Lisa Leckie | Design Research & Strategy

New podcast: Best products & experiences for new moms & their babies

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:59:00 +0000

In this episode, myself, new mom Gretchen Anderson and experienced mom Sandrine Lebas talk about the decisions new moms make as they struggle with seemingly infinite product choices and apply their personal values to the experience of motherhood.

Happy Mother's Day!

New podcast: Redesigning the California Academy of Sciences

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:57:00 +0000

The world's great museums have attractions that capture the imagination of visitors. The very best museums also design their experiences to connect with visitors in ways that may not always be readily apparent.

In our new podcast episode, Lisa Dunmeyer, project manager with BBI Engineering, talks with Lunar's Gretchen Anderson and myself about how visitors are connecting with the newly redesigned California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

BBI Engineering of San Francisco served as primary integrator of the audiovisual design within the new Cal Academy.

Find the podcast [HERE].

New podcast: Speed of Innovation

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:06:00 +0000

Ready for your listening pleasure!

Connections - Nov. 21, 2008: How do speed, creativity and innovation intertwine in the design process? In this Connections episode, Gretchen Anderson and I talk with Steve Portigal of Portigal Consulting about getting results through design research.

Find the podcast [HERE].

It's the customer economy, stupid!

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:52:00 +0000

New podcast just released where Gretchen Anderson and I talk about what's happening with the economy and its impact on consumer choice. Apple, McDonald's and Cameron Hughes wine are just a few of the brands mentioned...

Find it [HERE].

When freshness starts to sour

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:38:00 +0000

Has anyone taken a stroll down the detergent aisle recently? I did. I turned a corner and was assaulted by the 1,000's of proprietary scents held hostage in various laundry detergent boxes, dryer sheets, room fresheners and body soaps, all of them competing for the attention of my nose...eyes...and even skin. Yuck! I need a shower!

If I've ever felt like I had that not-so-clean feeling, my experience at Safeway today has convinced me that feeling fresh might not be worth the pain. Like loud music destroying your sensitivity to sound...I wouldn't be surprised if my sense of smell is dulling with every attempt to reach the tortillas located at the end of Aisle 9.

I haven't thought this hard in a long time about the consequences of an explosive and never ending sea of line extensions in our lives, but today it makes me gag. Please, oh Whole Foods God, save us from this land o' plenty and force feed us what's good for us because we simply don't know any better :).

People Powered Products

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:37:00 +0000

New podcast for your listening pleasure! Click [HERE].

Special guest star, Chad Jennings, VP Design and Community at Blurb.

My first podcast!

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:04:00 +0000

Gretchen Anderson from Lunar Design and I talk about how to get to "the soft stuff" in design research as part of Lunar's ongoing podcast series. She and I will be cohosting topics which relate to research and user-centered strategy moving forward.

Find the podcast [HERE].

Lunar's podcast blog is [HERE].

Hope you enjoy!

Trends: Milan Furniture Fair

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:47:00 +0000

What an incredible show! I had no sense of the absolute scale of it all...we could have spent at least a week there touring the exhibition center (no less than eight football fields large) and attending retail parties. I can't wait to go back!

All my picts are posted [CLICK HERE] for your viewing pleasure. Here are some of the big themes I walked away with...

1) Nature & floral is blooming big.

2) Focus on user-centered functionality.

3) Pure & simple - a return to beauty for beauty's sake.

4) (E)merging materials.

5) Neutral, accessible tones.

6) White: Popular choice for shoes and dogs.

Even the subways are beautiful...

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Design, the great equalizer...

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:27:00 +0000

What an incredible setting - the Emporio Armani Caffe in Milan, on Armani's famed block - I could sit here for hours people watching. Amazing to see so many design(ers) / design enthusiasts from so many nations under one roof... All dressed in clothes I aspire to have. And all in black :o

Milan Furniture Fair

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:09:00 +0000

I am so excited to be going to the Milan Furniture Fair this year!
Stay tuned for posts from Saloni 2008!

Sent from my iPhone!

NotchUp

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:00 +0000

I received an invite to NotchUp. It's the latest and greatest social networking tool allowing job-seekers to solicit potential employers. It has high aspirations -- namely, to change the way recruiting is done. It's 100% free to join, but pays its members for going on interviews based on a price they set.

The founders were inspired by three themes they noticed in the recruiting process:

1) Significant amounts of time and money are waster
2) Key unfilled positions can cripple a company's growth
3) Every company wants to hire great individuals

Not a bad idea, eh? At least I thought so until I started to develop my profile and set my "asking price." New conversations are the way I create success in the world - for both my own practice, as well as my client's. Charging my prospective clients (or employers) for a conversation seems unintuitive. It doesn't support my desire to make new connections, rather, introduces a new barrier to them. I think this would also be true for someone full time employed looking for a new job. The key observation I think is missing from the founders' themes above is this:

4) Social networking online can facilitate new connections between employer and employee in ways that are more open, personalized and relevant than existing alternatives.

Seems fostering people's natural desire to create more personalized and relevant connections between employers/employees (without charging them for the privilege) would be a more reliable way to innovate within this domain.

The color of our world is changing

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:00:00 +0000

I'm at our local produce market trying to decide whether these cauliflower look normal. While they are the color of other fruits and vegetables - take oranges, peppers or eggplant - they are not the true color of cauliflower.

When branding advanced or genetically enhanced or "super" or even "organic" fruits and vegetables, color matters. Color is one of the most important cues in assessing whether something is edible, fresh and tasty.

Is color also starting to help us understand when our fruits and vegetables have been modified? How else will color signal genetic or other modifications in the world? Does a dramatic change in color mean it's better or worse? Interesting when you think of other industries like autos and fashion that have had a long history of using color to suggest a new offering, trend or season. Could cauliflower, too, change with our taste and style preferences?

Another 18 hours of my productive, income dependent life generously donated to air travel

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:15:00 +0000

I’m hesitant to post this blog, as so many seem to see air travel as a hopeless cause. So, consider this my first and last.

Yesterday Chris and I flew back to San Francisco from our snow home in Idaho. Our flights were delayed by just an hour and a half. Remarkably uneventful compared to our adventure getting to Idaho from Florida. On December 27th and 28th, we experienced a 16.5 hour delay (not including a surprise overnight visit to a Denver hotel).

All this waiting caused me to wonder...are there other growing industries beyond air travel that operate with a similar lack of commitment to service and timeliness?

During our time in the airport, Chris and I talked a lot about mismatched expectations. Thinking, perhaps if we had accurate expectations, we wouldn’t be quite so frustrated by the situation. We experienced the mismatch with:

Seating. Apparently there is no way for a passenger to select online seating with their flight mate if their reservations aren’t in the same digital folio. Nor is there a way to guarantee seats (no matter your status) on partner airlines (even domestically) in advance of travel.
Flight delays. Wouldn’t one know whether a flight was going to leave on time as boarding is about to occur? The hostesses may not have known, but I knew, because I used my iPhone to see where that flight was in transit and learned that it hadn’t left it’s previous destination. :)
Flight cancellations. Why were we one of the only flights canceled due to weather? If there is weather, wouldn’t all flights to the area at that time be canceled?
Baggage delivery. Did you know that many carriers, United included, do not track or know where bags are at any given time? With heightened security, doesn’t this feel like an issue?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if we did have accurate expectations, we wouldn’t be quite as resentful as we are now. But... what does this even matter when the major passenger airlines just reported their first, second and third most profitable quarters since 2000? Or, the amount of air travel being done is steadily growing?

The mismatch between consumer expectations and unparalleled growth signal massive opportunity to improve the experience of a tarnished product, category or industry. If the industry can grow given current dissatisfaction, can you imagine how successful carriers would be if they sought to create a better (yes, it could be profoundly different, not just better, but now I'm managing expectations...) experience for customers? Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America are doing it for certain segments of travelers...I'd love to see it done for me.

My third pet

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:46:00 +0000

Cool News reported recently on a study done by Beki Grinter of Georgia Tech claiming that Roomba owners have breathed a new kind of life into their machines. The study found that die-hard owners name their vacuums, assign it a gender (usually a "he") and introduce it to their parents.

Since writing a blog on our first Roomba, our trustworthy and efficient new friend, I've occasionally wondered whether my love for and utter devotion to this perfect little bundle of metal parts (and it, to me) was in some way a sign of "unhealthy" behavior (as my Enneagram might note).

Beki Grinter's study is reassuring, in a nanotech, sci-fi, 21st century kind of way. It's comforting knowing that Roomba, my third pet, fulfills the same kind of emotional need for me as it does others. But, should it be worrisome that machines are replacing our once animate relationships?

I think this phenomena is a notch more controversial than talking to your plants. It begs so many questions about the future of our computing lives. Like, is this about replacing our relationships, or enhancing them? Is it about finding peace in our devices? Is it escape? Is it about the love and devotion we all dream of having? Who said that these needs couldn't be fulfilled by smart, loyal, well-designed electronic gadgets?

Who's walking who?

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:23:00 +0000

The pink carrier in the picture above is for a dog. Not for a cat or a human, but a fluffy, 5ish pound bundle of dog.

This could be totally mainstream acceptable. Or...it could be the sign of a something fiercely problematic with the world. Some clarifying questions:

Has the doom and gloom in America now affected the luxury pet goods market? Are pet owners across the nation worried about the safety and security of their pets so much so that they're being sheltered outside? Is it no longer ok to risk an injury, a neighborhood dog incident, or even a sunburn, when walking one's dog? Are we going to come face-to-face with a pet-obesity problem in this country now because a pet's idea of being outdoors involves a mobile pink sheltered cabana?

Yep.

People like us

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:27:00 +0000

We're all just looking to connect with people like us. Look around and play your own people matching game. You could be a desperate housewife channeling Scarlett O'Hara, a proud Hispanic 17 year old finding her true voice, or a child prodigy and unknowing futurist navigating a new country. 99% of our DNA is exactly the same (and 96% of it is like a chimp's, but that's another blog...).

I think people's outward expression of their connections is fascinating. For the Red Hat Ladies, the formula seems fairly simple. Purple dress and red hat = having pride and fun in being over 50. You could enter this group without much fuss and probably fit in quite nicely if you followed the basic rules of dress.

For other people, it's far more subtle. I once met a group of women who debated on whether a one-inch-shorter hemline took their outfit from being "appropriate for work" to "looking for sex." It was unclear. But, it matters. At least to those women. And, that's important to understand if you're trying to get them to like you :).

Understanding this special language is a must for brands needing to constantly establish and re-establish a connection with their customers. The more trend-dependent the brand or market, the more important this becomes. Doing this well means that you're a good "dater" and maybe even carrying on a long term relationship with someone. The hard part is getting on their level without sacrificing your own creativity, personal uniqueness and productivity. The prize is connecting with them for life.

Gwen + HP team up

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:08:00 +0000

Gwen Stefani and HP have teamed up to deliver a series of products and style sheets people can customize and then print, making greeting cards, photo books and even mini Harajuku dolls that you've altered to look like your friends.

It's a sweet evolution of HP's current suite of photo book stuff. HP seems to have struggled to find its place with younger audiences, including heavy online and mobile phone users, who think graphic design and multimedia are relatively easy skills you can learn in your free time, and this offering seems to get a few steps closer to creating a new kind of appeal.

The designs here are interesting and worth taking--exactly what HP should want to happen. And, it's a brilliant ad--timely, beautiful, culturally connected. It even offers something proprietary: Style sheets that can be used on HP printers.

Imagine if this provocative little arrangement worked to benefit product more and all the pieces were truly customizable. Stealable. I would argue that the designs are the biggest asset here, not Gwen. With so much going on in photo manipulation/customization (check Flatten Me out, for instance), I think HP is going to have to work pretty hard to stay current.

What's actually being offered:

The paper dolls can be totally customized. The "Gwen's designs" are pre-made card designs that are a level deeper into Gwenland. The Sweet Escape book--with only three truly customizable pages (pictured above)--is like a tour book with a few token areas for you to make you own.

I know my friends at HP are working very hard to make an impact with a more global, connected audience, and this is a great step in the right direction! Looking forward to seeing what's next!

What is design research?

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:26:00 +0000

Was helping a friend earlier today put together a list of resources describing what design research is. Including, how it's different from market research...

If you ever needed to know, reference these:
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Design Research: A Disciplined Conversation - Nigel Cross
Design Issues, Vol. 15, No. 2, Design Research (Summer, 1999), pp. 5-10

This journal can be great, but also way too theoretical. This article is worth looking at HERE.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Brenda Laurel's book, Design Research

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Design research: building the knowledge base
Charles L. Owen - Institute of Design

Lots of theory, but you might find something of use here.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Theory construction in design research: criteria: approaches, and methods
K Friedman - Design Studies, 2003 - w3.msi.vxu.se

Some juicy nuggets/talking points at the beginning of the article.
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Researching Design and Designing Research - Ranulph Glanville
Design Issues, Vol. 15, No. 2, Design Research (Summer, 1999), pp. 80-91
Find a summary of the article HERE. Related article HERE.

Great depiction of how design research began, or why it began.

Brand -- getting back to basics

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:03:00 +0000

Random surfing this morning reminded me that Chris and I want to get a chiminea, so I stumbled on this site that I've now fallen in love with. If you're not familiar, a chiminea is essentially a clay pot in the shape of a bulb that acts as an outdoor fireplace and roasting pit. Cool. And, the first link on my Google search for chimineas led me to "Chiminea Express." Of course!

Within 5 secs of roaming the site, I located the product I wanted. With that description came a list of reasons why I need to purchase from these people.

1. Large selection of models and colors.

2. Heavy duty iron stand included.

3. Free clay or iron rain cap included.

4. Exterior Water sealing (Important).

5. No Packing Fees.

6. 30 Day Warrantee against manufacturing defects. (photo required)

7 Complete instruction and safety guidelines.

8. OUTSTANDING QUALITY AND SERVICE.

9. WE ARE NICE PEOPLE.

It's the last one that I'm really connecting with. Maybe I'm becoming more naive in my old age. Maybe I'm just open to what the world has to authentically offer. I think being nice is important, and somehow, through all the brand clutter, "being nice" isn't really a value I notice very often. More of the time, I'm noticing how people's dissatisfaction with the world, the country, their work and home life cause them to be real assholes. Let's change things, shall we?

My first moblog: Is this working?

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:50:00 +0000

This is so cool! Blogging from my mobile phone...finally, just the excuse I needed to get a better quality camera phone. iPhone, here I come!

Noticing

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:30:00 +0000

Jan Chipchase has inspired me to blog more. I love how he brings things he encounters every day to life in ways that prompt questions about the nature of who we are and why.

Data viz - modern approaches

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:30:00 +0000

Chris found a really well thought out article classifying different approaches to data visualization. The writer segments the different models into the following:

- Mind maps
- Displaying news
- Displaying data
- Displaying connections
- Displaying websites
- Articles and resources
- Tools and services

It's cool to see how far things have come in recent years.

Here's the link.
Here's a pdf (if the link ever goes away and I want to refer to this again).

We're back!

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:54:00 +0000

August 11 was the big day -- Chris and I were married. It was beautiful. It was calm. It was everything I had hoped for and the best damn wedding I've ever been to. Hopefully others felt a small sliver of the same.

Why don't we have these here?

lisaleckie@lisaleckie.com (Lisa) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:43:00 +0000