May 2008
The Segal Design Institute at the McCormick School of Engineering hosted the second annual Design:Chicago seminar on Tuesday, May 6 in the James Allen Center at Northwestern University.
The event welcomed design professionals from Herbst LaZar Bell, IDEO, Institute of Design/IIT, Jerome Caruso Design, Motorola, Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago
Panelists included:
Panelists discussed such questions as: What is design-thinking? Can design be taught? What is good design? Is design regional? What is the role of sustainability in design?
The event also featured a presentation from Patrick McCarthy, Heller-Sacks Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and his ONYX student team from the NUvention:Medical Innovation class. The class taught students how to bring innovative medical devices from the lab to the patient, and the ONYX team developed a line of ergonomic surgical tools, which they hope to turn into a business. With a scalpel called the Shark and a retractor called the Raptor, the tools increase control, restore balance, reduce fatigue and create comfort, the team said. They are currently seeking investors to bring the products to market.
Don Norman, the Allen K. And Johnnie Cordell Breed Senior Professor in Design, co-director of the Segal Design Institute, co-director of the MMM program, and author of several best-selling everyday design books, spoke on the cognitive and emotional factors in design. Cognitive factors include affordance, mapping, constraints, and models, while emotional factors include reflective, behavioral, and visceral reactions to products.
Walter Herbst, the director of the Master of Product Development program at McCormick, spoke about his experience at the design firm he co-founded, Herbst Lazar Bell, Inc. Herbst said that good design requires better management of design innovation, from identifying needs to creating solutions.
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