what is design?

What is design?

I enjoyed this entire video, however the highlight for me would have to be shinichi takemura’s ‘Tangible Earth’ – the interactive globe that allows the user to engage and fully understand the impact he/she has upon the Earth. For me, it really hit home the power good design can have and encompasses all that Bill Moggridge covers about what design really is.

The globe was not solely for the needs and desires of (designer), but for the users – the international community, so that they may fully understand all that (designer) is trying to convey in a tangible manner (hence the title).

Although inly 1.2m in diametre, the globe shows the impact of the international community at a intimate and personal scale. This is a perfect example of Moggridge’s ven-diagram of environmental (the world), social (domestic community) and personal

Moggridge talked about design process, which he divided into two categories, sophisticated prototyping and understanding people. In this process he described peoples needs and desires through three main factors: people (desirability), business (viability) and technology (feasibility). He explains the when these three factors marry together you have successful innovation.

Moggridge talks about the subconscious mind being the most important consideration for designers because the initial feeling and intuition is the base for your design.

His process for this is:

Learn: Analyzing the information you receive

Look: observe what people really do

Ask: enlists people participation to elicit insights.

Try: create simulations to help empathize with people.

He talked about prototyping being and important aspect when trying to research and develop a product or design. Prototyping can be anything from a sketch, enactment or building. It can be physical or software.

He describes the process in three phases:

Inspire

Evolve

Validate

Moggridges design process was split into 10 steps:

1. constraints

2. synthesis

3. framing

4. ideation

5. envisioning

6. uncertainty

7. selection

8. visualization

9. prototypes

10. evaluation

The talk was a great insight of what is to come and what steps need to be taken to achieve further success in design. Everything is designed.

Peer Comments

Charlote Hartley:

http://chartley1122.blogspot.com/2011/10/light.html?showComment=1318909108056#c4779344717330887448

li zhaozhao:

http://lizhaozhao3329407.blogspot.com/2011/10/light.html?showComment=1318909422576#c9067967565510020630

Sunprit singh:

http://sunprit.blogspot.com/2011/10/upcycled-utility-rationale-i-chose-to.html?showComment=1318909688753#c7699803673339250743

Ryan Go:

http://ryan-go.blogspot.com/2011/10/upcycling-unwanteds-jellyfish-light.html?showComment=1318910267736#c4093458787528370542

Dong wook kim:

http://dongkim926.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycled-utility.html?showComment=1318910687460#c6893018044769694471

Up-cycling poster

assembly instructions

Rationale

Cutting diagram

product sketching continued

product sketching continued

product sketching (design awards) T5 Early 2nd semester

design confusion

Peer Comments

Daniel foo

http://fooides.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-post.html

Sarah Howard

http://sarahoward1031.blogspot.com/

Oskar Carabez

http://ocarabezides1031.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-1.html#comments

Camielle Kordek

http://camillekordek.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-hero-shot.html#comments

Li Zhaozhao

http://lizhaozhao3329407.blogspot.com/2011/09/projectone-experience-enrichment.html#comments

product usage

technical drawing

rationale

product poster

The story of bottled water

"Our world is a world obsessed with stuff. We are a system in crisis. we are trashing the planet, we are trashing each other and we are not even having fun. The good thing is when we start understanding the system we Start to see lots of places to step in and turn these problems into solutions"

Bottled vs. tap water. Is it cleaner? Is it just a scam?

Many of us are sucked into buying 'fresh' bottled water from big companies such as pepsi but what most people don't realise is that 1/3 of Americas bottled water comes from the tap and more shockingly is that these companies are charging more that 2000 times the cost of tap water. On average America buys half a billion bottles of water a week.

So how do these companies do it?

The process is called 'manufacturing demand'. This process is split into three parts:

• scaring us
• seducing us
• misleading us

At the start the idea was to make the people feel scared about drinking tap water. Fiji were the first to put this idea forward by using the cleveland campaign with their slogan "because its not bottled in cleveland". this was a massive failure because the cleveland people tested the water and found it was of less quality, people liked the tap water more and it costs about 2000 times more.

"when we're done, tap water will be relegated to showers and washing dishes"

A nestle executive stated " bottle water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world" This statement is insane. These companies are trashing the world through there immense manufacturing stages. How is that environmentally responsible. The fuel and energy put into making these bottled is wasted as we finish the bottle in about 5 minutes.

Are they really being recycled? most of the time they are being down cycling making products which will end up in landfill faster then bottles.

Pepsi's VC stated "The biggest enemy is tap water"

"Its time we take back the tap" and say no to bottled water.

How can we spend the billions of dollars spent on bottled water every year? some real solutions presented to us in the video were invest in public water infrastructure, prevent pollution and drink from fountains.

Design excellence poster

The 'Quest duo' is a Compact handheld sales and payment device for the retail and hospitality industries.

David Kelly: Human centred design

David Kelly shares his experience in design by showing how design has changed mainly focusing on products. Kelly describes how something has happened in the last few years where we have climbed Maslow's hierarchy a little bit and we are now focussed more and more on human centred design. In saying this he comments that we are now designing behaviours and personalities into products making designers job more enjoyable.

We are now moving towards getting more and more products at an earlier stage in motion and showing how they will be used. He describes them as more experienced prototypes.

He shows how this has been done through projects he has been involved and influential in. One of these examples is the new Prada store in New York. Kelly has successfully created a cultural retail store which engages the client to experience and interact with the items being bought and displayed. This is achieved by large multiple touch screens where the item can be scanned and displayed on screen where the user can interact with the item of clothing in many different ways such as colour, size and seeing the item on the cat walk. other interactions include a delayed mirror to see what you look like as you turn in the change room.

Another example of human centred design is seen at the London science museum. The human interaction comes through a interactive wall based on the subway system. the wall is 4 stories tall and displays guests reviews and thoughts on there experience whilst in the museum.

Kelly also worked on scott adams ideal cubicle for iconic cartoon character Gilbert. There where many ideas put forth and the designers experienced working in cubicles whilst on the project. The main idea put forth was the make the cubicle living and more human centred. This was achieved by having interactive cubicle walls (e.g fish bowls and pushing bags) and having products that when in their surrounding act differently such as a flower that wilts when you leave and comes back to life and greets you when your back.

Another great design was the london domes 'Greenwich water cycle pavilion' . The pavilion was designed to celebrate and express the importance of recycling. The pavilion interacts with running water and rotating pannels so you can see the process and info of the recycling process.

David Kelly's public debut of the 'Spyfish' was an interesting design concept where you can practically scuba dive without being in the water. The submarine tele-presence vehicle has two cmeras and is controlled via a wireless remote control. The idea was so that you can through the mini vide sub over the side of your boat and see whats under and around you.

The final design shown in Kelly's presentation was an inspiring story of how design can change the world and peoples lives. Dr Martin Fisher went to Kenya and started a non profitable organisation called Approtec. The idea behind this was that there are entrepreneurs everywhere in the world so there must be some in Kenya. He was totally correct and started with the organisation 19,000 companies and 30,00 new jobs. This has resulted to the sales of 0.6% of the GDP in Kenya. One of Approtec's most successful products is the deep well manual pump which enables people to grow crops in the off season.

Thanks to this new concept of designing personalities and behaviours into products and designs, designers are more trusted and integrated into business strategies giving the designer more control and freedom.

Don Norman's 3 ways good design makes you happy:

"I love it. I just don't know why." This quote by Norman demonstrates the 3 categories we use to explain why good design makes us happy. Essentially, "it's all about fun..", but to successfully achieve this, a product must be both beautiful and functional.

'Visceral' is the experience. Its what makes us happy or sad. Norman describes it as the biology of design in our body. it is our brain reacting to different aspects such a bright colours or font types. An example of visceral processing is the 1960's e-type jaguar which is stunningly beautiful but constantly breaks down and falls apart but people still love it because it is beautiful.

'Behavioural' is all about feeling in control. The designer wants you to have control of the product. for example the teapot from the four seasons in chicago or driving a high performance super car around a tight bend. Thee products feel with you and have emotion.

'Reflective' is the way Norman describes our "super ego", where we have no control over ourselves. It's all about our image - perfect example is the Hummer. It's a car that defines one's status; seeking and gaining that attention through a product.

Thee three levels of processing all play an important factor when designing a new product. If we take these levels into each design, new products will response better to each user and hopefully when in use create an unique experience between the product and user.

Norman also demonstrates through a problem solving experiment he conducted that being happy whilst completing a task can effectively make a task easier to complete. Throughout the presentation Norman constantly mentions that the experience of design and the relationship between a product and user should be fun and i totally agree, "Its all about fun"

Me and Design

Design is all around us, everywhere we go, we are bombarded with design but most people don't appreciate it like i do. Design is a passion, a need and is something that i am drawn to and want to develop into a career because it is what i love doing. I guess i have always bee interested in design from a young age helping my dad make in the workshop making violins or in most cases destroying them lol but it wasn't until i started design and technology at school where i though i could pursue this as a career.

My main interest when it comes to design is automotive design. I find when done well it can incorporate any or every aspect of design. In saying that i would love to see my future develop into some aspect of Automotive design. I will be happy as long as i am designing something that interests me and hopefully that people love.

Hopefully with my design career i can travel the world and use influences from many cultures in my designs.

One of my favourite designers would have to be Marc Newson. I love his clean cut, colourful and amazing forms he incorporates in his designs. i also love the way he has branched out into many aspects such as furniture, jewellery, planes, cars and much more.