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Visual Diary #14 | Design Leadership Project Highlights

I feel it is important to note the specific things I have learned from this class and how they effected the outcome of my design leadership project. I felt there was a turning point for me over the course of this class that really helped me clarify and come up with substantial ideas for my design leadership project. 

The Gift of Parameters. It’s real. Separating the tangibles from the intangibles really helped me clarify what to look for when designing solutions to my wicked problem. I realized my wicked problem approached a lot of the intangibles to consider in design leadership. Once I realized it was okay to separate them out I was able to come up with ideas a lot more easily fro my project. 

I now understand why they are a gift because it can really help you take a huge step in the right direction for your project when you may be feeling unclear or confused about possible solutions. When we learned about parameters I had a “breakthrough” in my thought process and it made me feel much more confident in my design leadership project. 

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Visual Diary #14 | Design Leadership Project Highlights

One of the most impactful pieces of my project was the Ethnographic Research portion. I feel I will carry this with me into the future because it is my goal to design for the users and not for individual gain. I really liked the process of the research and what it brought to the table for starting ideas and taking you through the design thinking process. 

Ethnographic Research had a positive impact on me as a designer and as I take my career forward in Design Leadership, I will remember its usefulness!

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Visual Diary #13  |  Open Topic

The Apple Activity Tracker (and Apple Watch)

The Apple Watch receives a lot of criticism. Some people think the product is an absolute joke and then some people enjoy it. Some people think Fitbits or other health tracking devices are better. 

Well, I’m here to make an appreciation post. My Apple Watch keeps me motivated on a daily basis. I think the UX behind the activities app is very well done and truly provides motivations and reminders when it comes to movement. For someone who sits all day at work, I am grateful it reminds me to get up and move around each hour. I am grateful it makes me feel like I’m working toward an accomplishable goal. It gives me a visual on my progress for each category and also provides data for a more long-term picture. It allows me to be motived by my friends and see their progress throughout the day. I just LOVE IT!

Regardless of what people say, my Apple Watch is a part of each day for me. I live next to a trail and walk/run at least 3 miles a day and it has made a serious improvement in my health and fitness. “Closing my rings” each day is a fun task for me and it leaves me feeling accomplished at the end of each day. I also love that I have the cellular version of the Apple Watch. That means I don’t have to lug around my phone with me to listen to music or make calls and reply to texts while I’m out getting exercise. For me, the Apple Watch and the Activities app meets all of my needs and I am grateful for the connectivity capabilities and the data it provides for me to look back on when I do have my phone. 

Thank you, Apple, for your tech innovation and ability to create appealing designs and technology. I am a pleased customer! 😊

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Visual Diary #13 | Open Topic

For one of my posts for design leadership in general, I wanted to point out the presence of job searching and hiring online. While there are several tools for this, I feel indeed was one of the first very substantial presence in this field. I appreciate that they don’t make the people searching for a job pay a fee because that would totally not make sense. I have found several jobs via Indeed and the position I am currently in was found via Indeed. I just have a lot of respect and appreciating for all companies leading the way in this field. It makes it so convenient for people who are very serious about getting a job. 

While there are enhancement options that you pay for as a searcher or employer, ultimately you are free to see whatever is posted, making it “game” for all. I also really enjoyed some of their more recent advertisements on tv. I think they did a really nice job showing a story of a person and how much work and time goes into getting hired. As someone who has struggled with being laid off unexpectedly and struggling to find a job, this literally almost made me cry! You can see it here:

https://youtu.be/dar78OUIFhU

I’m sure most people have seen this but I just love “in their shoes” method of advertising. Indeed is such a wonderful tool and I’m very thankful for the ability to search for thousands of jobs online!

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Visual Diary #12 | Responsibility Practitioners

I felt Patagonia was a good example of a company trying to really be conscious in their moves as a business and how they effect the environment. You can see their mission here:

Patagonia is an outdoor apparel and lifestyle brand that emphasizes simplicity and utility. The Ventura-based company aims to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, [and] use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” They are constantly seeking new ways to minimize impacts on the environment—tailoring everything they make to sports that don’t require a motor. They are passionate about connections between people and nature.

Whether they follow this spot on or not, they are being mindful and I think that says a lot about his very popular brand. There seems be a lot more companies these days that are being forward about their impact on the Earth and society as a whole. Therefore, I admire them for that. I’m not sure some of their clothes are actually worth the price tag, but I do commend them for their awareness of environmental footprints.

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Visual Diary #12 | Responsibility Practitioners

Starbucks is a great example of an organization who is taking the lead on several major issues. One of the greatest recognitions they have received is their “score” on their hiring of people with disabilities. They have really made it known to the world that they care about equality and I think it’s an admirable thing about the corporation as a whole. Read the article here: https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-is-recognized-as-top-employer-for-disability-hiring-and-inclusion/

I think it’s amazing how accepting and hiring people with disabilities changes their lives. They are so excited to be accepted and they deserve to be treated as equals with everyone else. Whether that means they need to make adjustments to their training style or management, I’m just glad to see an organization embracing the disabled like this. 

Starbucks is also known for taking political stances with their advertising and packaging. No one is ever going to agree on certain political issues, but it’s important you stay true to who you are and what you believe in. The “Christmas” cup has now been transformed to the “Holiday” cup. While this is totally fine with me, it angers many. I think Starbucks has every right to stand up for what they believe in and how they communicate those beliefs.

Starbucks definitely steps up to the plate when it comes to design leadership and business leadership as a whole. Regardless of if you agree with them or not, no one can deny that they are true to themselves.

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Visual Diary #11 | Problematic Stake in the Ground

People often forget about the time when the Vine app was extremely popular, it sort of just fell off the face of the Earth. Vine was twitter’s other video sharing app and I have researched some reasons as to why it failed in such a popular social media time period. 

I found an article that listed 5 reasons why Twitter’s Vine fell to its demise. 

1. Lack of audience ownership

2. Slow reaction the market

3. Twitter Cannibalism

4. Lack of commercial viability

5. (Too) rapid growth

These reasons don't seem to be enough on their own without explanations. I thought all along that it had something to do with the 10 second cap and all of the video sharing platforms were expanding their time limitations. Apparently, there was more to it than that. You can see the link here. https://www.dmnews.com/channel-marketing/social/blog/13042360/5-reasons-why-vine-failed

Basically, there were several factors as to why it failed. One of the main reasons that stood out to me was the fact that Vine never gave an advertisement outlet for businesses, which is possibly the largest driver of today’s video sharing platforms. Making your platform–that you don’t charge a membership fee for–available for advertising is what makes you money and therefore allows you to stay afloat. Basically they had all of these users and no partnerships with other companies which was a big miss-step on their part. 

Since I wasn’t aware that Twitter owned Vine, this next main factor seemed funny to me. In 2015 twitter launched it’s own video sharing capabilities and basically became the largest competitor for Vine. It makes sense why they didn’t try to save Vine, since they were a part of their own downfall. However, they did sort of lose their “stake in the ground” status when Snapchat and Instagram became wildly more popular than Vine. Twitter felt its best chance was going to back to its own roots and developing the video platform within. Although they did this, they still aren’t considered the highest ranked platform when it comes to video sharing. Vine grew very quickly but didn’t have enough juice from the business aspect to remain relevant.

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Visual Diary #11 |  Problematic Stake in the Ground

The Wii U

Arguably one of the worst gaming console flops in history, the Wii U failed miserably in comparison to the ever-famous Wii system. While the concept was there in regards to portability, it fell short in many ways. See this link here for more details https://www.svg.com/112351/wii-u-flopped/.

This article describes several key parts as to why the Wii U flopped, but I want to focus on Nintendo’s problematic stake in the ground. Nintendo has a specific audience and is usually geared toward what they consider more “casual” gamers. I feel that description is fairly accurate, especially when it comes to the Wii. The Wii was all about being able to play with motion and multi-player ease. It was a great console for parties and kids playing with friends, etc. The Wii was incredibly successful as Nintendo placed their stake in the ground for this type of gaming console that was heavily motion-based.

Therefore, the expectations were set very high when they came out with their next console, the Wii U. In the article it mentions how Nintendo partially blames the timing of their console and the rise of game play on tablets. All in all, it made the Wii U obsolete and not up to anyone’s expectations for its attempted purpose in the gamin industry. 

I felt this was a good example for this topic because when Nintendo placed its stake in the ground with the Wii, it set expectations very high for the next release and the Wii U was anything but “wow”. Nintendo redeemed their reputation with the Nintedo Switch, which outsold the Wii U in just 10 months!

It’s amazing how companies that place a stake in the ground are held to such a high standard. It’s very reminiscent of how the Apple standard is so high and the scrutiny they receive when any of their products are less than impressive.

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Visual Diary #10 | Stake in the Ground

This post isn’t about the Global Positioning System (GPS) itself, but rather one of the main makers of mobile GPS systems for vehicles. Today, we all mostly use our phones for this purpose, but Garmin was one of the first companies to really capitalize in this field. For my stake in the ground research I really tried thinking of things that changed my life immensely. I can’t imagine a life today where I couldn’t type in an address and be told directions on how to get there within seconds. It’s totally mind blowing to me that we used to have to use good old fashioned maps! I can still read a map, but the simplicity of today’s technology and GPS capabilities has been a major game changer. 

While Garmin isn’t the only navigation system of its time period, it was one of the most substantial from the beginning and they did place a stake in the ground with the development and keeping up with programming. I use navigation systems, mainly just the maps app on my iPhone, so much these days that it makes me appreciate this technology so much!

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Visual Diary #10 | Stake in the Ground

There are many companies and inventions, etc. that come to mind when I think of breakthrough design and innovation. One that has literally changed the way we live and learn is the internet, and Google was a big facilitator for that change. It’s the largest search engine and I love it–it’s always my go-to! I mean we have even come to adding it into our language, “just google it!”

It’s amazing where Google is now and how much they have grown their technology. Google Analytics has also become a major player in businesses all across the world. Being able to provide access to so much information is truly amazing and that is why Google comes to mind for a classic stake in the ground scenario. The World Wide Web has done many great things for our growth as a society, but Google has been a major player from early on and that’s why they stand apart from other search engines. They have such a recognizable brand and even a modernized logo reigns true to their early beginnings. Google impresses me more and more everyday and I quite honestly can’t imagine life without search engines, especially great ones like Google!

We all know Google is so much more than just a search engine today, but that is how they started out and where I see them as having placed a stake in the ground. They have expanded so much and I’m sure they will continue to do so.

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Visual Diary #9 | Cultural Parameters

Babbel is an excellent example of design leadership with consideration of cultural parameters. This one obviously pertains to language. I think this app has really made some substantial strides as of late and they are even offering learning Spanish for free for 3 months which is really cool! They have done a good job with their marketing strategy. For example, they have a commercial that shows someone learning a new language while making their commute to and from work. They offer a way to speak the language as part of the learning process or mainly by reading. I recently got this app to learn Italian for when I travel to Italy this summer. I haven’t been able to dive into yet, but so far I’m really impressed with Babbel and think they have definitely put a stake in the ground when it comes to learning languages! I’m looking forward to using it and seeing how seamless the process is!

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Visual Diary #9 | Cultural Parameters

Design leadership can take many things into consideration. But how about design that deflects the bounds of cultural parameters. I’m sure most people have seen the “love has no labels” display campaign video. It’s amazing to me and I love watching it because it just reminds me over and over that we are all the same at our cores. This design and idea overall was just genius to me! This is design leadership that directly relates to cultural parameters and how labels mustn’t define us. In a world that can seem so divided, a lot of the time the answer is to all come together and make the world a better place!

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Visual Diary 8 | Parameters

Self-Serve Kiosks

I recently did some heavy traveling and time seems like an important parameter to consider when it comes to design leadership. In a fast-paced world where everyone is in a hurry, waiting in line is less than ideal. People are constantly looking for solutions in design that allow us to wait a little less and have more time for other things. The self check-in kiosks at airports are interesting to me because while they seem to save time, you still have to wait in line for them. This being said, it still seems to be a popular option and I tend to enjoy them. We see more and more self serve kiosks daily and they are designed to save time and make sometimes chaotic situations, less chaotic. I will say no one fully enjoys the process of an airport and security and checking bags etc., etc. Therefore, the airport is a perfect place to add in a self-service kiosk because it’s one less dreaded step when traveling. I specifically flew in American Airlines this trip and while I impressed overall with their kiosks, it seems some deeper software work would help a lot of the bugs I noticed. I witnessed about 60 check-ins and there were a lot of issues with payments and printing of boarding passes and baggage tags, which brings me to my next point. If you’re going to have a self-serve system it needs to be solid and well designed. I see plenty of room for better design with these kiosks, but they are certainly headed in the right direction and I’m grateful for the inventiveness in the business of travel, as it mostly is a major time saver!

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Visual Diary #8 | Parameters

One of the best examples I can think of when it comes to parameters and design leadership is smart and re-usable packaging. Even packaging that is eco-friendly is an example of this because they are considering the carbon footprint of their product and its packaging. I love seeing eco-friendly packaging, but even better than that is smart packaging-turning a package into a use for something else. In this case the use for the package goes perfectly with the shirt. This is such a cool idea and I love this design because it was well thought out and creative.

I hope more businesses consider their packaging like this in the future because it really can make a difference when considering our carbon footprints. People who take their parameters into deep consideration throughout their entire design process will prove effective in creative solutions such as this!

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Visual Diary #7  |  Steps to Becoming a Design Leader

I have been looking into the content from InVision more and more since I posted about it last week and I came across this and thought I’d share it. While a lot of it seems obvious, it is information and opinions like these that are enlightening for me. Since we are able to post whatever we’d like this week, I thought it’d be nice to share something that’s design leadership guidance, rather than just my own opinion of why something is design leadership related. Sometimes it’s nice to gain some raw knowledge from experienced professionals!

I find comfort in reading blogs and articles like this and it inspires me to be better when it comes to my new aspirations for design leadership. Hopefully this short read provides some insight for all of you as it did for me. InVision is really proving to be a great design leadership tool!

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Visual Diary #7 | It’s the Little Things

Today, the press we use at my work decided to not allow the staple mechanism to work. Considering these are due by Friday and I’m in charge of the project, I began to dread the possibility of stapling them all by hand. I tested my accuracy on a few, just to find out I couldn’t reach the center of the booklet to saddle stitch because the average stapler wasn’t long enough and it wouldn’t staple properly when in the open position.

*Enter Staple Board* My life saver today. Such a simple yet brilliant tool. It allows for 3 sizes of staples and to staple anywhere on anything. After a quick search on the internet I was able to get to the craft store to buy this. I was skeptical, as it was about $14 all-together. I went from being super stressed out this morning to grateful as all get out, for the simple things in life and in the design world. Who knew StapleBoard would save my sanity today, because I sure as heck didn’t! Thank you to the people who created this! 😂😍

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Visual Diary #6  |  Design Leadership Tools

I’ve been seeing a ton of advertising for this lately and it makes me interested to see how good it could be for workflow and projects. While there are other similar platforms, I’ve just been curious if this one is as good as they say it is. We use basecamp where I work, and while it’s fine, I think it lacks in giving an overall picture of where you’re at with projects - individually and as a team. If monday.com can do this then I think it would be worth a try!

I definitely like the design, it’s bold in color but clean cut and simple overall. Not sure how easy the navigation is, but from the research I’ve done it seems simple as well. This is a tangible design leadership tool that I hope to try, but I also think there is going to be a variety of pms and workflow platforms like this in the near future to try as well. Regardless, I think the design is great and I can definitely see the benefit of having such a seamless way to monitor and stay on top of work and projects–it’s something we can always get better at!