The shape of things to come...

I just came back from a 'recruitment' talk of sorts for the new Singapore's School of Science and Technology (SST), and came away from it impressed at the way things are going on in the education field. I mean the very idea that i propounded months or even years back, about anti-silo'ing and non-compartmentalising subject areas into vertical silos of sorts, is somehow or rather going to be a reality in all its glory (or otherwise) very soon. We are going to practicalise and operationalise the acquisition of these content knowledge in all its various forms, and see to it a more integrated and more importantly, a more 'applied' approach towards education. I mean why wait for our charges to go out to work to 'test' our products, why not 'test' them here and know, at the stage where they are acquiring the necessary skillsets and knowledge! It is only then that the teachers can be confident of the quality of their 'products', for lack of a better term!

But i do hope that when one embarks on such an experimental journey, do please remember that no doubt the tools in your rucksack would help you in one way or another, but it is also a double-edged sword to you too, it might alternatively too hold you back, slow you down, or worse, is too big a 'baggage' for you to carry it along when you just want to dive into the hole that the 'blue' pill offers (think Matrix...and you know what I mean! :) )

What is your 'Design' age?

My significant other and myself recently had a talk on her frustrations of teaching one of her cousin's children on the basic rudiments of mathematics. It seems pretty hard for her to share and 'infect' her joys and passion for mathematics to this child, let alone make him see the simplicity and 'logicness' of mathematics. To me, i reasoned with her that it is simply just a case of a 'mathematical mismatch'. Both of them got onto the wrong start/foot when they were initially 'matched', and hence this is the price that she has to pay for this 'mismatch'. And more importantly, I do believe that at times it is not so much of one's ability, or inability in this case, that is the problem, but rather, the (lack of) capacity to internalise and the (lack of) maturity to accept or 'see' things as it is, and having the intellectual wherewithal thereafter to then use it and deep-rooting that knowledge within your knowledge bank. I mean you can be a 10-year old physically, but mathematically, you are still perhaps maybe having the mathematical intelligence of only a 7-year old!

Which somehow brings me to my title for today, which is how old are you in terms of your 'Design' age? I do believe that as products are getting to get beyond the mere superficiality of functions, and as aesthetics take precedence over as the key driver of most decision-making process when purchasing products, the societal mental 'Design' age has undergone a tremendous boost! I mean if you ask anybody right now who has just a basic idea of what design is all about, about why they buy the things that they buy, more often than not, the main theme that seems to permeate is the way the things are designed. Lest we forget, iPod did take over Creative only recently in their market dominance of mp3 players. Samsung is beefing up their design capacity too, and look at their range of products now! So woow!

But then, how do we then 'teach' design? Seems funny that after all these years of teaching design, I am coming back to the basic question that I've longed been seeking an answer to! How do we then measure our 'Design' age? Unlike IQ tests or EQ tests, or DISC measuring tools, how can we measure than a child's ability to discern a good design from a bad one. Is there like a DQ (Design Quotient) test of sorts that we can mete out to them to know their design age? And I am talking about this in the absence of marketing and advertising being the catayst of some of our decision-making process, which is sadly, not always reliable and logical. But that is another story altogether.

So what IS your DESIGN age?

The rise of the 'Customized Economy'

I'm currently reading "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" by Mark J. Penn. Now I am always in the habit of reading a few books at any one time, and perhaps one of the thing that stuck on me, well I've still yet to finish this book though, is the idea behind 'Customized Economy'.

Now when I was just finishing my post-graduate course way back in 2001, the buzzword then was the 'Knowledge Economy', whereby the commodity that would make or break a nation or society is no longer about how much oil or natural resources you have, but more importantly, is how you would use the abundance of information that was growing at already an exponential rate back then, to your advantage. This growth, as you would have known is partly due to the emergence of web-based technologies, and its preponderance in almost every part of our lives! And then a few years after that, futurists and innovation gurus was advancing the idea of the 'Creative Economy', whereby the constant need to change and evolve, or perhaps the hype that surrounds it, desires the need for one or an organization to be constantly be at the forefront of innovation. Doesn't matter that innovation in itself is sometimes abused to mask shortcomings that perhaps is of no fault to societies or institutions that simply do not want to evolve, but perhaps lets argue that one out on another post then!

Now Mark brought forth the idea that perhaps with the evolution of the Web to version 2, i.e. Web 2.0, there is a possibility that a niched economic approach to how things are sold or marketed might just be something that is viable indeed! No longer are we talking about just the mere selling of products en masse, and reaping the profits just through the sheer volume that is being sold! What we are talking here is customized marketing, selling, advertising..and a whole array of exposure to selling or marketing to you products or services that YOU WILL NEED or WANT! Think 'Minority Report', and you know what I mean. And in fact, when you look at the idea of the rather oxymoronic idea of 'Mass Customization', in effect what our dear leaders have done is to actually put this economic idea already in action! Medical tourism, cheap airlines, nanotechnology, high-value adding industries...i mean the list goes on and on! It does scares me at times, at how fast a pace things are moving, but worries me more is the feeling that somehow somewhere, in the future, I would be made redundant, in more ways than one!

What's next, the 'Network Economy'?! Hmmm...

iPodification of your handphones: The next step of communication mobility

I've use this term 'iPodification' and 'iPodifying' as a noun and verb to demonstrate the fact of using the whole iPod experience as a benchmark of sorts for any consumer-based products designer, notwithstanding the fact that there are indeed other more technically superior products out there, that are seemingly offer more value-for-money, and a better user experience! But I guess when it comes to the crunch, sometimes it is the 'coolness' factor that wins hands down! I am myself looking forward to finalising my decision on getting my next lappy..whether it would be a MacBook Pro, or the regular Windows Vista-based platform! Hmmm, decisions, decisions, decisions!

Anyway just something that I saw the other day, that relates to the title of my post today! Have a look at the clip, and tell me that you have not somehow or rather have an inkling of what is happening!

Hmmm...but for US$10 million...who's questioning?

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...