders understand the consumers’ experience
and live it themselves.
But the investment has resulted in increased occupancy
rates in the Westin hotels that offer the Heavenly
Bed, and produced a 5% improvement in the guest
satisfaction index in those hotels. Many guests like the
beds so much, they purchase them from Westin at a
retail price of $2,565. Said one guest, “I finally decided
to buy a Heavenly Bed because it seemed less expensive
than moving into a Westin Hotel.”
1. First position is worth up to 80% of the category profit
pool. The leader in each category wins far more than
most people believe possible.
2. Never allow a competitor to trump you. Increase the
cadence of innovation and escalate quality. Once a New
Luxury product is surpassed by another, in any way, it is
very difficult to regain momentum and leadership.
4. Dissect, understand and break the compromises in that
consumer experience. New Luxury goods do not require
that the consumer give up one desire to gain another. In
prepared food, for example, they can have both superb
taste and convenience.
5. Never underestimate your consumers’ intelligence,
emotional touch points and willingness to become your
brand apostle.
6. Shatter the demand curve. Seek higher price points
and higher volumes.
7. Own your own value chain. Be sure the product, and
the experience that surrounds it, are flawless.
8. Don’t rest on your laurels. Continuously attack the
category like an outsider.
The Boston Consulting Group, 2004
LEFT: The Westin “Heavenly” Bed
inca / winter 2005
p.16
feature
By Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D.
Principal, Uzanto Consulting
04
understanding the customer’s mind,
one category at a time
your friend invites you to check out her latest toy, Roomba the robotic
vacuum cleaner. You watch it go determinedly back and forth across the room,
making distressed noises when stuck and grateful noises when you rescue it. It
arouses friendly, warm feelings in you, and you decide you want one for yourself.
You don’t realize what it reminds you of - R2D2 from Star Wars. Small wonder
since one of the creators of the Roomba, Helen Greiner thinks of R2D2 as one
of her inspirations in designing a robot that has its “own moods, emotions and
his own agenda.”
You buy new cell phones for your wife and yourself for
Christmas. You spend a lot of time making your choice
and are excited about the “Direct Connect” feature
that allows both of you to be connected at the touch
of a button, without dialing a number. Your wife is less
enamored of this feature and says it reminds her of geeky
kids with walkie-talkies. It is only then you realize why
you chose this particular phone!
Human beings think through associations. We encounter
a product, or person, and immediately, relevant concepts,
metaphors, schemas and values become activated. These
associations--like R2D2 for Roomba, and Walkie-talkies
for cell phones--provide the cognitive context for our
interactions with the object.
inca / winter 2005
Not all of these associations are made consciously -- some
scientists suggest that only 5% of human cognition occurs
at the conscious level. At any given moment, we face a
multitude of stimuli, each of which arouses thoughts and
concepts associated with it. They impact our behavior,
even if they do not reach conscious awareness.
Psychology and neuroscience have recorded explosive
growth in the last few decades. We understand human
thinking, emotions, memory and associated neural
processes much better. Whole new fields have sprung
up. Social neuroscience applies a neuro-scientific lens to
social behavior, (e.g., peoples’ reactions to their own versus
other races). Neuroeconomics explores the intersection
of neuroscience and economic decision-making, roughly,
the neural correlates for risk taking behavior.
p.17
A common theme across these emerging disciplines is that human behavior
cannot be explained simply in terms of logic and rationality. Behavior is profoundly
influenced by unconscious factors. Cognition and emotion are intertwined. Both
influence human behavior and cannot be seen independent of one another.
Carving the World at Its Joints
A trick that humans use to make sense of the world is by carving it at its joints.
We remember the round glasses with frames as sunglasses, we recognize the
friendly, four-legged animal as a dog, and group our music into genres. How
does this help us? If we know that the four-legged creature is a dog, we can
make all sorts of inferences regarding it. We know that it can bark and is probably
someone’s pet. By recognizing it at a more specific level--as a pit bull--we could
make even more inferences, e.g., that it might bite.
People are very good at making categorical judgments. The psychologist Eleanor
Rosch noticed that when referring to objects, people use a consistent middle
level (dog rather than pit bull, chair rather than Victorian armchair). Objects
are remembered more readily at this basic level which also carries the most
information. For example, we can list many features for the category birds, but
fewer for robins (subordinate category).
Unlike the animal kingdom, there is lesser consensus about other categorization
schemes. The categories in our music library make perfect sense to us, while
those of our friends leave us confused. We cannot find things in a friend’s kitchen
because we cannot understand how she organized her drawers.
Categorization schemes vary in the degree of cultural consensus - they can
be specific to an individual, a group, a culture or generally accepted across
cultures.
Good Design Incorporates How People Think
“Though called by other names, many consumer-research topics directly involve
cognitive structures, including product perceptions, brand attitudes, brandattribute beliefs, brand personality, and consumer expertise. As consumers
acquire new knowledge and interrelate it with existing knowledge in memory,
they are assumed to form cognitive structures in memory. These cognitive
structures or mental models represent the interpreted meanings of a product
or a brand.”
Gerald Zaltman,
in How Customers Think, 2003
top:
A Robotic Floor vacuum by Irobot.
http://www.irobot.com/consumer/
bottom:
An Instant and text messaging / e- mail device by AT&T.
http://attwireless.com/ogo/index.html
In the world of product design, how a product will be categorized is a crucial
issue. The Palm V by PalmOne was a prototypical (a good example of the
category) handheld. What about Ogo - a new text-messaging device for sending
emails and SMS.
Is it a handheld, a phone or a new category of SMS devices? If I were designing
a new handheld, I would be interested in understanding the boundaries and
inca / winter 2005
p.18
above: User Mental Map for Hand Helds
defining features of this category. Will my device be
judged as a handheld, as a messaging device, or will
it be its own category? Whatever category it is paired
with will drive expectancies regarding its design, pricing,
design and usability.
Memory can be thought of as a network housing
categories, concepts, metaphors, schemas, scripts,
attitudes and values. When we encounter an object,
nodes on the network that are related to the object get
activated. Conscious or unconscious, idiosyncratic or
culturally shared, these associations form the cognitive
In the classic 22 Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack context for our interactions with the object.
Trout (1993) advise that you need to be the first in your
category (First Law - Law of Leadership). The second law Understanding Why
(Law of the Category) says that if you cannot be first in Understanding people’s mental models provides
insight into what is personally relevant to them. More
your category, set up a new category!
importantly, it also offers insight into “why” they like or
To create a good design, we need to get inside the users’ want something -something that can be difficult to do
minds, to understand the frames of reference they use to with other research methods. For example, a market
view the world. We need to step outside ourselves and researcher might find that women drivers like SUV’s. If
appreciate the perceptions and emotions they associate you were designing Toyota’s latest car, this information,
with a certain design category. Good design does not just by itself, would be of limited use. However, if you knew
need to fit into people’s lives; it needs to fit their mental that some women associate SUVs with safety and being
in control, you could then focus on these two feelings and
models.
develop a new, innovative way to satisfy that need.
Metaphors are another cognitive device that people use
to make sense of their world (e.g., the desktop metaphor Understanding “why” is especially important for
on computers), and their role is easier to understand in innovation. Millions love the look and feel of the iPod. You
could mindlessly copy that look and feel. But to design
the world of design.
a worthy competitor, you need to understand the “why”
Another cognitive structure that people use to make of the love affair with the iPod. How do people think of
sense of the world are scripts - socially understood an iPod? What does it remind them of? These thoughts,
expectations for certain situations, e.g., going on a date. emotions, values, and practices together could inspire
All these types of cognitive structures (loosely referred design of the iPod killer.
to as mental models in this article) lead to expectancies
regarding the way the world is organized and determine Using Mental Models in the Design Process
Mental models help designers understand the user’s
what events/objects we pay attention to.
worldview. Such models aid the exploratory and
conceptualization phase, supporting designers, marketing
inca / winter 2005
p.19
and others associated with product design and developments. At
Uzanto, we frequently use visual depictions of mental models to
summarize users’ thinking. Such visual mental maps also serve as
a communication tool, aiding discussions between the design team,
managers and others. Often, people use these mental maps as
posters, and put them up in their offices and hallways. They become
the source of hallway discussions about users, and impromptu
design sessions.
Another usage is illustrated by our work during a recent client
engagement, for which we explored salespeople’s worldview of
technology devices and systems. The client wanted to understand
why a new portable device, that could dramatically increase work
efficiency for salespeople, was not gaining acceptance. Several
target consumers were asked to group their technology devices
in ways that made sense to them. A key dimension that emerged
through their sorting was how the device is carried (on the person,
in a bag, in their car, or remains stationary in their office). The needs
Mental models can inform the design process in a variety of ways. and design constraints (e.g., size, shape, startup time) for these
One application is for understanding emotional associations with a categories are very different. People were unwilling to adopt more
product. For example, a Finnish furniture company asked consumers efficient methods, unless the device fulfilled these needs.
to sort several chair designs (including prototypes) by social (how
they fit into people’s lives) and design (how they look) criteria. Understanding people’s concepts and categories is especially
Surprisingly, the consumers did not use design criteria directly. important for the design of digital spaces. The case study describes
They sorted the chairs mostly by emotional criteria, and frequently below how we elicited user mental models for redesigning the
used emotional terms in their groupings. Designers could use these information architecture for eBay.com.
results to conceptualize new chair designs and refine current ones
(from Antikainen et al., 2003).
Case Study:
Re-designing eBay’s Information Architecture
eBay was started about nine years ago, by an individual named Pierre Omidyar. Called AuctionWeb, it was
a simple site, helping people sell and buy items. Over the years, it has grown into a huge marketplace, with
millions of members. As more buyers and sellers came on board, eBay grew in an organic manner - features,
services, policies and content were added to meet user needs.
Today, the eBay site has millions of pages, a decade worth of content, and functionality. The objective was to take a fresh look at the entire
and has consequently become difficult to navigate and use for both eBay universe, and redesign the IA to provide a more efficient and
new and advanced users.
enjoyable user experience.
“It’s as though eBay was a small town that has grown into a very large
metropolis without the kind of city planning that makes day-to-day
living efficient. Members have told eBay they want a simpler site that
is more intuitive to use. “
Daphne, eBay Staff member in eBay Community Newsletter, 2004
Uzanto was asked to participate in the exploratory phase of this
project--to help understand user mental models, and lay the
conceptual foundation for the multi-year IA initiative. Our brief was
to come up with a plan for the reorganization of the entire site
Taking a fresh look at the eBay universe
In 2003, with the goal of making the site easier for finding things, the Over the years, there had been several piecemeal efforts to improve
eBay User Experience Design (UED) team launched an Information site organization - none had attempted to think of eBay as a whole. The
Architecture (IA) Redesign initiative for reorganizing the site’s content IA project, however, was not about small, incremental improvements
inca / winter 2005
p.20
beloleft: Onion Map
below right: Consensus Mental Map for e.bay.com
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Core
Middle
Periphery
*
*
*
- it was about re-imagining eBay’s organization. With
this goal in mind, we decided not to focus on problems
with current site organization. Rather, we concerned
ourselves with understanding how users think about the
eBay universe, and the business goals for the redesign.
We also wanted to make sure that the site architecture
would be scalable, and could flexibly incorporate future
changes and additions to the site. With a view to
understanding planned changes and feature additions,
we asked several internal stakeholders (design team
members, and management) to list horizon tasks (tasks
We decided to use Rapid User Mental Modeling (or that the site did not support currently, but that were in
RUMM) a three-stage process for rapidly discovering the horizon - to be introduced in the next two years).
mental models for a domain - starting from mapping
the boundaries of the domain, to understanding user Starting with a list of 300 tasks, we removed
categorizations. RUMM is suitable as an exploratory first redundancies and overlaps, resulting in a consensus list
step in a design project. It is also effective and fast. Below, of 100 tasks. This consensus list, representing the scope
it is described in the context of designing Information and boundaries of the eBay universe, was plotted as an
Architecture, but we have used it for other types of Onion Map, showing domain structure with concentric
projects as well.
circles. The innermost circle represents Core tasks; the
outermost circle represents Periphery tasks. Horizon or
What lies within the eBay universe
planned tasks are marked with an asterisk.
As a first step (Part 1 of RUMM), we asked eBay users,
designers and other stakeholders to list all tasks that eBay Looking at eBay Through the Users’ Eyes
supports, using a technique from cognitive anthropology Next (Part 2 of RUMM), we explored the concepts and
called free-listing. Users were simply asked to list all the categories people use to think about eBay. Users (e. g.,
things they did on eBay.com--regularly or once in a while. buyers & sellers; new & advanced users) sorted 100 cards
Some of them only listed a few tasks, while others listed (showing tasks from the previous stage) into groups that
up to 50 tasks.
made sense to them, and assigned each group a name.
They could sort the cards in any way they wanted.
inca / winter 2005
p.21
left: Sell Hub before IA redesign
right: Sell Hub after IA redesign
Some participants created groups based on frequency
of task; others grouped based on whether the task
required interaction with another person; still others
formed groups based on phases in the buying/selling
process. Some people created idiosyncratic categories
representing their view of eBay - tasks I do not like, and
tasks I enjoy, tasks involving money, and useless tasks.
Buyers and sellers had somewhat different ways of
looking at eBay. By far, the most significant differences
were between new and advanced users. -
The results of this online card-sorting also showed why
people were having problems finding objects on the
current site: current site organization did not match their
mental models. Overall, the current site structure was
neither intuitive nor transparent.
The eBay User Experience team was able to show eBay
management how the current IA was not in alignment
with people’s expectations, and how the proposed
IA design would solve problems. It is often difficult for
design teams to justify such a large change, but the
We used cluster analysis to put together data for all wealth of user information was used to make an effective
users into one consensus mental map. The mental case and get approval for the redesign. The online cardmap describes the main user types on eBay, how these sorting was especially useful.
groups view each other, main tasks and content. The
relationships were derived statistically, but are presented Cross- Cultural Validation and Launch
as a rich visual map.
Subsequent to Uzanto’s involvement, the eBay team
conducted cross-cultural validation of the proposed
Designing the Information Architecture
architecture for eBay users in Britain, Germany and
Based on the consensus mental map, we grouped the site Taiwan. The findings from the US study were largely
content into five main buckets (Buy, Sell, Community, My replicated. The largest cross-cultural difference was in
eBay & Help). A larger group of eBay users (more than the perception of the “community” hub.
1000) participated in an online card sorting exercise
(Part 3 of RUMM). Participants placed each task into one The new eBay IA is being launched in phases to reduce
of the five buckets.
the community impact for what will ultimately amount
to a huge change. Changes need to be slowly introduced,
The results showed that the five-category structure was so that people (especially long-term users) do not come
suitable as the top level of the new IA. Next, a hierarchical to the site one day and find that everything has suddenly
structure for each of the 5 buckets (or hubs) was fleshed changed. The first change was the launch of the new Sell
out till all main content and functionality had a place.
hub. Next, the Buy hub was launched and the header
inca / winter 2005
p.22
The phrase “Information
Architecture” has
become a part of eBay’s
vocabulary.
for the site was replaced by the five-category scheme - Sell, Buy,
Community, My eBay & Help. The Community and My eBay landing
pages will be launched in the near future.
Overall, the IA project has had a huge impact at eBay. The phrase
“Information Architecture” has become a part of eBay’s vocabulary.
The IA roadmap is used to decide how any new feature or design
change should be incorporated into the site. Every design change is
analyzed for IA impact. Most importantly, the changes launched so
far have been accepted by the eBay user community. Additionally,
metrics tracking the user experience show improvements to the eBay
user experience. Finally, the project also has had a positive financial
impact - both the re-launched hubs (Buy and Sell) have shown a
significant return on investment.
References
Antikainen, Kälviäinen, & Miller. (2003). User information for designers: A visual
research package. Proceedings of the International Conference on Designing
Pleasurable Products and Interfaces.
Boutelle & Sinha. (2004). Rapid user mental modeling (RUMM) at eBay.com: A
case study. Information Architecture Summit, Austin, Texas.
Ries, A., & Trout, J. (1994). The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Exposed and
Explained by the World’s Two. Harper Business.
Weir, K. (2003). Robot master: Helen Greiner’s childhood crush on R2-D2 blossomed into a fabulous career.
Zaltman, G. (2003). How customers think: Essential insights into the mind of the
market. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.
Uzanto Consulting specializes in design-oriented customer research that helps businesses understand their customers and build better products.Our services are based
on our unique user research methods that combine psychology, market research,
business strategy, and anthropology. We deliver customer insights in a form that
inspires designers and persuades business stakeholders.
The word Uzanto means “user” in Esperanto. Our web home is at www.uzanto.
com.
Rashmi Sinha is Principal at Uzanto Consulting. A psychologist by training, she is
passionate about creating compelling user experiences. At Uzanto, her focus is on
methods and practices for understanding people. She writes a blog at www.rashmisinha.com.
inca / winter 2005
p.23
feature
Donald A. Norman
05
attractive things work better
What follows is an abridged version of exerpts from the book Emotional
Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman
2004.
noam tractinsky, an israeli scientist, was puzzled. Attractive things certainly should be
preferred over ugly ones, but why would they work better? Yet two Japanese researchers,
Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura (1995) claimed just that. They developed two forms
of automated teller machines, the ATM machines that allow us to get money and do simple
banking tasks any time of the day or night. Both forms were identical in function, the number of
buttons, and how they worked, but one had the buttons and screens arranged attractively, the
other unattractively. Surprise! The Japanese found that the attractive ones were easier to use.
Tractinsky was suspicious. Maybe the experiment had flaws. Or
perhaps the result would be true of Japanese, but certainly not
of Israelis. “Clearly,” said Tractinsky, “aesthetic preferences are
culturally dependent.” Moreover, he continued, “Japanese culture is
known for its aesthetic tradition,” but Israelis? Nah, Israelis are action
oriented-they don’t care about beauty. So Tractinsky (1997) redid the
experiment. He got the ATM layouts from Kurosu and Kashimura,
translated them from Japanese into Hebrew, and designed a new
experiment, with rigorous methodological controls. Not only did
he replicate the Japanese findings, but the results were stronger in
Israel than in Japan, contrary to his belief that beauty and function
“were not expected to correlate” -- Tractinsky was so surprised that
he put that phrase “were not expected” in italics, an unusual thing to
do in a scientific paper.
This is a surprising conclusion. In the early 1900’s Herbert Read
(who wrote numerous books on art and aesthetics) stated that “it
requires a somewhat mystical theory of aesthetics to find any
necessary connection between beauty and function” (l953). That
belief is still common today. How could aesthetics affect how easy
something is to use? I had just started a research product examining
the interaction of affect, behavior, and cognition, but these results
bothered me - I couldn’t explain them. Still, they were intriguing, and
inca / winter 2005
they supported my own personal experiences. ...As I pondered the
experimental results, I realized they fit with the new framework that
my research collaborators and I were constructing.. Emotions, we
now know, change the way the human mind solves problems - the
emotional system changes how the cognitive system operates. So, if
aesthetics would change our emotional state that would explain the
mystery. Let me explain.
Until recently, emotion was an ill-explored part of human psychology.
Some people thought it an evolutionary leftover from our animal
origins. Most thought of emotions as a problem to be overcome
by rational, logical thinking. Modern work has completely reversed
this view. Emotions play a critical role in daily lives, helping assess
situations as good or bad, safe or dangerous; they also aid in decision
making. Most of the research on emotions has concentrated upon the
negative: stress, fear, anxiety, anger. But positive emotions are critical
to learning, curiosity and creative thought. Today, researchers are
turning toward this dimension. One psychologist--Alice Isen--and
her colleagues have shown that being happy broadens the thought
processes and facilitates creative thinking. Isen (1993) discovered
that when people were asked to solve difficult problems, ones that
required unusual “out of the box” thinking, they did much better when
they had just been given a small gift - not much of a gift, but enough
p.24
to make them feel good. When you feel good, Isen discovered, you
are better at brainstorming, at examining multiple alternatives. And
it doesn’t take much to make people feel good: all Isen had to do
was ask people to watch a few minutes of a comedy film or receive
a small bag of candy. ...Isen’s results show that when people are
relaxed and happy, their thought processes expand, becoming more
creative, more imaginative.
mechanism: The automatic, prewired layer, the visceral level; the
part that contains the brain processes that control everyday behavior,
the behavioral level; and the contemplative part of the brain, the
reflective level. Each level plays a different role in the total functioning
of people. And each level requires a different style of design.
Now let’s look at some examples of these three levels in action; riding
a roller coaster; cutting food for cooking with a sharp, well balanced
These - and related - findings suggest the role of aesthetics in product knife, a good cutting board, and the act of dicing; and contemplating
design: attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes a serious work of literature or art. These three activities impact us in
them think more creatively. How does that make something easier different ways. The first is the most primitive, the visceral reaction
attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them
think more creatively. How does that make something easier to
use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the
problems they encounter.
to use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to
the problems they encounter. With most products, if the first thing
you try fails to produce the desired result, the most natural response
is to try again, only with more effort. In today’s world of computercontrolled products, doing the same operation over again is very
unlikely to yield better results. A negative affect leads people to focus
upon the details that are giving trouble, and if this fails to provide a
solution, they get even more tense, more anxious, and increase their
concentration upon those details.
But people who are in a positive emotional state, encountering the
same problem are apt to look around for alternative approaches,
which is very likely to lead to the appropriate response. Afterwards,
the tense and anxious people will complain about the difficulties
whereas the relaxed, happy ones will probably not even remember
them. In other words, happy people are more effective in finding
alternative solutions and, as a result, tolerate minor difficulties.
Three Levels of Processing: Visceral, Behavioral
and Reflective
My studies of emotion, conducted with my colleagues Andrew
Ortony and William Revelle (completed in 2005) Professors in the
Psychology Department at Northwestern University - suggest that
these human attributes result from three different levels of brain
inca / winter 2005
to falling, excessive speed, and heights. The second, the pleasure
of using a good tool effectively, refers to the feelings accompanying
skilled accomplishment, and derives from the behavioral level. This
is the pleasure any expert feels when doing something well, such as
driving a difficult course, playing a piece of music, or reciting a poem
or joke to an appreciative audience.
Most interesting of all is when one level plays off of another, as in
the roller coaster. If the roller coaster is so frightening, why is it so
popular? There are at least two reasons. First, some people seem to
love fear itself: they enjoy the high arousal and increased adrenaline
rush that accompanies danger. The second reason comes from the
feelings that follow the ride: the pride in conquering fear and of
being able to brag about it to others. In both cases, the visceral angst
competes with the reflective pleasure - not always successfully, for
many people refuse to go on those rides or, having done it once,
refuse to do it again.
Focus and Creativity
The three levels do more than simply determine what we find
attractive or not, they also affect the very way the brain works. This
works in both a bottom-up and a top-down manner. Bottom-up
processes are those driven by perception whereas top-down are
driven by thought. The result is that everything you do has both a
p.25
If the roller coaster is so frightening,
why is it so popular?
Sensory
Motor
above left: Three levels of processing: Visceral, Behavioral, and
Reflective. The visceral level is fast: it makes rapid judgments of
what is good or bad, safe or dangerous, and sends appropriate
signals to the muscles (the motor system) and alerts the rest of the
brain. This is the start of affective processing. These are biologically
determined and can be inhibited or enhanced through control signals
from above. The behavioral level is the site of most human behavior.
Its actions can be enhanced or inhibited by the reflective layer and,
in turn, it can enhance or inhibit the visceral layer. The highest
layer is that of reflective thought. Note that it does not have direct
access either to sensory input or to the control of behavior. Instead
it watches over, reflects upon, and tries to bias the behavioral level.
(Modified from Norman, Ortony, & Russell, 2003)
concentrate upon the problem. This is just what you need
to do in order to deal with danger.
When you are in a state of positive affect, the very
opposite actions take place. Now, neurotransmitters
broaden the brain processing, the muscles can relax,
and the brain attends to the opportunities offered by
the positive affect. The broadening means that you are
now far less focused, far more likely to be receptive to
interruptions, and to attending to any novel idea or event.
Positive affect arouses curiosity, engages creativity, and
makes the brain into an effective learning organism. With
above right: People pay money to get scared. The roller coaster
pits one level of affect - the visceral sense of fear - against another
positive affect, you are more likely to see the forest than
level - the reflective pride of accomplishment.
the
trees, to prefer the big picture and not to concentrate
Photographer: Allyn Fratkin http://www.fratkin.com
upon details. On the other hand, when you are sad or
anxious, feeling negative affect, you are more likely to
cognitive and an affective component - cognitive to assign see the trees before the forest, the details before the big
meaning, affective to assign value. You cannot escape picture.
affect: it is always there. More important, the affective
state, whether positive or negative affect, changes how What role do these states have in design? First, someone
we think.
who is relaxed, happy, in a pleasant mood, is more creative,
more able to overlook and cope with minor problems with
When you are in a state of negative affect, feeling anxious a device - especially if it’s fun to work with. When people
or endangered, the neurotransmitters focus the brain are anxious, they are more focused, so the designer must
processing. Focus refers to the ability to concentrate pay special attention to ensure that all the information
upon a topic, without distraction, and then to go required to do the task is continually at hand, readily
deeper and deeper into the topic until some resolution visible, with clear and unambiguous feedback about the
is reached. Focus also implies concentration upon the operations that the device is performing. Things intended
details. It is very important for survival, which is where to be used under stressful situations require a lot more
negative affect plays a major role. Whenever your brain care, with much more attention to detail. Designers can
detects something that might be dangerous, whether get away with more, if the product is fun and enjoyable.
through visceral or reflective processing, your affective
system acts to tense muscles in preparation for action One interesting effect of the differences in thought
and to alert behavioral and reflective level to stop and processes by the two states is its impact upon the design
inca / winter 2005
p.26
process itself. Design - and for that matter, most problem solving
- requires creative thinking followed by a considerable period of
concentrated, focused effort. In the first case, creativity, it is good for
the designer to be relaxed, in a good mood. Thus, in brainstorming
sessions, it is common to warm up by telling jokes and playing games.
No criticism is allowed because it would raise the level of anxiety
among the participants. Good brainstorming and unusual, creative
thinking require the relaxed state induced by positive affect.
Once the creative stage is completed, the ideas that have been
generated have to be transformed into real products. Now the
design team must exert considerable attention to detail. Here, focus
is essential. One way to do this is through deadlines just slightly
shorter than feel comfortable. Here is the time for the concentrated
focus that negative affect produces. This is one reason people often
impose artificial deadlines on themselves, and then announce those
deadlines to others so as to make them real. Their anxiety helps them
get the work done.
be designed to minimize the need for creative thought. That’s why
professionals are trained over and over again in accident scenarios,
so that if a real incident occurs, they will have experienced it so
many times in training that their responses follow automatically.
This training works only if the training is repeated frequently and
performance is tested.
All these prewired mechanisms are vital to daily life and our
interactions with people and things. Accordingly, they are important
for design: While designers can use this knowledge of the brain to
make designs more effective, there is no simple set of rules. The
human mind is incredibly complex, and although all people have
basically the same form of body and brain, they also have huge
individual differences. So what is the designer to do? In part, that
is the theme of the rest of the book. But the challenges should be
thought of as opportunities: designers will never lack for things to do,
for new approaches to learn.
It is tricky to design things that must accommodate both creative
thinking and focus. Suppose the design task is to build a control room
for operators of a plant -- think of a nuclear power plant or a large
chemical-processing plant. The plant design is meant to enhance
some critical procedure or function so it is probably best to have
a neutral or a slightly negative affect to keep people aroused and
focused. This calls for an attractive, pleasant environment so that in
normal monitoring, the operators are creative and open to explore
new situations. Once some plant parameter approaches a dangerous
level, however, then the design should change its stance, yielding a
negative affect that will keep the operators focused upon the task at
hand.
How do you design something so that it can change from invoking
a positive affect to invoking a negative one? There are several ways.
One is through the use of sound. The visual appearance of the
plant can be positive and enjoyable. During normal operation, it is
even possible to play light background music, but as soon as any
problem exists, the music should go away and alarms should start
to sound. Buzzing, ringing alarms are negative and anxiety producing,
so their presence alone might do the trick. Indeed, the problem is
not to overdo it: too much anxiety produces a phenomenon known
as “tunnel vision”: people become so focused that may fail to see
otherwise obvious alternatives.
Special design and training is required of people if we want them to
perform well under high stress. Basically, because of the extreme
focus and tunnel vision induced by high anxiety, the situation has to
inca / winter 2005
references
Isen, A. M. (1993). Positive affect and decision making. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions,
261-277. New York: Guilford.
Kurosu, M., & Kashimura, K. (1995, May 7-11). Apparent usability vs. inherent usability: experimental analysis on
the determinants of the apparent usability. Denver, Colorado. Conference companion on human factors in computing
systems, 292-293.
Norman, D. A., Ortony, A., & Russell, D. M. (2003). Affect and machine design: Lessons for the development of
autonomous machines. IBM Systems Journal, 42 (1), 38-44. http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/421/norman.
pdf
Ortony, A., Norman, D. A., & Revelle, W. (completed in 2005). Effective functioning: A three level model of affect,
behavior, and cognition. In J. M. Fellous & M. A. Arbib (Eds.). Who needs emotions? The brain meets the machine.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Read, H. E. (1953). Art and industry, the principles of industrial design (3rd. ed.). London: Faber and Faber.
Tractinsky, N. (1997). Aesthetics and apparent usability: Empirically assessing cultural and methodological Issues. CHI
97 Electronic Publications: Papers http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi97/proceedings/paper/nt.htm
Tractinsky, N., Adi, S. K., & Ikar, D. (2000). What is beautiful is usable. Interacting with Computers, 13 (2), 127-145.
p.27
A couple of months back I was approached with the idea of having some ID grad students submit articles to InCa.
Considering the bay area has some of the top design schools, and more than its share of top notch design firms, it
seemed a perfect fit to start a dialogue and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas between the next generation
of designers and their future colleagues. IDSA-SF has agreed to host a student newsletter on its web site featuring
students’ articles from across the bay area. The newsletter will serve as a publishing venue for students interested in
writing about design. Professor CeCe Iandoli of SFSU has volunteered to serve as editor for the student newsletter. She
has written an article sharing her recent seminar which focused on “the new designer”. (TB Editor’s note)
featurefeature
06
03
future perfect: the contours
of the new designer
CeCe Iandoli
Professor of Design at SFSU
for the past fourteen years, I’ve been in hiding. As a professor of design at San Francisco
State University, I’ve been hesitant to share my background with other designers. I am a
multidisciplinary scholar, decent at writing, research, strategic planning, and a former marketing
teacher. Even so, I have been in the closet. This year, I came out.
This was the semester I told my students what I never
revealed before: I am not a designer by training. However,
I am… as it turns out…a designer. According to Ralph
Caplan’s (2005) second edition of By Design, I have
been one for a long time. “Design consists of identifying a
problem and working out an approach to it (p.5). “
in the early 90’s, that new designers should become
authors, producers and directors so they could create
their own solutions for the world’s problems--devoid of
clients’ wishes and commercial necessities. As producers,
they would be free to create high-minded, wondrous risks
and true solutions. I also wanted to share something one
of my favorite professors taught me: excellence emerges
To be Zen about it: I am already perfect, despite the from one’s own very singular point-of-view-what Michael
chaotic route that brought me here. And the graduate Beirut calls “one’s visual signature.”
students I worked with this past fall at State? Likewise,
perfect. But we collected odd, indirect experiences en This past fall I taught such a course. A dozen graduate
route to our work in design. Enumerating the features students studying visual communication, new media, and
which characterize this new breed of designers forms the product design and I considered these questions:
spine of this essay.
• Let’s assume that today’s new designers [defined as
entering the field of design over the last few years] are
Delineating the Features of This New Designer
This fall I read a book by George Marcus (2002) entitled, different. What features characterize this new
generation of workers?
What Is Design Today? The book grabbed me personally
because I was about to launch a new seminar and wanted • What does s/he value? What does s/he need to
to get an overall view of where things were, and what they know?
might be, in design. I believe, as Michael Rock suggested • And what does her career trajectory look like?
inca / winter 2005
p.28
The new designer
is multi-faceted,
interdisciplinary, and
produces solutions in
multiple forms
During our seminar, we talked with techno-geeks; the
creator of the animated backdrops for The Matrix;
one online journalist who tracks the way readers
actually view online pages. Two designers who craft
Macromedia’s website participated in our conversations;
both Essen Design ‘s principals [a graphic design firm
which specializes in designing artful posters printed on
old job presses] displayed their artful posters. We went
to MOMA en masse to catch “Merging Perspectives”-a conversation among four prominent designers who
offered retrospective comments on how technology
changed their design practice and the increasing
necessity of interdisciplinary practice.
We stole studio exercises from the Art Lab in London;
collaged our intuitions; forged fake passports for ourselves
as new designers. One student took photos that captured
the process of evaporation to visualize newness itself.
We channeled Charles + Ray Eames’ lifestyle. Designed
objects that played games with our ideas. Played games.
Tried to unearth each person’s visual signature.
What We Found
These themes reappeared through all our conversations.
The new designer is multi-faceted, interdisciplinary, and
produces solutions in multiple forms. The new designer
produces tables, refurbishes chairs, posters, and web
sites. He cooks well, knits, and probably composes music.
This wide spectrum of interests led many new designers
to career confusion. At SFSU, we embrace this: half the
graduate students we admit studied something outside
design as an undergraduate. We think this enriches
our program because the conversations that occur in
seminars stretch across anthropology, economics, social
work, and fine arts. For example, Figure 1 shows the work
of a product designer, who also works as a photographer
and market analyst for launching new products.
The dot.com boom and the technological finesse required
for that boom catapulted many technical people into
design. My students were labeled designers, yet
lacked any knowledge of design principles, theories, or
strategies. As a result, they are exceedingly interested
in design theories, design/research, large, analytic
above: Hao Yu Feng’s wedding rings sit ideas about design and its history. They read a great
atop a table he designed deal. Even so, they lack confidence that they are, indeed,
inca / winter 2005
p.29
designers. Like me, many do not feel like a real designer;
most feel like poser-designers.
The quick demise of the dot.com industry makes them
beautifully existential. Any notion of a straightforward,
career trajectory is over for this cohort. Resilience and
flexibility are essential. As are entrepreneurial skills. Most
presume they will work free-lance most of their lives and,
of necessity, make arrangements for their own financial
well-being, healthcare, etc. Their career trajectories have
been zig-zag; their finances jumped up and then down.
The new designer really wants to be in the field of design;
they harbor few financial illusions about the odds of
becoming rich in design.
The scarcity of jobs in design has also taught them:
Real meaning is housed inside, not outside of things.
Therefore, personal integrity, working to the best of one’s
abilities--just because--has value. When the principals
of Essen Design tacked up their letterpress posters,
another panelist said, “I’d like to do what you do for a
living.” Both of the designers from Essen said, “So would
we.” Of necessity, they subsidize their print work with
online projects and live simple lives. And, they lower their
bids to work on projects they love.
Social consciousness underscores their work, but
especially ecologically-based considerations. When
they design any object the product’s lifecycle--from its
top: Jane Rabanal’s Clock.
creation, to its demise, to the re-use of its components-is a given. Green materials, rammed earth, sustainability bottom: An explanation of several Chinese myths spiral down
are the buzzwords, the givens under all their solutions. Sio Sou’s lamp post.
They worry about landfill, unnecessary products; they
track the cost of production by factoring in child labor,
depletion of the ozone, and transportation’s stress on
the environment.
For example, Jane Rabenal’s clock is made from recycled
telephone books, glue and a new clock face.
Diversity is a given. The fictional personas used to
characterize the end user also result in new visual
portrayals, newly-imagined homes, newly imagined
demographics. More people remain single, have fewer
children, create families from friends, travel across the
world. Universal design is ascendant in tandem with
niche marketing. How does this conundrum work as one
inca / winter 2005
p.30
The new designer really wants
to be in the field of design; they
harbor few financial illusions
about the odds of becoming
rich in design
imagines a solution: at once universally designed for an
exact demographic? Embracing one’s own experience is a
partial solution. Sio Sou’s lamp, for example, incorporates
her own cultural myths.
Learning forever is essential. Of necessity, the new
designer will always be learning, minimally, new
technologies. In addition to unprecedented types of
objects, and media, the new designers will increasingly
move “from the design of objects to the design of
situations in which objects are made and used” (Caplan,
p.7). New designers’ technological capacity is a given; it
was often their passport into design. But, such immersion
with computers requires its antidote: making things with
one’s hands.
In December 2004, my students launched an exhibit
entitled “The Nature of Things”—a title which evoked the
broad-based, philosophical point-of-view the seminar
evoked in all of us.
referecnes
Caplan, R. (2005). By Design: Why there are no locks on the bathroom doors in the Hotel Louis XIV and other object lessons. Second
edition. New York: Fairchild Publications, Inc.
Marcus, G. (2002). What is design today? New York: Harry N.
Abrams, Inc.
Ce Ce Iandoli is a professor of design at San Francisco State University. She is also a contributing editor to inCA
inca / winter 2005
p.31
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p.32

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