Design Education...it's not just about the children!...part 2

So let me go back then to this whole idea of Design Education that seemingly can go even beyond the children! Unlike the other more 'traditional' subject areas like the sciences, mathematics, languages and humanities, somehow or rather, the subject of design and technology has indeed a great deal of transformation over the years. And it in with this respect that I feel that, parents, and sadly, teachers as well, have been pretty much in the dark of what are these developments all about.

But at times we can't really blame them for this misinformation, simply because there had not been enough 'rebranding' exercise or programme that had been put in place to correct this (mis)conception.

It is thus with this battle-cry in mind that I do hope that design educators like myself will take that extra effort in educating, not only our youths on what design is all about, but more importantly, to also bring in the parents of these youths...to buy them in to at least then change their ideas of what a design and technology subject area can offer. It would definitely not be an easy job, given the lack of information and the creative fluidity that at times seems to permeate the subject, but nevertheless, over time, I do strongly believe in the eventual greater appreciation of what design is all about, and the kind of value-addedness that its exposure can offer.

So where can we go from here! Well the only way is to do a better job at 'rebranding' this subject! Marketing of this subject matter at even the initial years of a students' life would definitely be helpful! I mean some primary schools in UK are even having some form of a technical education or a component of it, in their curriculum, and these seems to have worked wonders, as kids would then have a natural flair of associating what they have learnt, and perhaps apply it immediately! And in this aspect too, I do believe that when students are better able to relate theory with the application, learning becomes more rooted in their knowledge bank, and perhaps, just perhaps, it could actually be a way forward for our education system, which is currently still very much based on the didactic methods of the old! The other idea that perhaps might work over here, and in which I have propounded in my post some time back, was on the idea of having an integrated approach to education, removing the silo-like nature of subject areas, and perhaps having classes run like mini-companies, with the marketing, sales, management, manufacturing, design, quality assurance, and other real 'job designations' being handed out instead, rather than the atypical subject silo! In fact why not close the gap even further and let these companies have a sponsoring stake in these schools, or if its too expensive, maybe adopt some of their upper secondary classes for part of their work. The students get paid and educated, and the companies get mileage, a ready pool of perhaps creative potential that remains untapped, and perhaps would be able to give them better ideas from a different, more youthful perspective! Hmmm, perhaps these could be the Medici Effect happening right before their very eyes!

Hmmmm...

Design for safety...the case of the Dragon Boaters

I've read with sadness the death of 5 of my countrymen, dragon boaters who were dedicated and passionate to their sport, but whose lives were taken away so sudden, and so young! What saddens me perhaps is the fact that their death could have been prevented quite easily..perhaps! The news reported that, and this were later corroborated by the other team members, that the team decided not to wear the safety jackets because firstly, the weather was fine and the conditions in the river was calm enough. Being experienced boaters themselves, nobody would have doubted that decision. And perhaps to make their winning form and combination better, the other reason given was because the life jackets would actually slow down or impede their rowing. At this juncture I would just like to stop commenting on their decisions, because it was a judgement call that they make collectively as a team, and who are we to question that. What I am more concerned, as an educator in design, is that, isn't there any better designs of life jackets being done anywhere in the world!

I can still remember all the lifejackets that I've worn, or at least would have worn should things turn unfavourable, and I can say that at most, I think the ones that gives me the greatest comfort was the one that I wore during one of my reservist or is it NSF training...the one where the life jacket is relatively small and handy, and is actually activated using a small gas canister. Besides that, the usual life jackets that I've work and seen, are perhaps the older design that is relatively cumbersome to put on, and is in fact more geared towards just allowing the person wearing it to have his head be placed above the water level, and nothing else. In fact it can get quite cumbersome that I don't think it is that manouverable at all. The last that I wore was during my reservist training last year, you know the one where you have to manually blow it up, and my goodness, it was so stiff! Makes me wonder what would happen if we are caught in a firefight while wearing that awful and stiff life jacket around our shoulders!

I mean after all this while, isn't there like a jacket that can be worn by water sportsman like the canoeists and dragon boaters, that would not impede their rowing action. Maybe perhaps, with our more advanced knowledge on ergonomics, anthropometrics and materials engineerings, we might even be able to put forth one that would in fact be aiding the boaters in their competition, rather than impede them. Good and strategic placement of sensors would help to ensure that the floatation capability of the life jacket would be activated once it is submerged in water! Think of how the air bags in the car is activated within microseconds of a collision, and you would know what I mean. And how about an adjustable floation capability, one that would allow the jacket to fit within the weight and body size limits of the user, regardless whether the guy is a 150kg sumo wrestler, or a 5 year old child! Impossible you say! Think of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs), and I think it would be a possibility sooner than you think.

And how about other life-saving or even life-prolonging capabilities of the jacket! Luminous coloured that is adjustable to the light and water-colour conditions of where the user is wearing it. An automatic beacon in each lifejacket...especially for those ocean going vessels! (Think the Titanic!) And how about temperature controllet, or shark repeller, or portable desalination device, or a full bodied life jacket, for those who are incapacitated or suffering from hydrophobia, and needs the assurance of having their entire bodies above the water level! The list goes on endlessly indeed.

My point here is that if only we could do a better job designing better life jackets, to keep pace mankind's pursuits, I do think that the 5 lives can be saved on that day!

Design Education...it's not just about the children!...part 1

I just had my work review this afternoon. Pretty much okay I guess, the usual dose of things to do and targets to achieve..that kind of thing. It was pretty much alright. But one thing that really gets me thinking is not so much about the work review, but more on the things that my bosses have to put with from parents during our discussions.

One feedback that I got was on the feedback by parents of next year's Sec 3 students, who specifically wanted their child to move out from classes that offers design and technology, into the sciences and mathematics-based offered classes. Now, I'm not really against the Sciences and Mathematics, since I am a Pure Science student myself...but what worries me is the fact that these parents are not informed, or rather have very little information on what design and technology can offer...the kind of value-addedness that taking the subject can give to their child! Now i don't think the parents are to be blamed here, simply because they would not have taken that initiative to really know what the subjects can offer. Now this is where my worry begins, because if these parents were to base their 'IDEA' of a design and technology subject area based on what they have gone through ages ago, then they can't be blamed if they want their child to choose otherwise.

Now let me put things in perspective for those of you who don't understand this. In the 80's, well those are the times that I was doing my high school education anyway :) and the years before that, the Technical Education stream was only offered to the less-academically inclined Upper Sec classes. And in those days, workshop sessions was conducted in a very regimented manner, meaning "I show you how to cut or saw this...and you jolly well do it this way and nothing else!" Those were the times where Technical Education was seen to be more of a craftsmanship thing, and very, very 'hardcore' technical skills involvement, rather than the fluidity of creative design that I am trying to move towards! Workshop sessions were silo'ed into woodwork and metalwork, and not much deviation from the 'standard model answer/model' was allowed! And lessons were definitely very uninspiring, taught by some unsinpiring teachers as well! (Well I do make an effort to be inspiring, well I hope I am! ;)

So this is where the title of my post comes in! Looking back, my passion for design education now seems to be something that goes beyond the classroom even! Wow, come to think of it, it is something like championing a cause to create this awareness of what design education can offer. I mean the very fact that it is now known as Design and Technology will, hopefully make parents aware that this is something that is beyond just working in the workshop. I think I must also be mindful of this element of 'Design'...somehow it is still a 'dirty' word of sorts, projecting in the minds of those not in the know, of flamboyant-looking individuals coming out with things or items that people wouldn't buy. And the 'Technology' component...where the hell is it! And now this is also something that at times, I do have a beef with. Because if teachers teaching this subject are are not using, or are at least using Technology, if not at the forefront of it, then how do you suppose to be teaching about it then?

Hmmm....

a really long hiatus...

My oh my, it has been a really long hiatus...its been a while since I last posted an entry. Been through a lot of reflection lately, hmmm...perhaps symptoms of ANOTHER mid-life crisis! Hei I though I had that in 2001-2002? Hmmm, well I guess there's no harm having another one, as long as it'll make me a better person.

A lot of things go through my mind lately, first and foremost, about what are my personal targets and goals for the next 5 to 7 years! Yes, I do plan for that long people! Maybe I should just pen it down here then...maybe not! Nah not yet. Later perhaps.

Been reading a couple of books lately, ah yesh, that reminds me to update the Library thingy. Anyway, I've also a new indulgence right now, Facebook! Oh man, this is probably one of the best tool that have come out from Web 2.0. Been toying with it for a few days now, and its a little pretty nifty tool mind you. I'm definitely going to fully utilise it, for my next scheme of things. Anyway I think I better pen down my thoughts on what I want to do during these long hols.

1) Read about 1 to 2 books a week, that will give me a grand total of about 12-16 books
2) Pick up: Adobe Photoshop and Basic Digital DSLR photography
3) Monetize my blog...and my other potential plans
4) Get cracking on my personal target and strategic planning for Wealth Creation and road to Financial Freedom!
5) Reorganize my house
6) Network, network and more network!
7) Create my business cards and business plans

That's about all for now.

Innovation Protocol - Day 2: The Social Face of Innovation - 1st posted on 25th Sept 2007

The pictures for the second day of the workshop is at my Flickr website here.

With information and pictures gleaned from our visit on the first day, the team then get down to business to take a relook at the various types of user experiences that would definitely enhance our target user's quality of life. What we have learnt so far, or what we have decided to look into, are the various opportunities that would allow us the luxury to impact either Mdm K, or in an alternative sort of way, future Mdm K's. The team do believe that there would be many more Mdm K's in the immediate and longer term, so what we should do perhaps is not so much as to offer a product or service that perhaps is totally new, because maybe, just maybe, that would be better done and left to the private product-related companies. What we did decide though is to relook at how some experiences that are currently in place, could be made a little (or a whole lot) better with some minor/major tweaking! And guess what, one of the first major product that caught our attention was the ubiquitous wheelchair.

Creating the iChair

What the team feels is the need for one to improve the quality of the users' experience when one is sitting on wheelchair. With the target users of the current iPod generation in their 50s to 70s in mind, the team decided to
see how the use of the wheechair, and the array of users' experience that comes along with it, can be better improved, to make it an even more user-centric design, coupled with the idea to eliminate the notion of it being
a medical equipment! In fact the team believes that in as much as an iPod is considered to be the product design industry's standards of what makes a successful product (although more on a more technical aspect, it is not that
superlatively excellent!), we would also want the redesigned wheelchair to be an iPod of sorts, an iconic product for the less-abled (versus the disabled), something that can be used to be the talk of these target users, and at
the same time, be one single thing that they can be proud to have, own, or even be seen to be in one! Very much like how iPod is an accessory that one would want to see and be seen, the team wants to remove the social stigma that is attached to the current wheelchair design, so that perhaps, just perhaps, it could also be as socially desirable to the less-abled, just like the iPod.

The team decided on a simple name for this new redesigned wheelchair, the iChair. AS you can see from the pictures of our model-cum-prototype, it is indeed something that perhaps captures or elicits user-centricness in its design. With sexy curves (although it is not that sexy when one is working with corrugated boards), its intechangeable iPapa (inspired from uPapa..sorry Osim for borrowing from you guys! :) ), iButt butt massaging unit for those long tireless chats on the beauty of the iChair with your friends, in the comfort of your own Herman Miller-inspired Aeron Chair's wire meshing backing and butt support, to improve blood circulation, and at the same time improve ventilation to these 'rear' areas to eliminate smell and bed/seat sores. Or how about the motorised transport and navigtion system, which includes GPS and a small monitor for plugging your 10th Gen iPod to entertain you while you are navigating down the IR! And how about the Segway-inspired (sorry again, this time to Segway! :) ) navigation stick, that allows ease of use by offering soft-touch and frontal positioning, all this inspired by Mdm K, our original user in mind! When we first observed Mdm K while she is having her meal, we realise that the dexterity of her hands is pretty much limited, and although she is fiercely independent and would like to be feeding herself, but more often than not, due to her limited upper body motion capability, she is only able to get only 75% of the food from the spoon to her mouth...and she is also limited in terms of her frontal reach, which was thus THE major inspiration for this frontal navigation system.

The iChair...at home

The team also looks at how the iChair can just be more than just a mobility machine of sorts, but more importantly, it is THE machine that can very much improve the quality of her users. To this we look at how Mdm K gets around to doing some of the basic things that we take for granted, such as moving in and out from her bed, getting around in and out of the bathroom/toilet, navigating her way, having her meals, and most importantly, how being seen in a wheelchair affect her, as well as her caregiver's self-esteem and social life, which is sadly almost non-existent. The team believes that the design of the current wheelchair, with the use of technology that is currently available, and perhaps being extrapolated to 30 years into the future, would indeed be something that is quite normal, and in fact almost a standardised item and one that would not really cost a fortune! The ability of the iChair to be able to lift the user by perhaps a max of 6 inches would be something that would enable the user to level herself/himself up to the level of the bed, which would hence increase her mobility of sorts. These coupled with the use of alternative materials that is lighter, tougher, waterproof, and is in fact more aesthetically pleasing, would in fact be something that can surely eliminate the problems that one faces when one sees a wheelchair!

The iChair...a possibility

The idea of reinventing something is not totally new, and is in fact something that is very much a part of Mankind's natural capacity! But the team sure do hope that somehow, somewhere, somebody in the future, would have the necessary wherewithal to realise the team's iChair, and perhaps, just perhaps, would contribute to making the lives of the less-abled that much more fuller.