Dr. Myron Wentz Science Center | North Central College
Company The Maude Group
Introduction Date March 27, 2017
Project Website
Why is this project worthy of an award?
This project represents the integration of pedagogy and design linking learning and use of space to deliver a unique educational environment—it expands STEM beyond science, math, and engineering and integrates the arts and history in harmony with the multi-disciplinary mission of North Central College. The central campus location of the Dr. Myron Wentz Science Center allows it to act as a hub for all students across over 65 areas of study and to host 150 courses that span all disciplines. At its core is a state-of-the-art science center with the latest in laboratories and STEM learning areas. The open environment and windows into laboratories were designed to put “science on display” and engage a wider body of students. The facility also includes mixed-use classrooms and 19 collaborative spaces designed as connection points to share ideas and encourage interdisciplinary activities from all areas of study. The experiential design and architecture reinforce this interdisciplinary message. The main entrance has a large visual element featuring the Golden Ratio which is found in math, art, architecture, nature and numerous other disciplines. Using the nautilus shell as a framework for the Golden Ratio in nature, the core visual is made up of over 2,300 images of activities of the North Central College community past and present. The Golden Ratio wall can also be searched and cross-referenced through a nearby touch screen interactive which pinpoints the location of each image on the wall and tells its story. The 19 collaborative spaces are designed to enable various types of open forum discussion, study and student interaction. Each area features a theme represented by visuals and a description that subtly connects unexpected objects or ideas found in music, history or art to science. There are departmental communication portals located strategically throughout the facility. These allow faculty members to share up to the minute information with students and provide a view into the activities of each department while highlighting accomplishments of students, alumni and faculty. Overall, the interdisciplinary mission of North Central College is communicated through the Dr. Myron Wentz Science Center in several different applications—each of which provides North Central with the flexibility to refresh the story and engage all students and visitors, not just those interested in the sciences.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
The Dr. Myron Wentz Science Center truly embodies the result of embracing the spirit of collaboration and new thinking which lies at the core of the facility’s design intent, to inspire North Central College students to collaborate and generate new ideas. The experience design team, architects, college administration, faculty, students and building construction team worked closely together in sharing ideas, exploring options and really reaching higher to do something genuinely unique and meaningful. Another innovative element of the design is that the signature Golden Ratio visual at the entryway is made of fabric. This allows the visual to be updated on a five-year cycle to depict additional uses of the Golden Ratio and expand on stories of the North Central College community.
Who worked on the project?
The Maude Group – Experience Designer; Holabird & Root – Architect; Pepper Construction – General Contractor; North Central College (Administration, Marketing, Faculty, and Students) – Content and Creative Collaboration
View the project video: https://youtu.be/xkAdqhu35-Y
DuVine Website
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Great design delights in its intuitive and distinct communication. DuVine’s website conveys a sophisticated brand that inspires wanderlust with the possibilities offered for international cycling and adventure tours. The site accommodates an incredible amount of information in a design system that feels manageable for a user. Our customer research showed that the experiential, intimate nature of a DuVine tour was a real differentiator when compared to the competition. Capturing that intangible quality of local experiences online was a primary challenge for the redesign. We solved it with immersive imagery layouts, personalization through the “Find a Tour” tool, and small nods to the experience like “Eat” and “Drink” in every tour overview. Driving conversions directly from the website was a critical goal established at the outset of the project. Conversion requires a significant investment from the customer – both in terms of engagement and price. The streamlined approach to displaying information and incorporating multiple paths to purchase has driven huge growth in website conversions. In the 5 months post-launch, the new site has driven 4 times as many bookings compared to the old site, a 65% increase in visits from mobile devices, and a 20% increase in traffic from organic search.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
DuVine's target customer is an avid traveler who seeks to experience a country beyond the typical tourist attractions. He / she loves to cycle, eat, and / or drink, and indulge in luxury hotels and Michelin restaurants. We knew that driving users to the trip detail pages as efficiently as possible was critical. We focused on creating various navigational elements to encourage this path: For the site’s primary navigation, within Destinations, we wanted to highlight the popularity of regions like France and Italy while still showcasing the breadth of tour offerings. It needed to be usable for all site visitors, regardless of their destination focus. We also wanted to be sure that branded tour categories would still resonate by providing descriptive text within the primary navigation. From speaking to a number of tour participants, we understood that any tool we built to help users sift through tours would need to achieve a balance of utility for visitors with specific dates and destinations in mind, but also for those looking to explore options and be inspired. From this emerged one of the site’s core features, the “Find a Tour” tool. A user can personalize their results based on their specific interests in adventure or culinary activities, cultural experiences, or a preferred landscape such as city, mountain, or coast. This tool helps users quickly narrow down trip options that meet their needs. Finally, we learned from the DuVine team that SEO was a hugely important acquisition channel for the website. The original site structure and navigation provided a strong foundation to work from, so it was up to us to identify content gaps to fill in. From search data, we learned that there is a lot of interest in bike tours in specific regions of a country, not just the country itself (e.g. bike tours in the Loire Valley vs. bike tours in France). This insight led to a structural and navigational enhancement that created space for content at the regional level. Now DuVine has landing pages not just for countries, but also for the various regions in a country. Ultimately, insights like these allowed us to create an information architecture that was based on what we know users are looking for, not just what existed previously.
Who worked on the project?
Team: Brandon Washington, Account Lead; Amanda Saulino, Design Lead; John Hemminger, Design Director; Laurel Marcus, Data Insights and Analytics Lead; Nick Braica, Development Lead; Libby Safford, User Experience Lead; Megan Riley, Designer
View the project video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BRVz0dEjbCB/?taken-by=tank_design
Echo Spot
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Echo Spot is a first-of-its kind device: A small, compact spherical Echo with a touch display designed for any room in the home, all powered by Alexa. As we were developing Echo Show – our first Echo with a display – we set out to make it a communal device, ideally viewed between seven to ten feet. Part way through the development, we realized there was an opportunity to give customers a more personalized screen experience. Something with a small footprint to put on their bedside or work desk that they could make their own. Cue Echo Spot: the stylish and compact Echo with a circular display which enhances the Alexa experience by providing glanceable information, such as weather, unique clock faces, video flash briefings, smart home camera feeds, video calls and more, all hands free. It took many iterations to get the final result. We were initially tasked to develop a small device with a screen influenced by an alarm clock. Right away we thought a circular design would be the right choice, but as we started developing prototypes we found it easier and more cost effective to create a square or rectangular product and went in that direction. But we are a company that values customers first, so as we began to garner feedback from focus groups and beta testers we realized quickly the square design wasn’t meeting customers’ needs, and the device was not being utilized to its fullest potential. So we went back to our spherical design and challenged the team to solve a complex problem – putting the smarts of Alexa, a capable mic-array, and quality speaker system in a non-traditional form factor at a customer-friendly price. The team worked hard to get the design and engineering dialed in, and initial feedback was much more positive; we kept hearing words like “cute”, “warm”, and “engaging”, and knew our instincts for a round design were right. But of all the things that make Echo Spot unique, it’s the design ethos that sets it apart. Our other Echo products were designed to fade into the background of your home – sitting on a shelf or blending in to a kitchen counter – but Echo Spot was our first product designed to earn a spot in a prominent, noticeable location. With a small, more personalized display best used from three to five feet, we challenged ourselves to create something both aesthetically pleasing and practical. The final result is a device we’re proud of, and a device customers have come to love. Our most important metric is customer reviews, and Echo Spot remains one of our highest-rated products at 4.5 stars with many of the review calling the device “cute”, “versatile”, and “elegant”.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
Echo Spot builds on the voice-first experience customers have come to know and love with other Echo devices. At Amazon we are always looking for new ways to delight customers. Though novel in design, deciding on a round screen for Echo Spot did not come easy – we listened to customers who wanted a device that fit in with home decor and fit easily into any room, but choosing to make the Spot round meant that everything, from hardware engineering to UX design, would be more challenging to produce. While Echo Spot has a smaller form than Echo Show, we wanted to ensure that customers have a similar experience with Alexa across all their Echo devices. So, while customers have the added benefit of a screen for glanceable content, they still get everything they love about Alexa with Echo Spot – they can get the news, ask for information, see their calendar, browse audiobooks, ask for music, add items to their shopping list, and more. Given the small design, we optimized the screen for glanceable content, but also made the experience suitable for different use cases and incorporated touch in a natural way. For instance, we decided customers should have the ability to bring back simple actions by touch, so for example, when they do not want to wake their partner by speaking to Alexa, they have the ability to use one touch to snooze or dismiss alarms.
Who worked on the project?
Amazon designers, speech scientists, engineers, product managers
View the project video: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ttf-frv1/rook/01_US/DPV/Rook_DPV_Edit_120117_MASTER_20171201_Airy.mp4
EDGE Olympic
Company EDGE Technologies
Introduction Date April 1, 2018
Project Website http://www.edge-olympic.com
Why is this project worthy of an award?
EDGE Technologies, launched in January 2018 by OVG Real Estate, introduces EDGE Olympic. The first in a new generation of buildings that actively contributes to the wellbeing of people and the world. We strongly believe the world needs better buildings and it is our mission to create buildings which are energy positive for both people and planet. EDGE Olympic follows a new sustainability strategy to maximize the benefits for both people and the planet. EDGE Olympic has been designed to minimize its environmental impact. Instead of demolishing the original building it was redeveloped, reusing existing materials and introducing circular products and systems. The original granite facade now serves as flooring on the ground level. A third and fourth floor were added on top of the building with a demountable, dry-connected wooden structure and a Cradle-to-Cradle certified façade. Additionally, all the raised computer floors and bathroom tiles also hold a Cradle-to-Cradle certification. Throughout the building sustainable and VOC-free materials & furnishing have been implemented. With this building EDGE Technologies is aiming for positive energy performance before the end of the year. EDGE Olympic has an Energy Label A, originating from an Energy Label F. A BREEAM Excellent certification, the world’s leading sustainability assessment method, is being pursued. EDGE Olympic aims to be the first office in Europe with a WELL Core & Shell Platinum certification, bringing together the latest research and technical innovations. WELL is the leading certification method for advancing the health and well-being of people in buildings. Through careful functional programming and design, we aim to increase the health, engagement and productivity of every user, enabling our tenants to excel. EDGE Olympic offers an environment which positively influence the physical, social and mental wellbeing. Starting with fundamental neurobiological needs such as physical comfort, up to inspiring users with a work environment that fosters unexpected interactions on a daily basis, always buzzing with ideas. The building was designed to get people moving with an inviting central staircase and a variety of different workspaces accommodating individual needs. An important element is the use of nature, with lots of plants and inviting outdoor terraces. To counter the winter-blues during the darker months of the year, the building is also equipped with circadian lighting. To enable our sustainability and wellbeing ambitions the building is based on a digital infrastructure that connects everything and everyone within its walls to a single cloud platform. A smartphone app lets users personalise their workplace, with the possibility to customise the lighting and temperature, continuously measuring noise levels and air quality to inform choices. This same technology also lets users access the building, quickly locate their colleagues, and find available meeting rooms or workplaces. The sophisticated digital infrastructure is flexible, making it future-proof. Extra services can be easily added to meet the changing needs of tenants and users. This enables EDGE Olympic to continuously update its system to contribute to user comfort, productivity and creativity.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
The original structure of the building and the additions have all been catalogued in a BIM model in combination with a Material Passport. The Material Passport is meant to simplify future re-use of building components. A stand-out product we are piloting within EDGE Olympic are DSM Niaga carpets made in collaboration with Donkersloot. These carpets are 100% recyclable into new carpets and reduce the overall need for energy and water during production.
Who worked on the project?
EDGE Technologies - Developer Epicenter - Operator Architekten Cie - Architect Concrete - Interior designer JP van Eesteren - Contractor Mapiq - User application bGrid - Sensor nodes Schneider Electric - Building management system Nuuka - Data analytics Microsoft - Cloud platform BBA - WELL AP Deerns - Installation advisor DGMR - Building physics and sustainability advisor Bosman - Installations
View the project video:
Electrick: Low-Cost Touch Sensing Using Electric Field Tomography
Company Carnegie Mellon University
Introduction Date May 6, 2017
Project Website http://yang-zhang.me/research/Electrick/Electrick.html
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Today’s touchscreens are rigid, flat and rectangular. In cases where irregular shapes or large surfaces have been made touch sensitive, the price tag is often substantial – touchscreens above 75” typically cost thousands of dollars – and irregular or flexible objects with touch-sensing capabilities are generally research prototypes unavailable to consumers. This high cost and inflexibility has limited touch interaction from being adopted by a wider array of everyday objects, despite touch input being popular and intuitive. In response, we developed Electrick, a low-cost and versatile sensing technology that enables touch input on a wide variety of objects and surfaces, whether small or large, flat or irregular. This is achieved by using electric field tomography (adapted from the medical domain) in concert with an electrically conductive material, which can be easily and cheaply added to objects and surfaces (e.g., furniture, toys, appliances) at under $1 per square foot of interactive area – a game changer. Our technology is compatible with commonplace manufacturing methods, such as spray/brush coating, thermo/vacuum forming, and casting/molding – enabling a range of possible uses and outputs. Electrick is also readily accessible to hobbyists, requiring no special chemicals, equipment or facilities; everything can be readily purchased online. This allows our technology to be applied to existing objects and surfaces, augmenting them with new touch sensing capabilities. Of course, such coatings could also be applied during the initial manufacturing process to create new interactive goods at costs compatible with mass production. We are working with specialists from different industries, and have confirmed that Electrick has great potential in many application areas, including robot skins, car interiors, toys, and paper products. Finally, Electrick can also be used to bring touch interactivity to rapidly prototyped objects (e.g., 3D printed), enabling rapid iteration of both form and function. Please see our video overview and academic paper for more details and examples.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
We have been continuing our research, refining the technology and applying it to new domains. In April, 2018, we released a second peer-reviewed paper that investigated applying Electrick to paper products: Video: https://youtu.be/Y1Q0QCPdZys Paper PDF: http://yang-zhang.me/research/Pulp/Pulp.html CONVENTIONAL CAPACITIVE SENSING: One the reasons conventional capacitive touch panels – like you might find on a laptop – are so expensive is that they require expensive conductive materials (e.g., ITO, silver inks, copper). Additionally, current methods require special patterning and multi-layer structures that significantly increase complexity and cost. In contrast, our technology does not involve special patterning or several layers – it is just one contiguous layer of inexpensive, weakly conductive material. As a consequence, our Electrick-augmented objects can be achieved at extreme low costs, < $1 per square foot of interactive area. Furthermore, our technology works on objects with complex geometries such as steering wheels, car dashboards, kitchen appliances, handheld tools and toys – objects not possible with current touch panel technologies. SENSING PRINCIPLE: With our technology, object and surfaces are coated with a weakly conductive layer, which can be laminated or sprayed onto objects. This material can be very low cost, such as a carbon loaded plastic. Small electrodes are then placed around the periphery of the area desired to be interactive. Our custom Electrick board inserts a small electrical current between pairs of adjacent electrodes, creating an electric field in the conductive layer. The voltage is then measured at all other adjacent electrodes pairs. When a finger touches the surface, it shunts a small amount of the current to Earth ground, which distorts the electric field. Our custom machine learning pipeline uses this signal to infer where a finger must be touching, which can then be passed to software applications. In our peer-reviewed paper (http://yang-zhang.me/research/Electrick/Electrick.pdf), we conducted an evaluation that showed our technique is robust and accurate across many conditions including sizes, materials, surface geometries, etc. We also built a variety of fully functioning examples to demonstrate the expressivity and flexibility of our technology. MEDIA COVERAGE: MIT Technology Review, A Cheap, Simple Way to Make Anything a Touch Pad. Inc., Carnegie Mellon Researchers Just Gave the Humble Piece of Paper a Futuristic Redesign. The Wall Street Journal, How to Turn Anything Into a Touchpad. The Verge, Electrick lets you spray touch controls onto any object or surface. Engadget, Get ready to ’spray’ touch controls onto any surface. CNET, Almost anything can become a touchpad with some spray paint. Popular Science, What a Jell-O brain tells us about the future of human-machine interaction. Gizmodo, Scientists Figure Out How to Turn Anything Into a Touchscreen Using Conductive Spray Paint. TechCrunch, New technique turns anything into a touch sensor. Bloomberg, This Spray Can Make Your Wall a Touchpad. The Wall Street Journal, How to Turn Anything Into a Touchpad.
Who worked on the project?
Yang Zhang - Lead Researcher Gierad Laput - Researcher Chris Harrison - Lab Advisor
View the project video: https://youtu.be/38h4-5FDdV4
