WEEK 3 TUTORIAL

The question for the third week tutorial is probably had been widely asked among the students who are dwelling in subjects which involve the process and activity of designing. The question:

“Is design brief provide by your client is same as design problem?”

In addition, we were also given a sample case:

The design brief is to create an interior design of navigation signage for dementia patients’ care/residence. The residence has 24 patients, 4 care takers and 12 administration staff.

“Is this brief a task or a problem? If it is a problem, what is it? How do you jump into this problem/brief? Where do you start and why?”

As for my answer, I would say that the design brief is actually a task rather than the problem. While the brief, which also the task, is to design a signage for 24 dementia patients, the designer must also be considerate of the problems that the readers of those design may encounter. This, therefore become the problem. How are we going to design a signage that is not going to cause confusion among the dementia patients? Since signs are just communication tool, the problem is how are we going to communicate the message that the sign contain effectively, yet efficiently?

To get a grasp of the problem, I would firstly set a goal for the design, then executing a series of analysis to determine the obstacles that might get in the way of achieving the goals which I had set before.  After determining both the goal and the problems that comes with it, I would work on a research to get a way around those constraints. Finally, I would evaluate everything that I had done, and fix every part of the design which I think is flawed, or can be done better.

In the previous journal, my comprehension of design activity had developed from the traditional understanding of design activity into a slightly more complex version of modern day design concept, as I was introduced to the modern day definition of design activity, which, as it is defined by Archer (1984), involves planning, crafting, and outcomes that is novel. The second week lecture, upon deeper studies, had also led me into a more complex ideas about the design activity, as in the lecture, I was also introduced to the aspects that surrounded the design activity such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Reference:

Archer, L. B. (1984). Systematic method for designers. London: The Design Council.

WEEK 2 TUTORIAL

In the tutorial of the second week, which is actually the first of tutorials for the whole unit, the students were asked to think of a sample of any daily activities which we think, have any resemblance to design activity. Some of us thought of hedge trimming or writing, while some others came up with activities such as planning a wedding or even “garnish” foods.  As for myself, I think of bodybuilding as a daily activity which share common aspects with design activity.

I came up with the idea because in my opinion, bodybuilding is an activity which involves stages such as the analysis of the goal, the process and the crafting, which can also be found in design activities. However, when I came up with the idea, my ways of thinking about the design process activity is still limited to the traditional design activity, where design is mostly about the making, which has no planning beforehand.  Therefore, after attending the first tutorial, I began to question my idea about the resemblance of bodybuilding to design activity, as at that time, I think that since bodybuilding has no planning before the crafting process, it could not be related to design activity.

After reading the material of the second week lecture, however, I regained my confidence of my idea, that bodybuilding can be actually classified into an activity of design. The same thing goes for other activities such as planning a wedding, or adding garnish to food. This is because the design activity itself, according to Bruce Archer (1984), is an activity of making an artifact which requires planning before the crafting process, with an outcome that is original and novel. Therefore, bodybuilding, planning a wedding or garnishing foods, as the activities which involve planning and crafting with outcomes that are distinctive and original, are actually fit into the category of an activity of design.

When I finished reading the second lecture’s materials, I enhance my understanding of the concept of design activity. While my comprehension of the activity prior to the lecture is limited to the traditional concept, whereas the design activity fall into the same category of crafting, which has no planning or modelling beforehand, now I realise that the modern day design activity is more complicated than it used to be, where an activity could not be classified into a design process, unless it goes through the stages of planning, modelling, crafting, and resulting in a striking, original, and novel outcomes.

Reference:

Archer, L. B. (1984). Systematic method for designers. London: The Design Council.