It is an experience to be back in a school. This time after work. Learning a thing or two about how to design. Design things, process, services whatever it takes. Designing with a purpose.
The curriculum is labeled Design Thinking. I figured for a few hours a week I can try to learn this. Think differently. Formally. From two industry veterans and part time professors and also through a network of attendees with varying background.
I personally like the latter dynamic better. Clearly the professor has to set the stage for a topic and pontificate on their prepared notes. But then its open forum. Interesting point of view from someone coming from Spain vs. Brazil. Not for profit angle vs. the obvious get rich quick idea. Changing some modern day paradigms one design at a time.
Sometimes it seems what was old is new again. Like this idea to cut down waste in our daily lives. Some people are experimenting with a service that lets you buy fresh produce or what you need for couple days. And do so without any packaging which leads to landfill waste. It got presented as a new business idea. But wait. My parents did this 60 years ago. Mostly still do. In Mumbai. Grocery shopping is a subsistence living idea. No place to store in tight apartments. No need to maintain large inventory. Access to food and essentials within walking distance from apartment. So buy what you need and nothing you do not want. No plastic bag, no paper bag, no box, no twine, no packaging and no choking hazard. No refrigeration needed. So the carbon footprint is literally what methane you produce after consuming fresh produce.
In America it became a topic of discussion. Are we using too much packaging? I think America needs all that packaging in part to put all their disclaimers about how anything you put in your mouth may ultimately cause cancer and that the product is NON GMO, gluten free, peanut free, organic and definitely eco friendly sourced without harming any ethnic tribes but by the way the bag itself is not a toy.
In many parts of the world you might get a chicken killed in front of you after you saw it roaming in a shed minutes ago, then weighed and in a bag. No need for an advert about how free roaming the bird was. You saw it, you bought it.
But some of the formality of the process of designing is beneficial nonetheless. Like the customer journey and the empathy map exercise. Sounds like common sense but unless you put on your thinking cap it can be missed.
The curriculum is labeled Design Thinking. I figured for a few hours a week I can try to learn this. Think differently. Formally. From two industry veterans and part time professors and also through a network of attendees with varying background.
I personally like the latter dynamic better. Clearly the professor has to set the stage for a topic and pontificate on their prepared notes. But then its open forum. Interesting point of view from someone coming from Spain vs. Brazil. Not for profit angle vs. the obvious get rich quick idea. Changing some modern day paradigms one design at a time.
Sometimes it seems what was old is new again. Like this idea to cut down waste in our daily lives. Some people are experimenting with a service that lets you buy fresh produce or what you need for couple days. And do so without any packaging which leads to landfill waste. It got presented as a new business idea. But wait. My parents did this 60 years ago. Mostly still do. In Mumbai. Grocery shopping is a subsistence living idea. No place to store in tight apartments. No need to maintain large inventory. Access to food and essentials within walking distance from apartment. So buy what you need and nothing you do not want. No plastic bag, no paper bag, no box, no twine, no packaging and no choking hazard. No refrigeration needed. So the carbon footprint is literally what methane you produce after consuming fresh produce.
In America it became a topic of discussion. Are we using too much packaging? I think America needs all that packaging in part to put all their disclaimers about how anything you put in your mouth may ultimately cause cancer and that the product is NON GMO, gluten free, peanut free, organic and definitely eco friendly sourced without harming any ethnic tribes but by the way the bag itself is not a toy.
In many parts of the world you might get a chicken killed in front of you after you saw it roaming in a shed minutes ago, then weighed and in a bag. No need for an advert about how free roaming the bird was. You saw it, you bought it.
But some of the formality of the process of designing is beneficial nonetheless. Like the customer journey and the empathy map exercise. Sounds like common sense but unless you put on your thinking cap it can be missed.
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