KPU Product Design
DEPD 2430: Socio-Cultural Issues in Design
In this course, students consider essential concepts, theories and methods related to cultural issues and how these might impact the design of soft products. They engage in critical thinking and creative problem-solving activities related to local, regional, and global issues, such as: social structures, economics, politics, gender, ethnicity, class and age; environment, sustainability and ethical practices.
Project 1:
How can we make people think about where food comes from?
The objective of this project is to examine our relationship with food though the systems and infrastructures connecting us to global and local foodscapes. While exploring local food venues of production, transportation, distribution and disposing of food waste, we are assigned to find gaps in food systems that cause the disconnect between people and food.
Our findings will assist us to formulate a design brief that contains a question, challenges, and intent. In the first part of Project 1, you will focus on research to design the socio-interaction methods or systems that make consumers understand food as a medium that shapes our everyday lives and impacts the future. The second part of the project is focused on tangible prototypes of social interventions that could become an alternative or addition to the first part of the project.
Project 2:
Game Design: Drive a positive user behaviour with gamification
How might we stimulate our consumer to do right things? To address this complex task, you will design a game that opens a dialog, highlights and exposes problematic food systems issues. Using the mechanism of cybernetic system, you will design a feedback loop to exhibit how consumer’s choices affect local foodscape.
D+FA 