2. Vivien photoradio.
Problem
The digital-analog gap
Silvers — people over age 50 — want to feel
connected to family and friends. They enjoy the
tangibility of photos and letters as a way of doing this.
But printing and mailing actual photos doesn’t fit in
the lifestyle of younger people, who are more likely
to email a photo or to send one captured with a
cameraphone via SMS. And silvers don’t always feel
comfortable with the complexity of downloading and
printing photos on a computer.
Solution
They send picture emails.
You get picture postcards.
Vivien bridges the digital-to-analog gap between
generations. It prints pictures with messages on
the back, placing them right into a photo frame. It
requires no computer, receiving emails with pictures,
photostreams and SMS messages through Wi-Fi.
Acrylic, yellow foam, Photoshop.
John Kestner.
3. Vivien photoradio. (continued)
Paper path
Printing on stiff photo paper requires a fairly straight paper path. To do this within a small form factor, the paper protrudes from the case before being
directed to the output tray. With a compact and central solid ink print engine, the printer can print duplex. Vivien reimagines the motion of printing, making
it an experience reminiscent of a music box.
‘dog-eared page’
tab to open
paper tray
Study models
From foreground to background:
1. Upright photo-size printer with paper tray in
back, frame as output tray in front.
2. Explore contoured back, language of a book
(lip indicates hard cover)
3. Consider components (print drum, paper
path), generate geometric shapes
4. Work out proportions and basic relationships
between components
John Kestner.
Foamcore, pink foam, chipboard.
4. Hybrid guitar/bass.
Problem Solution
Design an instrument that: A guitar-based instrument that replaces the top two strings with bass
strings tuned two octaves lower. The neck is lengthened to add
» expands the tonal range of a guitarist to the bass register
the necessary tension but is tuned like a guitar, allowing a
» is easy for a guitarist to adapt to guitarist to adapt easily (especially playing classical
» is styled with consideration given to ergonomics, but does style). Dual truss rods counteract the varying tensions
not alienate the typical, very traditional, guitarist with radical between the bass and the guitar sides of the neck
shapes and materials which would otherwise warp it. Because of the wide
tonal range, dynamic full-range pickups are used.
» provides a compromise that preserves the characteristics of The compact form is contoured to be comfortable
the guitar and bass guitar, in terms of playability and tone against the guitarist’s body and uses less material,
resulting in a lighter instrument with less wood waste.
Made by Bancroft Guitars.
John Kestner.
5. Hammerhead tennis shoe.
» Seamless one-piece upper is more flexible to
offer a tighter fit, in concert with the slits
» Slits allow air to circulate and cool the foot
» Tread pattern provides grip for the lateral
movement common in tennis as well as
forward/backward movement
» Two-tone color scheme looks great with formal
wear
» Aggressive styling, with slits and tread taking
cues from a shark’s gills, looks great on the
tennis court
Steps in the process
(below) Sketching sole ideas; trying out color
schemes on the sketches; making rough foam
models; and after the final model was made,
trying different color schemes again using
Photoshop.
Pencil, marker, Styrofoam, yellow foam, vinyl, Photoshop.
John Kestner.
6. The Kinesic Interface.
Body language as universal communicator Wink Camera
Take a picture by winking at your
“Can’t experience and emotion be wedded forever?” subject. Have a stranger take a
- Bill Stumpf, The Ice Palace That Melted Away picture of you and your spouse by
telling him to wink at your wife. Apply contact lenslens interface
Apply contact interface
Problem When you use a typical camera,
Often, technology removes us from our experiences, you’re putting a barrier between
especially in a social setting. And each new device yourself and your family and
ornaments itself with more marginally useful features that friends — removing yourself
only obscure the primary functions, sucking joy out of the from the picture, so to speak.
But integrate the camera into Wink, take photo
Wink, take photo
activity and alienating us from our environment.
eyeglasses or contact lenses, and
you remove the divide as well as
Solution the inconvenience. The popularity
This concept brings back an of cameraphones has shown that
people value availability — having
element of playfulness by using
a memory preserved with no effort
known gestures to control our is much more valuable than a 5X
View photos on wristwatch device
Review photos on wristwatch
gadgets, thereby breaking down zoom or 8 megapixels.
the barriers that technology
creates between us and the
human experience. When we use
Twirl Music Player /
body language to communicate, Trigger TV Remote
Turn on/off(snap & pointsnap)
Turn on / off (point & finger)
we’re expressing something Adjust the volume by sticking your
beyond what a binary finger in your ear and twisting it,
button or 15 millimeters as an old man might do when
of travel can measure. he can’t hear so well. Pause and
resume your music by plugging
and unplugging your ears, or by
In The Ice Palace That tugging on your earlobe. Advance Pause/play (pull earlobe)
Pause / play (pull earlobe)
Melted Away, Bill Stumpf begs through songs or stations by
for design to reconnect us with each twirling your forefingers, much as
you would if you were impatient
other. In that spirit, let’s strip devices to their
and telling someone to “get on
primary function and interact with them with the with it.”
flourish of human body language.
Fiddling with controls is Forward/back (twirl finger)
Forward / back (twirl finger in air)
2006 I.D. Magazine Annual Review. distracting while driving or going
for a run. With a gesture-based
interface read by a motion-
sensing ring on your finger, you
John Kestner.
can keep your eyes on the road
and your balance on the treadmill. Volumeup / down (rotate finger)
Volume up/down (twist
finger in ear)
7. Ideation.
Design ideas for a cell phone, metal pen, blender,
humidifier, and public seating.
Pencil, pen, marker.
John Kestner.
8. Shoppingmaid wearable shopping assistant.
Research
The research goal was to identify and explore
design issues in the grocery store environment,
and develop product and environment concepts
to address those issues for Rubbermaid.
Users, both customer and employee, were
observed interacting in and with a grocery store
environment, to identify needs of users in the
real world. In addition, research was done on the
existing grocery store market, and on current
technology and trends in related fields. This was
done to ground the design concepts in what is
currently possible, what has already been done,
and how well it works.
Users
The primary user of this study was the shopper.
To better study and address the needs of
individual shoppers, the primary users were
The most inefficient process in the grocery store present relevant information to the shopper, such divided into three groups. Each of these groups
experience is the checkout. All items must be as nutrition and “bang for the buck”. came into the store with different goals and
removed from the cart and scanned before exhibiting different behavior patterns in shopping.
This is the result of a year-long development
being put back. The Shoppingmaid is a barcode
process (done, before grocery stores began Of course, employees are also users in this
scanner that allows the shopper to scan in his or
adopting self-checkout technology), from environment, but in this research, they were
her own groceries as they are pulled off the shelf.
ethnographic research in a grocery store secondary to the shoppers and were observed
In addition, the Shoppingmaid takes advantage environment and user profiling, to ideation and only in their interactions with the shoppers.
of barcode information and a wireless network to technical research and specification. (continued)
John Kestner.
9. Shoppingmaid wearable shopping assistant. (continued)
Topics identified Insights and conclusions
Accessibility » Will a customer be able to load and unload her The shopping cart is not an object
» Can a user easily reach products that are high cart with heavy items? – it’s an environment.
or low on shelves, or into or over floor bins? » Is there enough room for the customer and his
Shopping carts and baskets are not merely
» Are the checkout scanners flexible enough to cart to navigate the checkout aisle comfortably?
objects that shoppers store groceries in, but are
scan heavy and bulky items, and items on the » Are the shopping bags easy to fill and transport mobile environments. Grocery shopping revolves
bottom of shopping carts? for both the customer and the store employee? around the cart – shoppers store their personal
» Is it easy for the customer to weigh and label items in it, sit their children in it, lean on it to rest,
bulk foods and produce? Signage and much more.
» Is the current signage effective and helpful to
The cart goes everywhere the shopper goes.
Storage the customer?
It has potential as a shopping aid — with fairly
» How are personal belongings (purses, children, » Is navigation, especially for the first-time common technology, a portable information
shopping lists) managed while shopping? customer, effective? terminal could be added to the grocery cart,
» Do product price labels provide enough offering store navigation and contextual
information clearly? information such as specials, recipes and related
vitiesActivities products that the shopper might be interested in.
keep kid
seat
kid in
busy
ask The idea of the cart being central to the shopping
es
store
personal cart the “pro” ques-
experience can be taken even further with
get tions read
ted items read
or
cart get
basket
shopping read
ads
acquire self-scanning systems, where customers scan
list
p-
eck-
prep signs
groceries as they put them in to their carts.
shopping
get collect
ng
use
hands
basket the “run-in” read
signs
select
produce,
bulk Technology has changed – why
items
ns hasn’t the checkout?
opper
ore pickup
get locate acquire
cart
ng,
flyer
the “wanderer”
ask
ques-
items
The checkout process is a tedious task that can
shopping
seat
cart kid in tions often take as much time as shopping itself. It’s a
d sit- cart keep kid
en
busy
bottleneck to the shopping experience, and no
l one enjoys waiting in line.
The
ng
ows, With existing self-scanning technology, the
customer can check in his or her groceries as
item
ng it. they are picked up, saving time and eliminating
get
red receipt the need for a checkout station. All that would
custom look for
get
groceries
er coupons
wait
prep be necessary is a cashier station to pay for
e locate
ceeds
pay in line check-
checkout purchases at the end of the shopping process.
kout transact unload out
con- feedback items
xx, hand
checkout
, and John Kestner. customer employee bag
ed- groceries
items
ing
s).
11. U-Haul International main site.
As the uhaul.com lead designer, my task was to
guide customers to the information they wanted,
present them with transaction opportunities and
to reinforce U-Haul’s brand on the Web. How was
this done?
» Brand: developed an online message and
codified it with a style guide for visual language
and content
» Content: rewrote the copy for the Web
audience
» Navigation: made decisions based on
methodical user testing and crunching the
collected statistics
U-Haul SuperGraphics sites.
To support U-Haul’s SuperGraphics campaign
— a series of truck graphics celebrating unique
features of each state — I conceptualized and
executed a number of fun and educational sites
exploring each subject further, and was art
director for the rest. These are screenshots of
some of the sites I did myself.
John Kestner.
12. Arc’teryx user research.
Problem
Find new opportunities for Arc’teryx, a outdoor gear company. The
company is in a tight spot between becoming a mainstream outdoor
clothing/fashion company, which it does not want to do, and facing
pressure from smaller, forward-thinking competitors. Our team of four
designers identified a core issue: How does the company maintain its
elite image while growing?
Solution
To understand the company, develop user personas, and come up
with design directions, we used a variety of user observation methods.
» Day-in-the-life disposable camera journals
» Contextual interviews
» Fly-on-the-wall observations
» Climber community questionnaires and follow-up interviews
» Aspiration collages
This produced insights, primarily that while some are closer than
others, what all the profiled Arc’teryx users have in common is whom
they want to be, and be seen as. This led to suggested offerings that
amplify the company’s authentic association with that image, and
thereby retain their core users while including receptive casual users.
» A build-to-order product that develops a personal relationship with
the customer who recognizes the company’s uncompromising
quality but doesn’t need all the features.
» Increased in-store visibility in innovative tags to communicate the
company’s exceptional warrantee and engineering strengths.
» Mobile weather alerts / climbing resource website to build
community using the company’s insider position.
» Indoor climbing wall challenge for the elite climbers to receive
recognition while attracting other customers with a spectacle.
The results were extremely well-received by the client.
John Kestner.
13. Ergonomic screwdriver.
Rapid form study. An
iconic screwdriver whose
Phillips-head shape
indicates its function while
also providing a good
close grip for high-torque
applications, and bigger
channels for improved
overall grip.
Study model; yellow foam.
John Kestner.
14. John Kestner.
1511 N. Wood #3F
Chicago, IL 60622
(602) 697-3610
john@coloured.net
Additional material and interactive pieces:
http://coloured.net/john/portfolio
