Hi! I am Azra. I proudly carry three hats as a designer, researcher and social entrepreneur and I love joggling them. My playground is at the intersection of systemic design, futures thinking and social impact. I invest my pattern-finding skills to support people in coming up with better ways of crafting the futures we want to be part of. I am currently a Fulbright Ph.D. student at the IIT Institute of Design, doing my research on prototyping for collective intelligence in sustainability transitions. As a strong advocate of leveraging collective capacity in problemsolving, I am experienced in participatory design and research processes, as well as speculative design facilitation to imagine alternative futures. I am a believer of collective exploration and deep reflection rather than top-down innovation and find a bizarre joy in playing with complexity. -and I’d love to meet you!
CHALLENGE The disruption caused by the pandemic challenged organizations across sectors to rapidly adapt to emerging public health imperatives to continue their operations and protect their users. This research explored how design and public health can support organizations in leveraging their entrepreneurial ecosystems and combinatorial possibilities of innovation to adapt in disruptive times and rebuild with resilience.
APPROACH We adopted an exploratory research approach by in order to build an understanding of designing in times of disruption while exploring the interdisciplinary possibilities of design and public health. We mapped the emerging interventions across sectors through secondary research, used/developed systemic design tools for analysis and conducted primary research to gain insight into sectoral disruptions and responses.
RESULT The 3-month research concluded with a report that provides actionable insights into tactical design in times of disruption for designers and industry leaders. We shared the findings in a public webinar.
LEARNINGS I developed my skills in system mapping and interactive data visualization while gaining expertise in research and team coordination in an ambiguous research context. I continue my doctoral research building up on the design tools used in this research.
Tactical Design for Pandemics Advancing a tactical design approach towards adaptive organizations in times of disruption Research Co-Lead Team: Katie Petersen, Mridula Dasari, Sai Godha, Adedoyin Eisape, Alpha Wong Advisor: Prof. Carlos Teixeira | IIT Institute of Design Duration: 3 months (Summer 2020)
RESEARCH CONTEXT The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a spur of experiments and innovations across sectors to protect the health of the public while restoring the daily life.
How can tactical design support organizations across industries to leverage the combinatorial possibilities of equitable infrastructures in developing interventions in response to the emerging imperatives of public health?
However, due to the scale and the systemic complexity of a global pandemic, many adaptations are falling short of achieving their intended impacts. To rebuild with resilience for future disruptions, these organizations are searching for alternative approaches that can help them combine available competencies with their ecosystems to create new value.
In order to build a holistic understanding of the landscape of tactical interventions developed by organizations, I structured a mixed methods research process with my advisor.
But to do so they will have to form new infrastructures and leverage existing ones in new ways. As a field driven by the logic of what is possible, design expertise is essential for organizations to both navigate this infrastructural complexity and tactically leverage their resources and competencies to create new value.
Healthcare
Retail
Mobility
Leisure
USA
Food
Desk-based review of emerging infrastructures in different industries to identify patterns of public health challenges that industries are adressing, ecosystems they leverage and transferability of interventions.
In Tactical Design in Industrial Responses to Pandemics, I co-led an real-time investigation of the tactical solutions developed by organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This approached allowed us to pinpoint major public health imperatives as well as patterns of challenges and opportunities that organizations face. I led the investigation of the implications of the pandemic on the offerings and infrastructures in the sectors of mobility, healthcare, leisure & tourism, retail and food. We conducted in-depth interviews with designers working in these sectors across 5 countries: Brasil, USA, China, India and Germany to scope the influence of country-wise strategies of tackling public health challenges.
India
In-depth interviews with designers and public health experts across 5 countries to understand the industry-specific challenges and areas of potential action with respect to equitable public health requirements.
Germany
INTERVIEWS SYNTHESIS
CASE STUDY
Jun ‘20
Jul ‘20 Case studies of the emerging infrastructures across industries, the degree to which of these solutions are inclusive, and the entrepreneurial ecosystems that they are embedded in, based on secondary data.
Aug ‘20
China
Co-creation workshop with designers and public health experts to facilitate a forum-based dialogue between design and public health experts to map emerging pathways for resilient infrastructures.
ONLINE WORKSHOP
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Brasil
Sep ‘20
MAPPING EMERGING INTERVENTIONS I led the research team through an investigation of the recent developments in the industries of mobility, food, healthcare, leisure & entertainment, and retail and mapped more than 250 interventions according to the public health imperatives that they addressed and the different types of resources they leveraged to create new value. These maps indicate the most relevant public health imperatives for each industry and demonstrate the combination of multiple resources that organizations rely on to address current challenges.
I provided the team with a structure for the creation of datasets using Google Sheets. Using these datasets, I created interactive visuals in Kumu that map the emerging interventions by the public health imperatives they adress and capitals that they leverage. This map illustrates the emerging interventions in the airline industry. Follow this link to view the interactive maps for each industry.
HYGIENE & SANITATION
PHYSICAL DISTANCING & QUARANTINE
Virus carriers release droplets of infected fluid from their nose and mouth as they cough, sneeze, or talk. Improved personal and respiratory hygiene practices can limit virus transmission. In addition, increased sanitation of high-touch surfaces can curb virus transmission.
Physical distance works to prevent contact between susceptible and infectious individuals and contaminated surfaces. In turn, individuals are encouraged to avoid large crowds and maintain a minimum of 6 feet from others, opting for self-isolation where possible.
COMBATING MISINFORMATION
MONITORING & DATA COLLECTION
Staying informed and communicating accurate information across multiple levels plays a role in personal protective practices.
When adapted for specific contexts, evidencebased pandemic interventions can improve public health outcomes. Early detection mechanisms, case finding, and contact tracing have all been shown to minimize transmission patterns.
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (MASKS) Due to the high viral load in the throat and nose of both symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers, wearing a mask and eye protection has been shown to lower viral transmission.
INTERVIEWS WITH DESIGNERS AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS We prepared interview protocols for remote semistructured interviews with designers working in the sectors of mobility, healthcare, leisure & entertainment, retail and food industries as well as public health experts. The interviews aimed to retrieve information about participants’ professional practice and experience within their organization, with respect to the activities of organization towards adaptation to new public health requirements. I coordinated the sampling of participants through LinkedIn and prepared the interview guides for a review with other team members. Following the transciption and analysis three major themes emerged from the interviews: 1. Adaptive development of new offerings 2. Flexible organizational governance 3. Building trust and sense of safety in users
Forum Facilitation Template
ONLINE FORUM WITH DESIGNERS & PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS I led the team in organizing an online forum with designers and public health experts to gather data about the sectoral transitions triggered by the pandemic and their opinions in response to the emerging public health requirements. The forum was organized using online conferencing and Miro for visualizing ideas on a framework that combines transition thinking with three levels of knowledge brokering. The preliminary analysis of findins was conducted with the team upon which I carried out the secondary analysis using an affinity diagram. Three major themes emerged from this analysis indicating dimensions of adaptation of organizations as new responsibilities, exchange of resources and value offerings.
ARCHETYPES OF INFRASTRUCTURES An archetype of infrastructure illustrates the core logic underlying seamless combinations of products, services, methods and channels of communication, and data ecologies that enable diverse agents to contribute to common purposes.
By deconstructing these infrastructures, we were able to identify several patterns that can give shape to new infrastructural archetypes. The visuals of archetypes illustrate the agents, interactions and affordances embodied in the features of infrastructures.
For this study, the team curated infrastructures that demonstrate a unique and tactical combination of resources and competencies dispersed across organizations to address public health imperatives.
I developed the model with Prof. Teixeira during previous Strategies for Open Innovation course and led the team in analyzing infrastructures as archetypes.
Features of Infrastructures Products, services, messages and data ecologies that afford specific interactions Evidence Real-world evidence that demonstrate the features of infrastructures
Public Health Rationale Public health lenses and dimensions that illustrate the reason, metrics and risks associated with infrastructures’ features
CASE STUDY: CROWD MANAGEMENT IN JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Case Study | Tool I
As part of the research, I developed a case study of crowd management in John F. Kennedy International Airport to demonstrate the use of design frameworks to navigate the complexity of adaptive transitions in the development of new infrastructures.
In order to better situate JFK’s efforts within larger dynamics swirling around pandemic-related issues, I used Anatomy of Infrastructures* to investigate how a purposeful alignment between various elements can give shape to broader crowd management infrastructures.
Crowd management has been gaining importance in the aviation industry which was suddenly faced with a whole new series of safety challenges to maintain its operations. This case study uses the Whole View Model and Anatomy of Infrastructures (illustrated in following pages) as structures for analysis. Combined, they render visible the complex orchestration of various elements and forces within and outside an organization that can shape crowd management infrastructures.
Click here for the interactive diagram that I created on Kumu. * André Nogueira, Weslynne Ashton, Carlos Teixeira, Elizabeth Lyon, and Jonathan Pereira, “Infrastructuring the Circular Economy,” Energies 13, no. 7 (2020): article 1805, https://doi. org/10.3390/en13071805.
INFORMING THE PUBLIC The airport had to raise awareness of passengers about their responsibility in protecting the health of others and communicate the physical distancing measures in place. INTERVENING IN CROWDS JFK Airport expanded its crowd management system to monitor physical distancing in various airport spaces, including check-in, security screening, and gates. The AI-enabled crowd monitoring service measures crowd density and notifies security personnel in case of crowding. PLANNING PUBLIC SPACES Optimizing airport space is an essential component of facilitating the movement of crowds toward physical distancing. By analyzing the movement of crowds, the staff at JFK Airport can identify areas that lead to crowding and make
COMPONENTS
CARRY
AFFORDANCES
SHAPE
IMPACT INDICATOR
ENABLE
PURPOSE
Case Study | Tool II
Are we internally aligned? | Strategy Pyramid By redesigning its system of offerings to address the various physical distancing challenges of its users, JFK Airport expanded its territory of ensuring safe experiences to account for new public health terrains, which has traditionally been outside their business boundaries.
In order to capture the relationships among the various forces that influence complex projects, I analyzed the case using Whole View Model**, with the support of André Nogueira.
** Patrick Whitney and André Nogueira, “Cutting Cubes Out of Fog: The Whole View of Design,” She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 6, no. 2 (Summer 2020): 129–56, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2020.04.001.
Purpose Operations
How to make it real? | Competency Flow JFK Airport incorporated one key competency to achieve its purpose of improving the safety of the airport: ensuring physical distancing. This competency is complemented by a system of supporting competencies such as optimizing spaces for physical distancing, facilitating crowd mobility, and increasing the awareness of passengers. Combined, they enable JFK Airport to deliver safer experiences to all its related agents.
Competency Flow Core
Physical distancing in airports involves multiple users of the airport systems such as passengers, security, and other airport staff, airline operators, and business owners and their employees. Each one of these agents has aspirations and related needs that need to be considered when creating an intervention. Indeed passengers want to feel safe, but they also want to have an efficient experience. While the purpose of ensuring physical distancing might be valuable for all of them, how it gets communicated and enforced must vary.
What are the offerings | POEMS In order to address the multiple aspirations and challenges of a diverse set of agents, JFK Airport adapted its system of offerings to communicate, facilitate, monitor, and enforce physical distancing measures. In addition to improving capacity of existing services, the airport created coherent messages across its digital displays and added physical signage to communicate safety measures and facilitate safe movement of people. It also used sensors to monitor the flow of passengers and track success.
Are we internally aligned?
Purpose
Internal Fitness
Levels of Innovation Step Jump Leap
Ambition
How to make it real?
Who is it for? | User Terrains
Offerings
Certainty
Based on the publicly available resources on the case, I used various design tools integrated in the Whole View Model to uncover opportunity spaces in for crowd management in airports.
Strategy Pyramid
Purpose for Making Change
User Terrains
Aspirations & Problems
Who is it for?
Terrain
Territory Offering
POEMS
Value Web
What are the offerings?
Why does it create value?
Due to the novelty of a physical distancing imperative and the absence of proven strategies, JFK Airport took on this urgent mission in a highly uncertain environment and adapted its system of offerings with little knowledge of what strategy might lead to successful improvement of safety in the airport. By leveraging technology to monitor the impact of interventions, JFK Airport improved its learning capacity to inform future decision-making.
How ambitious is your project?
Organization Territory
External Fitness
How ambitious is the project? | Levels of Innovation
What business are we in? | Organization Territory By redesigning its system of offerings to address the various physical distancing challenges of its users, JFK Airport expanded its territory of ensuring safe experiences to account for new public health terrains, which has traditionally been outside their business boundaries.
What business are we in?
Why does it create value? | Value Web The speed at which the JFK Airport had to deploy new systems allowed no time for the organization to internally develop new competencies and offerings. As a result, the airport had to assemble an ecosystem of partners and service providers to ensure physical distancing and improve the safety of its experiences. Activating and mobilizing the right partners play a critical role in accessing resources an organization does not own nor control, but still needs in order to achieve its purpose. In the case of JFK, the airport was not only able to deploy new systems, but also continuously work with its network to accelerate the pace of future changes, learn through the exchange of sector-specific biosafety guidelines, and develop a broader set of metrics to measure impact that better reflected the various forces influencing the intended public health outcomes.
INSIGHTS This study investigated infrastructural interventions happening in mobility, food, healthcare, leisure & entertainment, and retail created by various organizations between March and August 2020. As a result of the study, I developed five major considerations for designers and industry leaders— actionable responses to public health imperatives—that can help create value for both an organization and the people it serves. These insights summarize the essential mindsets and capabilities for organizations to tactically design infrastructural interventions to rebuild with resilience. These insights were refined in collaboration with André Nogueira, PhD. and Prof. Carlos Teixeira.
LEAD ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE.
RESEARCH OUTREACH
Support leadership within and across organizational levels to build adaptive capacity and empower individuals to cooperate when needed.
The project report was written by me and André Nogueira as well as the report visuals and editorial design that I created.
RELOCATE ACCOUNTABILITIES.
I organized a public webinar for sharing the findings with designers and industry leaders and created a website that documents the key findings and the design frameworks used in this study.
Equip your employees and users with the knowledge and tools necessary to build mutual accountability for the protection of public health. MOTIVATE RESPONSIBLE CHOICES. Help employees and users when making choices that respond to emerging public health imperatives and motivate their responsible behavior. LEVERAGE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS. Identify available competencies within entrepreneurial ecosystems to rapidly combine expertise and seed, adapt, adopt, and transfer solutions. FOSTER COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE. Invest in data-enabled intelligence to bridge organizational silos towards the design of integrated infrastructures.
View Project Report
designforpandemics.com
CHALLENGE Following the civil war in Syria, millions of Syrians left their homes to seek refuge in Turkey, facing unemployment among many other challenges. Data shows that among them there is a substantial percentage of people coming from craft professions. Joon started as a capacity development platform to leverage the skills of Syrian craftspeople to connect them to local markets, rapidly expanding its services to local communities in Turkey.
APPROACH The core approach of Joon is building solutions with the people and learning from them as experts of their own conditions. We started by connecting with Syrian craftspeople and building rapidly testing our service MVP as a design and sales platform for disenfranchised craftspeople. As a bootstrapped social enterprise, Joon grew through collaborations with local and international NGOs, public agencies, as well as producer communities.
RESULT Over the course of two years that I was part of it, Joon matured as a design and sales platform connected to multiple beneficiary groups with a sustined growth of revenue and team. By the time I left the company to pursue my PhD, Joon had become a growthstage startup.
LEARNINGS Joon has been the greatest leap in my pursuit as a designer aiming to work towards systems change. It helped me build a grounded understanding of designing for social impact, community building and ecosystem stewardship for change.
Joon
Bootstrapping a Capacity Development Platform for Disenfranchised Craftspeople Co-Founder, Design Lead Team: Duygu Vatan, Cansu Tüzüner, Irem Sanoglu, Ege Çakaloz, Yashar Kardar Duration: 2 years (2016-2018) Photographies by Cansu Tuzuner
JOON Joon is a capacity development platform for people facing socio-economic exclusion. It is an inclusive service designed to offer disadvantaged people a way to claim their livelihood by creating contemporary craft networks. Joon has been operating as a social enterprise since 2016 to assist people in improving their living conditions and visibility. I co-founded Joon with a team of 3 and worked as the design lead until 2019, bootstrapping the company and evolving it to a growth-stage startup.
BACKGROUND Following the civil war in Syria, Turkey received a large influx of Syrian refugees, seeking new ways to build their livelihood. In fact, not only Syrian refugees but many communities who face systemic exclusion do not have access to resources to build an independent livelihood. However, as a positive deviance in the system many people can turn their craft skills into income, when they are guided through the right channels.
35% of Syrian Refugees are from craft professions
6.5% of labor force in Turkey is craftspeople
Labor Force Participation of Syrian Refugees and Integration Report, 2016
How might we leverage the skills of disenfranchised communities towards sustainable livelihoods?
PROTOTYPING A SERVICE MVP Tawfiq is a Syrian calligrapher who recently migrated to Turkey. Living in a suburban neighborhood of the Turkish capital, he started making calligraphies with the few resources he had.
Tawfiq had two major challenges:
However, deprived of any channels for market exposure, he was unable to find himself a place in the extremely competitive calligraphy market in Turkey.
The MVP tested a 3-stage flow to connect craftspeople to market as discover, transform and present.
1. Alternative channels to access a less competitive market 2. Product differention to reach urban customers
DISCOVER Identifying local craftspeople and their capabilities TRANSFORM Leveraging the handmade with functional lifestyle products PRESENT Designing product presentation from packaging to marketing
Discoveries Through a 3 months-long collaboration with Tawfiq and local craftspeople, we created the “Words of Wisdom” collection which narrated Tawfiq’s journey by combining calligraphy with woodwork.
The collection was launched in CER Modern Art Museum’s craft market. Following the succesful launch Joon received a seed grant from International Organization of Migration for improving the livelihoods of Syrian refugees in Turkey.
We discovered the power of craft to transcend the mental barriers that divide communities, to create a human connection.
“On this earth what makes life worth living” Poem from Palestinian poet M. Darwish engraved on veneer lighting unit.
Words of Wisdom Collection launch at CER Modern Craft Fair
IMPACT MODEL In order to create value-added craft products with competitive advantage, Joon brings craft producers in production networks, provoding them with design & sales counseling. The micro-investment model leverages existing workshops of the civil sector and ensures fair trade through B2B and B2C channels.
Ecosystem stewardship is inseparable from designing for sustainable empowerment. Joon’s model prioritizes resilient communities before enterprise growth.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT Joon matured as an integrated design counseling and e-commerce platform that connects craftspeople to the market with unique collections under its brand. Two major customer touchpoints of Joon are its online and retail channels which aim to connect customers with the stories of the producers to build empathy through the exchange of crafts. Fair trade being a core component, all messages are crafted to convery the feeling of solidarity rather than consumption.
STORYTELLING ACROSS PLATFORMS The value proposition of Joon is not only in the artful daily products but also the story in the making of these products. A common pitfall in fair-trade organizations is the emphasis of ethical value, at the expense of real stories that can enable human connection. Joon’s product narrative is customized across its online and retail channels for its individual and corporate clients around one core message: “This is not only a product, but a story of empowerment”.
Joon presented its ‘Design for Social Impact’ model at Design Week Turkey
I created various editorial designs for Joon to narrate the stories of
Each product presentation combines packaging and tag designs to
2018 by combining products, visuals and posters in a spatial arrangement.
producers behind every collection.
connect customers with the producers’ stories and fair trade focus throughout B2B, e-commerce and retail channels.
CSR, Gift Packages and Custom Merchandise
Co-Ops
Rapid Prototyping
Capacity Development
B2B Channels
Revenue
Workshops
NGOs
Artisans
B2C Channels
Artists Product Sale
UNCOVERING OPPORTUNITY SPACES
Making Crafts Accessible at Scale
Removing the Skill Barrier
Co-creating the New Narratives
Joon leverages the assets of different members of production ecosystems and co-creation methods to craft tactical interventions that can address the needs of users with limited resources. The following pages present three collections that were born out of combined resources to uncover new opportunity spaces.
‘Colors of Anatolia’ connects labor-intensive craft making with manufacturing cooperatives to create unique products at an affordable rate.
‘SoundUP’ combines leverages rapid prototyping to activate lowskill production by Syrian women to improve their livelihood resources.
‘Mic is Yours’ leverages participatory design to craft a new storytelling for children with cerebral palsy and their mothers.
MAKING CRAFTS ACCESSIBLE AT SCALE The products of labor intensive craft production come at a high cost, which is not accessible to a smaller segment of potential customers. Combining traditional craft manufacturing with cooperatives using contemporary manufacturing tools enabled different producer communities to create handmade objects and deliver at scale. One such example was marble painter G. Cuhadar and Zeytindali Womens’ Cooperative who merged their capabilities to turn marblepainted fabrics into affordable textile accessories, creating Colors of Anatolia Collection. This collaboration enabled artist G. Cuhadar to continue her craft, brought new clients to the cooperative and fostered new collaborations with NGOs that support fair labor for women. In this process, I designed the products and established production standardization procedures for handmade manufacturing.
How might we enable handmade production to be accessible at scale?
REMOVING THE SKILL BARRIER Joon integrated technology and crafts to create storytelling objects that can connect their users to unseen lifes of disenfranchised communities. SoundUP collection was created in collaboration with ZuluTech, to materialize the voices of Syrian refugees into tokens of empathy, in the form of personal accessories. Users can scan the QR code that arrives with the accessory to hear the voice behind the physical sound profile. I developed the concept, initiated the collaboration and assisted the product design while the designs were executed by Irem Sanoglu and Ege Cakaloz. This concept was later developed into a custom collection for UNDP Turkey and launched with an exhibition.
LISTEN
How might we enable unskilled refugee women to produce craft for sustained livelihood?
VISUALIZE
Voice-recording messages from Syrian residents of Yesiloz Neighborhood
Visualizing and refining sound profiles using Wemotion software MATERIALIZE
We used sound profiling to create visual patterns of recordings and sampled segments from these patterns
Rapid prototyping to produce products and craft templates CONNECT Conencting users to the voices of Syrians using QR code placement on packaging
CO-CREATING THE NEW NARRATIVES Children with Cerebral Palsy Foundation initated a collaboration with Joon to support their beneficiaries with new production capabilities that can turn into a collection as social merchandise for the foundation.
Ethnographic Probes
Storytelling Workshop
‘Mic is Yours’ Workshop
Ethnographic probes including diaries and mock postcards gave tools of expression to mothers of children to surface the multiple dimensions of living with cerebral palsy beyond its challenges.
Storytelling Workshop with mothers at the high school captured the aspirations for the future of their children and uncovered new themes such as ‘right to love’ that challenge the biases on living with disability.
Co-creation workshop brought together children with cerebral palsy to produce a mock newspaper that showcases their opinions, knowledge and values.This workshop was funded by a grant from European Union as part of Mic is Yours Program.
The aim of this project was to setup a craft workshop within the Highschool of Children with Cerebral Palsy Foundation, where mothers of children can engage low-scale production to put their free time to use. Joon conducted a series of qualitative research and participatory design interventions to support mothers of high school children in creating a new narrative of living with cerebral palsy: one that brings light to rights and capabilities rather than limitations. I led the development of participatory design and research protocols including the design of probes, workshops materials and facilitation guidelines. I also led the team in analyzing the findings and translating them into actinable design principles.
A postcard from Nesli, an imaginary person who asks for advice for living with cerebral palsy after the diagnosis of her nephew
How might we enable families living with cerebral palsy to advocate for a new narrative of children’s future?
A personal description sheet that facilitates self-reflection with
We used the ‘Scenes’ tools from SAP to facilitate scenario building
Partcipant children built their own newspaper in a role-playing game by
stickers and sketchable template
without the limitation of different drawing capabilities
creating their own news using reporting templates with the assistance of volunteer team. All materials and flow were tailored to activity limitations of children.
THEORY OF CHANGE Refugees Women facing social exclusion LGBTQ Communities Disabled individuals and their families
PROBLEM
People facing social exclusion can not lead productive and fulfilling lives.
To accelerate the social and economic life of individuals and groups with a limited source of income and basic production skills
Creating platforms and content to increase visibility of social issues and increase awareneww of fair trade
Supporting the social sector ecosystem including non-profits, social enterprises and intermediary organizations and advocating for social policies
A world where people have fair access to resources to fulfill their potential to live productive and creative lives
Audiences
NGOs Local Co-ops Social Enterprises Public Events Entry Points
WIDER BENEFITS
Economic benefit of manufacturer
Number of audience engaged in fair trade movement Number of fair suppliers
Number of design and social entrepreneurship events engaged in
Increased design capability and confidence of producer Improved market visibility
Increasing awareness of users about fair labor and sustinable material siurcing
Strengthening social enterprise ecosystem in Turkey and increasing support for social policies
Partnerships
SOCIAL IMPACT Since 2016, Joon has been developing the capacities of individual producers and independent coopeeratives and creating livelihood resources for socio-economically disenfranchised communities. Through advocacy for fair-trade and stregthening of social entrepreneurship in Turkey, Joon partnered with many public and private organizations, advancing design methods towards social impact. I led the development of impact assesment protocols with my partner Duygu Vatan, building the theory of change and setting impact metrics with the team.
13 Procuders 50+ Beneficiaries
10+ Partnerships
2000+ Audience
Long-term Change Goal
“After one year of collaboration. M. Tawfiq can now pursue his own job by making custom calligraphy products and giving courses in his neighborhood.”
“We learned new designs and gained new production skills. This helped us gain new customers, people get surprised by what we can achieve”
“Without Joon, I wouldn’t open my workshop and do marbling this year, it wasn’t worth it”
CHALLENGE Fresh-Bite is the product of a Master’s course where I explored biopolitics through a speculative design process. Our society is increasingly adopting norms of self-regulation of the body, geared towards optimization of bodily functions, fueled by capitalist notion of individual efficiency. The challenge was to build a critical discourse of this biopolitics through design.
APPROACH This project adopts a speculative design approach to uncover and amplify the influence of biopolitics. I carried out an extensive literature review as the theoretical foundation of the project and conducted field observation to understand the implications of biopolitics in current practices. I synthesized these findings in a set of speculative design experiments in a collaboratively developed scenario.
RESULT The experiments materialized in a set of speculative objects that materialize biopolitical practices in a future scenario. The objects were displayed in a public exhibition with accompanying narratives of a dystopic future.
LEARNINGS By understanding how speculative design can facilitate reflection and discussion in highly-abstract and complex topics, I created and facilitated a set of fictional design workshops, as part of design-focused meetups I was organizing with my team.
Fresh-Bite Design Fictions for an Infected Future Product Design, Exhibition Design, Literature Review Advisor: Figen Isik, Yekta Bakirlioglu | Middle East Technical University Duration: 3 months (Spring 2017)
FRESH-BITE Fresh-Bite is a set of speculative design experiments that explored object-oriented biopolitics and chemical manipulation of body functions in relation to capitalist notion of body optimization.
“Late capitalism also produces fatfree ice creams and alcohol-free beer next to genetically modified health food, companion species alongside computer viruses, new animal and human immunity breakdowns and deficiencies, and the increased longevity of these who inhabit the advanced world.” Welcome to capitalism as schizophrenia!” Deleuze & Guattari, 1972
A hand-sanitation station at a local shopping mall in Ankara
A DYS-INFECTED FUTURE A pure exaggeration of today’s healthy snack trend as mentioned by Dunne & Raby (2014), FreshBite is the object that creates a self-reproductory loop of ‘improved nutrition’. As in the Foucault quotation by Felski (2002), FreshBite is a physical facet of the “new forms of internalised discipline” brought by the modern era.
Tracking/regulating/tracking loop that is observed though field explorations is nothing different than the urge of self maintenance brought by this internalised discipline. The naivete of self-improvement for the self that is the ruling principle of our era’s leading perception is also the motivating principle of the users of proposed objects. Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2014). Speculative everything: design, fiction, and social dreaming. S.l.: MIT. Felski, R., & Bassett, C. (2002). The invention of everyday life.
CONCEPTUAL MAPPING Through an extensive literature review of biopolitics, semiotics and practice theory I consolidated the conceptual map to set the foundations for the speculative design experiments.
A fictional map of the “Welfare’ Region
ANTI OBJECT: REGULATING SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN CRITICAL UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA THROUGH BIOPOLITICS In a fictional future setting, where all organic matter is contaminated by a virus called monospherus, the rise of synthetic food production and excessive promotion of well-being defines the daily life in a society segregated by contamination levels. This utopian/dystopian fiction is explored through the object experiments within a collectively defined scenario.
(squares show contaminated areas)
FRESHBITE CONCEPT FreshBite is a set of nutritional regulation devices, developed for the imaginary topography of a future infected by the virus mono-spherus. Freshbite is born from the ‘necessity’ of personal nutrition tracking. The sensors on the product receive the daily nutrition data from the, now commonly used blood measuring ring and the product synthesizes a personalized nutritional portion based on the individual protein, energy, vitamin etc. needs of the user.
Productivist Nutrition In the office environment, FreshBite Pro instantly synthesizes personalized nutrient balls, for increased focus and body performance. Each bite is a unique mixture and differ in taste, according to the personal nutrition needs. The office usage questions the functional perception of body and productivity relations.
Homo Socialis
Imagining the Hackables
FreshBite ‘Fun’ module can be used in entertainment places, for a shared eating experience. The central module synthesizes the personalized nutrient balls based on blood value readings and serves by inclining in the direction of the person.
Even in the most exaggerated of a sterilised fiction, divergent practices would appear. Such a scenario is the underground hacking of the device to synthesize chemical balls that do not fit in the health norms and regulations.
CHALLENGE The planned obsolescence that drives kitchen appliances industry leads to unsustainable purchase patterns that fill kitchens with unused appliances and the Earth with landfills. This project explores an open-design cooking system that can combine multiple functionalities in an adaptive structure.
APPROACH Stackle started as an exporative, independent project at the intersection of cooking and open design movement and matured as a hardware business model.
RESULT The project resulted in a hardware MVP and a business model that was presented in YFYI Startup Accelerator Finals.
LEARNINGS Stackle was the project that iniated me to the entrepreneurial life and helped me changed my path as a designer who prioritizes impact over revenue and growth goals.
Stackle
Developing an open-design product and service system Design Lead, Business Planning Advisor: Harun Kaygan | Middle East Technical University, YFYI Startup Accelerator Program Team: Yashar Kardar, Salar Rahimi, Jean-Piere Demir, Duygu Vatan, Semih Iseri Duration: 5 months (April-July 2016)
STACKLE Stackle is a multi-functional cooking system for the young & active who have limited time for home cooking. It combines the essential functions of common kitchen appliances with customizable components to adapt to various cooking and preparation scenarios. The structure follows open design principles to enable users to create a product ecosystem. Stackle started as an independent exploration by me and another design student in response to a failed in-class project on open source kitchen appliance and developed as an open-source hardware business model. I led the design process, developed the MVP and prepared the business model with my team.
CHAIN OF PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE Kitchen cupboards filled with dusty appliances is nothing new. These appliances specializing for every single task from egg boiling to soup making pile up in an endless chain of planned obsolescence. Meanwhile, most the share the same components: motors, heaters and accessories.
What if appliance components could come together in different ways to adapt to users’ needs?
“Almost 60% of e-waste by weight come from large and small kitchen, bathroom and laundry appliances.” United nations University, 2015 “£8 billion worth of kitchen equipment is left almost untouched in the home” Direct Line Report, 2013
OPEN-UP WORKSHOPS What kind of affordances can encourage creative manipulation of appliances? We carried out two workshops with an interdisciplinary group of college students to understand what makes the black-boxing of products and what kind of affordances can encourage users to modify appliances. We provided participants with a selection of kitchen appliances and asked them to deconstruct these appliances to create new functions using the components. We used pre and post-workshop surveys to understand motivations and limitations.
TRANSFORMATION EXAMPLE
chocolate
ice-cream
Cold-mixing Container
+ hot drinks
+ Stand
Melting with controlled heat
soup
Molding molten chocolate
+ sauce
Heater Hot-stirring
Example product transformation
Identifiable components, circular sections and visible connections emerged as key affordances.
Circular sections motivate combination and stacking components together.
Prior motivation of electronics motivate intentional customization of appliances,
the black-boxing of appliances cause fear of breaking parts and frustration in attempts to understand the functioning of components.
USER RESEARCH What are the needs of working millenials left unadressed by an appliance market that prioritizes over-specialization of devices? Millenials constitute an increasing segment of small kitchen appliances sector with new needs and expectations. We narrowed down our target user group to working millenials and conducted 20 interviews and 5 at-home observations to understand the needs and limitations of working millenials with respect to their eating routines and cooking practices. We created 3 main personas and produced a trend analysis to inform the design process.
PERSONA EXAMPLE
‘Even though I’m super busy, I always cook my own food because I do sports.” About
Zohra Soleimani Age: 27 Status: Single Job: PhD Student Residence: School Dorm
Zohra has been a PhD student in sociology for 2 years and she also works part-time for a local NGO. Soon after starting her PhD, she realized her health was decaying and she created new routines for herself to better take care of her body.
Goals
Motivations
Maintaining a good health Eating culturally-preferred food Avoiding processed food at work
TASTE
STORAGE
Frustrations Lacking storage space in small dorm room Reheating food is not always possible outside Eating the same food everyday when meal prepping
OFFICE KITCHEN SPACE
NUTRITION
LESS MESS CONVENIENCE TIME
TREND ANALYSIS
I conducted the design research with my partner and synthesized findings into four major design considerations:
ECONOMICAL
Enable food preparation in small and shared kitchen areas
Micro
Midi
Maxi
Leases and lunch clubs for office food
Increasing availability of organic produce
Meal-prepping to reduce lunch costs
Ingredient supply and meal-plan services
Home-cooked meal services for offices
Increasing convenience of ordering food
Discovery as an important criteria for food selection
Routine meals as social experience
Home chefs on Social Media Prioritizing simplicity and healthy food Subsciption to food channels on Youtube
SOCIAL
Prioritize cooking processes that preserve the nutritional value
Activity and lifetyslespecific diets Ingredient quality concern
Simplify food preparation and storage process and minimize cleaning Provide adaptability to different dietary goals and lifestyle limitations
TECHNOLOGICAL
Only electric appliances can be used due to safety requirements
Limited cleaning space for personal use
Limited refrigerator space in office kitchen
Small storage spaces for appliances and preparation materials
Combining nutrition tracking with meal suggestions
Supplier transparency for ingredient quality
Increasing connectivity and customization of appliances Cooking with smartphones and tablets
FINAL CONCEPT Stackle is an open cooking system with exchangeable accesories that users can modify to match their needs.
Stackle consists of a wood-enclosed induction base, a ferromagnetic-base glass container, a motor cap and accessories that can be matched to different food preparation functions.
Usage Scenario motor cap
accessory
Stackle enables food preparation and storage throughout meal-prepping and consumption for young professionals. Different preparations can be completed in a single container, reducing cleaning time and storage space needed.
Store Ingredients metal base
container
Accessories Stackle combines the shared heating and rotation functions found in kitchen appliances with custom accesories that can be matched to various functions.
induction base
Customize & Track Cooking Process
Carry & Reheat
FUNCTIONAL PROTOYPE With a team of electronic engineer, a mechatronic engineer and two designers, we prototyped a remotely controllable cooking system by extracting components from an existing induction cooker and 3D printing the accesories.
CONVERSION TESTING The prototype was used to test the essential cooking functions and to demonstrate the usage as part of the YFYI Startup Incubator Final Event.
The initial concept was tested with a mock pre-order page to assess the interest of potential customers. We got into contact with potential early adopters to learn about their interests.
I carried out the physical prototyping of the product and cost assesment by working with local hardware manufacturers.
Due to the limited budget of the team, we took advantage of guerilla marketing through online forums.
2 Weeks 148 visitors 15% Conversion 10 Pre-order Subscriptions
STARTUP ACCELERATOR PROGRAM Stackle’s business model matured through YFYI Accelerator Program where the team worked with a number of mentors and industry representatives to develop a go-to-market strategy and a revenue model.
The concept was selected among the 10 idea-stage startups to present at the Demo Day of the YFYI Accelerator Program to a 150+ audience including general public, investors and industry representatives. I did a 3-minutes pitch of the concept and business model respresenting the team.
Open Design+ Service System Map
CHALLENGE Following the civil war in Syria, millions of Syrians left their homes to seek refuge in Turkey, facing unemployment among many other challenges. Data shows that among them there is a substantial percentage of people coming from craft professions. Joon started as a capacity development platform to leverage the skills of Syrian craftspeople to connect them to local markets, rapidly expanding its services to local communities in Turkey.
APPROACH The core approach of Joon is building solutions with the people and learning from them as experts of their own conditions. We started by connecting with Syrian craftspeople and building rapidly testing our service MVP as a design and sales platform for disenfranchised craftspeople. As a bootstrapped social enterprise, Joon grew through collaborations with local and international NGOs, public agencies, as well as producer communities.
RESULT Over the course of two years that I was part of it, Joon matured as a design and sales platform connected to multiple beneficiary groups with a sustined growth of revenue and team. By the time I left the company to pursue my PhD, Joon had become a growthstage startup.
LEARNINGS Joon has been the greatest leap in my pursuit as a designer aiming to work towards systems change. It helped me build a grounded understanding of designing for social impact, community building and ecosystem stewardship for change.
Joon
Bootstrapping a Capacity Development Platform for Disenfranchised Craftspeople Co-Founder, Design Lead Team: Duygu Vatan, Cansu Tüzüner, Irem Sanoglu, Ege Çakaloz, Yashar Kardar Duration: 2 years (2016-2018)