After an official waffloff outside the Barrelhouse (free waffles! of your choice!) the Friday morning started with a 9 am session on invention. First out was an amazing session by Tom Wujec, fellow at Autodesk.
Tom Wujec Design as Strategy
As a fellow, Toronto based Tom Wujec’s work at Autodesk focuses on customer innovation, long-term growth and future technology. In his session titled ‘Design as Strategy’ Wujec outlined why he believes visual thinking can change the way companies do their business on a fundamental level (and I believe him!).
Wujec’s presentation outlined four aspects of design thinking (even though he did only have time to go through three of them) that he argued are key to solve business problems.
The first one, dubbed 360 Thinking is the ability to think holistically and connect the dots in new ways. A great (and fun!) example he showed of this was the Shreddies campaign, found here. Other examples included Pax Scientific’s work to develop a more energy efficient propeller by utilizing bio mimicry, where designers study nature to learn about the most efficient ways to design objects.
Wujec continued his presentation by talking about a workshop format Autodesk developed called the ˜Visibile Innovation Workshopwhere companies get help from Autodesk to solve complex problems in a visual way. The many outcomes of the workshop sessions include developing a visual representation of a companies core business processes. Wujec showed a draft of a multi-touch interface system developed for NIKE to keep track of the business state and information flow using a visual representation of the company’s core processes.
The second factor Wujec touched upon was the concept of communicating using prototypes. Wujec explained that in a recent study of 520 enterprises, the ones that grew the most, were the ones that developed the most prototypes both physically and digitally. Digital prototyping can help companies go to market faster and cheaper while developing fewer costly physical models (have a look at Autodesk Inventor, I haven’t tried it, but it seems like a super cool way to create digital prototypes). Wujec talked about that he currently is into exploring how it is possible to prototype higher level thinking, to make intangible things tangible.
The third aspect Wujec called Creative collaboration. Here he introduced ˜the Marshmallow challenge“ a collaborative exercise, where groups of four are asked to build the tallest free standing structure made out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string and a marshmallow on top. In 18 minutes. Wujec has done this exercise with everything from fortune 50 CEO’s to kindergarten kids and has concluded that the latter succeed the most and recent business school graduates did the worst.
After a bunch of improv-style exercise including finger-snapping and speaking made up languages Wujec briefly touched upon how Autodesk is utilizing research done by psychology professor Mihaly CsÃkszentmih and others to create optimal and flow-inducing software experiences.
The last area Tom called impeccable execution, but since he ran out of time, we were left with a cliff-hanger.
After having worked in the industry for 13 years I truly think our lives as creatives would be so much more fun if some more of our clients would embrace Tom’s and Autodesk’s approach to problem solving. Or as Tom puts it: “The problem with managers is that they do the first damned think that pops into their minds”.
A bunch of links:
Tom Wujec’s homepage
A Ted Talks session talk about how the brain creates meaning
Set Tom as your desktop wallpaper
Erin McKean: How words work
The day’s second presentation was by lexicographer and founder of the new online dictionary Wordnik. Formerly the principal editor of The New Oxford American Dictionary Erin talked about words and how we use them. According to McKean the (somewhat sad) main motivator to going to a dictionary is not to look stupid (another way of looking smarter is to get glasses, by the way).
During her talk Erin challenged us to think about what words really mean, and how the context of a word can change it’s meaning (just like a tuxedo could represent both James Bond and a waiter depending of the context). For instance there is no real need to say that he was murdered illegaly, it kind of goes without saying.
In the end of the session McKean involved us with an exercise where we were asked to take a positive word and put it in a negative context to change it’s meaning, and jot it down on a piece of paper. A true master of words, Lars Bastholm loved this exercise and wrote a dozen of notes featuring unicorns and other creatures of his imagination. McKean liked the one that read I love the way you kill me the most.
Some links:
Check out Erin’s smart looking glasses on Wikipedia
Wordnik.com
Saul Griffith: random (and very interesting stuff) from his desktop
The last guy on stage was the multi-talented genius Saul Griffith, a San Francisco-based inventor. Saul kick-started his presentation by talking about how you become a great cereal designer (apparently it’s all about optimizing the fat to sugar ratio). After a few seconds he changed topic to talk about his area of expertise computable matter and energy.
A true multi-creative, the first project Griffith explained a bit further was based on research he conducted while getting his PhD at MIT in Boston. The goal of the project was to build self-replicating machines, inspired by how DNA work (or actually based on how DNA work). After developing the main principle Griffith developed multiple applications of the algorithms.
One of the applications is to calculate how to create 3d objects out of 2d surfaces (or panels) in an efficient and streamlined way (virtual self-replicating machines evolve to cover the whole surface in an as short way as possible, if I got it right). Based on this technology Griffith showed applications for engineering (he created his own CAD software) and a set of amazing life-size inflatable dinosaurs and other animals he created. The same algorithms are also used to create a future, top secret toy concept (I want one!).
After a short intermezzo about his work as a child comic book author (howtoons.com) where Saul teaches kids about science, Saul went into the main part of his presentation.
During a vast amount of recent time Griffith extensively tracked his footprint on the environment, covering everything from what he eats to how he lives and travel. The result was a one of a kind profile outlining his energy consumption, 18,000 watt. The following 20 minutes Saul explained the process of realizing and changing his lifestyle to reduce his consumption to 2,000 watt (a distinct decrease).
Saul’s point is that we all have to pitch in and change our lifestyle to help fix the environmental situation. We are designing the whole earth. We need to do the right design decisions, as he put it. To help people like us to take the right decisions in our own lifes Saul has co-created a tool called Wattzon.com where anyone can create a footprint profile just like the one Saul created and get tips on how to reduce it.
The final words of the presentation were about the tools we have in our arsenal to fix the mess we have put ourselves in solar power, gravity, thermal heat and more. It will take time, a lot of time, and all of us have to help.
The least thing you can do is to try out Wattzon.com. After playing around with the app for a few minutes I realized that I desperately need to travel less. I’ll start by working from home tomorrow.
Check out:
About Saul on Wikipedia
Saul’s homepage
Wattzon
Otherlab
Energyliteracy
Howtoons
