The relationship between Design Thinking and Management is receiving a lot of attention recently and it seems that managers can indeed achieve superior results when they apply a “design mindset” to solve business problems. At the University of St. Gallen we have a unique course called Design Thinking and Business Innovation which is based on a cooperation between Prof. Walter Brenner, University of St. Gallen and Prof. Larry Leifer, Stanford University, to teach master students the philosophy and principles of Design Thinking. Four weeks after the presentation in Stanford, the final presentation and design exhibition are scheduled for July 6^th 2009, 12:30 – 16:00 at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

As a reader of this site I would like to invite you to join our presentation and experience the design process and the prototypes that our student design teams have developed for our corporate partners.

Our students and corporate partners

The course is based on the Stanford ME310 course that has been taught at Stanford University for more than 30 years and which has been adopted to meet the special environment and requirements at a business school. A team of students together with a corporate partner will work on a problem statement to develop a conceptual solution by following a methodology that focuses heavily on prototypes. This year’s corporate partners were BASF, Lonza and Swisscom and our students have spent the last 10 months to solve the given problem and come up with innovative solutions.

The project proposals

• BASF: Total Packaging Design for Printers
• Lonza: Harvest the creativity and the knowledge of the scientific community
• Swisscom: Services for Enabling Home Networking Adoption

The end of a exciting journey for this year’s class

At the final presentation the student teams are going to present their final conceptual prototype as well as the milestones that lead them to this prototype and the learnings and considerations that formed their decisions. Our students have been working long hours and many nights to find the most promising solution and they have once again shown the great results that a team of motivated student is able to achieve.

Join our presentations!

One month after the presentations and EXPE in Stanford, on Monday July 6th 2009 , the students will present their projects in St.Gallen. They will show their developed prototypes, insights, results as well as the design development process. After the presentation there will be an exhibition (EXPE) where visitors will be able to experience the different prototypes and talk to the student designers.

The event takes place at the University of St. Gallen in the Temporary Teaching Buildings (Lehrprovisorium, see campus map) on July 6^th. Reception starts at 12:00, presentations start at 12:30 and the exhibition is scheduled to start at 15:30. For detailed instructions please have a look at the campus map.

Please RSVP if you are planning to attend, you can reach me at bernhard@customer-experience-labs.com

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Inspiration is an essential part developing and coming up with new ideas. If you are looking to be inspired and catch a glimpse at the future, you should visit the Stanford Design EXPE09 at Stanford University from June 1^st- 6^th.On behalf of the ME310 and CS210 teams at Stanford University and our team at the University of St. Gallen, I would like to cordially invite you to the podium presentations on June 4^th from 08:30am – 1:00pm and the subsequent design fair at the Stanford University Campus.Student teams will be presenting their product prototypes and concept ideas that they have worked on for the last 10 months in cooperation with corporate partners such as Audi, Autodesk, Panasonic, Swisscom, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo!.

Not your typical student project

The cooperation with corporate partners gives students the opportunity to work on real-world problems while learning how to successfully run their own design and engineering consultancy. The results are definitely interesting and inspiring; the following video resulted from a project with Nokia in 2006/2007 which showcased the future of “Open Internet Communication Culture”.

Another great example is a prototype that was built in 2006/2007 that re-imagined the center-console of a car as a massive touch screen. Some pictures of the prototype, the Pangea Interface:

 

Too futuristic? Not really. In March 2009, a similar concept was introduced in the new Tesla Model S, the much anticipated electric car.

If you would like to have a glimpse at the future, you are invited to the join us at Stanfor Design EXPE09. More information and registration is available at http://expe.stanford.edu/The preliminary program for the day:HSG310: Design Thinking & Business Innovation, University of St. Gallen

• BASF: Total Packaging Design for Printers
• Lonza: Harvest the creativity and the knowledge of the scientific community
• Swisscom: Services for Enabling Home Networking Adoption

ME310: Project-Based Engineering Design, Innovation & Development

• AUDI AG: HMI 2020 in collaboration with TKK (Helsinki, Finland)
• Autodesk Inc.: Exploring the Opportunities for Collaboration between architects, manufacturers, and contractors in collaboration with UNAM (Mexico City, Mexico)
• Foundation of Finnish Security and Safety Industry Development: Intelligent Fall Protection in collaboration with TKK
• Naked Green: Leveling the playing field for Alternative Fuel Vehicles in collaboration with TKK
• Panasonic: Making Dental Care More Fun & Effective in collaboration with HPI (Potsdam, Germany)
• Panasonic: Supporting Social Bonds and Friendship with Wearable Technology in collaboration with PUJ (Cali, Colombia)
• Robert Bosch GmbH: A Sensor System for 3D Measurement and Reconstruction in collaboration with UNAM
• SAP AG (Germany): Innovating the Work@SAP Experience in collaboration with HPI
• Telefonica (Germany): Mobile Pursuit of Vital Signs in collaboration with PUJ

CS210: Project-Based Software Design, Innovation & Development

• Microsoft: Making satellite imagery available for climate modeling
• Yahoo!: Improving the Internet Search Experience
• Facebook: Making the Facebook platform a more viable option for the enterprise
• John Gardner Center: Identifying opportunities for and implementing software to improve after school programs for youth

As you can see, these student projects from around the world are definitely not your typical student project. A large part of my activities at the University of St. Gallen are around a course called “Design Thinking & Business Innovation” that we have setup in a cooperation between Prof. Larry Leifer, Director at the Stanford Center for Design Research and Prof. Walter Brenner, Director of Institute of Information Management. Our students will be there as well, presenting their conceptual prototypes

Let’s get in touch!

If you are planning to visit the Stanford Design EXPE please drop me an eMail at bernhard@customer-experience-labs.com . Together with Sushi Suzuki, Ph.D. student at the Stanford Center for Design Research, we would like to give you a behind the scenes look of the design research and teaching at Stanford University. You should also have a look at the new course website at http://me310.stanford.edu/

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I will be attending the "U² Understanding Users" conference and intensive training on User-Centered Design in Brussels on May 22.

We all want our customers to be satisfied with our products. The process of creating a successful user experience requires empathy with the user, insight into the needs, wants and limitations of the end user and a willingness to be open to new solutions.

First Conference and intensive training on User-Centered Design in Brussels

U^{2  _}  Understanding Users will emphasize the importance of User-Centered Design and other cutting-edge methods and their applications for industry, as well as discuss practical tools for working user-centered design principles into product development and keeping them there.

 

Do you attend the conference as well? Drop me an email, I am arriving in Brussels already on the May 21st. If you can not attend, check back in a few days to read my wrap-up of the conference.

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