science2designjourney-blog

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Final Visual Diary 2of2

I published an article earlier this year that provides project management tips for researchers. My design leadership solution is to teach PM skills to pre and postdoc fellows so that they can streamline their work in lab and have validated PM frameworks under their belt to take with them to their next career stages. Often times skills learned in academia aren’t learned in a way that makes them attractive to outside industries. So integrating PM techniques into biomed research is my stake in the ground for my project. 

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Final Visual Diary 1of2

What a journey this has been. I already have a research background, but the class has allowed me to redirect my research skills toward designing a programmatic solution for supporting the career development needs of our students. The ethnographic research component was a very different approach for me, and it allowed my proposed intervention to be user focused and place a stake in the ground to mitigate the rift between faculty and trainees regarding trainee career development.

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Visual Diary 13 2of2

During the interviews, Jenn brought up the wicked problem of urban food desserts, a topic that Im very interested in given my interest in health and wellness. I dont think that underserved populations should miss out on healthy alternatives to fast and processed foods and Arcadias Mobile Markst shared those sentiments. In an epic display of design leadership, Arcadia developed a solution to increase equitable access to fresh foods by repurposing the food truck model to provide fresh produce at reasonable prices directly in areas that lack reasonable access to supermarkets.

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Visual Diary #13 1of2

I attended our annual conference for the National Postdoctoral Association and I noticed that the conference culture was very different than usual. Everyone was so much more familiar than what I usually see at conference sessions. Then I finally logged into the conference app and found strings of these threads with folks organizing themselves for events and conversations. The app was designed to mold the culture of conferences and encourage targeted and strategic networking and collaboration. This is the effect that I hope to have on the research training culture through my design leadership project.

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Visual Diary 12 2of2 

Let me begin by saying that beer is tasty. But it takes a lot out of the environment to produce our beloved brews. It also costs about $200 million a year in input costs. Sierra Nevada has designed their brewery to reduce the input energy costs that it takes to produce its beer. The vats pictured within the article are outside of the brewery. They collect rain water. The rain water is then used as the base for the brews. Sierra Nevada understands its corporate role as a profit-generating company, but it also understands that it has a responsibility to the environment that drives its success. Sustainability is an investment in log term profits and more companies need to realize that responsibility.

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Visual Diary 12 1/2

One of our neuroscience alumni created this company in order for his designs to inspire and transform positive change. Not only is the messaging of the designs meticulously crafted (by a neuroscientist) to illicit positive and altruistic reactions amd behaviors, but part of the proceeds from sales go toward community-focused grassroots efforts. Fascinating example of responsible design leadership.

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So I posted this issue in one of my earlier design leadership visual diaries. In an effort to maximize the size and availability of the screen, Samsung made it so that you need to swipe up to access those buttons. A stake in the ground for max screen size came at a cost to usability because when peoples wipe up, they usually inadvertently click things which is troublesome. So Samsung wound up having to release an update to put the buttons back. Sometimes you need to think twice before driving that stake in the ground and ask yourself, does this really need to be here? 

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An example of a stake in the ground gone wrong. Our Van Ness neighborhood needed a bustling multifunctional market of upscale ingredients, fine goods, expensive prepared foods, and a classy butcher. Or did we? See the comments section in this article. While I enjoyed their happy hour craft beers, no one really knew what this place was supposed to be. It will be replaced by another market later this summer that seems to have a similar layout in mind. The new ownership didnt quite get the memo. My hashtags below are many of the things that likely didnt happen.

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During the summer of my Junior year of high school (a LONG time ago), I had the pleasure of working for Henry Crown & Company. I was an archivist sorting through years of historical documents and correspondence. I came upon some plans and correspondence for a quirky interactive fountain that the Crown family was funding in a new park that was being constructed just south of the magnificent mile on Michigan Ave. What I didn’t realize at the time was that Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain in Millennium Park would become one of the most iconic designs in Chicago history. The fountain was definitely a stake in the ground as it brought communities together in the well known Chicago heat and humidity. It also became a tourist attraction within the very contemporary Millennium Park adventure. 

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This is a pretty cool label that resembles a nutrition label in form. But in function, it shows the environmental footprint of lab supplies. I think that this is an example of design leadership putting a stake in the ground by re-imagining the nutrition label concept in the context of laboratory procurement. 

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Another cultural parameter is the perception of work life balance in fellows pursuing doctoral academic research. For my wicked design solution, I’m hoping to design a solution that incentivizes a culture change toward wellness and well-being in research. 

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My wicked design problem is actually meant to address a flaw in the academic incentive culture that values an archaic unilateral apprenticeship model to doctoral training.The basis for this culture has many roots stemming from funding incentives and the fact that tenure tends to resist change. But this is a cultural parameter that needs to be broken. Politically, my solution can’t break this parameter but I do think that I can develop an intervention that leads to culture change. 

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Continuing along the vine of analyzing the interplay between tangible and intangible parameters, I present an article that reflects on the design of the MLK memorial. During the research and construction phase, the sculptor was presented with two tangible parameters: the design scheme and the concrete materials. The sculptor was responsible for producing a piece that had the likeness of MLK, and was charged to elicit that response from those that remember him. Therefore the sculptor worked closely with the MLK family and analyzed hundreds of pictures of him to ensure that the piece that he was producing would fit into that intangible parameter of emotional response through recognition. I thought that this was true design leadership. 

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I grew up with tropical freshwater fishtanks. Lots of them. So when I encountered this setup in a bar, I felt nostalgia but also recognized the power of parameters. The size of the fishtank determines the type of ecosystem you can build. The temperments of the fish determine what kinds and how many you can include. The ecological niches of the individual species determine the flora and rock arrangements to ensure that open water species and rock dwellers both have proper accomodations. As a result of parameters, you wind up with 180 gallons of stunning beauty and ecological equilibrium.

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Simon’s talk always resonated with me about how to think about branding and engaging customers. When getting students to engage our career center, I think that alumni testimonials provide a powerful why to current students to come to our office. Telling students that we do resume review, interview prep, and networking often doesn’t draw students to our office. Its really the alumni stories that help current students asipre, and then we can present our services as the how and the what. 

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I’m looking at ways to visualize ethnographic research data. Especially since I have a grant due next week where I’ll use some of the research tools that I’ve been using for this course. This example assesses how users interact and engage with MOOCs through a multi year study. This is very helpful in designing learning materials to better engage your target audience. 

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For my intangible design leadership tool, I like to use focus groups. This was one of the tools I plan to use for my final project, though I didn’t get to incorporate it into my ethnographic research project due to misaligned timelines. I’m actually doing one of these tomorrow! Great way to assess how an end user or major stakeholder will interact with the design intervention.