Saturday, January 29, 2011

Failed to recreate the created.

ARGH.

Being in school on a Saturday sucks, being in school on a Saturday morning sucks more, and putting in effort into something which was totally unnecessary sucks more!

Them and their stupid unclear instructions, wasted at least 5 hours of my life, preparing a nicely done powerpoint presentation and a DIY prop for my magic trick. Seriously. I doubt the lecturers even know what they want from us. Everything is so dubious.

Oh well I shall upload evidence of my unsung efforts.


Saturday, January 22, 2011

DESIGN.

Did an 'Alphabet Spotting' exercise today. We're supposed to find letters that occur in nature to form the word 'DESIGN'.

The lecturers kept emphasising: "Design with the user, for the user!" Understood. Empathy is important. Put yourself in the shoes of the user to gain a deeper understanding! I'm really amazed and impressed that famous designers actually immerse themselves so deeply in the role of the users, in order to observe, understand and translate. They do it to the extent of actually dressing up as old women and living life as an old woman for days/months. -salutes-

5 key user research methods:
- Real people: Understand how they live their lives.
- Imaginary user: Create an imaginary user and imagine!
- Co-operative: Designing together with the user.
- Empathic: Enhancing sensitivity of user.
- Output: Getting the user's reactions.

Learned the importance of not condemning any idea, no matter how stupid/ridiculous it may seem at first.

DARE TO THINK BIG!

Hence after our discussion, me and Miko have decided on our vision: "To be the ultimate creator!" ^^

Thursday, January 20, 2011

A Designer's Designated Plog.

This is a plog. No, it is not a typo, this is not a blog, its a PLOG! A picture log!

Its interesting to keep track of one's improvement and progress in a certain area, hence this plog to keep track of my DCC progress.

Okay and so I attended my first Saturday DCC lesson. The Glass House isnt as bad as I thought it would be, with more chairs and tables it would be a good place to study. Quite surprised that they got people from Design Singapore! to give us lessons. Finally I am undergoing formal and professional design lessons!

Kind of ironic that I am more interested in modules (design and computing) that are arent part of my major. Bleah.

Was taught Design Thinking by Jeffrey Ho, the co-chairman of design Singapore!


Honestly their logo was kinda lame and boring for an organisation that promotes designing? Not that creative.. Or perhaps I'm too lousy to see the implicit meaning behind the logo?

We were asked to design a oral hygiene product on the spot customized for our partners and I came up with this!


Its bristles are in all directions to increase efficiency and reduce brushing efforts! There's built-in refillable toothpaste compartment for lazy people too! :D

Its not really impressive, but at least its more user friendly than the Toilet Brush lookalike that Miko designed, which is supposedly customized to my needs. Its good that we hone our presentation skills by getting each one of us up to present our designs to the class.

Looking forward to the lesson tomorrow, I have to bring a camera and laptop in preparation for my next DCC assignment! Perhaps we are going to learn voyeurism to be voyeurs/stalkers! :D