June 16, 2010, 6:30 am
By Brian Mathews
I’ve had the opportunity to work with both Steelcase and
Herman Miller. Both are icons in the furniture industry. What I really like is
their competition for the learning spaces marketplace. It drives innovation. It
propels new concepts forward. This is good because we get to witness the
advancement right before our eyes.
This competition results in research—research into unmet
needs. Here is a little history on one such project. I’ve been a fan of Node
since March
and I am grateful that Steelcase gave me an interview with Sean Corcorran, Director, Product Development & Marketing, for
their educational division. On the same week that he’s talking with business
week and Metropolis
he found some time to fit me in.
Here is some of what he shared with me:
- Before the Node, Sean was a product developer for 20 years.
17 years at IDEO. He was there when it all began in the 1980â…
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June 13, 2010, 9:43 pm
By Brian Mathews
MONDAY
This week is NeoCon,
the big show in the furniture world. I really hope to make it out there someday
because I want to experience what’s new in the world of design. It would be
cool to check out Stride
Benching and the Vox
Monogram this year.
One new product that I am really excited about is the Steelcase
Node. I hinted about this back
in March but wasn’t able to reveal anything more at that time. Steelcase
has been really cool about it though and granted me an interview with Sean Corcorran, Director, Product Development & Marketing,
Education Solutions (and former IDEO guy.) They also gave me some prototypes and sketches that I can
share. I’m planning to do several posts this week about the node, but for now
let’s take a look at what it’s all about:
My initial reaction was that it
looked kinda cool, but so what. It has the tablet-like arm, which they refer…
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June 8, 2010, 9:51 am
By Brian Mathews
Last week we had an unusual occurrence—a class
was assigned to develop temporary art installations in the library during their
regular meeting time. Their assignment focused on the concept of personal
space. Here are a few that I found:
The transformation of a study room into a dorm room.
The transformation of an elevator into a dorm room.
The elevator walls.
These invitations were scattered around the building.
On the 4th floor footprints to lead you to a balcony.
Feast.
Art.
People.
A girl outside the library is "getting ready" for the day. Took her three hours. She acted as if this was her personal space.
The tape path.
Putting down more tape
Overall I like the concept, however, administratively this
posed some questions. We didn’t mind that students were doing these projects
but wished that we known about them ahead of time– although I presume that…
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April 28, 2010, 1:32 pm
By Brian Mathews
I’ve been thinking a lot about computers in libraries
lately. I’m talking about
hardware, not web 2,0 stuff. I’m really hopeful that my library is able to
upgrade its public computers and move to thin clients this summer,
but enough systems talk.
The topic of computer access comes up regularly in my Next Steps
interviews. Directors in all types of libraries seem to be pondering the same
thing: reducing the number of desktops and move to something else. Interest in
mobile devices continues to rise and it is very possible that we’ll move to
purely wireless machines such as laptops and iPads. Studies
show that people don’t typically carry their laptops around with them, so
it seems logical that libraries will need to beef up the lending of these devices. This appears to be the natural progression ahead of us. It also allows
patrons more flexibility in terms of where they can work…
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March 30, 2010, 2:25 pm
By Brian Mathews
Read about the Node (June 13, 2010)
————————————
I saw a really cool furniture product today. Our Steelcase
reps were kind enough to bring it by. Unfortunately I can’t reveal anymore than
this:
It is still semi-secret due to competitive reasons, but I
believe more info will be available publicly in May/June. Ask your local
Steelcase rep about it—they might be able to demo it for you, but they are keeping it under wraps, literally.
[content removed-- for now]
I really hate to put up a teaser post like this, but I don’t
want to get my people in trouble. I know that someone at the Steelcase Headquarters reads my blog so let me know if I can reveal a bit more!
ps: IDEO helped design it so you know it is awesome.
—–
Update. Well, I had a voicemail this morning from Steelcase asking me to remove a paragraph from this post. They were nice about it and didn't say…
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