Dexign Futures

Design Futures (or Dexign Futures) is a class in which we will be learning about thinking in a way that closes the distance between our present reality and the pursuit of utopia (in other words, eu-topia).

| WEEK ONE

8.30 | Blade Runner Moodboard

Bladerunner book moodboard

9.2 | Masdar Sketches

Masdar situation sketch entitled “Bob goes to buy groceries”

9.3 | Week 1 Reflection

What is “the ideal world”? We’ve all been exposed to this idea in some form or another. Proposed ideas of utopia: as seen in Zootopia, Animal Farm, the Giver, etc. etc. where metaphorical people live in harmony with one another in a perfect world without worries with their own roles in society. But it just seems so unrealistic, considering the world at its present.

Dexign Futures was introduced as a class that is aimed at tackling this issue exactly. How do we narrow the gap between the current state and desired state (utopia) through eutopian thinking? I’m not sure.

It was helpful though, first, to get a glimpse at how people perceived utopia and dystopia. The activity was pretty interesting to observe, how people’s long-term and short-term hopes and fears all lined up pretty similarly. While short-term fears and hopes were much more immediate and affect people individualistically, for example, stress, loneliness, long-term fears and hopes were much broader and have the potential to affect us as a community, for example depletion of resources and empathy.

At first, I found the idea of Masdar to be quite absurd. Indeed, it appears to be designed with so much contemplation, but it’s also built upon a piece of land where nothing currently exists. As a metaphor for where the future is headed, the intrinsic assumption is that we need to start the whole world from scratch. But with that said, I do appreciate the thought behind the designs. For example, city planning in relocating public transportation underground is actually very wise; I had a first-hand experience of that in Osaka this summer, where nowadays summers get so hot you can start feeling faint in 10 minutes being outdoor. Underground transportation offers protection from weather. In addition, it could also ensure timeliness as subways tend to be much more efficient than above-ground transportation, which constantly get affected by traffic.

The things we talked about in class this week will shape the way I think about current studio projects by thinking about the whole system, and the way pieces interact with each other. Practical solutions that integrate things that already do exist and bringing new ideas into existence and somehow balancing the two will also be a goal that I’ll be working towards.

| WEEK TWO

9.7 | Critique a-la Jamais Cascio (in-class)

My description of the Masdar scenario was also much more optimistic than it would be in real life. It’s very one-directional, which is one of the possibly dangerous methods of projecting the future that Cascio is suggesting. The assumptions I’m making in the scenario is very much the nuts and bolts of futures, in the sense that I streamline an example of how something would work. By zooming into the life of an average male, I am excluding thinking about the role of women and many of the minorities. There are many people in the minorities group that this sketch doesn’t take into consideration. For example, transportation for the handicapped has not been considered at all. There also seems to be no sighting of any sources of nature. Another issue that the scenario fails to address is the use of technology. The sketch shows that Bob knows exactly how to arrive at the food market by foot and by subway (indicating that he’s not a newcomer) and that he knows exactly how to use all the technology as they were designed to be used. The food vending machine isn’t a conventional device that people would traditionally know how to use, and thus it is implied that people may use it creatively (but wrongly) in ways unintended. It’d be curious to see how that might’ve played out, as for example a millennial like myself would probably use it differently from a middle-aged person and have an easier time adapting to it, simply because my generation grew up with more technology than our predecessors.

9.9 | Masdar Edited Scenario with Product

This is the updated version of my Masdar scenario created with the insight of Jamais Cascio.

9.11 | Week 2 Reflection

What did you learn in this unit?

This unit discussed a lot about people’s current approach on their ideas of the future. The general tendency is that current futurists have a narrow and extreme view on the future — they often establish the future as if it would be a complete disaster or a complete perfection. In more specific terminology, they are likely to perceive the future as a nightmarish dystopia or a dreamlike utopia, none of which are practical and realistic. Reality is a messy mixture of both — some great qualities, and many imperfections still awaiting remedying. Jamais Cascio’s presentation covers this topic quite comprehensively, as he also elaborates the point that many times, people don’t end up using products and technology they were intended to be used for. In a way, this opens up the discussion about the future to a broader possibility than just right or wrong, since unintended doesn’t absolutely imply that the incorrect use was bad. For example, one could easily use a laptop’s edge as a hard edge for drawing a straight line. That wasn’t necessarily the intended use for the way the technology was designed, but it adds to the benefit of the technology. On top of that, the audience should also be permitted and expected to bring in their previous experiences and knowledge about how they could use the technology. It’s also suggested that many minority groups are currently being excluded in the discussion of futures. In other words, our scope of futurist populations is too exclusive and narrow, meaning that we have many established assumptions about them as well. This could prove problematic as we begin trying to break down problems and not take into consideration for the entire grander picture, but only for the select audience that we are choosing to examine.

How might you apply what you learned to a project you are working on?

A current project we are working on in studio right now is called Paint The Pavement Pittsburgh, in which we are trying to convey information in some way to persuade the population of Pittsburgh to go through with an event that would help cover the pavement of Pittsburgh with colorful chalking / paintings. The knowledge I gained from this unit will help me navigate through what affordances I should provide my audience with, and what I can do to open up the project to a way in which participants can engage in the activities in a way that doesn’t lock me in a concrete mindset of how I want the project to turn out. I would be interested also to push myself in considering more for the minority groups and how every neighborhood may think about / approach subjects with, and try to reconcile the differences with the project.

How does what you learned influence your design practice?What might you do differently?

The lessons from this unit would influence my design practice by pushing me to think about the ways that we can consider the future in a positive and inclusive way. I’m starting to move away from just shutting down ideas about the possibility because it sounds seemingly ridiculous or because I think it’s unfeasible — instead, giving them some thought. It’s quite difficult sometimes because many practical factors are at hand when considering designs in real life, but at the same time also important to not let those factors be too limiting. After all, we are the creative, imaginative forces behind most teams, and it’s okay to have our heads up in the clouds a little bit more than the others (that also means we have a higher perspective!) Overall, I think I’ll be less likely to think in the extreme, but kind of reach a synthesis of a good mixture of both elements of utopia and dystopia when thinking about futures.

| WEEK THREE

9.14 | Masder a-la Peter Schwartz Critique

Ask yourself the following questions: about maps (e.g., mental models, value maps, cultures, etc) What maps are guiding your work? What assumptions are you making about the world? You could ask that question for all perspectives of the STEEP (social, technology, environment, economics, politics). Who is benefiting and who is losing in the scenarios you made? What forces could shift your work (e.g., metaphorically tides, wind, currents) more practically STEEP assumptions? Alternative models? Let’s discuss Peter Schwartz’s ideas while looking at your scenarios.

Peter Schwartz suggested that when we identify a problem in a storyboard, we should determine a method to deal with it and come up with a solution for the existing problem, meaning that we should come up with alternative versions of futures. One strength that my storyboard included was the many different possibilities that could occur, hence not indicating that there should only be one definitive future. I took in account of the various possibilities that people would use the technology in unintended ways, which broadens one’s imagination in how futures could be presented.

However, in my speculations, it’s quite possible that I underestimated the audience and came up with futures possibilities that are a little absurd and wouldn’t be the practice of most citizens. Additionally, I did not take into account of the socio-economic groups (the S in STEEP), who would’ve had different levels of exposure to technology. For example, I know for a fact that in Japan, people use vending machines for various purposes on top of buying snacks and drinks including shopping for electronics and ordering food at a restaurant. This would mean that the possibility for them to pick up the ways to use the food vending machine would be a lot easier than those who traditionally shopped in markets.

If I were to create storyboards in the future, I should definitely look more closely into considering the different subgroups that could arise from STEEP, consequently the problems that may arise, and how each group may interact with the technologies based on assumptions and potential solutions to solve the problems.

9.16 | Design Scenarios for Blockchain Technology

Scenario 1. Blockchain is very successful but the existing players ignore it. (what might blockchain based products have that traditional ones do not?)
Scenario 2.Blockchain is adopted by the existing players. (how might blockchain change how traditional players operate? What products or services would be necessary, what features would such designed products, services, or experiences require?
Scenario 3.Blockchain technology fails. (What caused blockchain to fail, and why did the other players survive? What features/products/experiences/interactions did the established players undertake)
Scenario 4.Blockchain is very successful and legacy systems co-exist. (What markets do the blockchainenabled services/products/interactions/experiences cover and where do the traditional players focus? How are the products different?)

D1. Write out what seems most interesting for you to explore in two scenarios (five minutes).

D2.use d(p) + i(y) = U(x) to make sense of what to do.

[designed product] + {interaction] = [user experience]

These are three perspectives you can bring to each scenario. Upload a draft of your in-progress class work before leaving at 12:50pm.

D3. (a) Scenario text; (b) Storyboard of experience; (c) Product concepts.

Response:

D1. Interesting Questions

How might the user interaction be different now that new technology is being introduced? What products might become obsolete? What functions might new products (that does not yet exist) need for adapting to these changes? What kinds of challenges may users encounter when transitioning?

D2. [designed product] + [interaction] = [user experience]

Scenario 1: Blockchain technology would enable transactions to be made without the need for a physical card, which would solidify security and reduce risk for identity theft. Additionally, real time transaction checks can be made, which can ensure accuracy of spendings.

Scenario 3:

Blockchain technology would fail if people decide not to use it. The other players have the advantage of already existing in people’s current routine and lifestyle, meaning that they do not have to think about innovative / interceptive methods for the product to fit in. Established players understand the existing practices and habits of the service users and take advantage of the existing knowledge to build in services that would facilitate existing actions. For instance, banks would create apps and virtual banking systems that would make the traditional transactions easier to access online, however conceptually conventional.

D3. Product Scenario

9.18 | Week 3 Reflection

What did you learn in this unit?

Our discussion in class this week focused mainly on the theories of futurist Peter Schwartz, especially concerning the concept of disruptive technology and its impact on existing markets and designs. Peter Schwartz suggested that what we often predict in the outcome of our futures is a construction in our minds called a mental map, which determines our expectations for the futures. A huge part of our mental map is constructed based off of past experience. However, Schwartz suggests that this is one of the biggest mistakes to make about futures — predicting things only in the scope of which we can think and expect. In this sense, we are often thinking too much in a contained and limited manner; instead, we are encouraged to think about questions that may be surprising and possibly even seemingly absurd. However, that attitude of keeping things open would be helpful to determine more accurate futures. Additionally, we learned about the importance of considering STEEP (social, technology, environment, economics, politics) in our portrayal of futures scenarios. After all, the introduction of new products don’t just affect one thing, but an entire system, a network of things.

How might you apply what you learned to a project you are working on?

We’re currently still working on the Paint the Pavement project in communications studio, which is a project in which we need to persuade the Pittsburgh community to come together and paint intersections to improve road safety. I intend to think more broadly about the system in the community that would be affected by this project, and specifically how they would be affected, keeping in mind both the pros and cons. It’s very easy to get caught in one up in a narrow mindset when we make these types of projects because we have such a clear intention and message that we want to convey. However, it is entirely likely that the audience may receive it in a different way, and these concerns should also be kept in mind for us designers. Additionally, using the STEEP system would help me develop these possible scenarios and help ensure that I am covering a varied scale of audiences and contexts.

How does what you learned influence your design practice?What might you do differently?

Being more aware of the mental map I hold, I will be more inclined to push the boundaries of what I know already, and try to design slightly out of my comfort zone in order to discover something that I don’t yet know. By being more explorative in my design approach, I would be more likely to encounter problems I’ve not yet encountered before, and thus gain more experience to have a better guess of the “inevitable surprises” that may come up.

| WEEK FOUR

9.23 | Family Personas & Family Lines: The Stanleys

9.24 | Week 4 Reflection

What did you learn in Futures this week?

In Futures this week, we took a glimpse into how the change of time and shifts in economic, political and other circumstantial states would affect the futures of a family throughout time and how individuals’ fates could change drastically because of factors they cannot control. Specifically, we zeroed in on two American families in the documentary Two American Families (Frontline)— the Stanleys and the Neumanns — whom we observed in a documentary from 1990 to 2010 as they experience the economic recession and take a deep dive in their lives. From one person in the family being laid off to another, the emotional toll and stress transcends much beyond just the single person being affected. Watching these transformations take place, and the families going in a downward spiral because of circumstances they could not control was very painful, and scary to think about. The lack of stability in one generation seeps into the generations to follow, affecting relationships and wellbeing in the family.

How might what you learned apply in a design project you are working on?

I’m currently still working on the same design project since a month ago, called “Paint the Pavement.” I think it’s idealistic of me to say that I wish to probe more deeply into how this program would affect the society as a whole, to think about the way relationships between the different socioeconomic groups and racial groups would be brought together to work on something that they all care about. I do think it’s important to consider it, but the way the program is structured is much more elaborate than I can determine the future for. Instead, I will focus on bringing out the shared values and concerns for the society that these different groups of people may have, and hopefully allow that the shared goal of painting the pavement to create a safer environment for the community (especially children) to bring different people together, and consolidate everyone’s efforts to move towards one direction together. I’m trying to instill passion and excitement in the audience for the project.

How might what you learned in futures this week apply to your design practice? What might you do differently?

Having watched the documentary that previews the consequences of decisions that are made (as a country and as individuals), I’m using this knowledge to push me to think more deeply about accommodating the needs of minority groups. It’s easy to design for the top dogs of society — it’s also easier for them to have a say and make decisions that preserve their rights and consider the benefits for only a small sector of people while neglecting a large group of the population. We’ve been pushed to think about advancements in technological changes a lot, often in a good light, but it’s also very humbling to see the experiences from a very human perspective, shedding light on what it’s like to actually live through these experiences that are caused by such changes. Perhaps then we could work out something that balances out the technological advancements and preservation of traditions — I believe it is only when we figure out how we could let the two exist that we can more forward towards utopia.

| WEEK FIVE

9.28 | Keith Stanley’s Hopes and Fears

9.30 | Sohail Inayatullah Six Concept Critique

A Desired Future for Keith Stanley

Keith is promoted at his job in city council, and has a stronger influence in his role in the government. He yearns to go to grad school, but prior to that, meets the girl of his dreams at work and marries her. A few years later, the Stanleys welcome a baby girl (Joyce Stanley) into their family, and their house is filled with joy. While Joyce Stanley is growing up, an opportunity arises for Keith to go to grad school and earn his masters’ degree, which he had always yearned for.

Critique based on Sohail Inayatullah

1. It’s easy to dive into the notion that what we traditionally valued as a society is also the current values that people hold in contemporary society. Having a family and living in a white picket fence house has long been the widespread American dream, but only in recent history are we realizing that this dream is built upon the broken dreams of many others. Additionally, contemporary society is much more focused on the individual than the whole. What this means is that the idea of the family as a unit is no longer as strongly emphasized as it is in the past — a family consist of individual members that have come together, but may separate again, which suggests that many people don’t even bother to engage in a formal established relationship to begin with. The same goes for having kids, many people don’t want to get involved with the elaborate process of childrearing, fearing that it may interfere with their independent lives and hinder the individuals’ desires. In the scenario I created for Keith, I applied many of these traditional values and desires to him, and perhaps many of these things are invalid in his scope of care.
2. I created an idealistic situation for the persona that could only be carried out if the world was perfect and fair. Even though the desired future for my persona has a pretty good work/life balance, I did not take into consideration possible health complications.
3. The worst possible future for the persona may be that Keith gets marries, has a kid, and is suddenly diagnosed with ALS and told that he only has less than a year to live. This brings up all hopes and expectations for the family when they’re taking their first steps together, and crumbling their dreams all at once. It’s also possible that the woman that Keith marries had a history with drug addiction, which he discovers later, and the past comes back to haunt their family.
4. The metrics that might be used to measure the success of Keith might be his income, how many hours he works every week, and how much time he gets to spend with his family. Ultimately, time is the most valuable currency, and the more time he gets to himself (leisure time), the more “successful” he would be. Cultural capital — non-financial social assets that assist social mobility.
5. Social changes take place most evidently when policies in the grander view are shifted — for example, things like the legalization of same-sex marriage. In my scenario, it’s possible that while Keith declares how important his family is to him, but fails to spend time with them in his leisure time, which shows contradiction in his beliefs and his actions. It may also imply that social change for emphasizing the individuals’ life is prioritized even though Keith still held on to a traditional mindset of caring for a family.
6. Foresight practices may fit into my scenario by influencing the way my persona makes his decisions. For example, Keith may have worked over hours in the past but to no avail of getting a promotion, but he realized that socializing more with his boss and colleagues and gained him a social acknowledge that won him the promotion. He may use this knowledge to prioritize socializing and interacting with his coworkers than to work hard independently.

10.1 | Week 5 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

This week we learned about the importance of foresight, particularly in the context of predicting futures. We watched a video in which Toffler emphasized the social changes that will take place inevitably as a consequence of our drastic technological changes. I found it particularly interesting that Toffler brought up the concept of a “future shock” in which we fail to adapt in a given time, analogous to failing to adapt to a given space/place in “culture shock”. In a way, we all experience this to an extent, constantly adapting to the new things that are brought to the world. We’re learning that these advancements taking place are bringing about uncertainty; while some futurists are embracing the excitement of uncertainty and the potential of the unknown, others are more skeptical about the fears of the uncontrollable future. It seems as though the future is pretty hard to predict right now because of the various directions of technological and social changes that are taking place, making any type of futures scenarios possible, no matter how ridiculous. Foresight would then allow us to increase the boundaries of perception forward by assessing possible consequences of actions, anticipating problems before they occur, and considering the present implications of future events and envisioning desired aspects of future societies. In this sense, using foresight as a framework would allow us to use past experiences to shape the possible futures and navigate them towards something more desirable. Instead of groping in the dark, part of the futures is already partly known through observing trends and learning through errors we’d made in history. However, foresight is still an iterative process in which modifications would constantly need to be made, adjusting based on things like new products, improved technology, etc.

One of the hardest things that I learned this week was learning to live with ambiguity. It’s necessary as a designer and as an individual. In my opinion, it’s really hard to live with uncertainty and unpredictability; but that is what the future has become. We need to learn to reconcile our perceptions of what the futures would be like based on the constant decisions that we make. We need to adapt foresight in a way that doesn’t make assumptions that our projected futures scenarios are the only possible correct scenarios, but that there are endless numbers of them, and that there is no correct answer to what a futures scenario is. However, we can think about them in terms of the six concept futures guideline to think about the scenarios we make — Used futures, disowned futures, alternative futures, alignment, theory of social change, use of futures. These ideas will push us to think more deeply about the appropriateness of the futures scenarios we create and whether they should be modified because of assumptions that they imply.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

Frankly I find it difficult to apply this knowledge to the project I’m working on because it is still the same Paint the Pavement project I’ve been working on for the past month. However, I think that what we learned this week will go a long way. In a broader sense, I learned that it’s important to learn to embrace uncertainty and change, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. I tend to be the type to want to preserve traditions, but because of the technological and ensuing social changes taking place, it’s important for me to think about how traditional ways of life can integrate well with the changes taking place and how to better plan for futures. Instead of pushing away innovation, finding a way for it to synthesize with tradition would be really beautiful.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

As a designer, I will try to keep in mind of the “future shock” that users may be experiencing, and how to better synthesize whatever I’m designing in a way that would best enable the users to adapt to the changes. While I believe effect and end result are important to a design, the process of getting there is also important — different users will adapt to different products at different paces for different reasons, but to me, it’s crucial to take all the different scenarios into account. Discovering more about the users and how they may make decisions is also something I learned from this week’s content — in order to make accurate portrayals of personas, we would need to first find out more about the users that would be using the products and their experiences / schemas and figure out how they might go about approaching the product. I think in order to have foresight, it’s important to first look at the past, and the experiences that people bring with them.

| WEEK SIX

10.4 | Reflection Peer Review

Reflection 1:

• I learned a lot specifically from watching the videos that are in the OLIs, about what the meaning of foresight is. My colleague chose to talk about a more personalized understanding of what we learned last week, emphasizing on the importance of the activity and the reflective process that he or she adopted for the activity.
• In a grander perspective, my colleague has a pretty generalized application of how he or she could use it in future designs. He or she believes that empathy is a huge component of design, and that this week’s work has been helping to increase in this attribute. I felt similarly, but also that foresight would help me in thinking about multiple scenarios when creating storyboard scenarios — it would push me to consider for a wider audience as well as how their different experiences would lead up to different behaviours and interactions with different designs.
• Since the previous question wasn’t fully answered because it was difficult to think of applying it to a specific project, what was discussed in the response for the previous question applies to this question as well. One interesting that my colleague mentions is the importance of building connections while helping people solve problems. It’s a good thing to point out since sometimes it takes a while of getting to know some place / someone to discover what the problems they’re struggling with are, and what may be the underlying causes. It might be counterintuitive to think that it’s worth investing time in getting to know the people before trying to solve their problem (a waste of time!) but may actually just be worth it.

Reflection 2:

• My colleague brings up an important note that it’s important to be aware of one’s blindspots as a designer. Often times, we get drawn into designing in the usual ways that we design and choose to stay in the comfort of what we know, but are reluctant to be pushed out of that comfort.
• My colleague applied it in a much more specific context, as he actually plans to apply Inayatullah’s six concepts to the way that he is currently designing for his project in a class called game design. It’s nice to see that he’s actually using the knowledge from class to guide his work, which I think is fundamentally what design thinking classes are targeted at doing. On the other hand, I still found it too dry to apply similar concepts to the same project, so I refrained from applying it to the current studio project we are working on, but instead saw how this knowledge could be used in a more general term.
• I agree with my colleague’s thoughts about the assumptions we make as designers. We all have the inclination of thinking in a way that we’re accustomed to thinking, without wanting to be pushed further or even attempt to consider things in an alternative perspective. This is dangerous to a designer because it really narrows down our view, meaning that we can’t be as holistic in our approach. We both agree that thinking about various perspectives and possibilities (possible and plausible scenarios) is very important.

10.5 | Alternative Career Futures 2x2

We spent today’s class mainly talking about the alternative futures that were proposed, and how we can craft futures scenarios in a way people can understand. In doing so, we would need to think about things we are not necessarily used to thinking about, and be willing to put away any assumptions and biases that we may have.

As an in-class activity (and homework), we brainstormed an alternative field of expertise that we considered pursuing in university, and how that may have turned out if we’d gone down that route. Additionally, we also thought about future career possibilities and things that may ensue / requirements that we would need to meet before being able to attain those career goals. The 2x2 chart below lists 2 possible career options on the y-axis, and two fields of study (including design) on the x-axis. In every quadrant, I describe scenarios for what I might be doing in each quadrant.

10.7 | Generic Future a la Jim Dator

For homework, we looked at four generic futures as proposed by Jim Dator. They are as the following:

I will be analyzing my generic future of being in design consultancy.

GROWTH
In a growth future, I would remain in a competitive creative world, where various types of design are headed towards heavy emphasis on the intangible UI/UX and digital design. Opportunities in big cities are still available, as more uprising small firms are taking precedence. Society is recognizing the importance of design now, so that’s a bonus for us.

COLLAPSE
In a collapse future, it’s difficult to imagine that the traditional sense of design would still exist. Craft and the arts would be much less important than the pure need for survival. Competition would be as high as ever, and it’s entirely possible that only the best of the best would have opportunities. Enjoyment would come secondary to the need to survive and adapt.

DISCIPLINE
In a disciplined future, design would be interesting. The expressive aspect of design would be compelled to thrive, or be secondary / ignored, whereas the practical aspect of design would be emphasized. UI/UX and web design experience would be necessary and continue to be demanded for increased efficiency and organization. The international market is also starting to see the value of design, thus might enforce consultancies to ensure countries are on par with other countries in their competition.

TRANSFORM
In a transformative future, the world of design consultancy would be heavily revolutionary. The work from clients may be heavily on technology-driven designs, in ways never experienced before. The world would be focused much on the artificial, and create self-sustaining ways of behaviour. We would need to adapt to greater intelligence and learn to trust them into the norms of everyday living. However, it is likely that design would be highly demanded due to this shift in focus of man-made artifacts.

10.8 | Week 6 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

This week, we talked about the formation of alternative futures and generic futures. Alternative futures is merely an indicator that the future is plural, which is the main belief in the world of futurism. It’s important to evaluate and assess the possibilities of many outcomes based on the decisions that are made in the present, and consider the consequences of both. We plotted our own possible futures in a 2x2 quadrant this week, and explore four different potential futures going into the real world — the x-axis representing the field of study we chose and potentially have chosen, and the y-axis representing the nature of the work we would be doing in that major. It was an interesting and probing process, as I’d long stopped entertaining the thought of being in other fields, however, it was also very helpful to get thinking into what the reality of my future could be, and setting the context to the various futures. We then interpreted one of these plausible futures based on the generic futures proposed by Dator (growth, collapse, disciplined, transformative) based on their individual characteristics. It was a bit difficult for me to think about these because I feel like it would’ve been beneficial to be more familiar with the world of business and economics, but it was still interesting to contemplate these futures that technically could(’ve) happen(ed). I also learned a bit from reading A Primer of Future Studies, and the Use of Scenarios — the general principles of futures is that 1. it is not pre-determined, 2. it is unpredictable, 3. future outcomes can be influenced by our actions in the present.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

I can mainly apply the things we learned this week to my life. Alternative futures enabled me to map out futures in a way that is easy to visualizing the various outcomes that could happen with decisions I make. It’s also helpful to have Dator’s generic futures as a guideline to see how the futures would play out given that society moves forward in extreme directions, and also learning to take into considerations the possible disruptive changes that may occur in the future. Additionally, I thought it was helpful to know the principle that “future outcomes can be influenced by out actions in the present,” just as a motivator for me to make wise decisions in the current state so that there would be more positive future outcomes.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

For my design practice, I could apply this knowledge by seeing how my designs could be interpreted in different contexts by different people, and the influences that may take place after. It might be interesting to see how certain designs and decisions could influence the larger community and the way future trends go, but also how they may fit into the trends in society. Having generic futures as a guideline is definitely helpful to envisioning the alternative futures and make them easier to understand for people, which may also be helpful for clients in the future.

| WEEK SEVEN

10.11 | Reflection Peer Review

Reflection 1:

• My colleague made a very clear outline of the things she learned from this week’s OLI modules and activities, precisely the distinct characteristics of Dator’s four generic futures. We had similar learning outcomes for this section, as we both learned a lot about methods to thinking about the future.
• My colleague applied what she learned to her Colour and Communication class, which is a class I’d taken last year. I really appreciate the way she applied it, that understanding the way we want to describe the different futures could be facilitated by the way we use colour in designs. I found it to be slightly off tangent, but still a good and subtle idea that I hadn’t previously thought of. As for me, I mainly thought about how it could benefit me as a person, in the scope of life.
• We both discussed ways we would apply how we learned to project futures to the way we envision our futures for anticipatory values. My colleague brings up a good point — it’s important to keep in mind that futures can change depending on current decisions and unanticipated changes, and that adaptability is key to navigating any kind of futures.

Reflection 2:

• This colleague of mine also learned about the four generic futures outlined by Jim Dator, also describing what each of them entail.
• I think it was very interesting that my colleague very directly addressed Pittsburgh as having a transformative future, as I’d never really given it much thought even though we’d been learning about these futures scenarios this whole time. It’s definitely a shift in perspective when I see Pittsburgh that way, which explains the so many dynamic reforms that are occurring, and many of the actions that the city is taking in order to make changes to the current way of things. We are working on the same project in studio, but I hadn’t thought about it in that way prior to reading his reflection.
• I think we are both more aware of thinking about the futures of the systems we’re designing for, as well as the impact of products we are bringing into the larger system, and how things would be affected inter-connectedly within the system. I hadn’t thought of how I could become more adapted, but I think that’s a good point to bring up.

10.12 | Futures Wheel

Jim Dator described the futures wheel as follows: “It is a way to identify some primary, secondary, tertiary (or more) consequences of a specific technology, event, or trend. …. A technology, even a trend or the like is written in the middle of a piece of paper and a circle drawn around it. Initial consequences of that development are then brainstormed and written around the initial event. They are also circled, and straight lines drawn from them to the initial event, the result looking like the spokes of a wheel. The event might have both positive and negative — and indeed contradictory — impacts and these are all written around the event until all initial impacts that can be thought of are listed. Then, each of the initial impacts is considered separately as an event, and all of the impacts from each of the initial impacts are similarly written around each of them with spoke — like lines drawn to them — and so on until a more or less complex set of primary, secondary, tertiary or other impacts from the initial event are listed on the paper. The primary purpose of a futures wheel is simply to begin to think about the possible consequences of some new or impending development. These impacts can then be used as data for the creation of alternative future scenarios about the impacts of the initial event in order to develop a logic of the interrelationship of variables and the consequence of one temporal sequence compared to others.”

| WEEK EIGHT

10.15 | Futures Wheel: CLA Crit

This week, we were asked to analyze our futures wheel based on what we learned about Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis (CLA).

LITANY
The first level is the “litany” the overwhelming aspects of issues reported in the media. These often exaggerated, claims combined with a superficial analysis miss the possible underlying causes (and solutions).
Litany refers to what is tangible and applicable to us — in other words, things that we can see, touch, feel and perceive in the present. My futures wheel suggests that working in a design consultancy means entering a demanding and face-paced culture, and would need sacrificing personal time in order to need demands of the design culture. A design consultancy culture means a lot of anxiety, modest pay, and living in a big city (which is not necessarily a preference for me).

SOCIAL SYSTEM & STRUCTURE
Found at the second level of analysis where scholarly, political, or ideological interpretations are provided. More ignored are the third and fourth levels.
A really strong implication here is that only big cities have the capacity to accommodate designers. This means that design, in our society, is viewed as a luxury, and not necessarily needed for a special function, thus is only appreciated in places where needs are beyond a simple “solution,” but in a desired state. However, it may also imply that opportunities in general are more available in big cities because there are more problems to be solved, and more space to harness an intellectual hub.

WORLDVIEWS
The third is the foundation of fundamental beliefs and worldviews, often unexamined because to unpack this level, rich grounding in history, philosophy, religion, anthropology and the arts and humanities are required.
The worldviews implied here are that design is not absolutely necessarily required to enable a society to be fully functional. A large part of our society, as unfortunate as it is, still views design as a decorative sugar-coating field than a functional and important one, one that could make a difference. Luckily, the worldview is starting to change as people — especially those that have greater power in controlling the economy and the direction of our society — are starting to realize the importance of design, and are more willing to give more weight and responsibility to designers.

MYTHS AND METAPHORS
The fourth layer is that of myth. It includes recurring themes such as the epic stories, unconsciously framing everything seen or said in the other three levels. Myths and mythic metaphors work at a pre-rational level, and are perceived to be true within a culture.
A myth that could be associated with the emerging importance of design might be Steve Jobs and Jony Ives’s legendary breakthrough with Apple products. Steve Jobs and Jony Ives had an incredible vision for Apple’s design in terms of both the physical product as well as the experience of such a product, which many companies nowadays try to emulate, believing that they can yield the same results.

10.22 | Week 7 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

This week’s materials were really quite dense, to the level that I had a lot of trouble really grasping the concept. We learned about Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis (CLA), which basically puts everything we know in a complex system that comprises of many intricate layers, from a very close-up and narrow focus view to a much broader, long-lasting view. The first level is the “litany” which is the various opinions exposed in the media. These exaggerated claims, when combined with a superficial analysis, often overlook the possible underlying causes found a the second level of analysis where scholarly, political, or ideological interpretation are taken into consideration. Zooming out even further are the third and fourth levels of analysis — the third being the foundation of fundamental beliefs and worldviews, which are often ignored because of the broad range of knowledge required in history, philosophy, religion, anthropology, and the arts and humanities to be able to unpack.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

Quite honestly, this knowledge will be pretty difficult to apply in any projects that I’m working on at the moment, but will be very interesting to keep in mind as I examine future projects. It makes me wonder if people are more drawn to litany because it is much more relatable and requires less interpretation and a shallower scope of knowledge to understand that the other levels of analysis in the CLA, meaning that people are much more inclined to buy biases, as brought by the media, than by bigger pictures and greater trends. This awareness will ensure that I do better research for future projects to verify its holistic views and be wary of biases.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

I might keep it in mind the importance of having a holistic approach to design and design research, meaning that I will avoid jumping to conclusions in the decisions I make, and will do my best in steering the audience from biases as well. I do admit, however, that it is a difficult endeavour and probably one I will struggle a lot with as a designer because the nature of being a designer is creating work that should ultimately be “persuasive” in some sense or another. The only thing is that we hold the key to determining what to persuade the audience of, and that is completely up to the judgment of the individual designers.

| WEEK NINE

10.26 | Future signs, Future signals, and Forces of Change

What are the qualities of things that you have when you go for fewer things? What makes a heirloom? What was luxury in the past? What might luxury be in a future of zero-waste, local manufacture, and minimalism?

When you have fewer things, the few things you own need to be able to serve as platforms to access other things. In other words, just by simply reducing the physical things that we own doesn’t mean we are necessarily reducing the number of functions that we need to maintain the convenience of our current lifestyle. Personally, I would want the things that I own to have qualities of timelessness (not trendy, but classic), durability, multi-functionality, easiness to clean / maintain or sentimental value.

An heirloom, I believe, should be something that holds immense sentimental value. It should be something that cannot be replaced because of the story behind it. An heirloom is unique in the sense that its quality could only have been collected through a series of experiences and through time, which simply cannot be replicated.

Luxury in the past refers to anything that is in the state of great comfort and extravagant living — in other words, spending on things much beyond necessary comfort. For example, brand names that immediately come to mind include Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, etc. These brands offer products that cater to people’s needs, but in a way that is much beyond necessity, therefore, often for the sake of entitlement. Luxury goods existed because they were expensive, and people desired them because luxuries felt exclusive, and more elevated in status — something that used to be strictly limited to royalty. Luxury, in a future of zero-waste, local manufacture and minimalism, might refer to anything that’s beyond the needs of what’s absolutely required in order to live. For example, if I own an iPhone, alarms, flashlights, cameras, and other simple uni-function devices become obsolete and a luxury because they are not absolutely necessary to perform the desired functions anymore. Additionally, anything that requires time and skills and effort to manage can qualify as luxury. Often times, we choose to spend on things that require the lowest level of maintenance because we don’t have time — for example, college students often choose to use disposable kitchenware because they don’t have time to clean up the dishes; therefore, suggesting that time is the ultimate currency, and the greatest form of luxury. In other words, anything that deprives us of optimal convenience is a luxury.

Brainstorm products that fit in to the futures that emerge from the future signs. Imagine an alternative future where people are minimalists. What is a day in the life like for these type of people? What products would be not be necessary anymore? What products might you design in this type of world? Do future signs future signals exercise. Imagine that Bea Johnson and the Zero Waste household is a future sign. What products exist in a Zero Waste Lifestyle. Or if you are an environments track student, what might the shopping environment (or a retail experience in a store) be in such a future? If you are a communications design student what might be a communication product or strategy in such a world (e.g., print, posters, radio, social media, tv, etc)?

Minimalists might spend the day working on projects that help with sustainability and help direct people in a way that would adjust their life accordingly to fit the framework of a sustainable lifestyle, and then the basic necessities of daily life. In this world, products that take on multi-functions would be prevalent and demanded. Examples of communication design products might include interfaces that help us keep track of our energy usage, consumption and sustainability. There might also be communication design products that help promote a movement towards a sustainable life, such as blogs that guide the audience in a gentle and simple manner, and posters to provide encouragement.

10.29 | Week Eight Reflection

What did you learn this week?

This week’s class was pretty interesting. We watched videos about two types of lifestyles: consumerist and minimalist. The videos we watched about consumerism, I would say, were mostly negative and fear-inducing. Consumerism was a mindset instilled in people for economic purposes, forcefully creating demands that don’t actually exist so that people would be inclined to spend. It was a terrible idea with a good intention — promoting mindset of owning physical possessions to grant us satisfaction. In a sense, we now desire for a lot of things we don’t actually need, because there’s a fallacy that the more you own, the happier you would be…And this is where minimalism comes into play. Minimalism is essentially the nemesis of consumerism, the opposite end of the spectrum, holding a deep belief that owning less equates to greater joy. The people who practice a minimalistic lifestyle are able to think more clearly, and be less attached to physical things that aren’t needed — and, not to mention that they tend to be a lot more environmentally friendly (because they create less trash) and financially more economical, because they can scratch the cost of packaging. However, I feel like this mindset has been idealized and made far too simple. In my opinion, it’s important to maintain a balance — it’s healthy to purge our belongings once in a while, remind ourselves of what we really need, especially as college students who are not likely to stay here permanently, and develop a good sense of what is consistent with our identity (I really agree with the 10 item wardrobe video, that having less clothes that fit our style is more beneficial than owning tons of clothes that we don’t actually wear) — however, I believe that as human beings, it’s still inevitable for us to keep some belongings that have sentimental values to us, things that don’t always serve a functional purpose, but a more emotional purpose…and I suppose that is arguably a function in itself.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

Right now, we’re working on a project on the topic of hurricane Katrina. We were shown a series of interviews by This American Life, and our task is to transfer that into a book, or some type of visualization that would enable us to tell its story. I’m not sure how much of what we learned about consumerism and minimalism can directly apply to what we’re working on, but I do think that learning about the meaning of objects through these perspectives help me better empathize with the victims of the natural disaster, who have lost everything they own. It helps to see where they find satisfaction and joy, despite the loss of their physical assets.

Additionally, learning about the different methods that help me move in the direction of minimalism is really helpful, since it would encourage me to try reducing things I don’t need, and distinguish between things I want and need.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

Having seen that even extreme minimalism can be practiced, I would be more inclined to think about ways of reducing things that are redundant in the design projects that I work on, especially in services that would require processes and objects. I would think about the ways that complicated systems that could be reduced or simplified — but with an emphasis on clarify over simplification. Additionally, I would think about the ways that I could integrate services or products that are more environmentally friendly and economical, considering the wider perspective.

WEEK NINE

11.5 | Week 8 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

This week, I understood the different types of futures a little better, thanks to Arnold Wasserman’s thorough explanations. Plausible futures (a subset of possible futures) encompass futures that are likely to happen whereas possible futures include anything anything that “might” happen based on our current knowledge of how things work (e.g. laws of physics, processes, causation, human-interaction). Fantasy includes futures that involve knowledge we lack or transgressions to currently accepted laws of physics or accepted scientific understandings.

I also learned more about the purposes of futurists, and the role of designers in defining futures. Futurists construct pathways, backcasting from the future to the present, to identify milestones and barriers. They elucidate scenarios from multiple perspectives and across generations to reveal critical connections, possible breakdowns and unintended consequences of designed futures, ultimately revealing who the winners and losers in any designed world are.

I was quite intrigued by our discussion with Judy in class about education. I definitely believed it to be desirable to have free education. I believe that education is the solution to many of the world’s problems. Like the famous Bible lesson, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” giving someone the access to education opens up a whole lot of possibilities and enables people to find solutions to problems instead of constantly living in the charity of someone else’s will. I believe that good education will be able to maximize talents and encourage the population to really pursue things they are passionate about, not solely for the purpose of practicality, but for contributing to the society in the different ways people are gifted. However, some issues that arose in class were that free education were that free education could possibly reduce quality of resources given to the institution and quality of education per student because of high student to teacher ratios. An interesting point that was made by a classmate is “education should be free for all, but not all education should be free,” suggesting that basic education should be provided for everyone, but the choice to invest in higher quality should also be an option available. Another thought is that information is already becoming extremely accessible (and even free to an extent) given how much flow goes on between individuals and networks. This totally changes the game plan of the traditional education system, where education and access to information is limited to those who can afford it. A brilliant point of discussion that I found was when someone brought up the question of how we can measure passion. “How do we measure passion? Ultimately, that’s what will make a difference — how to we motivate others to work towards making a difference with their talents and skillset as opposed to merely obtaining the skillset?” This is a tough question, but having it brought up will prompt more thought and investigation. Definitely something worth looking into.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

I often feel that a lot of what I learn in design futures is more immediately applicable to my life than to design projects, which I actually think is a good thing. Studio is structured to help us to develop sharper skills as designers, but I feel like the auxiliary courses are used to help us keep up with the larger perspective of things, and how to orientate ourselves as designers in a world that doesn’t simply revolve around design. For me, learning about education and the importance of the measurement of passion was a huge one that can apply when I’m looking for jobs, and also when I (possibly) have kids in the future and encourage them to move in directions that would help bring out what they are truly passionate about. It’s always been emphasized in my family that passion exceeds what the “trend” is headed towards, so I want to help those around me to also bring about their true passions by figuring out what they really are.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

I think that understanding the different types of futures that I can expect will help me create various ways pathways for futures that lead to different ends. This will help me contemplate different issues in situations that might arise and brainstorm ways to fix these problems. It’s also helpful to see our roles as designers to have an imperative position in determining the futures for our world, and opening our eyes to the values of what we do.

| WEEK TEN

11.7 | Reflection Peer Review

Reflection 1:

• My colleague discussed Wundunn’s talk about gender equality in depth, which I didn’t mention as much. To be honest, there is a lot of gender inequality issues that I have never faced much of in my life, therefore sometimes it’s difficult for me to relate to such a high degree about why it’s worthy of an issue for putting into the spotlight. Growing up, I’ve been very sheltered and always had the luxury of being treated with equality amongst my peers (despite that the typical Chinese family is much more biased towards favouring sons), so in a sense, I’ve been very ignorant of these issues especially more so the issues in America. Now that Trump has been elected to be the next president for America, I can see the raw sexism that’s prevalent in the U.S, which is actually quite terrifying. As for free education, I think we hold pretty similar views in that the quality of education would certainly become compromised if it were achieved at this point.
• My colleague brought up a very interesting point about sexism in the field of design. She is a product designer, which makes the divide vastly evident — it’s very clear to her that many of the projects they work on are male-oriented, but are marketed towards women to enable their husbands to use the products. I feel less of that imposed sexism because as a communication designer (especially at CMU), my class is comprised of largely females, and the projects we work on don’t seem as gender-specific. In a sense, communication design as a field does seem a lot more gender-free because of the content and materials being dealt with. While women and girls are empowered by media to be stronger and independent, I see a lot of biological reasons for why there are things that are more appropriate for men to work on, especially as a small-statured Asian woman. Industrial design has always been seen as heavy-duty and male-oriented because of that, and I remember a conversation I had with a designer while I was applying to university who discouraged me to enter the field of industrial design because of how “demanding” it was. So yes, sexism is definitely implied, but sometimes I don’t see a gender-defined role as a bad thing necessarily. I see it more as a way for society to function — men and women should work complementarily in their different assigned roles to make a small society (a family) function. However, I do think that the right to pursue something if you are truly passionate about it should be granted regardless of gender.
• My colleague believes that design is a relatively well accepting field for women, but male prevalence is still prominent and therefore want to make a difference in balancing out the representation. I really respect that ideology, but I’m also grateful for the flexibility of being a designer in that there are still things I can do (that I see fit for being an Asian female) which I can balance out with design work because of the possibility of being a freelancer.

Reflection 2:

11.9 | Unpacking Normative Futures (Notes)

“Lose like you don’t care, win like you’re used to it” — P. Scupelli’s Father

Gender equality said by white man is really saying something.

It’s important to pay attention to discomfort. Understand where it’s coming from, because everyone’s experiences and backgrounds. Racial minority have felt the pressures many times…

Cornel West (design, ethos, and action basis) — American philosopher, academic, social activist, author, public intellectual and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Philosophy is about our finite situations

Democracy becomes a critical disposition

Democratic — white male supremacy,

“The first step towards philosophy is incredulity” — Diderot

Does ethics only come from an established / institutionalized set of beliefs (e.g. religion), or can it be from within?

The ideal member in a society is a producer, who can provide and contribute to the society.

“The real man” doesn’t really deeply need anyone, love nor compassion, the loner can go his own way, any kind of social arrangements.

Women’s oppression has always been present because of physical weakness.

When we think about justice for people with mental and physical disabilities, how do we deal with this? There are many people with physical and mental disabilities (when we were little children, and when we age)

Bodies are very unequal and different levels of power, as well as the potential of different brain powers (intellect). How to educate children with disabilities, how to give them political representation, how to create cities and spaces for them?

The capability approach. All of human beings have inherent dignity. All worthy of circumstances that match dignity. Life, bodily health, bodily integrity, development of senses and thought, development of reasoning, development of affiliations (family and community, political), play and recreational opportunities, relationships with other creatures of the society. People want to join out of love, and create a better future.

11.12 | Week 10 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

The past week has been a difficult week for me, as it was for many of my classmates. The presidential election resulted in a painful experience for many people including myself — and I, even as a non-American, couldn’t escape the metaphorical pain and experienced in quite a physical way when I flew off my bike and landed on my face. November 9th, 2016 was a difficult day indeed. Unfortunately, due to my mishap, I wasn’t able to hear all the discussions that took place in class (I missed Friday’s class), but solely basing off of what I heard in class and seen in the videos on Wednesday, there were many themes that were touched upon.

I felt that the things we’ve been learning about in Design Futures has become a lot more real and relevant in the last week, very very suddenly. The fact that Donald Trump has won the election felt almost like the introduction of a disruptive technology to me — not in a good way, but in a way that was intrusive and interfered a lot of my previous plans for my future. Trump plans to eliminate the OPT (Optional Practice Training) period for international students, meaning that I may not have the option to stay for an additional 12 months following graduation — I will basically be faced with making the choice of job searching and making sure I land a job here while still in school, or choose to look for employment elsewhere/returning to my home country upon graduation. Donald Trump winning the election was also the short-term fear of many people in my class — actually, he may possibly be the long-term fear, too. I can’t quite recall. But our design class has evidently been shaken and upset by it. The next step is wonder how people will resolve encountering this fear — for the next four years, how will the Democrats cope with a leader whose ideologies are so out of alignment with their own?

In addition to the recent events, we also learned some things in the OLI, including the STEEP elements that would play a role in Arnold Wasserman’s Normative scenarios. We also watched Sheryl Wudunn discuss the gender equality movement has been activated through education and empowering young women in developing countries to fight for their rights as citizens.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

We’re currently working on the project about the Lower 9th and 10th, and the deeper I dig into the project, the more I realize the inequality and injustice to the citizens of the area were treated with. This makes me wonder what it really means to emphasize human rights and equality — and perhaps I can make a point with it by offering a different perspective. Just by listening to the interviews, however, I can see the irony of wanting to give the people a voice. All the interviewers from This American Life were white, and they dominate more than 50% of the entire show even though this is the story of the people from the Lower 9th.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

Frankly, I’m not too sure. It will depend on context, but I will definitely be more aware and empathetic of the implications of my designs and make sure that I am not stepping upon any boundaries that implies any prejudice/stereotype — that said, I think this task will be immensely difficult. People are sensitive about everything these days.

| Week Eleven

11.16 | Education & Benefits — In-Class Notes / Activities

Inputs → Processes → Outcomes

1. Make a mindmap of how James funds his education currently. Use an IPO Model (input, processes, outputs) to explain the different revenue streams
e.g. James works as a bartender → bar pays him (withholds federal and state taxes) → James pays for his schooling expenses

Ask yourself the question: what are you not thinking about? “what am I doing? what should I be doing?”

In February 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, the then US Secretary of State for Defence, stated at a Defence Department briefing: ‘There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know.’

Whenever things are clear, it’s usually not a good sign…it probably means that you’re ignoring something.

2. Organize how James is paying for university currently according to STEEP forces (for free education)

SOCIAL
- dismantle cultural constraints (e.g. you have to be a certain age to be in school)
- break stigma against unconventional routes to education
- re-allocate where our spending goes (move for education spending)

TECHNOLOGY
- education on the internet
- robot teachers

ENVIRONMENTAL
- learning outside of the classroom in the real world
- spend less money on university classes

ECONOMIC
- increase in job opportunities for Americans → higher wages → pay back loans faster

POLITICAL
- higher taxes
- socialism → shares resources, less waste, more investment in education

11.18 | Free Services — Class Notes

Google — the search engine is provided to us for free, but our information is being sold to companies for personalized advertisement

Public trash cans, toilets, parks — someone is maintaining it and getting paid for it — covered by government. What about having the government pay for maintenance on school campuses?

• Spotify — targeted ads
• VSCO — free app, special filters would require purchases
• If advertisement goes for education, there might be a conflict of interest
• As students we own all the intellectual property that we create

How do you know if/when you’ve reached your goal?

Trust is a hard quality to measure — 6 facets. Why do we trust Apple? How does the material build trust in its brand?
- Aluminum doesn’t crack, it “feels expensive”, it ages well
- cooling is better
- looks better
- it’s more sustainable, easily recyclable
- Genius Bar: “perform surgery on your laptop”

If you need to build a new skill to pay for a living but you’re disenfranchised, who’s going to be paying for your education?

Setting benchmark goals would be helpful to locating how close you are to achieving your overarching goal, one with metrics that can be measured.

Business Canvas Model:
Create a business canvas model for one possible free service that could be provided for students. Bettina and I chose to focus on free high quality digital printing.

http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/canvas-examples

Key Partners
- Printer providers, ink providers, studio space monitors, technicians/ccons, facilities manager, students, delivery company

Key Activities
Printer providers — provide school with printers, working with transporters from delivery companies
Ink providers — supply the school printers with ink, working with transporters to ensure delivery
Paper providers — supply the school printers with paper, working with transporters to ensure delivery
Studio space monitors — supervises the workspace where printers are located so that proper usage and care is maintained, makes sure students are instructed on how to use the printers
Technicians/ccons — undergo training in order to acquire skills for setting up and maintaining the equipment
Facilities manager — deals with housekeeping; verify the status of equipment and work with communicating between suppliers and students (who may need supplies)
Students — acquire instruction for usage of equipment and have responsibility to follow these instructions, contact supervisor when something beyond his or her ability to fix

Key Resources
- Printers, paper, ink, printer instruction manual, verbal instructions, tools for maintaining equipment, warranty from the suppliers’ end

Channels

Revenue Streams
- Taxes, donors, student tuition

Value Proposition
- alleviating worries about financial insecurities in regards to printing
- provide convenience
- permitting equal accessibility to quality work

Customer Relationship
-

Customer Segments

11.28 | Week 11 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

This week, we discussed the means by which people currently pay for education, and how to equate the net cost to zero. We also discussed the likelihood of having free education that is accessible for everyone, and the role of education in the future society — perhaps “education” would no longer be a rigid institution with fixed curricula, but take form in much a malleable and adaptable manner to everyone’s needs. Technology, especially the internet, is drastically impacting the way that people are able to access information and learn. We also talked about the free services that are provided to us in today’s world, and the possibility for that to extend to education in the future. However, the services that are deemed “free” to us are still sponsored in one way or another…so in this case, who is paying for our education? We concluded that some governments/companies sponsor scholars so they would work for said workforce upon graduation, treating education as job training.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

I’m not sure if this would apply to our projects right now, but I would definitely think that it’s important to keep what we discussed in class in mind, whether it be as a designer or as a lifelong learner. As we’re progressing in technology and uncovering knowledge at an exponential rate, it’s important to keep an open mind about what education entails, and what form education could come in — which reminds me particularly of Duolingo, which was developed by a CMU alumni that ingeniously created a way to teach language in a casual, accessible way.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

It’d be interesting in the future to try thinking outside the box, to see how we can use what we learn in design to create products that can make daily life easier and more enjoyable to many, with the accessibility of services nowadays. It might be interesting to take on projects, as a designer, that helps solve problems in a simple way.

| WEEK TWELVE

11.30 | Milestones and Backcasting (Class Notes)

“You’re being taught to learn” — PS

LITANY—EXPERTS — WORLDVIEWS — MYTHS/STORIES
(if you really want change, you must make change from the Myths level — Inayatullah)

• A myth pertaining to education: getting good education will mean landing a good job
• The fastest way to learn about something is to go to the reference library and find the handbook written on the topic, find the experts & what department / institutions. Find an expert in your institution and tell him or her what you’re working on and have the expert help you with the literature and work through it together.

Class Activity: Benchmarks for LEARN2050!

a. Create one row in a spreadsheet for one benchmark goal in the Normative Scenario for LEARN2050!
b. Create a pathway that links future signs in the present to benchmark goals in the future. a →b
c. Add milestones for each decade a→2020→2030→2040→2050 →b
d. What are barriers for each decade that need to be overcome? Remember futures triange (goal forces pushing barriers dragging).

12.4 | Week 12 Reflection

What did you learn this week?

Truth be told, the topics that we’ve been covering for the past few weeks have been feeling pretty repetitive to me, a little dry and not as rewarding as I would’ve hoped. This week’s backcasting activity the LEARN2050! was pretty interesting, as I’d never thought about reaching the ultimate goal through a reverse process. For my team’s ultimate goal, we didn’t discover anything that was mind boggling or anything (I think setting the goal to having an academic studio learning environment is pretty straight-forward in terms of what each milestone should be set as) but I thought it was a fresh way of looking at a problem. Instead of trying to determine the “next steps” that we’re usually accustomed to thinking about, sometimes it helps to first shoot at the moon and figure out the steps that are required to get there.

How does it apply to a project you are working on, worked on in the past, or would like to work on in the future, or more generally how does what you learned apply to your life?

Backcasting is a pretty good strategy that can be applied to any project, in my opinion, as it’s merely a method of working through a problem. For example, in our How People Work project last year, we wanted to figure out a way to improve the situation of bike storage on CMU campus. We did that by first investigating the problem through user research, asking bikers which routes they’d take, when they’d park their bikes and why they felt or did not feel comfortable parking their bikes on campus. Through the feedback that’s provided for us, we thought about ways to directly address the issue, and eventually came up with some temporary fixes (e.g. a shelter-like overhang for bike parking spaces, similar to those you see at bus stops); however, I think if we used the backcasting method, we may have come up with a different solution that may have been more creative / brought about other interesting unspoken problems users may encounter.

How might you apply it in your design practice?

In the future, I might consider working through any problem prompts backwards and determine ways to reach a solution by figuring out which steps are required and the smaller pieces that are necessary to achieve each of the levels of reaching that goal.

WEEK THIRTEEN

12.7 | Experiential Futures (in-class notes)

Body storming — brainstorming / prototyping scenarios that simulate experiences between services & clients

Think about the end goal you’d like for us to achieve. What is the end goal, where are you hoping to go?

12.10 | Week 13 Reflection

Yesterday, we had the last day of our Design Futures class. As a general note reflecting on the semester as a whole, I still can’t say that I’m fully confident in creating perfect design scenarios, but I can say that I’ve learned various ways of going about thinking about futures scenarios that might come in handy, and are a lot more systematic in the way I could approach than my previous guessing in the dark.

Now, specific to this week’s class — this week, we formed teams of three to four to create a futures scenario that involves education in one way or another. Each of the teams came up with their unique paths in approaching this subject. My teammates were Lena, Bettina and Treat, and we proposed the idea of a futures scenario in which design classes are introduced at a very early stage, rising in prominence and leveling with subjects such as English, math and the sciences (classes that are a fundamental part of the curriculum). We discussed the potential of the design school going into bankruptcy because the skill set that we are being taught in design school now could easily be replaced by the rising young generation of designers. We wrote a script that follows the conversation of a family Christmas dinner, a conversation about education across generations.

Some presentations that stood out to me:

• Adella/Maggie/Lois — African Elephant Sketches with VR
• Tina/Jeongmin/Popo — VR could be used in an immersive experience for educational purposes, which many benefit students with short attention span.
• Kevin/Max/Jasper — “Fill in the blanks to these things” “That’s…basketball, that’s two people having a face to face conversation, and that’s

I found it very interesting that the same (or similar) technologies can be interpreted and applied in so many different ways. While certain methods of using the technique prove to be quite clever and sophisticated, in some scenarios it really brings out human stupidity and the tragedy of losing touch with reality because of the virtually created worlds that are so believable.

I believe that with the rapid advancement and proliferation of technology, humans will one day have no impact on the decisions for this world whatsoever. We will have bore technology that is more powerful than us. However, I believe that with moderation between how far we decide to integrate technology into our lives is absolutely necessary to keep everything in check.