Professor, Industrial Design, Art Center College of Design
Katherine Bennett, IDSA is a specialist in research, strategic planning, information architecture and design development with a focus on understanding user experience through qualitative methodologies and applying this to strategic innovation. She's been a design educator at Art Center College of Design since 1988 in product design, liberal arts and graduate industrial design departments, teaching at the Pasadena and European campuses. Bennett has spoken at UCLA, USC Graduate School of Business, Design Management Institute conference on education at Stanford University, as well as IDSA's Education Symposium and Western Design District Conferences.
Bennett served as Education VP on IDSA's Board from 2005 to 2006. Her previous positions include Western District Education representative, IDSA LA Chapter chair, chair of two national education conferences and juror for IDSA's International Design Excellence Awards and Dyson competitions. Bennett has conducted research for Avery Dennison, Cannon, Borden, Acco and Berol Prismacolor. She's served as as an industrial designer for Don Chadwick, Saul Bass, Hauser, Henry Dreyfuss Associates and in her own consulting practice.
Her experience includes a full range of industrial design projects, including office and residential furniture, laboratory and business equipment, gas stations, kitchen tools and other consumer projects. At Mega / Erg, a Nissan-funded think tank devoted to advanced concepts for the office of the future, Bennett worked on solutions in workspace design, technology management and ergonomics. For German cookware manufacturer WMF AG, she designed cookware and tableware for showplace kitchens.
Web site: http://gradid.net/
Blog: http://www.designinvestigations.com/
A professor at Art Center College of Design for over 30 years, Katherine Bennett, IDSA, is part of the core faculty for undergraduate and graduate industrial design programs. She has been teaching the college’s advanced design research course since 1991 and served as the faculty advisor for IDSA’s student chapter at the school from 1988 to 2007. To this day, Prof. Bennett inspires design students with her specialties in research (understanding the user experience), strategic planning, information architecture.
Prof. Bennett holds a B.S.1.O from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, a Certificate in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and an MA in design research from Art Center. She has worked with Don Chadwick & Associates, Saul Bass & Associates, WMF AG, Henry Dreyfuss Associates, Hauser Associates and the Mega/Erg think tank, where she developed designs ranging from laboratory and business equipment to tableware, gas stations, office and residential furniture, and consumer products for clients including Herman Miller, Avery Dennison, Johnson Controls International, Borden (Elmer Products Division), Canon, Acco, and Berol Prismacolor.
A faculty member at Art Center since 1988, she has taught at both the Pasadena and European campuses and has spoken at UCLA, the USC Graduate School of Business, the Design Management Institute’s conference on education at Stanford University, as well as multiple design education conferences sponsored by IDSA.
An active member of IDSA, Prof. Bennett has served on IDSA’s Board of Directors from 2005 to 2006, as IDSA’s Western District education representative, and as IDEA juror. She is an advocate for the advancement of women in design and was one of the keynote speakers at IDSA’s first Women in Design conference.
In addition to her workshops focused on the use of generative tools in qualitative research, Prof. Bennett runs workshops to help designers develop a better understanding of how to communicate the value of collaboration and emotional intelligence within organizations. She has documented many of her observations, inspirations and insights since 2008 on her blog: designinvestigations.com.
Workshop | Communicating the Value of Collaborative Leadership
Collaborative leadership may be more effective than directive, analytical styles—but it’s the strong-willed, “alpha-male“ leaders who are more often promoted. Unconscious bias toward traditional modes of leadership prevents many women’s worth from being recognized and rewarded. In this workshop, participants in small groups will use a generative research method developed for courses taught by Katherine Bennett, IDSA, at ArtCenter College of Design. They will gain a better understanding of how to communicate the value of collaboration and emotional intelligence within organizations.
IDSA’s Relationship to Education: Hands-On Research Workshop” with Katherine Bennett and Ann Rich
Learn how to use new, qualitative research tools to study the relationship between IDSA and design education. Katherine Bennett, IDSA, and Ann Rich will show how to use generative tools in qualitative research. Participants will receive a kit to use in short sessions with conference attendees. They also will use a new iPhone app created by Propelland for students, designers and educators to record research sessions. Armed with the tool kit and the app, participants will conduct a few, short research sessions and upload recordings and photos. Results will be presented at next year’s conference.
Systematic Analysis Method for Research: Opening the Mysterious Black Box
Qualitative research fieldwork produces clouds of data. Katherine Bennett, IDSA, believes no idea should be lost and a comprehensive understanding is produced. While much has been written about research methods and even individual analysis techniques, not much has been written on systematic methods of analysis. At the EPIC 2009 conference, John Payne conducted a workshop to develop an “analysis/synthesis palette” based on work done by Steve Baty. At the time, Payne described how most researchers talk about analysis, saying that we describe the framing and methods for the fieldwork, and follow that with something like, “and then the magic happens,” as if the analysis happens shrouded in mystery inside a “black box.”
To practitioners, students, and especially our clients, a better explanation of the process could be provided. Bennett describes a systematic method for analyzing research findings that provides robust opportunity for viable design action— resulting from insights gained in research fieldwork.
