Brainstorm Design is a unique new conference dedicated to exploring the increasingly crucial nexus between business and design

Brainstorm Design 2019

I thought today we could do a little crash course introduction to inclusive design in real time. And maybe more specifically, how practicing inclusive design shapes us as leaders, designers, engineers as we practice it in the world. Now my own path to inclusive design was kind of unconventional and I had an opportunity to have this conversation in depth with a really broad range of companies. First building the practice while at Microsoft, and then in my own practice at my own business, consulting with many different companies from Facebook, Pinterest, Scholastic, Mattel, and more, and then most recently at Google. And along the way, the one thing is consistent is the word inclusion means may different things to many different people. And I was invited to write a book on this topic. And in doing so I had to examine whether or not I really understood what the word meant. And in doing that I looked at the root word which is [ INAUDIBLE ] which is Latin for to shut. So exclude is literally to shut out and include is to shut in. They started to wonder if maybe there was something about this mental model of being shut in and shut out that was even limiting the way that we think about inclusions and solutions associated with it. What's the goal of inclusion in this kind of a model? Is it, if you're on the out group to break inside the circle and gain access to the resources inside? Or if you're in the in- group, to open the circle up, and magnanimously invite people to come and share in those resources. Or to get rid of the circle altogether, and make it some kind of free- state utopia. I started to wonder if maybe the nature of the circle itself, and the way it shows up in our designs, was maybe one of the core problems. Which manifests in many ways in our world. One example of many overpasses outside of Manhattan that gate areas like the Long Island Expressway, and the underside of this was built in the 1930s is seven feet, seven inches high, which is just low enough that a public bus can't travel underneath it. Now at the time these were built, public transportation was a primary mode of transit for African American working class families and people of low income. So it, in fact, created a physical barrier to accessing the parks and beaches on the other side. These kinds of barriers manifest in many ways today still. Around the world over 70 % of websites don't meet basic accessibility criteria, legal criteria. And this is creating a barrier to the internet for millions of people. Now the moment this started to unlock my thinking about this shut and shut out model was when I read the World Health Organization's definition of disability, which in 2001 was dramatically redefined as a mismatch to interaction between the features of a person's body and the features of the environment in which they live. And the shift in thinking from disability as a personal health condition, to instead, as a mismatched interaction. Squarely placed the responsibility upon me and my colleagues to examine each of our choices, as we were building solutions, to see how they were either increasing or decreasing those mismatches for people. And started to think about the nature of those mismatches, and how they actually lead up, over time These building blocks of exclusion and the ways that they show up in the world. So, I wanted to understand more, how did these mismatches show up in the first place? One of the biggest culprits is what I've come to call ability biases, which is when we design or solve problems that we ourselves can see, hear, touch. It matches the way we move or learn or solve problems in the world. And what happens is solutions end up working well for people with similar abilities or preferences, but can end up excluding a much broader group of people. So, one example of this in practice, I've traveled a lot, spent a lot of time in public restaurants and airports and as an example. So, this is a toilet, with a new innovation introduced to the back is a gesture based flush mechanism that's activated by a sensor. With a nice sign on the back to let you know how to interact with this design, wave your hand over the sense of that debate. So we ask ourselves, who might experience a mismatch in interacting with this design? It might be somebody who has low vision or is blind, somebody who can't read English, somebody who maybe doesn't have a hand available the [ UNKNOWN ] You start to think about this very public, very basic human need in a place where maybe someone can even complete the interaction independently. Can be a very dehumanizing experience. Mismatches however also can be the source of innovation as a starting. So, my favorite example of inclusive design started with a mismatch is the typewriter. An Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri, and the Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano in the 1830s developed this first prototype. The Countess was blind. And the two of them were very, very close friends. And when they were apart, they wanted to correspond. But if you were blind in the 1830s, you had to dictate your Letter to someone else who would transcribe it for you, and so the two of them worked together to create the first prototype of a typewriter so the Countess could author her own letters, and that design has gone on, without saying, for generations to influence and benefit many of us in other ways. And this examples of exclusive designs like these that premirate our environment. They started with a solution to a mismatch often between two people caring deeply about each other, but they were not to benefit many many more people. So we want to know if we can make this a repeatable practice. Could we do this as an intentional way of building solutions as suppose to perhaps a happy accident? And one of the ways of thinking about this is designing a solution that works well for somebody who experiences a high degree of exclusion, let's say somebody who's born with one arm. And if we design solution that works well for someone who's is born with one arm, it will also benefit somebody who has one arm available because they have an elbow injury, maybe a temporary illness. Or, on a situational basis, they're holding a newborn child or carrying a bag of groceries. And that design will be going to benefit much broader group of people. So coming back to this model of shut in shut out, I've come to think about this more as a cycle. Maybe there is something that we can. Shift in our fixed thinking here, and think about the relationship of choices that we are constantly making, where exclusion can show up at any one of these places, but also the opportunity to shift towards more inclusive practices. So I wanted to quickly, for a moment, go through each of these and show some examples of that, and how it can play out. To start that I'd like to talk about playgrounds a lot. This is an example of the kind of the swing that I grew playing on and we asked ourselves what kind of abilities are required to use this design? Somebody might have to have two hands, two arms maybe two legs. A certain height, certain strength, a certain degree of balance. And you start to see that it becomes a design that's created for a very specific kind of human being. Now, if we were creating a playground and we filled it only with this kind of swing, the only people who would show up to play are the people who match this design, because it quite literally works for them and no one else. And we do this all the time across many different industries. one example from a contributor to the book Mismatch, John Porter, he has a wall. He does a server wall in his home, where he's mounted every video controller since the beginning of time. And he calls it his wall of exclusion. Cause every controllers require two hands to play. And John doesn't have two hands to play. He plays through speech commanding and different types of switches that fit the abilities of his body. But this controllers are very clear indicators who gaming is for and who it's not for. And so one of the ways that John is shifting this practice in his work as a designer at Microsoft. Is working with disabled gamers as code designers and close participants in the design process. To learn from the expertise of many different ways that you might interact with a controller or a game. Which led to the design of the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Which is an interface that will take a diversity of inputs and give people access to any one of the games that you can play in Xbox. Another point on the cycle of exclusion I'd like to share is a story from Tiffany Brown who is an architecural designer in Detroit, Michigan. Tiffany, the first time I met her she told me something that I would never forget, that in the history of licensed architecture in the United States, just over 400 architects have been female and African American, which is 0. 3 %. And this is important because the decisions that are made about how our cities are built what areas are torn down in which ones are rebuilt is gated Often by certain levels of profession here is Tiffany in front of the Herman Gardens housing projects that were torn down when she was 15 profoundly shaped her relationship to this. To the topic of architecture. And Detroit's an interesting place to examine this, although this is a phenomenon that happens in many areas of the world. Because the first public housing projects were developed in the 1930s in Detroit. On the left side here, the Brewster Douglas Housing Projects. Entire neighborhoods were torn down and rebuilt, and this just a couple years ago torn down again. And this practice of tearing down and rebuilding has reshaped the racial distribution of Detroit, which is the image on the right. Where the blue notes denote the African American population of the city, and the red dots denote the white and caucasian American population of the city. And this stark line between those two populations is marked by roadways, waterways, and physical barriers. So one of the ways that Tiffany Brown shifts this practice is working with young people of color to introduce them to the profession of architecture, as a professional choice. But also as an architectural designer herself. And this is an image of her returning to the outskirts of that empty lot to develop a new housing project with the community that she grew up with. And this is a picture from her grandmother's front porch. Another way of thinking about exclusion and tipping toward inclusion is through the tools that we use to develop solutions. This is an image of Wanda D �� az- Merced who's an astronomer, who grew up in Puerto Rico, And growing up she progressively lost her eyesight. And it's a very big deal as an astronomer to lose your eyesight because most of the data that's gathered is analyzed visually. So [ UNKNOWN ] applied a technique called sonification to the data that she was collecting, applying tones of sound and musical instruments so she could analyze it auditorially. So not only did this give her access to her profession, but it also became a tool for many astronomers to use in combination with the visual data they're collecting and to gather auditorium and visually getting different kinds of nuances from the data that they were collecting. And lastly, and perhaps my favorite reason, the cycle. The favorite point in the cycle is why We make and understanding how inclusion plays a role in that. This is an image of Morgan's Inspiration Island in San Antonio, Texas. And Morgan Hartman, as a child, had a combination of sensory and physical disabilities. And it made it very challenging for her to find places to play with many different children, in particular in the heat in San Antonio. So she, with her parents, developed What I think really is the first really inclusive, really deeply inclusive playground water park in the United States. And you'll see here, it's not just about a wheelchair accessible park, there's adjustable real time temperature and the water here for children has different sensory needs. The wheelchair that we see here is powered by compressed air as opposed to a battery. So children can explore any are of the park. And this example for me really underscores the definition of inclusive design that I've come to know and understand. It doesn't mean that you're designing one thing for all people. It means you're designing a diversity of ways that people can participate in the experience with a shared sense of belonging. And then this park is an example. It's really about discovering new areas, having a sense of adventure, and meeting new friends. So I think about that in all the spaces and places that we create and the businesses that we lead and the kinds of solutions that we put out in the world. And people often ask me, where do i start with inclusive design? What's the most important place to start? And I would say, pick any point on this cycle. Whatever moves you, whatever's most interesting to you. But the key is to start recognizing the different kinds of exclusion that show up in these areas of the cycle and then asking ourselves who experiences the highest degree of that exclusion and bringing them right into the heart of the design process. As people who participate in creating those solutions. And we see that, it starts with things like asking who faces the greatest degree of exclusion or who has the most to lose if we tear down one solution and build another one in it's place? Who's voice is missing from our feedback channels? If we only gather feedback in an online forum, the only people who will show up to give us feedback are people who match that design. So this is my kind of quick introduction to inclusive design and there is so much more would love to share with you. I had the opportunity to write a book on the topics called Mis- match and I will be available after this session to answer some more questions or have further conversation about this. But what I found, more than anything is, nobody has a solid set of answers. It's really about an ongoing learning process, and integrating this into whatever aspect of our business makes the most sense. And so I'm committed to building a community. I lead a business called MishMash Design, also dedicated to building the resources that that community might wanna share and consume. And so I just wanna thank you, today, for being part of that community. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: How Inclusion Shapes Design

Design

Kat Holmes, author of 'Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design,' and Director of UX Design for Google, presents on stage at Fortune's Brainstorm Design in Singapore.

One question here, at the front. Yes, hi my name is Agnis Quack. I'm the design ambassador for [ UNKNOWN ], based in Paris. And I just want to say you're absolutey the best person to close this conference, thank you so much! Thank you so much. [ APPLAUSE ] My question to you is that you use such unconventional methods that I think that all of Mackenzie's work about measuring the value of design just goes out of the window. So I wanna know how you measure the outcomes of all the work that you do? What are the signs that your work is having impact? Well, I mean to me, it's coming back to what I was saying the beginning. How many different types of audiences I can bring to think about a complex issue or complex research right? So it's coming back to how many different layers of audiences So I can bring around the table. So, it's like, if I can bring the film gens, the musical gens, which to some level still very much exist in silos, right? There is a market from the film industry, there is a market within the [ INAUDIBLE ] industry, in the art world, and so forth. And they don't really mingle with each other, right? So if I can manage, actually, define a way that this expense will speak to all these different audiences, in a way that they each take away. Some element of that experiment, or some elements of that research. Then, for me, this is success. Beyond that. What I see is being so very important is the establishment of counter- culture within an institution. So, taking an example of the Antares Space Rocket, right? So, we've been going on since 2012. So, it's not like if we just did an event, and then I just left the agency and that was it. We maintained this relationship within the context of the statisticians, so we can actually really do change. Because you cannot make change in one year, right? To modify the way that the transition functions, and so forth, you have to embed yourself within themselves for a really long time. So For me, it's also like how many years can maintain this role within this company so that I can actually act this change and make this change happen and to some level some of the changes that you make up and can be quite violent. You know? And it's an approach I'm trying to maybe change for the years to come. Because I use to advocate for total bombardment and hammering technique. But now, given the context of Trump and so forth, I think it would be absolutely wrong of me to do so, because these people are exactly doing that. So I think to a have much more of a, actually. Yeah, I've completely changed my view on these things, actually. To be. I will say to be able to find compromise at this point in time it's probably the best place to be, because I would say your violence is very much what's being and also the Trump stole your technique that's terryfing Well Question? The front here as well or any from the back? I'm curious to understand how your brain functions, because you got so many roles And the hammer needs to have some sort of makeup. What is the makeup of Nelly's brain? Well I mean then there is a background right? So it's like my dad is Algeria, my mom is from Armenia. So I'm brought up in a family of immigrants. I arrive in the south of France. So already I have that in the DNA I would say in the sense that My granddad fought all his life in France for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to be happening. Straight when I was a kid I was in the street learning about the importance of speech. Speech is a way to convince people, right? So already straight at the start. And then I went into medicine, actually. And then moved into fine art, and then went into textile design, was doing kimonos in Japan for a while. Then found myself in critical design, being a student of Tony and Chanel Wu. At the time we are running this really incredible course at the Royal College of Arts in London. And then eventually found myself doing my PhD in political theory. Because for me it's always been about actually looking at all of these different disciplines, because so many they all merge. If you want to design an event, or if you want to design an experience that is meaningful To some level, you have to address all of this discipline. And I think design, for me, has always been the best place to position myself into, for the reason that I gave. Because I think As a discipline it's one that can really react to the way that the world evolves. And at the same time being able to question and enter in discussion with those other discipline, whether they come from humanities, whether they come from philosophy, whether they come from politics. So I don't feel displaced in that specific, you know Context. But where I feel very much displaced is in places of leadership, and that's why it gets exciting to some level. You know, in places like the [ UNKNOWN ] congress, or federation and so forth. Let's hold off on that. Yes, we just have only a minute. I'm getting the signs, and we're on a very strict, Singaporean, efficient Time system here. So, a quick, quick follow- up from Myvere. [ INAUDIBLE ] But you said that we have to grab you. You told us a little bit earlier, Tony and I, that we have to grab you for anything that we want you for this year. Because you're gone next year. That is correct. Explosion gone. Where are you going? That is something that you will have to follow and. See for yourself. We think she's going to Mars. Well I mean- Why shouldn't I be going under the sea? Or [ UNKNOWN ] But it's this year and gone. We don't know where. You'll find out. We'll get our top journalists on it. Nellie thank Thank you so much. You stormed our brains. Literally.

Brainstorm Design 2019: Defying The Impossible

Tony Chambers interviews Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun about designing immersive experiences that question the status quo and the notion of what is possible for our future.

So in 2015 I joined ododesk to tackle a large scale problem for a worthy course, to unify and build a strong global design practice, to improve product experiences across the board And to help shift that company's culture from being technology centered to becoming much more human centered. Now as I embarked on my new job, I didn't truly appreciate the scale and magnitude that is needed to create cultural change at scale. And am not quite sure other [ UNKNOWN ] they were getting into either when they had somebody like me [ UNKNOWN ] founder of [ UNKNOWN ] believes that we are in the middle of a painful but necessary historical transition the rate of change continues to increase at record base And we are living in difficult times. We need people who can solve problems based on evolving circumstances. Bill Drayton defines these new types of leaders as change makers. His definition, is people who can see the patterns around them. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Identify the problems in any situation. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]. Figure out ways to solve the problem. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Organized fluid teams. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Lead collective action. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And then continually adapt as situations arise. This sounds an awful lot like what we do for a living isn't it? Because change is fundamentally a design problem. Embracers of design- driven culture are change makers. No matter where they sit in the hierarchy of an organization. And you don't need to have the title, " Designer ", in your job title to be one. You just need to think like one. I've used my own design instincts to manage my way through change at global scale. And along the way, I found other change makers who are doing exactly the same thing. So today I'm gonna share six lessons that we all have learned along the way. First major insight, silos in organizations are innovation killers. Now, silos or organizationally necessary in large companies, but they seem to create fiefdoms and self interested parties. It's like a bit of mad max. Many companies intentionally set them up to compete against one another. The price, money, resources, power, don't buy into these pulse notion. The competition is good for teams inside companies. It also feels a little bit like mob bosses defending their territory. Everyone is motivated to stay in their lane and no one can lead the family. No one is interested in sharing power. The end results maintain the status quo. So, first order of business is you have to burst the silos, you have to find your tribe and build a coalition of the willing. I asked John Maeda what it was like to manage change at the Rhode Island School of Design, and he told me that he channeled Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers's neighborhood saying I always looked for the helpers So instead, work across the entire organization, there is safety in numbers. And when you find those like- minded people who share the same hopes and dreams that you do, you can build a large coalition of people who believe in your mission, get things done, and could put pressure on status quo. This can positively impact company culture, So build your influence, Influence is power and power is company currency, Number two executive support is required, Dog Powell DPA of IBM DPA designer IBM who was here yesterday He told me that one of the reasons why he been so successful over a number of years at IBM, is because he had executive support all the way up to the CEO. Executive support is essential in order for design leaders to thrive. Now, designed leadership is still very new to executives who think of design as this tactical non strategic task. Continuous education, evangelism and support is needed by enlightened leaders And in large corporations, you will be surrounded by people will be threatened by you, and will resist change at all costs especially from those in power, and quite often from your own peer group. You need air cover, you do not fit in a box, you need a runway. So look up who do you see who has your back its not worth your time and effort if your executive team does not support the mission it will feel like pushing water a pill. Number three Align YOUR WORK TO CUSTOMER NEEDS AND BUSINESS GOALS Jennifer Kilian is a design partner in Mckinsey and she has had her share of challenges convincing business executives about the value of design. She told me that me she starts every client engagement with quantifiable customer data and always ties that back to the business goals. This is how decisions get made and prioritized. Remember we are still a minority in large organizations. You will most likely be surrounded by people who don't speak design. So try to find common ground with your stakeholders and your detractors by doing things that will be jointly beneficial to them. Their success is your success. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Number four get it done. Thomas Edison once said, vision without execution is hallucination. And some stakeholders get stuck in what I call today land, we got a ship, right here, right now, today. On the other hand, thinking to find the future can scare people, so don't get stuck in vision land either, were system thinkers and it's important to look ahead have a clear strategy and develop a clear path way to execute. Continuously demonstrate measurable progress by executing in milestones. Amar Hanspal, he's CEO bright machines and he taught me that you have to go for the small wins in order to get the big change and in order to drive lasting change It has to be broken down into three or four steps. Small wins making feel like your progress today while tying it to a future goal. Small wins the team see their impact and small wins motivate that team to keep going. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Oops. Number five, you cannot win them all. [ UNKNOWN ] is the director of UX at Google, and She's had a lot of experience working with multidisciplinary teams, which, let's just say have very strong opinions. I don't know how many people have experienced that. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]. Telling me, sometimes you have to try their way first. And then when their way fails, that's when you get your turn. Sometimes, you just have to let things go. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Sometimes, the timing isn't right. Former CEO of Autodesk, Carl Bass, wisely told me, sometimes, no means not yet. We all suffer from the battle of prioritization. Prioritize what's worth fighting for. And sometimes, it's worth to finding good enough criteria. Determinant advance what you're willing to compromise on and what you, umm, and what you won't compromise on. And understand the difference between irreversible change Versus hitting the undo button, and then ask yourself what battles can I win over time? Finally number six, stay true to yourself. I don't know who many of you have been told at one time in your life, that's now how we do things over here? Or fake it till you make it, or fake a TV comment, very tempting. And actually, there's many articles out there that support this strategy. However, I just couldn't do it. A good short- term coping strategy perhaps but misguided advice. Because eventually, your true self will emerge. And it's better for people to know who they're dealing with right out of the gate. So embrace your authenticity and show your vulnerability in all it's imperfect glory. Don't bait and switch, it is not fun to pretend at work And if you feel like you have to walk around pretending who you really are then it's probably not the right place for you to be in anyway. So instead stay true to your values because honesty is both liberating and empowering. And you should have nothing to hide. So, when you join a company as a change maker and you have been given a clear path to lead, done well, you could expect your path to look like this. You are making progress. You are on a roll. You are optimistic. What can possibly go wrong? But then reality sets in, and your journey looks more like this. That shiny glow of [ UNKNOWN ] will wear off and you will experience bumps on the road. And about two years in, you will start to experience deep depths. And that imposter syndrome is gonna come at you really strong. And when we're in a deep, we have basically three choices. We could quit. We could fight through or we can stay and hide somewhere in a corner until it gets better. Most people quit prematurely. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The reality is that failure is inevitable, and it hurts. And it takes time to recover. And if you haven't failed in business, then perhaps you haven't taken enough risks. Muhammad Ali once said, if I didn't experience loss, I would never what I'm capable of. And the higher up you're going in organization, the harder you will fall. So be courageous. Thank you, be courageous. Bouncing back from failure will only make you stronger. Based on personal experiences, when you hit your lowest point and the pain is almost intolerable, You would be getting to experience moments of clarity that will breath new opportunities in life. So embrace those low points as painful as they are because once you hit the bottom, once you clear up the noises in your head, that's when creativity can flourish Then it's time to iterate and evolve. It is time to redesign. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Dear Changemakers and other rebels, change is hard. Change is messy, and change is uncomfortable. And in some cases, it might not be worth the fight. But if you believe the change is worth fighting for, find the inner motivation to keep going especially when it gets hard because life is short. My mom used to tell me what doesn't kill you, will only make you stronger. So my challenge for you today Is to share your stories. Share your successes, and share your glorious failures. Because when we share our lessons with others, we realize that we are not alone. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And so we can build upon these lessons and go into the battlefield together as a coalition of the willing. So, get up, put on that uniform and wear the battle scars proudly because after all we earned them. Thank you very much. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Lessons from the Battlefield

Innovation, radical transformation, change. You willingly run into the company chaos, then ask yourself: “Why is it so hard to get anything done here? What’s the best way to collaborate with my peers? Why is my organization afraid to take risks?” 

Well Nancy we're real pleased to have you here we've been trying for two years now to get this seat to come and join us and talk a little bit about what you do. I'm really excited to talk about Shanghai also because it's such an ambitious undertaking for the For the folks at Disney it's been so long in development. I mean I remember being at Fortune and talking to Bob Iger about it nearly ten years ago. And how excited he was, and it's really all kind of come together in an amazing way. You have, I think one of the best jobs in the world. Yeah I do. [ LAUGH ] Talk to me a little about, share with us the The Imagnineering team at Disney, what it's like. I mean, how many people, and where are they, and how do they work? Yes, well, Imagineering is very unique place, we have 4, 000 Imagineers across 20 countries. That's incredible. It is incredible, and so it's a global resource. And I think what makes it unique is that it's a very multi disciplinary group. So if you think of it as a design firm, you've got everything from special effects to architecture, to media production, everything all under one entity. So our process is very multi disciplinary, very iterative And it's a complex team. But what comes out of it, the unique thing that comes out of it, is clear. And you mentioned that the core of it is in Glendale, where everybody can work in close proximity. I mean, what's that campus like? [ LAUGH ] Well, everybody thinks it must be a really glamorous place, [ LAUGH ] but it's really just a A series of buildings that over a time, over the last 50 years, have been added to the campus. So we call it a campus, but it's very blocks. Lots and lots of warehouses. So there might be one warehouse that's all right engineering and another one that's all animated figures, architecture in another building. So Yeah, we're all sprawled over several blocks. So Disney is obviously an experience that's familiar to generations of Americans now. I'm just curious how many people have actually been to a Disneyland somewhere, show of hands? Or even here, quite a big contingent of them But Shanghai was a whole new proposition for Disney. Can you tell us a little bit about just the size of Shanghai Disneyland, to give us a sense of the scope of it? Yes, Shanghai Disneyland is 943 acres. Or 963 acres. 963. 963 acres. So, a very big development with a lot of brand new work we've never done before. Right. Adventures, both in terms of scale, but also in terms of the invention level. So, I want to talk a little bit about that. Let's see if we can get these slides to come up. How do you translate this kind of originally American experience into a completely different cultural context? Well, we went into Shanghai in a very open way, to really understand this market before we really created anything. We spent quite a bit of time researching. Just gathering an understanding of what the guest would like and enjoy, but we also built a creative, an international creative team with a lot of local artists, directors, designers, choreographers, writers, to help craft the whole park Indigenously so that the whole relevance for the local people would be built in from the very beginning. Yeah so from the time that it was decided, that the site was selected. And to actual opening of the park, how many years was that process? I'm not sure the exact day the site was selected but I worked on the project for seven years, and that was from the day the project was authorized to go forward. Wow, amazing. Let's talk about some of the little details here. I mean, we spoke about the difficulties of just getting the language right. How hard was that? Yeah well, we made a decision at the very beginning to localize the project by working in the local language. And this is the first time Disney had done that. So for us, it was a magnificent adventure in trying to understand how to tell our stories that our, our unique stories. But also tell them in a way that was distinctly Chinese. So this exhibits itself in all kinds of details, our scripting and our narration of all the characters and all the rides are in Mandarin. All of our cast members speak Mandarin. And then when you go to do theme signage for Fantasy Land or The Disneylands, we worked with calligraphers to develop fonts that match the all fonts that we're theme fonts. And so, that was a very fun discovery. Lot of attention to the little, small details. And there are million of this signs, of course they're everywhere. Part of the challenge then also is Is when Disney builds a facility, articulus attention to construction and materials. You've got to work with a local crew to be able to do that and to translate that same ethos, how did that process work? Well, we built a very large local team over the course of several years. We found artisans that could deliver work for us in multiple trades and then we also had a very extensive training program to take artisans with relevant experience and relevant skill set and train them up and to some of the age old techniques that Disney uses like. Our rock work, and team painting, and plaster so that we would have enough leaders locally to run the teams that continue to grow, and grow, and grow into the hundreds by the end of the project. Wow. You spent a lot of time working in particular on Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah. How hard was it to translate that experience into something that would make sense in China? It was hard, but it was huge fun. I think we originally started this park thinking we would bring the Pirates of the Carribean experience that we have created, that Walt Disney, himself, created in Anaheim and bring that project To China. But in China, they were unfamiliar with that project. Right. And so it actually was very freeing to create something completely knew. And so we went for it, and we did a very epic version of a pirates attraction. Now, you mentioned You know, I first went to Disney when I was in high school, and that was one of my favorite rides. But it's a, I mean, and then the movie franchise later grew out of that ride. But I think for people my age, that was kind of the first encounter with the idea of Pirates of the Caribbean. and so You kind of remember all these little stations that you go past in the boat and down the waterfall and all these things but you're mentioning that that's not really how Chinese guests, that wasn't their reference point cuz they'd never had that experience. No, it wasn't and so we really did something different but because we're imagineers and Ever sentimental about pirates reel so work [ UNKNOWN ] to the original attraction. Yeah, okay. It's our baby. [ LAUGH ] So this is a slide that I get to show some of the materials. Yeah, this is, when you go to create An immersive land, which is something that Disney does. You create really something that's a theatrical environment, but these are real buildings, so what we did is we went to the Caribbean, and we took a lot a lot of photos, and that's what you see at the top, to give us authentic textures and authentic paint to build on, and then we translated this. To be more theatrical so they captured the humor and adventure of a pirate story. And created this world called Treasure Cove that is all about pirates. And this is an interesting bridge of architectural design and technology and theatrical design and technology. And was quite an effort to bridge. Wow. It's difficult even in the US to bridge it, but many of the architects that we worked with locally had never done anything like this, so convincing people to build something crooked and old looking- [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] took a lot of interaction. And most of these capabilities, for the materials, you actually have in house and tend Not to outsource to agencies and other. Well, there's, over the years Disney has tried and tested a lot, a lot of materials. So there's a confidence in certain materials and techniques, But we also discuss quite a few new ways of doing things in China that we had never thought of so yeah. Interesting, so this is what gives us a kind of feeling of the big ship battle. Yeah this is one scene in Pirates just to give you a sense of sort of the epic scale of it. But also the nature of it, so This is two full scale pirate ships. Wow! And they're a hundred feet long. But at the end of this run of water is a dome with a [ UNKNOWN ] that extends the scene. So this is how we got into all new technology with pirates. I mean, you start blending large format media Large format sets, lots of special effects into a very dynamic show. We really needed a ride system that would do that. Wow. That would deliver on that. All right. [ COUGH ] This suggested the scale. It's much larger, but talk a little bit about what we're seeing here. So what you're seeing here is, most boat rides are just moved by pumping water. So you don't really have a lot of control over where they go or how they move. They just kinda bump and fly down. So that means your experience is kind of a looping experience, you go by the experience. Yeah. But we wanted to deliver experience that was timed right at you and very, very dynamic. So we had to design a boat ride system that can be controlled by a highly sophisticated system. And in the process of inventing that, we discovered, we could also create a boat that could go forwards, that could spin and go backwards, and have a lot of surprising moves. But it was all timed very, very accurately, within a half of a second, so that we could trigger these effects, and this media And so it winds up looking like a two acre [ LAUGH ] clock, really. [ LAUGH ] Wow. Yeah, it's very, very accurate. So this is essentially a show, it's a movie, and it's a water- born transport system that has to move with the precision of Tokyo subways, right? [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] Exactly. That's incredible. Yeah. What are we seeing here? So from a process standpoint because of the scale and complexity we started looking for the most advanced design tools that were already out there to start with. And BIM technology is used widely in the architecture trades already, so we adopted BIM technology. But then we also Tried to integrate more of the effects and the show that what we do into that and then use it as a tool for studying the sequencing of installation and all the technologies that have to come into a ride. And ultimately the sequencing that drove us all was filling this thing with water because How often do you have a facility that, at some point in time, is gonna get filled with water? And at that point, your access to it is extremely limited. Can't be changing cables and plugging things in. So you really had to check every box before that thing got filled with water. Yeah, wow, it's interesting to me, this is sort of analogous to the things that Nelson was talking about. That technology now is facilitating these new tools that enable us to kinda create magic and An entertainment and ways of [ UNKNOWN ]. And a visual tools so that everybody can sit in front of it and talk, you know, from different. Cause I think we got another quick video here. Yeah. What is this one? And that's okay, that's just a detail that show you know how we use the same three dimensional model now to plan every segment of media in this, there we have 15 media segments. So this is showing you how we were able to look at the boat going by in plan view. Look at the screen and elevation. Map exactly what's happening on the media. How many seconds long, and what the guests would see as they went through a scene. So you can really plan this quite precisely and anticipate exactly what you're trying, the effective [ UNKNOWN ]. And we are working with Industrial Light and Magic on media, yeah. How great is that? [ LAUGH ] Wow, yeah, that's really [ INAUDIBLE ]. What do we see here? So we started Pirates design about ten years ago. And Imagineering got very excited about these new tools. And now they have taken them even further. So now that we have the three- dimensional model of this attraction, complete with all the sets and props and effects and media Why not create a tool like a gaming engine that designers can actually go into with VR goggles and experience and make calls about the design. So that's how we're working now. We're working inside of our 3D models in a gaming engine kind of tool that integrates all of the other design tools. So we can, it's like a directorial platform for the attraction far beyond or far in advance of us having ready in the field. That's amazing stuff. So I was sort of curious about some of the cultural, contextual things, we talked a little bit about this, but One of the things that I have seen in Hong Kong, where I live, is that the mainland guests, when they come, have different types of queuing behavior. Right? Japanese are very used to orderly lines, Americans are sort of not bad at it. But Chinese don't do that, they crowd and they elbow, and they create a kind of a scrum. How did you deal with that and write that you know is going to be Marvel people? Yeah well you know DC's been operating parks for a very long time. So we took a lot of that knowledge with us and then did a lot of study in the local market to see where we might need to adapt. But the day you open a park is just the beginning of learning about the local audiences. So we're continuing to adapt all the time. And the audiences I think are learning how to use our parks the best way, how to get the most out of their day. So maybe distributing yourselves and not all going to one place means that you won't be waiting so long. And so they're starting to get more savvy about that too. So it has been a huge learning experience, and it'll inform all of our work in China moving forward. And how has the turnout, the response been for park since it opened? It's been fantastic. I mean, we have huge crowds there. [ LAUGH ] And Yeah. I think it really has resonated and hit a note in the local audience. Which is a great, great thing. That's amazing. Yeah. I wanna take some questions. But maybe I wonder if we could just before that give people a bit of a sneak peek. [ LAUGH ] And so what might be next at Disney and where do you go. Can we do that. Yeah. All right. We'll do a sneak peek. We've got a little Teaser here. [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] So- Sorry I can't give you more. So what the heck is that? [ LAUGH ] Well it's a natural progression of things. We And it's coming out of the design tools that we have but also because now we have this incredible story to tell. Yeah. And having the tools and technologies to create an experience that matches the story is a moment in time that we have right now. So If we can design an attraction and create a directorial tour for our designers that allows them to have a live interaction with it, can we do that for our guests? Well. And we allow our guest actually to shape the experience and not just be oberservers of the experience. So this new attraction is allowing guest to do that. And actually control where the ship goes, and have a battle, and be part of a battle. And it's happening live, and it's reacting to what they're doing. Wow that is really cool. All right question, who has got questions, anyone? There is everybody. [ LAUGH ] Let's see, do I see one I'm missing? Come on, don't be shy, there we go. [ UNKNOWN ] mic, here at the front, there we go. So when you're expanded to China, right? How did you build the conviction with terms of [ UNKNOWN ] to the culture Adapting to what the needs of the audience were, especially when you're actually moving to a new country, the taste and all that is very different. So how did you build the connection? Well, we I think I mentioned earlier, and maybe I didn't emphasize the level to which our design team was a team that was mixed of Chinese locals and Imagineers. So we had very powerful creative forces from China, world class designers and directors and writers and film directors. Who were really our sounding board, and helped us shape these experiences so they would resonate. And these artists were already very successful in China, so they had already, you know, created experiences that were resonating. So their partnership, and their advice, and the collaboration was huge. But out of this collaboration came something new. I mean, it wasn't necessarily a purely American Disney product, and it wasn't necessarily a purely local product. Right, right. But as I walked through the park I can see how it's both and I think that was the magic of it. I mean, what Disney has succeeded in doing is something that's incredibly difficult to do. Anybody that follows the film industry in China knows that there are really only a handful of movies that have managed to be popular in both Markets. And you know often you get one that the Chinese react to but the Americans aren't interested in or vice versa. But similarly with this there were all local competitors who said that they were gonna be far more sophisticated about figuring out how to do amusement parks in China than these kind of outside Americans. But That design, and the care, and just the ethnography, and understanding the guests, this really seems to be working. And I think there's something to the strength of the storytelling that Disney has international appeal. They're very heartfelt stories, they have a ton of optimisim. They resonate with families and these are universal things that have been built up over decades. So I think with that strength you can adapt and modify and still have your core brand. Yeah. And still resonate with the local Audience. Matthew, this has been a fascinating, really rich case study in successful design. Thank you for coming all this way- Thank you for having me. To show us, please- Thank you very much. Please- Thanks, [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing Magical Experiences

Fortune's Clay Chandler interviews Nancy Seruto, Executive Producer, Walt Disney Imagineering

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I wanted to start off by asking a question. I guess you can say, what does everyone truly want from their business? What is the one thing we all want from our products and services that we put out there? Can anyone say the one thing that we all really, really want? Anyone? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] To me it's love, right? To me. And I really believe we want our product and services to be loved. I mean, just passionately loved and appreciated. If you do this, if you're able to arrive there, you capture brand loyalty, they become your brand ambassadors and everything takes place from there. It's so critical to reach this love, but how do you get there? In my opinion it's through what we call best in class design. I today's environment, we have to arrive with best in class models and services. There's no room to, you can't cheat around it. You can't market around it, you get exposed immediately and I think rightfully so So for our clients, we try to drive them to best in class. And what we mean by that, specifically, is the part that exceeds expectations, it also inspires your audience, at the same time, is culturally relevant. And these are the three critical components that for us make up What we call a best in class product or service. We are based in New York, we have a business we call Design for Strategic Differentiation. And we utilize industrial design, and design strategy as our lens to provide differentiation for our clients. So today I thought I'd bring along a few So it insights into what this process is that we use, and how we look at design, does this make sense. We start with understanding our audience, that's critical and I think it's a given for most of us, but it's not that easy to do. What we like to do is help our clients navigate the complexities there. There's so many choices, so many different paths to take It's our responsibility to help our clients make good decisions and cultivate out really where the true value decisions are. And that's our objective. We think at the same time we need to move this into an execution. So how do we do that? For us we look What we call an ecosystem, or the context from which we are developing our thinking. So we need to develop the lens that's the filter for our decisions. So we consider all the stake holders, any of the constraints, all of the possible opportunities, at the same time limitations. All of the possible elements that govern the decisions that go into what we're taking. They effectively become the lens and the measure for which we make our decisions on. We also think it's critical to reach true differention and to access this audience that we're speaking of. Is to, we bring in what we call experts. And our experts, sometimes it's us, sometimes it's folks we need to bring in. Sometimes, for example, it might be a professional athlete, it might be a scientist, it might be a doctor, it might be a material scientist. It could be folks that really understand, it could be an expert end user. Folks that truly understand what we're trying to achieve, that raises the barrier of entry. At the same time, it acts as a multiplier. Not an additive, but a multiplier to how we are approaching our audience and their end result. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We need to communicate what we make. And it's obviously equally critical to communicate in a way that's super clear and focused. Obviously in today's market it's extremely saturated with communication. Therefore, for us it needs to be multifaceted, 360, integrated, and clear, and precise and relevant to your end user. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I thought I'd bring along a case study. And one, as an example, was there's a brand called 3m. Very large, American, hopefully you know an industrial and technology manufacturer among many things. And we had this wonderful opportunity to help bring them together into what Base were targeting which is the architects and designer space, we call the A & D space. But specific thru lighting. So to enter the architects and designer space through lighting. So for us it starts again with searching the opportunity. How can we do this through product design? What can we do that's gonna access this market and create true diffrentiation for 3M And bring them something new and gain them this access. So we do our research, we start to connect the dots, and we realize if our objective is reaching this gold star, right? Reaching what is the best in class solution, we need to understand the context. So again, back to the ecosystem. And what we do is we start to map out what are the governors that drive this decision process. Everything that's involved. And as you start to zoom out you see the strategy and the communication and the design. The [ UNKNOWN ] starts to get granular and you realize it's quite complex of the components. We look at this as we look at something in nature, it's driven by its context. The ecosystem control's the result. And for us it's very, very important to establish a clear underlying ecosystem. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] From there, we're searching for differentiation, so in the lighting space, specifically, we look at how can we differentiate 3M. How can we do something that's truly unique to them? And it was interesting, I had a conversation with one of the scientists there, and he said something kind of very casual, and kind of in passing, and he said to me, he said, light Is 100 % predictable and I thought that's beautiful to me. That's really beautiful and to him is very obvious. But to me that was beautiful as a non- scientist. I said well what is 100 how many things in the world are 100 % predictable well for us in this case, it was light and what it told me was 3M knows how to control light. They can shape light. They can manage life, and this is not normal in this space. In the traditional A & D, archiects and designers phase, the company's mainly assemble product. You take a light engine, you take some sort of shape, you diffuse light, you style light. But 3M can control light. And in some cases we can invent it, so we thought, so let's leverage this 100 % capability, right, so how do we do that? And with speed to market, we leverage one of their existing materials, which is the film, which in some cases is 100 % reflective. It's considered This most reflective material in the world. So again, it's another strategic advantage to utilize this material. At the same time, we're using it to guide light. Since it's so reflective, it's very, very good for guiding light. So where does it get used? Typically, in mobile devices. And we thought, well, that's interesting. If we could light architecture As you like a mobile device what would that be? So what we wanted to do was to send a message to the industry that 3M was doing something different. They weren't just styling and sort of putting together a product transactional business. They wanted to invent something new, inspire this market. This is what we wanted to do together, inspire the audience. And to take this business somewhere new and to really create a new opportunity for 3M that was truly unique. So we started with this idea of taking a single point of an LED. can we light architecture as efficiently as a mobile device. Can we send light across the surface of architecture? So the iteration started again with the experts. With the scientist. We start to iterating on how can we shape and drive life across architecture? And through this process, we arrived a significant effort to arrive to this invention, something completely unseen before, not driven by fashion or style, it was driven by mathematics and by physics which are the fundamentals of our world. So for me, we're really getting somewhere meaningful And something that's beyond what we can draw with our hand. It's something that's conceived from a true understanding of the physics. Which for me is an ultimate differentiator. So we arrive to this fixture which can be scalable. It was powered by you can see, a single light engine in the middle. And the light is cascading across the surface. And how it works It's using that film, there were these optics that were engineered to act as a kind of guide to direct light, so what's happening is the light is just waterfalling itself along the system completely passively, so there's light in one point, and then there's no power anywhere else in the system. So we're able to light large expanses of surface with very little energy. So in this case there's six LEDs lighting this entire wall. And if you would put your hand in the middle, you would effectively turn off the light downstream, because you'd be interrupting the light throw. So it's really interesting to us that we've invented something new. We have new IP around it called the virtual Virtual LED. And it's a new way to consider how to light architecture. And we needed to take this message, and again it's beyond the product, we needed to communicate this. So we do this by actually, and bringing in there's one case, we would bring in some of the world's top influencers and media. And we'd share with them what we're doing together with 3m. Where 3m is going and we literally do a handoff with our clients to the media. So that they have now a direct relationship and then this media is inspired to communicate what is actually happening with 3m. We also need to communicate internally to three M's, so they're not necessarily design folks. A lot of them are and some of them are chemical engineers and physicists and scientists. So, we need to get everyone aligned, so internally, of course, we have documentation to help with the design- thinking and what's going on here or with this business where everyone is aligned. And of course at the same time we have to speak to our end user. And our end user, we have many ways, many channels, one particular channel was through trade events. And showing 3M in a new way. We're speaking to architects and designers, not to industrial trades. Therefore, how do we do this? So we arrived with a presentation which was around the beauty of the science, and how does it get applied And how can it help an architect and designer express what they do, so it's a new way for 3M to communicate. So for us it was a journey to help take 3M into this new territory and at the same their capabilities were by far stronger than anyone else in the industry in this particular space to really create together a true differentiation. And the results for us were, couldn't havve been better and we couldn't have been happier to have received such a quote from FastCompany. And what it did for us is it validated how we were communicating was working, it was clear. The design was clear, our messaging was clear, our audience understood it We were getting it back from everyone. That they understood what we were doing and that's our validation. Our tools were functioning properly. The industry validated as well by communicating that our work was working well through awards et cetera. So again just so sort of close out the It's important for us to define the opportunity and guide our clients. This is how we really look at things. It's very, very important. What we do is include what we call experts, to help bring a multiplier effect to the output and to look through a holistic lens, a lens that considers all at the same time Focusing that message so it's crystal clear to our end- user, to the audience. And that for us brings you to this love and appreciation for the product. And again, what we call, " Design for Strategic Differentiation ". Thank you. [ CLAPS ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Design For Strategic Differentiation

Through a process that is holistically considered and irreducibly complex, Todd Bracher Studio elicits key differentiation strategies for clients through the lens of design.

Hi, good morning everyone. About a 45 minute drive away from here to the North end of Singapore is Kampong [ UNKNOWN ]. A public housing development and targeted at senior and elder residence that integrates healthcare, public facilities, communities based and commercial amenities all under one group. Designed by the Singapore based architecture firm Yoga. Company Admiralty was awarded the title of world building of the year at the 2018 world architecture festival, beating out a World Cup Stadium, a library and a major bus station in the process. With us here today, to tell as all about the project is, Mr. Yap Chen Beng, the senior advicer of the state and commerce of the housing development board, Singapore's Public Housing Authority, responsible for housing over 80 % of Singapore's population. Until July 2017, Mr. Yap was HTB's Deputy CEO, overseeing everything from public housing policies and special programs to the supply of new housing units, corporate strategy and community funding. Also joining us is Pearl Chi who's a Director at [ UNKNOWN ], and Pearl leads the firm's team in design execution and contract implementation Wollhouse projects are known for it's environmental policies and principles, and it's commitment to sustainable architecture. From residential towers to educational institutions, hotels, and luxury resorts, the firm has amassed projects all across southeast Asia, China, Singapore, and Australia. Thank you both for being with us here today. Thank you. So, let me just try to use this. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Okay. [ INAUDIBLE ] tackles the universal issue of providing housing for a swiftly growing aging population, Chin Beng was this the driving force for the project? Yes, but let me first explain what comparitivity. Great. The word comes from a local language, it's actually Malay, it means village. And emerity because of it used to be a Neighbour and that's why is called MRD and competise how we call the, the project company MRD. Mh hm. Yes in company MRT we provide over a hundred unique of affordable students appartments for the el lady and to qualify for this the conditions are very simple just need to be at least 55 years old. And how do [ UNKNOWN ] is not modern $ 12, 000, when you think about dollars [ UNKNOWN ]. Mm- hm. And the units there, we adopt this universal design [ UNKNOWN ] friendly features, [ UNKNOWN ] resistant [ UNKNOWN ] And, kitchen cabinets are prefitted with induction holes. But, we are not just providing shelters over their heads, we wanted to create an coarsely environment for active ageing And, ageing in peace and as well as community bonding. And, that sort of lead to creating this idea of an integrated complex. Yes, that's quite right. I think if you can see on the next life the red square Is where the project is and it is just located next to Admiralty mrt station, and in fact actually is also next to project what we call Admiralty place, which is a neighbor center, so being a neighborhood in this area. In view of a strategic location we wanted to optimize the land use By bringing on both other than [ UNKNOWN ] housing also medical facilities, [ UNKNOWN ], [ UNKNOWN ] for center and as well as supermarket all under roof. So that the seniors residents living there, they will be able to have easy access To all the various social and medical services just at their doorstep. And this way encouraged them to be independent and active lifestyle. And design has become a very visible aspect of some of housing development board's recent Developments, pinnacle duxton is another example of it. Yes. It's very recognizable. How can design enhance a housing development? Well I would say that a bow pushing poor factors the How HTB is part of this part of this initiative financial development and one of the mission for my ministry is that we want to cure enduring home and [ UNKNOWN ] living environment and therefore Jin sang play a very important part [ UNKNOWN ] our residence but at the same time there's also Push factor as Singapore going for high density high rise [ UNKNOWN ] Bromine we want to use design solutions to overcome the concerns of being harming into a [ UNKNOWN ] hands and [ UNKNOWN ] And so Pearl, from [ UNKNOWN ] perspective, how did you interpret some of HDB's objectives for this project? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We interpret that there are four distinct components in a project. So the interpretation is instead of four potentially standalone programs We layer them in a vertical format. So is a vertical layering of programmes. And you see in this it's a building section, it's a drawing showing the section of the building. It has three very distinct layers. The first layer which is at the lowest, at the ground level is what we call a community living dining place which is where the open plaza is and [ INAUDIBLE ] Center, and the center layer is a very large Medical Center footprint which was very well because it's is like umbrella shelters over the plaza so the pluses always she did from the elements and is very open. And then we have the upper layer which is some place more conducive for semi private or semi public spaces. The gardens, the active aging herp and the child care. Mm- mm [ INAUDIBLE ] is really the first of its kind in the sense that its being designed as a prototype for future developments. What is some of the more unique aspects being pioneered here? Well, there are many firsts in this project This is the 1st project where we implemented what we call the active aging hub. Another 1st is the integration of a, this a, with elderly housing which Hawker center. Now I think you will be wondering why elderly living and Hawker center The idea is that this will [ UNKNOWN ] opportunity for this Intel generation interactions and but i think more importantly is a also the life styles in Singapore now many of our working [ UNKNOWN ] will [ UNKNOWN ] with [ UNKNOWN ] and therefore it is very natural in this arrangement the [ UNKNOWN ] can just These are grandchildren at the childcare centre in the morning because usually is how bad these sessions and in afternoon go pick up the grandchildren. And while they're walking up the work will come and pick up that children and they will have dinner together. So this is a very it's a good opportunity for us to promote these family bonding as well. Another force is that we introduced these induction hoax into our these [ INAUDIBLE ] Now for safety reason, I think induction hoaxes [ INAUDIBLE ] prevent fire safety and also when accidents. Mm- hm. So, you'll be wondering why you see so Such a difficulty for us to introduce in that same part into our way of the house. Now this is because in our food culture in Singapore, elderly prefer what we call heavy cooking, right. They like to cook with big fire so that it taste better So therefore to introduces induction house and then needs a special cookery was indeed an challenge so what we did is that we have a wok shop [ UNKNOWN ] discussion will 100 countries and we invited someone to, the mostly, the mostly ngudem how they can use induction house hold cooking. And after that trial [ UNKNOWN ] actually quite nice so then at the end of that [ UNKNOWN ] and close total [ UNKNOWN ] they would want to give you a [ UNKNOWN ] so with this already [ UNKNOWN ] we introduce [ UNKNOWN ] in this project and hence on all our [ UNKNOWN ] housing will come [ UNKNOWN ] And what are some of the activities being offered at the [ UNKNOWN ] The active [ INAUDIBLE ] how about we do have [ INAUDIBLE ] is open daily. And the elderly, many elderly in fact [ INAUDIBLE ] club house, they go there very regularly because they have activities throughout the day. They can participate in art and crafts activities, singing, dancing, and they are also cooking demonstrations where they do what we call a program called Share a Pot. The supermarket, Will provide the groceries which are free. And so I said it's harvesting from the company garden from the rooftop. And they would cook. They would demonstrate how to cook healthy meal with healthy ingredients. And then they share the food there. Now brass, also because the acting agent is situated next to the [ FOREIGN ] center We do have this inter- generation bonding programs, where the children and the elderly will play games together. That rooftop garden and community, all the landscaping are such a distinctive part of this project, but it's not just about looking good, right Paul? Tell us why creating all the green space was so important for this. We think embracing landscape brings a lot of benefits, benefits of able to look into greeneries and also get close up to the greeneries so we want to leverage on this powerful effect of landscape. Yes as you see it is not just good. But we make all the guidance spaces accessible accessible for four even wheelchair users so they are very free. And. The accessibility also makes it easy to maintain the greenery. Because there are other. Good things that landscape group can do because it reduces the Thermal Load to the building. So these are some of the things that we want to kind of in this very urban very kind of dense high density area. Landscape replacements and we will replace the green that we lost through development. And the location of the green space is also acting as a sound barrier of some sort, right? Yes, actually, this terassing landscape It's kind of just between, it's in front of the train station so it's shielded, the train noise away from the apartments. Cuz the apartments are actually [ INAUDIBLE ] spaces [ INAUDIBLE ] So yeah, there could be a noise issue but this terracing sort of help as a sound barrier. Cuz, I think this picture has taken probably from the housing unit at probably around eight storey high, I think. And, when you look out it's actually in front of a dam as if it is in a hill. By instinct says, it's actually a build up area. Yeah, and actually hidden through here there are wheel chair [ UNKNOWN ] ramps going all the way up so that The essence of the reading is not an issue for the older generation. Yeah, I think visual connection in a way helps cuz you really want to draw users or even the residents out to participate in some of these active programs outside or even just have a walk in the park. Yeah. There's a lot of emphasis on social and community interaction in this project, and a lot of it is actually driven by design. So can you tell us a little bit about how colocating some of the facilities has helped do that. There are a series of different skill, social spaces that we try to create throughout the building Also we tried to study the Its really based on pedestrian patterns and then it really social interaction can only happen when we make it a very routine thing. In your coming in and going out to you meet your neighbors you meet other users of the buildings and And so really we intentionally plan these social spaces that they're interconnected and throughout the building, and always maintaining some visual connection, so that's how we worked it out. And there are all these facilities like a three generational playground that you see here. On the top right corner? Yes. Yeah, I think it's great that he has different kinds of spaces that people can enjoy, they have this big plaza space that it can really house a lot of people, do exercise together or community events. But down to playgrounds, exercise machines and very intimate space Where students and children can hang out people hang out there just have a chit chat or just enjoy the outdoors. Yeah I just want to add that for this intergrated projects because we were bringing many agencies on board and then because of [ INAUDIBLE ] The question is then who gets the ground floors space. Mm hm. Because this is everyone will want to fight for the ground floor space because this is the most visible place and most accessible. So I think it's just what came out, a good design, how best to overcome some of these constraints. Like for example, although the Foot Center, traditionally the National Environment Agency would like it to be located on the ground floor. But in this case, we bring it up to a second floor. But despite that [ UNKNOWN ] design, it's through very visible, so they help to address the concern of our friend in the national [ UNKNOWN ] agency. And the other one is the [ UNKNOWN ] center, now [ UNKNOWN ] center used to be located in [ UNKNOWN ] [ UNKNOWN ] buildings and they will have a garden just in front of them. But in this case [ UNKNOWN ] garden that was six and by putting the [ UNKNOWN ] next to it [ UNKNOWN ] hub. And it is similar to what they have or they used to have. So through these designs we [ UNKNOWN ] agencies. Yeah, and so more private, you kind of create this Semi private terrace space that is more easy to- You feel that is really like a new ground level we created because we've given the ground level to other priorities. Yeah, while in the building, you can create a new level. Yeah. But people feel just the same as being on the ground, yeah. Yeah, and a lot of the design is supported by A generous amount of specially created programming that also supports its use like the micro job opportunities and things like that right? Correct, yes, that's correct, yes. Can you speak more about that [ UNKNOWN ]? Yes, we did a workshop together with [ UNKNOWN ] and [ UNKNOWN ]. And some ideas were generated through that workshop. For example, one idea is that we should get more volunteering opportunities and this now being taken up the acting agent hub. Because it was through our survey, we found that many elderly ones who volunteered their time to do something meaningful but yet they do not know the challenge to do so. So now the active engine hub do recruit the year and borrowed senior bonding [ UNKNOWN ] right frequently. Mm hm. And some of them are actually boarding taking their time at the audimention centre were we have the senior looking after the, the after senior. Yeah. We also do have people who come and demonstrate the cooking skill. And also, share the skills. For example, one president who used to be a electrical repair man. And through composition, the president found that actually he can repair electrical appliances, and now he's doing it on a regular basis. Where I've seen elderly friends who were just bringing their appliances which are broken down to him to repair. So they contribute in a very meaningful way. Yeah. I think at this point it's also important to emphasize that all the services and programs at Kampung Admiralty aren't just isolated to the residents of that That building actually serves a larger Woodlands neighborhood and all the community spaces and all the amenities, gardens, everything is open to the public. Yes. Scenes on this slide [ UNKNOWN ] highlight, you look at the bottom right corner. This is where our mass exercise dnace have been held regularly. Every Thursday morning. Now the [ UNKNOWN ] stations, the number of participants is now between 400 to 300. I say this is one of the most successful program we have. I think partly is because of location because the community [ UNKNOWN ] located at very strategic points where residents going to and fro This [ UNKNOWN ] station was passed by this area and when you see a big where people do we mess as we do. They naturally want to join. So the group has spread very quickly from initially about 30 people to now 200, this younger people. But I think [ INAUDIBLE ] you'll also notice from the picture there, most advertisements are ladies. [ LAUGH ] Well I do not know exactly the reason. Because although many of them are housewives or retirees, but we do see their mens staying around. But just somehow they do not join in. I'm not sure whether because they're are shy. Women are just more sociable maybe [ LAUGH ]. [ LAUGH ] I think at this point I welcome any questions from the audience, any questions about [ UNKNOWN ]. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Doesn't matter. I still have some more. Would you think, [ UNKNOWN ] has been completed over two years ago now. Are there any learning plans that. You know, you take away from? It was completed in May 2017, yes coming to two years. Yes we did what I call a post- implementation review to see how well the projected Achieve these objectives and I think we are very happy that actually yes Matt our Project Vision by this providing an environment for Active Ageing and aging place. And as I said promoting community bonding. But we do have some learning points as well. For some put this this projects is come combined because these are rather opportunistic. It happens that we wanted to devote this site and then we came out with the idea of having this integration of facilities. But the site, the footprint is rather small and as a result of that, we have only slightly more than 100 units of [ UNKNOWN ] housing. Ideally, to capitalize on the facilities provided We should have at least 300 units or even more. And no need of the housing, we also want to integrate some housing for the young families. So that it is truly an intergeneration project. Another aspect is the poor active planning Now as I said this process came about, actually this is located in what they call [ INAUDIBLE ] Town, and the town is very, 90 % liberal. So by the time we want to develope these projects, most agency have already built their own facilities, for example we wanted to bring on board this But I rebut him to tell us that actually the rebuke one just nearby and this is mod sitting there, they are known. But now, what we are doing from this lesson is that when we open up new house, we didn't get town [ UNKNOWN ] stage, we immediately locate In size for such integrated projects, and all the agency will let us know what specifically they want to be included there, then this will be even more comprehensive. Yeah, I think [ INAUDIBLE ] is a great example of how design can Play such a role in fostering communities, something I hope we'll see more of and different skills, in cities all around the world. And, unfortunately we ran out of time but, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. Thank you. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing Communities

Kampung Admiralty, Singapore’s first integrated retirement community, is a global model for sustainable buildings designed to promote the health and well-being of its residents. 

So, [ UNKNOWN ] actually speaks very affluent English. [ LAUGH ] But just to make him a little more comfortable, we've invited him to respond to my questions in Japanese this morning. But I'm really thrilled. To have someone from [ UNKNOWN ] here. And what's fascinating to me, I'm a big fan or [ UNKNOWN ]. We have many [ UNKNOWN ] shops in Hong Kong where I live. New one just opened up in our shopping mall in Pacific place. Very popular, very busy. And what's fascinating to me about Moji is that their approach to design is anti design. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your unique design philosophy at the Moji. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Yes, first of all, [ UNKNOWN ] other [ UNKNOWN ] in 1980, we made a rand debut in Japan before the ante design, before we [ UNKNOWN ] Focusing on the anti consumer [ INAUDIBLE ] So, there are so many goods where produce from a mass production and they were disposed. So, that's where the origin of our philosophy. [ INAUDIBLE ] In Japanese in a way, we have been talking a lot here about How designers worry sometimes that they are working to encourage shoppers and consumers to over consume, buy too much. But, you take a very firm stance that you only want people to buy what's minimally necessary [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Yes about the products. They are they're a necessary function which is dedicated to a particular product. So removed sheet music. We just object to provide the functionality aspect of the product and the use and the needs not only depend into the customers. So we weren't we actually tried to eliminate all the unnecessary aspect of the product. Notion. We were chatting a little bit earlier about the popularity in the United States these days of Kondo Marie- ko, right? This woman who encourages you to you know, enjoy the magic of cleaning up and tidying up your house. It's sort of a backlash against over- consumption I think. But your aspiration is to be more than just a Japanese company that serves Japanese consumers, you wanna be a global company. Why has [ INAUDIBLE ] been so successful globally? So, now I personally don't consider that movie is a global cooperation because we think in our company we try to be a global company. So be to become a global company due to that level. We act here because structures so many aspects of our organization and policy and processes as. And you read active positive partner success over. Ceased. So let me tell you why we have made little success in overseas as well. And if possible, I think it is that they are coming from our basic concept about a production that seems to be restricted by overseas and in many other countries in the world as well. So when we look at the essence of their life, and we had to focus on what should be created to respect the essence of life that is basic of our music. But by looking at the other countries In the word they were actually respecting the similar aspect. So the products are not only for Japan or we [ UNKNOWN ] products to oversee other countries as well. You've kind of narrowed the list of products that you think are commonly essential across cultures to about 7, 000 Products, is that right. Yeah, they are the basic of life. Those are our products. The essence on the basics of life has to be changed depending on the history and from so now so As produced, some products with travel and as they say travel took off. At the beginning we didn't create that kind of product or travel because back then, travel was not common in Japan is was a not a such or the basic elements of the life but nowadays where we see many. People are travelling so often and trouble is a part of our life life. So that's the reason why we are now trying to expand our business into the hotel business as well. Because hotel and accommodation is the essence and this is our people's life now. But we all fall in the same simple core. Over the last couple of days about values about ethics. And I know this idea of values as a central to your management philosophy. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how values contribute to the success of merging. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] So this is actually our ethics on food of the production, and these are the products which went in to production in 1980. They were only 40 items. Now, we have 7000 products. So going back to the value, so [ INAUDIBLE ] we have a corporate policy as [ INAUDIBLE ]. But great policy is not only Not one element to be successful the company. We have to respect their corporate culture and corporate atmosphere, otherwise the company will not be able to exist in the current word. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So the corporate culture is not the DNA of the company. Incorporate character is based on the sophistication of the employees, people who worked for the company. And our region has to have a perfect harmony with the employees. And that will create our great corporate culture, and that also create the organization's brand for the society. And on the base, we have our thoughts and philosophy. Diffuse the culture through the entire Organization. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the product development process. How do you take those values and, your insights about how consumers live and, then corporate that into your products. First of all we have some basic principles as food. As we do, we are ensuring the freedom or the consumer freedom of the people. So Mushilushin is ensuring the freedom of our customers of people. So let me tell you the details about this contest. So consumers are the ones who decide what career they want to pursue depending on the for example occupations, supposed players. And if you want we don't Take a look at the occupation or their background because the sense of value is depending on each person so we respect that point. That's the reason why we are only proof Binding a minimally necessary product. So by doing so we are actually creating some additional legal room for customer to be able to think and understand About their life and think about what they need. So we indicate only the simple essence with our [ INAUDIBLE ] for example, we actually have the same level as the level for wine, so we deliver where those bottles are coming from and so on, and While others are all up to the customers, consumers. So, we often prepare the room for customers to add value on our products. That is our base. I'm not sure how well this came through on the translation but one thing you said there really interests me the Phrase that you're [ FOREIGN ]. You're trying to protect and liberate the consumer, and grant them freedom. I think that's often not the approach that many western companies take. That they're trying to catch, and snare the consumer, and trick them. Persuade them to do something they might not otherwise do, but your approach Is, you wanna free them to be their true selves and make their own choices, that's really amazing. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] Yeah. [ INAUDIBLE ] The [ UNKNOWN ] and also to not be the person. And of course that the customer is oriented so that we are cherished. That the customer will be the center until the site. And so we tend to thinking and not to make the customer to buy. Can we talk about your hotels a little bit cuz I'm very interested in you have three new hotels, is that right? Two that are just opened and one that's about to open. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Hey, I notice that [ FOREIGN ] Where we open as I mentioned earlier and so So that the trouble began at the center of the light, and that what we are trying to do as a business, to [ UNKNOWN ] is to generate, or the task that we have to do. So I think it's very important to why we do it too, to make any rose in this hotel business. Right now the definition and the hotel It's a kind of it's a definition to the pursue that person but now is a fifth tallest, sixth tallest and such a thigh a label a hotel or completely that this counter they had on bags are contrary to this and the counter boot and resmore price and those are the home of French and the hotel is a very rare so that we day light to make euros in this a polythene. You have two of these hotels in China where often the impulse of the consumer is to go bigger and brighter and make things more complicated and look more lavish. And there is almost a kind of preference for I dont' know, things that seem and feel like they're very rich but your philosophy is the exact opposite, you want to protect your guests from the kind of sensory overload of an over designed hotel, how Are guests reacting to that? Do they enjoy that? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So as I mentioned earlier that [ UNKNOWN ] hotel is roughly the [ UNKNOWN ] So we like to make that room that a customer can enjoy the home, [ INAUDIBLE ] surrounded by [ INAUDIBLE ] said at home, And then the, instead of the moderate role, the hotel [ UNKNOWN ] so I think it would be the most comfortable at the most We are the [ INAUDIBLE ] for the customers so we like to create that atmosphere to [ INAUDIBLE ] our company. is [ INAUDIBLE ] so this is the [ INAUDIBLE ] that we have .>> [ INAUDIBLE ] this is an idea that really appeals to me as an editor the hardest thing about being a good editor, is taking things out. Removing distractions, making sure that what you're giving a reader is absolutely just the most essential stuff. And that's the philosophy that you, you bring to a hotel so that in the hotel, you can rest you have a chance to be free of all these other distractions. Certainly, Beijing, Schengen filled with lots of distractions. That's really remarkable. You're also Applying this philosophy to new areas like public transport, I wonder if you could talk about that as well. Yes and Helsinki in Finland In 2020 [ UNKNOWN ] public transportation will be available and then we provide the design of the bus Our company. Soon I'll show the prototype, the test we conducted and it is due to be publicized. It was soon to be conducted. So here in the Finlands and then in 2020 we are aiming to be the realization and the design on the parts we provided. Prototypes of this design that we can see somewhere on the on the internet or is it still a secret? [ BLANK_AUDIO ]. Yeah, no, it's already it has already been published once and then as for the published one and concrete and the design and so on the Prototype of the design and such a type of the bus will be the publicize that the Prototype. Yesterday we had Alice showed us some pictures of Thomas Heatherwicks double decker bus in London and which was very progressive in many ways but didn't ultimately work. and in some ways was over designed So I'll be very interesting to compare the Magee bus with the Boris bus in London. I want to take questions from the audience We've got a few minutes here. I see any hands out. This is a really interesting different approach to how to think about the responsibilities of designers, yes? You know, me too, great. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Thank you for your very interesting talk I was actually, to be honest, quite surprised to hear that the number of your objects has gone up to 7, 000- [ LAUGH ] Yeah. Essential to life. Yes. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] I'm wondering, there are so many changes in industries like the auto industry where completely new entrance Are coming out. I'm wondering if there are certain areas that you've been tempted to enter that you decided [ UNKNOWN ] will not go there, and why. [ FOREIGN ] Okay, so back to our first, from the first point, you mentioned about 7000 kind of products are closer to be a little too much, but as I mentioned before, we're focusing for On the essence of the life it say this wound ball point pen it will item so but just look at one pen there should be so many kinds because of the colors and so on so 7000 kind of products are not much were we use actually JMS products there should be. Even more alot more so we are respecting to protect the basic of our people's life first and by looking at the Japanese society now we've received so many agent populations and People are more moving into their avoid areas so public transportation rule would, would come more important and people probably would be away from driving carts so by thinking about that kind of change in the society we trying to. We participate in the batts folder automatic can settle bus automatic cars that's the reason why we decided to re- enter the desire of automated car and there are some areas which we are not take care but we enter for example the area which are not necessary for people's life, life obviously and even for. Even for about seven [ UNKNOWN ] kind of product we were always doing investigation and validation about depending on the needs of people so we always come back to the basic point what other needs of the people what other needs in essence of their life for example back to the beginning of the time we said our business All my therapy related products were a necessary, so we only have to see today's world without the essence and needs of people .>> We're not gonna make things that aren't essential. I mean, I happen to be in an America supermarket the other day with a friend from Asia and one of the things that just freaked him out is. You're going to big supermarket in America, and there's like the wall of cheese. There's like zillions of different varieties of cream cheese, and hard cheese, and slice cheese. And it comes in eight different flavors for category, [ UNKNOWN ] all that variety, do we really need it? It's kind of overwhelming. And this is an approach to design that says, no, Let's limit only to the stuff that's essential. It's a very different way of thinking about how to run a business. We got time for maybe one more. No? Yeah. Thank you very much for your talk, it's been really inspiring. I have a question about decision- making in terms of populations where I'm guessing that what you consider is essential is from a majority population, I'm curious if you've considered what is essential for the marginalized or minority populations that might also use your products? A great question for Southeast Asia that's so diverse and ethnically rich. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] Yes, I understand that point but as I mentioned before, the basics and fundamental aspects and essence of a life should be [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The same or there are many change this depending on the race or the poor people. Well for Musi we are focusing for no age and no sex, no gender, so everyone can use our products. We touched a little part about the product in Hong Kong. The products we're selling in Hong Kong are not targeting either male or women so you might say this is pretty much Asian things but we have the protocol one more and there's only one side to. So it's not only about the, of The perfect size for a particular person, anyone can try that clothe, anyone can enjoy the clothe, that is the basics of out thoughts of the design. That also expectation to the diversity Inspiring conversation and we hope to continue it. Please thank Matsusaki- san for joining us. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Selling Simplicity

MUJI sets itself apart by delivering “rational satisfaction” to customers and a “simple, pleasant life for people around the world.”

Brainstorm Design 2019: The Art And Business Of Film Design

Entertainment

Fortune's Maithreyi Seetharaman interviews Nelson Coates, Production Designer on Crazy Rich Asians and President of the Art Directors Guild

Brainstorm Design 2019: The Ethics of Design

Fortune's Clay Chandler moderates a town hall with John Cary, Author, 'Design for Good,' and Jamie Myrold, Vice President, Design, Adobe.

I'm the youngest of the five grand children of Charles and Ray. Hold on, we'll do a different graphic, there. Charles and Ray, as extraordinary as they were as designers, they were even more wonderful as grand parents. When they wanted to design a chair, they didn't wanna make it once, they wanted to create a delivery system so that they could make it a 100, 000 times. So when they worked together, they would start at their own home, tried a few other ideas, make a few prototypes. And then they will take the ideas to the office and then make a few thousand. And then when it reached about ten thousands, they were ready to ship off everything to Herman Miller who would start scaling at up to a 100, 000 chairs. The way they looked at it, was we wanted to make the best product for the most people for the least amount of money. One, the reason they like designing chairs, it was architecture, they can hold in that hand. You can control all the decision, you can make it in- house, you can design the prototype, you can do the graphics for the advertising and so everything was contained in one place. As opposed if you are designing a building, you have a mason, a plumber, a painter, they wanna to be able to control all the choices. This is the most important diagram I'm going to share with you today. This is how Charles and Ray explain the design process to their client. The first circle was what they wanted to accomplish with the office. The second one was the client itself. But there was always a third circle. It was society as a whole and you needed to focus your attention And your time to the part that overlap for all three. So for Herman Miller, it was making a sustainable chair. For IBM, it was to help people get over their fear of computers and that actually computers could aid people, not it be a detriment. For the Indian government, when the Nauru government came to Charles and Ray and were very concerned about the possibility of Cultures getting eclipsed by Western Civilization, it was creating the national and [ INAUDIBLE ] design in Amanabad. For the US government, when they wanted to bridge the communication gap with Russia it was doing glimpses of the USA in Moscow Now, what i always enjoyed was watching Charles and Ray work on a problem. They were very elliptical even as they asked the questions of what they would be accomplishing. I've heard a lot over these last two days about getting to the core problem. So the lounge sharing Ottoman that you see, when they were designing that, they said they were designing seating. They did not say they were designing a chair, because if they said that they would be eliminating the Ottoman even before they thought of it. The chair on the right was from a, they were looking lots of materials at the time they were designing chairs. Aluminum, molded plywood, plastic, fiberglass. But I also to think of trios rise disrupters because they were looking at other objects being made and what materials were being used and I think everyone will recognize once I say this that they noticed shopping cards the gross fee store using wirerod could be another material to make that share chair. The details are not the details. They make the product it will in the end be these details that gives the product that's life. That's a very important piece to it. For Charles and Ray, you practice quality by doing it. And it was also not how pretty something looked. It's whether it worked. And there was always the importance of the appropriateness of the solution to the problem. Now, when Charles and Ray got married, they moved to Los Angeles so they wouldn't know anyone and they could focus producing the designs that Charles and Errol had won at MOMA. Now when they started making these prototypes of these molded plywood chairs. What's interesting is they made a very important discovery, that how something is made influences its design. So they quickly realized, they normally had to make the prototypes, they had to make the machines that made the prototypes. And also please note, you notice a lot of those chairs have three legs? Charles and Ray thought that made a more stable chair, it would be better for the user until they tested it out and people don't know how to get out of the three legged chair, they would fall over. Charles Ray didn't worry about that, while those people would call failure, they would just call one last misconception This is Ray, working on the back patio of the Eames' house, working on a toy design. Charles and Ray felt that toys were preludes to serious ideas. They designed toys like the house of cards, the little toys, this one, the toy. They also collected toys from cultures and societies and from countries around the world For example Faith from Japan to Europe to Mexico, to India, when they went on their trips, they felt that they could learn a lot by another culture just by the toys, and by the folk art collected by the society. And they could see the materials that were getting used, they could see the color pallets. And so that's actually what we're archiving today. The other thing that's interesting about this photograph is that Charles and Ray, there's actually very few drawings when they worked on a project because they liked to mock up the idea as soon as possible in the material. They didn't just jot something on a napkin. They actually acted on it immediately and wanted to start building it. Cuz if it's in your head it's gonna be different than what's in my head but if we are starting to put the idea together they always thought you get there more quickly and more successfully. Now, Charles Ray as I said were extra ordinary grand parents we thought everyone's grand parents made three screen slide shows in movies like powers of ten, they share whatever they are working on Charles died when I was 12 and [ UNKNOWN ] died when I was 22. I'm often asked what one of my earliest memory as spending time with them? [ UNKNOWN ] earliest one is going out to dinner with them and having coming back from dinner and we had had a vegetable soup called borscht. And so we're walking back and Charles turns me and said what do you think of dinner? And I said, I didn't like it very much. He turned to me again. He said, how would you have done things differently? Which meant if you were gonna complain about something you better have another solution. It was also very empowering. I felt I was listened to. It also taught me to think about what Tim Brown was saying. Stepping back and thinking about the constraints of what that chef was going through. I didn't even know what the ingredients were. But Charles and I talked about it and said we couldn't make marsh potatoes and [ UNKNOWN ] salad. Maybe it was the chef's grandmother's birthday and he was thinking about her. But talked to me about working within constrain. When you were Charles and Ray you were always learning. Now he's Charles and Ray during the building of their home, case study house number eight. Arts and architecture magazine in Los Angeles was developing a program called the case study house which was to see how the advances made during the war effort could be applied to the returning GIs in the housing crisis that would be coming up. So Charles [ UNKNOWN ] made themselves their own client. And in this case, yes, it only took six weeks to build the house, but it took three and a half years to get the parts. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Charles and Ray would often say we don't do art, we solve problems. Also, they also wanted culture and society to reach a point that there wasn't a separate word for art, it was just simply a part of your life. This is the aims house today. Now Ray came to design from painting, and Charles came to it from architecture. But they both felt, whether it's a house or film or chair, it must have a structural concept. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] When they worked on a problem, that was something they wanted to solve, or something that someone came to them and ask them to help solve. So working with Herman Miller, the interest was making a sustainable chair that could be mass produced, as I said, 100, 000 times. So to do that The would have to scale lab and keep looking at how to make the parts each of the weak points stronger and use more and more sustainable materials. Charles Ray by the 1970s was realizing the impact on the enviroment with the production of the furniture. So that's why the side chair started giving the short mouths are not glued on, they're cast in the form. Ray herself discontinued the use of rosewood because when she heard the impact on the Amazon Forest with the harvesting of the wood, and she told us as the next generation, when it can come back as a sustainable material bring it back, but for a while there's only cherry and walnut that was used on the launch chair and ottoman for about 10 or 15 years Now, whenever Charles and Ray worked with one of their clients, what they always said it was always important to focus on what they called the guest- host relationship. It means whether you are a doctor, an architect, a sculptor. Your job is to anticipate the needs of your client before they even thought of them. Now this is the IBM Pavillion at the 1964 World's Fair. And IBM came to them and said, people are afraid of computers and they think there's witchcraft in them and there's something sinister is going on. How do we get through this? So at the world's fair, there was an exhibit down below on the lower level of the pavilion showing the beauty of mathematics, a world of numbers and beyond. And up above was a multi screen presentation showing how computers were gonna help us solve these problems as they were getting more complex as populations were growing Transportation, business, and everything [ UNKNOWN ] more and more interconnected. This is that same exhibit today. It's in Michigan. When Charles [ UNKNOWN ] designed an exhibit, they knew you can't show everything on a subject but you could show nine or ten things that get someone excited in that they wanted to learn more. They also said, you only show what you understand. And they also said, you know what you have to excite the ten year old child, but you also can't embarrass the professional in the field. One of their last projects was powers of ten. Again back to the idea of trying to show how everything is connected. Because what concerned them is having grandchildren, it is hard to understand something you can't visualized. So, they decided they could show how everything is connected from the smallest to the largest by distance. I think this film has become even more relevant today because Charles Ray always said we need to be comfortable in change, but I really believe we need to be comfortable changing scale. It's not about how big something is, it's how big something is next to something else. And I'm noticing with my own children That everything looks the same on the screen to them, and they're not used to understanding how much bigger something is next to something else. So we as [ UNKNOWN ] office have been doing workshops not just in the classroom, but also in the boardroom, because it's back to what Tim said. You really have to step back. You have to think about are you seeing the whole situation or just a symptom? Eventually everything connects people ideas objects the quality of the connections is the key to the quality per se [ UNKNOWN ] they never delegated understanding they join working hard [ UNKNOWN ] pleasure in working hard they were very supported they did not worry about failure they work in their life [ UNKNOWN ] When the stamps came out, it was really interesting. People realized, they designed the [ UNKNOWN ] but I didn't know they made that film. If you notice when you look at all the different areas they explored, in everything you participate it, you sat in the chair, you watched the film, you played with the toys. That's what's extraordinary about their work. So Charles and Ray shifted scales easily from something from a personal project to maybe a global solution in order for everyone to have the best for the most for the least, thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Design in Focus: the Best for the Most for the Least

What can we as designers and creatives learn from the Eameses that might apply to the challenges we face today?

When I first saw [ UNKNOWN ] designs, I must say, I was really struck by how beautiful and different they were. So I thought, the person who designs these clothes must really have loved clothes from a young age, and grown up wanting to be a fashion designer. Tamae is that why you became a fashion designer? Were you really into clothes as you were growing up? [ FOREIGN ] The first I loved painting a picture very mcuh. So first I like to be the profession as a artist. But actually I didn't have any intention to be the artist as a painter. So, actually there are so many people who are that good at painting a picture, so I thought I wonder why. So in this case at the time I was very interested in [ INAUDIBLE ] So female, the makeup, so- called, the makeup or the hairstyle, and the change in the clothing. And the female tends to be a completely different person. I'm interested in [ UNKNOWN ]. And then the person [ UNKNOWN ] Is, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Utilizing the purity of the painting. And also the people can put [ UNKNOWN ] and it makes the people so happy. So I decided to be the fashion designer [ UNKNOWN ]. Weren't really into fashion to begin with. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] Yes, and I went to the [ UNKNOWN ] College. I went to that [ UNKNOWN ] school and since danced. So from then, from the [ UNKNOWN ] I start to learn that [ UNKNOWN ] at the time and people, the student [ UNKNOWN ] and the people [ UNKNOWN ] Born and raised in Tokyo. And I was born in the regional area. So I thought that I was a very fashionable but actually among the [ FOREIGN ] and the students. There are so many fashionable people. So I thought that I was very shocked. I was not so fashion. So that from the scratch I To do what I should be, so I like to go so slowly. Intereting that Tamiya didn't start out really wanting to become a fashion designer, but somehow found herself in the position of fashion designer responsible for network. [ FOREIGN ] Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences at [ UNKNOWN ]. [ FOREIGN ] Well when I decided to work at [ UNKNOWN ] at the company and then the, I was assigned to be the [ UNKNOWN ] in designing and then I had to started to the design [ UNKNOWN ] a scratch. [ FOREIGN ] Yes, when I would start as a student, I didn't have the knowledge or anything at all. But I happen to join the company, and my boss was the new designer, and she Want to leave about one and a half months later, so I happened to be the new designer. So it was the start of the new design, so coincidentally, I was first. Wants to become a fashion designer. One lesson to learn from [ UNKNOWN ] experience is that You don't actually have to be able to sew maybe. [ FOREIGN ] Sort of ask you about your design concept and your philosophy. [ FOREIGN ] Well, so I must share from the physical. And so, so many times I tend to start to have that image from body so the clothing is a kind a second cloth so the The where in kind of the second skin that I'm putting so the from the stretch I decided to business and then why making clothes, there are so many clothes, but ultimately Close I'd like to make, so to do that, and say that language and races. But overcome suppressing such a thing, I'd like to share something in common. So I decided to make the second [ UNKNOWN ] to illustrate this. Can we have the first set of slides please. Yes and right the human body is first skin, and then the second skin, and then the body and also the internal organs and also The top of this. And the second skin is pulled so I'm thinking that everything. And then the skin is so up til now ethnic and the races and also here in Japan. And then we had the tattoo or the [ UNKNOWN ], the culture. And so the person did [ UNKNOWN ] cultures [ UNKNOWN ] the human beings. So essentially I'm interested in [ UNKNOWN ] it might be their transform into [ UNKNOWN ]. It might be very interesting so I thought that it would be a very good opportunity to expand the fashion. And [ FOREIGN ] He has and for example in the India and the henna tattoo and the United States and the other fashion. And some of the people put the tattoo and say that the [ UNKNOWN ] once they are putting on tattoo and it difficult to believe who that. A. [ UNKNOWN ] But instead that the fashion of the condo and the conduct too what are the products of times and it might be the. [ UNKNOWN ] Pass to the design and can be put and remove across again and up to now and the human being tend to express the. [ UNKNOWN ] So by using [ UNKNOWN ] we can express our impression by [ UNKNOWN ]- Of one of your skin series. Yeah, so this is a skin series that I had made [ UNKNOWN ] muscle and the wrapping. This is example, or the mannequin About how you actually come up with the design of this, it's a body suit, isn't it? Body suit. Do you start from the body, or the head? How do you create the whole Also you nailed on a cut it. Yes and this one all the human being is not the case of the dress because so everyone and I going to that the eyes of body size and then that it will be designed and then it will be called. Are these the kind of clothes that I understand your fans, you have among your fans, Lady Gaga and Madonna? [ FOREIGN ] Yes, [ FOREIGN ] That's similar and growth in the know that the moment that 106 degrees so it can be that to the person especially at. [ UNKNOWN ] And the performers other time I didn't expect it at all but let's say the. [ UNKNOWN ] Functionality. [ UNKNOWN ] it was respected on the [ UNKNOWN ] for such performers. And also the skin itself, has that kind of texture. So the texture, [ UNKNOWN ] the texture. That as a skin series, they can be expressed, so that by using several seasons, I studied [ UNKNOWN ] to the concept. Take a look at the skin series clothes on the mannequins over here. Do you wanna go over and Yes I can do. Here are the skin series. And as you can see, there is no stitching, so completely seamless. And you see the body position itself is already decided. So based on the body structure, we create a design, a knitting structure. So as you can see, depending on the structure of a Thing the colors are different, way to cover thing area. It's the small blind and white comes to more solid area it looks darker. So I mentioned about the concept apply in a different department what is king? So in this skin series, it's looks like apply in cosmetics. And wearing make- up to express the different types of skin structure. So when it comes here, we are unable to sell as a product as a whole, so we are actually I'm actually into this in clothes or tights, panty hose, and other things. So originally when it come to skin series I focused on some king and this came out of this design. But since this first kind of limit to express Express about fitting to the body. So when we see our clothes, we can see this dress, or Art. And people prefer to be something more comfortable rather than completely fit into your skin and body. So since we use a machine which did not create any Stretching and a completely, so get it completely seamless. So it comes from the traditional western style of a cloth making. We prepare the clothes and making a pattern, and then make a clothe itself. That is a regular process of the cloth making. However, when it comes to Japan's traditional cloth, we had a kimono. Where we had a kimono We actually keep the completely a flat cloth. So I actually combined two different methodology coming from western culture and also Japanese culture. This is the works of the tailor to check it. Usually the exterior and interior of the clothes were made separately, and then they are actually attached to each other. But with this case series, interior and as the exterior clothes were Are created together so they all completely united. Even for the pocket we instructed [ UNKNOWN ] to grip like this and when you look at their inner, it looks like a more smooth area. So it's quite simple. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Someone like me, I can't sew at all. Certainly can't knit. Something like that looks like it might be very difficult to make. Does this require very high technology? [ FOREIGN ] Yes, So, originally, and 18- bay machine and so on, we were using the best of technology. But we did not, it's not like using the state of the art technology. The state or art machine, we hold a punch card created by wood. Recently we operate this as our punch card. In the paper, there are some Some password and codes, and we were applying that to the [ UNKNOWN ] and we this kind of clause. And that has me influenced a lot. So [ UNKNOWN ] has me influenced a lot. That idea coming from human being is the same. Now called digital culture. [ FOREIGN ] Yes, when it comes to cloth making in modern era, cloth making has not being changed from the ancient cloth making which was invented in western culture. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ UNKNOWN ] I actually questioned to the point Why there is no change about the girls making. So I thought we can apply the new technology. That's what they started to do. This is actually part of Deus Couture, the starting for men's tailored jacket. So by looking at the closest [ UNKNOWN ] rather than [ UNKNOWN ] clothes making, we can apply different [ UNKNOWN ] of making. And the clothes itself is a material. A material itself is clothes. [ UNKNOWN ] is clothes. We All of them are connected closely to each other, so knitting and also coloring of the clothes. So we apply actually exactly the same method for the tailored jacket and also the yellow dress I'm currently wearing. But just changing the knitting structure, knitting way, we can actually play in different ways. Beautiful patterns and colors. Where do you get your ideas? What inspries you to design these beautiful patterns? [ FOREIGN ] So as for the inspiration I love to travel. The way I come visit Singapore. I take a [ INAUDIBLE ] Singapore. And try to see the people's live here. They inspire me a lot for my cloth making. Futuristic in a way, what do you think about the future of fashion, do you think that it's going to become much more technology based? So in Japan, nowadays, people who are called artisans Getting out of us ages so unfortunately we are unable to use their craftsmanship so much. However, although we have a new different [ UNKNOWN ] people's mind are the same. There is and the base in the people's mine and then there's a Massey and then went to create your clothes. Although there would be more state- of- the- art technology coming in the fashion industry, there is so many areas were haunted by manual by human beings hands. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So I think the basic won't be chained in the future. Actual sort of sewing and knitting after all that. Unless you can sew or knit, it's difficult to become a designer. Can that be left up to a machine or Is it absolutely necessary to have the human hand as well? [ FOREIGN ] Yes, by applying human hand That don't make a difference. Even with this one we could [ UNKNOWN ] first and then artisans actually create the patterns for the, knitting patterns. And depending on the sense of the artisan, craftsman. There outcome will be completely different and Japanese craftsmen are, our designs are working quite into the details so we can see a beautiful creature as a result. So design sense of the workers Affects the way the dress or textile comes out? Could you please tell me more about that? Well, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We Request the craftsman by showing in this graphic data, that the interpretation is by the craftsman or the artisans. So based on the graphic data, the craftsman, creates The course itself so depending on the regiment interpretation [ BLANK_AUDIO ] outcome would be different so we always have a deep discussion with them So [ UNKNOWN ] understands our idea better we can create a better one. That you can't just make it anywhere in the world. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] Are there any reasons why you wanted to focus in Japan, or? Originally we had a kimono, that was our traditional clothes. So there were so many craftmen who were making kimono in Many different regions. but nowadays we don't [ UNKNOWN ] so much. However, focus to our history, we can create so many different types of cross. And there are so many different types of [ UNKNOWN ]. But they all, they They believe in the importance to succeed ideas to the next generations. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] No, I don't see any hands. Do you have a question? No? Okay well thank you very much, Tamia, thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Digital Couture

Somarta’s creative director shares how a combination of technology and the human hand are essential to her design process.

In 2005, in, [ UNKNOWN ] South Africa, multiple people died of a multi drug resistant tuberculosis type. It was found that these people visited same clinic with patients who had the same symptoms, had went to seek care. The contamination happened When they were all waiting for consultation in poorly ventilated hallways. You can say that a design or lack thereof, in this case, of this waiting room killed all these patients. Surprisingly, The phenomenon of people dying of hospital [ UNKNOWN ] infections is not something new. Records dating back from 1854 during the Crimean war show that the majority of deaths of soldiers were not caused by the wounds they suffered in the battle field. But from being treated in extremely unsanitary conditions. Florence Nightingale, a british nurse who was appointed to treat british soldiers reported on this. And she gave recommendations that wins to inspire what is now known as the Nightingale Award. These included lifting beds off the ground, including better ventilation and better lighting to the wards. And we know experiences where architects in the past have thoughtfully used these principles around infection control, patient Comfort and recovery to design better facilities. The Paimio Sanatorium in Finland by Alva Alto is one of the best examples, where he went as far as to redesign the sinks in shared rooms so that when the patients are washing up, they don't disturb Their roommates when they're trying to rest. So why is it that in the 21st century people are still dying of airborne and hospital acquired infections? We as an organization have had the opportunity to work with two thought leaders in global health. Dr Paul Farmer who's along global health activist and, co founder of partners in health an organization that focuses on offering the preferential option for the poor. And, Dr Agnes Binagwaho she was then minister of health for Rwanda. For these two The reason why people are still dying of these infections acquired in hospitals is a question of injustice for the poor and inequity in global health equity. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] My country, Rwanda, is a small developing nation, landlocked in the Central Eastern region. But it's a remarkable country. Following the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, the country made three choices remaining together, being accountable and thinking big. So, in 2006 when the government of Rwanda and partners in health partnered to build a hospital in North Rwanda. In a district called Burundi Districts. These were the same thing that fueled that partnership. Now, this district is incredibly beautiful, it sits below the [ UNKNOWN ] in the northwestern part of the country on the border between Rwanda, Uganda, and the DRC. But at the time, it was one of the most impoverished districts in the country. But because the issue of giving quality health care for [ UNKNOWN ] and Dr Agnes is an issue of human dignity and justice for all involved Butaro hospital had to be more than a healthcare facility. Rwanda is blessed with near perfect temperate climate. So, instead of having indoors waiting rooms and walk ways that we know have a serious threat To become dangerous, to make sicker if not well designed or properly operated. We can actually have this hallways and walkways outside in the gardens or on the gardens in the courtyards. A nice color palate on this campus doesn't only bring beauty and light to this campus, but also has to serve a different purpose. By matching it with the signage around the campus, you can actually direct someone who can't read in this area of high level illiteracy To a place that want to get you to this compass by telling them what color to follow. But how to build in infection control measures into the facility itself. By designing a fail soft system that minimizes the risk of airborne acquired infections in this hospital. At all times. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And at the time it's scientifically proven that the site of a suffering patient delays recovery in other patients, a simple act of flipping the beds and offering each patient a view and a window To the view outside across the valley and into the gardens and courtyards can make a significant change in the thousands and thousands of lives of people who are going to go through this bed through the entire life of this hospital. These are decisions we architects and designers make Everyday but most of the time, and more than often we misuse or overlook simply. The success for Butaro is a story of the hospital born from this country, but speaks to global health issues around This club. For us, it's a good example of a purpose- built facility, but a purpose bigger than this hospital itself. We have now worked throughout the Rwanda Ministry of Health to redefine the standards for health care facilities in the country. Rethinking things like services sizes, minimum space requirements and injustices and so on. But also thinking about how conditions of citing this hospital for maximum passive systems and accessibility can be a policy requirement For all the facilities to come. And we've done this as well with the government of Liberia when we asked to help them develop infrastructure standards for healthcare facilities in that country as well. These two hospitals are under construction right now in Rwanda. On the left is Munini hospital, and on the right is [ UNKNOWN ] district hospitals. These two hospitals are both designed and plan to be built using the same systems, and improved standards. Using architecture to create a opportunities is very common. So, we've worked with people residents of Burera district to built what are hospital [ BLANK_AUDIO ] 4, 000 people we employed. We also try to come up with a new [ UNKNOWN ] system using the volcanic rock which is a material abundant in this region. And this obviously was very successful and also like Shed a spotlight on tanning that would otherwise not emerge. This is Akiza, on the left its him working on the hospital and on the right is five years later when he was working on a private commission of a client who visited the hospital and loved the volcanic rock And you can see how he continually improved his craft. The man is a legend now. I took this screenshot myself when I found him on the front page of We Transfer website. They now have a cooperative of 27 masons who go around the country just doing this But how do you retain doctors in [ UNKNOWN ] and encourage them to work and live and stay here when Sub Saharan Africa accounts for only 3 % of the global doctors population. [ UNKNOWN ] doctors housing was meant to just try and do this. And the fact that we able to design and build this facility and fabricate all furnitures and all fittings with the people in this region is proof that good architecture can be done everywhere and can be locally fabricated. The medical professional team group grew and [ UNKNOWN ] shared victors housing was meant to expand the accommodation and was complete d on the same campus. This hill which was once a military camp was nicknamed the healing hill. Which means, which is in our language [ FOREIGN ] With that name though came great responsibilities, and an alarming number of cancer cases was particularly of interest, not surpising because the developing word accounts for more than 70 % of the global estimates This Center of Excellence for outpatient cancer care was meant to respond to this. An existing building on the campus was designated to be home to this center. And it was very clear to us that indeed both renovations and expansion. But, what do you offer? To someone who has confirmed and quantified chances of dying. That offers them a sense of hope and comfort to get better. So the medication space was designed intentionally to open out and connect the beautiful vallies across with the hope that this is going to remove any sense of isolation in this [ UNKNOWN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] With the case up and running, obviously, people came as far as from Somaliland to seek care and [ UNKNOWN ] patient housing is meant to give affordable shelter to these people. When completed is going to compliment the available accommodation in this town And then on 25th of January this year the state of the art University of Global Health Equity opened its doors. With this, the once impoverished Burera Districts became one of the few places on this planet that is a center of knowledge. For delivery, research and education and quality healthcare. Obviously, we can't associate all the success to architecture and design. But, in this particular cases architecture companionship has been a significant catalyst. Of this vision to utilize equity and global health equity to deliver justice to the poorest, some of the poorest of this planet. This type of thinking about architecture and design is particularly important for the African continent. As it was said in the introduction, because by 2050, it's projected that Africa is going to grow to 2. 5 billion people. Back in 2015, in our office, we estimated that the infrastructure needed to accommodate this many people is unprecedented in the history of humankind. We estimated that 700 million more housing units, more than 300, 000 schools, and nearly 100, 000 health centers will need to be built to accommodate this increase in population on the continent. We obviously will continue to do this type of working together with all of you to push the boundaries of what architecture and design can do. But this need is just a [ UNKNOWN ], so we must also invest in the next generation of architects and designers who are committed to continue doing this type of work. Personally and in our practise we've decided to invest in African architect and designs. Last year ten fellows graduated from the African design center fellowship. Some of them remain working with us on our project across the continent, some of them went back to their countries to establish their own work. And others went on to do for the status in graduates programs. We were founded on the mantra that architecture is never neutral. And I believe somebody said it earlier yesterday that design can never be neutral. It either hurts or it helps And it's our collective responsibility to ensure it does the latter. We've come to understand and to believe that each project must achieve a simple, legible and transmissible idea. That the context of each and every project holds Power over this project's success that it simply cannot be ignored. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] That we shouldn't question whether our work has impact but in what ways and by how much, and that we must be intentional about who benefits From our work. And lastly and finally, we believe that justice is beauty, because every single person on this planet has a fundamental right to build towards that is beautiful And, one that improves the quality of life, thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Design in Focus the Need for Sexy Trash

Our trash problem is an opportunity to transform the way we design, engineer, and manufacture. Trash is already the new building block. 

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing for Interaction

Fortune's Andrew Nusca interviews Maricel Cabahug, SAP's chief design officer, and Miriam Daniel, Amazon.com's VP of Echo and Alexa Devices.

I am a practicing emergency medicine physician. I work in this emergency room, like all of us in this room. I believe that good design is good business, but I also believe that good design is good medicine and we can make Healthcare better by Design. But healthcare, one of the largest industries on the planet fails to recognize the importance of design. In health care, we don't have a technology problem, I really think we have a design problem. Every time I work in the hospital, I have to use this relic from the 1980s, a fax machine. It's because the information systems weren't designed for interoperability. And electronic health records they were supposed to revolutionize health care. Instead they have crushed the souls of physicians. Emergency room doctors like myself make 4, 000 clicks on a keyboard during a shift. The design of health records are so bad that doctors in the US blame them as one of the major factors for burning out. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Everywhere I go in the hospital, I see design failures like these thermometers. The only difference between these thermometers is that the rector probe has a red dot on top of it. In order to prevent a rectal probe from being inserted in your mouth, nurses hacked this solution with a marker. The design of healthcare spaces can be awful. In this exam room, it's impossible for a physician to make eye- to- eye contact with their patient. Poor design in healthcare leads to poor experiences. Both for clinicians and patients. Healthcare suffers from a lack of creativity. There's this misconception that if you're a creative type that you're never gonna go into healthcare. You're not gonna become a doctor. You're not going to become a nurse. I believe that making people healthier is a creative pursuit. In our forthcoming book my co author Ellen Lupton and i we share how we can apply design and medicine We give examples of how good design in medicine can lead to better products and services and experiences in health care. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I started the first program in a US medical school teaching design thinking to medical students. They learn to apply their imagination and creativity in medicine. I think this helps them become greater creative problem solvers. They learn to brainstorm their ideas. They learn to storyboard concepts and challenge the assumptions in health care. They tackle the toughest problems in health care by design. They learn to prototype solutions like this visual checklist that might help reduce medical errors in patients with sepsis. Or this redesigned urine cup that helps to collect uncontaminated urine samples from patients. Sepsis in urine. It's not as sexy as designing a beautiful museum or designing the next smart phone but I think that making products that improve the lives of patients is just as important and more satisfying. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Patients and stakeholders, they should be active participants and the design projects and not just objects of empathic are all human beings are stakeholders in the success of healthcare design and Healthcare needs to move Beyond just designing fancy logos for organizations. Or designing brand identities for pharma and med tech companies. I believe that the future of medicine can incorporate designers on healthcare teams. And that good design can bridge the gap in healthcare. Thank you. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Bridging the Gap in Health Care

Health care systems around the world are struggling to improve outcomes and control costs, and leaders are searching for inspiration. 

Jacqueline and I have a pretty similar background in policy and economics and it's interesting that she took on a role that took her into technology and also for this push towards a Smart Nation. That's pretty much where our similarities end, because she went into government, I went into journalism. She is a Star Wars fan, I'm a Trekkie. You know where this conversation goes. So I'm gonna kick it off by asking a simple question. That I know that probably everyone wants to understand. And I'm going to bring up a slide that you sent across for us. It's an economy and in a position where The world is challenging. There are lots of uncertainties. Economic growth across the board for Singapore is still strong, but there are risks to the downside. When you look at the way you're looking at design and technology and implementation going down the road How are you looking at all of these scenarios that are playing out? Thank you very much [ UNKNOWN ]. I really thank the organizers for sort of adding a little bit of a different kind of element to this conference beyond what you see as design for products. Or even design for services, and that is design for policy, design for strategy, and design for technology in a public policy context. I think, and that's the reason why I put up these slides, and I think that for a lot of countries and governments, it takes a long time to make a shift. It takes a long time to think about how to design for the future. The first picture that we have on the left, Houston, we have a problem, is something that was tweeted recently by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. And this was what basically happened to them after they came back from the moon. It's a customs declaration form. So basically they came back to Earth, went to Hawaii, and they said, well, you've come back to America [ LAUGH ]. Is there anything you'd like to declare? And it kinda indicates, in many ways, how a lot of governments do tend to not be in time for the future. And one of the roles of the Saint Paul government is also to look at what are the black swans, what are the unexpected, see around the corner events that might help to enable us to deal with challenges and take advantage of opportunities. Thins like SARS in 2003 would be an example of that. And also to actually telescope into the future to take a look at what's happening not just now but to 10 years down the road 20 years down the road and across the hall of the Singapore government, foresight has become an important part of how we achieve design those strategies. So I'm going to try and pull up the second slide and I think that brings up the issue of looking at how you see the future. When you design these and you're looking at the building scenarios, which are quite unpredictable. Let's put it frankly. How many years out do you plan, and how do you look at these elements to make sure that the city Continues to function no matter what uncertainty [ UNKNOWN ] at it. It's not an easy job, and I think it takes an entire public service to be able to achieve that in unison and in alignment. What I can say is that in the process of trying to design a city, or an economy or Kind of the future of how we think that a little island can progress. It's helpful to think of it in terms of foresight, hindsight and insight. The foresight work that is done both by my office as well as by foresight units throughout the whole of government, look at things like national scenarios. They look at emerging strategic issues like For example, AI ethics or human augmentation, or big geopolitical shifts but they also look back into the past. What worked, what didn't work. How that can inform better. How we design in future from things that might not have succeeded in the past. And then finally kinda getting that insight together and pushing that into any form of national strategy. I think that's an interesting point, right? So when you look at designing and the foresight, what hasn't worked in the past that you think you've- [ LAUGH ] Actually been able to address or are still wanting to address? I think that what we need to do is to constantly look at not just a lot about policies are quiet successful, that's how we got to, I suppose, sort of where we are today but in the sits of that are also possible. Things that we need to look at that are not so suitable for the future. I'll give you an example of an announcement that was made yesterday by our education minister. We had a policy that was actually pretty successful in achieving what it wanted to achieve for 40 years, and the policy was known as streaming. That is to put students into different you know streams according to their ability to learn and like how fast they learned. 40 years later, we found that that certainly achieved what it was supposed to do, which was to reduce attrition rates by having people learn at the right speed for them. Unfortunately, it was causing issues with social mixing, and with morale and motivation for students who were put in some of the streams. So a decision was taken to actually move to something called subject- based banding, which was a far more personalized education approach. Where people could sort of take classes at different levels. And that's an interesting approach to designing a policy that works for today and tomorrow. And you mentioned looking past as well. And that brings up a critical point that the silver economy in this country is going to triple in size. You're looking at a pioneer generation that has to be taken care of. It's a crisis that we have to deal with in Europe as well, to quite an extent. How do you design around it and how much of a role does technology end up playing within that space? Wanna bring that slide up- That's really interesting, I think one of the examples, we wanted to actually give policy design was actually one of the ways in which we were addressing what was essentially a very fast aging population in Singapore. And also needing to acknowledge the contributions of a group of Singaporeans who had been there When we had just achieved independence, they were around 16 years and above at the time of achieving independence at 1965. These were the people who were first national service men, our first soldiers, the bedrock of our manufacturing industry when we first started. They were the first. At everything and because they were the first they also didn't have the opportunity to get the kind of education that their children later have. They didn't have the opportunity to get the kind of incomes that their children later had. As a result, in terms of their retirements and social security and also their healthcare needs, they were one step behind. They were far less in a position to take care of themselves. So the question was how do you design something particularly to meet the needs of these users? Then you have to ask yourself who really are the users? In this case the users were the pioneer generation themselves and their own particular situation. Also, their children who basically thought they had to pay for the health care needs of their parents And this was causing them a lot of stress. And generally, the needs of society, to know that we are actually acknowledging contributions. How do you design for that age group, when it comes to implementing a smart solution for them? That's not easy. I know you have great examples in Estonia and in other countries in that region. What did you do so different that hadn't been done elsewhere, and do you think it's a complete success, or do you think that it's an iteration, it's evolving? So I think for the Pioneer Generation Package, it was mainly a financial package, to give them healthcare assurance. The innovation there was also how we reached out to the seniors, So we realized that you know, for them, an entirely digital kind of interface was not gonna work we're not gonna send to their smartphones and at that says, these are your benefits. So we actually sent out what we call Silva generation ambassadors, or then pilot generation and messages. We actually use the young old to reach out to the older, old. And so you know these would be people in their fifties for example. And they actually went out house to house to tell them about the benefits that they would receive. But the young old would get ipads and other devices to be able to record and to get a full understanding of what that household would receive and to take down all their concerns. And then all of that would be fed back into a database. So it was actually an interesting kind of mixture of mediums. The face to face, the high touch, then there was the high tech. Then there was the data intensity. And then finally there was a media push. That again was designed for this group. And that was in dialect, Cantonese, [ UNKNOWN ]. And that was a really big shift, because before that, the use of dialects in Singapore had been discouraged for many, many years, cuz we wanted everyone to speak, say, Mandarin. And some majority Chinese population. So, in this case we said the user is the most important to design for us. So, the [ INAUDIBLE ] materials were all these dialect videos and things like that. That human element seems to be very much part of smart city planning in many ways. Another example that you highlighted was something that became a bit of a YouTube sensation. It's a landfill that doesn't look anything like a landfill. Tell us how that idea came about and how exactly you thought about putting this together and for it to become now a tourist destination. Yeah, I think that's really speaks to, if you are in public policy, what is design to you? It is about solution seeking. It's fundamentally looking at a problem, defining it, finding a solution, and designing that solution to meet the needs. And in this case You know, we've had typical landfills for a long time in Singapore in the 70s 80s these were you know, what we had only sometime in the 80s that we decide that soup was a really small island. We don't have space for landfills and we started to build what we call Waste incineration plants. So we would take the all that waste. And we would burn it. Yeah. And in the process of burning the waste, the amount of waste that you have shrinks by 90 %, which is a good thing. At the same time you create energy for a country that doesn't have many other energy sources. So it was great. We changed waste to energy. Then we had less waste, and we had to put it somewhere. And at that time we had these a few islands there and something called Pulau Semakau, about 5km south from the coast of Singapore. And a decision was taken to actually convert this, put a non permeable membrane around it and marine clay. And to put all the ways, all the ashes into this place, into this sort of [ UNKNOWN ] you can see in the before picture, and by doing so we would create a new [ UNKNOWN ]. So that's great because Singapore need a land, Singapore need electricity, Singapore did not need more waste. And in the end it actually works out quite well in terms of creating sort of new space. What was the biggest hurdle in that one to get everyone to look at that design and say that works? Because sometimes getting people who are not thinkers in terms of creatively looking at that and saying that's an option What was the biggest hurdle there, you think? I think that, like for any of these new projects, feasibility would have to be something that you think about. And I think that the ambitions that you have initially can, it's okay for those ambitions to be more limited. So Marco does a lot more things now than it was envisioned at first, which was just to be a landfill for ash. It actually is a marine sanctuary, it's got bird life, people picnic there. We have a baramundi farm that grows fish fry on Samakau now as well. And exports it internationally. None of these things were envisaged, when the idea first came, it had one purpose. So it's all about designing the solution that sort of aligns all the needs together. And then after that, once it gets going it takes on a life of it's own. And that brings policy into implementation as well and that's something that you did with the National Identity Scheme as well. Talk us through the technology that goes into doing something like that and then tying it back to ensuring that there's growth in the nation. When you're aiming for a smart nation. So this is an interesting project, because I would say that not many countries have indentities, or digital identities, want to do actually a little bit more with them. A basis sort of for communcations and comerse and interactive transations and andy digital economy is identitiy. The ability to verify and authenticate that it is you and it is your purchase and it's your opinion and its your transaction. And so the National Digital Identity Project's kind of interesting, because it creates a unique digital identity for every Singaporean. So that's a design element in itself. But we wanted to design it in a way that would form a platform for businesses as well as the government to rely on it to make transactions. So to do that you had to make it secure, so to stop PKI. We had to make it usable, so it's actually not biometric. And it had to be a secure platform that, you know, using APIs private enterprises could then onboard so at the moment at my understanding is that Scott about a 107 government services using this and in doing so it means no more forms filling. The citizens do not have to fill out forms anymore. That's cut down 80 % of transaction time. But it also has 120 private sector services that ride on this including almost all the banks. Property houses, insurance And it's used by a lot of other organizations for verification and knowing their customer. Do you sometimes feel that maybe you're at a disadvantage where some of this is so controlled by the government that private sector might feel slightly pushed out. And then convincing citizens to share their data is always an issue, especially if it's in the hands of government. Trust comes into it. We've talked a lot about trust and design. Where do you think that bridge can be made and that challenge can be addressed? Because you're facing that now. Yeah, so actually, trust is a huge thing if you design anything. For you know so especially financial context or government context. In Singapore I would say that I think the trust in government is a bit higher than there are a few other countries that have in the world trust and the I think there was some, there Surveys that we had that showed that actually citizens expect that we had all the data already. And so why were we asking again and again since you already know? Okay so that was the first step. Then we knew that the private sector actually didn't have all of this data so we weren't crowding anyone else out. There was no way anyone else was gonna collect it [ LAUGH ] To the extent that we were. And in fact, we would have been accused of hoarding the data if we had just not done anything about it to make it an open platform. So what we do was to say, look, if you're a citizen and you want to set up a credit card, and you don't want to have to tell your bank all about yourself, write up a form. And you just use the national digital identity, you click, then the bank just says Are you okay that I use the national digital identity, my info, to access the things I need to access to be able to give you a credit card? You have to say okay. The power is in the hand of the citizen. They have to say okay, and then the rest happens. Well, I know we're running out of time, so in a quick ten second Is there anything that you see as a question that you constantly ask yourself? Why do we do it that way? Why do we change things the way we do it? Is there an example of that? Well, there's just one example, and I did have a slide on this one. Well, you have ten seconds. For many years, we used This interesting thing called Car Parking Coupons, the little paper coupons. For those of you who are not from Singapore, those are the things in the bottom left. Actually, this is already an advancement, many countries have meters which actually form a large chunk of street furniture These car parking meters. But we had these coupons which were also a bit troublesome in terms of enforcement. In terms of having to buy them and leaving the little stubs everywhere. And we converted that into an app that basically looked at wherever you were and then allowed you to pay wherever you were or for whomever you wanted. For as long as you wanted, and then to get a refund if you came back early. And that was incredibly simple, I think to actually do, but the designer limits were very strong. For example, we decided to put it on the public cloud, and but to do that we had to say the key design element was that we had to say, we did not care Who you paid for. your identity was irrelevant to us. You chose to pay for any car in the street and once you chose to pay for like once a design decision is taken. Then you can pay for any car industry you can make this thing cheap. You can make this thing easy to access. You can put it on the public Cloud. And the rest, it follows. I think that's what I've always found. When we talk about smart cities. Sometimes the most ingenious things are the simplest things that we ask the question, why do we do it like that? Jaqueline, thank you very much for your time, and please give her a round of applause for all that she's trying to do. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing Singapore: Strategy, Policy, and Technology

In 50 years, Singapore has transformed from mudflats to a metropolis. Rapid technological disruption, increasing fiscal trade-offs and the challenging geopolitical climate will make the next phase of nation-building more complex.

Brainstorm Design 2019: Ahead of the Curve: Automotive Design Showcase

Autos

In a Brainstorm Design exclusive, two of the world’s most admired global automotive design leaders answer the question, “What is the future of automotive design?”

Brainstorm Design 2019: Emerging Technologies in Design + Business

Designers must get involved with emerging technology early to help shape how society decides to use these powerful tools, which will in turn shape society. 

[ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Marcus that was a pretty impressive smorgasbord of Image from your time idea and before we talk about your new invention, which is fascinating and really host of the press, could you give us a little inside in a bit of background to where you start it in the design well particular [ UNKNOWN ] because you have a number of. Moments in and out, ended up as Chief Designer, so. True, I actually started out at Ikea when I was 16 years of age, pushing trolleys outside of stores. Then I worked as an interior designer in a lot of stores at Ikea and became a global range strategist for the range, this is in the 90s. I was also a marketing manager for Ikea so it's quite diverse. I took on a lot of different topics. You pushed trollies, you're a marketing executive. True true and then in the year 2000 or something I actually left Ikea for the first time, and started my own agency there. It was a retail agency working with a lot of big retailers around the world. Doing new concepts and new ranges and so on. And then seven years ago IKEA called and wanted me back in the position of Head of Design. So that's what I did. So seven years as running the design department, which must be the most important department there. You've now left. You left very recently, September Yeah, looking back over all those years, what would you say you're most proud of, what's your legacy and what did you do at Ikea that changed? I think actually the way to lead, to lead through good examples instead of just talking and being visionary about things. Because that's so easy to do and when, they kinda toss like the head of design for gigantic company, then you You produce a lot of paper. But I wanted to lead by examples. So the way that we did, it was to do all of those collaborations and collections to show that things are possible to do, both externally but also actually internally within the company. And that was a foster pace change than doing it through strategies. So what I know of you, because Marcus was You are one of the stars of one of the best fly in world documentaries I have seen about a large company and at a design company that the BBC produced. But what I took from that was that you really pivoted the company in with collaborations with designers and creatives that you would never Normally associated with IKEA, and I think it was a moment that a lot of people in my profession really opened our eyes. Particularly I think Ilsa Crawford and then Tom Dickson were they, was that a- Is it because they're British or what? [ LAUGH ] Ilsa has Swedish roots but it's more that they represented something different. My time as editor at wallpaper No disrespect to Ikea but it was not the market that we would normally engage with. When Isla produced a collection for you it suddenly became a difference story. Was that a risk for you and at the company? Was it a gamble that could have gone wrong? No I don't think there was a risk actually because we were truly. Curious about it, both me and Ilsa when we started out at the very beginning. She want to learn more about mass manufacturing and was it possible to do what she was doing on a mass manufacturing level. And we were at IKEA at the time, super curious about her particularities around how could you work the tactility within design. Yes. And the tactile parts. And I think that ended up in a good way All of those collaborations has not been about names it's been about learnings, actually what could we learn together, same thing with Tom, the same thing with Vagilabra right now or Solange Knowles which we're working at at the moment. So Vagilabra and who was the last one? Solange Knowles with the Santerum, So again these are people you would never normally associate with IKEA, so it's really changing the perspective Of what that company produces as well as. It is and also what I wanted to bring to the table to the design department also working with design for a company like that was maybe not just focusing on designers and product designers but actually talking about creatives in general and what happens if you mix and match different creatives to solve the task. So that's my way of working. So it seemed you are really in your stride to there, and making differences and proving that difference and gambles can work, but you decide to leave. That's a big step to leave a company like IKEA, after so long in and out. Firstly, why did you leave? I kind of know why but it's an interesting, it's a big leap and it's a gamble to start your own venture. It is of course but I've always wanted to make change in different ways and that's whay I'm interested in working in design and the change that they wanted me to make at Arakeia I What's more or less gone through all of that so I wanted to do something new. So that's the biggest step for me then and then things I learned during my years at Ikea. I saw things that I couldn't really do something about when I worked at Ikea but I could do maybe on the outside. So that's why I started this new adventure. So now you're on the outside and the new venture is [ UNKNOWN ], skewed. [ LAUGH ] Skewed yeah. Tell us about skewed and why this is gonna do something different ?>> Skewed is more like a network actually than typical company, it is containing of three different parts, it the skewed productions Which is mostly resembling an agency. And then there's something called skewed conversations which is a magazine coming up and then there's skewed things which is products. Which is just about proving points to be able to do what you see. So skewed, three pillars. Skewed Productions >> Which is the first one. Yeah So you are not in the business of making things, you're in the business of making things better. That's quite a lofty manifesto. It is, but it is also my view up on the sign actually. Because I see a lot of crap happening out there and I don't think you need to do just one more of everything. [ CROSSTALK ] Earlier. Yeah, she's good at that isn't she? It is a call. So rethinking stigmas, this is part of. Yeah, here's some examples of what we're actually working on right now and this is the first time we talk about it. One of the companies that I work with is a small company called Unique which is actually working with prosthetics And they've been going about this since 2014 and they do it in a very different way. I don't know if you know about this but there's actually almost 1 billion people as some kind of what we call the disability in the world. So it's quite a big target audience and to get rid of those stigmas which is together with that to design for that in a better way. So they started out with covers for prosthetics. And then actually now, if you'd come to the next one, what they're working on right now, and we're working on together, is actually something which is targeting young females especially because they are the ones that's suffering from it. And it's scoliosis and braces for scoliosis. And the way to do it is a new kind of value chain for how to produce and how to do design it starts and It's All Digital and this is a thing which interests me a lot. It starts with capturing data through 3D scanning of photo metrics. Turning that into [ UNKNOWN ] I'm actually, working with [ UNKNOWN ] and generative design to shape that [ UNKNOWN ] things, for each and every person because this is highly personalized items. And then it's produce in 3D printing, all of it So that means actually that you're gonna get ladies like this far more happier. If you don't have braces when you're young and you have this disease, then you will go through a really painful operation to get rid of your Scoliosis So this is really rethinking stigmas, but also But is rethinking stigmas. But it's also as I see it, it's also a new way of working with the sign at where the designer is more put into the role of, of designing the same tools rather than doing the actual product design. And I could see this as part of also rethinking Retailing for this future, because this means this production of the land is and you can all most go back to the [ UNKNOWN ] ways but in the completely new way so go to the store where actually everything is produce for you on sides, while you are waiting so the future could be design as designing the tools for maybe other people to. That's a thing that I can foresee. A lot, yeah it is, and a lot of talking about design from time to time is about being an author of things. I think that it could be so much bigger than just being an author for one more glass. Rather when being, making tools for a change. From a starting point, rethinking gaming gear. Yeah that's another topic. It's actually something that I stumbled upon when I was at Ikea, and at Ikdea we talked about serving the many people. And how in the heck could you miss out on 2. 2 billion people, and that's actually the gamers, the e- sporters. There was more people looking up on e- sports last year than looking up on the Olympic Games, and I think that's pretty fascinating. And those e- sporters, normal sport we have invested a lot of time in designing their tools. But designing tools for e- sporters, nobody has done that And that's highly individual also. And they spend 14 billion hours per week sitting down in not so good situations, so that's a big design situation, I think. So you're rethinking their posture, the- The posture, it's ergonomics, and it's also actually bringing the thinking from UNIQ that we did for disability, the medical wearables How could you use that thinking and those learnings into economics? So this is all about 3D printing as well and using the same kind of design tools but turning it into a completely place. Now we have rethinking IKEA Co- lab. So you haven't Left completely now, I haven't left Ikea I have actually I'm not employed anymore. But I still work for them. One of the things I worked with is the future collaborations that they're going to have and also how we could be more efficient with our collaborations. One of the things that I introduced while at Ikea was to have a more transparent approach. To share what we were doing, to get people to understand the value of low pricing that is actually three years of hard work to make something which is as cheap as an Ikea item. And it was pretty simple, it was all about transparency. And the way that we do it right now is To maybe structure that a little bit and to work with design and communication hand- in- hand and to merge those two departments and to merge that into one kind of strategic thinking this is just a model for making things happen. It's like a five- step approach because you said some. Mildly controversial things about the role or the conflict between design and marketing. And sometimes marketing- For me, it doesn't make sense. Look upon a marketing department, it's like shitload of people. And then you have a design department, there's just a few of them, and they're making the change. And then you have a lot of other people who's talking about what the one's who's actually making the change is doing. Instead of letting them do the talk from the very beginning. So i think investing in the sign and being open about what you're doing and how you do stuff. It's the best kind kind of marketing. And this is coming from an old marketing manager. Yes you have experience and that's why you are not speaking from a point of ignorance. Mara Puccini last year it's a similar conflict he has. That it's more attention paid on. The well somebody famously said marketing is the tax you pay for bad design. Well I think it's also we're in the period where everything is changing from a media perspective as well. So now is the time to move money from marketing into design. And to make the sign even more valuable. Yeah. Rethinking fish. Yeah, this is funny one. This [ INAUDIBLE ] Just this started actually, and what is all about is, it's the protein sources of the future. We're gonna need a lot more protein to survive if the population is growing like it is and one of the most efficient protein sources is actually fish, Sustainably, farm fish, which is the future of fish as I see it. This is a big topic that I'm into together with some companies within the Baltic Sea, to rethink how we could so this sustainable farming, but also to rethink new products. So what could be products that makes people more prone to buy fish for the future. Just gonna say it's the very earlier stages. This is still This is just begun, but I think it's a really interesteing topic, actually. Slightly backwards. There's so many misconceptions about fish. Next year, we'll see what you've caught. [ LAUGH ] Next year. So second pillar's skewed conversations. I do believe this is a magazine. This is a magazine you could call it, a magazine, but it's also a part of the universe skewed. And starting out, everybody wants to do the magazine once in their life. I wanted to make a magazine. It's a tough business, yeah? [ LAUGH ] Which is more of a piece of art more than a magazine, and it's also Giving the voice to the people of one certain place at a time, so each and every magazine is actually gonna take place in one place, everything is gonna happen in that place. And we're gonna produce, So it's location- specific? Location- specific, and produced at that location, as well. So, it's two parts. It's one part, which is just art. Art basis, and pictures, and images, And also illustrations yeah from that very place. No words whatsoever and then there is one piece which is just words. And these is just examples or [ UNKNOWN ] it's still on mark up stage. There is gonna be launch before end of summer. So end of May you can look forward to this. And It's gonna be a lot about street culture and the first one is gonna be about Senegal, and specifically Dakar, which is an interesting place right now. And why by Senegal? Because I think that there's a lot of good creatives coming there. And also me, I love the skateboard scene. I'm an old skateboarder myself. And There's something happening there which is also interesting in this case we're seeing [ INAUDIBLE ] and from the past is also a lot of things like you see [ INAUDIBLE ] which is a fashion designer, he's an interesting individual as well Focusing the Skewed Things. So this is product. This is, yes product. [ LAUGH ] So getting to something you kind of know a little bit about? Yeah, precicely. And this is evolving, of course. This is jsut starting out. We're opening a webstore in maybe a week's time, or something like that. Starting up with the basic stuff. What I wanted here is a place, it's the same way of thinking as actually for what I did Ikea. It is to have proof points for your ways of thinking, in real products. So, here we do real products. Everything is gonna be Sustainably sourced, actually produced also in factories where it's only driven by sun and wind energy. People getting paid in a fair way in the factories, no matter where they are. 10 % of everything that we earn is gonna go to Skate This Town, which is a nonprofit organization working with skateboarding for young kids in different parts of the world. With skateboarding and education put together actually. And the first here is, you always have to start, since I've been working with range all the time, star with the boring stuff because you need the boring stuff. And that is like the basics, you always need that perfect t- shirt, you always need that perfect hoodie and those things. And this is like the first things coming up, and secondly Is gonna be in collaboration with different designers from different parts of the world connected to actually where we do the magazines. So the first batch of things which are not basics is gonna come from Senegal, and creatives in Senegal. So while you they're producing the publication. You're making the connections. We're doing all of that at the same time. I love Swedish efficiency so one trip one week, all of it at the same time. Get it all done and the final slide we have here is intruiging. You're designing volcanoes. Yeah, but everything sounds so serious. Me, I don't wanna be looked upon like the most serious Person ever. So one of the things that have been intriguing for me all my life is volcanoes. I truly love them. And I wanted to put volcanoes together with something which is very opposite of volcanoes. If you have been to a volcano, you know that the smell is not so good actually. But I wanted to do like an incense volcano. So this is volcanoes Collectables actually done with artisans from different parts of the world. And there is actually a volcano in Dakar, an old sleeping one. So this is gonna be the first volcano we do with an [ UNKNOWN ] from Dakar as well. [ UNKNOWN ] you must meet Cecil [ UNKNOWN ] who's speaking tomorrow who is a saint, scientist and artist I can see a collaboration going there we've talked to [ INAUDIBLE ] a time but I would like to offer some questions to the floor if they are brief questions to Marcus are there any [ UNKNOWN ] while he's here If not, the production team will be delighted because we run out of time but Marcus [ UNKNOWN ], thank you very much. You've let out of IKEA's [ UNKNOWN ] something more interesting. Thank you so much, thank you. [ APPLAUSE ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: The World Is Skewed

Bad design can no longer hide behind marketing investments, and design for its own sake is irrelevant. This proposition is the foundation of Skewed Productions, Marcus Engman’s new global design venture seeking to put craft and meaning back into desi

Hello, there can sometimes a little bit of a tension between creativity and control. Businesses like to start with budgets, engineers with boundary conditions and constraints, and stuck in the middle it can get a little bit claustrophobic. But good design Has responsibility of deciding which rules to break. I can tell you a little story about how a new product was launched based on a very simple human insight. Its work we did a continuum. And it reveals that sometimes it's the most mundane or the invisible. That's the key to seeing things in a new way. So here's a business problem. Tetra Pak was losing market share to plastic bottles. Tetra Pak, they make those cup and drink packages you see everywhere. They're losing share, why? Because some people thought that it was easier to drink from a plastic bottle than from a Tetra Pak. So the design challenge is design a tetra pack that is better to drink from than a plastic bottle. Simple, right? But there's an engineering constraint. You see that rectangle on the top of the package? Solution has to fit within that rectangle. We were told That if you didn't fit within that rectangle, it'd be impossible to make. So how are you gonna solve this problem? You can stare at that drink all day. You can brain storm exotically shaped pieces of plastic that might fit in that box. And touch had been doing that for eight years to no success. People were thinking that it was impossible, or you could think, better drinking experience, drink, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] how do you drink? And you can ask the question how do you drink? You know surprisingly Tetra Pak which is a multi billion dollar company And its very existence depends on people drinking, and they had never asked that question. They did not know how people drink. So I'm gonna ask you, how do you drink? I think most of you have in front of you a bottle of water and I would like you to open it up and take a sip. And then reflect on how you drink, I'll do the same. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Now to solve this problem, what we did was, we put a video camera in the bottom of a bottle, And we watched very closely to make sure we understood what was going on. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We watched people drinking and we asked them questions about their experience. We got into a discussion about what was good and what was bad. So please Follow along, immerse yourself in the experience and participate experientially in this journey. What we learned was fundamentally there are three ways to drink. And I'm gonna demonstrate them for you and I would like you to drink with me. And maybe you'll learn something new. So the first way to drink is what we call the suck mode, okay? That's where you put your entire mouth around the opening and you drink. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Okay, now you can tell it's a suck mode because there's that little Sound at the end. Okay did everybody do that? Okay good. The second mode is the pour mode. You just pour it into your mouth. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Simple, right? It's what I was doing in the video. And the third mode is a little more sophisticated. Okay, it's where you form a seal between your top lip and the surface of the water. And then you use your tongue to pull the water into your mouth, okay? Let's see if we can do that. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] It turns out we use the pull mode When we're really trying to savor the beverage, okay? So there's three fundamentally different ways that we can drink, and it turns out that different people drink in different ways. We drink differently depending on who we are, where we are, and what we're drinking. And if you want to design a good drinking experience, you want to design so that it accommodates All three ways of drinking, now that we understand the rules we can understand how to design that ultimate interaction between the legs and the opening and the closure that deliver that and the opening in the package and, no, we validated the roles. A hoe has gone over the edge we're working outside the box. Well [ COUGH ] because with a combination of customer insight, creativity and critical thinking we were to layout the very well posed engineering and business challenge for [ UNKNOWN ]. They took on that challenge They solved the problem it took awhile and launch this package. First of all in Saudi Arabia and then across the world and it is now used by hundreds of different Beverages and drunk by millions of people around the world, which is foremost designers. The ultimate reward, impact at scale and businesses like that too. Cheers. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Seeing New

Design surprises, but businesses do not like to be surprised. Frameworks enable us to understand and manage our world, but they also limit what we might see. Often it is the mundane or the invisible that is the key to a breakthrough.

Well, as Clay says, I'm going to be the party pooper, and instead of telling you about these glorious design success stories, I'm going to talk about a couple of the flops and failures, because we tend to ignore bad design at events Like this and design books, festivals, podcasts, blogs, documentaries, exhibitions, and so on, to focus on its successes, but I believe that's a mistake, because bad design, unfortunately, is abundant in our lives. It has just as much, if not more impact on us. From the good variety, and of course it could incredibly expensive in terms of time, money, emotion, effort, and energy to repair the damage that it causes. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So, i'm going to look at seven form Of bad design. It's by no means an exhaustive list, but it should give you an idea and a sort of cautionary warning of what can happen when design goes wrong. So the first category is one of the commonest and that is Useless design. These are the design projects that simply fail to fulfill their functions efficiently. And if you're a Londoner like me or you visit our city you will become all too familiar with this. The sight of a broken down bus being trolled off the streets. This is what we Londoners call a Boris Bus. It was launched in 2012 by a then mad the buffoonish Boris Johnson and obviously nicknamed after him. I gather you are all familiar with his heroic efforts as Foreign Secretary, after he stopped being mayor. So he launched the [ UNKNOWN ] with greater plans saying it's going to be a new icon for London. A fuel efficient reinvention of the beloved route master double decker buses that were introduced in the post war era Now the Boris bus I think anyway, looks rather good. Thanks to Thomas Heatherwick and his studio who designed the interior and the bodywork. The problem is the lousy quality of its design engineering. These buses broke down frequently. The batteries often conked out, so it had to switch to environmentally damaging diesel engines. And it was prone to overheating, so much so that its passengers nicknamed it the Roastmaster. [ LAUGH ] Unsurprisingly, Boris' successor Sadiq Khan has axed the Boris bus completely, so it will soon be taken off the streets for good. But that is a kind of design project that can fulfill its function efficiently unlike the [ INAUDIBLE ] bus. And yet is still badly designed, because that function isn't something we value. And this is what I would call pointless Design. And I suspect an example of this will be a product that was launched last week. It's the new Nokia smartphone, the 9, which has the proud boast of including not one, two, three, four, but five cameras. Now, I am sorry, but who needs a phone with five cameras. Obviously we don't. Next up is irresponsible design. This is of course refers to design projects whose designers haven't thought rigorously enough about their consequences and places like this absolutely full of them. This is the hideous Agbogbloshie dump. A notorious digital dump outside Accra in Ghana. This is why thousands of computers, phones, tablets and other digital devices [ UNKNOWN ] failed to decomposed, poisoning the ground for decades if not centuries to come. And the cruel irony is that most of this stuff would never have ended up there Had it been designed responsibly. For example, take a fairly modest component of digital devices, copper wire. It's very valuable and it's very easy to recycle. Unless it's covered with black rubber, as unfortunately most copper wire for digital devices is. But because black is invisible to the optical sensors that control recycling plants They automatically reject the cup of wire and send it straight to landfill so it can't be recovered. But, only to design it take more time and trouble to ensure that it was designed, so they could be disposed of a recycle responsibly so much of this stuff. In places like the [ UNKNOWN ] dump could have been put to good use. Then there's unreliable design. And an example is the ball that you can literally see in the back of the net. It's one of the most expensive Highly RND'd and heavily promoted products that's launched every four years that Adidas introduces it as the new official football for the World Cup tournament. And, Adidas assembles a crack team of designers, engineers, and technologists To work on it. Now, the objective is always the same, it's to try and produce a board that will ensure that the world cup games are even faster, more exciting and more dynamic than their predecessors. Well also critically preserving the elemental sporting principle of fair play. To ensure that the ball behaves in the same matter at all times. So, no one team have an unfair advantage over the others. But, unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. Take this particular World Cup. The Jabulani. It was designed for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and it was pretty effective, certainly exciting. The only problem was that it was discovered that it behaved very differently at different altitudes. Which might not have mattered had it not been for the fact that many of the South African cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town where the games were played really were very, very different altitudes. So this miserable figure you can see crouching woebegone. In the goal mouth is Robert Green, who was England's goal keeper at the time. He has just conceded an own goal, that's every goalie's worst nightmare, in a critical game against the US and he blamed the [ UNKNOWN ] . Normally we would write that off as sour grapes. But because so many other goalies complained that it was unreliable too It probably was quite right. But there are also design projects that fall into the category of what I would call good intentions but. They were admirably conceived, but somehow went horribly awry. And one was initiated by IBM, when a couple of years ago, it decided, admirably, that it wanted to address the problem of the dearth of women in tech. And so it commissioned a social media campaign showing the amazing, exhilarating challenges that intelligent, highly educated, hardworking, technologically sophisticated young women could address if they entered the industry. And this was one of them, hack a hair dryer. Now, Why else would anyone aspire to anything other than that? Quite rightly IBM was ridiculed for this, it was accused of being patronising, condescending, fuddy duddy and generally sexist. All of which were criticisms that wer also levied at another company Mattel when it launched this a year ago. This is the Frida Kahlo Barbie Doll and it was launched by Mattel on international women's day last year. To as a part of a new collection of Barbie dolls called Inspiring Women, which were modeled on women of courage, which are described as rule breakers and game changers, who would encourage young girls to dream big Frida Kahlo was a brilliant candidate. An extraordinary talented artist he showed incredible bravery and overcoming severe disability, and also defined the feminine convention of her time in her appearance. She refused to shave off the big bushy mono brow across her face. And always war with great pride. folkloric Taekwondo addresses this beautiful Android addresses as a tribute to her Mexican roots. The problem was that the doll didn't exhibit any of these qualities. No mono- brow, no evidence of disability, even the clothes and hair do were wrong, they were too Europeanized. There was outrage in Mexico. Members of the Carlo family took legal action against Mattel. It was forced to withdraw the doll from sale in Mexico until changes to its design had been agreed with the family. Now I would have thought that the spectacle of such rich, powerful, well- connected global brands as IBM and Mattel being mortified and suffering huge reputational damage because of fairly basic design mistakes like these would have been a cautionary tale to other multinationals. And yet seemingly, it wasn't. Which brings us to the next category, what were they thinking? Now first up is Gucci which a couple of weeks ago was forced to issue an abject apology for this. When it was accused of reinforcing the hideous racist stereotypes of blackface. And this frankly quite revolting sweater. Then only a fortnight ago it was Burberry's turn to go on the defensive. It had to apologize when it sent a model onto the runway at London Fashion Week wearing a hoodie whose ties were arranged like a noose. One of its own models sounded the alarm by posting on her Instagram. Saying how distressed she's been when she saw the news because of its association with Racist Lynchings and also because it triggered memories of suicide within her own family. But the final category of bad design is dangerous design. And this of course comes in many forms. But I'm going to begin by talking about one that could have sale many of us. Really at any moment in every day. It's one of those dangers that literally has been hiding in plain sight, and it concerns the design of the crash test dummies that are used to test whether various vehicles Are sufficiently designed and engineered to protect the drivers and passengers from collisions and other road incidents. The problem is that in most countries, most crash test dummies are modeled on a typical male body. So anyone who doesn't have that body type is likely to be less safe in exactly the same vehicle. So that would include women like me or even men who don't conform to the classic male body type, who are perhaps smaller and slimmer than the average And to show the level of peril that this can induce, this is thought to be one of the principle reasons why women are more than 40 % likelier to be injuried in road accidents than men. That's how much damage that the design flaw can cause, and how much danger it can induce. But of course, the kind of dangers that bad design is creating are changing all the time. And at the moment, they're escalating alarmingly. And one of the principle catalysts is the development of artificial intelligence technologies and their adoption in more and more aspects of our daily lives. Now if these technologies work there are obviously Great advantages that they can bring to us. And this is something that's going to be discussed later in brainstorm designed in the breakout sessions. But if there are design flaws that make them fail, the consequences can be catastrophic. So, already, the Algorithmic Justice League in the United States has sounded the alarm about surveillance of Where, like this, was it claims that because of a flaw in its design, the data is biased. So it is significantly likelier to be accurate when identifying white males than any other group in the population. That means that the rest of us, women, People of colour and so on are less likely to be identified correctly and therefore, far more likely to be deemed whether by security services or the police forces to be a potential criminal, or potential terrorist, or perhaps to bring the immigration status into question causing massive pain, damage and disruption in people's lives and as artificial intelligence extends to more and more practical aspect of our lives whether its to robotics security guard or robotic court like this one the snooze its very easy to imagine the havoc that it could cause then again great advantages If it works efficiently, but terrible dangers if it doesn't. That's why I believe it's absolutely urgent that we get to grips with bad design. The more throughly and the sooner the better. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: Bad Design

Why is so much design so bad? And given that bad design has as much impact on our lives than good design, why is it so rarely discussed?

Brainstorm Design 2019: Space Waste

Today, nearly 8.1 million kilograms of waste is floating around Earth, creating a layer of man-made debris formed by broken pieces of satellites and rockets.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's so funny when I do projects in Europe. Usually my clients ask, Are you sure you have done it before? Risk management liability. But when I do projects in Asia, my clients usually ask, Are you sure this is the first time? Because they want to be the first. So we are now in Asia. So let's talk about being the first the future of the space and the future of designing in space what are sort of the risks and opportunities which are out there. But before we dive into the future, I want to start with history. I want to start with Kennedy Kennedy in 1962 and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why? Some say the why choose this as our and they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain 5, 35 years ago? Fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that's going will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. The other. Yeah, Kennedy not because it's easy, but because it's hard. And that was sort of the the defense. The defense is to go to the moon, and they did that and it brought a lot of prosperity, the GPS, all our telecommunication, the thing you have in your hand right now, it's all based on that. And it was sort of a moment of euphoria. The thing is, 60 years later, in the world of today, we wake up and we see this. This is not an undiscovered Jackson Pollock or a photo of an autumn. Unfortunately, this is the 8.1 million kg, uh of space junk currently floating around the universe. I saw this image two years ago. One of the desktops of my designers and I was shocked. It has sort of this obscene beauty, So apparently we're not sort of satisfied ruining our planet Earth. We just sort of keep on where you just keep on going outside our earth atmosphere, and it all started in 1957 launch of Sputnik Apollo pieces of satellites and missiles started to collide. Creating this sort of layer of junk around our earth and more collisions creates more particles in such a way that the famous space expert Kessler calculated that in 25 to 30 years, there's so much junk around our earth that we cannot launch more new missiles or satellites. That's crazy. Yeah. Can you imagine that in 30 years we have a wallpaper fortune conference here in Singapore and we say, Okay, guys, the good news is we found life outside planet Earth. The bad news is we can't get there. That's mad. No, no. But that is the situation we are in right now. And that is not the world I want to live in. But also more on a short term notice. Uh, this is an example of a simulation. What happens when a tiny particle of space junk hits an existing satellites like a bomb? 27,000 kilometers bomb and more particles creates more collisions, etcetera. So it hex our communications. Our satellites are future five G internet. No more wallpaper. dot com No more Fortune magazine. No more Facebook. No more R B and B. No more Instagram. No more instagram, huh? Like that? Completely scary. So I became fascinated with that. Let's let's let's design our way out of it. Big topic. Asia Naza Smart people have been working on it for 10 years, But maybe design can add a new value or new perspective to it. Why not? Very simple. How do you deal with problems? You have three phases phrase one visualization. Show it make people experience it because otherwise there's no awareness and it doesn't matter. Phase two. You fix it together with the experts, solving the problem and face free you up. Cycle it. You add a new value, a new experience so that we learn from it and progress. And that's what we started to do with the space waste lab putting amateurs and experts in a room with a pizza hope, lying and saying Nobody leaves the room up there. We have a plan, and we started with phase one tracking 29,000 particles larger than 10 centimeters real time above our head and showing them with the huge lines of light to create the awareness of the junk which is above our head. Yeah. Mhm, Right. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, yeah. Mhm, Yeah, Yeah. 8000 people at the opening of the space race lab scanning the universe. And these are points on 220,000 kilometers of heights, wondering, revealing. And inside we did something we've never done before. We did an inside exhibition with an educational program showing a real piece of space junk that we got one of the astronauts from the Hubble Hubble telescope in 1991. Sort of captured it. Um, but also we started phase two and free, and we ask ourselves a question if you would have 8.1 million kg of Lego blocks, so to speak of space Young, what can you build with it? And so we did workshop with students and high school kids, more than two thousands of them asking them that question and at the same time, sort of plugging in the space experts who have been working on it, amateurs and experts working together because the real thing is face to win free. We realize that there are a lot of solutions already, but they're hidden in drawers with dust on it. You know why it took me a couple of months to figure that out? Why? Nobody likes to clean up. Uh huh. When you were a boy or girl and your mother said, Don't clean up your room. You're like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to I want to watch television. Hey, I have popcorn. Eat an ice cream, cleaning up. It's not fun. So we realized that maybe we had to add a new value, a new new meaning, a new yeah, perspective towards it. And so we started the index potentials. In that way, the idea cards is in Dutch, which says, Collect the space waste and put in a black hole. Maybe, Maybe not. Or here we need to build a wall from space waste and make the aliens pay for it. Make space clean again. Mm hmm. No comment, but some more realistic, fueled by the experts became visible. This is a very realistic idea, actually to freely print to capture the space junk and three d print on the moon. This is already on the agenda of NASA had to create habitats on the moon And why are we shipping all precious material from space from Earth all the way to space? Why not just use what is there an up cycle it in a new way? Or here creating a sort of Pac man which protect the earth from incoming space junk to store it, maybe for something later when we know what to do with it or hear one of my personal favorites. What if we would sort of collect it and create a reflector, the sun reflector, to reduce and fight climate change? And you maybe think, Oh, that's a bit far fetched of maybe too far. But in a world where temperatures are changing where agriculture is infected, sooner or later we are to be scared, hiding a room crying and blame somebody else, or we start designing and engineering are way out of it. All these kind of ideas are applied with the Maya principle, uh, invented by an American professor in 1960 1970 not the famous temples in Mexico, but most advanced yet acceptable. Yes, so it's very simple. When you design something, you always try to find the edge of what is possible. If you go too far. Technology dies. Clients go crazy. Your girlfriend dumped you because you're never home. Not good. Not good to be there. But if you stay too safe, it becomes boring or somebody else does it, or nobody cares even worse. So you always have to find the edge of what is and what is not possible that technology, but also what we want from reality. Or here where we sort of collected with a net with this garbage trucks garbage were over to burn it and create plasma fuel finance so we can recharge satellites which ran out of battery. Very fascinating. But if we look out if we zoom out and talk with the experts, they all agree that one is the most feasible in all these trajectories. And the solution lays in this beauty. Okay, this is a satellite, a mini satellite, a cube satellite ready for launch. And this is unimaginable. 10 years ago, they were like huge humanitarian things. Suddenly you become very portable for very small, and if you can connect them with sort of like a net, this is European Space Agency with a net. You can capture it. When we zoomed into death. We thought That's really interesting. So when you have a net and you capture it and it sort of floats with controlled re entry to the Earth when it hits the earth atmosphere, it's guys. I'm not being rhetorical. Yes, what happens when it hits? Fear of atmosphere? It burns. Yes. Ah, so waste is like That's interesting. Can we create artificial shooting stars as a replacement for polluting fireworks? Well, turns out, yes, we can. So this is what we're working on now for World Expo Dubai Tokyo Olympics. Maybe here. Marina Bay, Singapore. Dubai spends €8.1 million on fireworks every year. The Netherlands €70 million per year. People lose their eyes, complete villages are burned to the ground. Let's just, you know, really, let's just take that money. Take that money that you're already spending and do something new with it, clean up the universe and at the same time get a new experience, a new expression. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the way I would like to see the future, you know, trying to find new connections. I'm not smarter than Asia. Let's be very clear because I'm not there really super smart. But what I can do, what you can do. What we can do is design a new link or design a missing link between the fantasy and the science between something so practical, so pushed to the extreme that it becomes new poetry. And why should we do that? Well, that's very simple. Not because it's easy, but because it's hard. All right. Thank you. Yeah.

Brainstorm Design 2019: Navigating Modern Tech Ethics

Facebook’s vice president of product design shares lessons and insights from her time designing at scale for Google, YouTube, and Facebook.

So I'm gonna talk about serve. But before that, I want to introduce a problem. The problem is actually delivering packages through urban space. And that's been a problem that has been for going on for many, many years, probably millennia. And we are quite familiar with you solutions, solutions has been like that for a while. This is a picture from about 150 years ago. And it doesn't necessarily relate to first world it could be third world. And in any case, the same problem appears, and it is a major problem for robots to deal with. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The last city mile is really the most difficult part of any supply chain. And this involves multiple layers. I'll try to dissect them before we get to the design project. Cities are very crowded and again they are all around the world in different cultures, at different densities. But what. Is always there is a level of hassle that we need to put in to move from point a to point b. Sometimes this hassle is going through enormous difficulties of communication between humans and Vehicles, in this case you see a picture from Vietnam. Obviously, nobody is gonna stop. And this is a person, just imagine what is gonna happen if robots try to cross the street. Another element that is exceptionally complicated is figuring out what is the right format, what is the formula if you wish for how much you carry for how long. And the more you carry, the more cumbersome it is to move around. So you need to figure out the right size and load capacity. Another element is route planning and route planning needs to be adjusted on the fly continuously because the situation in cities adjusts all the time. And we also familiar with crumbling infrastructure, coming from San Francisco. Our infrastructure is going south for the last decade. And it doesn't look like it's going to stop. Unlike for instance in Singapore where it seems to be an orderly city. So we need to deal with these physical obstacles. And above all, something that is exceptionally difficult for robots to deal with is the flow. People are used to give way. We have social codes of how to deal with possible collisions. And we do that not only among people but also between people and vehicles, and vice versa. So here come the robots, and they're quite popular and quite eye- catching for the media, but they come with a lot of problems Within this category. The first image that you see here, it was quite popular when this robot came to the scene. This is supposedly a nice moment of interaction, but if you look carefully, the path is about two, three feet wide. And it's already quite clear that one of the two parties will need to give way to the other, and that's not easy. You see quite a lot of companies jumping into this, this is quite recent. And last week, there was an announcement by FedEx, everybody's trying to get a piece of this action. Now, some of the robots are moving on the pavement, some of the robots are moving on the sidewalk. Overall, they kind of look the same. This is a very nice work that was done, it's a very large one nearly a car size, but it is very much Similar to others. This work that was done about a year and a half to cause a problem. What you see here is a robot experiment by Marble, a company in San Francisco and crossing the street in the Mission District. Actually, just across from the police station. And as the city saw this happening, what happened was actually quite extraordinary. There was an immediate action by the local legislature to stop these robots from moving around the city. So the one thing that we took to mind is that we need to respect the people. The streets belong to the people. They don't belong the companies who manufacture or distribute these robots. And this essentially, when the Project Rover, as we call it, started, I'm gonna go quickly through the process and where we got new deal we work in large teams. We create a lot of ideas. We mix variety of different inputs it could more- I would say storytelling, associating with the inspiration behind the image of the robot, it could be the structure of the drive train, it could be location of sensors, and it could be a variety of other elements including, for instance Ideas coming from additional load carrying animals like Llamas and so on. So we have multiple ideas being played continuously and we keep many ideas- Is alive for a long time so we could get this magical moment where serendipity happens and you put one plus one equals two three and four and that's the magic of real good design process. One of the things that we noticed earlier in the process is that many of these robots look more or less the same. They are quite sterile, they try to create this austere cocoon and we equated it to a very famous Character from the Wally the Eva. It's kind of a wide blob of high tech that is quite, I would say austere and unfriendly to people. As a contrast to that, we really wanted to create something that is lovable at first sight like Wally. And this is somewhat a harkening on mechanical rather than digital, set of parameters. The second element within the digital world was to create and you icon. We all use emojis and ideally we want it to create. Robot that will become the emoji of robotic shipment. So this was another goal of the project. One of the ideas came to light quite early, it was essentially a hack of a shopping cart. It's a shopping cart with added technology in it and a very nice drivetrain. This concept was called Serve and later became the product that was released. So I'm gonna go through some of the elements of Serve. First, what's striking about it is that it's very colorful. We decided that we want to emit a very unique and genuine image. The notion here is that we're gonna have a wrapper, graphics that is gonna be localized to a neighborhood, possibly by using a local artist. Maybe someone who typically would do graffiti will actually do something unique for that robot. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So you could see more or less the size of it, more or less the imagery. It's definitely harkening on the proverbial shopping cart. And we've been dealing well both with the initial modeling as well as the finite engineering of it. One of the things that for us is very important to note is that we are talking about an object that has 360 degree view. So we need to design it from the back, we need to design it from the top. The dominant view is actually as you get closer, it's more of the top rather than the sides. And that's something that was quite the challenge given all the sensors and all the feature we had to put into it. A special aspect of the work was dealing with interaction. As I mentioned earlier interaction between humans is natural to us. But interactions between humans cars and robots is something completely different. We never actually had a language to deal with that. So we dealt with interaction design in many ways, and eventually created a scheme that has multiple layers, some of which are related to far away interactions, some for close and nearby interactions. Some for humans and some for cars. What you see here are a few interactions. I'll go quickly through them. The first thing you see is a band of LEDs at the very top. This is done to avoid collisions with cars. One of the most awkward moments between robot and a car is when robot is trying to cross the street. And the car is waiting and there is a little bit of this game. The car doesn't know when the robot will start moving and therefore, some of these robots got teed and had collisions with cars. So this is made to tell the cars and nearby Humans. I'm gonna move. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Another element when we are talking about the front facing view of the robot is that we have ability to create interactions on the screen of high quality. We have also eyes, these are true stereoscopic cameras that we added LED around them and these are allowing the robot to emit motions. On top of that band of LED that I mentioned earlier. Here. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So we've been working and these are still being perfected in interaction. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So altogether what you see is three layers of communication. And it could be that it is overcommunication but we opted at this stage of very embryonic industry to actually overcommunicate so then we could curl down and create the right amount of communication. We are now in a stage where humans and robots need to learn each other, each other's behaviors and cues. And we are actually taking an approach where we'll put more cues out there and then we'll pare down as society's getting more and more used to deal with robots. So, this is more or less the story of Serve. We are now building these first ones and shipping them. And hopefully they'll get a very good welcome in the streets, and this will be next stage in us working together with robots, which something that we all know is gonna happen and we just need to figure out how to work through that That. That's it, thank you very much. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: The Socialization Of Robots

Tech

Sharing urban sidewalks with delivery robots is no longer in the distant future; it is today’s reality.

She has the most interesting history that I could imagine for someone who has been on both the design side, and the business side. Studied fine arts, oil painting am I right? That's right. Went to college, did graphic designing with physics. Who combines those two? I ask. Then she had jobs at JP Morgan, Goldman- Sachs, [ UNKNOWN ], Google with their self- driving cars, Airbnb with now two different roles. I think the first question to ask, since we've been talking about his combination of finding value in business and design Is who exactly is Jenny Arden? Love that question. It's always a soul- searching question isn't it? So as she mentioned, I started out as an artist. As a child, I was very drawn to just fine arts in general, painting and drawing. I had a pretty intensive art studies as a young child and then went into classical portrait art, portrait painting. And a lot of that process is actually not about the product of painting and the product of the art that you create but Seeing what is actually right in front of you and painting it accurately. So it's a truth seeking exercise, and when I progressed throughout my career I found that the reason why I gravitated away from fine arts and into design, is that it became a much more interesting problem for me to solve not who is the person in front of me that I'm painting, but what am I actually solving for and what's the real problem to solve for here and what's the truth behind that problem, so if you hear designers say all the time, Why are we doing this? That's why they're asking that question all the time. They want to know what's the real issue and the real problem in front of them. So throughout my career, yeah. I've gone through quiet a journey, I worked in financial services for 10 years. [ UNKNOWN ] was you know, Tim was here earlier here today. That was amazing opportunities as well, Google, the self driving projects. The thread between all of these ventures and all of these roles. Is that I truly enjoy understanding what is the mega- problem behind it. What's the systemic problem that's behind it that needs to be solved? And I really love geeking Speaking out on specific domains like having no experience or no understanding for financial services whatsoever sitting on a treating platform at gold movement and suddenly I'm talking baskets and options because I'm absorbing it through some sort of osmosis I'm learning at rapid fire how exactly they do they job in deigning software for them. And the same thing happened at Google, working on the self- driving car. I didn't know anything robotics, LIDAR, all of these technologies that they were creating. And suddenly I'm talking shop with them, and these are guys who have PhDs, the top thinkers of the world in robotics. And I get to sit next to them and talk about their job, understand them, and then translate that into an actual human interface. And so I think that this is something that I personally really really love and thrive of this. It sought of like that deep download of a domain and truly understanding it. So that seems to have translated across and And the kind of work you've done in the past and Airbnb as well. And we can't avoid the fact that you now do have a very interesting role that, I'm guessing a whole bunch of people wanna more about. [ LAUGH ] But first, let's touch on one point that you may, you like the whole download aspect and then translating the problem How does it get tackled at Airbnb when you're looking at all the various stakeholders? Whether it be hosts or the customers, or the internal teams themselves. How does that process work for you? And how do you drive it? Because now you're on the business side. Yeah. How do you bridge the gap between the business side and the design side. Yes, for some context here, my role has been a designer role. I've been a design director so I had the responsibility of representing users, that's the ultimate job of a design actor to represent that voice and make sure that the customer Is not forgotten in the strategy and in the plans that you develop. And I think my transition now is actually a business role. This is really kind of different right now for me in that I'm, you know, accountable for the full- fledged strategy. Though its early stage, we don't necessarily have that. But we're forming it. And also the " pinelle ", like real business- type things that you wouldn't normally put a designer responsible for. But the reason why we're doing this is we believe that first and foremost, as a business, you design products that people need. That they want. And then from there, a strategy unfolds. And you start to discover. And a lot of what I'm doing is like a startup. I'm acting as an entrepreneur. I'm acting as a founder. There's no job too small or too large in my role. Which is why we kind of just put it in to this umbrella business role. So how do you accountability in all of that? Yeah. So accountability for me is recognizing that before as a designer like I said, accountable for the user. But now I'm accountable for actually delivering the whole [ UNKNOWN ]. This means yes, what the user wants, but also what the business needs. And connecting the two together. So for me, they're one and the same currently. I think it's more common that these roles and responsibilities, it's divided into multiple people, not just one. But this is really early early stage. Certainly we'll grow and probably what I'm doing right now will be separated into many people. But right now in this sort of early stage phase, we get the opportunity to just dream. About what's possible for travel, and keep that focused on the user, and then figure out what the business will do. So what is on the Jenny Arden wishlist, because your CEO has said that this entire entry that you're making into what is a very, very competitive field It needs to be seamless, but for it not to be just another place to buy a ticket. You've also hired someone who's well- known for being in the airline industry that you'll be working with. So within all of that context, what is the wish list that you're going to aim for? Yeah, I mean, I have my own personal wish list. These are just my aspirations for those who want to travel at all. Our mission at Airbnb is to provide a world where anyone can belong anywhere. And this is really meaning, you can travel to a community that you've never seen before, and feel like. You are a welcome member of that community, even if it's just temporarily, for a few days or months or years. And my hope is that that mission and that vision can be achieved in all phases of a trip. So I'm pretty sure there's a universal truth that As you are travelling safe through an airport and they are moments where you do not feel like you belong in fact they are moments in transportation in particular where it's design to not make you feel like you belong, you need to be at you know hyper- alert and hear this announcements in the airport like stay alert, look for suspicious packages, I mean there is a lot of signals to users. Puts them in a state of just god. And so a lot other things I just dream about and think about is a world and a future in which every single moment of a trip, not just the products that you buy when you book a trip, like you knew you will rent a car and you will rent a house and You book a flight but every single moment in between that we don't drop you, that there's no lack of thought that went into the end- to- end experience. So that there's this sense of like, okay, well I belong to that moment, but I didn't belong in that moment and that's okay. We actually might say that that's not okay, that you should actually feel And joy the moment you leave your house and the moment you return home. So Ben Shepard made an interesting point in one of his leavers. He talked about more than a feeling. How is that in your mind's eye at this point because this is a work in progress. How is it going to be more than a feeling for Airbnb? Because you guys have done a great job in the first two sections of A, booking a place, say, and then having an amazing experience when you get Get there. What do you think is gonna happen for this to become more than a feeling? Yeah, I'm not sure if we've ever operated based off of feelings. I don't think that that's a real accurate description of what designers do. So to push on that, more than a feeling is actually opportunity. We see opportunity because the users are telling us this. We have millions of users telling us exactly what they hope for. What's painful and what's not painful. So if anything it's not a feeling, it's listening. It's empathy and compassion. But it's in all of that ends up being an opportunity to do better and have something that people actually love. And are willing to either pay for or have loyalty behind. So how are you going to get the business side and the designers to work on this very interesting third element that you're adding to Airbnb? How is that going to function when it comes to the teams? Because that's something that people would wonder. You're going up against an incumbent industry, again, which has had a lot of time, and is quite entrenched in its own culture. Yeah, we don't really get caught up in, is it competitive? I mean, we wouldn't have started the company if we were just thinking about, there's so much competition in accommodations. Rather than worry about is it so entrenched, is it so competitive. How do you disrupt? Well it could be disrupt, but I think it all comes back to do users need something better? At the end of the day, is there something better out there or is there a niche or something that hasn't been served that people clearly need? And so when I look at this industry, I don't see a landscape of all these people we have to compete against. I see users who have told us, and you and I have probably experienced this within the last five days traveling here. The moments that have pain that we can solve. Well, I wanna ask all of you, how many of you in the last couple of years have used Airbnb for your trips? That's a pretty good number. A room of fans. [ LAUGH ] How many of you are really enthused by the fact that Airbnb is going into transportation? [ LAUGH ] A little less. How many of you are sure they'll do well? [ LAUGH ] All right, you have a lot of people to convert in this room. But I'm guessing when you started off with Airbnb just for the hotel stays and competing then, you kind of have the same reaction. Yeah, absolutely, the thing is, and I understand this response because It's a commodity business. And what Airbnb is well known for is a marketplace of really fantastic, unique, bespoke inventory. And so, when you try to translate, there's not a direct translation, and I completely see that. But what is sort of in the roots of [ INAUDIBLE ] So, the founders especially [ INAUDIBLE ] they actually went to the same school as they [ INAUDIBLE ] And a lot of their process is actually where the heart of success lies. And it's really imagining the ideal state, what is the ideal state of the world. And then work your way backwards. Unedited, unincumbent, like just dream. And then really think, okay, well, that's 20 years out. Then, we look at ten, we look at five, so it's not even like a three year plan. It's like really, ultimately what is your purpose? What are you trying to do? And we don't know if this is something that we can achieve. But I think it's worth trying, because we know that people, when they travel, they don't travel just to stay in a place. They travel to go on a trip. You say, I'm going to Singapore, I'm going to Paris. You talk about these destinations as a unit of a trip. Not that the tabs on a website that you're going to purchase. And so I think that that is really what we're imagining is what a trip should be, and not just one sliver of your trip. I think the other interesting element is the person who came onboard to work with you. Fred Reid is the new global head of transport at Airbnb and I think that also defines a lot of the culture at Airbnb where you're talking about bringing in two different kinds of people two different kinds of teams to work together to design something fantastic. Yeah. Tell us a little bit more about that. That top process that goes into bringing someone like that in. Yeah, Fred is a very special individual. He was the founder- CEO of Virgin America which is one of the most celebrated airlines in the United States. Really special service that they thought through forward thinking design obviously but also in service, I think what was really magical about what Fred walked through is baking customer service into the DNA of the airline from the very beginning, really thinking through hospitality as part of the airline from the very beginning So obviously really aligns with how AirBnB and our founders think [ UNKNOWN ] really the community and really creating the trust is baked in our DNA as well. And then we think about throughout the company what When you're starting something new, when you're starting a new venture, whether it is a startup that you're gonna start on your own, or you're venturing out within your company, there is sort of like a secret sauce, I think, when you're trying something brand new. And it's when you put someone that's Naive with really fresh ideas, and kinda like no industry baggage whatsoever, with someone who is an industry expert, and put them together in a room. And you get this really lovely balance of creativity and reality that come together and hopefully You see what's possible in the world. So it's sort of like grounded but also what if, all the time. What if we did this, what if you did this? Well, have you considered these things? No, what about this? You're constantly pitching ideas at each other and that's sort of the relationship that Fred and I are starting to form. Do you think that At the core of all of this. I know when we were talking, you said the human is at the center of everything. Yep. Do you think that really translates, as the company gets bigger and bigger, and the excitement around it gets bigger? Will that remain the core, or is that going to change, as a culture? I mean, it has to, it has to. This The entire product, Airbnb, is based off of a really robust, loyal community. Without that community, there really is no product. I mean, I always talk about this with my teams that 10 % of what we make is technical. It's a digital platform. But 90 % is the offline experiences of connecting humans to humans. And if you forget that at any point and treat people as a commodity and stop treating people like humans, like individuals, and forget the serendipity and the magic that happens when you put strangers together, that's when you've sort of lost your way. And I think what I'm so amazed of over my time, almost four years at Airbnb, I've never seen the company forget about that. I've seen them really focus on the users, not from just a usability standpoint, not just can they click through this flow. It's not about that. Do they love this? Are they connecting to it? Do they feel that there's a social contract within the community? Do they understand our mission? And can this thrive for many decades to come? Well since so many of you are AirBnB users, there's got to be a question out there for Janie in terms of how she looks at design for both hosts and customers. And in her new role as well, so who's got a question? Andrew from 8Inc. Just wanted to ask Jenny, while you're here in Singapore, are you staying at a hotel or an AirBnb? You know, I am staying at this hotel right now. And I love hotels and we actually do have boutique hotels on our platform. This is not necessarily like us versus them. I actually believe that there's a place for every form of accommodation. There's sometimes when I take my family in a vacation and they have like an amazing amenity for kids. I have a three year old and a one year old that love to swim. If we go to a hotel that has amazing food, that's awesome. I don't think it's necessary that like there's only one way. I think that there are multiple modes of transportation. I think there are multiple modes of staying. I think there are many reasons why people take trips. And there's never like one answer. I think it's depending on the user and what they actually want to do. Anyone else? Right at the back. Vivian from Philanthropy Walks. A more serious question actually. How many cases of assault Have been reported in Airbnb accommodations, and is there a certain standard in terms of how you deal with that? For instance, in reporting to the police and ensuring that the right review and actions are taken? And what happens if that's not followed? Thank you. Yeah, this is not my area of expertise unfortunately, so I don't have that data for you. Obviously, we have a pretty robust customer support center that has a way of [ UNKNOWN ] Problems that come to the platform, but I can't give you specifics around that particular area. I appreciate you addressing it even though it's not in your agreement. And hopefully somebody from AirBnb will answer that question. Mm- hm. Is there any other questions from everyone, becaue I have one last one for Jenny if you don't. Right. So, if I can ask you, in all of the humanity within the design process, within Airbnb, you are designing across a lot of regions. How do you keep that consistency? Yeah, as a global company, it's incredibly important to have. Employees and just people going to all corners of the world and experiencing the product firsthand and staying with host listening to host talking to guests all over the world. I think more specifically like our China team, we have a dedicated team in China. That is structured to move super, super fast in that particular environment, and severed from our headquarters so that they can make decisions as quickly as possible. Because that world is just so different, it moves so, so fast that you have to give them the autonomy to work. So throughout the entire world we have many, many offices And giving each individual office accountability and autonomy to do what is necessary for their particular community is extremely important. > Jennie, I appreciate your flying all the way to Singapore and giving us quite a bit of insight into what you're hoping makes it to the wish list. And she said, 10 % of whatever she wishes hopefully comes true. So, you never know what's gonna come with Airbnb transportation. Thank you again, very much. Give her a round of applause everyone. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: A People-first Approach To Innovation

Fortune's Maithreyi Seetharaman interviews Jenny Arden, Director of Transportation, Airbnb

Brainstorm Design 2019

Brainstorm Design 2019: How Inclusion Shapes Design

Latest video

Kat Holmes, author of 'Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design,' and Director of UX Design for Google, presents on stage at Coins2Day's Brainstorm Design in Singapore.

Videos (35 videos)

Brainstorm Design 2019: How Inclusion Shapes Design

Brainstorm Design 2019: Defying The Impossible

Brainstorm Design 2019: Lessons from the Battlefield

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing Magical Experiences

Brainstorm Design 2019: Design For Strategic Differentiation

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing Communities

Brainstorm Design 2019: Selling Simplicity

Brainstorm Design 2019: The Art And Business Of Film Design

Brainstorm Design 2019: The Ethics of Design

Brainstorm Design 2019: Design in Focus: the Best for the Most for the Least

Brainstorm Design 2019: Digital Couture

Brainstorm Design 2019: Design in Focus the Need for Sexy Trash

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing for Interaction

Brainstorm Design 2019: Bridging the Gap in Health Care

Brainstorm Design 2019: Designing Singapore: Strategy, Policy, and Technology

Brainstorm Design 2019: Ahead of the Curve: Automotive Design Showcase

Brainstorm Design 2019: Emerging Technologies in Design + Business

Brainstorm Design 2019: The World Is Skewed

Brainstorm Design 2019: Seeing New

Brainstorm Design 2019: Bad Design

Brainstorm Design 2019: Space Waste

Brainstorm Design 2019: Navigating Modern Tech Ethics

Brainstorm Design 2019: The Socialization Of Robots

Brainstorm Design 2019: A People-first Approach To Innovation