The Role of Design Studies in Development - Essay Example

? The Role of Design Studies in Development Enter and Roll Number or College April 17th Introduction 1.1 Design Studies: Design is the way a thing appears and feels. A mobile phone, an mp3 player, couch, poster; in short the way of looking at things in order to change them with reference to its construction or physique. In today’s world, the design is changing technology and thus the world. It has the power and vigor to address, convince and motivate to bring about a change. Thus in other words, it won’t be wrong to say that design can fix problems (Manav 2009). Designer, the creativity expert, creates a lot many things we see, use and experience in our daily lives. Today’s designer chooses from economy, politics, and environment their field of profession thus creating awareness to more and more people, in other words, helping the world and making people realize what is happening and what will be the future. Designers always have the approach to do good whether designing anything. The designers open up the negative feeling and the happenings around. They are truly helping people making them realize what the need of the hour is (Duff 2009). The designers focus on things to change them. They observe and focus on almost every detail as possible. The power of vision is much greater than that of words. The visualization of a problem is far more convincing than of speaking and telling. (Manav 2009). 1.2 Design studies and development: The designs, new and improved continue to appear for generations and years giving the same thought a different perspective and meaning making it more attractive thus leading it to more progress. The main promotion areas for the design are in expos, trade fairs and museums. (Mattew 2013). 1.2.1 First world countries: Keeping an eye of the aspects of the first world countries the thought prompts that why the First world does solve third world’s problems when it already has its own. Carolina Vallejo launched a competition entitled “Design for the First World”. She specified the problems like the production of food, eating disorders, aging, population, low birth rate, over-consumption and many more. She mentions why is the first world helping the third world when such problems already persist in. she surveyed for the solution of the first world problems in her thesis. Vallejo says that she is not discouraging the designers for their efforts, it’s just that the water, education, medicine and electricity are the problems of the first world too, why not to focus upon them first and others later. She says that the First World needs to focus on its problems now or later; in future it might not become the case that the First World needs help. It should be the designers who should be tackling the situation and knowing that what impact such a thing would have (Good 2010). It is not the responsibility of the First World countries to help out others when we already need to look for the problems ourselves (Funds for NGOs 2012 ) 1.2.2 Third world countries: The third world countries are reliant upon the first world countries although the first world country for sure has its interest in it. Thus an aid is provided to solve their political, scientific, infrastructural and economic problems. Most outstanding are the water and education. Removing the impurities and making the water potable is a great gift for these people as it helps in drinking, irrigation and reduces the effects of diseases and viruses. As far as tutoring is concerned educating the residents would make a better, protected and brighter future. It will remove the odds as literacy rate shines in the sky. The design technology and studies benefits the third world countries. One of my friends who studies Design and Technology, is designing a game in her class, for Red Cross to enhance people’s awareness and knowledge of disaster preparedness in the face of flooding, drought and other climate change related issues in Uganda. Moreover, my friend told me that, the reason she chose to take this class is because, she and many other design students realize most design are just for the minority people in the world, and that’s not what she want to do with her design skills and knowledge. She wants to use design to change the world, the majority of the world. The Third World countries do acknowledge this precious and huge support from the developing countries (Funding for NGOs 2010). These efforts are commendable. 2. Analysis: 2.1 The Role of Design in Development An interesting finding over the role of design in development can be observed if we look around us. We are surrounded with iPhones, iPads, iPods and smart devices. They make life easy. They make many things possible which used to be difficult before. Kids today do not know how to operate VCR but they know how to unlock an iPhone. Also, there are educational games for toddlers in that which help them learn alphabets, nursery rhymes and make them recognize letters as symbols. This advancement in technology makes humans even more superior over other beings. There are however disadvantages of it as well. One of them is that people do not read now instead Google! They do not use their brains for calculations instead they open calculator apps. However, people go with design preferences too along with product smartness. They prefer phones which are easy to hand and look aesthetically good. Product development has to undergo many changes now. Software designers, developers, graphic designers, illustrators, animators all work on making the one compact product ready for us which despite all these effort would become unappealing to human eye. We will now focus on awareness and exhibitions in this regard. Also the third world and first world technological advancements in the field under discussion 2.1.1 Awareness and Exhibitions: “Design for the Other 90%” and “Design with the Other 90%: CITIES” are two exhibitions, showing the outcome and ongoing activities of the program, which have been developed to help the 90 percent of the world's population not traditionally served by professional designers. The former exhibition focuses on design solutions to help people for their basic need, especially in developing countries. The latter exhibition demonstrates numerous issues brought by the rapid urban growth primarily in the informal settlements of the global south that will happen in the next twenty years in many fields. Using design to change global issues, such as poverty, democracy, human rights, education, and environment, has become one of the most doable and effective solutions. 2.2 Design can change the World: Design can change the world. We are not solely referring to the graphic designing, animation, architecture or drawing. To clear this idea and becoming really innovative in this idea, IDEO, a non-profit organization has this aim, “Use design to change the world”. Kumsai City: it is Ghana’s second largest city with a team of designers to help the people and the society with the leading problem, poverty. Patrice Martin and Jocelyn Wyatt are the designers who work for the social sector for the benefit of low-income families. The organization is planning to deal with other NGOs and spread the cause. Their project will work on the development from gender equality to sanitation problems. It was then discovered that people could not afford to have a latrine at home, so they all use public toilets, filthy, without water, no toilet papers instead they used newspapers. Due to this reason people started to defecate in public spreading diseases. So the designers designed and built a portable toilet to sit in the corner of urban homes. The operator will waste it once a week or more. Now the people having portable toilets won’t be relying upon the public toilets. The solution they say came from the observation, the designer’s observation. Working with passion they are able to work on the problems and innovating new designs. The real key is to understand their desires and needs. Every designer has a room for design thinking all the time. (Ong, 2011) 2.3 Effectiveness of the Design Studies: Human beings follow the design principles and use it as a tool beyond thinking. If we really go deep into this we then realize that our designs would be really in coordination to our problems, our social problems. Designers use design as a tool where designer depicts different situations and thus creating awareness for the betterment of the society. (Russellkerr 2011). Biodesign created an innovative inhaler which was cheap and available for all. This was again designed by the designers, for the betterment of the society. Biodesign teaches people to be inventors. (National Centre for advancing Translational sciences 2012) Scientific research has made tremendous efforts beyond research and development and has been successful in it (Manav 2009). EIA, an organization makes sure that the protection and care environment is to be the priority. They check the implementation of any project and make sure that it is harm-free to the environment and if found they suggest changes (Nobelprize.org 2013). Another example for this is when we look at the designed ads we can absolutely say that it’s a deception as it is not what is being portrayed. We need to be sure that the products or the designs environment safe. The Coke label brand has another one Bailey’s Irish Cream portraying that it is there for centuries, however, its just 40 years old. The depiction of what tobacco could do to you is the best example of the designer’s awareness which is also truthful (Duff 2009). It not only makes people aware of the dangers of tobacco but also about its harmful effects. Tobacco affects both the smoker and the people around them. Active and passive smoking are advertised and made clear with the help of using design as a tool for development. Even people who are less educated know this nowadays. This is the power of design industry as it spreads the word around the globe. 2.4 Current projects: There are numerous other projects doing the same thing. Some of them are: 2.4.1 Type of project: Competition 2.4.2 Mission: To improve human spirit 2.4.3 Description: The design for the First World is to be made on the idea Rest saving the West. It deals with obesity, immigration, consuming, low birth rate and aging (World Changing 2012). This indeed is a very good move in the design industry using it to benefit the people at large. As we all observe that kids nowadays are much obese as they used to be ten years ago. The spreading of word that junk food only satisfies hunger but increases no good calories for usage. Instead it inculcates laziness and makes extra calories trap in the system. 2.5 Critiques View: The utopian view “Design can change the world” is nothing more than a lie to all. In fact, this designing has brought negative impacts. It is a good tool of greed and over-consumption. Most designers make posters where they are convinced to portray the important issues related to society. How can a poster design change the world? How much impact a simple poster can have? Can a poster really changes the structure and thinking of the society? A design competition is really the best medium to change the world? We don’t need social designers, we need graduates to better cater with the economic and social problems. (Russellkerr 2011) If we make plans safer and good for the environment, people reject it because they do not like this style (TED, 2013). 2.6 Can Design change the world? When people talk about design changing the world, it gives a foolish impression that how designing can solve our problems. It actually does change the world. If a design can change the water delivery in different parts of the world then it can change lives as well. Designing have many meanings but the best is that it is the creative problem solving. It takes on challenges and solves it out. The designers brainstorm and use their observation later testing the solutions. If we take a look at different companies, we see a mixture of designers, engineers all together, working at the same time giving and creating different ideas. Nowadays, people have more designs, more ideas, more opportunities, more tools to solve problems and design in a new dimension and a team working together brings about a million ideas each hour. People say that design can save the world, design cannot save the world. We do not get overnight dreams about the solutions, they take time to implement and fully access each and every place (Manav 2009). It is the responsibility of the curator to guard and promote the advertisement and issues against it because exhibitions promote the designs. Since 1940s the promotion has been subjected to governments through trade, industry, events, exhibitions, expos, museums and many more (Mattew 2013). 3. Conclusion Smart devices have overpowered human nation and the new generation at large. People are involved in mental exercises or technological indulgence than in sports. Kids are getting obese as they eat much more calories in the form of junk food and use less by becoming couch potatoes in front of the 3D games, iPhones, iPads etc. Design studies play an important part in development. From one angle things seem unfavorable for humans but if we analyze kids are much sharper. They get the opportunity to have atlas and maps on the click of their fingers. Toddlers can learn how to write words by those wonderfully designed apps. People keep track record of their events, birthdays etc. life is getting changed in fact. In the year 1999 no one would bother to have a cell phone and who did would ignore its appearance. Nowadays people notice the size, color, shape etc of their phones, LCD, TV and other electronics. Industrialization without designs is impossible for many countries, the developed ones. The third world countries are the target of the designers to improve their life style and bring in better solutions to solve their problems (Alpay, 1997). The Third World countries have their own problems but the fact that First World countries do own problems themselves. Instead of taking aid for granted they need to stand up for themselves. Design studies were used for the higher classes only as they were deemed to be the target audience. Nowadays the local minds are tuned to spread information from one end of the world to the other. Globalization is a factor in spreading knowledge faster. The first world countries and the third world countries have access to internet which results in opinion sharing. This makes one aware of what is going around the globe. There is an urge in the artists nowadays to do something for the benefit of humanity at large. That is why they use design to benefit both the first and the third world countries. The design studies no doubt are very helpful for the betterment of the people, giving solutions to their problems and devising new ways and creative ways for the betterment of the future. 4. References Clark, Hazel, and David Eric Brody. Design studies: a reader. English ed. Oxford: Berg, 2009. Turner, Mattew. "Design Exhibitions without Design Promotion - Dr Matthew Turner | M+ MATTERS." M+ MATTERS . http://www.mplusmatters.hk/asiandesign/paper_topic11.php (accessed April 17, 2013). Turner, Mattew. "Natural Design : A new theory of Evolution." Sony | Reader Store. https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/matthew-turner/natural-design/_/R-400000000000000256731 (accessed April 17, 2013). Duff, Thomas, “Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World”. http://www.amazon.com/Do-Good-Design-Designers-Change/dp/032157320X, (accessed April 17, 2013). By Iliyas Ong, “How Design Can Change the World”. http://designtaxi.com/article/101624/How-Design-Can-Change-the-World/ (accessed April 17, 2013). 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World Changing, “Design for the First World”. http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/designforthefirstworld (accessed April 17, 2013). Funds for NGOs, “How to raise funds from European Comission” . http://www.fundsforngos.org/latest-funds-for-ngos/design-for-the-first-world-now-people-from-developing-countries-can-contribute-ideas-for-the-betterment-of-the-developed-countries/ (accessed April 17, 2013). Dougherty, T, C, “FAO Corporate document Repository”. http://www.fao.org/docrep/V8350E/v8350e06.htm (accessed April 17, 2013). TED, “How can you help third world countries?”. http://www.ted.com/conversations/4643/is_the_green_design_effective.html (accessed April 17, 2013). H. Er, Alpay, “Journal of Design History”. Vol. 10 No. 3, The Design History Society:1997 Read More