May 2013

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 may 2013

Use of medical devices at home is becoming more common. According to experts, their designs are also getting more focused on basic aspects like color and ease of use. Designers are trying to bring simple feel to these devices inspired by the gadgets like smartphones, tablets, ereaders etc. They want users to be comfortable with them without any specific medical training. Use of colors is an important part of design and healthcare industry has utilized it significantly particularly in hospitals. Medical device manufacturers are utilizing skills of expert designers to understand customer requirements and use them in the devices. The challenge that the industry faces is that of longer time to bring the devices to market due to regulatory requirements which is not the case with the other home use gadget manufacturers. Read on...

Plastics News: Designers put appeal into medical devices for home use
Author: Gayle Putrich

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 may 2013

'The Design Accelerator', a partnership between Caltech and Art Center College of Design, intends to develop and support design driven start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures. It seeks to create convergence of design and technology in entrepreneurship. It has already been established that design-driven corporations are better stock performers. Now this experiment would bring design into the core of entrepreneurship. An initiating point for high level user experience, the most important aspect of design, could be user interface design, industrial design or service design. It is well recognized that design contributes substantially to the success of businesses. Read on...

Huffington Post: Entrepreneurship Driven by Design
Author: Soren Petersen

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 may 2013

An architectural design firm in Germany has created a 'three dimensional architectural tile' that can be installed on buildings to reduce air pollution and enhance air quality around it. The tile also has aesthetic appeal and decorates the building due to its unique design. Moreover there are various factors related to the surroundings like solar level, wind speed and direction, that are considered for the architectural design of the tile. The company has recently installed the tiles on the outside of a hospital in Mexico City (one of the five most air polluted cities in the world). This is exptected to reduce NOx (nitrogen oxide) from around 86,000 cars driving by the building per day. Another project is on trial where the paint with depolluted coating is applied on the inside surface of a highway tunnel to reduce NOx levels. Also flat paints with depolluted coating can be applied to building surfaces for reduction of NOx from smog impacted urban areas. Read on...

Triple Pundit: New Architectural Design Battles Air Pollution in Mega-Cities
Author: Jan Lee

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 may 2013

According to Raymond Loewy, the first 'Industrial Designer' to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, the purpose of the design is to keep "the customer happy, his clients in the black and the designer busy." But over a period of time the concept has evolved and now includes more aspects to it like consideration for the environment, utilizing science and technology to people's advantage etc. The design can make people happy by - pleasing them, entertaining them, surprising them and astonishing them. The article provides design examples considering these mentioned 'happiness parameters' suggested by the author. Read on...

The New York Times: Pleasurable Design
Author: Alice Rawsthorn

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 may 2013

'Design Psychology' is being applied to provide customized living spaces for individuals by matching their likenesses and lifestyles to a high level of detail with the architectural and interior design. Developers and designers develop models that specifically fit a certain demographic and their lifestyles and behaviors. Thus making them more attractive for specific buyers. Read on...

Chicago Tribune: Condo, apartment developers using design psychology
Author: Mary Ellen Podmolik

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 may 2013

Packaging plays an important role in enhancing attractiveness of the product and can substantially facilitate its consumption. A global design firm in one of its projects that is intended to cultivate an open and active design culture and to encourage experimentation, focuses on 'packaging design' this year. The design ideation process considers two aspects- relationship (how the user interfaces with the product and its impressions) and tensions (identifies the disconnect between the user and the product). The design process included three steps- (1) selection of an ordinary object from daily life (2) selection of verb that may or may not correspond to the object (3) imbue the project with an emotion representing reason for design. The process lead to some very innovative packaging designs. Read on...

Fast Company: Ideo Imagines 18 Packaging Concepts For The Future
Author: Sammy Medina

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 may 2013

According to recent data from United Nations, by 2050 about 70% of the world's population will reside in cities and to make these cities as healthy and beautiful places to live, importance should be given to development of open spaces and town squares in our urban planning strategies. Open spaces like gardens, parks etc provide gathering points for residents and humanizes and brings life to the city environment. One of the design firm is advocating just that by creating examples in currently existing larger cities that can be replicated in other cities in different parts of the world. Research also suggests that the price of property in cities is directly proportional to the proximity to the open spaces, meaning that people will pay a premium to live closer to the open spaces. Read on...

Fast Company: Designing A New Town Square For Our Crowded Urban Future
Author: David Gensler

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 13 may 2013

This review of a recently published book on design describes the authors approach of considering design as 'concerned with the whole process of analysis, visualisation, planning and execution' that affects all human lives. The author takes examples about designs from history and tracks its evolution to the present time in a form of survey and observation. The effects of advancement in digital technology on design have modified life-cyle of products. Designers consciousness and concerns for the world are more clearly defined and they intend to contribute for the larger audience and for the better world. The speed of change in human lives have induced contrasting set of behaviors, likenesses and priorities in people. Read on...

the guardian: Hello World - Where Design Meets Life by Alice Rawsthorn - review
Author: Fiona MacCarthy

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 11 may 2013

Companies and organizations to innovate and grow, need continuous flow of fresh ideas from their employees. Thus to inculcate the culture of creativity and innovation one of the things they can do is to design an ideas competition. There could be many ways it can be done. But the expert suggests that it is better to involve teams to submit ideas instead of individuals. Moreover companies should go a step further and seek a proposal or design for the suggested idea by the teams as it would have a better chance of implementation as compared to a raw idea. Evaluation criteria should focus on the creativity rather then on the 'best idea' concept when communicating the competition guidelines. Selecting teams at random with diversity is an important factor. The reward for the best idea should include a possibility of evolving the idea into an actual project. This kind of design would have a better chance of innovation for organizations as compared to the typical individual idea based competitions. Read on...

Innovation Excellence: Designing the Perfect Ideas Competition
Author: Jeffrey Baumgartner

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 03 may 2013

'Componentized Building' for school that can be assembled in 90 days with affordable advanced facilities is promised by a design firm. One classroom prototype is already on display. The firm intends to streamline prefab to a higher level and simplify all aspects of the building - design, architecture, supply chain etc. The main concept is to reduce complexity and increase repetition. Fast replication of this model with customization would be a great advantage in the world where cost saving in projects is the single most important thing. Read on...

Wired: The 'Componentized' School of the Future, Built in 90 Days
Author: Nathan Hurst

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 01 may 2013

The design is moving beyond mere products and specific systems and is evolving into the design of the whole ecosystem with diverse components all tied together in creative ways. In such a scenario the issues of intellectual property - patents, trademarks, copyright - are finding new meanings. The intellectual property is converging into the larger concept of design. Companies are leveraging this convergence of IP disciplines to deliver differentiating brands, inventions and content. Organizations are creating ecosystems with diverse set of products and services all tied together in a unique design form established over a period of time, protected by a integrated set of IP components and using it as a source of competitive advantage. There would be enormous challenges for the current IP system to protect these larger designs spanning diverse disciplines and a set of diverse innovators. Read on...

Daily Report: At Healthcare Experience Design conference, designers rethink 'broken processes'
Author: NA