Thursday 12 November 2009

Vision 2020

Over the dates 11th to 30th October I attended a Design Camp at Design Skolen Kolding that looked towards future design in the areas of fashion, transport and communication.

The two weeks involved lectures and project work based on the processes of the design consultancy, IDEO. We were guarded through their methods of creating a pitch and success critera, stakeholder mapping, user research, personas, concept generation, user journeys and prototyping.

I was involved in the Fashion Rethink part of the camp. I found this way of working very different to what I am used to and found it very useful in creating products and services, however I feel it would be less relivant in straight fashion design.

The user centred research I found fascinating and particulary enjoyed, even if it was nerve wracking talking to complete strangers. From our initial interviews to testing our prototypes this user research was invaluable.

I didnt enjoy the user journey element of the task, and especially found the building of a mini persona and touchpoints out of clay and pipecleaners particularly unnecessary.

It was a shame the camp did not last an extra week, as I feel the amount of work we were trying to produce was not given an accurate time scale. Some of the processes seemed rushed, it would have been great to be able to spend more time on them and perfect them.

I went to the camp thinking there would be a strong principle of sustainable design enforced, however was disappointed that it was somewhat overlooked. However saying that, I do think the groups made an effort to consider sustainable and environmental issues.

Just to let you know, my group (see our blog) designed a mobile phone application that connects to your wardrobe and your friends wardrobe to encourage swapping and the desire to keep hold of your clothes for longer. A shopping application also diverts you from actually shopping to swapping.

Finally, Kolding was a wonderful town and I really felt at home there. The Design School had fantastic facilities, lecturers, students and of course canteen!