Post-Its, PLA, and Sharpies: My Semester as a Northwestern Professor

This spring I was offered the opportunity to co-teach a class at Northwestern by a former colleague and leapt at the chance. I’ve given lectures and participated in critiques here and there, over the years, but have never contributed to a class from start to finish, so this was uncharted territory for me. The experience was a 10-week roller coaster of twists and turns that left me exhilarated, motivated, and changed for the better. Now that I’ve had a month or so to recover from the whiplash, I thought it high time to do some reflection and share what I’ve learned.

The Details
The class is called “Design Thinking and Doing” and is an elective class open to all undergraduate students on campus. On paper, the class offers students the chance to learn and practice user research methodologies and apply them to develop solutions to real problems in the world around them. A full half of the class is devoted to observing users and making sense of what they see. They learn to conduct studies in the field, reframe problems to perceive them from different angles, and techniques for individual and group brainstorming. In a broader sense, however, the aim is to train students to think differently and give them not only the agency, but confidence, to create. With a full shop, 3D printers and laser cutters at their disposal, they were encouraged to take their ideas off the page and into cardboard, acrylic and PLA. 

What I’ve learned about Teaching
The first thing I learned straight-away is that teaching is a LOT of work! Between preparing content for lectures, class-time, office hours, grading, and commuting from the studio, I would estimate I was putting in an extra 15 hours a week. This would have been even higher, if a curriculum had not already been crafted by my co-teacher Pam over the last few years. Speaking of Pam, I was in awe of her ability to conduct a class. She was just as natural, engaging and coherent in front of 25 students as she is speaking one-on-one. Whether this is a gift or an acquired skill, it was inspiring to observe, and I hope to one day be half as comfortable in front of a class as she.

Most importantly, I learned that teaching is less about the transfer of data as it is about inspiring a new generation. In the first few lectures, I had outlined dozens of details in the readings and pulled lengthy case studies from my portfolio to share, but quickly realized that I was trying to throw lighter fluid on a bunch of candles. I wasn’t going to turn two dozen design novices into sharpie-wielding warriors overnight (this was an afternoon elective class, after all). I think teaching is really about getting students to cultivate their interests and develop them. It doesn’t matter if they miss a detail here and there, as long as they get the big picture.

Healthy Critiques - The Golden Rule

We were treated to a surprise visit recently by one of our old classmates at college, and while catching up, had a wonderful conversation about design critiques. It served as a great refresher and a reminder that no matter how much we think we learn over the years, the basics are often a challenge to master.

Our guest brought up the “Golden Rule” of design critiques (the one that every freshman designer learns their first semester) which goes something like - don’t say that you like a piece or dislike a piece, explain that it “works” or “does not work”, because…X, Y, and Z. This trains a young designer to take the subjectivity out of a critique and focus on external factors, i.e. the user experience, intended audience, product requirements, inspiration, environment, client/brand values, etc. For example, “the choice of a metallized logo-plate ‘works’ here because of the brand’s industrial and premium aesthetic.” As, or perhaps more importantly, it begins a dialogue through which the originator may respond with their rationale, fostering healthy discussion.

It is so easy, among professionals, to forget this lesson and fail to make time for healthy dialogue within a team. When times get busy, I find that my teammates and I tend to zero-in on our own projects and don’t make the time to elicit feedback internally through this very simple exercise. The benefits are numerous. First, it challenges you to explain and defend a concept, making it easier to understand whether “it works” or whether its beauty is skin-deep. Multiple perspectives are a necessity for this. Secondly, and quite obviously, it improves the quality of the work. It allows for more iteration, more feedback, divergent ideas, and challenges the originator to refine. Lastly, I think it psychologically shares the feeling of ownership attributed to a piece. As a concept evolves to capture the feedback of the full team, each teammate may see their ideas embodied in some form. Thus, a final concept becomes less the victory of one creator and more of a win the whole team can participate in.  

Discussing this basic technique brought back many fond memories of old classmates, projects, and the collaborative culture we had back in college. I will be making an effort to bring more of this style of dialogue into our studio and am sure that it will lead to some great design.

Why Write?

It's a question that I had grappled with continuously throughout my time in college. Being so much more engaged in my design and engineering coursework, I would put quite literally anything before getting around to writing papers. Time and time again, I could be found hunched over a desk in a study carrel the night before a due date, hastily spilling the contents of my exhausted brain into barely conceivable, double-spaced lines.

As I've gotten older, the animosity I had for the "liberal arts" side of my education has ebbed and transitioned into something more akin to reluctant gratitude. I've found that the act of writing is an opportunity to make sense of the vast amount of disparate information we take in on a daily basis. In a world that spins ever faster and with vast oceans of information at our fingertips, writing requires us to clear our minds for a brief moment and try to connect the dots. 

A Sensei of mine from years past used to say that "you don't really know something until you have to teach it", underscoring that earning a black belt is not the end of learning, but rather the beginning. I've found that writing functions much the same way. In this spirit, I am kicking off a personal campaign to write more - to make sense of what inspires me, puzzles me, and challenges me. To learn...and hopefully, at least a little...to teach.

Ergonomics in Session: Presentation to Marquette and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

In November I had the privilege of presenting to Marquette and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design’s first crop of “Da Vinci” students. Along with an engineer from Shur-line, John Jacobson, we shared experiences that prove that when design and engineering work together, products can be infused with outstanding user experiences at prices that won't break the bank.

The “Da Vinci” course is an innovative new program that brings together Mechanical Engineers from Marquette with Industrial Designers from MIAD to collaborate on projects. Led by Professors Richard Marklin, P.H.D. and Mark Nagurka, P.H.D., it is an opportunity for these two groups of students to work together long before arriving at their first day on the job. With Professor Marklin’s deep expertise in the field of ergonomics, he knew that Shur-line’s products would make excellent case studies for these product development trainees.

John and I have worked together over the last twelve months on several products that focus on bringing superior ergonomics to painting. Our goal has always been to empower the Do-It-Yourselfer with tools that give professional results. Armed with insights derived from user research and product testing, our collaboration led to the creation of new tool platforms, a redefinition of the visual brand language, and a good deal of engineering and manufacturing ingenuity.

During our presentation, we shared many of challenges we overcame on bringing these products to market and how designers and engineers can combine their unique perspectives to create immense value for both the Customer and the Brand.

Introduction to Arduino Workshop

This past Saturday, Catalyze played host to an Arduino Workshop run by Kevin McQuown of Windy City Lab. We had a great turnout and some wonderful feedback from our guests, who went from zero to circuit building in record speeds.

The class is good for all ages and perfect for those with little or no knowledge as to how circuits work, such as this blogger here. As a designer, I am used to building products around electronics but have always viewed those green boards and wires as something of a dark art. After Kevin’s class, I have a much clearer picture of what’s happening in there and even started building my own bundles of magic, all in the span of a few hours.

In attendance was this designer here, a couple curious web developers, a hobbyist, and a slew of suburban librarians (I was pleasantly surprised, as well!) According to these traveling scholars, many libraries are looking at the maker movement as a new and exciting way to connect and captivate students. This course served as the perfect stepping stone for them to learn the basics of electronics, and in turn, begin to build a curriculum of their own.

All in all, this was a great way to spend a Saturday and I highly recommend it! Take a look at the attached pictures, and if interested, contact Kevin for more details