The delivery of the future (PART III) – An example of Vision in Product Design (ViP) being used
Well, a new year is upon us and so I thought I should make some time free to post the next step of the on going example of applying the Vision in Product Design (ViP) process.
So here it is…
PART 3:
DECONSTRUCTION – THE CONTEXT LEVEL
The aim of deconstruction at the context level is to try and think about what factors in the original conditions that a product was created for provided a possible reason to produce that particular person product interaction. (Lloyd, Hekker, & van Dijk, 2006) One of the most important parts of this deconstruction consists in the “context analysis” that provides key information to understand the system and the product itself.
When designers are developing products that function in complex situations, they should study context because it create a fit between product, user, and environment (emotional design and sensitive design), given that find departure points for creative solutions (against fixation and against band-aid design) and offer the know-how to make the product adapt to the context. (Stappers, 2007)
For our project of designing the delivery of the future, the context should offer the opportunity to understand the product/need and the space to analyze about the exercise to design for others (instead of just serving himself as a designer). That’s why the team develops a context when it can find some important elements at the same time.
The best way to create this context was discovered researching different techniques for Creative Facilitation (Tassoul, 2006). The author of the book suggests combining techniques and procedures in order to generate more ideas in an efficient process. One of these techniques is “future perfect” that is based on storytelling. The term Future Perfect stands for a grammatical tense: that some action will have been fulfilled in relation to a reference in the future. The idea of the technique is that one imagines oneself at some point in the future, often a point at which some innovation has been implemented and then makes up a story how this “present” situation came to be.
The best metaphor that represents and illustrates the whole package of characteristics and complexity of the system is an imaginary country as a compact representation of the context. For that reason the team created the imaginary country Barist and represent it in a conventional map of the country and described of its character in two different moments of its history, in the present (2008) and in the future (2025) following the scope of the project presented in the previous report .
The creation of this imaginary country started with a brainstorming that concluded in some basic information about key elements of the country like name, capital city, language, government, population, area and GDP like the starting point to describe the character of the nation. After the first brainstorming the team defined two aspects simultaneously; the map of the country as a visual representation of its area showing relationships between elements of that space such as objects and regions; and the description of the current situation of the nation in terms of demographic aspects, economy, transportation system and government.
The team working on the creation of the imaginary country
The team was working in a continuous workshop developing the map of Barist for the year 2008. The starting point was the background (a layout with the basic geographical and political division). The team in a systematic approach started developing the structure of the country, focusing at the same time in cities, transportation system and environmental aspects (natural resources and energy sources).
The result of the first part of the exercise was a current (2008) map and relevant information about the country.
After this part of the exercise the team was developed a new layout with the future situation of Barist in 2025 following the factors that the team discovered in a subsequent phase. The work-out consisted in an analysis on how these factors could influence the development of the country trough 17 years, changing the landscape of the nation and the environmental aspects, the profile of the cities and its transportation system. At the end of the exercise the result was a new version of the map of Barist 2025 and a paragraph with the description of the country and its changes. This later part of the exercise will be explained in full detail on the next post of this series.
AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY: BARIST IN 2008
The final map of Barist for the year 2008 (click to see a detailed view)
GEOGRAPHY: Barist is a relatively small coastal country, bordered on the north by the Besar Sea, on the south-east by Nomidia, on the south-west by Ninaland and on the west by Splashland. The island of Baru-Bali is located in the Besar Sea just off the north coast. The country is defined by a varying landscape, with a big mountain range at the south-east (Saint Anna’s mountains), a desert in the south (Rico’s desert) and two main rivers (Saint Bari and Saint Anna).
Arable land is scarce and mainly situated in the east, near the city of Santa Carmen. Saint David’s National Natural Reserve was established in the western border of the country to protect the last remaining natural forest left in Barist, which is rich in local fauna and flora.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Ethnic Dutch, the country’s original inhabitants, remain a majority of the population (55%) despite the increasing migration from neighboring countries. Other ethnicities making up an important part of the population include Indonesians (23%) and Latin Americans (15%). The most important minority is comprised of Ninans (4%) migrating into Barist in search for a better life. As can be expected from these numbers Barist is truly a multicultural melting pot.
The local population is aging, but many young immigrants from all social classes are flowing into the country. The population is concentrated in 3 main urban areas, with Saint Bari being the biggest (7 million including the financial district of Baru Bali City), followed by Santa Carmen (4.5 million) and the relatively new city of Zwappa (1.7 million).
Other important but smaller urban concentrations include Santo Stefanus (350,000) in Baru Bali island, Marjelopolis (300,000) and Santa Anna (200,000). Income and living standards are good in most of the country and comparable to those of western European countries, yet there are still some very poor areas (like the slums of the fishermen village of Santo Stefanus) where the population consists mainly of low skilled immigrants from the neighboring countries.
ECONOMICS: As a small country with a relatively large population, the resources are quite limited. The Saint Anna mountain range at the south-east of the country provides a source for various metals and minerals, exploited mainly for local industrial use. Rico’s Desert has a small reserve of oil used entirely by the local market and peak oil has been reached. This supply is not enough and Barist still relies heavily on imported oil to fulfill its energy needs. These resources are processed in the main industrial area close to Saint Bari’s port facilities.
Arable land is relatively scarce (the most important location being the agricultural district near the city of Santa Carmen) and the quality is decaying due to the heavy use it must endure. The crop production is unfortunately not enough to feed the Baristian population in its entirety.
Some cattle is bred in the vicinity of Marjelopolis, and its derived products are used entirely by the local market.
Due to these limited resources, Baristian economy is based mainly on services and commerce, and relies heavily on the import of raw materials, food and other basic products. Saint Bari’s port is one of the biggest and most modern of the continent and it handles goods for Barist and its neighboring countries.
Zwappa has recently become a hi-tech and knowledge hub, due mainly to the influence of the Technical University located in this city, which can explain the growing importance that the rising technology related and R&D industries are taking in the local GDP.
The financial district of Saint Bari (located in Baru Bali Island and known as Baru Bali City) is a major player of the region’s economy, and most major banking and commerce multinationals have established offices here. The district provides a high floating population of business people, who also have a big impact on Baru Bali Island as a high-end tourist destination with big and luxurious hotel resorts in its northern coast.
GOVERNMENT: Barist is a presidential republic with a stable government. Overpopulation is a major concern, as it lays even more pressure on the few resources of the small nation.
Population distribution is also a main concern of the government, and this can be seen reflected in some of the policies applied in the last decade, like for example the city of Zwappa, which was founded 8 years ago under a strict urban planning as an attempt to shift some of the pressure away from the capital and as a center for the development of the new technology and R&D industries.
The aim of the government is to promote the growth of the commerce and services industries, for which the transportation system and the financial district (Baru Bali City) play a key role.
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM: Due to the limited resources and the big imports industry, the local transportation grid plays a major role in the economical development and growth of not only Barist, but the whole region.
The transportation system in Barist is an intermodal system composed of a major international airport (Prabowo International Airport) located in Baru Bari Island, a major port in the south-east of the capital which is the main maritime gateway to the continent, a minor port in the vicinity of Santa Carmen (dealing mainly with agricultural products) and a fairly good network of railways and roads interconnecting all the major urban and industrial areas. A new port is also being developed in the north of Zwappa.
The public road system is under a lot of pressure from the growing population, and certain key nods are having a hard time keeping up with this growth. Traffic jams are a common sight during rush-hours in Saint Bari’s city center and main highways, as a lot of people who work here actually live in the suburban outskirts of the capital city or in other urban areas. The government is making efforts to reduce this impact by updating the public mass transit network within the city and its vicinity, and encouraging people to use it by means of tax cuts and experimental policies such as restraining the use of privately owned cars in certain areas or during certain time periods.
The transportation between Baru Bali Island and the mainland was maintained by ferries until not so long ago, when the International Airport was constructed along with a bridge (railway and road) connecting it to Saint Bari. Some ferry lines still work mainly to transport passengers.
The connections between Barist and the neighboring countries are quite good, especially for freight transport, in order to efficiently distribute the goods that enter the continent via Saint Bari’s port.
