Designing in a systemic way
5th year final design studio at Design Faculty,
Politecnico di Milano
Politecnico di Milano & 江南大学
Chita workshop 2008 - Public Lecture – 5 September 2008

contents
Part 1 –
introduction to the didactic approach at Politecnico di Milano
Part 2 –
what “the final design studio” is and means
g
Part 3 –
two example across Communication Design
and Service Design fields
g

1
introduction to the didactic approach at
Politecnico di Milano

Who I am?
Phd student in
Communication Design & Community Networking
g y g
Keyword of research:
y
Creativity / Knowledge sharing / Design process
Team & Organization / ICT Technology

didactic structure of Design School
Faculty of Design (d
l f (design d d
didactic&courses)
)
product, communication, fashion, furniture, textile & service design
* First level bachelor degree (3 years)
* Second level bachelor degree ( years)
S dl lb h l d (2 )
*
Design Department INDACO (design research)
i CO (d i h)
INdustrial Design, Arts & Communication
* Master Degree (1/2 years)
* Phd course (3 years)

2
what “the final design studio” is and means

final design studio/
laboratorio di sintesi
Product&Industrial Service Design
Communication Product&Service system
Interior Marine Design
Fashion Product enegeneering

what is it?
Main activities of the final year:
First semester: final design studio
Then stage (design practice and connection to professional)
Then thesis (extend and deepen research of final design
topic)

the approach
With this structure
we suggest the idea of systemic design
design,
stressing the interest not just in final products and artefacts
but also in the awareness about process of designing.
What does it means?

we learnt that people are actors…
People are not (passive) users and consumers
consumers,
but active subjects, capable of shaping their lives and
to build lifestyle strategies towards communities and
sustainability.
They
Th are not (only) part of the problem they
t( l ) t f th bl th
rise, but also part of the solution.

&d g
designers are…
(not just) problem solver:
first of all, they are
connectors
facilitators
problem setters
system enablers
y

university as
social operator
design as
connectivity action
didactic
as research
systemic design is
actor-centred d i
t t d design
to design for people considered as agents of change,
subjects endowed with capabilities and entrepreneurship
entrepreneurship.

China, 400 B.C
老子，道德经
Laozi writes the DaoDeJing
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a
lifetime
lifetime\"
Mexico, 1973
Ivan Illich writes Tools for Conviviality
“Give people tools that guarantee their right
to work with independent efficiency”

In order to do this
Systemic approach also to course structure:
y pp
* number of teacher (6/10) + assistant teachers (4/6)
* multidisciplinary team (design, sociology, cognitive
p y
psycology, economics, semiotics, technology…)
gy, , , gy )
* maximum 30-40 students (normal classes are +100)
* intensive activity ( full days each week)
y (2 y )

And some “extensions” after the course
extensions
Stage in professional contexts
(practitioners activities)
(p )
Final Bachelor Thesis
(deep research + individual design initiative)

h
through “f l d d ”
h “final design studio” we shape the idea of
h h d f
design networks:
we have to design
with stakeholder & user
within the real context
for the community

3
two example across
Communication Design and Service Design fields
g g

How the process practically works
involve stakeholder
(wider system)
( ider s stem)
involve l l system
i l local t
(real cases, true stories and true topics)
involve the mediascape
(public lectures, press, means of communication)
( bli l f i i )

Story of 2 cases of final design studio
that I am involved into
Communication Design field:
Density Design Course
Service Design field:
Mobile C ll b ti C
M bil & Collaborative Course

Density Design
www.densitydesign.org ( i
d i d i (since 2004)
)
topic: Communication Design & Complexity
some didactic and networking results after 4 years’ story:
* international website&blog
* team lecturers +40, students +120, about 50 projects
* summer school (TWDC Designing Connected Places 2008)
( g g )
* two ongoing books with students’ projects
* next step: 6 students in Beijing for six months (sept 2008)

Mobile & Collaborative
digital services and social networking
for
f sustainable lif t l
t i bl lifestyle
* since 2007
* the reason why we are here:
h h h
to share the experience & to renew the experience with you
* www.servizicollaborativi.politecalab.org &
ll b l l b
www.ict4design.org
* multidisciplinary t
ltidi i li team + partners
t
tech partner + local/social partner + media partner
* service design prototyping

partners
p
Telecom Italia
most important mobile and phone company
in Italy
i It l
Provincia di Milano
local administration, cultural and social
offices
Nòva/il Sole 24ore
innovation&economics most important
newspaper

Telecom provided
examples, tools, know how and lessons (ICT + MCT)

Design with local partner means:
* real case studies & communities
* local needs
* local meaning and values
* rich interaction and connections

Projects published in a special
Media partner
edition of the Nova 24 magazine

so what we did is a
real systemic action of connectivity

th projects
the j t
libraries, women networks, local memories, foreigners
networks,
networks multicultural issues knowledge sharing mutual aid
issues, sharing,
* the potential of the mobile technology as a cognitive tool
that could revitalize and activate the social
participation
i i i
* the projects are rooted in the local context,
but ll
b t all concept id
t ideas are scalable
l bl
* all concepts are original and have been developed to reach
the prototyping phase
* the projects have been tested using usability
simulations in the real context of the local territory
territory,
with the local communities

Students team Faculty team
Carlo Bermani,
Jacopo Farina, Ezio Manzini
E i M i i
Stefano Rainieri, Margherita Pillan
Marco Meduri, Giordana Ferri
Stefano Brambilla
Brambilla,
Tommaso Buganza
Chiara Monteleone, Fulvio Faraci
Érica Moreti de Almeida, Luca de Biase
Gi li D
Giulia Durante,
Paola Paleari, Licia Riva
Serena Pollastri, Irina Suteu
Valentina Rivieccio
Rivieccio, Francesca Valsecchi
Rikiya Kishida, Carla Cipolla
Tommaso Lamantia,
Lara Penin,
Marco Lorenzi, ,
Federico Rivera, Massimo Menichinelli
i i hi lli
Stefano Barlocco,
Nicola D’Angelo,
Vincenzo F
Vi Fancinelli,
i lli Outcomes
O t
Claudia Battaglia,
Giulia Fiori, http://servizicollaborativi.politecalab.org
Guido Rovi,
Miaosen Gong. + publications + Triennale Lecture

February, 21 th 2008,
Triennale Milano Public Lecture

* Users as librarians
*EExtended lib
d d libraries:
i
people can share their
own books with other
users
* Private resources become
shared resources
* Thematic heritage g
available also in
common public libraries
* People network
according to thematic
interests
i t t
* Sms system in trusted
community among
library users

* Lib
Libraries shown as space of
i h f
knowledge
* How t aggregate and encourage
H to t d
people to share knowledge and
skills?
* Addressed mainly to students
using the public libraries.
g p
* The platform allows help, support
and collaboration searches regarding
scholarly issues and topics.
* People in libraries start helping each
other in study activities
* ZigBee based platform: trusted
network and hi h efficiency
t k d high ffi i

* Virtual/multilanguage
boards that help sharing
b d h h l h i
practical and logistic info
* Add
Addressed to th
d t the
different foreigners
communites
* All the participants to the
service could retreive
information in their own
language
* Bluetooth totem to access
service within cities
* Technology support the
traditional “word of mouth”
information system that
facilitate offhand help

* Places that tell stories.
* Anyone in the community could play the role of the
narrator
* A platform to collect multimedia content about territories,
l f ll l d b
places, local stories, people, antique behaviours
* SEMACODE mobile t h l
bil technology: stickers spread the
ti k d th
stories on the territory
* SEMACODE allows people to access contents linked to
physical places

* A collective and bottom-up storytelling
* Virtual ethnograpic museum
* Virtual spaces of citizens memory and identity
* Low res movies made by mobile
* thematic contents: each one can contribute
* Upload and access content through mobile
* Tighteen the link between territories and communities

* Participatory process for citizens
* Mobile technology that helps activate discussions and
b gy p
facilitate dialog between the different citizens / the
public administration
* Gsm/sms + online platform + smsInterceptor, developed
for Windows Mobile 6
* Sms to flag, monitor and settle practical harms in cities
linked to public maps
S h li k f
* Sms system that links to forum i order to activate public
in d i bli
debate

* The service aims to make
possible what otherwise
might remain only probable
encounters
t
* Collective and trusted
solidarity community
* Enable social relationship
and mutual aid within
trusted network
* People participating to the
p p p g
network can connect, meet
and help each other with the
help of the mobile
technology.
*JJava IM + GPS + GPRS +
mobile gaming+ simcard

Findings and lesson learned
* Service design requires systemic skills
(and communication is really important)
* S t i skills allow systemic d i action
Systemic kill ll t i design ti
* Design process must start from real needs and
real field research
* Prototyping results give important feedback
about reliability of designed concepts

now
* We will try to implement some of these projects through
ll l f h h h
thesis and working stage
* We are to renew this successful experience with you!
Our fi l d i i i h E
O finale destination is the Expo i W i (N
in Wuxi (November 2008)
b 8)
* let’s k in h! l
l ’ keep i touch! Blogs and contacts of Chita Workshop
d f Chi k h
http://chita.politecalab.org
http://flickr.com/chitaworkshop

谢谢你们!
francesca