“The user is King.”

That’s the basic idea behind Human-centered design, which focuses on the needs and wants of the final user of a product. This is accomplished through developing and modifying the design process by constant testing of their assumptions’ validity on the best way to meet the user’s interests. This idea and process has become a dominant theme in design, accepted as a go-to mindset for many designers. Dr. William Gibbons, professor of Information Design and Corporate Communication at Bentley University, claims in an article for UX Magazine that the success of the user experience program at Bentley was through three core principles:

1. User-centered design begins and ends with a deep and comprehensive study of human behavior related to product and experience design.

2. Unless we deliver value to business, we never have the opportunity to serve the user

3. Strategies and resarch methods underlying human-centered design offer valuable contributions to much broader applications in areas such as financial services, healthcare, libraries, and museums–any place where a product of service is designed for use by people.

In sum, what these principles teach us–or teach me, at least–is that this sort of procedure requires you to “know your people.” This means to have an in-depth knowledge of the people you are designing for; you are creating more than just products, you’re creating relationships.

Image from http://designthatmatters.org/news/dtm-blog/2011/07/ide_fellowship.php

Fortunately, the Human Centered Design innovation lab (HCD i-Lab) has contacted us with the experience to just that. Check it out to see if, maybe, this can be such an opportunity for you:

International Fellowship Opportunities:

iDE Cambodia / Human Centered Design innovation Lab (HCD i-Lab)

Are you interested in designing extremely affordable innovations to tackle problems that are of life-and-death importance?

We are the first human-centered design innovation lab in Asia, and we are building out our team. This is an opportunity to work on real-world problems alongside a close-knit, international, top-calibre team. You will have a rich experience that will touch the lives of those who most need life-changing opportunities. We are seeking to fill the following roles for fourteen-month Fellowships based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia:

1. HCD Research Design Fellow

We need your help to lead the design of appropriate and innovate research approaches, and to work with the team to implement these approaches. We are looking for a research design expert with at least two years of experience designing and facilitating research in an HCD context.

For full details, including how to apply, check out the job description here.

2. HCD Training Design Fellow  

We need your help to lead our efforts to teach, share and spread HCD to other organizations that serve the poor in Cambodia as well as around the globe. We are looking for an HCD training designer with at least two years of professional experience in the HCD context.

For full details, including how to apply, check out the job description here.

3. Product / Industrial Design Fellow

The Fellow will lead the design research and product design aspects of projects, including research, identify human insights, set design directions, develop low- and high-resolution prototypes, and glean user input to optimize designs. The ideal candidate will be a designer by training and have spent at least two years professionally in a user-centric design environment applying HCD principles.

For full details, including how to apply, check out the job description here.

 

Image from http://www.ide-cambodia.org/

 

Learn more about them here

-Ho Jun Yang ’16, Public Relations Coordinator

About the author of this post: My name is Montana Feiger and I am a junior at Brown University. I have created my own Bachelor of Arts Major, Architectural Engineering that involves taking Structural Engineering related courses at Brown as well as the main Architecture studios in the RISD Architecture Department. I was born in England and thereafter lived in Switzerland and Boston before attending a specialty Technological High School in San Francisco where I was able to start studying Architecture and Furniture Design as a junior. I hope to earn a Masters in Architecture following my graduation from Brown. 

The Solar Decathlon in an international competition that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design and build a sustainable, innovative, pre-fabricated house that is powered entirely by solar energy. The 2014 competition takes place during the month of June in Versailles, France. Each team undergoes 10 days of judging, each day representing a different component of their design; some examples of the 10 categories are Architecture, Affordability, Comfort Zone and Energy Balance.

Formed in late September, our team consists of students from Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, Germany (FHE). Having submitted our proposal to the jury in France in early December -a schematic design composed by students from a variety of departments from Brown and RISD- we were thrilled to be accepted into the 2014 competition along with teams from 16 different countries representing 4 continents. As one of only two competing cross continental teams, ours possesses a broad foundation of our collective experiences and are tapping into the resources of all three schools in order to drive our project to new levels of design and technology to improve ways of sustainable living. Three main themes have emerged from the collaborative process that have been guiding the development of the design: weaving, playfulness and transformation. Most significantly, we intend to be the first-ever Solar Decathlon entry that is fully enclosed by textiles guaranteeing a lightweight result that will significantly reduce our overall carbon footprint.

My current role is as the Brown University Communications Director. The Communications committee acts as the projects public outreach and shapes the internal and external image of the team as it develops. A significant portion of the competition deals specifically with how well our team is able to express our image, objective and strategy to our selected audience throughout the entirety of the two year process. Currently the Communications Teams’ duties include advancing our splash web-page, creating a team uniform, developing thorough Communications plan and Identifying the target groups.

As a college student, it is extremely rare to be given the opportunity to apply conceptual skills learned in architectural and engineering courses, to a real building project. The reason I chose to study Structural Engineering as an undergraduate was to better understand how a building functions which ultimately will help me design more practical structures as an Architecture student and practitioner. This competition allows me to partake in both the Structural and Architectural components of the house, combining my two passions into one single, incredible project.

A video introduction to Solar Decathlon

-Ho Jun Yang ’16, Public Relations Coordinator

The Keynote speaker for the SEEED conference was Paul Light, Professor of Public Service at NYU. The keynote session took the form of a conversation in which Professor Light spoke about the state of social enterprise as well as several critiques about the perceptions and misconceptions that many have about social enterprise. Light stressed the idea that though SE is a “sexy” field to be in, practitioners must not treat it as a goal in itself, but rather a tool to achieve something bigger. He touched on two aspects of SE that cause self-inflicted damage. The first is that direct action social work often gets left behind in the wake of SE, and its value is, as Light said, denigrated.  The second is that practitioners of SE often forget that government can and should be a platform for scaling up, but instead, it is seen as a separate and perhaps even opposing force to SE.

Keynote Speaker Paul Light (Photo Credits from Washington Post)

Another apt criticism made by Light was the lack of post-project evaluation that exists in the SE industry. Simply because a project is empathetic does not imply that it is successful, or is positively affecting the community it targets. He cited Playworks, an initiative that provides supervision, leadership exercises and community development for school children during recess. Applauding Playworks’ commitment to rigorous research and evaluation, Light described how the initiative had proved how adding a 15-minute recess increases the students’ abilities to concentrate  (adding a full hour of quality school time) as well as reduced bullying by improving social dynamics on the field.

Finally, in responding to a question posed by an attendee about whether Light was unconvinced that the impact of SE could grow much more, Light made clear that it is absolutely possible for SE to bring about significant social change – however, if the industry isn’t prepared to defend itself against industries that undermine its effectiveness and methods, then it will compromise its own mission.

All in all, Paul Light’s talk provided a great overview of the state of SE today, and was especially enlightening because of the focus on the weaknesses that exist in SE and the steps that still need to be taken.

Joint Logo of SEEED-BWxD Collaboration

-Peter Aranha ’14, Partnership & Finance

For more information about SEEED and their cool mission visit: http://seeed.org/

After a long day of social entrepreneurship, there was no better place to unwind, recharge and network than the SEEED Social on Friday night. The event, which began immediately after the keynote session, presented a satisfying blend of social time and content, with impressive speakers making their appearance in between musical performances. Even when just nibbling PVD pudding pops and chatting under the industrial beams of the Steel Yard, the sense of connecting people and collaborating on the basis of social enterprise permeated the evening, very much in keeping with the day’s earlier events.

The first performance of the evening was by Music One, an enrichment program that provides musical and educational mentoring to youth in Providence. As the evening went on, the program continued with poet Mozart Guerrier (who now works to connect the resources of UpstateMedicalUniversity with public housing residents). Peter Gill Case and Clay Rockefeller, (architect of the Box Office and co-founder of the Steel Yard, respectively) extended their welcome to the space and to Providence’s West Side, before Mayor Angel Taveras welcomed SEEED participants to Providence as a whole, highlighting the importance of the SEEED mission in the city. Finally, David Brancaccio, who hosts the show Marketplace Tech on American Public Media, took the stage to talk about Fixing the Future, his new documentary on economic alternatives, which was screened at the Cable Car Cinema the night before. The evening’s content wrapped up with a performance by the Mighty Good Boys.

The greater ambiance of the social and the venue contributed greatly to the success of the evening. Local food vendors, including Rocket Fine Street Food, PVD Pudding Pops, and Eating with the Ecosystem all set up in the Steel Yard’s back area. Abyssinia, Wickenden Street’s Ethiopian restaurant, had a popular buffet table, right beside a representative from Whole Foods, who handed out Cambodian and Kenyan treats. The effort to include so many local vendors did not go unnoticed, and the eclectic mix of tastes and styles gave some enjoyable variety.

The venue itself was also a great choice—the Steel Yard is a community organization that offers classes in metalworking and hosts numerous events throughout the year, always striving to connect ambitious individuals and encourage creative experimentation. Though the night did get chilly, the bare-bones metal structure of the Yard provided a beautiful backdrop for the darkening sky.

Between the entertainment, the speakers and the chance to simply relax and reconnect, the SEEED social effectively guided a busy day to a fulfilling end.

Joint Logo of SEEED-BWxD Collaboration

-Pierie Korostoff ’16, Social Events Coordinator

For more information about SEEED and their cool mission visit: http://seeed.org/

Two star Better World members, Jeff Conti and Catherine Hebson tag teamed the Keynote Panel for the SEEED Conference (Core Elements for Building a Social Enterprise Ecosystem). The pair gained insight into the most important considerations in the social entrepreneurship world. The panel was comprised of a social enterprise venture capitalist, portfolio manager, consultant, and company founder. The dialogue converged on balancing profitability and good business with effecting positive change on a stated social mission.

Leslie Crutchfield (FSG) – One of the panelists

Kevin Jones (SOCAP) – One of the panelists

In this world the two goals are simultaneously important, and yet are all too often conflicting. What happens when your stated social mission gets in the way of the very profits that are needed to fund desired change? What happens when hard earned profit isn’t being put toward the most effective social innovations? The social entrepreneur must consider not only their own mission and company, but the entire ecosystem that they exist within. Social enterprise must exist within this space, and succeed in spite of it.

A great example from the panel told the story of Ben and Jerry’s outreach vendors. Some profits went toward funding shops that employed ex-cons. As the brand expanded and was prepared to sell to a major corporation, those altruistic ice cream shops had to be chopped in order to secure a larger, national business model. While in the short-run those ex-cons in need of a boost lost out, Ben and Jerry’s has since exploded and affected even greater levels of change. Achieving the proper balance between these necessary goals is a difficult exercise that can make or break an organization or a mission.

Dan MacCombie (Runa Tea) – One of the panelists

Tom Fry (Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation) – One of the panelists

The panel also focused on the potential of a bridge between nonprofits and for profit businesses. One striking example described a large nonprofit located in Boston focused on assisting the unemployed. They were having difficultly in placing the unemployed because there were no jobs available. Instead of focusing on the unemployed, this innovative organization invested in the for-profit sector in order to create the jobs needed to fulfill their mission. By reexamining the relationships between nonprofit and for-profit sectors the organization was able to work toward its goal in a creative, unconventional way.

Difficult decisions will have to be made that may compromise the integrity of either side of the social entrepreneurship equation. So to all you social entrepreneurs, stay on your toes and don’t be afraid to sacrifice for a greater vision.

Joint Logo of SEEED-BWxD Collaboration

-Jeffrey Conti ’14, Operations Coordinator

For more information about SEEED and their cool mission visit: http://seeed.org/