When Tim Brown said that ”design is getting big again”, he meant that Design is moving (or has moved, in my humble opinion) from a form giving exercise and into the boardroom where is have become a much bigger strategic activity.

I agree. Design is fast becoming a more strategic and holistic consideration in many organizations evident with its application through out many levels of the entire business.

If we use Everett Roger’s theory of “Diffusion of Innovations” to help explain the rate of take up of new ideas, we can see that Design (Thinking) has moved into the “early majority” phase. Many organizations have realized and recognized the power of design through the success of early adopters like P&G and Apple. I believe Design has crossed what Jeffry Moore calls the ”chasm”.

Click for a bigger image. Cartoon by Tom Fishburne.

With every success there are sacrifices. Through my day-to-day activities in Design Strategy and Design Thinking, I’m starting the sense that the tonality of design is changing a great deal.

The type of Design that lives in the boardroom has taken on a very serious tone. It’s all about results, budgets, trade-offs (or not) and getting stuff done. Design activities such as User Centered Design and Services Experiences have become a by-product of this commercial and strategic approach to design.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with being commercially minded in Design. In fact at Design Sojourn, we pride ourselves in taking a very commercial and pragmatic approach towards our client’s projects.

However it is this change in Design’s tonality that worries me. This soul of design seems to be slowly and surely slipping away. So how do we fix this?

Here is part of the answer. If you ask any wide-eyed designer entering design school why they getting into design, the most common answer would probably be a variation of “making people’s live better”.

Unfortunately Design in the boardroom seems to forget that it is all about the people in the first place. How can this be? Is Design not about the people? Are humans not central in User Centered Design and Design Driven Innovation?

Yes they are.

But humans are often now seen as just a means to an end, an end goal that is under-pinned by a commercial consideration. It’s looking more and more about giving people what they want, regardless if it’s good for them or not. The engine of consumerism just goes on and on.

We mentioned earlier that half of the solution is about making people’s lives better. The second half should then be about focusing your design work on making people happy.

When put you combine making lives better with making people happy, it all starts to make sense. Suddenly, the edge gets taken off those tough commercial design decisions. There is now a greater meaning in why you are designing this product or service in the first place. I think this is a much better approach than just focusing on giving people what they want or did not know they wanted.

So I like of offer all you dear readers this industrial design manifesto for 2012 that asks you to put the soul back into design. I hope you will join me, and together we can make the world a better place. If you find this manifesto meaningful, please share it and tell all your friends. Thank you!

From today, we will be running a weekly column to help this new movement grow by sharing our picks of the plethora of great ideas and good industrial design worth considering.

We rate these projects under the following five criteria:
1) Idea novelty,
2) Design quality,
3) Value for money,
4) Feasibility for manufacture and delivery, and
5) Contains an X-factor (i.e. solves an important problem, saves the earth, super awesome design etc.).

If a project gets selected you can be assured that it contains all 5 of these criteria. If you are running a crowd funding program on Kickstarter or any other platform and is interested to be considered on Design Sojourn, please drop us a message on our contact page.

HICKIES Turn your Shoes into Slip-ons.

THAT’S WHY WE’VE CREATED HICKIES® – A ground-breaking lacing system that replaces traditional shoelaces and lets you easily slip in and out of your shoes while keeping them snug and secure. Never tie or untie your shoes again! Get rid of the bows and customize your footwear.

Laces are a necessary evil. The sneaker purist may disagree, but I believe most people hate them. I remember one of the things teenagers do is to lace up a shoe so that it is loose enough to slip in but tight enough so that it won’t fall off their foot. Getting the tension right was a skill, and Hickies made this skill obsolete. But seriously folks, these Hickies, designed by husband and wife team Mariquel & Gaston, is going to be a big hit.

Back the project here.

Scanbox Turns your Mobile phone into a portable scanner.

Scanbox is an easy to use, affordable and unbelievably portable scanning box that uses your smartphone’s camera to take amazing high quality scans. It’s easy to set up and packs down flat to easily fit into your bag or brief case.

This idea is perfect for getting quick document scans on the go (i.e. concept sketches on the beach anyone?). Having a fixed position means it should get rid of the perspective error on the document edges. Designed by Phil Bosua, Ben Hillier and Luke Allen from Melbourne Australia.

Back the project here.

MaKey MaKey: An Invention Kit for Everyone.

MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween. It comes ready to use out of the box with everything you see above: MaKey MaKey, Alligator Clips, USB Cable.

This project brings back memories of those electronic hobby kits you could find at your neighborhood hardware or electronics store. These days the creative development that comes from working with your hands seems lacking in schools. So I’ll support any project that encourages handwork, especially when it is so easy to use and requires no programming. Makey Makey is by Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, both final-year PhD students at the MIT Media Lab.

Back the project here.

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Disclaimer:
1) Design Sojourn is not affiliated, related or sponsored by any of the projects selected here.
2) While there are plans for this to be a weekly column, we will only publish our picks if there are any that we think are suitable. We may go for weeks without publishing any.

I was shocked how hard it was preparing for Pecha Kucha Night. Even after seven iterations, I was still not done! Despite being a seasoned presenter, Pecha Kucha was a brand new experience and a challenge indeed.

For those that don’t know, Pecha Kucha is a gathering of creative minds to share what they are passionate about. As creatives like to talk, Pecha Kucha runs its presentations in a unique format; 20 slides that stay up for 20 seconds each, no more, no less. Like an emotionless robot, it all runs on automatic leaving many presenters in mid-sentence when the slide changes.

People say that we should treat the creation a presentation like a design exercise. I agree. But being forced to work within the constraint of 20 X 20 slides you suddenly realize why Simplicity is hard and very few people do it well.

In the process of creating my slide deck for Pecha Kucha and then subsequently presenting it, I relearned a number of presentation techniques that could also apply to any normal presentation that has the luxury of time.

1) Consider your Presentation Style.
Are you a presenter that tells stories and uses slides as a visual backdrop? Do you need to prepare your presentation with detailed notes? Are you the type that bullet points everything you need to say on a slide? Whichever it is, you will need to be fully aware of your presentation style and keep to it.

I’m the type that likes to talk off the cuff, flowing and ebbing to the crowd’s response. However because of the format of Pecha Kucha, I wrote everything down for fear of overrunning the 20 second per slide format. This killed my flow, as my mind struggled to switch from my usual presentation technique. I ended up referring to my notes frequently and that cost me some audience engagement.

2) Keep it Light
I also realize almost immediately that a slide presentation should not be used as a training manual.

There are just some topics that don’t work at Pecha Kucha. Explaining complex theories or scientific problems is one. It goes so fast anyway, so the heavy stuff just goes over the head.

I think my presentation on Design Thinking almost crossed the no-go line. I believe the best topics for Pecha Kucha are anecdotal stories which works great for the portfolio stories it originally started with.

In the real world, your presentation format may be in the form or a class lecture, a cozy portfolio review, or staged performance etc., regardless of what it is, be aware of how much a presentation can do before it become too much.

3) The Power of One.
One thing to keep strictly to when designing a Pecha Kucha presentation is that your total presentation should only communicate 1 key topic. Furthermore, each slide should be restricted to 1 point only. The key to keeping things simple is to ask “What am I trying to communicate?” and “Do I really need make this point?”

While this restriction is a must for a 20 second pace, I have found that this should be also a key requirement for presentations in the real world. Even with the opportunity of having more time to read the content on each slide.

I have sat through so many presentations that meander badly, or have far to many confusing bullet points on a slide. There is something to be said on the efficiency and impact of keeping slide presentations simple.

4) The Tale of 2 Presenters.
There are actually two presenters at every presentation; you and your slide.

You really figure out the value of both “Presenters” at Pecha Kucha. You can use one to support the other, or even design the presentation in a way that when combined together they tell a much bigger story.

Therefore, it is a real pity to only repeat to the audience what the bullet points on each of your slide say. Furthermore, this also means that most slide decks can be reduced by 50%.

5) Keep the Presentation Sharp.
In Pecha Kucha we are advised to keep the verbal element to 2-3 sentences a slide.

This also makes sense in normal presentations as well. Focus on the points you are trying to communicate and that will prevent you from rambling on more than you need to.

6) Pick a Topic You are Familiar With.
At Pecha Kucha always pick a topic that you are familiar with, or willing to get familiar with. When you are familiar with a topic it just rolls off your tongue naturally, especially in presentations with time constraints. Oh, don’t underestimate the value of practice, it does make perfect.

7) Pause for Effect.
One thing that was really hard to create at Pecha Kucha was strategic pauses to let points sink in. With the rapid 20 second pace, even giving people time to laugh was almost impossible. This means you could come across like you are racing through your presentation.

This challenge made me realize and cherish the importance of strategic pauses in a presentation. When you are now designing a presentation that has the luxury of more time, you can now use this time efficiently to drive home key points, increase audience engagement, or even as a great icebreaker.

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I hope you enjoyed reading my learnings from presenting at Pecha Kucha. I love to hear your thoughts, and if you have experienced Pecha Kucha please do share your learnings as well?

I’m going to be presenting at the 4th Pecha Kucha Night here in Singapore and speaking about “How design makes people’s lives better”.

In typical designer fashion I’m still tweaking it, but the premise is that it’s going to a different take on Design Thinking with the focus on what good it actually does. Hopefully it is going to be more exciting that the usual boring talk about process and tools.

It’s going to be on this Friday 18 May (Tomorrow!), 7pm at the Loft Cafe in Chinatown. If you happen to be in Singapore, do stop by and say hi! I’ve heard that it’s a full house; so do come early to get your seats.

See you there!

A little change of pace in today’s blog post. I can really relate, as I’m sure you can, to this cartoon by N.C. Winters for Freelance Switch. It does on occasion happen to me, but it gets more frequent when I’m mulling over a serious problem. How about you dear reader?

Enjoy!

Via: Freelance Switch.