Promoting Innovation – Design Thinking!

Michelle:

“Hello!   I sincerely hope that everyone enjoyed the SPACE17 “DESIGN & THINKING” event series brought to you by the UX Lab. This string of activities was inspired by a book I came across 2 years ago: Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. Another muse was a Taiwanese documentary on Design & Thinking, funded by Kickstarter. Since this year our corporate goal is CHANGE, we wish to introduce “Design Thinking” as a means to go in this direction. “Design Thinking” is not a process, it is an attitude for thinking and acting.  Not only would it help us reach our goal more efficiently, it encourages change and transformation in an organization. No matter if it comes down to designers, marketers, researchers or managers, when facing a certain challenge, Design Thinking would provide you a good way to look past fixed frameworks and dig up a better strategy. Thank you all for your participation, and let us work together in the future!”

Everyone has heard about “design thinking”, but what is this idea really about? How does one “think creatively”? Can “design thinking” really solve problems? Hence, the UX Lab arranged for a showing of a Design Thinking documentary to explore deeper on this subject.

Why this film? As how the director, Mu-Ming Tsai, puts it: “In this tablet-and-smartphone dominating generation, the concepts of ‘hyper link’ and ‘interdisciplinary’ replace conventional logic. This affects every aspect of our lives, and from it, stems more complex and new problems as well. World famine, environmental issues, poverty and such… These issues no long are evaluated from statistics alone. Sociologists address this as ‘the wicked problem’: People find it hard to deal with them with pure reason or pure sentiment. They need to be confronted with an entirely new mentality. Design Thinking, then, is the beacon of hope amidst the chaos. It just might be the answer that all post-modernists are looking for.

The production is sponsored by the biggest fund raising platforms in the Us, Kickstarter, subsequently covered by reports from media platforms like Fast Company, Metropolis and Core 77. Patents such as Google, Microsoft and Target request this film to be shown in their corporations. The executive director of AIGA, Richard Grefé, also acknowledges the documentary as “a great contribution to the designing industry”!

Activity 2: Face to Face with the director of Design & Thinking

Innovation calls for a garage spirit

Besides from the 6 showings, on March 29th, UX Lab also held an interview with the people behind the making of Design & Thinking, Mu-Ming Tsai and Iris Lai, to share with us their reflections of the film. The nature of Design Thinking is to encourage all to reach out to different people in different divisions, and be more open to new proposals. In the documentary, there is much exchange between the language of cinematography and design, and in a way, it shows us the dynamic sparks fused by the clash that leads to infinite possibilities.

Stay tuned for a feature article covering the talk in the next issue of G!Voice (Vol59).

Lecturer:

Mu-Ming Tsai, Creator of Muris, The Director of Design & Thinking.

Iris Lai, Creator of Muris, The Creative Director of Design & Thinking.

A. The Concept of Design Thinking: User-oriented perspectives! 

Design Thinking is a creative and methodical approach that seeks an alternative solution to improve everyday life. By applying analytical thinking, this attitude consists of three major steps: “Inspiration”, “Strategy” and “Design”.

Tim Brown, the chief executive officer of IDEO, defines Design Thinking as the following: Is it “a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos, powered by a thorough understanding, through direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed, sold, and supported”.

B. Design Thinking Step by Step

This month, SPACE 17 shared a very successful case: The LuminAID solar-powered inflatable light, as to demonstrate an actually case study of Design Thinking! The invention of LuminAID utilizes this method to the max. After a long period of dialectic research and development, it finally came to be! The product not only was crowned as one of the best contemporary designs, it played a great role in helping the Haitian earthquake victims start over. How do we actualize Design Thinking? Join us for a virtual tour right now!

C. Hands-on Practice! Creating a custom GAMA Order App

What do gamanian’s want? What kind of afternoon tea, holiday gifts, gama products, gama sports events are requested? This month’s exhibition introduces gamanians to use Design Thinking in creating the “GAMA Order APP”!

        ▲Everyone is excited to participate in the GAMA Order App event. Post-its are used to come up with prototype ideas that can be revised simultaneously.

D.  Ambient Advert

The concept of Design Thinking permeates the whole building! The elevator’s on 15F and 18F now are “in 3D”, echoing back to our motto of “thinking outside the box”! ▲18F Elevator lobby▲15F Elevator

Join our additional tours! Make reservations now!

SPACE 17:  The Design Thinking Tour

ž    Tours:   April 12th (Fri), April 26th (Fri)

ž    Time: 3. 00-3. 30

ž    Registration: SPACE 17 SNS Board