This Sucks:
Visualizing an Un-Designed World NSCAD University Master of Design Class of 2012
This Sucks:
Visualizing an Un-Designed World NSCAD University Master of Design Class of 2012
2011 (CC BY-ND 2.5)
Visualizing an Un-Designed World
NSCAD University Masters of Design Class of 2012 Editor
Michael LeBlanc
Martyn Anstice LeeAndra Cianci Kevin Dahi Grace Fang Ian Grivois Carley Hodgkinson Yin Long Stuart McQuarrie Michael Peters Joseph Rau Hana Seo Linghan Zhan Yan Yan Zhang
07 Foreword / Michael LeBlanc 08 Posters / MDes students 08 Joseph Rau 10 LeeAndra Cianci 12 Kevin Dahi 14 Linghan Zhan 16 Grace Fang Contents
18 Carley Hodgkinson 20 Hana Seo 22 Michael Peters 24 Stuart McQuarrie 26 Ian Grivois 28 Yan Yan Zhang 30 Yin Long 32 Martyn Anstice 35 References
Foreword
TAKE A RIDE on the bus, the ferry or the subway and look at the people who are travelling with you. Chances are, there is not a designer in the vehicle, and quite probably there is no one on this conveyance who even knows nor cares that design is important. “Regular people” may not know much about occupations like medicine, the sciences, and engineering, but they know that these professions are important to their safety, convenience and future well-being. When we pay our taxes, we accept the fact that some of our hard-earned cash goes to support these occupations. Imagine the hue and cry if a nation’s medical schools or engineering schools were to be closed. Who can imagine modern life without having access to doctors, engineers, or scientists? Furthermore, what would life be like without journalists, lawyers, accountants, plumbers, mechanics or even undertakers? Our society respects the roles played by various professions and occupations—they are recognized as necessary elements of the social gestalt, and the expense of training and maintaining these professionals is simply the price of living in an advanced post-industrial economy. To get back our bus ride, however: supposing, just supposing… if design schools were to be closed—to just disappear—would your fellow travellers be at all concerned? Who would come to their rescue? In Canada, the government supports the fine arts through the Canada Council. The sciences are supported by NSERC, and the humanities and social sciences are supported by SSHRC. Who supports design? Who, indeed? Who knows how important design is, and who even cares? This book is the result of a two-day workshop undertaken by NSCAD’s Master of Design class of 2012. They were asked to create a design-fiction scenario: what would happen if all design schools closed, and on that day, everything in the world that has design content were to revert to its un-designed state? What would that look like? Would regular people continue to be oblivious to design? Or would they say, at the end of the day: “This sucks.”? —Michael LeBlanc, Associate Professor, NSCAD University
8 | Joseph rau
lost in nature Although humankind’s preoccupation with modifying our natural environment has often been to the universal and irreversible detriment of both man and nature, efforts have also been made central to the notion of reconnecting humankind with its surroundings. Wilderness trails weaving through landscapes yet untouched by urban sprawl and unquenchable development provide safe and directed passage into wild environments that have often become too foreign and too unfamiliar for many of us to venture in unguided. The experience and environment is designed in the best interest of all involved, facilitating a situation respectful of the inherent fragilities of the human-nature relationship. To un-design a situation such as this would function only to further disconnect humans from their natural surroundings. Certainly some would venture in on their own accord, but the potential to become lost in a nature we no longer inhabit, or to cause greater negative ecological impacts (due to uninformed trailblazing or unfamiliarity with natural processes) is amplified under less designed circumstances. Although it may seem counterintuitive at first glance, removing design from our most unforgiving environments will only deepen the wedge that inhibits us from embracing, understanding and appreciating our environment.
10 | LeeAndra cianci
Sucking the Design out of Meal Time a recipe for disaster
The everyday act of cooking a meal can vary greatly from an advanced culinary endeavour to popping a frozen dinner into the microwave. Either way — imagine how difficult, frustrating and even dangerous this process would be like without the element of design. To create a meal you will need the following ingredients:
1. One or more recipes or instructions 2. Proper ingredients 3. Accurate measurements and timers 4. Safe equipment and tools 5. Serving vehicles and cutlery
1. The first step in cooking a meal is to decide on and follow a recipe or set of instructions. If your cookbook is not designed it could take days to find the recipe you are looking for and even then it will be very hard to find things like measurements and times. 2. Next you will need to locate all of your ingredients. This is a very difficult process if there are no labels or distinguishable containers in your cupboard. There is also and element of danger due to a lack of information such as expiry dates and ingredients. 3. This next step will hinder your final product (especially if you are baking). Without design you will not have any accurate measuring devices and will be guessing the amounts. 4. Since there are no variations in tools, like pots and pans, you most likely will have only one item to choose from. It will not be very functional or safe (i.e. no handles on a boiling pot). The same issue of danger will occur with the interface design of larger items like your oven or microwave. Without clearly designed timers and clocks you may under-cook or burn items, leaving you with an either dangerous or inedible meal. 5. In the end if something comes out remotely edible and you are not yet in the emergency room what will you serve your food on? Without design your guests wont even have a table to sit at let alone a plate or utensils.
12 | kevin dahi
This Sucks! If I stand in the middle of Spring Garden Road in Halifax with everything surrounding me reverted to its un-designed state, I believe I would be looking at bushes, trees and a few utilitarian tents or shelters! Design is incorporated into each and every object in our daily life. It is integrated into the pencil that I’m using to write in the sketchbook, which is designed to fit conveniently into my hand bag. Without the design of the hand bag’s strap, I wouldn’t be able to carry it on my shoulder while I’m holding my umbrella which is designed to protect me from the rain as it opens. When closed, the umbrella in turn fits well into the hand bag. What if upon stepping into the elevator, the control panel is missing, there are no numbers or arrows? I continue to get my coffee from a coffee shop designed to serve people on the run with a cup designed to fit perfectly in one’s hand without burning it. I get into the studio and observe the design of my desk and chair as I reach for another object designed to fit in my bag: my laptop. Finally, in order to type up all of these ideas, I need to connect my laptop’s power cord to the socket, and oh... This Sucks! A tiny design element has been sucked out of the socket, and this could turn my day into hell!!
14 | Linghan Zhan
Nowadays, cellphones play a dominant role in peoples’ life. Different cellphone companies have variety of design styles, and they are quickly updating the designs and fiercely competing with other companies. People want the latest design and powerful functions, such as the iphone. People has gotten used to all kinds of convenience and fun that cellphones provide. However, what happens when we do not have design? Let’s try to image a cellphone from which we have taken design away. Firstly, a cellphone without design could be only black and white, and the shape must be very simple like a brick. Then, all the menus are random. Thereby, the function buttons would be randomly set on the cellphone body. Lastly, there are no symbels can inst ead of the function buttons, simply words expressing the function of the buttons. Undoubtedly, faced with such a cellphone, a lot of problems arise. More technology, bigger phone.
This sucks.
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16 | Grace fang
what happens If design is sucked out? ust imagine you are waiting for a bus and you are in a hurry. You remember JJust imagine you are waiting for a bus in a hurry. Remember your professor your professor said yesterday: “if tomorow you still come late, you will be
said yesterday:” if tomorow you still come late, you will be kicked out form kicked outforever.” from this forever.” Yourain, looks so your sad in the goes rain,crazy. and your this school Youschool looks so sad in the even watch watch goes crazy. Nobody closegod, to you. Youdesign shout: “God, Nobody is close to you. You is shout: please a goodplease watch design for me.a good watch for me.” This talking about designing a waterproof watch,watch, but talking how This isisnot not talking about designing a waterproof but about talking about people’s life sucks without design. Design helps people manage time and give how people’s lives suck without design. Design helps people manage time and their everyday life in control. Good design should be discoverable, reasonable. keep their everyday life in communicating control. Good design should be discoverable, It affects people’s behaviour, with clear purpose. And the mostand reasonable. It affects people’s behaviour, communicating with clear purpose. initial point is that design goes to be uesd by people. And the most important point is that design is used by people.
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18 | Carley Hodgkinson
The lowly aspirin – a single, small white pill. Kind of a pleasing design in its simplicity. Comforting, known, tucked away in your medicine cabinet, pulled out to nurse the occasional headache or fever. Imagine yourself now at 85, living alone, with a faulty heart, failing kidneys, weak eyesight and mild arthritis. You have six pills to take, each day, at different times and in different combinations. You know your pills by size, shape and colour, and by referring back to the chart that your doctor drew up for you. If you have any questions, you can take your pills in to your pharmacist and they can tell right away what you’re taking and what potential risks your drugs pose.
But what if your pills all looked like aspirin? What if every time you opened your medicine cabinet or your pill organizer, you faced a stolid row of blank white pills, silent, vaguely threatening, telling you nothing about what they are or how to use them?
Zovirax Prozac
Serzone
Diflucan
Premarin
Monopril
----The lowly pill: an essential piece of design that helps support compliance, guards against accidental overdose or unsafe drug reactions, and enables fast pill identification by both users and health care professionals.
Name
also for your heart but not to be confused with THIS one (wh ich is for your kidneys but only som etimes)
your arthritis pill; best taken with food.
Take the one on the left in the morning, and the one on the right in the afternoon. It’s kind of bad if you reverse them.
for your heart condition
20 | hana seo
Think of the film, Matrix (1999).
Revisit the scenes where you see this world in which everything (t h e a rc h i t e c t u re , a l l systems, even people) simply exists as
a c o m pound of complex codes; commands made in all languages. Imagining a world without design is like trying to see the world in Matrix codes (which inevitably only Keanu Reeves is capable of). If you were to succeed in picturing it so, what you see is a world where the ideas and desires of humanity is all written out but the actual experiences or visual outcomes don’t really exist. To illustrate this absence of design, the globally beloved application iTunes is chosen and completely stripped of its interface design. This leaves it with nothing but commands, just like computer systems were before 21st Century. I believe in a better way.
C:\System 11.2.1\cmd.exe ************************************************ ** itunes MENU: ** ************************************************ Type ? for a command list. Type HELP for a more detailed command listing. Type control-C to interrupt any command. * * * *
itunes library: TYPE library.txt Type MUSIC then DIR to see all .play lists Type STORE to access all exciting products Type SHARED to share music with buddies
//////////////////////////////////////////////// // Choose one of the following: music movies tv shows podcasts radio itune store ping home sharing genius
itunes dj my top rated top 25 most played recently added recently played new playlist new playlist folder add to library
stop next previous increase volume decrease volume shuffle repeat all repeat one eject disc
22 | michael peters
Undesigned is Undervalued Imagine if all our coins looked the same! The same material. The same colour and shape. The same weight. What if they didn’t have any imagery? And the only way to tell them apart was by their value. Our daily lives would be poorer. Our national character made paler. Our national identity would be dulled. We would have blurred the distinction between our American neighbours and us. These would be likely scenarios if our coins were ‘undesigned’—if they became plain and simple like blanks slugs of cheap metal. Gray. Utilitarian. Banal. It would be very frustrating to tell each one apart. Dangerous even. Certainly confusing. Communication would suffer. Mistakes would be made! Without design intervention in the production of our coinage, local economies would suffer and costs would rise across the country due to mistaken transactions. But worse things could happen. As a nation, both young and old, native and non, we would begin to lose touch with our significant wildlife heritage that is brought to life on the coins—from the spray of maple leaves on the lowly penny to the mighty polar bear on the ‘toonie’. The Polar Bear is a threatened species and a robust symbol of our great white north. The Beaver is our national animal and a worthy symbol of our industrious nature. The Bluenose established our berth as a rugged and competitive seafaring nation. The Caribou carry Santa to all the children of the world, an openminded and courteous gift from all Canadians. These images tell our stories. Without design as an integral element in the planning and development of our world-class coins and numismatic materials, we would become a philistine establishment—uncultured, lowbrow, anti-intellectual, uncultivated, uncivilized, uneducated, unenlightened, commercial, materialist, bourgeois, ignorant, crass, boorish, and barbarian.
These are symbols of our natural and cultural heritage. And every day we gently reminded of our efforts as stewards of the land and the sea and the air.
24 | Stuart mcquarrie
I n t o d a y ’ s h i gh paced, information age, the use of mobile technolo g y h a s c h a nged the way we communicate. A wireless world has e m e rg e d w h i ch has given man the ability to roam freely, unbound f ro m t h e c o n fines of a wired world. I m a g i n e a w o rld where mobile technology has never been designed? O u r a b i l i t y t o be “connected” would change, the exchange of inform a t i o n w o u l d slow and the interface between humans, technology a n d c o m m u n ication, as we know it, would cease to exist.
26 | Ian grivois
It’s About Trust Imagine going to your online banking site and seeing it without visual design. Would you trust entering personal data or feel comfortable performing transactions? Just like the friendly teller at the counter, design has the potential to build goodwill, to create trust, and to help meet your customers’ needs. An investment in design demonstrates that a company cares about their customers, presenting themselves professionally, and facilitating a positive customer experience.
28 | Yan yan zhang
Without design content, computer mouse sucks.
In short, the computer mouse is a product of the development of technology and design thinking. Technology determines the content of the computer mouse; design determines the form of the computer mouse. Without design and without thinking about the users, the outcome of technology is only a piece of plastic object or branch of cables with limited functionality and inconvenient usability.
30 | yin long
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hroughout history humans have left behind a heri tage rich in design. Design is born out of necessity and creativity. It
is deeply integrated into our lives. Nowadays, design continues to propel forward the economic, social and cultural aspects of humanity. It is however, difficult to determine when and where design became such a big part of our lives. A book, a signboard, a store‌they involve different design disciplines: typography, layout design, package design, image design, product design, and interior design and so on. Just try to think about removing design from our lives‌ what would the world be like? The image on the right illustrates a number of containers on the shelf in a market, all of which have had their labels removed... You would not be able to know what liquid is in the containers until you open them. You may want milk, but instead get a cleanser... Let us think about the packaging. would it help you choose the right product? We do need it but we sometimes forget about it. We may recognize the appearance and colour, and purchase the product based on this. When the packages are all gone, it becomes so hard to distinguish what you want to buy.
32 | Martyn Anstice
From chairs to toothbrushes to books to jewelry to cars to web sites to mobile phones right down to the clothes on our backs, everything is designed. In fact, every object we need and use in our lives has to be designed. Without design our lives would be confusing and difficult, sometimes unsafe. Design is based on a complex system of process, requiring research, planning, and ideation. These ideas then have to be produced and work in practical situations. Chairs have to take the weight of the human frame, books need to be pleasant to read, and clothes need to fit and feel comfortable. We need design to make even the simplest things come into being. We would all miss design if it was not there.
we only miss design when it is not there L
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list of Images:
Page 9. Boardwalk, digital image. Modified by Joseph Rau. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://wallpaperstock.net/forest-trail_ wallpapers_11286_1600x1200_1.html” http://wallpaperstock.net/foresttrail_wallpapers_11286_1600x1200_1.html Page 9. Trail sign, digital image. Modified by Joseph Rau. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://www.motrailblazing.com/images/ Greensfelder_Trail_Sign.jpg” http://www.motrailblazing.com/images/ Greensfelder_Trail_Sign.jpg Page 9. Rainforest, digital image. Modified by Joseph Rau. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://www.markprettinaturetours.com/forest. jpg” http://www.markprettinaturetours.com/forest.jpg Page 10. Dinner table, digital image. Modified by LeeAndra Cianci. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://www.flickr.com/photos/ hettich/3350576062/in/photostream/” http://www.flickr.com/photos/ hettich/3350576062/in/photostream/ Page 22-23. Coins, digital image. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://www.jasondunn.com/object-collection-canadiancoins-2192” http://www.jasondunn.com/object-collection-canadiancoins-2192 Page 25. Mp3 player advertising, digital image. Modified by Stuart McQuarrie. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://blogs.canoe. ca/tanya/general/ipod-users-take-your-singing-back-to-the-shower/” http:// blogs.canoe.ca/tanya/general/ipod-users-take-your-singing-back-to-theshower/ Page 29. Hand & mouse, digital image. Modified by Yanyan Zhang. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: HYPERLINK “http://www.tooopen. com/html/Download/2011423/” http://www.tooopen.com/html/ Download/2011423/201104231012082409.html Page 33. Naked man, digital image. Modified by Martyn Anstice. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from: // HYPERLINK “http://www.gettyimages.ca/ detail/200289538-018/Taxi” www.gettyimages.ca/detail/200289538-018/ Taxi