Why a newsletter?
 Due to the focus on intelligent products and services and the competency based education model, ID has attracted quite some attention since its start in 2001. ID collaborates closely with companies and institutes. For that reason (and many others) we guess it is interesting to receive a monthly overview of some of the important news facts, the gilt on the gingerbread, so to say.

Why an e-magazine?
Although people claim they like to hold something in their hands while reading it is generally realized that e-magazines (hence the name ‘IDzine’) have the future, especially if it comes down to news. It is more up-to-date, ‘greener’, cheaper and gives much easier access to other sources. It can multiply itself. Use the ‘tell a friend’ function as often as you wish. Subscribing or unsubscribing can be done by a push on just a button. In the future you’ll have access to all issues of  IDzine. The editors can monitor how the news is consumed, because they can see which pages are clicked, giving insight in the popularity of pages and leading to improvement of every new issue.

The use of IDzine
A new communication tool should only be used if it enlarges and improves communication with ID’s relations. IDzine will meet this criterion; at least, that’s the goal. For a department, that claims to emphasize the importance of the user, an e-magazine is a logical choice. Enjoy.

While at the National University of Singapore dean Prof. dr. ir. Jeu Schouten found time to deal with 10 important questions IDzine asked him, relating to Industrial Design. The new department Industrial Design is Jeu Schouten’s brainchild. Around the world he often meets many important partners of this department. The building process is, as he once told, still very much like ‘duck swimming’: from the outside things seem to be pretty much realized while ‘under water’ a tremendous amount of activity needs to be done.  

1. What are you busy with at the moment, with regard to ID?
   The most important part of my job is the building up process of the Department of ID. This started in 2001 and will be completed in 2009. At this moment we work on establishing the Design professor chairs and groups. As a joint effort from the ID-staff the work on the Master program has a first priority and defining the research program is very important too.
2. Why did you choose Industrial Design?
   After a long period as the Dean in Mechanical Engineering and extensive discussions with the industry I decided to set up a new program at TU/e and this was the starting point of the new Department of Industrial Design. Within ID the integrating of different fields of knowledge is essential: technology, user/human, design, business  and to educate creative people to a new type of academic level designers.
3. What is an ‘intelligent product or system’ in your view?
   This is a product or system with "embedded intelligence", not just a pre-programmed robot doing a pre-programmed job, but with sensors and actuators so that the system is context-aware and can anticipate on desires of users. With an adaptive and self-learning ability they continuously improve their services to be presented to the user, eventually without explicit orders given by the user.
4. What would you like to achieve personally with or within ID?
   I would like to complete the building up process of the ID Department resulting in a well balanced and typical TU/e - ID - profile, with education and research integrated. This ID-profile needs strong international and intercultural links.
5. What satisfies you the most in your work at ID?
   Building up something really new from the very first start and include all aspects. Nothing is traditional or according to an existing standard. But most of all working with creative and enthusiastic staff and students as a team of pioneers.
6. What bothers you while working at ID?
   The repeating and repeating discussions with narrow thinking and often mono-disciplinary working people in the university to explain the importance of the ID-field and Department for TU/e, for industry and economy.
7. What do you think is the biggest challenge for ID? 
   To create a new type of designer.
8. What do you think is the power of this department?
   Creativity, enthusiasm and not being afraid to do things in a non-standard way. 
9. What do you think is (still) a weakness?
   Finding the best people for all positions and really integrating different disciplines.
10. Where will ID be in 5 years, do you think?
    In 5 years from now, in 2011 ID will have built up a worldwide chain of cooperating design groups crossing boundaries and cultures to prepare students for a leading position in the international Design industry and business of the future.
    

Since half a year ID has four domains (formerly six units). They are headed by a ‘domain manager’, dealing with the vision of the domain and a program manager, who is in charge of the organisation and planning. Antonio A-Tjak, coming from ‘the far North’ (Schermer, above Alkmaar) is domain manager of ‘Health’ and has a message: ‘first build your team and then change the image of the domain Health. Let’s focus on what we see as our contribution to the theme of health.’

Ideas about ‘Health’

Background
Antonio A-Tjak grew up in Amsterdam and Maasland (near Delft). He went to Delft to study industrial design. That was initially a tough, technology oriented study. He still wonders if the math and physics that he learned there served him in any way. The academic thinking, as a designer, was acquired by the design courses. He graduated with honours in 1983. He considers himself more a designer and communicator than a hard core engineer. His interest in Health related design isn’t new. He designed various hi tech instruments for Philips. He is very much business oriented and has been mostly a leader in so far. He showed his abilities at the design agencies DC3 and Eden Design & Communication, both of which he was the co-founder. In 2005 he invented Flu-id, a bureau dealing with strategic issues, product development, marketing and human resource questions. Interesting in Antonio’s resume is his distinction between learning, doing and making. These three are the main activities through the years, making him a life time learner, someone on the move and willing to promote changes.

The attractiveness of Health
For Antonio, Health could be a ‘signboard’ for the department ID. Students seem to be very fond of the typical Health projects, e.g. the TNO collaborations with regard to intelligent tiled floors that invite children to play with them, resulting in their improved fitness and healthier weight. What he really likes within ID is the orientation towards the professional field, the independence that is required. By asking fundamental questions such as: what is the scope of Health?, by having team and students dealing with these issues he likes to create some kind of foundation and common ground.

Self directed learning
Antonio A-Tjak: ‘Sometimes we ask a lot from the student, he has to resolve too many things without enough tools. It is important students can find back examples so they do not have to redo the process that is done before. So we collect all project results in booklets and strive for a permanent little exhibition in the domain. We assume that students are very much self supporting and able to create their frame of reference. But the results are not always that satisfactory. At times I’m disappointed about that, but the mood changes quickly when I read their self reflections. They give insight in the learning process and it is really amazing how well many students, not always the greatest talents, are able to pinpoint their own weaknesses. This enables true learning, a readiness for change. ID is really a challenge for students and staff alike’. 
See also domain Health

Interaction as the starting point
Overbeeke is delighted by the prospect of being in charge of building up this part of the department. Industrial Design did not yet have a professor in the field of design.
Overbeeke describes the new chair as unique in the world as Industrial Design Eindhoven has an exceptional education model and a very special design focus, namely on intelligent products.

Plans
He believes that three subjects need further exploration. The first is, ‘designerly skills’, as he calls it meaning the ability to understand and be able to design. The second is the scientific approach to design. He believes research and education should be interwoven and not separate fields. He is a strong supporter of the motto ‘research through design’. The third subject should be the philosophical framework of design. The most important aspect of design is not the technology involved but the people. Simply put, the guiding philosophy should be: ‘the interacting with the environment creates information for this interaction’, Overbeeke says.

Design as an academic field
Another important message Overbeeke wants to get across is: we should think in a more ‘designifying’ way about the field. Next to using the insights of associated fields such as architecture, mechanical engineering, psychology, and so on we should consider design a discipline in its own right. 

Internationalization
The new chair also aims to increase the many international relations which he and the department already have. The collaboration between ID and Carnegie Mellon, for example, will be extended. Overbeeke would like to establish exchanges of students and teaching staff between the two departments. He has already invited some Industrial Design research staff members to come to Pittsburgh for a few months. PhD student Philip Ross will do a project in Pittsburgh and Sietske Klooster will be in Pittsburgh to teach and research for her design movement approach.
Overbeeke’s vision is that ID will become the place to be throughout the world so that out of many applicants ID will be able to select the right people for this particular program, staff and students.

Focus on Europe
But that is only possible if ID expands its international orientation. Overbeeke would like ID to focus more on ‘Latin Europe’.  The way people from the Mediterranean countries look at things really complement the established Anglo-Saxon frame of reference.
Northern Europeans are not vey familiar with the Southers European lifestyle and lust for life. Furthermore, Overbeeke is convinced that Europe will once again become a very important economical power. As he experienced during his time in the United States and during his visits to the Far East, European quality products are unrivalled in the world,  he experiences in the USA and also during his visits to the Far East. 

International Campus
Overbeeke’s ambitions also include the further development of an international collaboration. This should become a vibrant environment, with joint teams on various continents, where education and research come together. The ID Super TU/esday this October will be proof of that. He believes in expanding the joint effort of companies and the ID-department to develop concepts and products. Too many designs are stored on the bookshelf instead of being visible to the outside world. Overbeeke has a clear vision for the future, but the implementation of the vision will take some time. He will start in June of this year and he will hold his inaugural speech before the end of the year.
 
See also: http://www.design.cmu.edu/

A classical industrial design course
Dr. ir. Kees Dorst, domain manager of ID’s ‘Home’, will be in Australia three months a year for the next two years. Dorst was trained as an industrial design engineer at IO, TU Delft and currently a member of the designed intelligence group of ID, is looking forward to start his new parttime professorship in this sizeable design department (600 students). He decided to apply for this job because of the reputation of the design department and the close connection with South East Asia. He likes to understand and be involved with this part of the world and considers Australia a good starting point. Compared to ID the design department is quite traditional, it’s what he calls ‘a classic industrial design course at an academic level’. Like the majority of design courses throughout the world this is not an engineering course like ID.

Design vision
Dorst was asked because he has, according to the Australians, a well developed and appealing vision on design. Design as an academic subject is still quite something new. Dorst’s challenge is to explore, establish and expand academic design. He holds that design itself can be an academic discipline in its own right. Interesting design solutions to the very complex problems we face today should be the main focus of academic design education, Dorst says.

Opportunities at the other end of the world
In Australia economy is booming at the moment, resulting in many inspiring new initiatives and challenges. Though one might think Dorst was asked for this position because of the fame of “Dutch design” - but the reality is quite different. Dutch design seems to be for connoisseurs, mostly ‘museum stuff’, and its is not used in daily life – which reduces the impact of the excellent design quality we espouse. In Australia design is mostly approached in a much more straightforward, practical manner, Dorst says.

Dorst will start his work in Sydney in February, meeting people and getting an overview of all the work that has to be done. In June he will be back in Sydney to see how the seeds he planted have grown. This also implies that he will be partly continuing his work in Eindhoven, concentrating on his role as the domain manager at the Home domain. He will also set up a small research group around the theme of Design Theory, and continue writing articles and columns (e.g. for Items and BNO’s vormberichten) and be involved with the Amsterdam Creativity Exchange, an initiative aimed at the development of Amsterdam as a creative center.

Time to harvest
Dorst is happy to get the chance to run the UTS design faculty – he says it feels like harvesting, after more than 15 years of struggle to understanding the fascinating and complex field of design. In Sydney he will be the head of 47 staff members, 9 of them being researchers and he will get the opportunity to appoint new academic personnel. After two years he will decide if his leave for Australia will be extended. During the many traveling hours he will have plenty of time to choose for the best.

See UTS design faculty http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/

ID students in Japan
Now think of a space not more than two cubic metres (1x1x2 m) where you can sleep, watch television, and find some tranquillity. It sounds like a claustrophobic nightmare, but in Tokyo this superlative of the well-known Formula 1 hotel rooms is amazingly popular. One ID student spent the night in one of these capsules. His experiences and other interesting topics will be presented at the Lucid drink on February 9th, starting at 4 p.m. (Ludic bar HG -1.03)

An unrivalled experience
The participants all had the voyage of their lives. They are still digesting the multitude of experiences and are preparing a report and a presentation. ‘There is only one sentence to summarize it all: it is all so amazingly different’, Serge Offermans, one of the organizers says. ‘You will never feel so far away from home and still come across such politeness and helpfulness from the people in the streets. It felt like we were really the only non-Japanese there. Hardly any Japanese spoke English and the popularity of learning English even declines’. Still the students did not get lost and felt completely safe in this exceptionally well-organized country. There was only that nasty bacterial outburst at the very start that made everyone suspicious about the food, but as it turned out the raw fish and sushi were not the cause of their nausea. Here we present a few highlights of the trip, as sneak preview.

Electronics aficionados
Apart from the packed program, including at least two visits to a company or institute a day, the students had some time to wander through Akihabara, the place to be if you love consumer electronics. ‘If you’ve been to Eindhoven’s Mediamarkt (the biggest in Europe) think twenty times bigger. Everyone in Japan seems to use the same kind of mobile phone. The e-mail and camera functionality is very popular. Cameras are forbidden in many places, but not mobiles. Some Japanese follow the tiles in the pavement intended for the blind, so they can walk along with their eyes on their cellphone.  Conversing by phone on the subway is considered impolite, which doesn’t imply that the phone isn’t the main attraction there, they use it as a photo-album, game or visit internet-sites. Buying one of these very affordable ‘power mobiles’ is useless for ID-ers: they do not contain sim cards like we have in Europe.’

The link with ID
Is there a lot work for Industrial Design engineers in Japan? ‘Possibly’, says organizing student Saskia Bakker, ‘but some inventions seem too weird: a heated toilet seat might feel quite OK, but having an option to produce extra flushing sounds to conceal the less pleasant sounds would not be something the average European would look for.’ It is clear that the acceptance of electronic devices is much bigger than in Europe. Also robots are also more common. One researcher created a robot resembling his six-year-old daughter, who was horrified by this robot twin sister.
Japan stopped copying its great predecessors a number of years ago. This does not mean, however, that the Japanese invent a lot themselves. The students could not imagine having an informal brainstorm session with the top managers of the companies they visited. Organizing ID student Wouter Reeskamp: ‘You cannot think of one of these managers saying: let’s take off our ties, give us the post-its and let’s come up with something crazy. These sessions are done with specialists from abroad, and only the results make it to the board.’    

The Lucid trip, sponsored by, the department of Industrial Design, Philips Design, Mind Connection, R2R animatronics, Vekoma en Satama and is part of the project ‘Design and Escapism’, which on September 26th, 2005, organized a very successful seminar. You can hear more about the trip on February 16th, a 4 p.m. (Ludic). http://www.lucid.id.tue.nl 

Children’s response to computer games
Five to seven-year-olds think that the question ‘Do you want to play a new game?’ means that you have to start a completely different game. The uses of the mouse, unclear instructions or tasks that are too complex are some other difficulties. Barendregt explored how computer game producers could obtain as much as possible information about their games by testing children, leading to surprising insights. She will defend her thesis on Thursday February 9th at the TU/e.   

Children have problems with evaluation
To find out what children between the ages of five and seven experience while playing a computer game is a complicated task. In general, they find it difficult to evaluate activities. Oftentimes their comments are limited to ‘nice’ or ‘stupid’. When they are playing they are completely preoccupied and forget the world around them. Afterwards they often cannot recollect what they experienced. Producers of computer games solve this problem by having grown-ups review the games, instead of children. This might explain why so many children get stuck when they play the games.

Extroverted children give the most feedback
Barendregt tested eighty children between the ages of five and seven. She found that extroverted but not very friendly children are better able to give feedback and that children who are curious tend to get stuck more easily. The most important way in which children can improve their ability to play is if they receive additional guidance explanation from grown-ups. Games designers do not take into account that children face many problems when they first start playing and should realize that they do not learn how to play the games on their own.

Use of emoticons
Barendrecht also developed a new evaluation method for children. In an experiment they were invited to use emoticons (such well-known symbols as J and L ) printed on little cards. They communicate via these cards in order to show that they are for example facing a problem. Children are more inclined to use these cards than to speak up when something does not work. Children liked using the emoticons and were ready to do the experiment again.
See also site ID

During the past days the activity week took place; a moment within the academic year to address a specific theme. This time two themes were chosen, the first one being the theme competency 'Professional Conduct'.  On Monday a lecture was given by EduCare (www.educare.nl) about ethics and how to define your own norms and values. In the afternoon students had to define their own norms and values concerning several topics within their education and the field of Industrial Design. Students had to explore ethical questions and develop a campaign about an ethical question. Some students made campaigns about material waste and aimed at the awareness of designers, companies and customers aware of how polluting many products are and how unhealthy their use is. Others focused on just one product. A group came up with the ironical slogan: ‘Heb je echt wat te vertellen, dan even bellen’ (Meaning: “If you have something to tell, use your mobile”), a paradoxical approach to reduce unnecessary pocket phone use.
The second theme was aimed at discovering ways to discover and overcome your own boundaries and inhibitions: A variety of workshops was organised with disciplines seldom used within the ID-department. There were workshops for dancing, theatre sports, percussion and others. Besides addressing the chosen themes we hope students enjoyed these workshops. Last Friday reflections upon these activities took place (within the Domains) to see what came out of the explorations and if there's something to work with; new tactics to be more daring, ways to think beyond the ordinary.