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- Volume 2, Issue 2, 2016
Journal of Design, Business & Society - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2016
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2016
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A Socially Responsible Design to Rebuild Cultural Self-Confidence: A Case Study on the Design of a Village Revitalization Project
Authors: Fang Xu, Fujian Mo and Yuanyuan ChenAbstractThis article presents a socially responsible design approach, through a remote mountain village’s revitalization project in Tongguan, Liping county in Guizhou province. The Village Revitalization Program (VRP) was initiated by the central government in response to many constraints that have resulted from China’s modernization over the past decades. Its objective was to protect these remote villages through maintaining their physical artefacts, sustaining their cultural essence and historical memories. Although various types of projects have been completed, the majority of them have brushed past the complicated byproducts of urbanization such as young generations leaving villages, children being left behind, rural hollowing out, etc., which have developed into a cycle threatening the sustainability of the community. This study diagnoses the critical issues neglected by previous revitalization approaches and initiates a new practice of socially responsible design to end the vicious cycle, achieved through rebuilding the cultural self-confidence of the villagers. From an operational perspective, this practice provides a three-step process: diagnosis, formulation and implementation. The new approach challenges the end-product-oriented method, questions the top-down approach and highlights the significance of direct involvement by end-users. From a theoretical perspective, this practice examines the various forms of socially responsible design and redefines the multiple dimensions that village revitalization projects should address. Following two years of effort by volunteers and villagers, the project was realized in the form of a Villagers’ Center in Tongguan. This product not only satisfies the interests of its current end-users in both the short and long term, but also provides an innovative, functional example of revitalizing values from within the village itself in order to rebuild the cultural self-confidence of villagers.
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Fiskars Village: Exploring Possibilities for Collaboration in a Design-Oriented Community
By Pia TamminenAbstractThis case study investigates the possibilities that drive the development of collaboration in the design-oriented organizations in Fiskars Village through the lens of affordances. This study focuses on affordances, perceived opportunities for action, which build a common ground for collaboration of organizations, and views them at community and individual levels. The study addresses the question of what enables and supports affordances related to collaboration in the design-oriented community. The aim is to raise awareness of the potential that exists in the environment of a heterogeneous group of design-oriented people. The findings build a methodological bridge between the collaborative activities and affordances and provide new insights into the themes that support perception of affordances in the design-oriented community. The theoretical contribution of the article provides suggestions on how the existence of affordances could be emphasized and developed further to support creativity and collaboration. This study highlights the key elements that are needed when building long-term collaboration in a design-oriented community.
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Diagnostic Design: A Framework for Activating Civic Participation through Urban Media
Authors: Ian McArthur and Martin TomitschAbstractThis research examines how participatory design, data visualization and urban informatics can be combined to add long-term social, cultural and economic value to urban planning in Australian cities. As smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT), urban screens and media architecture attract increasing attention globally, researchers, governments, urban planners, curators and designers are questioning how they can support sustainable urban development, civic innovation and economic productivity through community engagement and social participation. However, the longterm social, cultural and commercial potential of urban media to vitally augment precinct development is dependent on cities having the tools to engage stakeholders with a sense of participation grounded in openness, transparency and inclusion. As yet these tools do not exist in any consolidated form. Research conducted at The Concourse in Willoughby, NSW, suggests that meaningfully engaging interactive polling content deployed on a combination of tablet interfaces for data entry in concert with live screening of the public interactive space creates an effective balance between private and public aspects of civic participation. On the basis of the findings of this study we propose a framework that enables participatory citizen engagement to foster thriving urban communities and ‘smart’ development. Additionally, we discuss how participatory urban media benefits business as a key community stakeholder. This diagnostic approach builds sustainable value for all stakeholders allowing for a closer alignment between the objectives of new developments and the preferences, needs and expectations of the citizens who will live and work in them.
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Design Innovation: A Tool for Value-Adding to the Papua New Guinea Balsa Wood Industry
Authors: Nathan J. Kotlarewski, Blair Kuys and Christine ThongAbstractIn recent times the Papua New Guinea (PNG) balsa wood industry has increased in global volume and value, offering employment to a significant number of individuals in East New Britain (ENB) Province. The PNG balsa industry previously relied on China’s renewable wind energy industry for rotor blade manufacturing, which was claimed to be the largest consumer of processed balsa from PNG. Since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) the Chinese demand for PNG balsa has significantly reduced, resulting in a mass over-supply and under-demand for the PNG resource. A lack of design innovation has added to the current market conundrum and left many smallholders unable to sell their balsa, leading to widespread financial hardship. It has come to the attention of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and many stakeholders that if there are no new applications for balsa there is no point continuing to grow the resource for a market that is not consuming it. Design innovation generated through research-led industrial design practice is argued as a key element in value-adding to the PNG balsa industry and smallholder businesses. The use of research to inform the design process and generate design innovation is demonstrated through a case study as an attempt to rectify the current over-supply and under-demand.
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Social Responses to Nature; Citizen Empowerment through Design
Authors: Robert Phillips, Michael Brown and Sharon BaurleyAbstractTraditionally, design content creation has remained within professional practice and manufacturing industries. Open Design (OD) utilizes accessible fabrication, enabling lay users to create and reappropriate content. Citizen Science encompasses activities where communities gather contextual environmental data for scientific or community purposes. The paradigm combination provides opportunities for communities, grass-roots projects and social initiatives with opportunities to create ‘products’ addressing personal and global issues. Social design (SD) combines OD/Citizen Science practices, empowering responses by fostering ‘innovations that are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act’. This article highlights a SD case study that applied OD/Citizen Science to beekeeping. The ‘Bee Lab’ project empowered participants to construct data-gathering devices, embodying Manzini’s SD approach. The case study aided motivated participants to address local/global issues, facing Apis mellifera (the honey bee). The project yielded insights into motivation, community leveraging, public engagement for social good and more. Insights have been distilled into repeatable stages for analogous activities. The results offer applications for communities, design agents or organizations wishing to address the burgeoning challenges facing social responses to nature.
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Bridging the Gap between Marketing Strategy and Design Teams: A Method to Facilitate Strategic Styling Decision-Making within a Company
Authors: Janneke Blijlevens and Charlie RanscombeAbstractIn order for styling (creation of a distinct visual identity for a new product) to be successful in the market, design decisions need to be aligned with marketing strategy decisions. Previous research has suggested a styling strategy model that focuses on the goals of styling (attention drawing, recognition, symbolic meanings) by considering the degree and direction of differentiation from the products in a current portfolio, the succession of product generations, and product competitors. Using these strategies may guide product designers in their styling decisions so that they are aligned with marketing strategy goals. However, research has shown that, while product designers and marketers work towards the same goals, the difference in the way they justify styling decisions can cause difficulties in communication, rationalization and subsequent dismissal of ideas by the other party. Marketers believe that knowledge upon which styling decisions are based should be measurable and generated from competitive analysis and consumer insights, while product designers rely on intuition, experience and observations. In this research we aim to bridge this gap between marketers and product designers to improve the strategic styling decision-making process. Through a case study with Crown Lager beer bottles we developed a method that measures changes in styling compared to previous product designs within the succession of product generations, as well as the differences in styling compared to that of current competitors. This numerical information is then mapped to market data (e.g., revenue and changes in market share). We show how the combination of these data sets aids in identifying previous styling strategy in terms of degree and direction of styling changes, and how this can be used by the design team to justify a styling strategy to marketers using the knowledge and truths that align with what marketers are used to. We contend that this method will facilitate improved shared understanding between design and marketing teams, thereby aiding successful styling decision-making in a company.
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