Future Apple Pencils May Feature Color Sampling by Rain Noe

Here's an interesting possibility: Prior to whipping out a digital rendering, you touch your Apple Pencil to an image, a real-life object or, er, a competitor's rendering. Then you touch the Pencil to your tablet and it "drops" the color there, like a real-world eyedropper. No more going back and forth with the color sliders while holding a photo up to the screen and hoping your monitor's calibrated properly. A color sensor is built into the Pencil's tip.

That's the hope, anyway, following a patent application filed by Apple this month and picked up on by MacRumors: "Computer System With Color Sampling Stylus," application no. 20200225778, describes a stylus containing an LED for illumination and "a plurality of photodetectors" that measure light on different color channels. As for "dropping" the color onto the iPad, "The tip may be configured to emit electromagnetic signals that are detected by a touch sensor in a touch sensitive display."

While I suspect this would be a boon primarily to those who do illustrations of nature, being able to quickly nail a precise tone of wood, leather or other natural materials ought be a timesaver in plenty of industrial design studios.

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Takeaways on the Future of Work from an Interview with Belkin's VP of Industrial Design by Allison Fonder

In a recent video interview with ZDNet.com, Belkin VP of Industrial Design and two-decade company veteran Oliver Seil shared a few interesting thoughts on the future of work and the research Belkin has done with their design team and workers within their own company to learn how their office is coping with the shift. You can watch the video in full here:

We've cut a few takeaways from the interview that illustrate some interesting insights into the future of work and upcoming design trends related to the topic that might be helpful to designers taking part in shaping this new future.

1. Working from home is more productive than we may have previously imagined

If Seil's team at Belkin is any indication, it seems for many that WFH is here to stay:

"We find that productivity is really, really high from home. That has to do with the basic idea that you have a bit more freedom how to design your day. Some people start earlier, they end later, they have some more flexibility during the day. We would be foolish not to take some of this newfound learning about productivity at home into the future. I think it's clear that you can be very productive at home and you need to be in the office maybe only part of the time."

Working from home will likely evolve from a circumstantial necessity to a brand new normal, and designers ought to be ready to cater to these new workflows. As Seil mentions at another point in the interview, "Most people only want to be in the office for specific things. Few people need the technology there." Which may make you ask, what's even the point of having an office space then?

2. Despite the acceptance of a new WFH culture, designers' work in quarantine is suffering

"We've done quite a bit of introspection and research into what people are looking for in the office: Why are they coming to the office? Why is going to the office an attractive idea? While some folks can exist pretty much all the time working from home and it's not a big problem, we find that the design team really suffers to some degree from the lack of the serendipitous collaboration and also plan for collaboration. Designers need to be communicators. Designers need to be collaborators. Designers need to work with one another and the feedback loop of working with another person is an incredibly joyful and productive exchange, so the idea that as a designer, you need to be very hands-on, so coming back to the office for us is vital to collaborate and to really push each other forward in our thinking about what we are working on."

As designers, many of you in our audience can contribute to the dialogue expressed here—does collaboration and product development feel especially difficult in this new work from home structure? What are some ways in which companies can develop remote work systems that feel stable and productive for the designer set? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

3. WFH means companies like Belkin are focusing on consumer technology products that ease workflow and efficiency according to an individual worker's needs

Seil notes that the pandemic has shifted the team's perspective on important focus points for future product development, as demonstrated here:

"The home office is now a multiple of many compared to the size and reach of the headquarters offices, so now, instead of having one large office building for a headquarter, now you have hundreds and hundreds of mini offices. They all need to be equipped according to the user's needs, so we're finding that dock products are incredibly important because you want to avoid the amount of cables you have and the multitude of power adapters. We are finding ways to articulate the value proposition of products that relates more easily work from home in a more compact space, and be more ergonomic, all of those things matter. We want [our products] to be approachable and easy to use and we want to make you feel smart when you use them."

4. How do you key into future trends? Don't focus on products—instead, invest in learning as much about emerging technologies as possible to find future solutions.

"As a technology company, what we have accepted as one of our realities is we have to be really knowledgeable about future technologies and that's a bit separate maybe from future devices. The devices would incorporate new technologies and we often really have no clue what's happening until we hear it like everybody else does. The way we deal with that is we invest heavily in just being knowledgeable about all future technologies. We have teams of experts who could speak knowledgeably and be part of the industrial forums and the technology forums where these things are developed."

True to most good designer's nature is an inherent curiosity and desire to learn more and adapt their work to emerging fields within the industry. This quote is a great reminder not to get caught up in the latest technological fad, but instead to keep an ear to the ground about what's happening next.

A solid tip, and might I add, a perfect tie-in to shamelessly plug our Core77 designer forums that are full of helpful industry advice.

You can read Core77's interview with Seil in 2018 about the design of the True Clear Pro here

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Pensa Proposes a Way for NYC to Transform Subway Stations as a Reaction to COVID, In Talks with City by Allison Fonder

Industrial design firm Pensa has developed a proposal for New York City to transform how subway stations are designed in response to COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic has done a highly efficient job of illuminating an urgent need for changes to systems in our daily lives, including how we get from point A to point B. Pensa, a New York City based firm, has spent their time in quarantine asking the question, why is the subway station largely still stuck underground?

In a recent press release, Pensa writes that "while NYC and MTA are taking measures to make transit safer with nightly cleaning and social distancing, those changes don't address the fundamental problem: subways and buses put crowds into small enclosed spaces...We should be considering the most impactful ways to use this space to benefit the public." Pensa's extensive proposal includes a reimagining of subway platforms, plazas, and stations with novel new features within the city's public transportation system. For example, stations were re-designed to include open-air waiting areas so MTA customers can head underground only when they know a train with capacity is arriving.

A perspective drawing of Pensa's redesign for the outside of a subway station

Street-level stations are also designed to get customers to their next destination seamlessly, whether it's by subway, bus, taxi/car sharing or bike sharing. The plan for the outside of the station includes hubs for cabs to wait as well as readily available bike stations.

A plaza redesign includes train arrival information and spaced outdoor seating

Finally, Pensa considered how to keep customers busy while they wait for trains to arrive. Their designs include a plaza experience featuring easy to clean furniture commuters can sit or lean against, easy-access WiFi, and outdoor spots to shop, eat, or grab something to go while they wait. The studio's open-air concept is certainly a redesign that would be welcome due to the risk of infection waiting for the train in an indoor station, but also as a general relief during New York City summers when stations are particularly stuffy.

Mark Prommel, Pensa partner and design lead, says the firm has been working hard to contribute their skills to efforts within the city related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the manufacturing of face shields offering open source designs for intubation shields in hospitals. "We felt that focusing on public space could have the most benefit to the most people, and no matter what, we kept coming back to the transit system," Prommel mentions. "There were so many questions about what public transit would look like moving forward. We started by focusing close to home in New York City. NYC and the MTA were taking commendable measures to make the transit system safe in the early return to daily riding and commuting."

Pensa is currently in talks with the city regarding their public transit designs, but their PR team states it's still too early share progress on their plans.

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WantedDesign's 2020 School Workshop Turns Virtual, Explores How Design Can Tackle Issues Around COVID-19 by Core Jr

The spread of COVID-19 in March almost looked like the end of WantedDesign's plans for hosting their annual Design Schools Workshop. Usually an opportunity for different global design programs to come together in Industry City in Brooklyn to solve a problem using design, WantedDesign co-founders Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat along with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, reimagined the event in response to New York by Design's cancellation to fit a moment where work is grounded in virtual interaction. The team also picked a fitting topic, using this moment to convene the best young design minds in the world to tackle the problems associated with COVID-19.

The Design Schools Workshop then evolved into the Wanted French-American Online Design Schools Workshop, bringing together 34 international students from 11 American and French schools. The event is Presented by The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, as part of Oui Design, in collaboration with WantedDesign.

French-American Online Design Schools Workshop from WANTEDDESIGN NYC on Vimeo.

The mission? Design solutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the realms of healthcare, communications, mental health, mobility, and co-living. Within 48 hours, ten teams collaborated and designed ten separate solutions. Given the pandemic has affected us all, the experience affected students in unexpected ways. The WantedDesign team illustrates the two-day design sprint as "an intense and sometimes emotional time as the students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds came together to share their very personal experiences of the Pandemic and confinement time."

The "Still United" kit contains stickers for mailboxes, a poster for the hallway, and a textile to hang outside, which shows what actions you are offering (for example, grocery shopping or doing laundry for those who can't)

The team who took home the win created a project titled "Still United", a kit that can be used as a communication signal to offer aid to neighbors, whether it's shopping for groceries, doing chores, or offering medical assistance (you can view the final presentation for their project here). We sat down virtually with the winning team members to learn more about them and their work within the Design Schools Workshop.

Meet the Team

Naëlle Frega is a student at École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art (ENSAAMA) in Paris, France

Tell us a bit more about yourself

Which school are you part of and what did it mean to be part of the French-American Online Schools Workshop?

I have just completed a course in product design at ensaama and will start a Master's degree at Sciences Po in Communication, Media and Creative Industries next term. This experience came at a key moment in my studies. Working in a team with students with different backgrounds and cultures gave me a glimpse of what the rest of my studies could be like and confirmed my desire to work in a team once I will enter professional life.

What is for you the best outcome of the the workshop experience?

I would say that the best outcome is the short time because it led us to decide very quickly and to get organized according to each one's skills. Beyond that, it allowed us to have strong bonds within our team although we didn't know each other at all and I am really grateful for that.

What was the most difficult part for you during the confinement and how being a creative may have help you?

During my confinement I had to work on my diploma project, which was particularly challenging in these circumstances. Having the opportunity to participate in this workshop allowed me to breathe about this long project and to get back to it afterwards.

Where do you see yourself in the world of design and what will be your dream career?

Although I study product design and am passionate about it, what motivates me and what matters most to me in this field is the ability to propose social innovation. I see myself participating in projects that, at their scale, will have a beneficial impact, whether it is about ecology, feminism, working conditions or other issues. My dream career would be to work in an agency like IDEO San Francisco. Whether it's the way they work or the projects they carry out, I find this agency very inspiring. In fact, I was inspired by their method for my diploma project and I regularly look at what they are working on.

Where can we learn more about your work?

Check out my portfolio here.

Hadley Feingold is a student at Parsons School of Design in New York City

Tell us a bit more about yourself

Hi, my name is Hadley! I am an artist/designer living in Brooklyn and a proud native New Yorker. I focus on using industrial design to explore how objects shape how we live, relate to one another and the self, and see the world. I design through these concepts, guided by a strong love of color and texture. Coming from an undergraduate background in chemistry and sculpture, I am drawn to a multi-disciplinary and material-based way of working. I love poetry and provocation.

Which school are you part of and what did it mean to be part of the French-American Online Schools Workshop?

I am in the MFA Industrial Design program at Parsons School of Design. I'm so happy I could be part of this workshop - it was quite the sprint! The time crunch really brought our team together quickly, and it's exciting to feel connected to designers around the world. It also felt important to design for a timely topic such as communities during COVID-19.

What is for you the best outcome of the workshop experience?

I appreciate the lasting working relationships with other young designers built over the course of the workshop. I also have to shout-out our group's mentors for their enthusiastic support and guidance! I'm so proud to have worked with this group on a visual communication system for people to signal they can help one another within a community, creating an easy system of mutual aid.

An example of Feingold's work is "Wilt", a trio of flower frames that play with deconstruction, drama, and minimalism.

What was the most difficult part for you during the confinement and how being a creative may have help you?

The most difficult part for me has been missing the communal studio moments with my peers when impromptu conversations and critique inform your work. But at the same time, it has really allowed for time to deeply consider locality in processes, as well as social effects of objects and systems brought into the world, especially amidst the Black Lives Matter movement here in the US. Designers have a great responsibility.

Where do you see yourself in the world of design and what will be your dream career?

My dream future involves the following: things that work in small ways, things for people to live with, things for public space, things that are the most personal, things to have memories of.

Where can we learn more about your work?

You can follow me on instagram @hadley.thing or check out my portfolio on www.hadleyfeingold.com

Anton Blondeau is a student at Strate School of Design in Paris, France

Tell us a bit more about yourself

My name is Anton and I'm 21 years old. I am French-Russian and I have been living in Paris for 12 years, after having lived in Poland and Russia. I am passionate about science fiction, current trends, geopolitics and new technologies. I am studying Industrial Design with a specialization in Interaction Design at Strate, School of Design.

Which school are you part of and what did it mean to be part of the French-American Online Schools Workshop?

For the competition, I represented my school Strate, School of Design with Emilie Durand and Edouard Musumeci. Being part of this workshop allowed me to make my first international project. Being a representative in such a beautiful competition on a current theme is very stimulating and fun at the same time.

What is for you the best outcome of the the workshop experience?

What I remember from this workshop is the victory we won with our project "Still United" and the great and interesting group of people I had the chance to work with from different specializations. Everyone was able to bring their own designer's point of view and that's what allowed us to make a living project.

What was the most difficult part for you during the confinement and how being a creative may have help you?

During the lockdown, the hardest part was being alone in my room, not being able to see my friends and not being able to be anywhere but home. So during the lockdown, I took advantage of my free time to test new software by looking at a lot of tutorials which allowed me to do nice and fun little personal projects to practice.

Where do you see yourself in the world of design and what will be your dream career?

I would like to become a Political Designer in addition to being an Industrial Designer to serve the states and their communities with projects that will focus on the needs of the country for the benefit and will of its citizens nationally and internationally.

Within a few years, I intend to make this dream come true by creating my company which will focus on the positioning I want to adapt for the future.

Where can we learn more about your work?

You can add me and follow me on Linkedin to find all my information, follow the progress of my projects and discover soon my website with my works.

Alexiane Capitaine is a student at Ecole Estienne in Paris, France

Tell us a bit more about yourself

I'm Alexiane, a 22-year-old graphic and digital designer. I study design with the intention of creating experiences that can allow people to interact with one another, to start an open-minded conversation.

Which school are you part of and what did it mean to be part of the French-American Online Schools Workshop?

I just graduated from the DSAA Design and Digital Creation in École Estienne. Being a part of this workshop was a unique way of creating. It was challenging at first, not knowing the people we were going to work with and not being able to connect in a normal way. But we soon got to know and understand each other's mindset and way of seeing this particular time.

What is for you the best outcome of the workshop experience?

I think it was a thrilling experience, being able to make connections with designers with different backgrounds, meet people with similar ideas and ways of approaching design. Not only in my team, but every team had an interesting take on the subject, and the projects that emerged were filled with hopes for better times.

An example of Capitaine's work: The Explanatory Box, which allows physicists to illustrate simple concepts of quantum physics

What was the most difficult part for you during the confinement and how being a creative may have help you?

During the confinement I was lucky enough to get to stay in a house in the countryside, which made it easy to walk around in nature. But having lived in an urban setting all of my life, it felt strange to be far from my usual life, far from the people I used to interact and work with every day. Keeping my collective's spirit's up was sometimes difficult, but I found a new way of communicating with them that made me understand the way they think a bit more.

Where do you see yourself in the world of design and what will be your dream career?

I see myself as a trans-disciplinary designer : I came to think of design as a tool to rethink the world we live in - especially in these trying times. I would like my design to be utterly optimistic, playful and mutual aid-centered. I would like to continue the work I started with the CAL—LAC collective this year for my diploma project, a digital monitoring luminous device that can help us understand and reduce our carbon footprint.

Where can we learn more about your work?

www.alexianecapitaine.fr

www.callac.fr

Eugenie Zuccarelli is a student at École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris, France

Which school are you part of and what did it mean to be part of the French-American Online Schools Workshop?

I am a third year student at École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. I will remember this workshop as my first experience working online with students from other schools, countries and departments.

What is for you the best outcome of the the workshop experience?

Some of the ways and clues that we had to work in a team, could not not be applied during this time. I believe having to rethink and reshape them assembled the project. The processes really linked the elements of this project.

A visual arrangement by Zuccarelli

What was the most difficult part for you during the confinement and how being a creative may have help you?

I had to rethink my creative processes, make myself clear via completely dematerialized tools. Making my usuals drawings or models was adding too much steps for such a quick online workshop. Being a creative helped me find the ways to densify the stages.

Where do you see yourself in the world of design and what will be your dream career?

I hope I will be able to keep the bold mindset from school, having the opportunity to try everything and stay curious of my surroundings.

I would really like to have my own studio, known to be spunky with a unique approach.

Where can we learn more about your work?

I am currently designing and coding my first website! You can also find me on Instagram @eugeniezuc

Pietro Quintino Sella is a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York

Tell us a bit more about yourself

Just another random expression of this Universe

Which school are you part of and what did it mean to be part of the French-American Online Schools Workshop?

I am currently working on my master's degree in industrial design at the Pratt Institute In NYC.

For me is was a mental exercise of social understanding in an experimental scenario which illuminated how people and communities could possibly interact in the very near future. It brought home the unquestionable power of nature and increasing strain on resources and services all people have become accustomed to. It was fascinating to observe and reflect upon the trivial things that once seemed like the "ants" of daily life which tilted our human experience and changed the pulse of the world within weeks. It also brought home the level of influence technology has on EVERY aspect of our lives. We were forced to stay separated, isolated, and thoughtful about our surroundings and yet we found an endless avenue of visual information and connection virtually. All of these items were both inspiring and perplexing.

What is for you the best outcome of the the workshop experience?

Our project "StillUnited". Since the beginning we wanted to focus on the positive aspects about the pandemic. The sense of community and togetherness that we assisted throughout this crisis, across the globe, was a beautiful thing that we wanted to capture into our design. I believe that ultimately we were the winning team because our design speaks about that human ability called compassion.

What was the most difficult part for you during the confinement and how being a creative may have help you?

Apart from sleeping on the floor of the living room for 3 months, I personally did not find many difficulties to be honest. Since I was a child, my family was always on the move, some kind of contemporary nomads, moving constantly between countries. I lived in many cities until now, changed many schools, and wore different hats. Being a kid having to constantly adapt to different cultures and people, I found myself struggling. I was constantly judging the places and people around me, place after place, always blaming everything outside my skin. I learned to stopped judging the surroundings and became more realistic. I start seeing things as they were, with no mind distortions, which personally, was great for my creative process.

I realized then it doesn't really matter where you are physically, freedom for me is not about where you want to be or that ability to go anywhere, but being at ease with oneself not matter where you are. This pandemic allowed me to practice this at great level. So this confinement time, was not only a great opportunity to practice this lifestyle, but also to realize that after all freedom is within.

Where do you see yourself in the world of design and what will be your dream career?

Inspiring names, such as Neri Oxman, James Turrell and the one and only Ettore sottsass, are some interdisciplinary guru like figures that show what's possible to achieve with passion and talent. Generally I tend to lean between that thin line of what's beautiful and what's actually necessary, and how to balance both in a design. However, I believe is not what I am interested in specifically, rather how's my thinking and action process is improving. The design process is the engine, the way I look at things and then process them trough thinking and action , is what I value. When someone asks me what kind of design I do or like, I always feel incomplete answering. I want to be a designer that touches many areas of life, such as biology, architecture, music and art.

As for a dream career, it would not be a bad start for my thesis project to become something real. I am looking at the New York subway system, investigating the ins and outs, currently scratching the surface! The underground system carries a large number of unused or abandoned areas with very good potential to create interesting things. I am asking questions such as; can we commute differently under the surface, maybe with more individualistic transportation, or even can we create a more humane setting under the surface, maybe by bringing the outside inside, or perhaps could such a lifeless place become livable? who knows, the only is that I am very excited about this journey.

Where can we learn more about your work?

Here is a link to my portfolio.

Here is a Vimeo link to the Pietro short Interview Video that we posted on our site.

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Hue Design Summit is a Space for Black Designers and Developers to Foster Community by Stuart Constantine

For the past three years the annual Hue Design Summit has been an informal and creative un-conference providing a safe space for Black creatives to talk about their experiences, their desires, and the obstacles facing people of color in the design profession.

The gathering typically takes place over a summer weekend in Atlanta, and as an un-conference they are specifically anti-panels, anti-stages, and anti-large crowds. Hue Design Summit opts instead for fireside chats, workshops, breakout sessions, and familial offline gatherings with plenty of unscheduled time to connect and learn from the other attendees in a comfortable setting. The conference brings together industrial, UX and visual designers to explore professional, educational and inspirational/community growth. The speakers & workshop leaders attend the full conference, making them more accessible to attendees in order to foster networking and mentoring possibilities.

For 2020 the Covid-19 health crisis made the in-person gathering impossible, so the team has retooled their program into a two-day online event taking place on July 25th and 26th. This year's event features workshops on creating inclusive products, exploring the future of 3D sketching and expressing your identity through lettering among other topics, with a keynote by American graphic designer Cheryl D. Holmes Miller.

The event is organized by the Hue Collective, a team of cross-discipline creative professionals who work to support diversity and inclusion and build community in the fields of industrial design, user experience and visual design. Jasmine Kent, one of the members of the Hue Collective, explained how the idea for the conference grew from a Blacks In Design message group that she joined after graduating from Georgia Tech. According to Kent, "The Hue Design Summit is a manifestation of all the things I needed as a young designer, but couldn't find - community, opportunities, and support. I still need those things now...I have grown exponentially as a designer because I've been able to surround myself with like-minded people who look like me through the Hue Design Summit."

Nick Phillips and Sergio Marquina leading a workshop.

We caught up with Nick Phillips and Sergio Marquina from Studio 2133, two designers facilitating a workshop on inclusive design. Their session is titled Inclusive Design Workshop: Understand to create. Create to understand, and they will be examining how designers approach the research and prototyping process, and how those approaches can have a pivotal impact on the products and services created.

Core77: Who is your workshop for and what can attendees expect to take away from it?

Nick: This workshop is for designers of all levels. Students and recent grads who want to start building mindful habits into their design process; Mid-Level designers who might have fallen into the "bad habits" or dated methods in how they go through product design and want to reduce friction so they can move forward; and for more experienced designers it offers an opportunity to audit their process to see the areas where they excel where they may need to improve. Following the self- assessment participants can act as ambassadors to encourage this thinking in their teams and projects moving forward.

Sergio: Design is not very prescriptive so there is always room for improvements in the process. Each new project comes with a new set of challenges and opportunities to better our approach. This workshop is helpful for any designer, no matter their level of experience. Whether they are already well versed in Inclusive Design practices or not there is always an opportunity to be a bit better and bring in new tactics and new ways of thinking.

Nick: One of the biggest takeaways we'd like people to leave with is how they go about conducting research and prototyping in their design process. Design is not linear - It is messy and cyclical and full of feedback loops. The biggest misconception we've seen is people checking off steps in the process and thinking they've done a good job. Just having a recipe does not make you a chef and just because you go through the design process it doesn't necessarily make you a designer. By the end of the workshop we will provide some of the tactics we use early on in the process to make sure all voices have a chance to be heard sooner than later. It is hard work and we want to encourage people to not take the easy way out when designing.

C77: What's one of the most important inclusive design principles for each of you, and what does it mean to truly put these principles into practice?

Sergio: We've been influenced by the work of Kat Holmes at Microsoft. While working on their approach to Inclusive Design, she outlined 3 key principles or ideas that drive an Inclusive Design process. While they are all certainly important, the one that sticks out the most to me is the idea of "Recognizing exclusion." That is something that even now I struggle to remember and practice. Recognizing that everything we do as designers has a bias and that no matter how good you think your design is, it's going to exclude some people takes humility. Design can be very ego driven, so it can be easy to get carried away and take it too personally. It takes work to recognize that we don't have all the answers.

Nick: Design for one, Extend to many. Designers exercise their creativity and problem solving skills when they are faced with constraints. Niche solutions can make people feel excluded since they don't get to use what others are using. It can highlight even further how they are excluded from what is "normal." I love the challenge of designing with constraints and making sure I can capture the largest audience possible without sacrificing anything in terms of function, price or accessibility. Great products should just work well without slowing anybody down.

C77: How can current design processes be improved when it comes to inclusivity?

Sergio: One key factor is who we bring to the table. As human-centered designers, we like to say that we bring in other perspectives and voices, but who those users are and how we define them is crucial. The greater diversity of thinking, experience and opinion we bring into our process, the more inclusive our results will be. This extends beyond user research to all stakeholders in the product. We make an effort to include as many different people into the design process as possible. Not just Engineering and Design teams but also the Marketing, or Fulfillment, or Support and others.

Nick: As designers, we often fall into the "friends and family" plan of conducting research and validating our design concepts. We lean on those around us to help understand and validate what we make. Nothing is wrong with that as long as we are aware and mindful of who we are leaving out and the ramifications it can have on how we design. Ideally we should be talking to real users in real situations as much as possible. The best way to be more inclusive is to not lean on our own biases and develop a more holistic perspective.

C77: Can you explain the difference between designing for and designing with, and why it's important to understand the distinction?

Nick: 'Designing For' involves taking a more rigorous approach to defining our target audience. What are the situations and who are the people interacting with our solutions regularly? One of the worst things we can do is speak for others without context, and then try to create solutions on shaky foundations of our understanding. When we create user personas we try to go beyond demographics to include psychographics. Our designs will not be used in bubbles and we should be mindful of the variety of situations our user might consider using our product, and work to consider how it might be experienced in all aspects of the products life and the life of our customer.

'Designing With' ensures all stakeholders are given a chance to speak while the product is developed. Not only target users but also our Engineers, marketing, sales, and manufacturing partners. It means being mindful of how our design can impact the assembly process. Is that screw hole hard to reach? What are the order of operations we can consider to make the product look better and also be a positive experience for our manufacturing partners to assemble.

C77: Has the current demand to address race inequity highlighted any roles for designers in creating more inclusive practices in the workplace?

Sergio: One answer to that question is the idea of responsibility. Designers play an active role in defining and shaping the world around us. Recognizing the impact that our work has on the lives of people and their communities leads to accepting the responsibility we have on ensuring those products and solutions help create a better and more inclusive community. Design can also serve as a direct line of communication to users. The products we create communicate our creativity, our style, our taste, and also our values. The details that we include, the materials we use, the inclusivity of our design can say a lot about what we stand for and what matters to us, which hopefully makes a positive impact in the world.

Nick: For me one idea is identifying why this issue exists in the first place. Why is the design population not a reflection of the actual population? What systems are in place that are keeping others out? When we finally get the chance to create a more inclusive workspace does everyone feel welcomed or do they feel like they don't belong. Let's understand the issues and not make excuses so we can move forward.

And while it is a lofty goal to create a truly inclusive workplace we should strive for it and not be discouraged. Being pessimistic in the design process and feeling like you never will accomplish your goal can stop people from trying. Once we stop trying we truly fail. I like to take a more optimistic approach and believe that striving for excellence itself is a worthwhile goal.

Sergio: Initiatives like the HUE Summit go a long way to bring more diversity in design to the table. Through this platform we are able to share our experiences and grow the design community collectively which in turns spearheads this necessary change. Change towards a better and more inclusive future.

The 2020 Hue Design Summit takes place July 25 & 26. Professional passes are $109 and students are $59. Register now!

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Here's a Variety of Responses to "7 Questions for an Industrial Designer" by Rain Noe

A variety of industrial designers have been asked to post YouTube videos answering the same seven questions. Those questions are:

1. How did you get into industrial design?

2. How do you explain your job to those who don't know what ID is?

3. What inspirations have developed your ID style?

4. Which company would you love to design a product for?

5. What is your go-to industrial design program, and why?

6. What do you dislike most about industrial design?

7. What makes an industrial design good?

Videos came in fast and furious, and there are far too many to embed here, but we have put together a bunch of them in a playlist. Kicking it off is Sketch-a-Day founder Spencer Nugent:

There's currently 15 designers on the playlist (you can click that little icon at top right of the YouTube window to see if there's anyone you know) and we'll add more as they come in.

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Design Criticism of the Cognalyzer, a Wearable That's Like a Breathalyzer for Cannabis by Rain Noe

If someone's drunk, you can measure their blood alcohol concentration with a breathalyzer. But there's been no equivalent for measuring how high on THC someone is. "In an era of cannabis legalization," writes industrial design firm Shape Products, "reliable impairment detection will become increasingly important for protecting consumer rights and safety in the workplace."

By "consumer rights," they're presumably talking about a purchaser of cannabis; does this pot get me as high as it's supposed to, did the producer measure what this stuff can do? And the latter point about workplace safety is well-taken: You manage a construction crew, Randy shows up a little glassy-eyed, maybe you don't want him working the crane that day.

Shape was hired by Zentrela, a tech company that developed an algorithm that can read a person's EEG results and measure how high they are. Shape's job was to design the physical object, a portable wearable that they call the Cognalyzer. (Apologies for the low-res photos, those are all that was available.)

As for how it works:

A series of electrodes collect electrical signal (sic) and send the information through a proprietary wiring harness and control unit. From here, the data gets transmitted via Bluetooth to a tablet or computer where the analysis takes place. After about 5 minutes of live data collection, Zentrela's algorithms will have enough information to determine the presence of impairment and the extent to which the test subject is impaired. This technology brings unmatched objectivity and clarity to the impairment detection industry while also opening the door for cannabis producers to better test and segment their products.

I do have a couple of criticisms about the design. Before I get to those, we should first understand what the design challenges were:

Testing validity is at the heart of Zentrela's core value proposition and the hardware must match the sophistication of the software upon which the Cognalyzer relies. One of the main challenges was designing the system to be a one-size-fits-all solution while keeping the manufacturing costs down to facilitate mass distribution. In order to optimize for these considerations, we designed the headset around a die-cut frame. Using early prototypes, we continually tested construction and adjustment styles to ensure that electrodes would be easy to position accurately.

The Cognalyzer system is designed for two users, both equally important; the test administrator and the test subject. Cognalyzer tests are designed to be performed in the real world, not in a laboratory setting and, for those administering and receiving tests, it's likely to be the first time interacting with EEG technology. Because of this, the hardware needed to be foolproof and easy to use.

From the administration standpoint, we carefully considered variations in head shape and size and designed the fit system accordingly. Eight of the ten electrodes can be accurately positioned and checked for signal quality regardless of head size or brain position within the skull. To help secure these electrodes in place for the duration of the test, we designed an electrode that can slide along a track in the die-cut headset to custom-locate on any subject. Our usability and ergonomic testing process was geared towards improving the testing experience for those administering and receiving the test. In addition to speed, we knew that a big part of the experience would come down to subject comfort which is especially important as many of us are predisposed to feel uncomfortable when receiving any type of medical test. To help make the experience more comfortable we added soft materials to the die-cut edges and electrode bodies that would come in contact with subjects' skin and head.

[Zentrela's feedback] was instrumental in getting to a final product that strikes a balance between, subject comfort, ease of testing, and of course, medical validity.

So assuming the points they needed to hit from the design brief were physical comfort, ease of testing and medical validity, I can assume they've reached their benchmarks. Thus my criticisms may not be fair because they're outside of the design brief. I'll air them anyway, for the purpose of discussion.

My take is that while the device may be comfortable to wear, with well-considered touchpoints, it doesn't look comfortable. That's fine if I'm a professional marijuana producer testing out my product, like a farmer taking a soil sample--you don't care what the tool looks like, as long as it works well.

However, if I show up for work and my boss thinks I'm high, and asks me to strap this thing on, I'm going to be resistant. In my opinion and within this context, the device looks cold and clinical, or like some kind of torture device from a sci-fi movie. I don't want to be ordered to don this.

And my main concern, given recent events, is how this object would be used in a law-enforcement capacity. If I get pulled over--and if I'm a black person, who is likely already terrified--the last thing I want to do is let a police officer put this onto my head.

I understand that this object's design is form-follows-function, and I'm sure it works for providing readings. But I would want to see an equally important secondary function in the design brief, which is to consider the contexts in which this item might be used, and what the perception of it will be to the perhaps unwilling wearer.

That's just my two cents. Your thoughts?

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