good afternoon the power of Unknowing
what does that mean
so one of my favorite quotes is by Coco
Chanel it’s only those with no memory
insist on their own originality
seemingly simple in the world of
innovation and product design it seems
counterintuitive but I was originally
told this by one of my art professors
back in our history class and it
essentially was talking about how
artists often are inspired by other
artists work other things around them
the context in which they live for Coco
Chanel is very much a belief of hers
that originality was not something that
she would be creating it was more of
mixing of fashions mixing of ideas and
colors and textures to create something
that was new versus original you know
for me originality is very much that
statement was very much about how I took
it very literally in that I have to kind
of intentionally forget about things to
try to create something new and here’s
an example of something very new
artificial intelligence Bob even Alice
how many of you guys have ever heard of
show hands Bobby even Alice I see one
too
okay there’s not a lot of you I hadn’t
heard about it until recently but Bob
even Alice RA artificial neural network
created by Google’s deep brain team and
this is a really really interesting
thing and one of our speakers earlier
today talked about AI a little bit it’s
in that they they originally and it
actually kind of proves the point of my
talk a little bit
they started out kind of programming all
the code for this artificial
intelligence like you got to you know
put everything you can possibly think of
and try to problem-solve with this code
for these you know three artificial
networks to be able to send information
back and forth between each other and
one one said an encrypted message and
the other one would get the encrypted
message and try to decrypt it but they
wouldn’t have the code to decrypt it so
it was just teaching itself right but in
the beginning all the code was based on
you know kind of a rudimentary way of
building intelligence where you kind of
like an adult brain right versus and it
didn’t work for them like it wasn’t
working they couldn’t solve this problem
so they switched the code to be much
more like the brain of a toddler and the
brain of a toddler is is in not
intentionally but naively kind of
approaching the world because they they
have a blank slate right they have the
ability to go and play and experience
and learn through play and trial and
error to be able to learn the world
around them to learn what works and what
doesn’t they don’t have all those
preconceived ideas that we have in our
brains on why something can or cannot
work right so for me I became a diabetic
actually so we had another speaker just
talk about insulin I’m an insulin
dependent diabetic type one and that
happened when I was six years old I was
at that time that I started rocking this
awesome fanny pack right and that was
really to carry all the things I needed
to keep me alive so I had a gameboy
sized blood machine inside of it which
you can see here on the slide and that
was something that allowed me to test my
blood understand my glucose levels I
also had you know insulin and a syringe
and all these other things like juice
boxes and raisins to keep me going and
as I aged all this technology got better
and better and better and so things got
smaller instead of a syringe now I had
an insulin pen so it’s all combined is
really cool I could show my friends and
then the you know the technology got
smaller and smaller and eventually now
I’m on something called an insulin pump
which is amazing right so Dean came in
but you can see a photo of one of the
original insulin pumps on the far left
Dean came in who invented the Segway
also invented insulin pumps he you know
changed my life and it was at that point
in time like very early in my life I
started to realize that people are out
there that I didn’t even know they were
solving problems for me when people like
me and it was that among many other
things it inspired me to want to do very
much the same thing and solve problems
for people so what do I do today so I’m
a I guess title and co-founder of a
company called mobility designed we
we design mobility solutions and and you
know I create things like many products
and inventions for various large and
small scale companies upper right hand
corner you can see what was in it say
it’s a cord reel so it winds up power
cords I’m sure many of you have had it
not in power cord in your life and this
was a way to easily keep your stuff
organized it was inspired by a salad
shooter so like the same thing that you
would use to dry off your salad so this
idea is you put it on the ground you
step on it right you wind up a power
cord it works that’s great so different
things like that along with on the
left-hand side you can see some of the
ideation around a set of crutches that
we designed that use your elbows instead
of your armpits to support your weight
so when I was first asked to do this
talk and they’re asking me like you know
how do you how do you problem solve and
you know I really hadn’t really ever
thought about it before how do I solve
issues where did it come from the
solutions to these issues and it kind of
goes down to something I call
intentional naivety and it’s it sounds
like why would you ever intentionally go
into a situation that’s naive well going
back to like Google where you have to
sometimes approach you know problems
like specific things you’re trying to
solve that are challenging with a kind
of a more blank slate right you have all
the solutions in your brain on ways
maybe that somebody had already solved
that problem or thought of that problem
for solutions but you don’t necessarily
know how to get rid of those and get
them out of your head and for me I
intentionally don’t go out when I’m
trying to solve something and research
the solutions their existing like I I
push that off you know I go out and do
other things which I’ll share a few of
those with you in a little bit so
University of British Columbia this is a
really cool project they’re working on
and it’s a great example of intentional
naivety they have a a project that
they’re creating called it’s a space
elevator so it wouldn’t be great if you
could take an elevator to space super
efficient a lot less fire than a rocket
right safer pretty cool stuff and they
they use
you know solar panels and lasers and
various other things to power these
devices and they’re not the only people
that are working on this and and the
people that are working on this are
doing it with an intentional naivety
because they know the technology does
not exist right now to create the
solution the ribbon that allows this
cabling so thousands and thousands of
miles long this ribbon that holds this
centrifugal force item away from you
know our globe right so it’s pulling on
the earth and it climbs that ribbon
well that ribbon technology does not
exist yet right now we use carbon
nanotube films essentially that you know
they they latch on to this belt so to
speak but it’s still not strong enough
it’s still not lightweight enough for us
to be able to do it but yet they’re
doing it anyway right they’re going at
it because someday you know material
scientists will be out there and they’ll
create a solution it does solve this
problem and they’ll be ready for it or
they’ll do it themselves here’s an
example of where you know it’s kind of
like intentional naivety maybe wasn’t
used and solutions that exist right now
are mediocre at best
so this is the same you know axillary
crutches have them have used them it’s
the same technology we’ve had for ever
since the civil war right solution on
the far right is today’s solution it’s
same same design same organ onyx same
style but it’s better materials it’s
cheaper to make you know we’ve been very
efficient in our manufacturing processes
so how do you do this thing called
unknowing how do you forget what you
know it’s really sounds simple that’s
not right it’s it’s not as actually easy
as you think one of the things here’s a
few techniques I’ve got to show you guys
is it’s really important when you’re in
brainstorms I’m sure many of you in
classes or your your work life I’ve been
in brain storms with people or your
problem-solving with others just suspend
disbelief and and I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve had to go into a
brainstorm beforehand and say this out
loud and then reaffirm what I meant by
saying it out loud later on in the talk
but essentially we are very good at
telling people when something’s not
going to work or for what reason it’s
not going to
and when somebody has an idea instead of
saying like oh you know like that’s not
going to work but maybe this other thing
will work instead of doing something
that puts the idea down which really
stifles creativity and stifles diverse
thinking do something like building it
up so you take the idea that they might
have said and then you build on it right
so you take it and you make it a little
bit different a little bit better as a
way to keep things going and when you’re
doing divergent thinking it’s really
important to do something like that but
again filter at the end so you’re not
trying to filter during the
brainstorming process you’re trying to
filter afterward and it’s really
important to filter because you can’t do
everything
kids are very very good at that right so
they do it automatically you haven’t
been told the camp another technique
that I use it’s kind of strange so you
have to bear with me I don’t know if you
all do this or not but I call it you
know blurring your mind’s eye and it’s
something kind of I went to art school
it’s something you’re trained to do when
you’re like drawing and you kind of blur
your eye and you look at it and you see
if the you know the image is balanced if
a golden mean is there and for me you
know when I’m trying to imagine
something I it helps me to blur my
vision so that I’m not focusing on a
particular part of something so if I’m
looking at an object in front of me I’m
thinking about a system or whatever I
allow my imagination to play a part in
that by blurring my vision which kind of
allows for that object to go in and out
of my imagination and allow for things
to be plugged in if I want to change a
mechanism or add this thing or change
the shape it’s just something I do for
kind of creatively imagining things and
3d and also in your head at the same
time so try it next time you’re trying
to solve a problem people will think
you’re a little strange so this is
something you guys do here during this
talk automatically it’s something that
is a technique that was taught to me by
Doug Hall at Eureka ranch he would use
this and larger group settings kind of
like this where the audience members in
you know and participating in a
brainstorm might get up and talk about
an idea that they had written down on a
sheet so who’s the user what are they
trying to solve the problem for what’s
the solution that kind of
right and the reason why he would tell
everybody after after the idea of what
you’re gonna do is applaud like
everybody in the group applauds for that
person and it sounds cheesy and when you
do it the first couple times it’s like
yeah yeah like applaud I get it but what
happens is it allows for those a little
bit crazy ideas that you know probably
aren’t going to work to get expressed
where they’re not afraid to talk about
them and some people have an easier time
saying things that are crazy in others
but it really helps those those ideas
get out there which someone else can
build on and then make into something
that might work right so it’s like yeah
I see that and maybe how do we make that
work and it really does help something
else I like to do is it’s flipping it so
it’s kind of like whatever you say say
the opposite many of you may have
experienced cassette tapes some of you
students may have not they were
wonderful
I had a few I think they but to get from
song like number two
– like song number 12 get it fast
forward right there was no like select
to the next song at least in my cars and
various Walkmans and so when CDs came
along it was glorious right you could
you could flip to the right song that
was your song that was your favorite
song and then you know experience it it
was like 12 songs 16 songs but when CDs
became like mp3 CDs all of a sudden you
had 200 songs you know on the CD and I
remember sitting in cars and you know
his radio that I might have installed
and this mp3 CD player was great but
then like to get to song number 150
you’re just like I think which one was
it 142 anyway so it’s it’s silly but the
with technology as technology change the
interaction also had to be reassessed so
there’s companies out there that did
this really well and instead of having a
linear button-pushing process from song
number one 150 going through all of them
some companies took to it in a circular
way right so you may recognize this
device but it’s a different kind of an
interaction that allows you to easily
navigate through thousands of songs like
all of your library of songs in your
hand
it revolutionized the music industry and
our mobile devices through the different
type of interaction just one of the
other techniques that we use is called
contextual increase and a professor my
name John Kolko originally brought this
to my attention and and kind of
instilled in our in our interaction
design groups and it was pioneered by
Hugh Byers and Karen Holtz flat really
for the digital app and not apps but it
was it was computer interface industry
back when that was becoming a big deal
we the idea was to basically go out into
context and study the people you’re
trying to design things for in the
context that they’re using the objects
and systems so that you can really
understand what it is that’s affecting
all the variables that might be in any
given system and for me it’s it’s one of
the most critical things because that’s
where the nuggets come from you start to
realize that you know crutches they
don’t work really well on ice you know
if you watch somebody walk at the zoo on
crutches it’s pretty rare because it’s a
pretty long distance and it’s painful
right it it just doesn’t happen
but if you if you do watch somebody it’s
it’s you start to understand the pain
that they’re going through and you can
you know conduct ethnographies and
whatnot to empathize with them to solve
these problems to find nuggets to focus
on create solutions for so this one’s
probably the most important of all the
different things that we talk about
today but don’t be afraid to fail and
this is a really good example of one of
the times where I my may be intentional
naivety didn’t work out but it was a
great learning experience nonetheless so
you know Kansas City sometimes we have
snow here and we I don’t necessarily
like shoveling snow all the time it’s
fun sometimes but I decided in this
instance to try to create a plow that
would work on any type of car that has a
rack on the back right you could just
hook it on and push the go pedal and you
would you would plow your driveway in
like seconds right back up to your
garage door I put the plow down and
scoop out your driveway so
well I built one and took a couple hours
not a big deal but the you know my
father-in-law was gracious enough to be
at the back end of this system trying to
hold on to it and we you know we started
pulling the snow and what happened was
the plow just like hopped up in the air
right and it rode on top of the snow so
he like you know got on top of the thing
and I’m pulling em he’s trying to
balance and I realize I’m like this
isn’t working like this is you know like
no snow has been plowed here so we kind
of looked at it and I thought for a
second I just I realize why snowplows
are on the front or on you know attached
to really big heavy things it’s because
they and now I know they they pushed
down right and it puts puts the plow
close to the ground and keeps it there
whereas in this instance it cannot so
one of the challenges that I took in and
did have a success at was reimagining
what the crutch was and a lot of people
have done things for crutches as we
talked about earlier puppies for your
armpits right so it’s armpits are
painful and crutches right so why not
put puppies there they’re not really
rethinking the problem the problem is
that you’re you know stuffing something
into a soft tissue area with axillary
nerve bundles right so we knew we did
not want to focus on either those red
areas nothing where your weight had to
be supported by your hands nothing where
your weight had to be supported by your
armpits just like why I even have that
as an option so we didn’t so we created
you know hundreds and hundreds of
hundreds of ideas and eventually came to
an idea where it uses your elbows in
your forearms to support your weight
like in the picture you can see on the
far right and that allowed us the
freedom to try to make it to make a
crutch that didn’t have the pain that
accelerate crutches had so this is
called the MD crutch this is our company
and we created this it as I said it
supports your weight elbows and forearms
it has a cradle that unlocks to allow
you just like context you got to know
what people are gonna be doing and they
these phones all the time it’s crazy so
like getting to your phone using your
phone so cradle it unlocks allow you to
reach up and talk to somebody or you
know brush your hair out of your face
silly things like that grab a glass off
of the off of a shelf and originally we
designed this thing without an unlocking
cradle and you realized very quickly
when you start testing it it doesn’t
work that way like people need to move
their arms it’s important so handles
that rotate out of the way for
hands-free mode so you can shake a hand
or open a doorknob feet they’re
interchangeable for various weather
conditions like snow and ice so to
conclude here’s a quick story from a few
weeks ago where my my son and I he’s
three years old he was sitting across
the counter for me and we were having
breakfast before he was gonna go to
school and he was eating his Cheerios
eyes even my Cheerios and we’re sitting
on these stools and we have this
wireless speaker over on the counter and
I thought you know be nice to play a
little music and I say hey do you want
to listen to some music and he what the
mouthful of sugar it was like mm-hm and
so I said okay all right you stay right
there he’s three and he’s notorious for
like falling off of things
so I said do not move on that stool I’m
gonna go upstairs I’m gonna get my phone
I’ll be right back and in my head I
needed to go get my phone so I can make
sure that Pandora was connected to make
sure my phone was in range too you know
like the Bluetooth was you know paired
all those things that you know as an
adult like you have to do to make this
wireless thing work so my son looks up
at me and he’s like what why do you need
your phone in his head and then he says
to me
dad just push the button and I’m like
that’s not gonna work and I’m thinking
he’s my kid
so then I start to walk upstairs and I’m
realizing myself like ah my talk like my
what I’m what I’m talking about is like
intentional naivety like approaching the
world that way which he is doing and I’m
not living it so I go back and I reach
over you know and I push the button
music plays
I’m thinking this three-year-old is
smarter than I am which is awesome you
know it’s like a perfect example I mean
kids do this all the time with
technology may amaze their parents so
with that I want to say is you guys go
out there and approach these problems
push the button
thank you
[Applause]
what does that mean
so one of my favorite quotes is by Coco
Chanel it’s only those with no memory
insist on their own originality
seemingly simple in the world of
innovation and product design it seems
counterintuitive but I was originally
told this by one of my art professors
back in our history class and it
essentially was talking about how
artists often are inspired by other
artists work other things around them
the context in which they live for Coco
Chanel is very much a belief of hers
that originality was not something that
she would be creating it was more of
mixing of fashions mixing of ideas and
colors and textures to create something
that was new versus original you know
for me originality is very much that
statement was very much about how I took
it very literally in that I have to kind
of intentionally forget about things to
try to create something new and here’s
an example of something very new
artificial intelligence Bob even Alice
how many of you guys have ever heard of
show hands Bobby even Alice I see one
too
okay there’s not a lot of you I hadn’t
heard about it until recently but Bob
even Alice RA artificial neural network
created by Google’s deep brain team and
this is a really really interesting
thing and one of our speakers earlier
today talked about AI a little bit it’s
in that they they originally and it
actually kind of proves the point of my
talk a little bit
they started out kind of programming all
the code for this artificial
intelligence like you got to you know
put everything you can possibly think of
and try to problem-solve with this code
for these you know three artificial
networks to be able to send information
back and forth between each other and
one one said an encrypted message and
the other one would get the encrypted
message and try to decrypt it but they
wouldn’t have the code to decrypt it so
it was just teaching itself right but in
the beginning all the code was based on
you know kind of a rudimentary way of
building intelligence where you kind of
like an adult brain right versus and it
didn’t work for them like it wasn’t
working they couldn’t solve this problem
so they switched the code to be much
more like the brain of a toddler and the
brain of a toddler is is in not
intentionally but naively kind of
approaching the world because they they
have a blank slate right they have the
ability to go and play and experience
and learn through play and trial and
error to be able to learn the world
around them to learn what works and what
doesn’t they don’t have all those
preconceived ideas that we have in our
brains on why something can or cannot
work right so for me I became a diabetic
actually so we had another speaker just
talk about insulin I’m an insulin
dependent diabetic type one and that
happened when I was six years old I was
at that time that I started rocking this
awesome fanny pack right and that was
really to carry all the things I needed
to keep me alive so I had a gameboy
sized blood machine inside of it which
you can see here on the slide and that
was something that allowed me to test my
blood understand my glucose levels I
also had you know insulin and a syringe
and all these other things like juice
boxes and raisins to keep me going and
as I aged all this technology got better
and better and better and so things got
smaller instead of a syringe now I had
an insulin pen so it’s all combined is
really cool I could show my friends and
then the you know the technology got
smaller and smaller and eventually now
I’m on something called an insulin pump
which is amazing right so Dean came in
but you can see a photo of one of the
original insulin pumps on the far left
Dean came in who invented the Segway
also invented insulin pumps he you know
changed my life and it was at that point
in time like very early in my life I
started to realize that people are out
there that I didn’t even know they were
solving problems for me when people like
me and it was that among many other
things it inspired me to want to do very
much the same thing and solve problems
for people so what do I do today so I’m
a I guess title and co-founder of a
company called mobility designed we
we design mobility solutions and and you
know I create things like many products
and inventions for various large and
small scale companies upper right hand
corner you can see what was in it say
it’s a cord reel so it winds up power
cords I’m sure many of you have had it
not in power cord in your life and this
was a way to easily keep your stuff
organized it was inspired by a salad
shooter so like the same thing that you
would use to dry off your salad so this
idea is you put it on the ground you
step on it right you wind up a power
cord it works that’s great so different
things like that along with on the
left-hand side you can see some of the
ideation around a set of crutches that
we designed that use your elbows instead
of your armpits to support your weight
so when I was first asked to do this
talk and they’re asking me like you know
how do you how do you problem solve and
you know I really hadn’t really ever
thought about it before how do I solve
issues where did it come from the
solutions to these issues and it kind of
goes down to something I call
intentional naivety and it’s it sounds
like why would you ever intentionally go
into a situation that’s naive well going
back to like Google where you have to
sometimes approach you know problems
like specific things you’re trying to
solve that are challenging with a kind
of a more blank slate right you have all
the solutions in your brain on ways
maybe that somebody had already solved
that problem or thought of that problem
for solutions but you don’t necessarily
know how to get rid of those and get
them out of your head and for me I
intentionally don’t go out when I’m
trying to solve something and research
the solutions their existing like I I
push that off you know I go out and do
other things which I’ll share a few of
those with you in a little bit so
University of British Columbia this is a
really cool project they’re working on
and it’s a great example of intentional
naivety they have a a project that
they’re creating called it’s a space
elevator so it wouldn’t be great if you
could take an elevator to space super
efficient a lot less fire than a rocket
right safer pretty cool stuff and they
they use
you know solar panels and lasers and
various other things to power these
devices and they’re not the only people
that are working on this and and the
people that are working on this are
doing it with an intentional naivety
because they know the technology does
not exist right now to create the
solution the ribbon that allows this
cabling so thousands and thousands of
miles long this ribbon that holds this
centrifugal force item away from you
know our globe right so it’s pulling on
the earth and it climbs that ribbon
well that ribbon technology does not
exist yet right now we use carbon
nanotube films essentially that you know
they they latch on to this belt so to
speak but it’s still not strong enough
it’s still not lightweight enough for us
to be able to do it but yet they’re
doing it anyway right they’re going at
it because someday you know material
scientists will be out there and they’ll
create a solution it does solve this
problem and they’ll be ready for it or
they’ll do it themselves here’s an
example of where you know it’s kind of
like intentional naivety maybe wasn’t
used and solutions that exist right now
are mediocre at best
so this is the same you know axillary
crutches have them have used them it’s
the same technology we’ve had for ever
since the civil war right solution on
the far right is today’s solution it’s
same same design same organ onyx same
style but it’s better materials it’s
cheaper to make you know we’ve been very
efficient in our manufacturing processes
so how do you do this thing called
unknowing how do you forget what you
know it’s really sounds simple that’s
not right it’s it’s not as actually easy
as you think one of the things here’s a
few techniques I’ve got to show you guys
is it’s really important when you’re in
brainstorms I’m sure many of you in
classes or your your work life I’ve been
in brain storms with people or your
problem-solving with others just suspend
disbelief and and I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve had to go into a
brainstorm beforehand and say this out
loud and then reaffirm what I meant by
saying it out loud later on in the talk
but essentially we are very good at
telling people when something’s not
going to work or for what reason it’s
not going to
and when somebody has an idea instead of
saying like oh you know like that’s not
going to work but maybe this other thing
will work instead of doing something
that puts the idea down which really
stifles creativity and stifles diverse
thinking do something like building it
up so you take the idea that they might
have said and then you build on it right
so you take it and you make it a little
bit different a little bit better as a
way to keep things going and when you’re
doing divergent thinking it’s really
important to do something like that but
again filter at the end so you’re not
trying to filter during the
brainstorming process you’re trying to
filter afterward and it’s really
important to filter because you can’t do
everything
kids are very very good at that right so
they do it automatically you haven’t
been told the camp another technique
that I use it’s kind of strange so you
have to bear with me I don’t know if you
all do this or not but I call it you
know blurring your mind’s eye and it’s
something kind of I went to art school
it’s something you’re trained to do when
you’re like drawing and you kind of blur
your eye and you look at it and you see
if the you know the image is balanced if
a golden mean is there and for me you
know when I’m trying to imagine
something I it helps me to blur my
vision so that I’m not focusing on a
particular part of something so if I’m
looking at an object in front of me I’m
thinking about a system or whatever I
allow my imagination to play a part in
that by blurring my vision which kind of
allows for that object to go in and out
of my imagination and allow for things
to be plugged in if I want to change a
mechanism or add this thing or change
the shape it’s just something I do for
kind of creatively imagining things and
3d and also in your head at the same
time so try it next time you’re trying
to solve a problem people will think
you’re a little strange so this is
something you guys do here during this
talk automatically it’s something that
is a technique that was taught to me by
Doug Hall at Eureka ranch he would use
this and larger group settings kind of
like this where the audience members in
you know and participating in a
brainstorm might get up and talk about
an idea that they had written down on a
sheet so who’s the user what are they
trying to solve the problem for what’s
the solution that kind of
right and the reason why he would tell
everybody after after the idea of what
you’re gonna do is applaud like
everybody in the group applauds for that
person and it sounds cheesy and when you
do it the first couple times it’s like
yeah yeah like applaud I get it but what
happens is it allows for those a little
bit crazy ideas that you know probably
aren’t going to work to get expressed
where they’re not afraid to talk about
them and some people have an easier time
saying things that are crazy in others
but it really helps those those ideas
get out there which someone else can
build on and then make into something
that might work right so it’s like yeah
I see that and maybe how do we make that
work and it really does help something
else I like to do is it’s flipping it so
it’s kind of like whatever you say say
the opposite many of you may have
experienced cassette tapes some of you
students may have not they were
wonderful
I had a few I think they but to get from
song like number two
– like song number 12 get it fast
forward right there was no like select
to the next song at least in my cars and
various Walkmans and so when CDs came
along it was glorious right you could
you could flip to the right song that
was your song that was your favorite
song and then you know experience it it
was like 12 songs 16 songs but when CDs
became like mp3 CDs all of a sudden you
had 200 songs you know on the CD and I
remember sitting in cars and you know
his radio that I might have installed
and this mp3 CD player was great but
then like to get to song number 150
you’re just like I think which one was
it 142 anyway so it’s it’s silly but the
with technology as technology change the
interaction also had to be reassessed so
there’s companies out there that did
this really well and instead of having a
linear button-pushing process from song
number one 150 going through all of them
some companies took to it in a circular
way right so you may recognize this
device but it’s a different kind of an
interaction that allows you to easily
navigate through thousands of songs like
all of your library of songs in your
hand
it revolutionized the music industry and
our mobile devices through the different
type of interaction just one of the
other techniques that we use is called
contextual increase and a professor my
name John Kolko originally brought this
to my attention and and kind of
instilled in our in our interaction
design groups and it was pioneered by
Hugh Byers and Karen Holtz flat really
for the digital app and not apps but it
was it was computer interface industry
back when that was becoming a big deal
we the idea was to basically go out into
context and study the people you’re
trying to design things for in the
context that they’re using the objects
and systems so that you can really
understand what it is that’s affecting
all the variables that might be in any
given system and for me it’s it’s one of
the most critical things because that’s
where the nuggets come from you start to
realize that you know crutches they
don’t work really well on ice you know
if you watch somebody walk at the zoo on
crutches it’s pretty rare because it’s a
pretty long distance and it’s painful
right it it just doesn’t happen
but if you if you do watch somebody it’s
it’s you start to understand the pain
that they’re going through and you can
you know conduct ethnographies and
whatnot to empathize with them to solve
these problems to find nuggets to focus
on create solutions for so this one’s
probably the most important of all the
different things that we talk about
today but don’t be afraid to fail and
this is a really good example of one of
the times where I my may be intentional
naivety didn’t work out but it was a
great learning experience nonetheless so
you know Kansas City sometimes we have
snow here and we I don’t necessarily
like shoveling snow all the time it’s
fun sometimes but I decided in this
instance to try to create a plow that
would work on any type of car that has a
rack on the back right you could just
hook it on and push the go pedal and you
would you would plow your driveway in
like seconds right back up to your
garage door I put the plow down and
scoop out your driveway so
well I built one and took a couple hours
not a big deal but the you know my
father-in-law was gracious enough to be
at the back end of this system trying to
hold on to it and we you know we started
pulling the snow and what happened was
the plow just like hopped up in the air
right and it rode on top of the snow so
he like you know got on top of the thing
and I’m pulling em he’s trying to
balance and I realize I’m like this
isn’t working like this is you know like
no snow has been plowed here so we kind
of looked at it and I thought for a
second I just I realize why snowplows
are on the front or on you know attached
to really big heavy things it’s because
they and now I know they they pushed
down right and it puts puts the plow
close to the ground and keeps it there
whereas in this instance it cannot so
one of the challenges that I took in and
did have a success at was reimagining
what the crutch was and a lot of people
have done things for crutches as we
talked about earlier puppies for your
armpits right so it’s armpits are
painful and crutches right so why not
put puppies there they’re not really
rethinking the problem the problem is
that you’re you know stuffing something
into a soft tissue area with axillary
nerve bundles right so we knew we did
not want to focus on either those red
areas nothing where your weight had to
be supported by your hands nothing where
your weight had to be supported by your
armpits just like why I even have that
as an option so we didn’t so we created
you know hundreds and hundreds of
hundreds of ideas and eventually came to
an idea where it uses your elbows in
your forearms to support your weight
like in the picture you can see on the
far right and that allowed us the
freedom to try to make it to make a
crutch that didn’t have the pain that
accelerate crutches had so this is
called the MD crutch this is our company
and we created this it as I said it
supports your weight elbows and forearms
it has a cradle that unlocks to allow
you just like context you got to know
what people are gonna be doing and they
these phones all the time it’s crazy so
like getting to your phone using your
phone so cradle it unlocks allow you to
reach up and talk to somebody or you
know brush your hair out of your face
silly things like that grab a glass off
of the off of a shelf and originally we
designed this thing without an unlocking
cradle and you realized very quickly
when you start testing it it doesn’t
work that way like people need to move
their arms it’s important so handles
that rotate out of the way for
hands-free mode so you can shake a hand
or open a doorknob feet they’re
interchangeable for various weather
conditions like snow and ice so to
conclude here’s a quick story from a few
weeks ago where my my son and I he’s
three years old he was sitting across
the counter for me and we were having
breakfast before he was gonna go to
school and he was eating his Cheerios
eyes even my Cheerios and we’re sitting
on these stools and we have this
wireless speaker over on the counter and
I thought you know be nice to play a
little music and I say hey do you want
to listen to some music and he what the
mouthful of sugar it was like mm-hm and
so I said okay all right you stay right
there he’s three and he’s notorious for
like falling off of things
so I said do not move on that stool I’m
gonna go upstairs I’m gonna get my phone
I’ll be right back and in my head I
needed to go get my phone so I can make
sure that Pandora was connected to make
sure my phone was in range too you know
like the Bluetooth was you know paired
all those things that you know as an
adult like you have to do to make this
wireless thing work so my son looks up
at me and he’s like what why do you need
your phone in his head and then he says
to me
dad just push the button and I’m like
that’s not gonna work and I’m thinking
he’s my kid
so then I start to walk upstairs and I’m
realizing myself like ah my talk like my
what I’m what I’m talking about is like
intentional naivety like approaching the
world that way which he is doing and I’m
not living it so I go back and I reach
over you know and I push the button
music plays
I’m thinking this three-year-old is
smarter than I am which is awesome you
know it’s like a perfect example I mean
kids do this all the time with
technology may amaze their parents so
with that I want to say is you guys go
out there and approach these problems
push the button
thank you
[Applause]
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