Humanitarian design

Everyone has experiences of moving in and out. I still remember the first day of moving in at RISD. There were so many things I needed to buy for living. The first thing I did was going to the Providence mall and buying everything that I needed. I found myself buying same functional objects again even though I have them. I had a lamp but I found better one later, so I bought it. What does “better” mean to me? For me, I liked the simple design more and it was suited for my room and environment which was my need at that point. We are all different and people have different perspectives, values, lifestyles, and mottos. Therefore they can interpret the meaning of needs based on what I have mentioned above. For example, some people need desk lamps for better light sources, but some might need elegant lamps for aesthetic purposes. They all need lamps but different ones for different reasons. We do not expect to have a desk lamp in our bed room but a bed lamp. Meaning industrial designers have various user groups that we need to study and explore to provide what people want and need.

I have watched a Korean movie, called “Oasis,” is about a brain-injured female falls in love with a criminal. The young actress Prize at the Venice Film Festival went to the actress who was unknown. She got famous because of her excellent performance of being disabled person. People thought that she was not acting but being herself. Her performance was too perfect that it was hard to believe she was absolutely normal. People were curious how she was able to act disabled person as if she was really one of them. The actress had an interview and said that she spent most of her time with real disabled people trying to observe and be like them. She even tided her hands to experience how it feels like not being able to use arms properly. Towards the end of the filming, she felt becoming one of them which made her possible to achieve the Prize and great review.

In the movie, her life would be so much easier if she had a better wheelchair that keeps her back straight and gives her easy transportation. Even a small product like chopsticks, specifically designed for her who can not spread out fingers would make her life easier and better. As Dr. Bruce Becker mentioned in his lecture, refugee require different needs such as portable and easy assembled shelters rather than well constructed houses. Like the actress, even though industrial designers do not know much about other cultures or how refugee live, we should try to study, explore user groups and make the most suitable products for them. With careful observation and exploration still might not be enough for us to fully understand them, and we never will. However this trying process will empower industrial designers to design more practical products for their needs and environment. It is easy to design for everyone, but it is not easy to design for special need users. I believe that industrial designers have power to improve and change the world by designing products for users, regardless of culture, race and others. We just need to keep trying.