Take a bow

I still remember the night, it was a Friday just like today.

I was standing in the crowds in the Lower Gallery when Lily went up to me and said: 'would you like to work for MDes as a teaching fellow?' I said 'yes' - which is one of the best decisions I have ever made. That was my own year of graduating Master of Design, and the night was the Master exhibition openning. I was simply enjoying the celebration and looking forward to the back-pack trip around Europe the next week. At that time, I perhaps didn't yet realize that what happened after I got back to Dundee was better than the most amazing journey I have ever dreamed of.

It was exactly three years ago.

Tonight I am witnessing a new group of 13 students enjoying their celebration and planning for their next step. So am I. This is my final week of being the ‘teaching fellow’ of MDes at the University of Dundee. Again I am at the point of facing a new journey in front of me. I am so happy that I still have courage to step into all the unknowns of my life, to make changes and to look forward to adventures.

Master of Design has been and will always be part of me. I had truly enjoyed every minutes spent with my brilliant colleagues and my inspiring students. I hope that they had enjoyed my company as well.

It is the time, the time to take my bow and start a new journey, maybe a completely different one but I know I will enjoy it just as I have enjoyed this one.

the end of design? the re-brith of design!

Yesterday we had a truly inspiring lecture from my brilliant colleagues Tom Inns and Mike Press in University of Dundee, as part of the Master of Design student project exhibition opening.

Tom took us back to his river of Design History. He also predicted that the sunny but highly pressured area of emerging design archipelago (service design included of course) which looks at real issues in our complex life is suggesting a re-birth of Design as a discipline. The world is witnessing an revolution brought about by new ways of communication, of living with the natural and artificial environment around us and of operating corporate, thus new generation of designers are exploring their ways into the challenging but exciting future – the best examples of which is right here on the Master’s exhibition.

Mike suggested that we were here not looking at the end of a master programme, or the end of design, but were celebrating the new beginning of a different journey ahead of our Master graduates, as well as us as designers and design researchers. Design is about the vision, the imagination of what the world was like, should be like and could be like. Mike introduced some of his design heroes (well, in fact most of them were not really recognized as ‘designers’… ) who believed that design is valuable to improve life by different means of, for example public services, engagement and empathy. ‘Nothing was too good for the public’ as Mike stated in his speech, there was a time when designers and artists were actively engaged in communities in public services to deliver effective, efficient and empathic solutions and motivations. It is time we look back upon these heroes, and set out a new phase of design which described as ‘Social Design’ by Mike. How do we create alternatives to social issues? There were principles suggested in last night’s presentation as:

• Empathy and user-centred,
• Co-creation and co-design,
• Service focused,
• Cultural inclusion,
• Socially engaged,
• Empathasis on well-being, and
• Connected.
  

These principles as well set out the guidance of the 13 projects undertook by the Master of Design students for the past year. If you are interested in having a look at these projects in more details, please visit http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/mastersshow/design.htm

As well for more information about the Master of Design course at the University of Dundee, please visit http://www.masterofdesign.co.uk/

The one-hour lecture was videoed and it is expected to be made available online soon. I am providing a lecture note just to easy your waiting ;-]

The End of Design

I had a really busy but exciting start of the week today, we are puting together the Master of Design Exhibition!

Here is an invitation for all:

you are invited to an exclusive preview evening showcasing the work of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Master of Design students alongside an exciting lecture by Professors Tom Inns and Mike Press.

Drinks Reception & Exhibition Preview 10th September, 2009, 5.15pm – Lecture 6-7pm – Dalhousie Building

Modern design has run its course. The challenges of our age demands a new design; in place of designing for desire we should design for inclusion, understanding and real world problem solving. The power of design thinking presents us with new opportunities for the future.

As Scotland's top rated institution for research design, the University of Dundee is uniquely placed to set out a new vision for the future of design. In this special lecture, Professors Tom Inns and Mike Press - both internationally acknowledged writers, researchers and broadcasters on design - provide a provocative and visionary of design in the 21st Century.

Evidence of this new design is seen in the work of this year's graduating Masters of Design students. The lecture accompanies their masters exhibition, providing vital contexts and insights into their work. Together, the lecture and exhibition emphasise Dundee's unique approach to the research and practice of design.

More info: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/mastersshow/lecture.htm

Don't worry if you can't make it, there is the project profile that will give an overview of what we are doing up here~ Enjoy!

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/mastersshow/design.htm

Your Design Brief on Ballons!

We did a workshop with MDes students on Monday to create a design brief for their master's project with ballons - yeah, you hear me right, ballons!

The students were asked to fill their ballons with the answers of 15 questions to create a design brief. They are expected to consider the financial and project management aspects of their master project, as well as how it relates to the stakeholder analysis, material experiment, marketing research and research question.

You will be able to find some photos from this workshop on my flickr
Also, couple of the students has already refelected on the experience from their own perspectives:
Jo: http://joprints.blogspot.com/2009/02/good-design-brief-should.html
Ketan: http://ketan-kulkarni.blogspot.com/2009/02/balloon-quest.html
Grace: http://gracedundee.blogspot.com/2009/02/good-morning-mr-balloon.html

(let me know if I missed yours!)

Master of design memories...

http://www.masterofdesign.co.uk/

I sometimes got aksed what my Master of Design experience was like when I started teadching about two years ago. I think I would discribe it as learning to swim – you gotta get your head under the water to feel the panic moment to learn how to go with the wave. Till now, half way through my PhD, I still get confused from time to time in the process, but I don't panic anymore. I know it is just part of the journey, as far as I stay calm and confident I will be able to see the beauty of this advanture and learn a lot along the way.

Yesterday, I did a talk on Action Research Methodology and Research Methods with the new M.Des students this year, reviewing my Master's project as an example. I hope that my experience as a student two years ago would be helpful to them – even just a reassurance that the messiness is a natural part of the research process and literally everyone experiences it.

My Master's year is a life-trunning point to me. It's a shame that the Computing world lost a very talented software engineer when I decide to switch to pursue Design as a life career—ha ha, I'm not joking ;-) Unlike many other disciplines, the knowledge of design often emerges and diffuses through practice. Practitioners gains highly respect by conducting successful design and research practices that impact the waywe live everyday. The knowledge and experience gained through research are then presented in a visual way that communicate to its audience/ users/ stakeholders, creating impacts on their behaviour, emotion, thinking, even perseption of the world. This ability to externalize their thinking amazes me. I guess this is why I choose to pursue Design after my Master's year—I so want to be part of this active group that shapes people's life in such a beautiful way.

This year we had a wonderful group of young designers enrolled for the Master of Design course—as we alway do! Nice diversity in multi-disciplinary design experiences and also mixed cultural backgrouds among the students. Here is a list of some of the blogs of the current students on the course—very talented and wonderful people who always make me pround to work with!

Arlene www.arleneillustrator.blogspot.com/
Dave http://daverothnie.blogspot.com/
Emily http://designeresearch.blogspot.com/
Fi http://fionacampbellfurniture.blogspot.com/
Gio http://giorgiogiove.blogspot.com/
Grace http://gracedundee.blogspot.com/
Jo http://joprints.blogspot.com/
Jumi http://zzoomy.blogspot.com/
Kate http://hopeforanangel.blogspot.com/
Ketan http://www.ketan-kulkarni.blogspot.com/
Lauren http://redjotter.wordpress.com/
Sun http://www.suninthesun.blogspot.com/

Don't simplify the things that can't be simplified... eg. life

Had a meeting about the new student Plone this morning... one thing lead to another, now they are going to have a showcase website for themselves as well. I often wonder if we go to meetings all the time to solve problems, or to create more problems to solve...

Bryan Lawson wisely says:" design solutions are parts of other design problems". Yeah, welcome to the world of ticky toffee pudding!

timetable clashing

One of the joy of working on M.Des course is handlling four timetables and trying not to mix up... perhaps we spend more time on making these timetable rather than completing the tasks on it...

giving feedback

It is not easy to give feedback to the others... especially students...
you have to be positive, and constructively critical... and patient...
In general I did fine today with the help of my lovely colleagues, well, couple of feedbacks on my performance there:

'don't talk too fast' - when I gets nervious, I start to talk fast like hell... pause with questions like 'do you understand?' or 'you know what I mean?' help to give other people some time to *think* what I just said... God... I sometimes talk faster than I think... scary,isn't it?

'dont sit too close to others, leave them personal space' - I obviously dont have a issue with personal space, which... then cause trouble to others... I get to close to them -- damn it... too eager to show that I am friendly... I gotta be a bit teacher here... right!

'sit face-to-face to the people you talk to, so that you can see their reactions' -- very good one, and solve the problem of getting to close to them... will do that!