In researching the world of green and enthusiast, I also looked at research practices that inspired my work.
JAN CHIPCHASE
A behavioral researcher at Nokia, Jan travels around the world and studies how people interact with the cell phone. He discovered that 50 percent of the world's women keep their cell phone in their handbag and miss 30% of their calls. These insights help him envision the phone we may carry in a couple of years. He believes research delivers value and can envision the greater good. He believes in seeing things in a new light and presenting his insights in a commercially viable way. An interesting lecturer about research, he states "If you are not morally conflicted, you are not doing it right." This comment is profound to me. Many logical-minded people would say envisioning electric cars as sexy and desirable is not a worthwhile cause. If electric cars are to be the majority over internal combustion cars one day, it will need to be much more sexy and desirable (as well as environmentally responsible).
ERIC NOBLE
Mr. Noble is the principal of The CarLab, an automobile product-planning firm, an integral model to understanding the behavioral traits of drivers. The CarLab studies the automobile consumer and how they interact with their cars. They conduct interviews and clinics on how the owners use their interior, for example. The insights they gather are culminated in a creative brief for car manufacturers to use in planning future models. Using similar research techniques and technical data from the CarLab, the BUILD THIS CAR OR DIE article was developed for ELECTRON.
PECLERS PARIS
Peclers Paris is a trend forecasting company based in Paris. With over thirty years of experience, they bridge the gap between creativity and marketing. A team of designers and thinkers carefully observe trends, colors, and textures around the world and create books that serve the fashion and product design industry. With their research of current trends, they recommend colors up to 18 months in advance, naming these "new" colors they decide upon. A refined observational research strategy mixed with design intuition allows them to make compelling arguments for the colors they choose. Envisioning the future requires strong knowledge of the past and the present. I had to conduct a lot of research on cars and their culture in order to speculate with a higher probability of success and accuracy.
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©2010 Yee Chan & Art Center College of Design
