Health Design Challenge
A cross disciplinary design team at gravitytank was awarded Best Overall Design in the Health Design Challenge. read more »
gravitytank offers a complete food innovation capability through edible food and beverage prototyping, a deep understanding of the food service and manufacturing industries, and our expert integration of research, business, and design.
Meet chef Kyleigh Wawak
Think/Say
Never Stop Making Things
Behind the scenes look at our 10/8 Chicago Ideas Week lab where participants applied principles of storyboarding and prototyping to find insights in everyday experiences. read more »
A Peek Into Our Approach
How does the innovation process work? Check out Project Spice and watch a team at gravitytank engage the world of everyday spices. read more »
The Re-focus Group
Jenn Schiffman and Defne Civelekoglu discussed how gravitytank is shifting the paradigm of traditional focus groups to the shaping of concepts at this year’s IDSA Midwest Design Dialogue Conference in April. They advocate for working collaboratively with clients and research participants to build and shape ideas that enable richer, more authentic conversations. read more »
Chicago Ideas Week: The 2012 Kickoff
We are bringing the very best of Chicago’s thought leaders into our workshop space to share knowledge, expertise, and learning that will help shape what Chicago Ideas Week will focus on this year. read more »
Bringing Food Innovation to Life
I went to culinary school, cooked in a five star hotel and worked as a consulting research chef. Now at gravitytank, I am part of the Industrial Design team. Strange fit you might say? At first glance perhaps, but developing a new food product and designing its packaging are more similar than they seem. Written by Kyleigh Wawak read more »
A Space for Innovation
We get a lot of questions about our 19,000+ square feet of shared space. We’ve built the space to not only make our teams feel welcome, but to invite our clients to be part of the action. read more »
A Taxi Driver Allegory
Like many busy researchers, I spend a fair amount of time either going to or coming from the airport. And, because I live in a part of Chicago where taxis don’t roam frequently, I have my regular “guy” who picks me up. I’ll call him Ted to protect his identity. Written by Martha Cotton read more »
Workshopping: the collaborative table
Yesterday I participated in my first full-day gravitytank workshop here at the office. I was struck by how distinctively different the experience was from what I’ve been part of in the past after 11 years inside design firms and agencies. Written by Erin Huizenga read more »
Playing with Process: Group Discussions
As innovators, we often turn inward and reflect on ways to innovate our own internal process in response to our own pain points. Innovating on how we innovate – how meta! Written by Jenn Schiffman read more »
In Celebration of Technology that Serves Humanity
I feel fortunate to have been a student of Steve’s career and his prolific development of technology for the rest of us. Written by Chris Conley read more »
You don’t bring me flowers anymore - thinking about consumer loyalty
Our brains respond to reward systems, but to get loyalty that’s deeper and emotional, go for consumer flow read more »
Who Put Chocolate In My Peanut Butter
Martha Cotton, partner at gravitytank leading research and Dave Sonders, lead strategist, talk about using a tool from marketing to improve design.
read more »
You can't deny the lo-fi
Until a thing becomes tangible, multiple people can have radically divergent interpretations of the same conversation, ideas, and experiences. read more »
The pre-position proposition
Great ideas often get lost between point A and point B. Could pulling a marketing technique forward into the innovation process help? read more »
Segmentation: beyond the math
When done well, segmentations live and breathe in an organization on their own and are key in identifying target consumers, defining a market space, and guiding product differentiation decisions. As an innovation firm, we help clients make sense of the segmentations they’ve commissioned. read more »
From static to adaptive
Justin Rheinfrank joins Shelley Evenson and Hugh Dubberly to summarize his late father’s thoughts on Adaptive Design in an article for Interactions Magazine. read more »
Four benefits of design thinking
gravitytank co-founder Chris Conley presents at “Why Design Now?”, a conference held by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and sponsored by GE on how design is playing a broader role in solving global challenges. Chris presents four ideas about design activity that leads all disciplines to better problem solving. read more »
The Gemba Walk
Where does business really get done? Where does the proverbial magic happen? If your gut reaction is that it happens in the office, it’s time to take the Gemba Walk. read more »
A cut above
The TUL stainless steel scissors designed by gravitytank for OfficeMax have impressed Real Simple magazine, which pronounced the “sleek mod profile” the Best Ambidextrous. read more »
You can’t EEEMP your way to new business growth
Our modern work life is consumed by the activities of management, not growth. Work activity aimed at growth must include a lot more engagement with the world outside, prototyping & testing of new ideas. read more »
Apps — a real growth phenomena
Apps are changing the mobile & computing landscapes while they are changing people’s lives. This three-minute video summarizes gt’s proprietary study on the Apps phenomena. read more »
Apps get real
Apps have fast become essential tools for modern living, fostering a sea change in the mobile phone and computing industries. read more »
Obstacle courses
“Observing behavior” and “being tangible” are two essential principles that guide gravitytank’s practice. One way we bring these to life is through “obstacle courses” during our collaborative workshops. read more »
Events
Events
RECENT
Communicating the New
gravitytank is pleased to be featured in the new book "Communicating The New: Methods to Shape and Accelerate Innovation" by Kim Irwin, professor at The IIT Institute of Design due out this summer. take me there »
Redesigning Design Research at IDSA Midwest District Conference
As designers, it’s hard to go through the day without hearing the words prototype and iterate. We’re constantly pushing ourselves to be more creative and develop innovations with a meaningful story to support them - fast. Often research doesn’t fit very well into this process and we need to find new tools that can quickly get us smart about people, places and things. Michael and Jonathan will share how Dscout (a digital research tool) has helped gravitytank designers learn about user experiences and shape concepts, and teams source product inspiration. take me there »
Medical Records Panel Discussion
The Nightingale Team (Amy S., Amy G., Defne, Kunal and Stephen) will be participating in a panel discussion at the Chicago Health 2.0 Tech meet up where they will discuss the importance of user experience in the design process. take me there »
Everything Communicates
Jonathan Dien and Robert Zolna will be sharing their thoughts and stories about communicating innovation at the International Housewares Show in Chicago. Their talk will address approaches for better alignment, understanding and action towards consumers and their experiences with the goal that deeper empathy creates more meaningful value. Everything Communicates focuses on deconstructing a holistic approach to creating tangible consumer stories and the tools used to develop them. take me there »
PAST 
Design+Business Workshop
Lucas Daniel will be conducting a workshop for the Design+Business club at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. The session will explore how to reframe problems in the context of the real world where challenges are often ambiguous and perfect data is not always available.
Digital Sketching Workshop
Andres Parada will be conducting a day long workshop on the topic of Digital Sketching and Rendering at Arizona State University.
Empowering Effective Teaching
As part of our work for the Gates Foundation on meaningful teacher feedback, we created a card game, Multiple Choice, that engages the players on productive feedback techniques being employed by some of our nations most innovative schools. Maris Grossman and Elena Valentine shared the results of this work and facilitated a work session with Multiple Choice for 20 Florida school districts at the Empowering Effective Teaching Convening. take me there »
Grounding the Abstract Research Topic: Using games to get tangible with the intangible
During this presentation and collaborative workshop, members of the research team invite participants to discover and apply the design principle of 'tangibility' to research methodologies. Workshop activities will demonstrate how tangibility yields better research, especially when project topics are abstract and intangible in nature. take me there »
Research for Startups at Built In Chicago
Michael Winnick will be sharing thoughts on research for startups at the first annual Built In Chicago Design Conference. Focusing on the theme of design as a competitive advantage the conference seeks to raise the value of design thinking in the new digital economy. Michael will discuss how to plan and execute design-led research to reveal insights into consumer behavior, leading to brand and design strategy. take me there »
Using immersive experiences to build empathy
Martha Cotton and Brynn Freeman are speaking and presenting an empathy-building experience at the Performing the World 2012 conference that will be a marathon “performance of conversation” with people from all over the world — scholars and researchers; educators, therapists, social workers, youth workers; doctors and other health workers; theatre, applied theatre and other performance artists; social activists and community organizers; business leaders and philanthropists; film, video and media creatives. take me there »
The irrational choices behind innovative change
People have a strange relationship with change - they both crave it and avoid it. Introducing innovative new products and services means asking people to change (and making that change the craveable kind!). The combination of iterative design and behavioral economics can help us develop and test hypotheses about how we create change people want. Building from a couple seminal topics in behavioral economics - loss and time - Ann Hintzman will look at how to structure hypotheses about barriers to change and craft offerings with greater appeal at the Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business S12 Conference: PSYCH! Marketing To The Mind. take me there »
How is Design Research different than Market Research?
Market Research isn't always the best tool for anticipating new opportunities or delivering value in a new way. Design Research grew up out of a need to turn insight into innovation. This talk will examine how each methodology is different and can compliment each other. Martha Cotton will dive into defining, discussing and identifying opportunities for this Innovation Learning Network event. take me there »
Storytelling Workshop for Design for America
Erin Huizenga and Robert Zolna will be holding a storytelling workshop for the Design for America summer studio students at Northwestern University on September 3rd. As part of their 'building to learn' approach they will talk about the value of storytelling in the design development process and share best practices around storytelling as a tool for building user empathy and making abstract concepts understandable and actionable. take me there »
Design Research Workshops for Design for America
To help interdisciplinary student teams kick off their social innovation projects, Carey Stansbury and Nadeem Haidary will be running a user research workshop and Carey Stansbury and Joey Nakayama will be running a Synthesis & Analysis workshop for Design for America's summer studio at Northwestern University. Part theory and part practice, they will introduce concepts behind design research as well as share methods and tips from the field. take me there »
Market Research in the Mobile World
Michael Winnick is speaking this Thursday at the Market Research in the Mobile World (MRMW) North American Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. His talk is entitled, "Keeping it Real" and he'll be sharing about dScout and his vision for its future. take me there »
CreativeMornings featuring Rick Valicenti
We will be hosting Creative Mornings here at gravitytank, featuring Rick Valicenti, as part of AIGA Chicago's Design Week. For the first time, all 29 CreativeMornings chapters will be hosting their events under one common, unified theme: The Intersection of Arts + Technology, presented in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). take me there »
Behavioral Economics & Innovation at the Institute of Design Summer Camp
Many innovations that deliver on real user need, still fail to win consumers. This talk by Ann Hintzman draws upon Behavior Economics to understand some of the predictable dynamics that form barriers or lures to new product adoption. take me there »
Workforce.io: An Innovative Summer Jobs+ App Announced at the White House Today
The Summer Jobs+ initiative is a new call-to-action for businesses to provide pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth this summer. Today we got top billing in the first-ever White House Code Sprint, using the Summer Jobs+ API to show summer jobs available near users through the workforce.io platform that we've been building in collaboration with the Living Classrooms Foundation. This app supports the goal of connecting America’s youth with summer job opportunities via digital platforms they are already familiar with and use in their daily lives. take me there »
Storytelling to communicate research insights
Dave Sonders and Martha Cotton are speaking about storytelling as a means for communicating research insights and creating the conviction needed to drive innovation within large organizations. The talk will be a closed session at the Conference Board's Council on Marketing Research in Phoenix, Arizona. take me there »
Larger than life visual note-taking
Craighton Berman will be the official graphic recorder for TEDxSanJoseCA 2012, bringing the lectures to life through larger than life visual note-taking, done in real time. take me there »
One Good Deed Chicago: LAUNCHED!
One Good Deed Chicago began rolling out its gravitytank designed campaign around the city today. We partnered with the Mayor's Office of Chicago to launch this new initiative which connects and inspires Chicagoans to participate in both one-time and ongoing volunteer opportunities. take me there »
IDSA Midwest Conference 2012
Jenn Schiffman and Defne Civelekoglu are speaking at this year's IDSA Midwest District Conference in April. They will be discussing how we are striving to shift the paradigms of traditional focus grouping to concept shaping—a way to collaboratively work with clients and research participants to build and shape ideas that can enable richer, more authentic conversations. take me there »
Okner Symposium at Northwestern
Northwestern University will be hosting the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (CADMEF) Okner Symposium on Friday, February 24th and our own Jenn Schiffman will be leading a roundtable discussion that will enable marketing students to learn about ethnographic research as it relates to business and design strategy. take me there »
Michael Kiser helps students embrace creative anxiety
As a visiting alum at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, gravitytank writer and design lead, Michael Kiser, spoke about his education and career story through the lens of turning creative anxiety into creative momentum. He worked with literature, writing, design, and art students to uncover hidden barriers to creativity through tool, process and deliverable experimentation. take me there »
Powerful Storytelling
Innovation consulting is as much about building conviction through compelling storytelling as it is about coming up with the next billion-dollar idea. Martha Cotton, Brynn Freeman and Antonio Garcia will be speaking on "Influencing Organizations through Powerful Storytelling" at the Society of Consulting Psychology conference in Pasadena, California. take me there »
Chris Conley speaking at the Cultural Impact Conference
Chris will be speaking about creative work cultures at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology's Cultural Impact Conference. He will be talking about the importance of culture in shaping successful new services and discussing specific techniques that can be applied in any organization looking to be more successful in their innovation efforts. take me there »
10gen founder Dwight Merriman at Chicago MongoDB User Group
Document-oriented databases are hot stuff in web development these days. MongoDB is one of the most popular and fastest growing document-oriented databases. Come and hear him speak about fun tricks and tips for those that are already using MongoDB. take me there »
Geospatial Querying with MongoDB
gravitytank will host the Chicago MongoDB user group as they explore the geospatial features of MongoDB including distance queries, the spherical model and searching for things within arbitrary shapes. take me there »
SEEK Design Conference
Robert Zolna is presenting at this year's SEEK design conference at Northern Illinois University. In its 11th year, SEEK aims to present multiple viewpoints from local and national visual communication designers. Robert joins speakers Debbie Millman, Sean Adams, thirst and The Post Family in this conversation meant to inspire future leaders in design. take me there »