The Design Museum // London
Skillset
Design thinking, Public Survey, Workshop Facilitation, Collaboration, Rapid Prototyping, Art Direction.
Tools
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Indesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premier Pro, Sketchup (3D), 3D Printing.
Project Context
Two week design sprint project (@The Design Museum, London) aimed at tackling the issue of homesickness among young expats living abroad. The product comes in a flat packaging that includes a house and a plane. Both objects are fitted with a chip that contains voice recording & motion sensor.
Using a house and a plane as the typology in the design language is symbolic of the scenario wherein the expat had flown away from his home. These set of toys act as a poetic metaphor and the need to interact with these toys brings in a sense of belonging to the user.
How to use it?
Parent takes the plane, records a message and give it a flight. The accelerator sensor of the plane detects motion and sends the voice message forward. On the other side of the world, the house (made from the flatpack) owned by the expat lights up. This signifies that a message has arrived from the family.
The expat opens the tiny door of the house and hears the message. The voice message service works the other way round too wherein closing the door of the house send the message to the family and the the light on the plane lights up to show that a message has arrived.
Why even use it?
There are moments in our personal lives when we just wish to be around our families without having the need or compulsion to talk. Just being there is a great feeling in itself that eradicates alot of other negatives feelings like loneliness, anxiety and depression.
Also there are moments when one just wishes to let the family know they are alright without having the need to be with them over the phone every now and then. This device makes it possible to send and recieve that precious family love without having to put one’s privacy at risk at any given time.
Project Timeline
01
Brainstorming
This collaborative brainstorming exercise helped us as team to identify the issue that we all wanted to solve. The strategic use of design thinking and tech. is also explored in this brainstorming to create probable solutions.
The Team
We were a team of 7 design students from different countries and educational backrounds. This transdisciplinary and multicultural nature of our group offered us a wider range of ideas in brainstorming.
Design Process
We all worked along the principles of the design sprint in order to keep our process concise and effecient. All of us were equipped with the necessary stationary required for this time regulative design sprint.
Design Thinking
We used several group exercises whilst card sorting. The “6 Thinking Hats” and “Yes And!” were two of the most effective group activities to come up on a unanimous decision while brainstorming.
02
Concept & Ideation
Through the collective brainstorming, we all identified homesickness faced by expats as a unanimous issue that we wanted to tackle with design. After having decided the issue to solve, we started with the concept development & design ideation.
Persona
The persona developed for the project was of an expat feeling homesick and missing the family members whilst being abroad. This expat wishes to find an alternative way to express and recieve the family love other than a phone or a videocall, a way that does not interfere with either of the user’s privacy.
Moodboards
This was a moodboard representaig one of our design concept called “The Ghost Sofa”, This was suppose to be a piece of furniture that gently moves on it’s own giving an idea to the user that someone is sitting next to them. This quirky concept accomodated feelings of togetherness & privacy.
Storytelling
Ultimately the idea of having a alternative message device using a plane and a house was developed. This concept solved the purpose of sending and recieving family love whilst securing one’s privacy. This idea was suppose to be presented in a video format therefore the storyboarding was crucial.
03
Project Management
By this stage we had succesfully identified a problem together with a design solution to tackle it. Now we had to divide the work within the team members in order to effeciently utilise the time and be ready to exhibit the project in Design Museum in one week.
Physical Product Design / Yihan, Eunah and Kirsty
Branding & Graphic Design / Kasia
Tech. Design Details/ Jay
Art Direction & Film Making / Bharat & Natalie
04
Collaborative Iteration
Despite having specified individual design duties within the project, we all made the iteration process move forward with a collective effort. We had a group meeting twice a day wherein we discussed the progress within each design module and shared constructive feedback.
05
Design Critiques
The progress of the project was tested after every 2 days with professionals from different sectors of the design industry. Such expertise and feedback helped in improving every aspect of the narrative and the project.
The Creative Critics
Fred Deakin
Bafta Award Winner and professor of creative digital arts @ UAL.
Other Today
Makerspace in east London focussed on sustainable community of designers.
Paul Wyatt
Filmmaker & Producer of creative digital content on multiple online platforms.
Design Museum
Curates - product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design.
The Final Exhibition
@ The Design Museum, London
Team Credits
This project was concieved from the multicultural collaboration of 7 design students from different colleges.
Bharat Chaudhary (Central Saint Martins)
Yihan Dong (Central Saint Martins)
Chia-Wei Lin /Jay (Shih Chien University)
Kirsty Proud (Central Saint Martins)
Eunah Lee (Central Saint Martins)
Katarzyna Bruzda / Kasia (Camberwell College of Arts)
Natalie Glover (Chelsea College of Arts)
Words From The Team Members
“I see you as the natural leader of our group. You have those encouraging skills that brings the best out of everyone.”
— Chia-Wei Lin
“I am very inspired with your design skills and creativity. You are one of the most perfect team mates one can have.”
— Yihan Dong
My Experience & Learning Outcomes
“This collorative design process has taught me the significance of empathy and understanding within a team. I have learnt that it is very important to keep all the team members on the same page with every change, transition or progression of the project. I have also gained confidence in my skills of art direction, storytelling and film making.”
-Bharat Chaudhary (MA Industrial Design / Central Saint Martins)
