Author: Xiaoyan Kong

After I started to carefully observing my surroundings, I realized there are so many thoughtless acts happened on every one in our daily life. It shows the interaction that human beings have with their surroundings. By observing these thoughtless actions, we can actually find out those small but necessary needs. It also helps inspire people’s idea for different designs. These are the thoughtless acts I observed in my daily life:

1. Take group pictures using the reflection in the vitrine.

This Saturday, my friends and I had a trip in Zhenjiang. We had a mission to take a group of picture with some fake noodles exhibited in a vitrine. My friend came up with the idea to take picture of the vitrine which has both the noodles inside and our reflections on it. Therefore, we prevent having to made weird pose to include the noodles in.

1. Use ears and head as holders to hold the glasses.

This can be seen a lot around us. Sometimes people don’t need to wear their glasses all the time but just need it at some points. Instead of putting it back in the case and take it out when we need it, many people just put the glass on their heads to save time and energy.

1. Hang the coat on the chair back

The back of the chair is a perfect place to hang our coat. You can see that happen at school, in the restaurant, etc.

1. Wrap the key string around the bag strap  

This is one of my own thoughtless acts. My keys are too small compare to my big bag. Wrapping it on the bag strap makes it much easier for me to find it and I always know it is there.

Richard Buchanan discusses the concept of design thinking from the perspective of Wicked Problems, using this theory to explain better why design is misunderstood by many. Wicked Problems are types of challenges that require diverse knowledge and skills and integrating several professional fields. In this way, design thinking is understood as pratical process with idea generation, planning and production. Currently, Buchanan argues, many in liberal arts think of design as an intervention, a practical demonstration, a tool that is applied or just as the final product itself.

Thinking of this concept in relation to myself, I think of two ideas. Firstly, when I made the additional spaces in my NYUSH bag for last weeks class, the “design” others might see the functionality of the bag and consider the “design process” as that of cutting out and sewing in the additional fabrics. But using Buchanan’s ideas, I see now that I underwent a process of design thinking because I considered different options for fabrics, different colors and different functionalities. In that process, I am developing my own placements for design. The second line of thinking for me is the wicked problems. Adding additional textile to the bag was not a wicked problems, but I can recognize them from my work experience. There is a problem to be solved, that is not necessarily the root cause, a solution has to be created /”designed,” and there is only one chance to get it right, and the result is either good or bad. This is very helpful to consider challenging situations in life.

For our group, we have to design a product for our IMA fellow Nick. His problem with his phone is that: He spends more time than he wanted with it (about 3 hours per day). He also used his phone while he is in his bed before sleeping. Another problem is that his phone’s battery is pretty poor. According to his problems with his phone, we wanted to design a product that helps him reduce the unnecessary time he spends with his phone and the time he spent in his bed. After the group brainstorming, we decided to make a robot (Nick likes robot) with a box attached to it. We named it “Nick’s Boxx”.

Every night before he sleep, he has to put his phone in the box to charge. If he needs to use the phone, he has to ask the robot to open the box. To do that, the robot would ask Nick the reason why he wants to use his phone. After Nick gives out his reason, the robot will distinguish if it is urgent. If it is, the robot would open the box for him. If it’s not or just him wanting to check his wechat moment, the robot will refuse the request to open the box. But if there’s really something urgent happened, the robot can help calling emergency number for him directly. If Nick also tells the robot he wants to prepare the breakfast the night before, the robot will move to the kitchen by it self in the next morning to make it easier for Nick to start preparing his breakfast.

For our design, we combined Nick’s like, his habit and the his problem with his phone. Though it is a prototype, I think it will be very helpful to Nick if it can be a true thing!         

For the “good design” assignment, I did a small redesign for my own bag. First, let me introduce you my bag. I got this canvas bag from a school event for free. I love it because it is really big so I can put lots of stuffs inside. Another reason is that it has really good quality material. I never have to worry about it broken since I put so many stuffs inside.

There is only one thing I hate about this bag – It doesn’t have any layer inside!! So it cause a big trouble for me every time I want to find my phone/wallet/glasses case/keys (anything that’s small). Because my bag is so messy that it is literally like a trash can. So I decided to redesign my bag and add some layers inside so that I can categorize my things. Thus, make it more easy for me to find what I want in my big bag.

The first step is to take all the stuffs I carry with me daily out, put them on the table and categorized them. According to this, I would decide how many layers and side pockets I want. Next, I measured the length and width of each fabrics I needed. (The white jeans I got it from my friend, she did not wear it anymore. The mesh is from my middle school’s uniform.) Finally I sewed the fabrics in my bag.

The reason why I think it is a good design is very personal – It helps improve my relationship with my bag. It solve the problem that I couldn’t find my stuff. The user experience I have is much better than before. The design is based on the target user(me)’s using habit of her bag. I think this idea can apply to most of the “good designs”.