Designing For The Senses

Last week, our design research and strategist, Meghan spoke at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)’s Thought At Work Conference. This conference is organized by students and strives to function as a tool for young designers to advance their careers and thrive by bringing together 400 attendees with various design backgrounds.

Meghan spoke about Designing for the Senses. With millennials being known as the nostalgic generation and Gen Z being known as a technology focused generation it is important to remember the power of the human senses. Our sense of smell and hearing are most closely related to our brain’s memory maker. New experiences, products and businesses are focusing on technology, but how do we design a product or service that people will remember and savor – through the use of different senses. She spoke along side of professionals from NASA, Facebook, Ford, and many others.

“It was an incredible experience. The entire conference was created, organized, and hosted by the students at RIT.  I was blown away by the professionalism and details these students pulled off. The attendees were students and professionals from around the world in varying backgrounds and they were all eager to learn. It was an honor to open their minds to designing services and products for senses in a world that is so technology focused. Something I am very passionate about. Listening to freelancers, corporate and consultancy leaders, my main take away from this conference is to just be a good person. The world is a small place and it is so easy to be a nice person. We need more support in the design community and less competition.” – Meghan Preiss

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About RKS

RKS is a design and innovation firm that creates solutions for clients that are relevant to the market, build the brand and create emotional connection. RKS services the full range of companies from funded startups to multinational corporations. Founder Ravi K. Sawhney cultivated a people-centric approach modeled from his work at Xerox PARC in the 1970’s, where innovative methods using psychology as an essential factor in design resulted in the first-generation touch screen graphic interface as well as many other breakthroughs. RKS came to national attention shortly after its founding by developing the production design of the animated Teddy Ruxpin, one of the greatest disruptive success stories in the history of the toy industry. Success followed success, with RKS being in on the ground floor of tablets with Alan Kay, Pocket Arcades with Sega and the game-changing dental whitening system for Discus Dental. Another milestone was the turnaround of MiniMed, developing a discreet personal insulin pump that allowed millions of diabetics to shed the stigma of being seen as “sick.” This inspired design took MiniMed from a declining $40M in revenue to $270M in three years, leading to its acquisition by Medtronic for $3.6B. The 1990’s brought a confluence of deep introspection and humanity, along with insights into how the work of Joseph Campbell and Abraham Maslow could inform design. This direction led to RKS Design’s highly acclaimed Psycho-Aesthetics methodology.
Students working at TAWDAY

About RKS

RKS is a design and innovation firm that creates solutions for clients that are relevant to the market, build the brand and create emotional connection.

RKS services the full range of companies from funded startups to multinational corporations. Founder Ravi K. Sawhney cultivated a people-centric approach modeled from his work at Xerox PARC in the 1970’s, where innovative methods using psychology as an essential factor in design resulted in the first-generation touch screen graphic interface as well as many other breakthroughs.
RKS came to national attention shortly after its founding by developing the production design of the animated Teddy Ruxpin, one of the greatest disruptive success stories in the history of the toy industry. Success followed success, with RKS being in on the ground floor of tablets with Alan Kay, Pocket Arcades with Sega and the game-changing dental whitening system for Discus Dental. Another milestone was the turnaround of MiniMed, developing a discreet personal insulin pump that allowed millions of diabetics to shed the stigma of being seen as “sick.” This inspired design took MiniMed from a declining $40M in revenue to $270M in three years, leading to its acquisition by Medtronic for $3.6B.

The 1990’s brought a confluence of deep introspection and humanity, along with insights into how the work of Joseph Campbell and Abraham Maslow could inform design. This direction led to RKS Design’s highly acclaimed Psycho-Aesthetics methodology.

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