After viewing David Kelley: Human centred design.

I was amazed at the designs that are out there in the world which I never have seen before. It was even more surprising that the video was from year 2002. With the rapidly developing technology, this would mean that there are so many amazing products that are continuously being designed and created at this moment. This video made me feel like I am very delayed and I should watch more of these kind of videos to improve my knowledge on the latest contemporary products. I have come to understand that designers have always focused on products but as time goes, designers now design human centred designs. This means designs of products, services and environments now have behaviours and personalities involved in its design stage.

All the latest examples of design in the video such as retail store of Prada, cubical, Greenwich water cycle pavilion and spyfish grabbed my attention. When I saw the retail store of Prada, I felt like I was introduced to a new world. I have seen touch screens, scanners and liquid crystal doors but these were combined to create something more interesting. I have never seen a store with scanner that scans the product and uploads the product to be shown from a screen, liquid crystal door that change from visible to invisible for the fitting rooms, touch screen in a fitting room giving information about the product, and out of all, the mirror with 3 seconds delay for the consumer to see the back of themselves was just amazing. It was different to see how these innovative designs are now being used in familiar environments. I can see that these innovative designs are naturally being fitted on to our everyday life and new designs are being introduced.

I first didn’t understand very well about designs playing with emotions and giving personality and behaviour to the design but the video about the cubical design helped me understand. This cubical was designed entirely to improve the surroundings to fit human desire. Flower in a pot that drooped when the person leave the cubical and stands back straight when the person return was designed to make emotional connection with the product and the person. The lighting was orange to give similar effect as the sun, punching bag and hammock was also fitted. It was a great example to see how product can be designed to fit human needs and satisfaction. It was interesting to see how they come up with the ideas, including surveys, testing ideas with alive walls or taking pictures. I have realised how the designer has to actually become the product user and feel the need to come up with a better design.

It was challenging to hear that one person has created 19 thousand companies starting from a desire to help who are in need which successfully made a huge impact in Kenya. I realised the importance of the designer’s role to discover the needs of people according to their environment and actually come up with innovative product that can be used usefully by people who needs it.

My Design Career

I have enrolled in industrial design because becoming a designer is the only way I see myself in the future. The main reason I chose Industrial design course is because the best time of my study life was when I studied industrial design at my high school. I still remember back in year 10 when I couldn’t find my talent and had absolutely no idea in what I wanted to study after high school. When I had to move to Canberra for years 11 and 12, it was very much different to Sydney. I moved to a small school called Burgmann Anglican school where it was much open in terms of choosing my own subjects. I had the opportunity to choose 3 major subjects and I chose Design and Technology, Visual art and Fashion and Design. I enjoyed all 3 subjects but my favourite subject was design and technology. I devoted most of my lunch and study times in the design and technology lab since I had to complete large projects. I wasn’t devoting all my time to design in order to get a high UAI (since ACT calculates all your assessment scores instead of having exams for UAI), but I actually enjoyed the study of design and I enjoyed working under pressure. It may also be because of the Industrial design teacher I had who always encouraged me and helped me in all areas as best as he can in order for me to show all my abilities. The teacher loved to see my work and every time I find myself receiving high marks I gained confidence. He helped me to find the talent that I had and he convinced me to take further study in industrial design. Before making the decision to study industrial design I was very worried because I was making the decision thinking that I found what I was good at. It made me question,’ what if the teacher thought I was talented because my year was the first year ever to graduate and since there was only 10 people in the class there was not many people to compare with and made me look like I was doing good?’ I wanted to confront someone with my portfolios asking for critical comments but after all, I couldn’t think of anything else that I was interested in. After the first semester in UNSW, I found it very different to what I have expected. Being marked against so many talented students, I was disappointed at the marks that I received. But I still believe that this course suits me the best and most of all, I enjoy doing this course. Since I realised where I stand in the line it motivated me to try harder and I have the desire to learn more, improve, and discover my abilities so I am going to push myself even more because there is no giving up or going back. I'm haven't given much thought about my future as a designer but i am sure that if i keep trying my best i will discover my weaknessess, strengths and what i enjoy wich will be a guide to my future career.