With my colleagues Diane Bailey and Randolph Bias, I will be presenting a public forum next week. If you are in Austin and interested in the nature of information work, feel free to attend. Details below — wine, snacks, stimulation assured. You must RSVP to get in.
Austin Forum: Product Design: The New Interplay of People, Objects and Information April 03 5:45 PM – 7:30 PM
WHAT: The Austin Forum on Science, Technology & Society
WHEN: Tuesday, April 3
5:45-6:30pm Networking Reception
6:30-7:30pm Presentation and Q&A
WHERE: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, 1900 University, Amphitheater (Room 204)
COST: Free and open to the public
WEBSITE: www.austinforum.org
RSVP: info@austinforum.org
Designing a product well requires knowledge of the user and knowledge of the product-as-object. Advances in communication technology, including computational software, simulation tools and social media, place an increasing wealth of information in the hands of designers about users and objects. The challenge of modern product design is to harness that wealth of information.
This talk will cover issues in how to design successfully in an information-rich world by breaking the process into three parts: 1) understanding how users process information in information-rich environments; 2) understanding how we think of objects as they become increasingly digital and virtual via new technologies; and 3) understanding how users interact with physical and virtual objects. The panel will consider the broader implications for design as well as what happens when design falters in any one of these three areas. Location: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center