TRANSCRIPTION OF MAY 10 WORKSHOP
POWELL: The briefs under 10TouchPoints Design Competition are challenging. It’s no doubt that some of you maybe daunted by it. But here is an encouraging note. Good designers look outside of the design briefs. Only look at it once, then go off on your own, and only look at the brief again at the end of the process to check if you’ve met all the key requirements. A brief is afterall a list of clients’ prejudices. The number one thing we’re looking for is the IDEA in your solution.
It is good ideas that will get you to win this competition. It’s not enough to give a great looking bus stop or sexily styled food container. We want ideas that are poetic, lyrical. Ideas which are amusing. Nothing excites people than something physical than can make them laugh. Bring humour to design solutions.
You maybe able to, and should, fulfill the basic criteria, but can you make people smile?
We want solutions that capture the imagination. Design is not dull. Design is about inspiring other people with wonderful ideas. When people see your solution, they should be crying out “Thank God someone sorted that out!”
So how do you do this?
Have a clear vision. Most designers only have a rough idea. Bring some clarity and sharpness to that vision. It’s not just about creating things. But where are you going with it, why and how?.
THE UNEXPECTED BUT RELEVANT SOLUTION. (Dick showed a short clip of a Japanese woman folding a t-shirt in seconds found on youtube). It is something as simple as the way you fold a t-shirt. You won’t expect it to be this easy, but it can be. With the right idea, one can provide a simple but very needed solution.
3. The three key things to consider are PEOPLE, PLATFORM, and INNOVATION.
4. PEOPLE. Designers need to understand what people need. How do we go about finding out about people? This would mean anthropology before technology. Essentially, people don’t really care about the material or technology. But just that it should work. How to understand people?
Start to build personas around users of the product or the situation. Build a picture of the kind of people who will use the bus stop. Get a better understanding by building a picture of who they are, their lifestyle, how and where they live? Relate it to a single person.
Look at what’s at the market now. If you are redesigning the hospital signage, start by looking at everyone else’s hospital signage. You can always do better. But you have to learn from the status quo, the market context. Look at what public toilets are like in the world. No use looking at a blank sheet of paper. Unless you’ve seen what’s been done before.
Observation. Watch. Designers see things in a different way. Your most powerful tool is your eyes. You must learn to look rather than see. When you’re looking, you’re active. We all see. Designers look. Go to the problem areas in these briefs - the hospitals, the playgrounds. Watch people using them. If you canyou’re your hands on a video camera, take it.
Talk to people as they come out of the public toilet. Not many will want to talk to you. But if you tell people that you are trying to make it better, they’ll tell you what the problems are with the public toilets. Look at the bus stops when it rains, see how the rain gets into the shelter. Do some thorough observation. Film it and photograph it and identify the little problems that matter.
Small problem that matters. Too often, designers, especially design students, are always looking for a big idea. But the best solutions are from identifying small problems associated with a big idea and solving those first. For example, when men use the urinal, they always miss. They need an easy target area. If you solve that, you also can solve the bigger cleaning problem. Don’t think of the big idea first. Think of the solutions to the little aspects of the brief. One small thing can open up possibilities.
5. PLATFORM. This is about why you’re doing what you’re doing. You need to understand what your story is. Build a story behind your solution. Design it around that one thing and let that be a point of difference.
It could be about the issue of cleanliness or just the smell of public toilets. A story helps you cement what you’re trying to do in your head. The best designs are designs that have a lot of thought behind why you’re doing it. It is not just a question of solving the problem, but about communicating a story. Judges are more open to those who have an interesting story; the reason for the particular design. For example the issue of the growth of the silver generation is the story that Samsung is paying attention to now and forming as a basis for their future design solutions. Before penning it down, designers should do the upfront thinking of the idea.
6. INNOVATION. This is the marrying of the story and the solution. It’s about ‘human innovation’ – the marrying of peoples’ stories and the most innovative solution.
‘Human’ is being people-focused, driven by people’s real needs and desires. It is functionally and practically delivering what people need. It is designed for purpose; designed for context. It is being intuitive to people’s needs at the same time exceeding their expectations with customizable experiences that do not require relearning.
‘Innovation’ is about the new and unexpected. It provides solutions that are different and disctinctive in function and performance. It is about deploying new technology to achieve compelling functionality. It is about exploring new architectures and creating new paradigms.
So let’s look at how we can apply these factors in how we approach the 10 briefs.
Hospital Signage System
POWELL: Tell me what are the problems about the hospital signage?
AUDIENCE: People like to ask people instead of looking at the signs.
POWELL: What you have observed is that people like to ask a person instead of looking at the signs. Replicate that experience. Your solution can be something that gives you an answer through a warm experience. There are already fantastic signage system. It’s not the lack of signage but lack of organization in the signage.
AUDIENCE: Information hierarchy is an issue. Tan Tock Seng Hospital has 5 different entrances. What is the main entrance is not used as the main entrance, especially when people come with public transport instead of by cabs.
Public Toilets
POWELL: Any thoughts about the public toilets?
AUDIENCE: I find the design brief on the toilets quite vague. There is the male or female toilets, and it covers from one item in the toilet to the entire toilet. Can we just design a section of the toilet instead of the entire thing?
POWELL: Don’t just tackle the too small aspect of the toilet. Don’t just do the urinal. We are looking for a big idea. Look at “public toilet” design online. There are people who just make cubicles. There are even a self-cleaning toilets in France.
AUDIENCE: Most of the solutions require big scale injection and revamp. But I’m looking to provide a simple solution and design by dealing with one aspect.
POWELL: But having new gadgets are not the solution. What are the big problems?
AUDIENCE: Cleanliness and smell.
AUDIENCE: For Dutch toilets, the best idea somebody put was a little fly. Accuracy had increased tremendously.
POWELL: That’s exactly the kind of thinking and solution we are looking for. Something that makes people smile and it does its job. One good book on toilets is by called The Bathroom by Alexander Kira, which has all the data on toilets, that may help you in approaching the brief. Look up what has been done around the world. It’s a common fallacy to think that you’ll end up copying what you see around you. But you need to know ‘em.
Bus Shelters
POWELL: Start thinking from your own experience. What do you think? Let’s just start with how they look?
AUDIENCE: Conventional. Too many ads. Too metallic and cold. The weather issues need to be dealt with. The wind sweeps the rain into the bus stop. There are trees clouding your view. You can’t read the bus number. No digital system to tell you. They look heavy.
POWELL: Modern contemporary architecture is very often about floating and lightness, and apparently without structure. The bus shelter essentially should shelter you from the rain. But what is the minimum I need to hold that shelter above my head? Without letting them get in the way of the environment. A lot about design is minimizing the structure, and to produce lightness in the solution. Think about different materials – tension structures, fabric, glass, etc.
Drains and Canals
POWELL: How do we make something great out of the gutters?
AUDIENCE: I’d like to clarify and understand the brief better especially in regard to the cost-effectiveness of the solution. How do we do that and yet provide a great idea at the same time? Is the cost-effectiveness criteria that important?
POWELL: You do have to take cost into consideration. But you got to be aware of what amount you think about it. Even if you were to keep the cost low, you may not win or get a good solution. For glass roofs of bus stops for example, if it’s cheap enough for London, it’s cheap enough for Singapore.
Don’t let your imagination be killed because you’re worried about the cost. We look to be excited and inspired as a Jury. We see it as our job to change the minds of public service. We want to make public amenities exciting and emotional. We want to persuade our partners to make these wonderful things.
Playgrounds
POWELL: Again, look up what’s been done for playgrounds. Look at contemporary playgrounds. They use natural and regional materials. i.e. traditional timber ropes. It is no longer plastic or metal tubes. The playgrounds in Singapore look like institutional things.
AUDIENCE: Playgrounds seem to provide little exploration.There’s no children in the playground.
It’s boring.
POWELL: Exactly. You got to make it interesting enough for the kids. You want to watch a child’s face light up when they see your playground and that they would want to play with it.
AUDIENCE: How far should we project our playgrounds to last in use? 10 years or longer?
POWELL: We do want to get things built. You won’t want to think too far ahead. Your design solutions need to be connected with the realism of making these things. Think of it as something to be built in the next 2 to 3 years.
Bike Dismounting System
POWELL: So what’s the problem about this system?
AUDIENCE: The gaps between the barriers are too wide and cyclists just cycle through them.
POWELL: Personally it’s not a question of barrier. It’s about safety. It’s about redesigning a system that persuades the rider to think differently about the interchange. It’s about persuading people to think as they approach the interchange. How do we warn the cyclists? Is there another way of alerting him that gets more and more intense as it gets to the junction? If you only set up a barrier, it’s only going to annoy people. Think about other applications that slow cyclists down? How do you persuade people to be more sensible?
Mailboxes
POWELL: I’m not sure what mailboxes in Singapore are like. But just like every other item, you would have to go to where these mailboxes are and talk to the users. Hang around the mailboxes.
Recycling Bins
POWELL: It is worth looking at the internet and to check out bins in other countries where recycling is already part of their culture. Germany has a developed recycling system. Perhaps it is not just about the way the bin looks but also about influencing the culture to recycle. Look also at how people throw their rubbish to the recycling bin. It must be easy to use.
My personal delight in recycling in the UK is that smashing glass bottles into these bins became a tremendous pleasure. The bins have brushes in the bin holes, so that no glass can come out when you push them through. So you actually get pleasure out of a horrible job. A lot maybe to do with the shapes of the holes. Is the hole the best way of launching a bottle? Note the design language.
Multipurpose ID Card
POWELL: When we first brought up the idea of 10TouchPoints, we took out a Swiss dollar note which signified the national identity of Switzerland as a progressive country. So the multipurpose ID is also about branding of Singapore, while bringing technology into it.
AUDIENCE: To what extent are we to provide the detailing?
POWELL: it is more of how much do you want to win the competition. The more you put into it, the more chance you’ve got. There’s a famous quote I’ve remembered: An idea without form is as worthless as form without an idea. Most design is about building confidence. Is the client going to be confident in it? Do enough that you are confident that it’s doable and it’s exciting.
POWELL: It’s about selling your concept at a Competition. What’s the best way to persuade is with the best idea. How am I going to express the idea and communicate it to the max.? Judges don’t like reading. Does it engage you? Does it look exciting enough to read about it. Unless you pass the first BLINK test, judges won’t look further to understand it.
AUDIENCE: How do you then balance sexy design that pulls at the same time being able to present a strong platform to your design that is mostly communicated by words.
POWELL: Well, you don’t need to use words to present your story. You can use images to show, for example, the way water rushes down the chain, or how we can use water positively to create an effect, or movement in the bus shelter. The use of water wheels for example that engage peoples’ minds. It’s raining buckets here, but there’s something else that engages.
AUDIENCE: What do you think about expressing Singaporean-ness in our design solutions?
POWELL: I am personally not into form-al national identity in design. Being a globalized culture, we are more familiar with each others’ culture that ever before. It’s a mistake for Singaporeans to look for Singaporean-ness. It’s tough. But the crucial thing is if you believe that the people using the items will appreciate it, do it. For example, the use of regional material in context could make a persuasive story.
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