A Framework For Design And Design Education

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In order to understand the current stage of design education and to be able to plan its future and steer it towards new directions with larger and more positive impact we need to understand its origins and the factors that have influenced its evolution into what we know today as design education.

This compendium is the result of a collaboration between UK based DATA together with Loughborough University's Design Education Research Group. It showcases unique and key papers from critical thinkers from the 70's and 80's such as British mechanical engineer and later Professor of Design Research at the Royal College of Art Bruce Archer CBE and former RCA and Loughborough University Professor Phil Roberts.

Bill Moggridge: Prototyping Services With Storytelling

”But when you put all these things together, with elements from architecture, physical design, electronic technology from software, how do you actually prototype and idea for a service, and it seems that really, it’s about storytelling, it’s about narrative.”

The storytelling supports the exploration of the service idea. Through the use of simple words, the teller will illustrate the solution as it is a story. This allows the communication of the idea inside a group but also the preparation of the first sketches for the storyboard.

The storytelling leaves some blanks to be fill in by the suggestions of other stakeholders and users.

 

David Kelley on Creative Confidence, Innovation & the Power Of A Child’s Mind

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"The hardest part that people find with design thinking is the notion that you have to kind of suspend your natural tendency to want to come up with a bunch of quick ideas. The problem with that is those are cliched ideas that anyone can come up with."      

 

What a child's fearlessness and the power of design thinking can teach us about business success and technological innovation.

According to renowned entrepreneur, designer and visionary David Kelley from IDEO everything you need to know you learn it in kindergarden because that's when you had innate confidence in your own creative power.

More about IDEO here.

31 Volts: Service Thinking In Practice

31 Volts is an Utrecht based service design consultancy who develop services through innovative methodologies. This presentation was part of the Creative Company Conference 2010 in September 15th in Amsterdam.

 

Check out their projects and manifesto at 31v.nl (dutch page, please allow translation) 

The Power of Design: Milking the Clouds, Bringing Water to The Desert

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In my final project at Industrial Design in DuocUC in 2000 I had the opportunity to develop a project to improve the quality of life of low-income people in the Atacama desert, a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 600-mile strip of land on the Pacific coast of Chile. The access to water in this area is scare and communities living in the area depend on private suppliers. After spending three months interacting with communities in the area I detected a significant problem relating to water. During my research I noticed that low income families needed to spend money due the high level of minerals in the water that spoiled pots and kitchenware. This was also reflected in poor levels of health and several illnesses in the youngest population. The issue was not the supply or the price of water; the problem was the quality.

In parallel I discovered an existing project that aimed to provide drinking water through the condensation of morning fog through a ‘fog collecting device’. Although the project was based just six kilometres from the town and had strong awareness amongst local residents, the initiative was completely external to and disconnected from the community. This was mostly because the project was still perceived as an novelty and it had been conducted out of the community. The final device was a primitive device, a scientific experiment that the community failed to see as a product that could give solutions to their problems.  
 
For the next two months I worked with anthropologists to define an approach to overcome the distrust towards the project as well as the lack of sense of ownership from the community. This work provided important design and engineer guidelines for the project as well as enabling a more fluid design process with civil engineers, architects and designers. The input from each discipline had an important bearing on the definition of the mechanics, physics, functionality, user interface and the physical form of the ‘fog-collecting device’. 
 
The result: The approach and overall process produced an excellent result with the final prototype being approved for building and testing in four communities in Chile. The device generated up to 80 liters of water per day, as much as the previous model being half the size, thanks to the double layer of fabric and the use of wind tunnels to maximise condensation.
The costs were kept low using basic materials and adapting existent parts. The reception was overwhelming, the device was presented as a finished product in a box, it can be set up by as few as two or three people following the instruction manual that details every step with text an graphics illustrating all the necessary processes.
 
This had a huge impact among the members of the community who not only were part of the research and design process but were able to become active in the installation of the device, increasing the awareness of their role in the process and the benefits of this solution.
 
Drawing from this experience I recognised the diversity of the wider challenges that designers face when developing products or services. I became passionate about discovering ways to improve people’s lives through design and bridging the gap between design and other social-related disciplines. This is where the inspiration for my MA research was fermented; to bridge that gap by understanding the theoretical roots behind design thinking and providing a concise justification for design thinking in the social sector.
 
About ECö: Milking the Clouds

This innovative product captures morning fog in desert areas and condenses it to produce water for local communities with no access to drinking water. Made with low cost materials the system is affordable for poor families and a smart solution to source scarce water resources in extreme conditions.
Simple materials and mechanisms make this product a creative solution for users and producers. All pieces are standard (with minimal modifications) to keep production costs down. The product can be set up by two or three people and comes with an installation manual.

The project was developed based on an investigation sponsored by the Australian Embassy in Chile.

 

Design With Intent - Toolkit for influencing behaviour through design

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British Industrial Designer & Engineer Dan Lockton has recently finished designing a toolkit to help designers seeking to influence and modify positively users' behaviour through design. Italy based design blog Putting People First, gives access to the finished toolkit which takes form of a set of 101 cards grouped in eight categories according to different lenses or fields of research that provide different perspectives on behaviour change.  
 
 
 
The intention is that the cards are useful at the idea generation stage of the design process, helping designers, clients and – perhaps most importantly – potential users themselves explore behaviour change concepts from a number of disciplines, and think about how they might relate to the problem at hand. Judging by the impact of earlier iterations, the cards could also be useful in stakeholder workshops, and design / technology / computer science education.
 

You can download the entire set here.

Continuum + Rockefeller Foundation Workshop: Design For Social Impact

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Developed by Continuum together with the Rockefeller Foundation during the Design For Social Impact Workshop in Bellagio, Italy; this document contains valuable insights in what it takes to enable designers to approach and solve social issues. 

One of the essential insights is the importance of using design tools and methodologies along with social research and theories is the best way to achieve a truly collaborative innovation and improving the success of its implementation.