Molecular Voices » Heather Eddy

Heather Eddy

Heather is a Senior Experience Designer who should blog more often. Since joining Molecular in March 2007, Heather has been a member of the Adidas miCoach team, which she humbly regards as an opportunity of a lifetime. According to her colleagues, her homemade lunches appear to be well-designed experiences.

Posts written by Heather Eddy

January 14

The Hole in the Whole, and other notes from Design Research 2008

by Heather Eddy

Way back in late September, I had the inspiring opportunity to attend the Design Research 2008 conference and workshops sponsored by the Illinois Institute of Technology: Institute of Design, held at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. This conference, in its 7th year (formerly known as About, With & For) gathers design professionals and students across various disciplines to share insights on emergent and innovative research methodologies as well as to discuss organizational strategies for promoting the value and advancement of design research practices.

Both the challenge and the excitement of attending conferences is finding the kernels of wisdom that are not only going to shift your own processes and perspective, but when shared with enthusiasm, will also inspire others to get on board and take action themselves. Here are my kernels: (more…)

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June 25

Getting all “Googley-Eyed”…

by Heather Eddy

Without a doubt, we often look to the magical world of Google as a benchmark from which to evaluate and even validate exceptional user experiences. How do they do it, we wonder? Well, even if this manifesto of sorts on their core design principles (it’s part of their corporate information) has already crossed your virtual path, it would serve you well to go back for another look. For inspiration, as well as food for thought, consider if and how these principles manifest in your own “digital daily life” of Google interactions. What are the principles on which your design philosophy is built?

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.

Read the more detailed descriptions at: http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/ux.html

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May 1

Design of the Times: How our core competencies could and should evolve

by Heather Eddy

Adobe and the AIGA have partnered to create this incredibly interesting survey about the directions in which the core competencies of designers could or should evolve in the next few years.

http://designerof2015.aiga.org/

What’s particularly intriguing about this survey and telling of the zeitgeist of this design age is that 2015 not even a whole decade from now. The implication is that the evolution of design competencies starts yesterday, and that the same practices and principles apply across many and varied disciplines and, in a manner of speaking, to humanity in general.

As I navigated the survey, reflecting on my own career as a designer and my perception of the “state of things,” (society and its bubbling cauldron of meanings, beliefs, ways of doing and being) and I parsed out three key interrelated focus points around which design competencies might be organized: (more…)

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