MedicPouch - Personal Medical Administration Kit

Brief

The design brief for this project “Designing for Disaster” was to find solutions to improve the lives of people who were affected by disasters. The chosen disaster for my project was on severe floods and the event that I selected to explore was on the 2008 Bihar Floods.

Problem Situation

One of the major problems that I discovered in my research was that the poor health care administration system in flood relief camps. Flood victims especially those in rural India, do not have any medical documents and record of themselves with them or in the government medical database. Thus, this would create problems for the medical staffs attending to them, prolonging the overall consultation time and reducing the efficiency of the medical response. If this problem was to be multiplied by the thousands of patients seeking medical attention, it would cause a significant delay in medical service and it may cause people who are in critical condition to die. This is supported by a blog post of a first hand report on the situation in Bihar flood relief camps by Randeep, where he asserted that “the bottleneck in health care administration” is one of the major problems facing in flood relief camps. He also described about the “paper-handling” situation seen in flood relief camps and asserted that “the Medicine center many times gave no bills and even if they did, there was neither a date nor name. Every time, the doctor at the hospital used to write a prescription on a 2"x2" torn piece of paper and they were asked to purchase the medicines from a private chemist.” Thus, it also leads to a rise of insensitivity and illegal medical practices from the medical staffs.

Solution

‘MedicPouch’ is a personal medical administration kit aimed to solve poor health care administration problems faced in flood relief camps like those in the 2008 Bahir Floods. It contains a personal medical record booklet, health educational materials and storage space for medicines and its owner’s personal items. It is designed to ensure proper and accurate recordings of a patient's consultation, its diagnosis, treatment and medications given, which can be quickly reference back for subsequent visits to the doctor. 'MedicPouch' is aimed at reducing the overall waiting time for patient consultation and increase efficiency for medical response. Shorter waiting time means more patients consultation and more lives save. It also helps to reduce patients' anxiety and increases the doctor's confidence in giving the right treatments. It is also to promote a more ethical, personal and proactive approach to the overall healthcare system. With proper and legal documentations of medical services given to the patients, doctors will be discouraged from committing illegal medical practice. Moreover, by possessing individual's personal medical records will also inform and engage them about their own medical health.

Design

'MedicPouch' has a four-fold seal cover that provides a water-proof and secure enclosure for its contents. Basically, the user will have to join the internal Velcro straps together, close the pouch, fold down the top lips of the pouch four times and join the front and rear Velcro straps together. Ample space are designed at the lips and the front folded flap of the pouch for easy opening and closing of the pouch. The pouch design is made from a simple rectangular cut and layered with its flap, allowing for minimum material wastage. The structure of the design allows it to be flat and slim where its sides are folded inside like a paper lunch bag that allows it to be flat-packed and light for a more efficient and greener transportation. The shoulder strap are also made to be adjustable by altering to the intended length with the Velcro strap on it. The extra loop at the sides of the pouch also allows more than one bag to be attached onto a single shoulder strap. Thus, It will allow mothers to carry their children pouches with them. The design also allows the user to be emotionally attached to the product, as the user depends on it to keep its personal medical records, medications and personal items. Thus, this will help minimizes product waste.

Material and Technology used

It is made from recycled tarpaulins from old billboards, clear polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Velcro straps and nylon straps .The main manufacturing process used would be machine sewing for connecting the various parts of the pouch together. The manufacture of the personal medical record booklet will consists of printing and bookbinding. Companies could get involved in this product by donating their used billboards and banners, instead of paying for its waste disposal cost, while simultaneously doing their part of disaster aid relief. Recycled tarpaulin also serves as a basis to differentiate and customize each pouch for a unique look for easy identification. It is chosen also for its strong, durable, flexible and waterproof features that will help the product last longer. Recycled tarpaulin is chosen because of it opaqueness that blocks sunlight from reaching the medication stored in the pouch. Clear PVC was chosen for the window of the pouch to allow the user to identify their pouches by the cover of their personal medical record booklet through the window of the pouch. The covers of the booklet also comes in four different colors to further customize each pouch to its user. Velcro strap was chosen instead of the plastic buckets, was because of its light weight, flatness and durability, which is essential for the design.

Overall, the materials chosen were to simplify the total amount and variety of material and processes for easier dis-assembly and recyclability at the end of the product's life. Even though it is design for dis-assembly, the product's design and material choices are aimed for a 5 – 10 years life span or longer. The manufacturing process was also simplify to avoid unnecessary transportation of parts for assembly and aimed to concentrate production at a single location.

Conclusion

'MedicPouch' will help improve the lives of flood victims in receiving healthcare services in their flood relief camps by providing a more systematic and efficient process of handling healthcare administration that will help reduce patients' anxiety from waiting, increase medical staffs' confidence and productivity levels in providing quality medical services and avoid destroying unnecessary lives due to poor healthcare administration system and save lives. 'MedicPouch' will also allow individuals to be aware and in control of their own personal medical health and value the importance of keeping a personal medical record.

Notes

Randeep's first hand report on Bihar's Flood Relief Camps' situation

Source : http://biharflood2008.blogspot.com/2008/09/kosi-calamity-ravaged-districts-of.html

Here are my posters of my design.

Cheers.

Condom Tin Design Competition

 Hi all, 

Vote for my condom tin design if you like it.
Just click on the link, register and vote.

Cheers.

To vote for this design, click on this link 

 To vote for this design, click on this link 

Athens Bench Mark Design Competition

Hey all,

These are two of my designs that I did for the Athens Bench Mark Design Competition. Vote for them if you like them. Thanks.

Tree Spheres

'Tree spheres' is a simple, modern,  geometric and ecological bench for the future chaotic, busy and urban city, which is made by planting moss into slots in the slip casted concrete hollow spheres that will gradually cover the entire sphere.  The soft spherical shape of the bench contrasts with the hard angular buildings in the city. Playing on the idea of a concrete jungle and the juxtaposition of different elements, the design encourages its users to stop and think about their lives. The benches will be bolted into the ground by steel bolts and comes in three different diameters of 300mm, 500mm and 700mm. The 300mm sphere can be used as a seat for kids or a stool for people who wants to retie their shoelaces. The 500mm sphere can be used as a normal bench, while the 700mm sphere is used as more of a short resting bench.

anneaux

'anneaux' is a structural bench for the future city of Athens. Its contemporary, symmetrical and geometrical designs compliments the historical and angular elements of the city. The inspiration comes from the rings of the Olympics symbols, which is a part of Greece's history. I was also interested in the connection of the rings and how it communicates about connection of people and their environment.  Moreover, I was intrigued to create a simple object that is able to communicates complex and different meanings to everyone.  Made from cold and reflective material of steel, and the warm and nostalgic material of teak, 'anneaux' plays on the juxtaposition of different aspects of the design. The bench is secured by bolting it down with the ground with two steel bolts. The seat is secured to the two side metal frames by screwing them together.

Task 4 : Waste = Food

Waste = Food, a documentary by Braungart and McDonough.

This documentary has enlighten me the dangers of waste if our human population was to continue to live our lifestyles like we still did 50 years ago. Ideals of endless landfills and natural resources to feed our human's desires of consumerism and wealth, but the fact is that we are not able to do so. Even if we are not reacting to this sickening problem that is happening to us, nature has and is responding back with increasing water levels, natural disasters and rise in global temperature. The global waste issue is a real problem and we have to respond back fast if not the extinction of the human race is inevitable. Michael Braungart and William McDonough propose the concept of the cradle to cradle protocol that is to be applied in our design process and business models. I feel that it is time to start rethinking about each step in our design process and analyze its social, ecological and economical problems, and update them according to our constant evolving world.

The idea of waste has always been masked out as it was not a primary concern compared to the product's function and form. However, the cradle to cradle protocol has flipped the design process and invited us to begin thinking from the end of the product's life-cycle. Designing for dis-assembly as a part of the initial thought in the design process allows the designers to think how the product can be reused, recycled and reincarnate as after it reaches its end. Currently used products are just disposed of in landfills or recycled and the life of the product just ends there. Even if we were to recycle them, like what McDonough said, “we do not really recycle products, we down-cycle products,” which basically means that the product is reduced in quality when they are recycled to create products of even lower quality. The ideal of the recycling in the future will to be recycle the product to be of similar quality or up-cycle them to be of higher quality, thus eliminating the idea of waste. Braungart supports by stating the in the future “we (can) celebrate abundance, we can throw things away, we can litter, we can enjoy littering and we can use material back into cycles.” I believe that if the future of waste was to be as how Braungart and McDonough had describe in the documentary, the idea of producing waste in the future will be pleasant and guiltless. The more we throw, the more we save.

However for change to happen realistically in the modern world, it will only happen if the economy allows it. As McDonough asserts, “ the fundamental transformation will actually occur because of economical forces, it will not because of some moral issues or some technical revelation,” which I find to be true. It is because the main shareholders in the modern world are the economists and it is our job to influence them to adopt a more ecological approach with economical mindset. At the end of the day, we all count the profits earned for any business and if it does not add up, it will be out. However showing that being ecological can helps save money and creates profits, it offers economists an option to invest money into the green idea. It is generally what we all want, to earn money and save the planet. Timothy O'Brien supports by saying that “ if you think about it (cradle to cradle protocol) in the design stage, you can come out with environmental programs that actually saves you (the company) money, they do not cost you money.” Take the case of the green roof of Ford Motor Company.

The challenge now for designers is to translate the green designs intentions with a business mentality that allow economists to adopt the ideas to save our planet while earning profits. We can start by evaluating all the material used in a product, designing it for easy and fast dis-assembly, making sure that the materials used are safe for man and animal and the ability to be reuse in the biosphere and techno-sphere. I will like to end by quoting from McDonough that “ the goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power – economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed. Period.”

Task 5 : Design for Life

Phillips Starck's Design for Life

In this television series, Phillips Starck wanted the to convey to the designers on the show I found were three lessons. They are to create objects with meanings, to create sustainable and useful products and about perseverance and passion in design. I feel that these are important lessons to learn as it reminds us designers to re-look, rethink, reconsider and redesign the products all around us and the impacts it create by our design decisions we made in the design process. Adam Buxton, the narrator of this television series, supports this by saying that Stark wants the designers “to question everything about product design and to learn how design decisions now will affect all of our lives in the future.” Starck asserts that “now I(he) expects from the young people new ideas, because we do not need to redo, redo and redo.” The current consumer market is overloaded with products, some are good, some are bad and then with some that are terrible and wasteful. Creating wasteful products will just only contribute to the ever increasing amount of landfills and pollution in the world. Moreover, it is impossible to sustain our current lifestyle that requires three and more planets compare to a single planet that we live in now.

Creating object with meanings is definitely not an easy task. Other than fulfilling the function and form of the product, designers should also look into the life cycle of the product, the story of its and its communication with its end users. Stark explains that “we are not speaking about the product, we are speaking about what is behind the product and the interaction with the product.” Starks wants designers to think deeper into the product design. For instance, considering the manufacturing process, the material selection, the transportation of the product and the packaging and identity of the product. It is like giving birth to a baby, giving it life into this world, giving him a name, putting clothes on him, thinking about the food he is going to eats, deciding on which school he will study at and so on. In order to create a meaningful and useful product, designers need to consider these design decisions in the design process. Stark also describe his ideals in a philosophical way by saying that “ you do not make good design if you think about it, you make good design if you speak about life, sex, flesh and sweat.” It is about creating designs that is invisible to the users and how will the product blend and be a part in the user's life. If the users have to think about the product in order to use it, it is a bad design as it means that the design was not entirely well thought out and thus creating another wasteful product and not considering the psychological, social and physical pleasures of the product.

Sustainability was another point that Stark asserted throughout the series. In creating a sustainable product, designers have to consider the whole design process like the manufacturing and transportation, and finding a more ecological and sustainable method. In discussing about the cheap price of a mountain bicycle in one of the series, Stark states that the only reason that it is made to be so affordable is because of human slavery where people are only paid one dollar for an entire day of work. If we as designers ignore and allow such an action to occur, we are also a culprit in this inhumanely act. The transportation method used also plays a great deal to the environment impacts it creates. The carbon emission that the airplanes, ships, truck and trains produce will also results in environmental consequences and as designers we are equally guilty of this ecological crime. However, I felt that Stark is an oxymoron when he said that it is not in this design philosophy to follow trends and styles, when in actual fact, he is aiming towards being more ecological. Furthermore, the aim of this competition was to rediscover another English style since Terrence Conran from the 1960s in this group of young designers, which greatly contrasts Stark's beliefs of not following design styles.

Throughout the series, I have also learned about having perseverance and passion in one's work in order to be successful. Seeing how the last two finalists endure and push towards the completion of their designs, reminded me now as a industrial design student and designer in the future to continue to be passionate and determine in my profession and works, for there will be success in the future especially now when I am doing my design studio projects. No matter how big or small the success is at the end of the project, it is up to me to decide and reflect upon the journey made and the lessons learned. I would like to end with a quote from Stark, “ If you are lucky enough to have a good idea, you have a duty to share it with the maximum of people.”

Task 6 : The Story of Cap & Trade

 

The Story of Cap and Trade


Industrial designers play a critical role in the climate change problem and solution. We are the ones that
design the products that our clients - the economists – wants whose only concern is about the profits
earned and not much so for environment or the people. For instance when the client request for a
product variation of the old existing one or a product extension for their company's product line, we as
industrial designers will just obey them and fulfill their request. This is because we are doing this as a
profession and a job that pays our bills and support ourselves and families like every other normal
human beings in the modern world. Thus, we are required to design to satisfy our client's wishes even
of it harms the environment or the people. Money rules the modern world and everything around cost
us costs money, there is not much we can do about it.

However, I feel that this ideology should change we as industrial designers are the agents of change. As
Annie Leonard asserts in the documentary, she said that “ the factories that makes all of our stuffs, the
ships and trucks that carries it all around the world, our cars and buildings and appliances and just
about everything” contributes to climate change, we have power to change for the better. Most of the
climate change problems derive the product production process and industrial designers are involved
heavily in that process. Thus, I believed that we should reflect on our past mistakes and repent for them
by making significant contribution towards a sustainable ecological economy.

Firstly, industrial designers should contemplate about the ecological problems in our design process
and alter them to be more sustainable. Annie Leonard explains that “since we are in the richest
countries that releases the most carbon for centuries and lived a pretty comfortable lifestyle in the
process, don't we have a responsibly to help those who are most harmed ?” To acknowledge one's
mistakes and to recognize its impact are steps for change. We can begin by rethinking every design
decision that we make in the design process and to reconsider its environmental implications. For
example, we can start by reducing the number of parts in a product to reduce waste or change the
material and manufacturing process to another that is more ecological. Next, industrial designers can
help to influence our clients' mindset in our discussion with them and ask them to reevaluate the
environmental consequences in their businesses and its short term benefits, and enlighten them on the
long term benefits of an ecological approach. Annie Leonard states that it is better to “talk to them (as)
they probably want a future that is safe from climate change too.” As industrial designers, we are
consultants hired by our clients and it is our responsibly and job to educate them in the overall situation
that their businesses will create.

As industrial designers who design products in our daily lives, we are the culprits in the evil scam that
the economists have created for profits. Thus, I feel that it is time for us to reflect and repent our sins to
the environment and change our ideology and lifestyles to sustain our planet and to ensure the survival
of the human race. As Annie Leonard conclude in the documentary, “ it wouldn't be easy, but it is time
we dream bigger. It is time to design a climate change solution that will really work.”

Design Charette 2

Today we had our second design charette session. We all had to form groups of 5 or more and disassemble a chosen home appliance. My group was presented with the Breville Bread Toaster, which was kindly donated by Breville. The dis-assembly of the toaster was not as pleasurable as what I had first expected. The toaster had many different components in it that were all connected someway or another with heaps of screws. Moreover, they were all in different varieties and lengths, which was cumbersome to unscrew. After we have finally disassemble the product, we had to sort them out into different sub-assemblies and figure out the material from which they are made from. The data that we had collected was transferred into "Greenfly", http://greenflyonline.org/,  an online tool that determines the environment impacts that a particular product makes.

What we had found out was that the majority of the materials used were aluminum and polypropylene (PP), which may seems quite alright but the overall weight of the product was heavy - 2.516kg. In addition, we felt that the placement of certain components like the buttons, electrical components and heating element, could be relocated to reduce the overall size of the toaster. The key point here was reduce the overall weight and size of the toaster to aid in its transportation and packaging. Changing of the toaster's materials to a common material like for the aluminum and ABS parts, could be changed into PP, thus allowing it to be recycled easily and reducing the product's weight.

Here are some pictures from the design exercise:

Here are some of our sketches:

Overall, I have learned that as designers, we have to look at the whole product life cycle of the products that we design and play attention to the design decision and choices that we make. The materials we choose for our products, the overall form and shape of it, and the weight of the product are all examples of things to consider. If not, we will just be creating another wasteful product that will just land up in one of the many and diminishing landfills.Creating a product that is easy to disassemble is also critical, because it will be much easier to separate the parts of the product into its various material classification for recycling.

Task 3 : The 11th Hour (Reflection)

A Documentary Film by Leonardo DiCaprio.


The title of this documentary “the 11th Hour” puts across to me, a viewer, a caution of warning and a
sense of hope about the state of our Earth's condition. It instill fear into us, humans, that time to save
and restore our planet environment to its original state is running short. At the same time, it gives us the
idea that there is still time to change our ways and attitudes towards our actions on our Earth, and help
save its from its and our demises.

In the beginning of the documentary, Paul Hawken discussed about the origin of cells and genes, and
about how the majority of cells in our bodies are not human at all. He said: “The things that makes us
human are not human.”, which I found to be interesting because I had always the perception that what I
know and feel are so life-like and it was actually the combination of these inhuman cells in my bodies
communicating and sending messages to my brain. It is also contradicting that we humans are trying so
hard to rebuild replicas of ourselves through cloning or by the building of robots, when we ourselves
are not really human in the first place. But it was because of the unusual mixture of our cells that we
have attained life from nature and that developed our human mind. As David Suzuki had said, “It was
the human mind that was the very key to our survival.”, which resulted in the dominance of our human
species over the other life forms on Earth. On the other hand, he also said that “ The human mind...
threw us(humans) out of balance with the rest of nature.” The human mind had caused us to be ignorant
of nature's capability and power, resulting in a rebound effect on us today with the issues of global
warming, climate change, natural disasters and so on. Thom Hartmann supports this idea by saying that
“Our culture is built on the assumption that we are the superior life form on Earth.” However, this is
not the end of our species yet as we currently possessed the technology and knowledge to change our
outcome, as asserted by David Suzuki's statement “We are the only animal on the planet that was
actually able to recognize that we could affect the future by what we do today.”

Nathan Gardels introduced the concept of Greek mythology with relationship to climate change that
was “The revenge og the gods, the revenge of nature”. The intensification of natural or man-made
disasters globally is due to our irresponsible ambitions of industrial and technological revolution that
caused the increase in global temperature thus resulting in climate change. The few degree rise in
temperature in the past had caused the mass extinction of life forms on the planet during the last Ice
Age. The prologue of disasters to come could be seen by the destruction of Hurricane Karina on a
developed country's state in New Orleans, USA. What I found most disturbing was the tone and
attitude in the newscaster reporting these news on television lacking the seriousness in reporting these
events and the real cause of them which is us humans. Sheila Watt-Cloutier further introduced an
example of an ice-free Arctic by the end of the century or in a few decades. The illusion of that image
to me is too scary to imagine and I seriously hope that it will not happen. The flooding of coastal
countries and cities globally and the rise of environmental refugees will to occur if the water levels
were to rise. Leonardo DiCaprio supports this by stating that “ As time passed, deforestation, soil
erosion, vanishing wetlands and a whole hosts of other problems continue unabated, we face a
convergence of crisis, all of which are concerns for life.” I felt strongly about Andy Lipkis's comment
“Take that one tree away, and you will get a flood”, which made me think of the importance of our
forests and also with relation to current studio project I am doing on, how can I use this fact onto my
studio project on floods.

Ray Anderson rose the issue of production's wastage by stating that for “Every truck load of products
with lasting value, thirty two truck loads of waste are produced.” As designers, this reminds us to be
aware of the decisions that we make in the design process and how that we reflect on the end product
and the wastes it produces. In order to do so, Wade Davis introduced that as citizens of the developed
world on how “ We forget how majority of the world lives, and indeed how the majority of the world
looks.” Likewise, Nathan Gardels introduced that as consumers and designers that we “change the
objects of desire in order to get to the root of the problem.” Making a product less desirable for the endusers
will never agree to the ideals of the economic corporations, as their goal is to increase the profits
and to do so will result in selling products. In contrast, we, as designers, could design products to
highly desirable to the extent that consumers will hold onto the products for a longer period of time and
instill their emotional values into the product. On how to do so will be a challenge for designers.

William McDonough brought up the importance of design and that people should “see design as the
first human intention.” He further went on to discuss the importance of raw materials and renewable
energy, and the concept of a closed cycle or cradle to cradle. As designers, we should definitely
consider the complete cycle of the design process and pay attention to the different stages a product
passes. Because its effects of an irresponsible decision on the designer's part will be multiply onto an
exponential scale.

Janine Benyus offered the solution for people and designers to look into nature for answers. She said
that “how we make things in our industrial process is 180 degree different from how life makes things.”
The idea of gazing into nature for inspiration is not new with the example of bio-mimicry and designers
like Ross Lovegrove. However, it is the lack of awareness to it that is an issue, as it is same as to the
lack of awareness to our environment.

In conclusion after viewing this documentary, I am more aware and conscious of the negative impacts
of industrial and technological advancements, like our uncontrollable need for fossil fuels, on our
fragile environment. On the other hand, I have also be able to understand to look into technology's
positive aspects for inspiration and and the importance of design and a designer's job in relation to our
environment and the possibilities it offers. Lastly, as designers, we should cultivate our passion for
design and the love of planet, to be more compassionate to its calls for help.

Design Studio 3A - Design Charette 1

 Today for my Design Studio 3A, we all had a design charette exercise. We had to forms groups of 6 people or more and assemble an IKEA dining chair in 15 minutes. After that, we had to brainstorm on reasons why we hated the design of the chair and its faults, and it was followed by an overall discussion. Thereafter, we had to sketch 5 ideas or more individually within 15 minutes on ways to improve the chair on the problems we had discussed earlier, which again is followed by a sharing of ideas with the group. This task was then repeated for 2 more times on how we can design it better for our physical pleasure and psychological/ sociological pleasures, which was followed by lunch. After lunch, we had to finalize on one of our group idea and do up an A3 presentation sketch and a mock-up model of the design. Finally, each group had to present their ideas and received feedback from our lecturers.

Overall, I really enjoyed the whole experience and it was my first time doing such a design exercise. It was a highly pressurized design thinking exercise and I was thoroughly drained after that.

So here are my sketches from this design exercise (please reminded that these were done in sets of 15 minutes, so do excuse the quality)

Some of my design ideas are on how to make the chair collapsible, or providing the users a routing service to router out the contours of their bottoms to increase their comfort level, or remaking the chair into a stool when the backrest is damaged or even having the users breaking out a piece of the chair seat with them writing a note about a bad memory, instead of throwing the whole chair away when they had a bad memory attached to the chair.

My group's chosen idea was to design add-ons for the existing chair for mothers having a newborn baby or even the elderly. The idea is to allow the user to change the chair into a rocking chair with a more comfortable backrest. As these are add-ons, they will be able to be removed when they are not needed. The proposed material for the add-ons are laminated plywood for its durability. Users will only need to slot the chair's legs into the rockers and attached the backrest with a C-bracket onto the chair. It could be sold beside the chairs in the IKEA showrooms and shelves as an optional product. As the design for the add-ons are meant to fit in the style and cost of the existing chair, the price of the add-ons will be generally cheaper than the users buying another new rocking chair.

Here are the pictures of the final design.

Picture of the final presentation

And finally, here is a video I made of the overall exercise. (My first try at video-making, sorry in advance abt the quality)

Task 2: Objectified (Reflection)

A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit.
http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/


I remembered that after watching the documentary for the first time, I felt emotionally touched and
happy about it. It was because finally I felt that there was some public recognition for the things we do
in our Industrial Design profession. We had always been somewhat of the back stage crew in the design
field, unlike the areas of fashion design or graphic design.

However back to the main point of this task, there are a number of interesting topics that were raised in
this documentary. The areas of discussion that was highlighted were about the idea of good and bad
design, the designer's and the identities of consumers by their possessions.

The idea of a good design differs for every designer, and it is very interesting to hear what each of them
said and from there on identify my own view of what a good design is. I would like to start with Dieter
Rams's ten points of what a good design should be as what he spoke of in the documentary. He said that
a good design should be innovative, be useful to it users, be aesthetically pleasing, be understandable to
its users, be honest, be unobtrusive, be long-lived, be consistent in every detail, be environmentally
friendly and have as little design as possible. I find these points to be very true in every aspects and
some of his points are further reinforced by other designers' views. For example, Erwan Bouroullec
said: “Often our hardest job is to remove, remove, remove bit by bit, anything that is unnecessary, that
gets in the way of maximum unity.” and also Naoto Fukasawa said: “ I thought about how people don't
think about the tools they are using while they are using them.”, “...actions that human beings make
subconsciously without thought.” and “Design dissolving in behavior.”. I feel that as designers, when
we are designing a product, we should not design it so as to intrude into the end user's lifestyle, but
instead design a product that allows the users to use it without any discomfort and aid him, and allow
him to carry out his daily rituals as per normal. Because if the product presents an issue of being
uncomfortable, the user will get hurt either physically or emotionally or even both. One of our main
objectives as a designer is design a product for our end users to meet their needs in an inconspicuous
manner. David Kelley also said that as a designer, we should “design something that gets better with
use.” An example that he gave was his grandfather's leather suitcase that was handed down to him. This
will resulted in the product having a longer life span and thus being long-lived.

Dieter Rams said that he was disgusted by the “...arbitrariness and thoughtlessness with which many
things are produced and bought to the market.” This statement made me asked myself, “As designers
today, what can we do?” Because the poor designs of products are just as a reflection of the designer
and the consumer. The designer in that he who design the product, do so so as to make another product
with no intention to add any value into it; just designing products for profit. This will lead to consumers
being uneducated about good designs and then result in polluting our market with bad deigns and also
polluting our environment as it creates more wastes in the landfills when consumers discard them. The
consumer is also at fault here for buying the product as he/she did not put much thought into
purchasing the product and just solely buying it for its function. This will lead to them throwing away
the spoiled product and buy another, in turn contributing to wastes.

Anthony Dunes talks about the idea of “mass-communication more than mass-production” which I
found to be interesting. He was more concerned about educating the public rather than producing
designs and making profits. The thought of educating people about good design really tackles the
problem at its core. It motivates people to ask questions about their individual decisions and them
asking “Why?”. I feel that when consumers ask questions like why this and not that, they can help
contribute to the elimination of bad designs as lesser people will be buying them. Moreover, designers
themselves should be then asking whys twice instead of once. Asking whys about the consumer's whys,
which allows the designers to be more empathic towards their end users and further understand their
true needs and wants in order to design better products.

Rob Walker also had some ideas of what good design is. He said: “Good design is something you
want.” and that “Good design is something that distinguish you, it's some sort of a mark of progress.” .
This is also true in that when a user has experienced a case of bad designs, he would generally be on
the lookout of a better design for his situation. Thus, there is always a need for consumers to seek better
things, which leads me to my next topic of the identities of consumers by their possessions.

The consumer's self image is a reflection of his possessions. An example to justified Rob Walker's
statement about “Good design is something that distinguish you, it's some sort of a mark of progress.”
will be when one gets a promotion and would generally be happy about it, and would in return like to
celebrate and buy something for himself like a new car or a new house. Thus, when one has more
expensive belongings, he would have a higher social status as determined by the society. However,
these ideals of consumerism were put into our minds by the media, the major co-operations and
business people, whose main goals is to encourage people to spend more and purchase more. Rob
Walker stated that “ We (the consumers) tend to want new things.” and Marc Newson added that it is
“All about wanting new things.”. So the question here is that whether it is us, human beings, to be
blamed for impulsive behavior of wanting newer things or is it the media that turned us like this with
their advertisements? Another thought that I had was whether it was possible for ourselves to be
brainwashed of our old habits and be reprogram to start afresh in order to save our Earth from
environment damages due to consumerism.

Moreover, Chris Bangle talked about his views of how people look at products and infuses themselves
into it. He said: “We (Designers) have to create it in a way, you as the observer, look at it and you put
the emotion into it, by the way you scan it. Because that car has to be a reflection of that emotional
energy that you want to see in it.” and “Like avatars, I show myself to the outside world through this
car.” I feel that it is our human instincts that wants us to be not alone in society that makes us consider
about our self-identity. This desire to be notice by our community resulted in us, the consumers to buy
products to dress ourselves in a desirable way to be accepted by society. However, this is all a mere
perception of ourselves thinking that it really matter when in fact, it is just a false reality.
I would like to end my entry with a quote from Karim Rashid saying, “Are the things we are doing
really making an effect and making change?”

what is the real need to travel abroad, if current technology allows us to "be" there virtually?

I took this post from a comment I made in my last post.

Yes, definitely it does. However, sometimes like in my case, I have to fly to Australia in order to attend University. Even though I do not travel much (Flying to Sydney was only my 3rd time flying on an airplane), I do understand the carbon impact that it produces and also understand that there are ways to offset the carbon footprint I have caused by for example donating to non-profit organizations like Carbon Neutral and The Nature Conservancy or even planting a tree.

Hmmm... just a thought, if students could study at their home country and not travel abroad and receive the same education, will that eliminate the need for study abroad? If the development of inter-countries communication will to be further improve, it could happen. With current communication technologies that allow people to work from home, but yet able to "be" at the workplace, I do not see why this cant be applied to oversea education.

However, one can argue from the point of by traveling oversea, one could experience a foreign land that differs in climate, culture and etc. These are things the any virtual environment can not replace.

So the question is what is the real need to travel abroad, if current technology allows us to "be" there virtually?

IDES 3221- Task 1 - Ecological Footprint

 I was tasked to find out about my ecological footprint at www.myfootprint.org. And I found out that my current lifestyle was not as eco-conscious as what I first thought I was. Some of the factors are not within my control like the rented apartment that I am staying, but there are still other factors that are within my control and I could do something about them like the food I consume and the transportation I take.

This exercise has definitely opened my eyes to my current situation and it also gives me a reason to be more pro-active in my effort to save our earth. 

Btw here are my results.