Watch, listen & learn from the world’s best UX experts.

Expert: Carla Diana

Headshot of Carla Diana

Carla Diana is a hybrid designer keenly focused on realizing new visions for smart objects and the Internet of Things. In her studio she works on future- specting projects in areas such as domestic robots, wearable devices and sentient kitchen appliances, combining experience in industrial and interaction design to create solutions that bridge the gap between the physical and the digital. In addition to her professional design work, Carla is a faculty member in the University of Pennsylvania’s Integrated Product Design Program where she developed the rst courses focused on designing smart objects. From 2002 to 2007 she was Professor of Interactive Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she co-wrote the College’s rst Interactive Design program and developed Physical Computing courses and a Physical Computing lab. Her seminal article, “Talking, WalkingObjects,” appeared on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Review in January 2013, and is a good representation of her view of our robotic future. She is the author of the rst children’s book about the future of 3D printing and design, LEO the Maker Prince, published by Maker Media. Carla holds an MFA in Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from The Cooper Union.

Headshot of Carla Diana
Carla Diana

Using Light, Sound and Motion in Your Design Palette

Headshot of Carla Diana
Carla Diana

We are entering a time when automated, robotic products are becoming a day-to-day reality. The combination of affordable sensors, advances in robotics, and home network availability has enabled a new type of sophisticated smart object to enter our world in almost every aspect of daily life such as cooking, cleaning, entertainment, transportation, security and hygiene, to name a few. In this talk, product designer Carla Diana will provide a lively overview of the landscape of smart objects that exist today along with an exploration of the potential for new objects to be designed for the near future. She will discuss how holistic design methods using light, sound and motion can be used to build engaging product experiences that fully embrace the rich relationships among people, objects, and information. This talk will highlight ways to envision product experiences, followed by a discussion of design methodologies that can be used to explore and quickly iterate through ideas that arrive at human-centered concepts built around a specific product behaviors.

Experience Design Interaction Design Iterating
April 25, 2017