Grad Student MakeTool Analysis

20 April 2010

Beth BenzenbergAle MattosBruno Ribeiro

A lot of the things we are doing in the present are good, but they need to transform in order to fit into the future. For example, user centered design transforms into co-creation and reuse of materials transforms into using less materials.

Technology is necessary in the future, but not if it takes over the world. Also, taking influence from the global community is good, but it should not get to be too much to where everything becomes alike.

Group 1

The past shows not a lot of autonomy for designers, while the future has a designer with ideas coming from many different places and many ideas flowing out as well.

There is a fear of not keeping up with technology.

The walls between practice and education will be broken down.

Group 2

The past is expert-led design and the future is all about collaboration.

Connectivity, interdisciplinary research, co-creation are all in the future.

Group 3

Practice and education need to influence each other more. Practice needs to take the theory from education and education needs to take some of the constraints from practice in order to give a well-rounded experience.

Co-design and flexibility will be in the future, giving a voice to the people.

Technology is really important to the future.

Group 4

Fear that everything is branded in the future.

Celebrity designers existed in the past and more teamwork will exist in the future.

Globalization allows more consumerism… this can be a bad thing.

Group 5

apprenticeship • Bauhaus • graphic design • sketching • drawing • form follows function • hand skills • advertising • aesthetically driven

• art • design • design star • function over form • individual • industrial revolution • lone‑figure • masculine • mass production • need • object • predicting • printing press • products

• styling • superior and sometimes arrogant • exclusive • expert‑driven • propaganda • branding • complexity • consumption • desktop publishing •

Past

architecture • art • epistemology • functionality • graphic design • interior space design • industrial design • specialization • user driven design • verb • visual communication • reusing materials • big picture

• classroom • democratic • design research • discovery • environmentally conscious • exploration • global • individual • instant • interdisciplinary • marketing • mass production • need • problem solving • service oriented • sustainability • technical skills • expert‑driven • noun • superficial • superior and sometimes arrogant • uncertainty

Present

art and design • Bauhaus • emotional • universal design • usability • interdisciplinary • environmentally conscious • ethnography •

sketching • social change • socially responsible • team‑player • transformation design • experience design • culturally responsive • global • design •

form follows function • instant • integrative design thinking • interaction design • service design • process • co‑design • collaboration • design thinking • interactive • meaningful • mobile • multi‑disciplinary •

participatory design • flexibility • simplicity • respect • big picture • adaptability • co‑creation • customization • design research • discovery‑led research

• exploration • generative design • human centered • immaterialism • inclusive • need • networking • problem solving • reflection • reusing materials • risk • ubiquitous • verb • virtual • visionary • branding •

wasteful • superficial • uncertainty

Future

Past

Present

Future

Interdisciplinary

Expert Driven

Good

N/A

Bad

Past Present Future

Good

N/A

Bad

Past Present Future

Environmentally conscious

Hand SkillsSketching

Good

N/A

Bad

Past Present Future

Notes

They are all time lines.

Three teams divided into bad and good, fear and dreams.

Just one group made clear the distinction about good and bad.

Just one group made a clear distinction of the future.

Only one group used the words dreams andfears.

4 teams show the “pencils” are not only in the past, present and future.

All teams believe that collaboration/inter-disciplinary belongs in the future.

Technology is a big part of design in the future. Robots and technology in the future but we don’t want them to do our jobs for us.

Environmental: 4 teams (Three teams used the same “nature” image)

Social change: 3 teams

Disciplines for the future: service, universal, experience

Four teams used Google.

They seem more fearful or unsure of the future than the grad students.

Both have a lot about collaboration in the future.

Both include a bit about being environmentally conscious.

When asked to do past, present, future, we all included a time line layout but when asked to do only one, they were mostly circular.

Collaboration, connectivity and environmentalism are all really good, but when technology is introduced, it became more of an unknown (in the faculty), but technology in the grad students’ is less of an unknown.

Connectivity showed up a lot in the faculty, but not in the grad students’. Maybe it’s because we feel like we’re already connected and maybe the next step is trans-disciplinary work.

When the path image was used, the sticker “environmentally conscious” was immediately next to it.

Most have hand skills (pencils) that should be included in the future, so we all acknowledge that basics shouldn’t be forgotten, no matter how technology advances.

Both used inter- or multi-disciplinary for the future.

Most hope for design to be more socially or culturally responsible.

Observations about faculty + design students