In my future design career, I aspire to become a Human-centred Designer (HCD) for a large company and potentially create my own business. I am interested in crafting ideas which solve real-world problems, specifically designs that help those who are disadvantaged, such as the homeless or disabled. I want to become a designer who creates an impact on issues that people come across on a daily basis.
Here are a few examples of designs which inspire me to work in this field, making change to everyday problems.
I would like to collaborate and work with evolving innovative industrial brands such as IKEA in my future. This brand has similar design visions as me, aiming to create affordable, innovative designs for all users which solves real-world problems such as accessibility, housing and sustainability (1, 2). I also want to collaborate with workers of various fields such as psychologists, photographers, statisticians and marketers to assist my design research, processes and publication of my designs.
Assumptions that I have about my future vision are:
Working with my own clients and catering designs for their specific needs.
Travelling and working in different social and cultural contexts, with a variety of people of different backgrounds to expand my vision and knowledge.
Collaborating with researchers to help my research and back up by design reasoning.
Using newly developing design technologies to aid my design processes and expand my skills.
Collaborating with business/marketing experts to promote my designs to an audience.
Producing large masses of my designs to be sold industrially.
Developing technical aspects of my designs with the help of technicians (eg. electricians, lighting technicians).
Allowing flexible hours to work with clients, accommodating my schedule for clients.
Work with/use information from data organizations (eg. U.N)
Working in large companies, getting wider training and conference opportunities
Working with my own clients and catering designs for their needs.
To test this assumption, I will set target audiences or clients for all my upcoming assignments. I could get a friend to be my client or choose a certain audience as my clients (eg. children or homeless). This way, I can experiment with designing for others needs instead of designing for my own. To work well with clients, communication, trust, problem-solving and collaboration are important (3). The prototyping strategy of using multiple ‘clients’ in the next year will give me insight of potentially working with my own clients, and develop the skills to successfully work with clients to create well-suited designs.
Travelling and working in different social and cultural contexts, with a variety of people of different backgrounds to expand my vision and knowledge
When possible, I will go travelling to other countries to expand my vision of different social and cultural settings. But whilst borders are closed (due to Covid-19), I will engage with a range of people in my classes to understand differences in their cultural and social lives. Studies show that the amount of travelling influences open-mindedness and creativity, and will set me up to be a better designer (5). By engaging with various people, I will gain new perspectives and expand my knowledge in different cultural and social settings to assist my future designs.
Collaborating with researchers to help my research and back up by design reasoning
A strategy to test this assumption in the next few years is to reach out to other students, graduates or teachers to deepen my research and support my design process. During my design process, I may require assistance of researchers (eg. psychologists and statisticians) to assist data driven designs. Data and research will give me accurate insight to produce optimised, strategic problem-solving designs. The future of design will be about “experimentation and evidence, not ego-driven qualitative research” (4).
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References
1) IKEA. (1999 - 2021). About us. https://about.ikea.com/en/about-us
2) IKEA. (1999 - 2021). Innovation and design. https://about.ikea.com/en/explore-topics/innovation-and-design
3) Herzing Staff. 5 Things You Need to Know About Working with Clients. https://www.herzing.edu/blog/5-things-you-need-know-about-working-clients
4) Jeff Davidson. (Jan 16, 2020). Why Designers Should Work With Real Data. https://medium.com/swlh/why-designers-should-work-with-real-data-9d3928452fe5#:~:text=Real%20Data%20will%20Teach%20You%20Proper%2C%20Rigorous%20Research&text=We%20frequently%20use%20qualitative%20feedback,not%20ego%2Ddriven%20qualitative%20research.
5) Austin Knight. Want to Be a Better Designer? Travel. https://austinknight.com/writing/want-better-designer-travel
Ching-Hao Hsu. (2011). New cooking aid developed for arthritis sufferers [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://newatlas.com/arthritis-handle-designed-to-help-sufferers-better-grip-cookware/18147/
PEPPERMIA.X. (January 30, 2013). DESIGNER INSPIRATION – eco furniture of the future [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pepperboxcouture.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/designer-inspiration-eco-furniture-of-the-future/
Igor Ravbar. Shelter in a cart [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.designboom.com/project/who-knows/
(2019). Shell House – Portable Cardboard Shelter for Homeless [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://blog.miragestudio7.com/shell-house-portable-cardboard-shelter/885/
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