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EmpowermentbyDesign

Article·October2016

DOI:10.1386/dbs.2.2.121_2

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GjokoMuratovski

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Journal of Design, Business & SocietyVolume 2 Number 2

Cultural Studies

Journal of Design, Business & Society

Volume 2 Number 2

intellect Journals ISSN 2055-2106

Editorial

121–125 Empowerment by Design GJOKO MURATOVSKI

Articles

127–145 A Socially Responsible Design to Rebuild Cultural Self-Confidence: A Case Study on the Design of a Village Revitalization Project

FANG XU, FUJIAN MO AND YUANYUAN CHEN

147–162 Fiskars Village: Exploring Possibilities for Collaboration in a Design-Oriented Community

PIA TAMMINEN

163–181 Diagnostic Design: A Framework for Activating Civic Participation through Urban Media

IAN MCARTHUR AND MARTIN TOMITSCH

183–196 Design Innovation: A Tool for Value-Adding to the Papua New Guinea Balsa Wood Industry

NATHAN J. KOTLAREWSKI, BLAIR KUYS AND CHRISTINE THONG

197–215 Social Responses to Nature; Citizen Empowerment through Design

ROBERT PHILLIPS, MICHAEL BROWN AND SHARON BAURLEY

217–233 Bridging the Gap between Marketing Strategy and Design Teams: A Method to Facilitate Strategic Styling Decision-Making within a Company

JANNEKE BLIJLEVENS AND CHARLIE RANSCOMBE

237 Index

9 772055 210000

ISSN 2055-210622

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119

Editorial

121–125 EmpowermentbyDesign GJOKOMURATOVSKI

Articles

127–145 ASociallyResponsibleDesigntoRebuildCulturalSelf-Confidence:ACaseStudyontheDesignofaVillageRevitalizationProject

FANGXU,FUJIANMOANDYUANYUANCHEN

147–162 FiskarsVillage:ExploringPossibilitiesforCollaborationinaDesign-OrientedCommunity

PIATAMMINEN

163–181 DiagnosticDesign:AFrameworkforActivatingCivicParticipationthroughUrbanMedia

IANMcARTHURANDMARTINTOMITSCH

183–196 DesignInnovation:AToolforValue-AddingtothePapuaNewGuineaBalsaWoodIndustry

NATHANJ.KOTLAREWSKI,BLAIRKUYSANDCHRISTINETHONG

197–215 SocialResponsestoNature;CitizenEmpowermentthroughDesign

ROBERTPHILLIPS,MICHAELBROWNANDSHARONBAURLEY

217–233 BridgingtheGapbetweenMarketingStrategyandDesignTeams:AMethodtoFacilitateStrategicStylingDecision-MakingwithinaCompany

JANNEKEBLIJLEVENSANDCHARLIERANSCOMBE

237 Index

CONTENTS

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intellect books & journals Performing Arts Visual Arts Film Studies Cultural & Media Studies

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Intellect bookspublishers of original thinking | www.intellectbooks.com

Design for BusinessVolume 2

Edited by Gjoko Muratovski

ISBN 978-1-78320 -376-564 colour illustrations200pp | £30, $43Paperback | Spring 2014220 x 220mmeBook available

One of very few books to bring together business and

design, this collection features essays on topics ranging

from branding and sustainability to business-driven

design education. The centerpiece of the volume is

an essay on simplicity in design by Per Mollerup, a

distinguished Scandinavian designer, professor, and

author. Bolstering this are transcripts of two interviews

with the former global art director for Nike for the 2012

London Olympics, paired with a paper on Nike’s design and

marketing strategies for the Olympic Games.

Other features include a transcript of an interview with

Dan Formosa, a New York–based design consultant, design

researcher, and founding member of the iconic Smart

Design Studio; a study of greenwashing, sustainability, and

communication design; and a case study on the design

partnership between the hearing aid company BHS and

the design studio Designworks that has revolutionised a

healthcare sector.

Gjoko Muratovski is head of the Communication Design Department at the Auckland University of Technology and chairman of the Design for Business International Research Conference at the Melbourne International Design Week. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Design, Business & Society (Intellect, 2015).

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DBS 2 (2) pp. 121–125 Intellect Limited 2016

Journal of Design, Business & Society Volume 2 Number 2

© 2016 Intellect Ltd Editorial. English language. doi: 10.1386/dbs.2.2.121_2

EDITORIAL

GJOKO MURATOVSKIEditor-in-Chief

Empowerment by Design

The role of design as a strategic resource goes beyond the corporate sector and design is increasingly being seen as an agent of positive social change. Governments from around the world, as well as some of the most influential global non-government institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, are already placing design in the context of global politics and welfare. Leading not-for-profit organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation are also follow-ing suit and are now regularly referring to design in the context of social innovation, sustainability and international development (Muratovski, 2016, pp. 132–35).

Being a fast-changing discipline, design – with particular reference to design thinking, service design, scenario design, co-design, and all participa-tory design practices – is showing high responsiveness to societal, market and economic transformations. This is the reason why design is today acknowl-edged as a driver for transformation (Cautela et al., 2015, p. 108). With its systemic thinking and sense-making abilities, design has the potential to deal with issues related to organizational change, new economies, sustainabil-ity, social change, and with setting up or scaling innovations by encouraging people to invent solutions together (Meroni and Sangiorgi, 2011; European Commission, 2013; Sangiorgi, 2014; Zurlo and Bohemia, 2014).

Then again, the ability of design to build capacity by ‘empowering people’ is perhaps one of its most important characteristics. If we assume that these capabilities are already a part of the regular job of a designer, the next natural

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step is to combine design with principles of incubation and scaling (up or out) of socially beneficial practices that can be largely assimilated to services. That is why today this activity is an important part of design activism in all its different shades (European Commission, 2013; Cautela et al., 2015, p. 109). In this issue we will explore some of these practices further.

The first article in this issue, ‘A socially responsible design to rebuild cultural self-confidence’, is written by Fang Xu (University of New South Wales), Fujian Mo (Guangxi Arts Institute) and Yuanyuan Chen (Tencent). Their article exam-ines a socially responsible design approach through a remote mountain village’s revitalization project in Tongguan, Guizhou (China). The Village Revitalization Program (VRP) was initiated by the central government in response to many constraints that have resulted from China’s modernization over the past decades. Its objective was to protect these remote villages by maintaining their physical artefacts, sustaining their cultural essence and historical memories. Although various types of projects have been completed, the majority of them have brushed past the complicated by-products of urbanization, such as young generations leaving villages, children being left behind, and rural hollow-ing out, which have developed into a cycle threatening the sustainability of the community. Their study diagnoses the critical issues neglected by previ-ous revitalization approaches and initiates a new practice of socially responsi-ble design to end this ‘vicious cycle’, achieved through rebuilding the cultural self-confidence of the villagers. From an operational perspective, this article provides a three-step process: diagnosis, formulation and implementation. The new approach challenges the end-product-oriented method, questions the top–down approach and highlights the significance of direct involvement by end-users. From a theoretical perspective, this practice examines the vari-ous forms of socially responsible design, and redefines the multiple dimen-sions, which village revitalization projects should address. Following two years of effort by volunteers and villagers, the project was realized in the form of a Villagers’ Center in Tongguan. This product not only satisfies the interests of its current end-users in both the short and long term, but also provides an inno-vative, functional example of revitalizing values from within the village itself in order to rebuild the cultural self-confidence of villagers.

The next article, ‘Fiskars village’, is by Pia Tamminen (Aalto University School of Science). This case study focuses on the design-oriented organi-zations in Fiskars Village (Finland) and examines them through the lens of affordances – perceived opportunities for action. These affordances build a common ground for collaboration of organizations, and in this case they are viewed at community and individual levels. The aim of this study was to raise awareness of the potential that exists in an environment of a heteroge-neous group of design-oriented people. The findings build a methodologi-cal bridge between the collaborative activities and affordances and provide new insights into themes that support the perception of affordances in this community. The theoretical contribution of the article provides suggestions on how the existence of affordances could be emphasized and developed further to support creativity and collaboration. This study highlights the key elements that are needed when building long-term collaboration in a design-oriented community.

Ian McArthur (University of New South Wales) and Martin Tomitsch (University of Sydney) have written the third article in this issue – ‘Diagnostic design’. Their article examines how participatory design, data visualization and urban informatics can be combined to add long-term social, cultural and

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economic value to urban planning in Australian cities. As smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT), urban screens and media architecture attract increasing atten-tion globally, researchers, governments, urban planners, curators and design-ers are questioning how they can support sustainable urban development, civic innovation and economic productivity through community engagement and social participation. However, the long-term social, cultural and commercial potential of urban media to vitally augment precinct development is depend-ent on cities having the tools to engage stakeholders with a sense of participa-tion grounded in openness, transparency and inclusion. The current problem, as the authors point out, is that these tools do not yet exist in any consolidated form. However, research conducted at The Concourse in Willoughby, NSW (Australia), suggests that meaningfully engaging, interactive polling content deployed on a combination of tablet interfaces for data entry in concert with live screening of the public interactive space can create an effective balance between private and public aspects of civic participation. Based on the find-ings of this study, the authors propose a framework that enables participatory citizen engagement in order to foster thriving urban communities and ‘smart’ development. In addition to this, the article outlines how participatory urban media can also benefit local businesses, which are also key community stake-holders. This diagnostic approach builds sustainable value for all stakeholders, allowing for a closer alignment between the objectives of new developments and the preferences, needs and expectations of the citizens who will live and work in them.

The fourth article, ‘The role of design innovation in the Papua New Guinea balsa wood industry’, is written by Nathan J. Kotlarewski (University of Tasmania), Blair Kuys (Swinburne University of Technology) and Christine Thong (Swinburne University of Technology). Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) balsa wood industry is a major source of employment for a significant number of individuals in the East New Britain (ENB) Province. The PNG balsa industry previously relied on China’s renewable wind energy industry for rotor blade manufacturing, which was claimed to be the largest consumer of processed balsa from PNG. However, since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) the Chinese demand for PNG balsa has significantly reduced, resulting in a mass over-supply and under-demand for the PNG resource. A lack of design inno-vation has added to the current market conundrum and left many smallhold-ers unable to sell their balsa, leading to widespread financial hardship. It has come to the attention of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and to many other stakeholders that if there are no new applications for balsa there is no point continuing to grow the resource for a market that no longer exists in the scale it once did. Design innovation generated through research-led industrial design practice is argued as a key element to value-adding to the PNG balsa industry and smallholder busi-nesses. The use of research to inform the design process and generate design innovation is demonstrated through a case study as an attempt to rectify the current over-supply and under-demand – and ultimately help the local busi-nesses and communities who depend on this industry.

The fifth article, ‘The Bee Lab project’, is a case study written by Robert Phillips (Royal College of Art), Michael Brown (University of Nottingham) and Sharon Baurley (Royal College of Art). As the authors point out in their study, design content creation traditionally sits within professional practice and manufacturing industries. However, the design landscape today has evolved to empower non-designers and communities outside the professional

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industry to create physical content. Two new trends allow for this to happen – Open Design (OD) and Citizen Science (CS). OD utilizes accessible fabrica-tion, enabling lay users to create and re-appropriate content. CS encompasses activities where communities gather contextual environmental data for scien-tific or community purposes. The paradigm combination provides oppor-tunities for communities, grassroots projects and social initiatives with opportunities to create ‘products’ addressing personal and global issues. Social design combines OD/CS practices, empowering responses by fostering social innovation. In line with this, their article is focused on a social design case study that applied OD/CS to beekeeping. The article presents lessons for opening design processes to lay users for citizen science purposes, defined through practice. The Bee Lab project empowered participants to construct their own data-gathering devices that could be shared with others. The case study aided motivated participants to address local/global issues, facing apis mellifera (the honey bee). The work engaged volunteers, design agents and/or conservation agents for analogous activities. The project yielded insights of motivation, community leveraging, public engagement for social good and more. Insights have been distilled into repeatable stages for analogous activi-ties. The results offer applications for communities, design agents or organiza-tions wishing to address the burgeoning challenges facing ‘social responses to nature’.

Finally, we have also included a bonus feature in this issue – the article ‘Bridging the gap between marketing strategy and design teams’ by Janneke Blijlevens (RMIT University) and Charlie Ranscombe (Swinburne University of Technology). While this article sits somewhat on the outside of the overall theme of this issue, it sets the tone for the upcoming Volume 3 of the Journal of Design, Business & Society, which is coming out in early 2017.

This article tackles the issue of the age-old rivalry between marketers and designers. In order for styling (creation of a distinct visual identity for a new product) to be successful in the market, design decisions need to be aligned with marketing strategy decisions. As the authors point out, previous research supports a styling strategy model that focuses on the goals of styl-ing (capturing attention, providing recognition, or endowing symbolic mean-ings) through considering the degree and direction of differentiation from the products in a current portfolio, the succession of product generations, and by taking into consideration the product competitors. This strategy is intended to help product designers align their styling decisions with the marketing goals. However, according to the authors, research has shown that, while product designers and marketers work towards the same goals, they have different rationales for what each side considers to be an appropriate styling decision. This in return causes difficulties in communication, rationalization and subse-quent joint dismissal of ideas by the involved parties. While marketers believe that knowledge upon which styling decisions are based should be measur-able and generated from competitive analysis and consumer insights, product designers on the other hand rely on intuition, experience and observations. With this research the authors aim to bridge the gap between marketers and product designers in order to improve the decisions related to the styling process. Through a case study with Crown Lager (Australia) beer bottles the authors have developed a quantitative method that measures changes in styl-ing compared to previous product designs, while taking into consideration differences in styling compared to current competitors. The findings are then benchmarked to market data such as revenue and changes in market share.

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The study shows that the combination of these data sets can help design teams develop styling strategies that are better aligned with the goals of the marketing teams, and, in return, this can facilitate improved shared under-standing between the two sides.

This issue concludes Volume 2 of our journal. We hope that you will enjoy reading these articles as much as we had and we look forward to seeing you again next year.

REFERENCES

Cautela, C., Meroni A. and Muratovski, G., 2015. Design for incubating and scaling innovation. In: L. Collins, L. Galluzzo and A. Meroni, eds. The Virtuous Circle – Design Culture and Experimentation. Milan: McGraw-Hill. pp. 107–15.

European Commission, 2013. Guide to social innovation (working paper), [online] Available at: <http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docge-ner/presenta/social_innovation/social_innovation_2013.pdf> [Accessed 6 July 2016].

Meroni, A. and Sangiorgi, D., 2011. Design for Services. Farnham: Gower Publishing Ltd.

Muratovski, G., 2016. Paradigm shift: Report on the new role of design in business and society. She Ji: Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 1(2), pp. 118–39.

Sangiorngi D., 2014. Service futures. In: D. Sangiorgi, D. Hands and E. Murphy, eds. Proceedings of ServDes 2014. Service Futures. Lancaster University, London, UK, 9–11 April, Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, n.p.

Zurlo, F. and Bohemia, E., 2014. Editorial: Designers as cultural intermedia-ries in an era of flux. In: E. Bohemia, A. Rieple, J. Liedtka and R. Cooper, eds. Proceedings of the 19th DMI: Academic Design Management Conference, London, UK, 2–4 September, Boston, MA: Design Management Institute, pp. 5–8.

Gjoko Muratovski has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 to be identified as author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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