The challenges and transformation of design education in contemporary China

This paper explores, through comprehensive perspectives, the challenges of the current design education system in China under the contemporary context. The influences that have transformed design in China from both historical and contemporary context are described mainly from literature. Interview data from professors from various design institutions and senior designers in companies in China were analysed to provide differing perspectives. The research findings show the inter-relationship between the various cultural and historical influences on Chinese design education. The authors conclude on how education might benefit from concentrating on this inter-relationship

Gut Feeling in Small Design Consultancies

A participatory study of product design teams in six design consultancies in the north west of the UK is described. Prior research indicates that designers and new product developers often attribute the term ‘Gut Feeling’ (GF) to decision-making that is perceived as difficult to articulate and typically outside acknowledged causal models. From the use of participant-observation to elicit detailed hindsight narratives, the notion of GF appears to be systemic within the early stages of the design development process. GF use represented the synthesis of causal and effective knowledge. Its value impacted new product design and development

Pubscape; innovation by design in the British pub

Purpose: The decline of the British public house (pub), well documented over the past three decades, is often linked to detrimental social and economic conditions in communities. The purpose of this study was to explore brewery responses to turbulent market conditions for the pub trade, with a focus on innovation through design. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal, qualitative study was conducted over 12 months, with 4 months of close participant observation within the company, to explore the experiences of a design team located within a medium-sized UK brewery. Findings: The “pubscape” emerged, extending and augmenting earlier models of the “servicescape”, driven by an entrepreneurial shared vision recognising the importance of design and innovation in delivering the modern pub. Research limitations/implications: A single case – one brewery – formed the basis for a longitudinal qualitative study, with the associated benefits and disadvantages typical of single case research in providing insights rather than measurable outcomes. Other cases and other research methods would allow testing of ideas, rather than exploration, and generate different perspectives. Practical implications: The research indicates the value of adopting an entrepreneurial approach to address challenging trading conditions and shows the practical role that design can play in rethinking service offerings to fit consumer needs and aspirations. Originality/value: New insights into modern pub management have emerged from this study, positioning design innovation as a route to delivering successful British destination pubs by innovating while retaining traditional brand values and local identity markers, using the “pubscape” as a specific way to envisage innovative servicescape environments

Some Ginzburg-Landau problems for vector fields on manifolds.

Motivated in part by problems arising in micromagnetics, we study several variational models of Ginzburg-Landau type, depending on a small parameter $\epsilon >0$, for (tangent) vector fields on a 2-dimensional compact Riemannian surface. As $\epsilon\to 0$, the vector fields tend to be of unit length and develop singular points of a (non-zero) index, called vortices. Our main result determines the interaction energy between these vortices as $\epsilon\to 0$, allowing us to characterize the asymptotic behaviour of minimizing sequence. This is joint work with Radu Ignat.Non UBCUnreviewedAuthor affiliation: University of TorontoFacult

Electrolux:The management of complexity in a large organization

This introductory policy audit features design management processes of The Electrolux Group and is presented to complement the other studies. Electrolux is as mature in matters of design management as it is as a business entity. The design management issues in Electrolux reflect the company’s size and complexity: design management policies are explicit, and are integrated with the company business strategy. Company policies and management procedures such as the Integrated Product Development Process (IPDP) reported in this study are published internally, contributing to the coherence of corporate effort through a shared understanding of strategic issues