Illinois Institute of Technology’s recruitID event is a live forum for design and business professionals to meet students from the school’s Institute of Design program, get exposure to their work and talk about employment opportunities. This year Insight was among the 30 companies who attended recruitID, and one of two companies that presented to the students on March 23rd.
Ed Geiselhart, director of product development and planning, and Peter Warren, manager of research, explained to a group of about 50 students, faculty and staff how critical it is to work as a team to successfully navigate complex design projects.
“Understanding both the front end definition and the back end implementation makes you stronger as a designer,” said Geiselhart. “If you know what needs to happen during implementation, it will make the research and design phases much more focused.”
Geiselhart and Warren walked the students through case studies that illustrated Insight’s design process and approach to developing solutions for complex products, systems and workflows.
While each case study was unique, each leveraged a consistent appreciation for rigor and employed project-appropriate methods that work across many industries.
“Whether it is a medical device or a consumer product, it is important to have a process in place to ensure that the design recommendations are based on solid research and that we identify any opportunities that would positively impact the brand,” said Warren.
Geiselhart emphasized that the “implementers,” such as engineers, play a big role in the front end development, dispelling a commonly-held stereotype about the role of engineers in the design process. “We need to understand from the beginning what role manufacturing and mechanics will play in the design of a product, and we need the engineers to brainstorm with us. Without them, we are not getting the whole picture of what we need to accomplish.”
Before and after their presentation, Geiselhart and Warren interviewed students individually to review their portfolios and talk about potential job opportunities.