Last Wednesday we were very busy preparing for the afternoon because it was finally the day to present our final products! So we had to make sure everything was presented in an attractive way and also that every technical aspect was ready for the presentation. A bit of stress was present! But in the end we managed to set up everything on time and it was just a matter of waiting for everyone to arrive. Besides a short presentation from each team, it was also possible to try a prototype which we have developed ourselves in cooperation with freelancers. Everything went quite good and the visitors were really enthusiastic about this year’s innovative mediaprojects. Afterwards when everybody left it was time for dinner and drinks which was a nice closing of three days of hard work to finish everything. Good times!
During the week we also got some free publicity regarding the MediaLAB projects on two platforms: the website of the University of Applied Sciences (HvA) and the website of the students’ magazine, Folia. Both articles are well written and give a quick insight in the project and problem we had to solve for IKEA. Unfortunately they are in dutch so the english-speaking will just have to continue to read the blog.
This week we’ll be working out the final bits of the website, game and documentation. And then it is almost time for this year’s semester to be over. Also near the end of the month we will be presenting our final product again; only this time for the assigner at IKEA HQ and probably more IKEA employees that are interested in the project will join this presentation. Hopefully they will be as enthusiastic or more as our audience at the MediaLAB.
And finally; if you couldn’t join us at the final presentations last Wednesday and still want to take a look at our website, animation and game. Below you will find the links. Don’t forget to upload your score!
One week to go until the final presentation! Everybody’s nervous and excited at one time.
Yesterday we had a meeting with Mandy and Christle van der Ven, who is now the new Recruitment & Staff Marketing Manager at IKEA Nederland and also part of our projects. We showed her everything that we’ve done so far and we were very happy that she liked it.
Finishing up all the things now and waiting for you for the final presentation that will take place on the 16th of January, which is on the next Wednesday by the way, at MediaLAB at 1630. See you there!
A little bit late but Solve-Ation wishes everyone at the MediaLAB a merry Christmas and ofcourse a very happy New Year!
Steven’s birthday on the 19th of December and look what he brought with him… YUMMY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEN!
On Tuesday the 18th of December we had a really fun day. In the afternoon we went ice-skating at the Jaap-Eden hall and this obviously didn’t go as smooth as we thought, actually maybe a little too smooth haha! Aside from the flailing arms and falling people(hihi!) we really had a good time.
Unfortunately Annika and Gionata couldn’t make it and Margreet had to work(boo!) so she couldn’t skate either. But everyone was present for the delicious cocktails afterwards! The FabulousShakerBoys prepared a workshop for us to make two very nice cocktails.
The first one was a Bramble and the second one the infamous Cosmopolitan, but that wasn’t all of it. During the chatter and sipping the cocktails a few people attempted to sing. Yes that’s right, we had a karaoke set waiting for us. Although we were a bit shy at the start, we made it up by going full throttle after a few cocktails!
After all the festivities we had pizza.. this wasn’t just “pizza” this was a battlefield.
On the 12th of December we had a very interesting lunch! We had a brown bag lunch with our colleagues from Creat-IT and the students of ACE! During this lunch the MediaLAB presented their projects and give the audience an inside look on what we have been working on. After everyone settled down and enjoyed their lunch the presentations started. The first group to go was Blending Amsterdam Reality and they presented a fascinating project where physical objects meets media interaction. For an in-depth look visit their project page. The second team that presented their project was the Wait. Think! team. They presented an application that helps the people on train station pass their time better, instead of just waiting for the train. Here’s a link to their project page. Last but certainly not least we presented our recruitment game we’re developing for IKEA. These presentation are recorded and documented and can be viewed here: Brown Bag Presentation
Nothing can go smoothly and apparently now is the time for our problems to occur. Yesterday we had a meeting with a specialist on game mechanics and we hoped that he will give us some advices on how to develop our ideas. However, the reality didn’t meet our expectations. Since the beginning of the project we were really enthusiastic about everything and tried to do our best, but it seems like we overestimated our possibilities. The verdict was that we cannot handle this project within the given time and also with the budget that we are provided with. The project became too big and in order to finish it on time and in a proper way we have to make it more simple. It could be done in two ways – we either change the whole concept or leave only one game instead of three.
We have done a lot already to work out the existing concept so we decided to stick to it but leave only one game. The only thing we have to change in this case is the story (to fulfill the games that we are going to leave out).
We are also currently looking for people who can help us in programming and animating. Today we had couple of interviews with programmers and luckily we found the person that matches our requirements. We are looking forward to meeting him in our team and we believe that he will help us to bring our project to life.
Today we had another meeting with our assigners. Since the last meeting we have made our concept more explicit. We came up with a great story that will be followed with mini games in it. We really hope that this kind of approach will attract potentials to IKEA and with that will improve the employer brand which is one of the goals of our assignment.
We were also happy that IKEA was really enthusiastic about the work we have done and looking forward how everything will look like in the end. However IKEA is not the only party that is interested in it, it is also interesting for us, because you can never know what will be the final product. So we will continue our work and try to keep everybody excited about the things we do.
If you are interested in the work that we have done you can check out our Design Document and also the posters, that give more insight about the games.
Developing a product like ours is not an easy thing. The in-house at IKEA Haarlem helped us a lot, by finding out how it all works in a real life, but now we wanted to know a bit more about technical requirements, that we can use in our product. So on the 20th of November we went to IKEA Service Office. There we were given two computers to work on so we can check what kind of information/movies/games are available to us in the IKEA toolbox, which is a large database within the intranet for employees.
We also spoke to Hanne Willigenburg from the web-team in the Service Office. She told us how IKEA handles web related products and services and told us that we are free to develop what we wanted, which is of course very good news.
The results of this visit were very helpful: we’ve gathered a lot of resources we can use in this project, for example guidelines regarding copy and style but also movie clips we can use for the look and feel of the project. Pictures about logistic instruments and machines were also obtained, this makes the designing of the icons a bit easier.
Next to this we’ve also found a lot of useful images concerning the logistic processes. Also some very detailed job descriptions of the functions (retail) logistic manager, goods flow teamleader and goods flow manager, which could help us to communicate to the target group what IKEA expects from them.
On the 13th of November we visited the IKEA store in Haarlem. We had an appointment with the Deputy Logistics Manager, Jeroen Karssen, to give us a tour through the logistics department of that store. Since the most interesting part of these processes happen in the morning, before the store opens, we agreed to go their early. So at 07:30 we arrived at the store. After being welcomed and signed in by the kind lady from the reception we met up with Jeroen and he invited us to start with a cup of coffee in the employee restaurant. Here we talked about everything that happens in the morning and what he is going to show us this morning.
After we picked up our safety shoes we were ready to go to the logistic warehouse and the loading docks where everything is taken from the trucks and put into the warehouse or marketplace. But before this we went through the showroom and Jeroen explained us how everything is categorized in different parts of the store. He also told us how some products are taken directly from the factory to the store without being stored at a distribution center first. For example a certain type of glasses which were manufactured in the Netherlands, then stored in a distribution centre in Germany to go to the Netherlands again. This costs a lot of time, effort and money and was therefore inefficient, so not the IKEA way. From the marketplace we moved to the loading docks where the trucks arrive with the ordered goods. From here they move the products to either the marketplace and showroom directly or store them in the warehouse, this depends on the capacity in each individual part of the store. Since IKEA wants to protect their concept we cannot go in to the details too much. But it was interesting to see how everyone from different departments kept updating each other constantly to reach their goals in the best way possible.
Afterwards we had an interview with one of the teammanagers Logistics, Jasper Geerts. He told us what it is that he does as a teammanager and what his style of leading is.He also explained some more issues of the logistic processes and how he works with his manager and the co-workes but also together with the other departments.
“More freedom for employees and the key is to motivate them. Also let them make mistakes sometimes. At IKEA employees are motivated to take their own initiative. But sometimes it is forgotten to communicate this. Also there are differences between the way of leading between each manager, so it is also important to be on the same track as your team about leadership and clearly communicate what you expect from your employees and what they can expect from you. Let them make some mistakes now and then and have them reflect on what went wrong and how they can prevent it from happening again. Talk about it, show them the right direction an see how they can do better the next time. Self reflection on activities. Find a balance between directive and coaching leadership is important but this can also create confusion among the employees.”
