DAY 1 THURSDAY OCT. 2
We’re in the middle of a new industrial revolution. More and more of the stuff we use is constantly connected to the internet. Many of the things around us are enhanced by things happening on a screen or by online services. We have a world of opportunity, one where we can create amazing new things. What role will designers play in imagining, building, and developing the products that will shape our lives?
As designers, our main role is to accompany change. By questioning the status quo, we identify and solve potential problems. Looking at this process shows multiple steps of redefinition and surprising solutions.
Today’s strategic stakes and technological possibilities are opening up many opportunities for redefining our practices and creating new products. Within this context, to be an influential player, design must evolve and widen its scope of intervention. Beyond processes, what’s the best attitude for designers to embrace these changes?
How do we utilize sensors and user data to create experiences in the digital world? We all know that smart devices have sensors, but how can we use this as a resource to acquire information about the user and his environment? And how can we use this information to design a better user experience that is both unobtrusive and transparent? The simple answer: we create adaptive systems.
How to challenge convention and harness the power of the world’s creativity. Josh discusses how RPD combined people, expertise, and experience from around the world to re-design the concept of flying for a multi-billion dollar airline, whilst teaching how you too can also challenge convention to solve big ideas and take on the world.
We need to alter our take on how creativity, workflows, and technology connect to cater to the ever-changing digital landscape. Redefining the tools while working is sometimes like changing the tires while driving.
How is it possible to constantly redefine our role as designers? By doing things we’ve never done, things where we had no idea of how they would turn out. This open design approach at the intersection of design, art, and technology is the basis of our entire working process and leads not only to surprising results, but also redefines our role as a designer with every project.
DAY 2 FRIDAY OCT. 3
In a future where digital services and physical products come together, it seems like the tech community is having the greatest influence on our world. In some ways, this is great, but we seem to have forgotten those designers with the talent for crafting physical forms that can fit into our hands, our homes and our lives. For a future ‘Internet of Things‘ we need to better engage industrial designers in what we do.
In real life, one can consider and act on the issues involved in determining our urban future and explore new possibilities to create projects and materials that change the environmental effects of art and design practices. How can we make environmental, health-improving projects relevant to our own very particular lifestyles, as well as fun and desirable rather than dutiful or moralistic?