http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZH70qhmEso
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/10/08/aquaduct-bike-purifies-water-as-you-pedal/
http://physicalinterface.com/view/that-design-is-money
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_25/b3989445.htm
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Design Thinking: A Proposed Curriculum (1st draft)
Philosophy:
Design thinking equals innovation equals big ideas. Without ideas designers cannot communicate, express, share and ultimately solve big problems. They will be relegated to being skilled craftsmen without a voice. Instead the designers of tomorrow need to be brilliant thinkers and managers who not only embrace technology and design concepts but also think critically about real-world problems. Design thinking will engage, inspire, stimulate and provoke students’ imagination through a collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of learning.
Goals:
1. To introduce students to a human-centered approach to generating ideas by taking them out of their comfort zone and forcing them to confront and observe the problem first hand.
2. To motivate students to think clearly, questioning, reasoning and evaluating why and how they arrived at a solution.
3. To become more effective thinkers and recognize the different ways of looking at a problem by not censoring and limiting themselves.
4. To repeatedly experiment with ideas through rough samples and models with the intention of garnering an effective response and hopefully drawing closer to a working prototype.
5. To embrace and disseminate different views, personalities and concepts that will eventually lead to one common and collaborative idea.
Design thinking equals innovation equals big ideas. Without ideas designers cannot communicate, express, share and ultimately solve big problems. They will be relegated to being skilled craftsmen without a voice. Instead the designers of tomorrow need to be brilliant thinkers and managers who not only embrace technology and design concepts but also think critically about real-world problems. Design thinking will engage, inspire, stimulate and provoke students’ imagination through a collaborative and multi-disciplinary process of learning.
Goals:
1. To introduce students to a human-centered approach to generating ideas by taking them out of their comfort zone and forcing them to confront and observe the problem first hand.
2. To motivate students to think clearly, questioning, reasoning and evaluating why and how they arrived at a solution.
3. To become more effective thinkers and recognize the different ways of looking at a problem by not censoring and limiting themselves.
4. To repeatedly experiment with ideas through rough samples and models with the intention of garnering an effective response and hopefully drawing closer to a working prototype.
5. To embrace and disseminate different views, personalities and concepts that will eventually lead to one common and collaborative idea.
Thesis II Project Description
An interactive presentation demonstrating how designers think and why
design thinking is needed in undergraduate-level design programs.This
project will analyze the 6 senses that make designers innovative thinkers
and uniquely capable of connecting with consumers. Also this project will
highlight the impact of design thinking in the classroom and real-world
through case studies and their tangible results.Above all, it will outline the
importance of learning and developing a conceptual thinking process in
addition to a technical skill set in undergraduate design education.
design thinking is needed in undergraduate-level design programs.This
project will analyze the 6 senses that make designers innovative thinkers
and uniquely capable of connecting with consumers. Also this project will
highlight the impact of design thinking in the classroom and real-world
through case studies and their tangible results.Above all, it will outline the
importance of learning and developing a conceptual thinking process in
addition to a technical skill set in undergraduate design education.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Thesis Body: Design Thinking and Why It's Needed
Definition:
What is design thinking? Is it the latest design trend? Is it an effective problem solving approach? Or even a new business model that is changing how corporate America normally operates?
In fact it is all of this and more. There are varying definitions of and opinions about design thinking. Some see it as a business tool for developing strategy and marketing products while others see it it as a human-centered approach to design innovation. From Tim Brown CEO of IDEO to Roger Martin Dean of Rotman’s Business School to Daniel Pink author of A Whole New Mind, they all define design thinking differently. But what they can all agree upon is design thinking converts need into demand. It focuses on people’s actual needs rather than selling them on what we think they want. The process of design thinking uses the designers’ sensibilities coupled with in the field research, idea generation and prototyping to create unique and unexpected results. It revolves around the customer experience and relies less on the traditional notion of design as a visually enticing package or neatly arranged series of graphics. Design thinking pushes the boundaries of what design is and what it can be.
Process: 5 Steps to Design Thinking
According to IDEO, the process of design thinking is broken up into 5 steps. The intention of this process is to frame the problem, to ask questions, to understand how it is perceived, to stimulate and inspire ideas and then to find the best possible solution to the given problem.
1. Observe
Go out into the world and look and listen to people, see what they are missing, what they like and dislike. Use that to inspire the design of the experience and the way that experience communicates to the outside world.
2. Brainstorm
Do intense idea-generation based on everything. Create one hundred ideas in no more than an hour.
3. Prototype
Make your favorite ideas real in a rough and ready way. Ideas that are quickly expressed in forms that other people can see, hear, touch or otherwise experience don't stay abstract for long.
4. Implement
Bring the skills together to design, engineer and develop the solution to the point of production.
5. Tell the Story
Communicate the experience of the product, service or space by revisiting the insights that provided inspiration for design. Tell stories that reflect the truth.
What is design thinking? Is it the latest design trend? Is it an effective problem solving approach? Or even a new business model that is changing how corporate America normally operates?
In fact it is all of this and more. There are varying definitions of and opinions about design thinking. Some see it as a business tool for developing strategy and marketing products while others see it it as a human-centered approach to design innovation. From Tim Brown CEO of IDEO to Roger Martin Dean of Rotman’s Business School to Daniel Pink author of A Whole New Mind, they all define design thinking differently. But what they can all agree upon is design thinking converts need into demand. It focuses on people’s actual needs rather than selling them on what we think they want. The process of design thinking uses the designers’ sensibilities coupled with in the field research, idea generation and prototyping to create unique and unexpected results. It revolves around the customer experience and relies less on the traditional notion of design as a visually enticing package or neatly arranged series of graphics. Design thinking pushes the boundaries of what design is and what it can be.
Process: 5 Steps to Design Thinking
According to IDEO, the process of design thinking is broken up into 5 steps. The intention of this process is to frame the problem, to ask questions, to understand how it is perceived, to stimulate and inspire ideas and then to find the best possible solution to the given problem.
1. Observe
Go out into the world and look and listen to people, see what they are missing, what they like and dislike. Use that to inspire the design of the experience and the way that experience communicates to the outside world.
2. Brainstorm
Do intense idea-generation based on everything. Create one hundred ideas in no more than an hour.
3. Prototype
Make your favorite ideas real in a rough and ready way. Ideas that are quickly expressed in forms that other people can see, hear, touch or otherwise experience don't stay abstract for long.
4. Implement
Bring the skills together to design, engineer and develop the solution to the point of production.
5. Tell the Story
Communicate the experience of the product, service or space by revisiting the insights that provided inspiration for design. Tell stories that reflect the truth.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thesis Body_Take 2
What is Design Education?
Design Education teaches students how to analyze, plan and execute visual communications using basic design theory, critical thinking and appropriate tools. It merges aesthetics with problem solving giving students the skills necessary to become effective and competent designers.
History of Design Education
Timeline:
(1820-1900s) Industrial Revolution
• Graphic Design becomes a by-product of the capitalist needs of businesses looking to advertise and sell their machine manufactured products.
• Apprenticeship is the main resource for learning the discipline of graphic design.
(1919-1933) Bauhaus
• Birth of the revolutionary design school model.
• The Bauhaus Basic Course was the first in design education to begin with abstract problems introducing universal design elements rather than have students tackle design problems applied to specific media needs.
(1940s-1960s) Bauhaus in America
• Several Bauhaus émigrés migrate to the U.S. before and after World War II introducing their revolutionary ideas to established Universities and new schools.
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Herbert Bayer settled in Chicago, with Moholy beginning his New Bauhaus.
• Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer went to Harvard's school of architecture, and Josef Albers to Yale.
• After World War II, Mies' Armour Institute and Moholy's School of Design were soon integrated into the new Illinois Institute of Technology
(1960s-1970s) Modernism
• American corporate culture embraced "Swiss" school graphic design as the ideal corporate style symbolized by the typeface Helvetica.
• U.S. graphic design schools soon followed and adopted the Swiss style. Its emphasis on the prolonged study of abstract design and typographic form led to carefully structured curricula.
• A number of Swiss teachers and their graduates, from Armin Hoffman's Basel school in particular, put down roots in schools including Philadelphia College of Art, University of Cincinnati and Yale.
(1970s-1990s) Post-Modernism
• The birth of post-modernism was a reaction to the Swiss design values minimalism, universality, rationality, abstraction and structural expressionism.
• Post-Modernism emphasized deconstruction, appropriation, techno, opposition and historicism.
• The Apple computer is designed. It revolutionizes design education and how design students learn.
(2000s-Present) Conceptual Age
Design Education teaches students how to analyze, plan and execute visual communications using basic design theory, critical thinking and appropriate tools. It merges aesthetics with problem solving giving students the skills necessary to become effective and competent designers.
History of Design Education
Timeline:
(1820-1900s) Industrial Revolution
• Graphic Design becomes a by-product of the capitalist needs of businesses looking to advertise and sell their machine manufactured products.
• Apprenticeship is the main resource for learning the discipline of graphic design.
(1919-1933) Bauhaus
• Birth of the revolutionary design school model.
• The Bauhaus Basic Course was the first in design education to begin with abstract problems introducing universal design elements rather than have students tackle design problems applied to specific media needs.
(1940s-1960s) Bauhaus in America
• Several Bauhaus émigrés migrate to the U.S. before and after World War II introducing their revolutionary ideas to established Universities and new schools.
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Herbert Bayer settled in Chicago, with Moholy beginning his New Bauhaus.
• Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer went to Harvard's school of architecture, and Josef Albers to Yale.
• After World War II, Mies' Armour Institute and Moholy's School of Design were soon integrated into the new Illinois Institute of Technology
(1960s-1970s) Modernism
• American corporate culture embraced "Swiss" school graphic design as the ideal corporate style symbolized by the typeface Helvetica.
• U.S. graphic design schools soon followed and adopted the Swiss style. Its emphasis on the prolonged study of abstract design and typographic form led to carefully structured curricula.
• A number of Swiss teachers and their graduates, from Armin Hoffman's Basel school in particular, put down roots in schools including Philadelphia College of Art, University of Cincinnati and Yale.
(1970s-1990s) Post-Modernism
• The birth of post-modernism was a reaction to the Swiss design values minimalism, universality, rationality, abstraction and structural expressionism.
• Post-Modernism emphasized deconstruction, appropriation, techno, opposition and historicism.
• The Apple computer is designed. It revolutionizes design education and how design students learn.
(2000s-Present) Conceptual Age
Monday, December 1, 2008
Work In Progress—Thesis Body
1. Design Education
• What is Design Education?
A. Design education is the teaching of theory and application in the design of products, services and environments. It encompasses various disciplines of design, such as graphic design, user interface design, web design, packaging design, industrial design, fashion design, information design, interior design, sustainable design, and universal design. The values and attitudes which underly modern design schools differ among the different design schools.
B. Design education is many things.
A television show that entertains and motivates.
An innovative, integrated university curriculum.
A mentorship program that inspires future designers.
An international consortium of creative problem solvers.
C. Design education is constant meaningful practice in design problems of increasing complexity.
D. Design education blends theory with creative application in preparing students to become artists and creative leaders in their professions. It seeks to instill aesthetic judgment, professional knowledge, collaborative skills, and technical expertise in students so they can achieve their full potential.
• Design Concepts and Processes
Designers need to master a wide variety of skills and concepts. What follows is an overview of the nine categories of investigation you can find in most design programs. Not every category is taught in every undergraduate curriculum—the time is just too short. Each program emphasizes certain subjects and teaches others more broadly.
Perception, visual organization, aesthetics
Designers think about visual forms and how they are put together to convey meaning. These forms are a kind of visual language. Points, lines, planes, volumes, spaces, areas, textures and colors, as well as how they are used to create symmetry, proportion and rhythm, are basic aspects of the designer’s visual vocabulary.
Form and structure analyzes positive and negative forms.
Form analysis examines how two- and three-dimensional forms create a feeling of space.
Structure and system consider various ways to create order in space. For example, grid system is one way to create a sense of harmony and order.
Visual phenomena explores the intuitive response of the audience to form, color and texture.
Composition and visual framing involves deciding what to include in an image and how elements of an image contrast with one another.
Visual abstraction identifies the key features of an object and simplifies them.
Unity of form looks at relationships among design elements, such as proportion, scale, symmetry and contrast.
Visualizing techniques
Designers need to be familiar with basic tools, techniques and processes to produce images, sketches, models and finished work. They need to use tools with skill and sensitivity. Students learn photography, various kids of drawing, model making and diagramming as ways to develop their ideas.
Photography, although often regarded as a “truthful” rendering of the world, may convey realism or emotion, as demonstrated in these examples.
Visual translation is the process by which the essence of an image is abstracted in a drawing.
Model making explores three-dimensional forms in order to plan and prototype an exhibition or a new product.
Drawing teaches the student to look and to see as well as to put down meaningful marks on paper.
Materials, tools and technology
Technology always plays a role in the process of designing and in communicating information visually. Designers create ideas in two and three dimensions using various materials such as paper and film. They use tools such as computers, camera and airbrushes and work with the technologies of letterpress and video. The designer’s selection of materials and tools can change what an image looks like and what it says.
Blending ideas and production techniques
Designers create solutions to design problems. A part of every solution includes communicating how to get the job done technically: how to get the poster printed or how to create the mechanicals for the package design. The designer must learn to clearly express and transmit ideas and instructions as well as to receive and evaluate feedback. To this end, the student learns to specify technical instructions; to write objectives, briefs and reports; to present ideas verbally, graphically and with audiovisual support; and to listen carefully.
Message and content
Designers address communication problems. They interpret ideas and represent them with images and words. Skill in thinking about and creating meaning with images, type and symbols is essential. The ability to put a persuasive or informational perspective on an idea is also important.
Semantics is the study of how people understand words and images.
Visual metaphor studies symbols. For example, a torch can signal the abstract ideas of victory or freedom.
Persuasion and information examines how to create a memorable visual statement.
Image, symbol and sign explores the ways in which graphic marks, such as handprint or a target, communicate.
Methods, planning and management
Design methodology provides a path for the designer in the search for solutions to communication problems.
Design evaluation judges reaction to a design through a testing procedure. For example, observing a child’s reaction to a book might answer the questions: Is the book easy to read? Is it appealing? Is meaning communicated effectively?
Design management involves an overview of the process of design, including managing creativity, costs, schedules and quality.
History and criticism
Designers are part of a visual culture that includes art, architecture and design. It is not only interesting but also important to know what has gone before. Designers study the past for inspiration and to understand its themes, styles and technical developments. It is possible to trace how certain ideas, developments in the art and technological advances have influenced particular designers. Criticism helps the designer evaluate the usefulness or beauty of a design.
Design theory
Design theory explores the principles underlying what communicates and why. For example, why does one color communicate happiness to you and fear to someone from another society? What are the ways culture affects the designer and the audience? Design theory seeks to find the unifying principles—which might be intuitive or deliberate—that are the basis for all graphic design. It is where education and practice meet.
• History (Past & Present)
• What is Design Education?
A. Design education is the teaching of theory and application in the design of products, services and environments. It encompasses various disciplines of design, such as graphic design, user interface design, web design, packaging design, industrial design, fashion design, information design, interior design, sustainable design, and universal design. The values and attitudes which underly modern design schools differ among the different design schools.
B. Design education is many things.
A television show that entertains and motivates.
An innovative, integrated university curriculum.
A mentorship program that inspires future designers.
An international consortium of creative problem solvers.
C. Design education is constant meaningful practice in design problems of increasing complexity.
D. Design education blends theory with creative application in preparing students to become artists and creative leaders in their professions. It seeks to instill aesthetic judgment, professional knowledge, collaborative skills, and technical expertise in students so they can achieve their full potential.
• Design Concepts and Processes
Designers need to master a wide variety of skills and concepts. What follows is an overview of the nine categories of investigation you can find in most design programs. Not every category is taught in every undergraduate curriculum—the time is just too short. Each program emphasizes certain subjects and teaches others more broadly.
Perception, visual organization, aesthetics
Designers think about visual forms and how they are put together to convey meaning. These forms are a kind of visual language. Points, lines, planes, volumes, spaces, areas, textures and colors, as well as how they are used to create symmetry, proportion and rhythm, are basic aspects of the designer’s visual vocabulary.
Form and structure analyzes positive and negative forms.
Form analysis examines how two- and three-dimensional forms create a feeling of space.
Structure and system consider various ways to create order in space. For example, grid system is one way to create a sense of harmony and order.
Visual phenomena explores the intuitive response of the audience to form, color and texture.
Composition and visual framing involves deciding what to include in an image and how elements of an image contrast with one another.
Visual abstraction identifies the key features of an object and simplifies them.
Unity of form looks at relationships among design elements, such as proportion, scale, symmetry and contrast.
Visualizing techniques
Designers need to be familiar with basic tools, techniques and processes to produce images, sketches, models and finished work. They need to use tools with skill and sensitivity. Students learn photography, various kids of drawing, model making and diagramming as ways to develop their ideas.
Photography, although often regarded as a “truthful” rendering of the world, may convey realism or emotion, as demonstrated in these examples.
Visual translation is the process by which the essence of an image is abstracted in a drawing.
Model making explores three-dimensional forms in order to plan and prototype an exhibition or a new product.
Drawing teaches the student to look and to see as well as to put down meaningful marks on paper.
Materials, tools and technology
Technology always plays a role in the process of designing and in communicating information visually. Designers create ideas in two and three dimensions using various materials such as paper and film. They use tools such as computers, camera and airbrushes and work with the technologies of letterpress and video. The designer’s selection of materials and tools can change what an image looks like and what it says.
Blending ideas and production techniques
Designers create solutions to design problems. A part of every solution includes communicating how to get the job done technically: how to get the poster printed or how to create the mechanicals for the package design. The designer must learn to clearly express and transmit ideas and instructions as well as to receive and evaluate feedback. To this end, the student learns to specify technical instructions; to write objectives, briefs and reports; to present ideas verbally, graphically and with audiovisual support; and to listen carefully.
Message and content
Designers address communication problems. They interpret ideas and represent them with images and words. Skill in thinking about and creating meaning with images, type and symbols is essential. The ability to put a persuasive or informational perspective on an idea is also important.
Semantics is the study of how people understand words and images.
Visual metaphor studies symbols. For example, a torch can signal the abstract ideas of victory or freedom.
Persuasion and information examines how to create a memorable visual statement.
Image, symbol and sign explores the ways in which graphic marks, such as handprint or a target, communicate.
Methods, planning and management
Design methodology provides a path for the designer in the search for solutions to communication problems.
Design evaluation judges reaction to a design through a testing procedure. For example, observing a child’s reaction to a book might answer the questions: Is the book easy to read? Is it appealing? Is meaning communicated effectively?
Design management involves an overview of the process of design, including managing creativity, costs, schedules and quality.
History and criticism
Designers are part of a visual culture that includes art, architecture and design. It is not only interesting but also important to know what has gone before. Designers study the past for inspiration and to understand its themes, styles and technical developments. It is possible to trace how certain ideas, developments in the art and technological advances have influenced particular designers. Criticism helps the designer evaluate the usefulness or beauty of a design.
Design theory
Design theory explores the principles underlying what communicates and why. For example, why does one color communicate happiness to you and fear to someone from another society? What are the ways culture affects the designer and the audience? Design theory seeks to find the unifying principles—which might be intuitive or deliberate—that are the basis for all graphic design. It is where education and practice meet.
• History (Past & Present)
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