What is good design?

A way of getting a shared understanding about what is meant by design

aims

Just about everything around us has been designed. This activity structures a dicussion about what design is, what kinds of things can be designed and to begin to identify the qualities of things that are designed well. It's important that the whole team understand that because so many things that we experience everyday have been designed they can also be re-designed - including the way the school works.

set up

Pens, Post-its, a large display surface to stick Post-it to (easel / large sheet of paper / section of wall)

activity

• Each participant should have a pen and post-it pad to write or draw their ideas. Ask people to use one Post-it per idea.

• The facilitator asks the group to spend a few minutes on their own writing or drawing on to Post-its examples of what they consider to be 'good design'.

• Two minutes is enough to get a handful of ideas from everyone.

• Remember that it's not just objects like cars or mobile phones that can be designed. The facilitator should prompt the group to think about somewhere they might have visited, something they might do or something they've seen.

• Each person should put their Post-its on the display board.

• The facilitator then pick ideas from the board and invites the person who put it up there to talk a little bit about why they think that thing or place is an example of good design.

• The facilitator should try and cover a mix of products, spaces, buildings, services, websites and so on - and ensure that everybody has a chance to say some thing.

learning points

• Just about everything we see and use in our daily lives has been designed for a purpose.

• Things that have been designed can be re-designed - including the way our school works.

• People like different things for different reasons.

• Things that are designed well have certain qualities, for example, it's important that a ski jacket is warm, that a musuum is exciting and that a mobile phone looks cool.

a case study from our project

The activity produced a good mix of products, environments, web applications and services, partly due to prompts being given during the instruction period. Reasoning for choices were short perhaps due to students having to speak in front of a group but they were well articulated and insightful. Many of the students thought that Dance City was an example of good design.


posted by joe heapy on 02/09