Video Reflections

Bill Moggridge: What is Design?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOx_Zx95hxM

I found this video very inspiring as it covered a range of aspects in designing. I recommend this video to other industrial designers, as there are plenty of examples showing good and bad design. Bill Moggridge defined a design as anything, which has been altered by man. This shows how broad design can be. Design can be categorised into graphic, fashion, interaction and even interior designs or objects in everyday life.

Design Disciplines include architecture, furniture design, industrial design, glassware, system, surface and digital design. Design Disciplines can be illustrated and divided into various sections, it ranges from the physical design to the digital design and the human and subjective aspect to the technical and objective perspective. Within these four boundaries careers and specialisation occurs, they are industrial design, graphic design, web design, interaction design, as well as physical ergonomics and H.C.I. For more technical and objective careers, they include mechanical, production, hardware and software engineering, and also physical sciences and computer sciences.

A new design, which I have now been exposed to is a combination of a few technological products, which is an imagined new concept, that can be summarised as an ultra mobile pc, which has been created to include navigation, a parking assistant application, personalise your rental car, provide environmental information as you drive, personalise music and hands free calling. This "good design" allows the consumer to buy one product but complete various tasks with ease.

On the other hand I am also now aware of various bad designs, such as a Japanese application, which allows one to buy a drink from a vending machine through cell phone connection. The lack of research and prototyping lead to a consumer, to waste over 35 minutes to purchase a drink. Remote controls are another invention, which has been labelled a bad design as there are so many remotes in our houses and so many buttons. Bad designs are often related to technology and interaction design.

There is a process when designing or improving a product. With any innovation you need to understand people, as they are the consumers. Experience innovation can be achieved when the 3 aspects of understanding people has been completed, these are people desirability, technology feasibility and company viability. When making a product we also need to satisfy emotional, process and functional innovation if we want a successful final design.

Bill Moggridge states that the key factors of success are the use of prototypes and by leaning through doing. When designing for different people we need to understand what people need and desire. There are 4 different methods to achieve this:
1. leaning - using a mind map to explore a persons needs
2. observational - discovering what people really do and not what they say they do
3. asking - through participation we can discover new insights
4. experimentation - understanding and feeling what it is like to use a product from someone else's perspective

Prototyping is a very important stage as during this stage mistakes can be made, we can find faults and improve our designs. This stage consists of 3 minor stages, they are inspiration, evolving and validating, where we check the product works. Prototyping can be through many forms, such as simulations, story telling through videos, modelling using technology- microchips or working at a bench with certain materials and tools. Prototyping can be just a sketch or an enactment or a physical object. It is the quickest and simplest way to portray an idea. These ideas can initially be quick and simple but are later refined for the final prototype.

Sometimes we start off with one idea but it leads and expands to something bigger. This occurs when we create a personal product which can sometimes be expand into influencing health and well being. An example would be self prescribed glasses, where people who can not afford to go to the optometrist can pay just $19 to improve their sight and well being. Physical designs can influence social innovation and designing sustainable products can lead to improving global sustainability. This is shown through a biodegradable mushroom material, which can be used to replace polystyrene, which is creating pollutants in our atmosphere.

Another superb design is an interactive digital globe. This innovation is created from a glass sphere and a projector, this globe shows the current Earth and can be rotated by touching its surface. This interactive globe has improved our understanding of this planet. This visual presentation shows the current sunlight, movement of the clouds, sea surface temperatures, displacement of air pollutants, it can recall historical events such as tsunamis, which when magnified by a magnification function can be linked to images and digital footage etc.

I have been updated on various inventions and concepts which have been designed around the world. I have also achieved further understand of design and the aspects and processes necessary in design. I would recommend other industrial designers to enjoy this video.