task 6: what is design?

as its title shows, Hewitt is stating what design has been like in so many terms, and also how design from right now should be.
first of all, i found that he focused on 'people' as the core part of design process. for example, he suggests integrating a great deal of features into one smart-phone service so that more convenience and some 'pleasure to use' could be brought about to its 'users'. through the sample video about the service on the phone about Chinese person, the phone is not only the device to communicate with others but also the thing which absolutely satisfies its user. This is because user should be considered prior to product itself. that was what I caught from this short video.
Then Hewitt moves on to the 'bad design definition stage'. in Japan, i-mode used to be so innovative service which was pretty nostalgic staff to me, but the thing like side effect of technology was so obvious as well. a lady was taking so much effort for even more than 30 minutes to get ONE CAN DRINK. this occurred due to using purchasing system on i-mode service. so here, the user was so much confused and behind the technology which should exist to support and improve users' lifestyle though. that was what Hewitt wants to talk, i guess. so in this case people have to catch up the development of product itself and this was an example of bad design.

in the next place Hewitt introduced the design process called Design Harnesses Tacit Knowledge, or Learning by Doing. In short, design is playing am important role by integrating several messy, twisted processes into one process. This makes sense in terms of matching with my thought that design always has to be solution of problems. and through this video, I was reminded how design has to be for everyone. Although I knew I should define the term 'design' was about creating solution for problem related to anything not only about generally defined design thing as stated above, Hewitt's introduction of his ideas made my brain clearer.

He also mentions about design for different people. So here people are categorized into many groups depend on their age mainly. and design thus should be things to adopt to each group of people by observing them. this process was now that very familiar to me like I already experienced looking at some different group of people and considering how the design for them should be.

Overall, I found new or again so many things I have to keep in mind all the time. All of us are having a long holiday, however, I would like to utilize these upcoming time to tidy up brain and prepare so many things before another year and semesters begin. This is obviously delayed blogging for this video but I really like the messages Hewitt gave us for our future thinking.

peer comment

Clement
http://clementyoongides1031.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycled-utility.html?showComment=1319001345394#c2970925063143610269

Felicia
http://feliciaides1122.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycled-utility.html#comments

Jimmy
http://ides1031-z3332715.blogspot.com/2011/10/hero-shot.html#comments

Dennis
http://dennisdolee.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycling-utility-zen-light.html#comments

Dong Wook
http://dongkim926.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycled-utility.html#comments

project 2 upcycled utility

The lamp I would like present is a spiral shaped unique lamp. The form was inspired from a spiral shell in the or besides the ocean. The main reason why I took this shape for the final is because I mostly focused on spending time at night in a good mood. Therefore, this lamp has the purpose to bring about the laxury, elegance and relaxation to your room. Firstly, such a round and organic shape, of course because it came from a natural life, will create easy, comfortable feeling to user. In terms of function, the lamp cover whole part of bulb so it helps avoid people, children in particular, touching and burn themselves accidentally. So it can be said that security of using this product is well considered as well.
Assembly is easy-thought. It is just about bend and stick each piece with tags and slits. Those tags strongly hold each other so that the lamp will not be separate by itself. Also, the lamp holds the light bulb.
About the waste issue, this product could be made maximum 12 of those from 1 sheet of poster sized 1800 x 1200. As cutting diagram shows, waste of the paper is pretty less, sized 120 x 1200. This is only about 6% of waste from whole sheet of the poster.
Overall, I tried to achieve making the product with simplicity of assembly process but also the strong evolution of the material into much better appearance and use through this project.

project 1 experience enrichment

Project 1 Experiment Enrichment Rationale – Round Peeler
3322963 Kosuke Fujisawa

The product I would like to present this time is a simple peeler that is ultra comfortable to use. The most important focus about this product is, it fits your hand perfectly. In other words, the blade, handle is all in one, different from other ordinary peelers that are in the existing market. The visual shape is inspired by the Apple mouse which has a divine smooth surface and a shape that could easily fit in our hands. The blade is designed “hidden” underneath its cover instead of being exposed outside and therefore; this peeler could be placed anywhere in the kitchen (even as a decoration). This kind of blade design also suits the household open-styled kitchen with young children to avoid accidental cut.
Given the aim of this design is to create a new simple peeler that is comfortable to use, I have put most of my effort in optimizing the touch feeling on its surface and finding its optimal shape to fit into our hands. It began with drawing many sketches to come up what it eventually should look. After a lot of trials and errors, I came to current round, smooth shaped peeler. As well as exploring ideas in 2D drawings, I also started to make 3D experiments using the blue foam. This helped me a lot in terms of easier making and correcting within a short time frame. I did not notice that I should make it more dome-shaped rather than just almost flat one until I practically tried model making. So I did progress through the cycle of processes including drawing sketches, shaping foam, asking some people to feel it, and getting advices from tutors.
About the enrichment, I created the situation that when you touch the product it is nicely smooth to feel. Also, you can also experience your hand fits the peeler so that you like to peel your potato rather than doing it just as a process of cooking. In terms of visual achievement, I applied apple-like red on the surface of the peeler as the color such as red, orange, yellow; remind us of fruit and vegetables. Additionally, red color has a quite vivid visual impact to be found easily.

peer comments

Here is the list of URLs my comments were posted.


http://2011jj.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-experience-enrichment.html?showComment=1315931924680#c6967656754221627360

http://seon-tae.blogspot.com/2011/09/projet-1-experience-enrichment.html#comments

http://clementyoongides1031.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-experience-enrichment.html#comments

http://ides1031-z3332715.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-design-career.html#comments

http://thesolidstate.blogspot.com/2011/08/design-confusion-poster.html#comments

video refection: the story of stuff

This video is giving so many messages to us. First of all, the whole cycle of production is harmful not only to human but also to all the natural livings.
I strongly felt that such our current addiction about mass production is very horrible. As a daily process, we buy products and throw them away, in an amazingly very quick cycle, compared to the pace half a century ago. Most of us, however, do not know how such our wasting action affects badly to the environment, because we think or have been made think that the cycle is normal by media.

The United States, according to the teller, has owned huge natural resources of the whole planet and making those polluted or no use anymore. It is not just the problem the country has in fact but all of us, in particular in those developed countries fulfilled with the people totally got used to the quick mass production process.
It is quite important to consider those points affecting the environment in design in the future as an industrial designer, because we must think of the material, how long our products last to use, how eco-friendly or harmful they are and so on. The natural resources on the earth are limited of course but we currently never stop using those precious belongings with such quick cycle. We will then end up with nothing left to use.

I went to Japan Design Talk a few weeks ago to listen to the current design projects in Japan, and there were so many tips about how we can, or strongly, we should use materials in a better way in terms of the environmentally friendly method. For example, some designers there imitate the traditional style in which we keep using one thing until it is all gone nothing to use. In terms of that, one of the designers introduced a patterned cloth, but it can be used for eco shopping bag by folding itself, table clothes and becomes a wiping clothes in the end. So, the message that the designer wants users to utilize it until it is for not useful anymore.

Through the video and those presentations, I reminded of how significant the current situation is. I want to become a toy designer but I have to think of how to use materials for the production. Nowadays, most of toys have been made of plastics but those plastics are from petroleum. Plastic bags in the markets, packaging and so many other things are coming with plastic but I will have to start with the point of how to solve using limited resources like that.
Also, for the all products we will design in the future, we cannot think separately about the environment, safety, etc..

Task 2 Product sketching

Here below are 5 sketches from exhibitions individually.