Personally, I find myself most struck by the concept of interdisciplinary collaboration that A Better World by Design entails. After transferring from a Pre-Med/Bio-Engineering major to an Industrial design major, the most common response I get from people is an eyebrow raise followed by a statement along the lines of “Wow. Well that’s a huge change.” In actuality, I’ve found that there’s a good deal of overlap between the two disciplines, in terms of both process and goals: both look to use design thinking to solve problems. It’s this kind of collaboration and partnership between disciplines that I find so essential toward bringing about a better world.

For instance, Skylar Roebuck and Lauren O’Neill of Operation Simple really epitomize the kind of collaboration I believe will solve global issues through design thinking. Together, a computer engineer along with a graphic designer worked together to develop a portable surgical table for underprivileged countries. The table can be shipped easily to those in need and provide them with better healthcare. By designing their product together, they created something compact and cost-effective, while still retaining the integrity of its function by reaching out to resolve global problems and promote a better world. Read more at http://operationsimple.com/.

For rather obvious reasons, the interdisciplinary nature of this project struck a chord with me, and I can only hope to strive toward something similar. Though many of my own ideas are primarily concerned with healthcare, such as a needle cover that enables a safer and more efficient way to administer vaccines, I believe a Better World by Design can encompass so much more. The solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems of our world can be realized through community collaboration. After all, A Better World by Design is so much more than a conference. It’s a way of thinking and a way of doing.

- Katharine Li, 2012 Competition Coordinator

To me, a Better World is the culmination of a multitude of efforts around the world to improve society, the environment, and our collective future. It is both small steps and large undertakings that empower not only the target community or area but the actors for change themselves. It is the improvement of our collective wellbeing both mentally and physically through taking an optimistic yet critical approach to solving global problems.

For me, personally, I first began to consider what a Better World really means after graduating from high school. I had been accepted as one of the pioneering members of the Brown/RISD dual degree program and was doing an internship for the xclinic in New York City when I realized that I wanted my studies and my career to make a positive impact on the world around me. That summer, I found myself surrounded by passionate people who were taking their love for art and design and applying it to environmental and health problems in order to create an impact. I have been striving to do the same ever since.

Through my studies in the Environmental Studies department at Brown and the Industrial Design department at RISD and through my attendance at the A Better World by Design Conference, I have found so many ways that we can use design thinking to reduce our impact on the environment, make daily tasks easier for the marginalized user, or ease the lives of people in the developing world. Most importantly, I think, I have learned how to redefine the problem and to question the parameters.

- Beth Soucy, 2012 Public Relations Coordinator

bethsoucydesign.com

“Poor” people amount to more than 90% of the world population. And they have commercial demands too.

But at the moment, there are, in simple terms, 9 designers pumping out cool products for 1 rich guy while there’s only 1 designer listening to 9 different “poor” people to design affordable and need-based products/systems. The proportions are all messed up! Here’s why:

For my footwear design class one of our projects was to design $1 shoes for developing countries. I was really excited because it’s the type of thing I’d love to take on in the future. But I soon realized it was a flawed assignment. How the heck would I design cheap shoes for “poor” people without physically observing where/how they live and what kinds of local materials their area produces? How do I know what kinds of shoes they really need without asking them? It’s not like the Internet has a well-updated list of specific consumer footwear needs that you can pick and choose from. Out of hope I even typed “chat with poor people” to see if I could somehow get in contact with someone in a developing country and ask them what they needed.

You might think it’s over-doing it, going to those places and asking what they want. But that’s called market research and product designers of corporations big/small are doing it everyday with you and me. The process is not any different just because your market is “poor.”

Anyway, the $1 project was difficult. It was so much harder than our previous projects where we had to just redesign historical shoes into cool modern day ones. Our teacher brought in bags of material swatches to look at. Binders and binders dedicated to midsole rubbers, upper meshes, exotic animal leathers, high-performance technology synthetics, and even reflectives. You just pick and choose, try different combinations, and BAM you got yourself your next bestseller. For the $1 shoes I had not choice but to take someone else’s research and base it off of that. I used Jacqueline Novogratz’s experience in Mathare Valley, the oldest and worst African slum, where she personally spoke to a woman who had escaped extreme poverty through entrepreneurship. (Click for her amazing TED talk that will change your perspective on poor people and poverty)

It’s just easier to design for rich people. In the world that you and I live in the physical and systematic infrastructure of industries from material-sourcing, to manufacturing, to production are all well-established (and just to be clear well-established does NOT mean well-designed). So it seems pretty straight-forward to design something and get it produced just like that.

Here is what I ended up with for the $1 shoe. (Click preview photos to view larger)

-Leah Erica Chung, 2011 Planning Committee Member- Branding

A Better World by Design and Décor Craft Inc (DCI) come together to bring you the annual DCI Product Design Challenge, now open for submissions!

This is a great opportunity for anyone to develop, submit, and produce their own ideas in order to help resolve a particular issue in our world today.

The DCI Product Design Challenge is a competition for design thinking and ideas. A Better World by Design and DCI encourage participants from any field or background to submit their concepts for consideration.

The 2012 competition asks participants to tackle this challenge:

In today’s society, many people are spending more time indoors than ever before and missing the beauty outside. Submit an idea for a product that will encourage people to re-engage with the great outdoors.

The winners will be awarded $1,000 for 1st place, $500 for 2nd place, and $250 for 3rd place. Additionally, winners will be presented with the great opportunity to have their winning design produced and distributed across the nation by DCI and showcased at the 2012 Better World by Design conference!

Submissions are due by April 1st.

Click here for more information about the challenge and how to enter.

View last year’s prompt and winners.

We are so excited to announce our 2012 Planning Committee! They hail from Salt Lake City to Beijing, from Development Studies to Graphic Design and as always, from RISD to Brown. The Planning Committee is full of inspiring ideas and can’t wait to get started on A Better World by Design’s 5th Anniversary Conference. We’re already looking forward to it! Here they are:

Hannah Bebbington, Brown’14
Isabella Giancarlo, Brown’14
Alexander Hadik, Brown’15
Erin Jones, Brown’12.5
Katherine Li, RISD’14
Arisa Lohmeier, Brown’14
Andreas Nicholas, RISD’13
Anna Plumlee, Brown’15
Kaitlyn Marley Schoeck, RISD’13
Alexandria J. Sheng, Brown’15
Ivy Sokol, Brown’15
Elizabeth Soucy, RISD & Brown’13
Aparaaajit Sriram, Brown’15
Allison Wong, RISD & Brown’15
Tabitha Yong, RISD’13