From Interior Designer to Farmer - How does design thinking play a role in both?

Katelyn Stetler is naturally a designer. I came to know Katelyn through working at Turner Farm. We were both interns there over the summer, so we spent lots of time working together and solving problems on the farm. I always thought she was a curious and creative person. Whenever we were doing a project for hours, she would think out loud about new products that could be created to speed up the process. She mentioned that she was in the DAAP program and worked for a small business in Colorado, but I wanted to learn more about her accomplishments. This interview gave me that opportunity and it was really interesting to see how our class connected to her work and life experiences.

Katelyn graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program with an interior design degree. At the university she was a part of a co-op program. One year she worked at MKG which promotes business campaigns and she helped design an experience. She created a pop-up in Times Square New York to represent an orange grove to promote a product. This was an immersive experience. When she described it, it reminded me of the Livewell space. The Livewell area allowed for a physical representation of people’s experiences so it was easier to empathize with them and understand the solution to their problems. Katelyn’s project took this same approach to allow people to become immersed in the experience of the product.

After college she moved to Colorado to work at Artifact Uprising which is a photo gift shop. She worked there for a couple years and became a designer. She developed new products for this site to sell including a brass & wood display box, a brass calendar, and a baby book. To create these pieces, she used the design process. She discussed how she had an idea to solve a problem, made a low-fidelity prototype to display her solution, and talked with colleagues on how it could be improved. She discussed the limitations with her projects, such as manufacturing, cost of materials, and how easy it would be for users to set up. The way that she designed products for real world problems is very similar to the steps we took to design our ideal bee. This was really inspiring to me that the methods we are practicing now are going to be beneficial in the real world. Another project that she worked on at Artifact Uprising was a baby book. What intrigued me is that her group of collaborators interviewed moms about what they would want in a book, they made a low-fidelity prototype, and asked for reviews from the moms after using the product. We have learned about this process through The Field Guide to Human Centered Design. Conducting interviews with people who would use the product and then observing their experience with the object are steps we have learned in class. This was really interesting for me to see that the concepts we are learning are used in businesses to create quality products.

After living these experiences, Katelyn describes an innovator as someone who sees a problem in the world, comes up with an idea to solve it and actually makes it happen. She thinks that an innovator is “someone who enhances the world around them, either through a product or service”. If you do not make your idea into reality then you are just a person with ideas, not an innovator. She believes that “innovation stems from curiosity and problem solving”. Katelyn describes innovation as observing the world and figuring out ways to make life easier and more enjoyable.

Although Katelyn is a natural innovator, she understands that there are drawbacks and problems with innovation. She says that there are parameters that you must stay inside of when creating something for a company. These parameters could be building codes, manufacturing facilities, or costs. With these drawbacks, an innovator needs to think creatively about cultivating new products and services to stay within the limitations. Also, some innovators create products just for money, they do not consider the lasting effects of their products. Someone can create something but they don’t factor in what happens at the end of the life cycle of the product. With this there can be a lot of waste that pollutes the Earth. This thinking is linear, a product is created, it’s used, and thrown away. She wants innovation to be cyclical. A product is created, used, and when the person is finished with it the product can be recycled into a new creation or given to someone else to use. This reduces the amount of waste going into the landfill while conserving resources. She believes that creating new tools benefits society, but we have to think about the life cycle of the product to protect the environment. With these drawbacks in mind, she has new ideas she wants to work on.

A new project she wants to pursue is how to efficiently run a small organic farm with women workers. She noticed at Turner that clothing or tools are not always created with women’s bodies in mind. To fix this issue, she wants to create farm tools and clothing that works with women’s anatomy to create efficiency on a farm. This would include creating tools for shorter heights and developing clothing that fits naturally and allows movement on different women’s body types.

Overall, Katelyn uses design thinking and processes in her daily life. The methods she used allowed her to make new products that benefited people’s lives. Learning about her experiences and being able to connect them to the concepts we have learned in class were inspiring to me.