Design Futures Lecture
Grounded Leaps: Methodological Choices for Driving Innovation
Thursday, February 21, 2008
5:15 pm to 6:30 pm
Ame Elliott
This talk discusses how Human Factors research drives design by making grounded leaps from latent user needs to new product and service concepts. Example projects from a variety of domains illustrate contextual observations and co-creation exercises, the basic techniques for grounding insights, with particular attention to how the core value of empathy drives methodological choices. Next, the methodological challenges posed by two non-traditional types of design are discussed: 1) designing to transform organizational cultures and 2) designing services beyond the scope of a single artifact. The talk concludes with thoughts about current frontiers in Human Factors research.
Ame Elliott is a senior human factors specialist at IDEO in Palo Alto, CA where she conducts fieldwork, designs interactions, and facilitates workshops for companies interested in innovating through user-centered design. Her research includes projects in the domains of media services, workplace technology, and vehicle design. Prior to joining IDEO, Ame was a Research Scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and at Ricoh Innovations. Her past projects include leisure guides for Japanese youth, services for managing chronic diseases, a device for sharing media on home A/V networks, and paper interfaces for interacting with collections of digital media. Ame has a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University Colorado, Boulder.