AUT Product Student Recieves Design Institute of Australia, Graduate of the Year

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We have just heard that AUT Product Design student Mark Wu has recieved joint overall winner of the Design Institute of Australia,  Graduate of the Year Awards. All design schools in Australia and New Zealand are invited to put forward one student (each student selects three projects) across a range of categories. Mark has not only won the Object (Industrial Design) section for 2012, he is also joint overall winner across all categories. Two of Mark’s projects presented were done in conjunction with  industry partners, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare and Sir Ray Avery of Medicine Mondiale. Congratulations also to staff who have worked with mark over the last few years in particular Steve Reay and Murray Pilcher. Awards will be posted shortly: See: http://www.design.org.au

AUT Postgraduate Awards

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It was nice to see the AUT postgraduate department put on an excellent awards evening to celebrate the achievements of the top students for 2011. Product Master of Art and Design student Reid Douglas received a Head of School Award for his high achievement in his Honours year. Well down Reid. Picture below!

Digital/Mobile

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Just some things I have been thinking about re moving to a more digital and mobile based way of working. Computers have always been a very important part of my work, especially with software such as SolidWorks essential to product design, but I have tended to move between paper and digital ways of working. While paper provides a tactile, sensitive and immediate way of capturing ideas and communicating the quality of hardware and software now is approaching point where you can have ‘best of both worlds’, the power, effectiveness and integration of digital working with the clarity and feel of paper. Surprisingly, as a natural cynic, I am now becoming more convinced with of this, and think we are on the verge of a big change in way that the majority of us work – The new I Pad really demonstrates the potential of digital/mobile. Some things I am now doing:

  • I have dropped my notebook and have moved to digital note taking, and integrating with task list etc. It takes a bit of getting used to but have found a good app called Daily Notes for I Pad. I can organise my world into projects and keep track. Can email straight from this which is really useful;
  • Have now set up Dropbox with all my key files across computers, I Pad and phone. This will should help me better manage all my files, and open up the mobile aspects of working. It’s quite nice sitting on the deck planning and writing! Not sure how home internet account will cope;
  • Have Quickoffice Pro installed on I Pad which syncs to Dropbox. I can open my word/excel/PP files and edit as needed on the go;
    I have noticed I am now beginning to use things like Youtube much more to research and look for teaching resources – The I Pad really helps this – and opens up mobile working; and
  • Still struggling with Twitter – enjoy reading others tweets, but still see a bit of a barrier to using myself – still feel like I don’t have much to say – but will stick with it!

AUT Work at the BBD Summit

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Better By Design CEO Summit

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I and some of my colleagues were lucky enough to attend the recent Better by Design CEO Summit at the Villa Maria winery here in Auckland. The 2012 Summit was a deep dive into design thinking with two days of thought provoking content and discussion around future directions of New Zealand business and industry through design. A number of key international speakers included Tim Brown, CEO of US design consultancy IDEO, Dr Peter Senge’s author of the widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline, and Keith Yamashita CEO SYPartners, who consult  to the likes of Apple, IBM, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, eBay, Nike, and Gap, among others. Much of the discussion centred on the need for design thinking to drive vision and mission, as well as practical ways of transforming organisations and businesses. In addition the development and expression of New Zealand’s character and identify emerged as a key opportunity for the country in helping develop, differentiate and brand, high-value products and services.

A select group of AUT product design students also had the chance to attend, with roles to ‘look after’ the international speakers and generally help out. The students were also lucky enough to exhibit some of their work at the conference. See http://www.betterbydesign.org.nz/events/ceo-summit-2012.aspx for more details of the summit.

AUT Product Design Students in front of their exhibition

Aims of the ‘Augmenting the Design Thinking Studio’ Community of Practice (COP)

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I thought it would be good to outline the aims of the COP. The COP aims to enhance the learning and teaching of Design Thinking in the product design department at AUT, through the use of social, mobile, web 2 and digital media technologies. The COP will provide the lecturers with an authentic experience of the development of a learning community enabled by technology that will then be implemented and modelled by the lecturers within the product design programme.

 Specific outcomes include innovation in learning and teaching through:

  • The development and exploration of an mlearning infrastructure in the department using contemporary technologies (mobile and web enabled devices, tools and software) for lecturers;
  • The exploration and use of student-owned mobile and digital media devices to enhance the studio environment that link informal and formal learning beyond the physical studio space. This includes the ability to better capture observations, and reflections in the research and design process, and to better collaborate with other team members in Design Thinking projects;
  • The further exploration and application of online Design Thinking resources in mobile learning environments, specifically the use of it on mobile, technologies such as laptops, tablets (I Pad), and smart phones;
  • The exploration and use of student-generated, Web 2 enabled e-portfolios in learning environments. This will include the use of Linked In as the ‘hub’ to integrate a variety of portfolio elements including CV’s, project documents (PDF files), photographs (Flicker, Pisca), video (YouTube), and blogs; and
  • The exploration of the potential for a ‘smart’, web enabled, mobile assessment tool, to be used in the assessment and feedback of Design Thinking project (this is a scoping exercise in the context of the overall project).

The COP has been mapped using a great web based mapping tool called Mindmesiter, and can be viewed at: http://www.mindmeister.com/149929768/augmenting-the-design-studio-enabling-design-thinking. This is a living document with links to individual projects and will be developed and enhanced through the duration of the project.

Switching to Mac!

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Over Easter I have had some  time to start preparing myself for a switch from PC OS (which I have been using for about 20 years) to the Apple Mac OS (which I had used previous to that), and to reflect on my learning’s so far! Part of the drive for the switch is the appeal of an integrated Apple eco-system, which includes mobile devices – I Phone, I Pad, Mac Book Air and eventually a Mac desktop system. The eco system provides the potential for a unified platform to enhance mobile working, corresponding productivity advantages, as well as the appeal of a more user friendly (and advanced) operating system + devices) and use of I Cloud. After a week or so of using the I Pad I now have had a good play with the MacBook Air. Some of my first impressions of it:

  • I think it is one of the most beautifully designed pieces of computer  hardware – the detailing is superb and the matching lightness is quite astounding;
  •  Amazing at the speed of boot up – I guess that is the flash hardrive;
  • Taking a bit of getting use to the OS layout  – confusion over lack of right click ability etc;
  • The OS is certainly better looking – and still familiar after 20 years;
  • My 24 inch PC dell screen is now hooked up – looks good, but took a bit of work to get running;
  • The Mac wireless mouse, while it looks great, is ergonomically  pretty uncomfortable – quite the opposite of user friendly OS – a surprise – and not cheap!;
  • I now have my PhD files on it and will be using it now on for this -Word for Mac looks great but is taking a bit of time to work out – quite different to Word 2007 for PC!

I have now also had a chance to think about and play with Cloud computing. Firstly started with installing Dropbox  on all devices (phone/pad/air). Works great and easy, logical to use – even have linked to my home PC. Downloaded Quickoffice Pro HD for I Pad which allows me to create/edit MS Office files on the go – works great too, although 2 Gb of storage will run out fast. Tried I Cloud which seems to work well streaming photos etc to each device. I am completely confused over document transfer which now after reading about seems only to work forI Works – no use for MS Office files!! – I should have read this before paying for upgrade of I Cloud! This is the downside of the Apple ‘closed loop’ eco-system – they seem to trying to do away with file transfer protocols etc. Not sure if I am ready for this yet. Will pick some of these things up in the next COP.

Community of Practice 1

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The product design department had the first COP yesterday. It was a chance to hand out the new I Pads and I Phone 4s. It was good to start talking about the project and possibilities moving forward. Having used the I Pad for a few days now more questions and observations are coming to mind.

1. I notice real cross overs between the IPhone and I Pad – I find I am looking at same stuff on both and using to do same tasks – not too productive yet! Will be good to start figuring out and disciplining my self so that I am utilizing each device to its strength.

2. Can the I Pad really replace my handwritten note book? There is something about handwriting that digital will never replace, but can see advantages to moving most notes to digital. Going to try various aspects of work in digital I.e. will use for all phd meetings with supervisors – record conversations, photograph whiteboard, and write notes. Thinking there must be a good app to stitch all together by project or category.

3. It will be good to start sharing ideas and approaches and see how my colleagues get on with their devices.

IPad (3)

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Received the new Apple I Pad on Friday as part of the community of practice in Product Design exploring the use of social media and digital technologies in the learning and teaching of Design Thinking. Apart from generally being ‘blown away’ by the quality, power, usefulness, simplicity and overall ‘seduction’ of the device, here are some of my initial thoughts on how we might begin to use the device in the design studio!

  • The idea of a truly mobile gateway to the online world just seems to have opened up – I can see myself carrying this device around with me as I work – and working with/on it as I go – that was quite unexpected.
  • The quality of the new ‘retina’ screen opens up a whole new world of visual digital experience – as a designer, and working with design students I can see the potential of having with me – showing examples of work, videos etc on the fly.
  • I am amazed at the ease of multi tasking – it is so easy to slip from one application to another to seamlessly research, follow leads, check incoming mail, twitter etc. I believe that the device, in conjunction with other products in the Apple eco system, will lead to increase productivity in my work.
  • I am excited about its potential as a presentation device. After seeing apple TV in action with a group of I Pad users in a seminar I now see how easy it will be to integrate ‘on the fly’ presentation in discussions and studio sessions.
  • As a PC user I am about to make the ‘switch’. I can for the first time (some many of my colleagues have told me) see how Apple provides a much superior user experience. Interesting how the I Phone and I Pad are a good lead in the Mac. I imagine this strategy will be great for apple as the uptake of the I Pad continues.

Well its exciting. In the COP my colleagues will be using and discussing the I Pad along with other mobile devices so will continue to present my reflections.