1. PRODUCT DESIGN AND USABILITY CONSORTIUM
MAY 8-9, 2006
TRIP REPORT
Stan Caplan, Usability Associates

2. VENUE Consortium meeting #5
Hosted by Surya Vanka, Microsoft, Redmond, WA
Previous meeting hosts – Pitney Bowes, Boeing, Johnson Controls, Art Center College of Design

3. ATTENDEES On site BOEING: Pete Mitchell – Account Manager
BOEING: Pete Guard – Manager, Payload Concept Center
JOHNSON CONTROLS: Bill Flugate – Director, Industrial Design
MEDTRONIC: Nelson Soken – System Strategist
MICROSOFT: Surya Vanka – Manager, User Experience Excellence
SPRINT: Clyde Heppner - Sr. Manager, Product Design and Usability
PITNEY BOWES: Carole Bilson - Director of Product Design and Usability
Absent
HONEYWELL: Rose Mae Richardson - Manager, Human-Centered Systems
XEROX: Dave Parsons – Manager, Industrial Design/Human Interface

4. POSING AT MICROSOFT EXECUTIVE BRIEFING CENTER
(L to R)
Carole Bilson, Pete Mitchell, Nelson Soken, Stan Caplan, Surya Vanka,
Bill Flugate, Clyde Heppner

5. AGENDA Tour of Center for Information Work (Office of the Future)
MONDAY, MAY 8TH
Tour of Center for Information Work (Office of the Future)
Welcome (Stan and Surya)
News Round Robin (All)
Themes of Enjoyment and Hedonic Psychology Applied to the Design of Computer Technology Experiences (Hugh McLoone-Microsoft)
Meet with some Microsoft UX leaders
Research progress report (Stan)
TUESDAY, MAY 9TH
Methods for Measuring Desirability of Products (Joey Benedek-Microsoft)
Empowering Design for Leadership: Clarifying the Fuzzy Front End for Innovation (Online Seminar by Darrel Rhea, CEO, Cheskin)
Universal Design (Vicki Curtis-Boeing)
Wrap-up (including review of consortium governance rules)
Tours of Microsoft Home
Microsoft Visitors Center (Museum) + Store

6. UNIVERSAL DESIGN
Vicki Curtis heads up a team in the Boeing Payloads Concept Center responsible for incorporating universal design into the passenger and cabin crew environment
She used several props to help us experience the effects of conditions typically associated with aging.
Special glasses that simulated different visual deficiencies
A hearing test using words with selected frequencies removed
A special suit and accessories that simulated joint stiffness and limited range of motion
She also showed a movie developed in-house that depicted the diversity of human conditions

7. EXPERIENCING AGING Vicki helping Surya get into suit
Surya experiencing suit that simulates the effects of aging

8. EXPERIENCING AGING Surya Vanka & Bill Flugate
Surya Vanka & Clyde Heppner

9. THEMES OF ENJOYMENT AND HEDONIC PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO THE DESIGN OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCES
Hugh McLoone described
A user experience framework consisting of comfort, performance, and desire (emotion) and related it to Maslow’s hierarchy.
His research on enjoyment including a study where he asked focus group participants to bring objects they like to touch, fondle, etc.
Most objects had smooth surfaces (e.g., ball)
Many had sentimental value
His research for the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 that provides improved comfort for users.
Reduced wrist pronation (14 degree gable angle rather than 8)
Reduced reach and natural finger strike angle (peripheral keys come up and in toward the typist)
Reduce wrist extension (keyboard has negative slope and taller palm rest)

10. METHODS FOR MEASURING DESIRABILITY OF PRODUCTS
Joey Benedek described three methods for measuring the emotional connection made with users by the visual aesthetic of a product
The Microsoft Desirability Toolkit – “The Top of Mind”.
Instantaneous Response System – “The Dial Method”
Electromyography (EMG) – “Involuntary feedback”

11. CLARIFYING THE FUZZY FRONT END OF INNOVATION
Darrel Rhea, CEO, Cheskin - An online presentation in the DMI Leadership series
Two types of innovation – core and disruptive require different people, organizations, tools, etc.
FFE best practices model includes divergent and convergent thinking components
Source of value lives in the experience of our customers

12. RHEA - CONTINUED Levels of value from low to high
Economic
Functional
Emotional
Status/identity
Meaning
Base innovation inquiry on meaning
See book “Making Meaning” (Rhea is 3rd author)
Other articles by Rhea available on DMI website

13. MEMBER NEWS
We welcomed two new members who are replacing founding members of the consortium
PETE GUARD (Boeing) is replacing Peter Mitchell who has moved on to an engineering position. Pete is Manager of the Payload Concept Center
BILL FLUHARTY (Johnson Controls) is replacing Rob Huber who has left the company. Bill is Director of Industrial Design
NELSON SOKEN (Medtronic) has a new title – System Strategist

14. RECRUITING
Since the last meeting I contacted Disney and Dell. However, I failed to make contact with the appropriate persons at those companies.

15. 2006 CONSORTIUM RESEARCH
We reviewed the list of 11 types of human interaction methodologies and technologies and each member voted for 4 of them. The results are shown on the next slide.

16. RESEARCH TOPIC AREAS
Each member voting for 4 topics; Max votes per topic = 8
Intelligent systems (6)
Intrinsic feedback (5)
Graphical user interface enhancements (4)
Motion input (3)
Collaboration (3)
Wearables (3)
Assistive technology (3)
Identification recognition (2)
Multiple modalities (2)
Speech recognition (1)
Remote manipulation (0)

17. GOVERNANCE RULE CHANGES
Membership and Meeting Protocol
Limit membership to 10 ( delete “with no additions after September 2004 meeting”)
Members can bring a speaker (replace “guest” with “speaker”) to the meeting with approval of the group.
When member moves on, s/he will propose replacement within same company (new)
Communication
The website will be accessible to alumni who aren’t at a competing company (new)
Note: Entire set of rules is on website which will be updated with changes

18. NEXT MEETING
Tentatively October in Boston area to follow DMI meeting in Vermont at beginning of that week
Alternatives are CMU in Pittsburgh and Sprint in Kansas City
Preliminary Agenda (in addition to university presentations)
Innovation (Nelson)
Looks Better, Works Better: Designing a Process to Integrate Form and Function (Aaron Gannon-Honeywell)
Speech Recognition Research (Clyde)
Global Co-Development (Dave)
Semiotics (Charles Leech, ABM Research, Ltd, Toronto)
Story telling to communicate research results or value (All)
Integrating consortium outcomes/research into own work (All)
Proposal for status of consortium alumni (Carol and all)