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Employer Branding

Team

Rick Genemans
Nadia Vakhrusheva
Mario Elgazzar
Jeroen Veenstra
Alberto Turina
Margreet Riphagen

Project Manager

 m.riphagen@hva.nl

Commissioner:

Description

By ikea November 7th, 2012

From Concept to Design Phase

After the Concept Presentation we received a lot of feedback and were also given a decision which of the concepts they would like to see further elaborated – namely Time Framed Question.

To perform this concept a website should be developed. It starts with an interactive video that shows the benefits of IKEA as an employer. After that it presents the user with a challenge they have to solve in their own creative way.

The open platform gives the target group the freedom to be innovative and creative within IKEA. The most creative and innovative solution has a legitimate chance to get an interview with a recruiter. Aside from this all the ideas will be presented on some kind of leaderboard so students will be able to compare his/her ideas with others and a competitive element is presented.

However, we presented the ideas, not the finished product so we were asked to further develop it a bit and also make it more specific. So we are now working on storyboard, use cases and a lot of different things that will help us to specify our concept.

By ikea October 12th, 2012

Get started: concept phase

The most magnificent news for the past two weeks is that the research phase is finally completed. On Friday, 12th we were happy to present all that we have done so far to our assigner Colinda Dijkstra. The presentation went really well and our assigner was satisfied with our results from the research phase. The slides of the presentation can be viewed here.

So now we are off to start the concept phase and Charlie Mulholland already helped us to get through. One more time he gave us a useful workshop after which he gave us a task to generate 100 ideas about how our future product could look like.

“All ideas have value”

We are sure that brainstorming will be fun and after careful selection and considerations we will be able to pick 3 best ideas which afterwards will be produced into prototypes.

By rick October 10th, 2012

Visualization of main research findings

After the debriefing with the client we had a more concrete view on the problem we have to solve for IKEA. So we could now start with researching the target group and possible solutions. We have conducted different forms of research and described this phase more thoroughly in the Research Document.

Underneath the posters Alberto made to visualize our main research findings to the client. Hopefully they give a clear overview of the different topics we have researched.

Research Posters

Research Presentation

By ikea September 27th, 2012

Fourth week

It’s already been a month of working and on Tuesday we had a peer-presentation of what we’ve done so far. All the groups within the MediaLAB showed their progress and presented their findings to each other, so we could have an insight of what’s going on ‘outside’ our group.

We also had another meeting with the assigner. Our main contact person for this project is Colinda Dijkstra, who’s the specialist in staff marketing and also the recruitment manager at IKEA Netherlands. During this meeting we’ve discussed Colinda’s feedback on the debriefing document, in which we described our vision on the client’s problem and the research that has to be done in order to come up with the solution.

However, the most interesting was waiting for us on Thursday. To make our research complete we went to HvA Leeuwenburg.

All this was made to get in touch with the target group. Rick and Jeroen interviewed 3rd and 4th year students, who study logistics. The questions varied from “how old are you” to “what is your dream job” and we really hope that these interviews will help us understand the needs and wants of the target audience so we could start to think about the concepts of the future campaign.

By ikea September 21st, 2012

Third Week

Highlight of this week: the official opening of the Studio HvA.

On Tuesday, September 18th, the three parties that form the Studio HvA prepared for the official opening. This new and inspiring location is the workplace of the Amsterdam Centre for Entrepreneurship, Urban Management and the MediaLAB Amsterdam.  The principal of the University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam, Jet Bussemaker was invited to open the Studio HvA with an opening speech. She talked about how wonderful it is that these three parties are sharing this creative and innovative center of knowledge and research. She literary called it “A pearl. A wonderful and intimate place”.

Next to the opening word from the principal there were also three speakers were asked by each of the parties that occupy the Studio HvA to give a short speech with their view in this initiative.

As students of the University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam and the MediaLAB we were of course part of the preparation of this festive event. We did not have a lot of tasks other than enjoy the opening, speak with guests and represent the MediaLAB and its projects. It was a really nice happening complete with music, food and drinks. It was interesting to see what the other parties represent and how they look forward to working here and create a valuable contribution to their field of work.

Despite the gloomy weather, our managers found the way to entertain us a bit. On a rainy Tuesday morning we took a trip down the Amsterdam canals. But it wasn’t the regular boring tourist excursion, not at all. Frank Kloos, MediaLAB Amsterdam, led us into the world of prototyping. We were given the task to think about an application for tourists, which will make their boat trip more interesting, informative and exciting. So many men, so many minds people say and it was proved when we started to develop our own prototypes. Map of the crime scenes, places, where celebrities were spotted before and many more were suggested.

Besides that, we were given an opportunity to test a 2nd screen webApp for the NOS, which was developed by the last semester’ students. For those, who don’t know, what the 2nd screen is, it’s an Internet connected device – mobile phone, laptop, tablet – most often used by individuals. “The value of second screen is that it doesn’t interfere or muddle the content on the first screen, but allows viewers to interact with whatever is displayed on the first screen, such as a Blu-ray or television show. Using a second device enables individual experience, without interference to the other viewers of the first screen” (read further on http://createasphere.com/En/insider-view/2787-you-and-second-screen.html).

Fabio, one of the developers, asked us to try it on our own devices, to check, whether it is working on every of them. But the most interesting part of it was to think of some new features or designs, which will make this app more consumer-friendly.

To check the app visit http://nosspotlight.nl

Fun is always good, but you have to not forget about the work. That’s why while Amsterdam pleases us only with the rain showers, we are still busy working on our project. Research, research and research. It is impossible to come up with something without any knowledge. Also we are looking forward to meeting with IKEA personnel in logistics department to know their motives and impression of the work at IKEA. Moreover, we hope we will be given the opportunity to spend one day with them to see how it all works in reality.

Don’t forget to contact us via solve.ation@gmail.com

 

By ikea September 12th, 2012

The first two weeks!

On the 3rd of September MediaLAB Amsterdam started its new semester. After the long period of selection and interviews three teams of students of different backgrounds are now working on projects with the help and coaching of brilliant and talented managers. The projects are being assigned from IKEA, Gemeente Amsterdam and Pro Rail.

First of all we would like to introduce ourselves. International mix of Dutch, Russian, Italian and Indian students, together we are the Solve-ation team and we are in charge of the IKEA project. Unfortunately, the mystery Italian and Indian guys aren’t with us yet, but we are looking forward to meeting them on the 1st of October.

The challenge we have to face is to change IKEA’s image as an employer, to open the world of career opportunities to young specialists in the fields of sales, logistics, communication and interior design in their twenties.

The first weeks have already shown and proved that MediaLAB is the perfect place where you can learn, work, gain experience and make a lot of new acquaintances at one time. We are given the chance to participate in various workshops held by lecturers from the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and other Universities. We’ve already took part in two amazing workshops by Charlie Mulholland (teacher University of Applied Sciences – Communication and Multimedia Design) and Bas Leurs (Lecturer University of Applied Sciences) on the theme of User Needs and Design Research. We are impatiently waiting for the new ones.

“Life is designing”, – (Hoax Design – Utrecht)

One of the past events was the welcome day for the 1st year students at University of Applied Sciences, which took place on the September, 6th. This day was meant to show the students, which classes of interest they can attend in their free time. With all the activities, MediaLAB was also presenting itself as an interactive studio, where students can work in the future. Our task was to introduce ourselves as a new MediaLAB team and briefly explain the themes of our projects in a video clips. All the groups found this very challenging and exciting, as it was the first time we could show our skills in such a short period of time. After 2 days of hardworking on the videos we all had an amusing time plying the interactive dance game called: Dance-Engine, which was presented by CineDans.

Besides getting to know each other, we’ve already started to work on our project. The research phase, which is the first on the list, is in full swing. Internet and books are very handy in this case, but to get inspired, we’ve also visited the IKEA store in Amsterdam. We had a great time there, having fun in the departments and enjoying delicious Swedish meatballs in the IKEA restaurant.

Moreover, to be clear in our mission we had to meet with the assigners, which was very informative and helpful in order to understand, what is needed to achieve their goal.

Anyway, this is only the beginning of the journey. We hope that 20 weeks, which are ahead, will be fun, useful and will bring great results.

You are welcome to write and ask questions on our e-mail address solve.ation@gmail.com, we are always happy to help you.

Yours,

The Solve-ation team.