Envisioning Living Connections: from technology to humanity

Speaker
Jenna Date
Co-Founder and Partner, Fit Associates, LLC

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

Jenna Date will share stories of her clients’ connections to their team, their organization, their product, their customers and their foreseeable future. On the surface, these stories appear to be about sustainable cars of the future, decision making for entertainment viewing and medical products for breathing easier, but in reality each project led to a nurturing of critical relationships, and a deeper understanding of product capabilities and innovative market possibilities. Along the way she explores creative research method techniques, new ways to help designers and engineers connect with users, and tools of the trade to turn those connections into a new realities for business. She ends with a question, “How can we apply the visionary design thinking we cultivate at CMU to connections with ourselves, our teams, our organizations and our world?”

Speaker's Bio

Jenna is currently a co-founder of Fit Associates, LLC. Fit’s intention is to lead, nurture, connect and equip conscious clients for the greatest impact for the common good. Fit’s industry client list includes Nissan, Comcast, Whirlpool, SAP, Microsoft and Respironics. Increasingly, Fit is turning its attention to work in sustainability, local development, and other issues whose scope exceeds the reach of any one organization. Utilizing various design and research methods, Jenna works with design, engineering, marketing and executive teams to make their products and processes better for their users. Her expertise ranges from team process development, workshop facilitation, ethnographic research, usability evaluation, concept development and evaluation, interaction and interface design, and rapid prototyping.

Prior to Fit, Jenna’s experience as a researcher and interaction designer spans a wide range of products: medical software for physicians and nurses at Siemens Medical Solutions, collaborative visual software for generals and soldiers at MAYA Viz, interfaces for children at the BBC and prototypes for futures devices at the Carnegie Museum of Art just to name a few.

Jenna received her Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002.

Speaker's Website
http://www.fitassociates.com/