Designing and Building with Technology and Data: The Human Factor
On a recent visit to NJIT, Master of Architecture alumna Kate Maher, shared some insights about how technology and data shape human behavior and the practice of architecture. In her role as creative director at Gensler London, part of her job is to understand how a data-driven understanding of human behavior can be applied in the design of the spaces and environments where we spend time and interact.
Whether we are engaged in working, shopping or leisure, the data on our behaviors and preferences can be used to design responsive, tech-enabled environments. She also observed in our video interview that while we have ever increasing data and sophisticated technologies to design with we need to remember that humans are at the center of it all.
In retail design, the landscape of shopping is changing and much of that is driven by data and technology. We may browse online and decide if we want to interact with the product online or in a bricks-and-mortar store, or if we want to customize the product or try it on with the assistance of augmented or virtual reality. Maher points out that the fulfillment of what we want, whether it’s a coffee, new clothes or the latest color of eye shadow, and how fast we want it, is being integrated via technology across both the virtual and physical worlds.
With products, services and the environment they are delivered in, data gathered on human behavior and preferences not only shapes how technology is applied in response to our wants and needs, but how technology will be used to influence our experience in the physical interaction with a space. Data on our preferences will often determine the availability of a product that we browsed online in the retail space, or options for how we want to shop. It could be fast or as a leisure activity, independently or with assistance, and so on. Behavioral data in relation to the physical space provides insight for the designer/architect who will take principles such as sight lines and circulation into consideration for the design of our experience with the product in its environment, she said.
There is an interplay between what people want, what has been suggested to them and the data that is gathered in the process of their interactions with a product, according to industry research. While there are many unresolved questions about data privacy and the use of consumer data, there is an opportunity to choose what and where to purchase that many self-aware consumers have distinguished for themselves. In doing so, those consumers take the lead in creating product, service and interaction trends. This in turn has driven demands being made on retailers and designers to place ethical considerations front-and-center, including the environmental impacts of production practices and supply chains. The trends we have seen in this direction are coming from the users and consumers who won’t buy, engage with or consume a brand if it is not aligned with their own values. Architectural firms who design responsive and intelligent environments can design for energy conservation and high performance with low impact materials in a way that represents the built environment of future focused brands.
Originally from Ireland, Maher’s path to the master of architecture program at Hillier College was unique. She landed an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut where she pursued an undergraduate degree in international business and sports marketing while working in New Jersey with her uncle, a real estate developer, during the summers. Looking for a program to launch her career in architecture in the New York metro area, she chose Hillier College based on its reputation for giving students a skill set that prepared them to step right into practice. “The idea that you could enter the workforce and actually be ready to participate at an architecture firm, or wherever you wanted to work, was really important to me. NJIT really had a reputation for that compared to some of the other options that I had,” she said.
When Maher was in the M.Arch. program, she received permission to start the fall semester two weeks late so she could compete in the Olympic trials for the Irish national women’s basketball team. Then, upon graduating, her first project was a hotel in Belize, followed by a move to the Netherlands to work in a multidisciplinary firm where she expanded into retail design. This is where her background in international business and sports marketing came into play, in the challenges of creating the 3D expression of a company’s brand in the retail environment. Maher distinguished herself early on in her career, at one point leading the design team for the Adidas flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York.
A team player by experience, Maher says listening to your peers and stakeholders is the number one collaboration skill you need, whether you are still in design school or already in a professional role. Her advice to women entering the field is to be true to yourself.
“You’re always going to have personality bumps along the way, they are not necessarily gender driven, they are going to happen and that’s people and personalities. If you know your stuff, if you know how to articulate it and you’re not afraid to ask those questions … Just show up and do your best to solve for that situation,” Maher added. “Listen, learn and find the common ground. After all, studying architecture trains you in a certain way of thinking, and really what you’re trying to do is improve things”.