Come, Fly in These Skies Together

Are you ready?

We’re going on a trip.

So, pack your bags.

But, remember, keep it light!

The adventure is a short one

but it has the promise of invigoration.

So, are you ready?

Good!

I am too.

The idea of travelling

Safely with friends

This year end

Of 2020

Is more magical than ever.

Australia

Brazil

China

Turkey

UK

☺

O.K.

The sustainable engine is on

Skies are clear

Mind is settled

Let the learning, together,

begin…

Opening the journal is an article that discusses how the forms of employment for industrial designers has changed in Turkey over a 30+ year period. It captivates. It brings into sharp focus the transformations that have occurred in the job market and why these matter to Industrial Design education in Turkey and to global design education more broadly. Authored by Pinar Kaygan, Ali Ilhan and Isil Oygur, from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey, ‘Change in Industrial Designers’ Jobs: the case of Turkey, 1994–2018’ shares the results of a longitudinal study. They cite a sizable growth in design as an industry, employer, and educational position which in itself brings an array of original findings to the table. The research offers genuine insight into the diversification of employment and it raises pertinent questions about the implications for design education, everywhere. Illuminating.

We journey to the East Zone of Sao Paulo, Brazil for the context of our next article by Mikko Koria, Rosana Vasques and Ida Telalbasic from Loughborough University in the UK. ‘Mind the Systemic Gap(s): Service Ecosystems for Early-Stage Entrepreneurs’ looks at the agenda for future service design initiatives for business start-ups and, development of the business community ecosystem. It investigates how design can accelerate, foster, and support service environments in geographies that are rural and developing. It reports on a pilot study with an eye on an unfolding strategic relation between systems thinking, service design, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship. It agitates a necessary conversation between design, community, culture, and entrepreneurship. And, it straddles an arguably uncomfortable (unnecessary) divide for design between service science and service design in an effort to move beyond current examples of design for change. Bold.

Next stop is RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. Leah Heiss’ article brings two shared elements in possibly all forms of design practices: prototyping and design process. Both are long-standing sources of intrigue and rich spaces for new experimentation in design research, the world over. ‘Iterative Prototypes as ‘Boundary Objects’: facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration of a Modular Hearing Aid’ does what the title says: it talks teamwork, hearing loss, technology, prototype intentions, boundaries, people, and new product progress. It offers an example of prototypes as hypothesis for, and facilitators of interdisciplinary teamwork for innovation in the design for better everyday care of hearing loss. A naturally degenerative human capability. Promising.

Hopping back to Turkey, we are ‘Exploring Product/Part Longevity in Open Design of Small Kitchen Appliances’, by Yekta Bakirlioglu and Cagla Dogan, at Koc University in Istanbul. It is an example of research through co-designing with a context specific discussion on open design and how it can facilitate sustainability in product design. The discussion details design methods and concepts that support a continuing challenge to the traditional consumer-product relationship that is, ‘acquire, use and dispose’. Prudent.

A short pit-stop as we pause to announce a new Call for Submissions for a Special Issue – The Value of Design Driven Entrepreneurship. Authors are invited to submit full articles, PhD Study Reports, or Reviews of recent publications. Dr Ida Telalbasic is the Guest Editor and the themed issue will be published in Vol. 24 Issue 5 in September 2021.

Our book review is by Jane Connory, PhD, from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. It is of Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein and published by The MIT Press in 2020. It is a captivating, constructive, and informative book review which will be of interest to many.

‘Combining Design Thinking and Systems Engineering to Improve Customer Outcomes’ is our first of two PhD Study Reports in this issue. Authored by Brandon Robertson at the University of the West of England, UK, it articulates an intent to increase operational efficiency, process innovation, and team creativity. It describes an investigation into the opportunities and barriers to integrating design thinking in large engineering organizations.

Yue Zhu authors the second PhD Study Report. Based in the School of Design and Art at Shenyang Aerospace University in Shenyang, China, she shares the process and outcomes of design experiments that have been undertaken to better understand the influence of cultural stimuli on creativity in product design.

Louise Valentine
The School of Fashion Design and Merchandising, Kent State University, Ohio, USA
Email: [email protected]