4 - 2 - Lecture 1a What is Design (1147)

7/28/2019 4 - 2 - Lecture 1a What is Design (1147)

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This course is called Design Creation ofArtifacts in Society.I want to start by talking about whatdesign is and also talking about whatartifacts are.So, let's start with the artifact questionfirst.The, the dictionary basically definesartifacts as human made objects.And that distinguishes things objects thatare found in nature from objects that werecreated by humans.So, for instance, this is a, a, a fossilof some fish that was created 55 millionyears ago in what is now the UnitedStates.This is an object, but it's not anartifact.It wasn't created by humans.In contrast, this is an object, an icecream scoop, the, the, the rather greatice cream scoop, by the way, made byZyliss, I highly recommend it.

And this ice cream scoop is, is an objectbut was clearly made by humans.And, so when we're talking aboutartifacts, we're talking about objectsthat were made by, by humans.Now, in this course, I'm going to use thedefinition of artifact definition ofartifact that's quite broad.So,Well, the dictionary defines artifacts asobjects, that is physical objects,We're going to use artifact in a broadersense. And so, we're going to include for

instance, software, services, businessmodels, and processes as under thedefinition of artifact and not, notstrictly those objects that are physicalin nature.Alright. So, some examples of artifacts,so, so, design is the creation of theseartifacts.Some examples of artifacts, I just talkedabout the ice cream scoop but there arelots of other kinds of artifact, facts.For instance, there's the excellent salad,the Insalata Caprese, which was invented

by someone allegedly on the island ofCapri in, in the south of Italy.There this is, this is the Fine ArtsLibrary at the University of Pennsylvaniathat was designed by the architect FrankFurness,That's also a nice artifact.This is an example, this is a staircasethat, that is in the Apple store in Tokyo,Japan that's also a, a, an artifact.


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And, and this is a little bit of software,a little bit of, of scheme code that isalso an artifact.I don't mean the literal printout of thecode, but rather the symbolicrepresentation of that code is also anartifact, at least in the definition thatwe're using in this course even thoughit's not a physical object, per se.All right. So, let's talk about design andwhere these artifacts come from.And I'm going to use a simple example hereand I'm going to tell you a little story.It's entirely fictitious, but hopefully itwill illustrate the idea.So, if we look at this fantastic artifactthat is available in the twenty-firstcentury in, in the developed world,This, this didn't come from nowhere. And,it would be very interesting to know or tothink about where the first ice creamscoop came from and how it came about.So, ice cream is, there's, there'sdiffering in views of the history of ice

cream.But, by at least the tenth century,Ice cream was available in Arab citieslike Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo.And it's pretty interesting to think, bythe way, about where ice came from in Arabcities like Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairoin the tenth century, but we'll leave thatfor, for your own exploration and inquiry.Let's just go with the history or thealleged history that ice cream was readilyavailable in the tenth century in thoseArab cities.

Now, let's imagine the first ice creammaker.Let's call her Tavia.And, Tavia had, let me find Tavia's icecream here. Tavia had this, this greatstuff, right? This ice cream. And it wasreally good.But she had this problem here which is,how am I going to serve this?And now, you know, probably she didn'tthink to use her hands that was probablynot the, the default. and probably, a goodguess was Tavia had some kind of spoon.

And, so, so Tavia went to, to serve theice cream and immediately discovered thateven in the soft ice cream of the tenthcentury a spoon was actually a prettyinadequate object for doing that job.And in this case it, it, it, it didn'teven manage to just put a dent in the icecream before it, it, it bent quite, quitereadily.And so, Tavia faced this problem, which is


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I've got this great stuff,I need to figure out a better way to serveit,And my existing solutions are inadequate.And that created a gap that is a problem.And, design is responsive to problems likethat.And so, you might imagine that Tabia saidalright what am I going to do here?Let me think about that.And, geez, maybe I could create some otherkind of, of object.Um.,I don't know, maybe.And now, I'll sketch out what that mightlook like and, and gee, let me go.Now that I've got a sound conception ofwhat some alternative might be.Let me now go and, and, and, and, and makethat.So, I'll be right back.So, Tavia comes back and has a, arealization of that object, in this case,that the first ice cream scoop in our

story is, is, is a, a, crude block of woodwith an iron tray on it that's, that'sfastened with a couple of this nails thatare pounded in the side.And this is now a much more sturdy, moreshovel like object, and let's see, let'ssee how it works, the first ice creamscoop.It creates this nice, well, maybe not sonice but, at least it doesn't bend.And it creates it makes a, a more readyremoval of the ice cream.Alright. So, that's, we might imagine a

story that would explain the first icecream.And, if you think about what, what justhappened there,There was a problem that is a gap.And then, Tavia was responsive to thatgap, conceived of sum form, and thenexecuted that form in order produced thatform in order to create an artifact.And that, in essence, is the, the, whatdesign is. The definition we're going touse in this course is that the design isconceiving and giving form to artifacts

that solve problems,Alright? Design is conceiving and givingform to artifacts that solve problems anddesign fits into an overall problemsolving process in which a gap isexperienced.Design creates a plan for the conceptionand form for the artifact.And then, there is some production processthat takes that plan and produces the


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artifact.I said that, perhaps, this group didn'treally create a very nice form of the icecream. It has,It didn't do its job extremely well.That's very typical in design of the firsteffort, of the first version of anartifact that attempts to address a gap inthe user experience.A very interesting question is, how we asa society, or we as individual designersgo from this first effort to a highlyrefined and very successful product thatreally does address the gap quite well,like this one and that's going to be asubject of another module.I want you to think about a question basedon what I've said about design, and thatis what's really included in the humanactivity of design.What's in and what's, what's out.And to test your thinking on that, let meask you about a specific example.There's a man named Scott Kim who creates

very interesting graphics.Here's an example of one of his graphicsin which the word Scott Kim, if flippedover, that is if viewed from upside down,spells the word inversions.And, in fact, he calls this category ofgraphics that he creates inversions.Here's another one of his inversions wherethe word Egyptian is, is spelled out, nomatter which direction you look at this.As whether you look at it from the top,whether you look at it from the bottom, itspells the word Egyptian.

And, these are really interestinggraphics. In fact,I've spent a lot of time in, in boringmeetings, or in boring events playingaround with inversions.It's kind of fun to see if you can createyour name, create a version of your namethat works whether viewed one direction orthe other.So, for instance here is my name, Karl,Which I've created in a way that it spellsKarl both this way, and this way.All right.

So, you might want to try that next timeyou're in a, in a boring meeting.See whether you can create an inversionbased on your name.The question I want to ask you to thinkabout is whether or not that's design.Is, are, is Scott Kim's graphic, hiscategory graphics he calls an inversion,Is that design?Based on our definition in this course.


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4 - 2 - Lecture 1a What is Design (1147)