The first day's simple exercise involving coming up with the next big thing in paper tissues, made us realize the amount of research that went into the making of simple objects used in our day to day lives. What we often take for granted might have taken the greatest of efforts to be designed or invented. The brainstorming and group discussion that followed thereafter introduced us to new ideas and different perspectives. Our brain was put on overdrive and stretched in different directions as everyone scrambled to come up and pitch a practical product and a product for the future.
The idea of a blog was interesting because it would allow each one to present and share their views. The assignment in qustion was to write our thoughts on 'Why we need Design'. In a way we all multiplied our learning through sharing by doing the same thing and presenting individual thoughts.
The purchase of a Rs 10 object was the next step. The upper limit was fixed at Rs 10 for the folowing reasons:
- A 10 rupee object woould be accessible to a larger audience and hence would have a universal appeal
- Value for money
- Rs 10 wouldn't pinch anybody
- Mass production
- Such an object would be used in daily life
The next day's morning a discussion on our idea of Design. The conclusion we up with was tha Design was INTENTIONAL, PLANNED, CREATION, TANGIBLE, INTANGIBLE, CREATIVE, PURPOSEFUL / FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC, INNOVAIVE, ORDERLY.
The cutter (which was my chosen object was redesigned as an attempt (in my case) to make it more user friendly and make it safer to use.
The heirarchy chart which illustrated the object's primary and secondary purposes allowed us to understand the core value of the given object and understand 'Affordance' , which allows an object to have multiple uses based on the situation, apart from its primary function (which in my case was cutting). Listing out the function of individual componenets allowed us to realize importance of even the most insignificant components of the product.
Innovation and answering marketing needs were the two main reasons for intrducing changes in the product. However what we all realized that at a few hours spent in coming up in apparently creative soluttions would not be a practical approach. The manufacture has probably been creating the same product for a period of 50 years or more, and would be more compenent in recognizing the merits of each component in their products. However, on the flip side a manufacture would probably develop a blind spot fr aberrations over the years. Hence, a young designers may be able to step in to look at the object with fresh eyes.
The greatest learning in this class took place during the brainstorming and presentaions which was an oppurtunity for ideas to be exchanged, and were we all learnt from each other.