Rich Sheridan, CEO of software firm Menlo Innovations, in Ann Arbor, MI, recently asked the cubicle question. Then, annarbor.com ran an article about his post under the title “Death to Cubicles.” The battle lines were drawn.
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Susan Lyons follows her nose. And her hands, eyes, and ears. In fact, her love for all things sensate has led her to exotic as well as homely places. India, for example, with its riot of scent and color as well as its craftsmanship and reverence for materials and finally to New York where she began designing textiles. Lyons was an early champion for the environment, which led to a partnership with architect Bill McDonough and, in 1995, to an award-winning, cradle-to-cradle collection of compostable textiles.
Still in New York, Lyons has her own design firm, and she consults with Herman Miller on materials and finishes, where her passion for sustainability and love of color and texture has found a likeminded partner.
Here are seven questions for Susan Lyons….
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I love talking to designers. They’re such problem-solvers. For example, the other day, I had a really interesting conversation with Martin Linder, designer of the Florabella Lounge Collection by Brandrud (a Herman Miller company), which recently won a Nightingale Award at the Healthcare Design 09 conference. Our discussion ranged from worry beads to hugs to pathogens to machines for detecting explosives in airports (which he also designs, but that’s a whole other story.)
Linder, a tenured professor at San Francisco State University and partner in MSL Design, believes good design starts with good research, so he spent many hours in hospital waiting rooms observing how people interact with the furniture there. Some, he discovered, found comfort using armrest seams as “worry beads;” others took the concept of “lounge” to new heights – or depths, actually. These and other factors (did we mention those pesky pathogens?) were all taken into consideration before he ever picked up a drawing tool.
In addition to his observations, Linder also talked with hospital personnel, including nurses and maintenance crews.
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The traveling design exhibition, “Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller,” has begun its 15-city tour. Premiering at the Muskegon Museum of Art, the exhibit will visit cities across the United States over the next two years.
Here are some upcoming dates and locations:
Goldstein Museum of Design St. Paul, MN, November 23, 2009 – January 17, 2010
Henry Ford Museum Dearborn, MI, February 6, 2010 – April 24, 2010
Everson Museum of Art Syracuse, NY, August 15, 2010 – October 17, 2010
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts San Angelo, TX, November 7, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Wausau, WI, January 29, 2011 – April 3, 2011
Hunter Museum of American Art Chattanooga, TN, January 2, 2012 – February 26, 2012
San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design San Francisco, CA, June 17, 2012 – August 12, 2012
“Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller” explores the collaborative problem-solving design process employed at Herman Miller.
Why not pay a visit in a city near you?
“Okay, class,” I say, “get into groups.”
A collective sigh, then shuffling and scraping of chairs. I survey the results.
“No, Jonah. You can’t sit in a corner and read. Move here. Lynsey, turn around. You guys, arrange yourselves so you can talk to each other.”
This is the drill every time I want my English Comp class to analyze a story or to discuss questions. Why is this so hard?
Simple. It’s bad design.
Designers, educators, and Herman Miller are known to encourage collaboration. In fact, Herman Miller is partnering with several institutions to try on some new approaches to learning spaces and to measure the result.
And yet, while we expound on the power of collective intelligence and the value of teamwork, most classrooms are still furnished with immobile, tank-like tables all lined up in rows. If the design of an environment signals how it should be used, most classrooms signal naptime.
I’m confident that students will, by and large, survive their educational gestation in these bland boxes and emerge when the real world prods them into out-of-the-box thinking, but in the meantime, it sure ought to be easier to create an environment conducive to teamwork in the classroom. Or at least to form a group.
Minus digital technology and the Internet, Twitter has a surprising ancestor: early 20th-century postcards.
Postcards didn’t exist in the U.S. before1898. That year, the government made it legal to print and send “private mailing cards.” Stamps were a penny. Messages were permitted only on the front of the card. The back was reserved for the address. The limited space required messages to be brief, telegraphic, “tweet-like.”
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Last week’s Best of Year Awards—Interior Design magazine’s design competition recognizing superior interior design projects and products in all categories—highlighted three products from Herman Miller: the Envelop desk, the Setu chair, and the Embody chair.
Envelop won the Best of Year Award in the Furniture: Contract/Desking & Systems category, while Setu received the award for the Seating: Contract/Conference category. Embody was noted for its Merit Award in the Seating: Contract/Task category.
Check out the rest of the winners on the publication’s website.
A few years ago I had foot surgery on both feet at the same time. For six weeks, I stumped around the house with the help of a walker. Climbing stairs, making a sandwich, getting the mail—everything took five times longer than it should have, i.e., five times longer than it took me when I was able bodied. It was a stark reminder that, no matter how healthy we are, sooner or later we’ll all experience physical limitations, whether because of surgery or illness or the natural effects of aging.
Universal design accounts for that eventuality by providing for the broadest range of ages, abilities, and work styles. While universal design came into its own when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, inclusiveness has always been part of Herman Miller’s approach to design. In 1968, Robert Propst designed the original Action Office system with universality in mind, and it’s still among the best at accommodating people of all abilities.
If a product can be used with a closed fist, virtually anyone can use it. The sliding door design of Vivo’s overhead unit and its knob are good examples.
So are the arc drawer pulls on Meridian files and the joystick height-adjustment lever on the Embody chair.
Beyond the “closed fist” rule, universal design happens in the application of product in work surface heights and aisle widths, for example, says Marsha Skidmore, Director of Market Response Design & Development at Herman Miller. Herman Miller dealers can help customers plan for universal design in their facilities.
In the product development process, Herman Miller doesn’t mandate universal design, “We don’t have to because we always have taken inclusiveness into account. It’s just a part of our culture,” says Skidmore. “We never aim to make something that would exclude a group of people.”
Metropolis Magazine’s 2010 Next Generation® Design Competition, “ONE Design FIX for the FUTURE” is calling for entries. With this year’s theme, they’re looking for one design fix – in a product, a workplace, a city, a building, a landscape or wherever – that “in scale or as inspiration, can improve our future.”
So if you’re a designer who has been in business less than 10 years – or a design student – why not enter? Just think: Your idea might not only win, but with the $10,000 prize in seed money, you might actually watch it come to fruition.
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Keynote speeches, round table discussions, hands-on workshops, lecture presentations, exhibit hall displays, awards ceremonies (to honor the Florabella lounge collection, a winner in the Nightingale Awards Competition), and interpersonal conversations shaped the collective Herman Miller Healthcare experience at the Healthcare Design conference held Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 in Orlando, Florida.
Our live media team, composed of individuals from Herman Miller and our subsidiaries Brandrud and Nemschoff, covered the event live on Twitter under stream #hcd09.
What did we learn? What were the major trends we observed and takeaways we will continue to think about? What texture did we take away from the intangible? We synthesized our experience and now we present five takeaway points back to you for consideration:
1. You can apply lean process to any industry. Learn and apply best practices from other fields.
2. Use evidence-based design to drive innovation.
3. Patients, doctors, nurses, furniture, infrastructure, equipment, buildings, and nature are all part of the same ecosystem.
4. Design healthcare products and environments that reference norms but create delight.
5. Listen, ask, test, challenge, and participate in communities that are shaping the future of healthcare.
We’d love to hear your reactions. Do you agree? Understand? Let’s continue the conversation here and on Twitter. Follow @healthcarehm and stream #betterworld.
