Feedback from Design Central Team

Team,

It was great to meet everyone involved with the class and especially great to start getting our heads wrapped around this opportunity in social innovation. What’s so incredible to think about is that in this program, you hold the potential to invigorate the world with fresh thinking, sustainable ground-breakers, and market shifting ideas that could be noticed world-wide!!!!  Bringing your creative energy and clear perspective could make the difference from what has been done in the past to a new level of excitement that not only solves needs better than ever, does it in an amazingly engaging way, and at reasonably low cost.  We are excited to see the problem identification and ideas that individuals from various backgrounds will come to find. This is an awesome opportunity to work with people who are able to bring an understanding and perspective to the table that we might overlook in our own little bubble. In addition, it will be especially interesting to see problems begin to emerge that our prior stereotypes or notions may have discounted. Having the liberty to go out and meet people who open their lives up to us will prove to be very telling if we keep our eyes open!  We left North Carolina inspired by the program NCSU has built. Both students and faculty seem to have established a wonderful cross-disciplinary atmosphere that can be a breeding ground for forward thinking and truly innovative ideas. Build upon this energy and take advantage of the resources before you. This is a quote by Jamie Lerner, “Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget”. We look forward to seeing everyone’s creative solutions that work within the given parameters and push conventional thinking!

-. Gregg Davis/ Rick Hagee/ Richard Lane.-

1.2 Meeting with counterpart + Lecture

Jan 13th/ Limitations and requirements of the project. Meeting real counterparts become indispensable to understand the limitations and boundaries of the project. Overall when we are engaging in a “business reality”. In this case, we have various stakeholders, one of them is the community itself (social project). Yet, to make the project more “real” to our designers, we will be partnering (joint venture) with Design Central Studio, from Ohio: http://www.design-central.com . They’ll be participating and collaborating with the course as counterpart and stakeholders. Contact will be kept throughout the semester via Skype. Gregg Davis, Richard Lane and Rick Hagee, from Design Central, will be assisting the course. In this first contact, some ideas and boundaries were set upfront to the our Studio. We also had the participation of anthropologist Alexa Anderson. Ideas like: How should we, as designers, develop engaging experiences were posed. “We should get into their heads”, Davis mentioned. They remarked the idea that old people shouldn’t lose their identities, we can’t treat them all as a whole. They have independent ideas, expectations and emotional motivations. What are their psychological needs? The DC group mentioned that there might be stereotypes in our minds that should be vanished. Social isolation is definitely a theme to consider. Some actual solutions were also criticized, as they are made essentially from just the designer’s point of view, without considering the people involved.  Other topic that was relevant was not just to work on Functionality, but also with emotionality (see diagram).

Finally, Gregg Davis gave an open lecture to the Design community at NC State. He touched the basic topics of Design and emotions, showing us some findings and insights coming from researchers in Yale and Princeton through MRI investigations of Brain reactions to decisions. Based on the relationship we have with products/brands and making a comparison with the relationships we have with people. He calls this the 5 emotional stages: 1) impressions 2) interactions 3) reliance 4) extended trust 5)a dvocating. These relationships can help us to set up steps for the goals that we want to achieve with our end-users. We would like them to “bond” with our designs, overall to achieve sustainability and not to make products that are fashionable but disposable. We should consider these things in our research.

Open Lecture (linked with our Studio)

We invite the design community to the lecture of the studio that will be partnering in joing venture with us: DESIGN CENTRAL. We are happy to work with them and engaging in Social Innovation themes!

Gregg Davis / 4 Emotional Stages
Wednesday, January 13th / 18:30 Burns Auditorium
NC State, College of Design

Gregg Davis is co-Principal of Design Central (http://www.design-central.com/), with Rainer Teufel. Clients of the firm include Nike, Motorola, GE, Whirlpool, Samsung, LG Electronics, and other global brands. Davis has lectured in Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, and Chile and taught seminars on innovation for export, and industry trends based on innovation. Prior to Design Central, his education grew from Pratt Institute in New York, Henry Dreyfuss upon graduation and RichardsonSmith (now Fitch). Design Central is located in Columbus, Ohio with affiliate offices in San Francisco, Paris, and global partnerships. The firm has over 20 years’ history of international involvement in brand strategy, innovation, cultural context adaptation, with design through production. Professionals include a cross-section of expertise in diverse disciplines, cultures, experiences, markets, and technologies. In addition to his role in Design Central, Gregg serves as a juror, lecturer and thought leader among his peers in design, including his most recent post, as Executive Editor for IDSA’s Innovation Magazine.

0.0 First meeting with the community-Studio Kickoff

JAN11/ Introducing us to the community The course will be working with an aging community in Downtown Raleigh, NC (Blount St). ‘The potential market for services that will enable us to live independently as we age is vast-but it’s unclear who will pay for them. Elders control nearly two thirds of disposable consumer income in developed countries, and people over sixty five already control more than 77 percent of all assets in the United States, but no old person I have ever met wants to spend a penny on being “looked after” … The majority of products and services for elders treat the symptoms of social isolation but not the causes. They are perceived as passive recipients of “aging in place” infrastructures (Thackara 2005: 122)’.  It is important that we are able to do proactive designs to ‘anticipate people’s needs’ as Thackara mentions and to consider them active participants in the design process. We are not just wanting to “design for the aging” but also to make what Thackara calls: Transgenerational design.

Thackara, J.
2005 In the Bubble:Designing in A Complex World. Vol. 1.MIT Press.

We met the community to introduce ourselves. Volunteer collaboration is required, so a first formal contact is made to engage with the participants. An open conversation is held with the people, who were very interested in participating.  Our studio is highly interdisciplinary: 2 architecture students (BA), 1 landscape architect student (MA), 6 graphic designers (senior), 1 industrial designer (MA and senior)& 1 Art & design student (senior).

Sean Vance, from the Center for Universal Design (http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/) collaborated with us in making the first contact.

1.4 Primera visita a Unilever

28.08.08 Visita a planta de distribución Unilever Lampa. Con cada paso de la investigación vamos profundizando el conocimiento sobre nuestro usuario, en esta oportunidad ahondamos en la comprensión de uno de nuestros stakeholders, Unilever. Visitamos la planta ubicada en Lampa para conocer y entender desde dentro sus procesos y funcionamiento, es muy relevante la información obtenida sobre el canal de distribución, especialmente el co-packing. Aquí vemos cómo el diseño debe tomar en cuenta las limitaciones dadas por los procesos. Hemos vislumbrado la complejidad de la distribución, y tomamos conciencia del gran impacto que nuestras decisiones de diseño pueden tener en él. De ahora en adelante, el ajuste eficaz y eficiente al canal de distribución será un factor fundamental en todo el desarrollo de nuestros proyectos. No podemos subir el costo de la distribución con el tamaño y complejidad de nuestros productos. Fuimos recibidos por Rodrigo Quintana: Warehouse and Operation Manager y su equipo. Quienes se convierten en una contraparte activa del proceso de diseño. Con esto logramos que el proyecto quede alineado con los objetivos de negocio de Unilever y con las necesidades de nuestros destinatarios finales.

1.3 Modelos Mentales y Salida1

21.08.08/ Brainstorming Modelos Mentales después de salida #1 a Terreno: Renca Los alumnos hacen una visita a Renca, las nuevas casas gestionadas por El Techo para Chile. Allí se encuentran con las dirigentas de pasajes. Se reúnen para tocar temas amplios y conocerse de a poco. Luego de conversar sobre la salida hablamos de: ¿Cuáles son los factores que mueven a nuestras personas? Luego del primer acercamiento exploratorio al usuario (buscando un enfoque para el futuro estudio), realizamos un panel de ideas para comprender las motivaciones y conceptos que definen los comportamientos de nuestros destinatarios. Ésto para poder intervenirlos con nuestros diseños. Se trabajó colocando ideas principales (temas) y generando ideas asociadas. Se ocupa la herramienta Brainstorming durante taller y cada alumno expone ideas según su experiencia con los destinatarios (en este caso de la comunidad de Renca) y luego estas serán ordenadas para constituir un Norte para el proyecto.

Alumnos: Alejandra Prieto/ Francisca Prieto/ Angélica, dirigenta vecinal/ Catalina Garcés/ Francesca Camilli/ Camila González/ Paloma León/ Karin Piwonka/Renata Tesser/Gonzalo Castro/ (no aparecen: Lucía Aguerreberre, Alejandro Leiva, Andrea Puyalto, Constanza Justiniano, Constanza Herrera, Camila Herrera, Camila Ríos)

1.2 Diseño de protocolos

 

19.08.08 Diseño de protocolos o pautas para estudio en contexto. Debemos estudiar a los usuarios o destinatarios de manera eficiente, utilizando metodologías y herramientas (basadas en las ciencias sociales) que nos permitan conocerlos emocionalmente y en su propio contexto. Los plazos son vitales (pensando que es un proyecto real). El estudio en terreno debe ser planificado y preparado con anticipación. Con este fin definimos por escrito los objetivos del encuentro y cómo se alcanzarán. Es indispensable saber cómo se bajarán y tabularán los datos con criterios previamente definidos. Antes de la salida se debe testear el protocolo (protocolo beta, o de prueba) con otras personas para detectar posibles problemas que deben corregirse. Los alumnos hacen un buen trabajo.

1.1 Análisis y estudio de datos

 

14.08.08 / Primer acercamiento al tema de pobreza y a los intereses y atributos de nuestro stakeholder principal: Unilever. Para comprender de manera profunda la complejidad de estos dos temas ocupamos la investigación en Internet, bibliografía y la herramienta de Panel Asociativo o mapa conceptual. Éste permite estudiar datos y evidenciar relaciones relevantes entre ellos que difícilmente se apreciarían de otra manera. El uso de esta herramienta requiere poner énfasis en el diseño de información, que nos permite transmitir los contenidos de manera óptima. Para complementar nuestro trabajo con el stakeholder, nos visita Dora Blanco, coordinadora de comunicaciones y desarrollo organizacional de Unilever Chile. Ella expuso sobre distintos aspectos de la empresa y luego participó en una conversación abierta con el taller.