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- 1. John Kestner. Portfolio.
- 2. Vivien photoradio. Problem The digital-analoggap 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) Paperpath 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. Bodylanguage 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 shoppingassistant. 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 shoppingassistant. (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).
- 10. Shoppingmaid concepts. Produce scale Handy scanner Cart assistant John Kestner.
- 11. U-Haul International mainsite. 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 Findnew 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 formstudy. 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