#contextualdesign

[indiaartndesign]

Bespoke Paradigms with The KariGhars'  

The KariGhars have distinguished themselves with their plush projects. Their latest creation, Nambiar Bellezea, reiterates their expertise in crafting spaces that define bespoke luxury. With client satisfaction as the ultimate premise, the designers meticulously personalise spaces, weaving a cohesive design vocabulary, resulting in what can only be termed ‘couture architecture’. https://www.indiaartndesign.com/bespoke-paradigms-with-the-karighars/

[architectsindependent]

Sketches of Foam & Stone coffee & side tables and seats… Inspired by materials and methods come across during visits and walks around various Doha neighborhoods… • To be prototyped in the not too distant future… • #sketch #marker #drawing #illustration #furniture #furnituredesign #design #qatarcreates #designedinqatar #doha #qatar #thomasmodeen #architectsindependent #finnishdesign #finland #scandinaviandesign #foam #stone #contextualdesign #designflaneur (at Doha) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca_7AZPrbjw/?utm_medium=tumblr

[moneknows]

When you attend @designmiami you get to meet design innovators like designer/researcher @lucasmunozm who’s exploration of contextual design is resulting in groundbreaking projects. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ #LucasMunozMunoz #illustration #painting #oilpastel #pencil #contextualdesign #designer #drawing #design #art #sennelier #carandache #prismacolor #strathmore https://www.instagram.com/p/B4p28tqg3PS/?igshid=18mb0534sthuq

[hapiart]

Detail of new commission. Sooo much fun working on this one! Looking forward to sharing it with a beautiful family ;) #artcollector #dowhatyoulove #collectwhatmakesyouhappy #art #contextualdesign #color #stripes #colorfield #abstractart

[vincepast]

Tree Ai Weiwei Sammlung Boros, Berlin Raphael Hotel Wälderhaus Hamburg ___________________________________________ #tree #aiweiwei #sammlungboros #raphaelhotelwälderhaus #wälderhaus #aminselpark #hamburg #wilhelmsburg #structures #fractures #entwurzelung #contextual #contextualart #contextualdesign #design #nachhaltigkeit #designhotel #holzfassade #lärchenholz #entwurzelt #zersägt #zusammengesetzt #pastdigital (hier: Raphael Hotel Wälderhaus) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt4E5UgHj5M/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gdyzq9zmfjff

[standingdeskdesigner-blog]

Redesigning Whisk/Pantry

Tags: #ContextualDesign, #Wireframes #ColourPalettes, #Fonts

 One of the biggest issues that we face on a daily basis is food wastage. Every time we do groceries, inevitably we throw away a full head of lettuce, or a whole block of cheese, or even some chicken because we overestimated how much we would need for a certain recipe or don’t really know what to do with the rest of the remaining ingredients.

   Whisk was created as a solution to this problem. Whisk is an interactive recipe app that gives you results (or recipes) based on the ingredients you have on hand. It’s a new way of finding recipes where you can find out what you can make with the recipe items you have right now instead of having to go to the store to buy more.

Within this post, I’ll be going over some design details as well as how my design process and rationale for those decisions.

Navigation

Caption: Whisk’s old navigation design.

Previously, navigation through the 3 main views of the application (homepage, results page and recipe page, and the favourites page) was done through the top navigation bar. However, with larger and larger phones nowadays, it became more apparent that it makes more sense for the navigation of the app to be more focused more in the bottom. This area is more simple to reach from a natural one-handed phone holding stance and allows for quick use of the app; ideal for a scenario when someone is cooking.

This is especially important as when quickly checking recipe instructions and ingredients while cooking, most people's hands are already quite occupied with the cooking. Easier one handed use allows for an easier time cooking, and our app should be focused on the use case of using it while cooking

Caption: Navigation redesign for Whisk.

Recipe Ingredients and Instructions Flow

Caption: The previous Recipe flow for Whisk.

For each result, the ingredients need and the instructions for it are separated into different tabs. A big complaint I’ve heard (and felt!) is that it’s too annoying to scroll back and forth between the ingredients to a recipe as well as what to do with those ingredients. Add in advertisements that are usually positioned between those elements and you can see why it’d be very distracting, and frustrating, to navigate between the two. 

In our previous iteration of Whisk, you would need to first select the result/recipe you wanted, swipe up to enter the ingredients and instructions section, and then select which one of the two you wanted to look at.

Caption: The Current Proposal/Redesign for the Recipe page/flow.

Now, the instructions and ingredients tabs are shown immediately, thus removing what was an unnecessary part of the flow.

By splitting the instructions and ingredients sections into different areas, you can both simplify the interaction by moving it from a swipe until you reach your desired area, to a button you can press to return to the section, and to where in the section you left off at (imagine you were halfway down the page and needed to return back to it).

Colour and Font Choices

The main colour of Whisk is a Salmon Pink (#F57B82). It was chosen because it reminds shades of pink and red are present all over food. It also allows for an application that looks playful and clean, which is what I think making food should be: fun.

The whites, greys and off-whites were used mostly to make the app cleaner visually, as well as to balance the amount of colour and allow for accenting certain areas.

I must admit that while I’m not too experienced with colour palettes, I had a lot of fun working around creating this one, and learnt a lot from it too.

Regarding fonts, I used the iOS system standard of San Franciso. The main justification for using the system standard font was because I didn’t feel that it detracts from the application, so I didn’t really feel the need to choose another font. The font is quite rich in its variety and that is shown in the size of the font family. Using San Francisco allows for a wide variety of weights and style with the added advantage of staying true to iOS, which would mean that our user does not feel like they are using too different an app than one that is already pre-loaded on their phone. While not too important a scenario, this helps establish the application visually in a postive light. However, in the future, maybe it would have been wiser to select a more fitting choice of font.

Task Flow

The main task flow is one of the user inputting ingredients and getting results based on it. It relies on the input of ingredients from the user. 

Wireframing

The first step in the wireframing process, for me, was redesigning the navigation and homescreen. The homescreen was unnecessarily empty, 

Then I started designing for the results screen. The goal here was to both entice users with images of the final product, but also not to overpopulate with results all at once. I think that deciding that 6 results can be see at one time before scrolling is a ideal amount, as you can still see recipe images at a good size and get a good number of recipes too look over before moving on.

[portaldaindustriaimobiliariabras]

#repost • @wearedpz . Tune in this Wednesday Aug 19 at 10AM UTC+08 hrs (Manila time; Tuesday Aug 18 10PM UTC-04 hrs EDT), as DPZ closes out Season 1 of AboitizLand, Inc.'s Webcast series, with a discussion on traditional neighborhood developments faring well by design. ⠀ Sign up for FREE to get more info and updates about the webcast here (link also is in our bio): https://bit.ly/AboitizLandWebcastsEp6 ⠀ (Foressa Mountain Town construction photos and video courtesy of AboitizLand) . . . . . #communities #planning #masterplan #masterplannedcommunity #architecture #urbandesign #aboitizland #DPZCoDesign #newurbanism #urbanism #communitydesign #community #design #traditionalneighborhooddevelopment #home #neighborly #aparttogether #aboitizlandwebcasts #foressamountaintown #foressaph #seafrontresidences #lifeisbetterbythesea #placemaking #newurbanisminthephilippines #contextualdesign #philippinerealestate #filipinocommunity #morethanarchitecture #problemsolving https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_GeB0FIMJ/?igshid=1uyqn5551rl3x

[navyakalra07-blog]

#visualstidies #contextualdesign

[the-steel-eyed-girl-with-wi-blog]

Why Contextual Design?

If I had to present you with the following question: What does the British Vogue February 2018, Visual Communication and  Contextual Design have in common?  What would your answer be?  

INTRODUCTION For the purpose of this essay, contextual design has been selected as the context to be argued for, in order to prove to the reader that contextual design is a significant element to be considered when identifying and solving a design problem.  

1. DEFINING CONTEXT WITHIN DESIGN

According to Porter (2004), in order to understand the meaning of context, one must include all of the aspects around/ contributing towards the design (problem) that when woven together, include the issues and circumstances thereof and finally create a basket that encase these attributes of which the basket is the design solution.  He continues to explain that in essence context suggests a level of interdependence as designs – being the solution to the identification and solving of the given design problem – are woven into existing conditions in an attempt to create a sense of fit and extended to imply a sense of belonging.  Porter states that context refers to the design solution as the designer’s specific interpretation and therefore response to the design problem(s) in the way that they have directed the outcome of the solution by subjecting the constrains and opportunities of the design problem into the direction and ultimately the design that they saw as fit.  Therefore, it can be said that the designer controls the outcome of the design (solution) as they control the answer to the question, keeping in mind that there might be several solutions; however, they have the power to control which of these are chosen.  Conform or inversion?  This might be why Porter goes on to mention that the design solution rests on the knowledge and insight gained by the designer through an exploration of the context of the design problem because design “…cannot detach itself from context, and because context is never the same (Porter, 2004:37).”

2. DESIGN CONTEXT: WHAT DESIGNERS TALK ABOUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT CONTEXT

Cooper states that “design does not exist in isolation: both the act of designing and the designed artefact are influenced by and influence the context and culture in which they exist (Cooper, 1999:1).”  

Bauer, Newman & Kientz (2014) raise an interesting topic, in discussing the matter of context in terms of design but what makes their discussion so relevant and therefore vital is that they mention the influence advances in technology has had on the concept of context.  They explain that these advances generated within technology have allowed for users’ behaviour and environment to be deduced and even certain predictions can be made about the user.  What this implies, as they suggest, is that the idea of that which surmounts to the concept of context is being put into question. They continue to address the issue by saying that after taking into account 11 in-depth interviews that they had with designers on the topic, they found that there were four aspects of design that were influenced by the designer’s perception of context when identifying and solving a design problem.  These four aspects were: 1) framing a design space, 2) encoding the relevant features of context, 3) unifying possible solutions within that design space and 4) evaluating designs. What Bauer, Newman & Kientz eventually decide upon is that context is not an infallible and static identity but rather a fluid concept that progresses, expands, changes, transforms and adapts during the stages of the design process: from the identification of the design problem throughout the development of the design, into what can then be considered to be the design solution and perhaps even beyond that.  They state that the concept of context evolves from what can be considered to be based upon highly subjective personal experience as the perspective embraced towards that of a scientific interpretation, during the design project.  

In a world where we are now beginning to engage in the idea of cross-disciplinary design the study by Bauer, Newman & Kientz (2014) is increasingly valuable as it describes what the situation for us as designers will be looking like in terms of co-designing on projects of a cross-disciplinary nature.  It is also interesting to note that the study was done with the idea of what they refer to as context-aware design.  What makes this study even more appropriate is the fact that the study was published in 2014, only a few years ago and what is mentioned is the acceptance that has already taken place in terms of the importance of context-aware design, which can also be described as contextual design per say and that they state, not argue, that in the day and age in which we live, context-aware design is in fact commonplace.  Bauer, Newman & Kientz (2014) elaborate by stating that context is no longer a topic that is argued for or against as having value and importance when it comes to design but rather that the concept of context is a daily concern for practising designers.   

According to Bauer, Newman & Kientz (2014), there are two very different approaches and mainly perspectives that deal with the idea of context and both relate to the designer’s outlook on the world: the first is described as a phenomenological perspective that views context as an interpretation of the designer’s connection to the world outside of themselves, in terms of their interactions, relying on both their cultural and social perceptions. The second is referred to as the positivist’s interpretation thereof and is considered to be an approach of objective properties and relations relying on pure logic through observation and experience in formulating context as a set of attributes.  However, according to Bauer, Newman & Kientz (2014:423), the idea of context should be expanded upon in order to include: ‘‘any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity.’’ 

3. A DESIGN THINKING RATIONALITY FRAMEWORK: FRAMING AND SOLVING DESIGN PROBLEMS IN EARLY CONCEPT GENERATION

Kim & Ryu (2014) describe how designers approach design problems – the rational framework they build.  How they frame and solve design problems in early concept generation.  The article looks at two types of designers: the novice designer and the experienced designer and how they approach solving design problems with their eye on context.   

What is important to take note of in the article compiled by Kim & Ryu (2014) is perhaps not so much the perspective of the novice designer, because everyone has to start somewhere but rather the experienced designer, reason being that being an experienced designer is after all what all designers aim to be and end up being at some or other stage along the design process.  Kim & Ryu (2014) explain how the experienced designer can make decisions much faster than the novice designer, whereas the novice designer finds it easier to change initial design ideas as the design process progresses, the experienced designer does not have this ability and rather sticks to initial design ideas, which have been influenced by previous experiences and projects.  To elaborate on the previously mentioned reason for importance of this article is that all designers are at one or other stage of experience when it comes to design and after all, the experienced designer is more likely to secure the design opportunity.  Therefore, it can be said that “nothing can be created out of nothing (Kim & Ryu, 2014);” and both the experienced and the novice designer identify and solve design problems through some sort of background – context – of their own before even walking into the design process.  What this implies is that the greater the designer’s exposure to different aspects of life, the greater the fundamental playground they can refer to as background from which they introduce context (their context) to a design process.   

4. WHAT IS CONTEXTUAL DESIGN

Holtzblatt & Beyer (2004:3) define contextual design as a “user-centered design process built upon in-depth field research to drive innovative design.”  The fascinating aspect is that the concept was coined in 1988 already and therefore has been around for give or take 30 years.  

5. WHY CONTEXTUAL DESIGN IS A SIGNIFICANT ELEMENT TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN IDENTIFYING AND SOLVING A DESIGN PROBLEM

Anyone who finds themselves intertwined in the world of design will know that essentially what they are doing at any given point during the design process is that they are telling a story and doing so visually perhaps after which they then move onto other more tactile interpretations of that story.  In third year, students at Inscape Design College find themselves immersed in business studies as part of their course and what they are fundamentally being taught, every week, is how to translate that visual story in a way that it tells the same story but in words from a language devised for the business world.   

In other words, designers find themselves telling stories, even if they are not aware of it but the fact remains that unless the designer has made an effort in understanding and therefore assessing the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea in order to clarify the meaning thereof – they are unable to tell the story successfully, that is, if at all.  

According to Frederick (2007:84), “[Design] is an exercise in narrative.  [Design] is a vehicle for telling of stories, a canvas for relaying societal myths, a stage for the theatre of everyday life.”

If a designer is briefed with the task of designing anything at all, they are inherently tasked with conjuring up a story but it is an impossible task if they are not coupling/connecting the story they want to tell with that of their target market or client, whichever is of greater relevance.  Why mention the idea of storytelling at all?  The reason for this is that when a designer is confronted with having to identify and eventually solve a design problem, what they are being tasked with is in fact identical in all scenarios.  The first is to identify the current story that is being told by this design related concept and the second is to improve upon this story – to influence its future. The designer has a set of tools to do so and basically the biggest and best tool is that of context.  This is why the concept of context is so important for any designer and in any type or discipline of design.  However, in order to identify and solve a design problem, the designer must paint a contextual picture and illustrate that very story and they can do so by employing the use of subcultures as an access point to the person or group of people who are affected by the design problem.  

6. CONCLUSION AND AN EVERYDAY EXAMPLE

Seeing that the purpose of the essay is to argue the importance of contextual design as a significant element to be considered when identifying and solving a design problem.  It could of course be argued that contextual design could be overlooked when approaching a design problem, from identification to solution and as a matter of fact many designers do so to the extent of ignoring the context outside of their own as Kim & Ryu (2014) pointed out through their comparison between the novice designer and the experienced designer, in terms of how they frame and solve design problems in early concept generation.   

On the other hand, it is possible to glance through the latest edition of British Vogue, February 2018, in which the reader will come across an article by Sarah Mower, titled Radical Chic.  Is it not noteworthy that one of the most public and superficial, if not light-hearted at the very least, platforms that dictates aspects so vital and yet so incredulously self-obsessive in nature, for the purposes of everyday life should present an article in which the journalist makes the public aware of the power that contextual design has in empowering the user far beyond any other method of design?

Fig. 1. Josh Olins, Stella McCartney & Max Mara (left) and Prada & Alexander Wang (right) (2018) 

Mower (2018) asks the question: “With so much to feel outraged about these days, what can fashion contribute to the fight back?  In this instance Mower is referring to the #metoo movement in which more and more women across the globe and in all industries, are stepping forward as victims of sexual harassment through someone in their work environment.  Women are outraged at what has been taking place for years without anyone ever voicing these crimes and so the article looks towards designers who have chosen to respond to this context by taking on contextual design as their weapon and voice in an environment where women have felt and surely there are still many that feel this way but the point is that they are empowering these women and any woman in fact.  These designers and Mower employ the stance that “a powerful wordless image can have truly global impact (Mower, 2018:163).”   

The fact of the matter is that yes, there will always be those who argue against anything and everything in life, no matter how good, appropriate or valuable the idea is.  However, as designers and as users we have the choice to decide for ourselves and as Mower’s everyday example shows: contextual design is not only a nice idea it’s a tool that works.  So, go ahead and give it a try, you might just be amazed at the way in which you identify and solve your next design problem by using contextual design as a method for success.  To conclude, Vivienne Westwood said that:  

My duty is to understand.  To understand the world.  This is our exchange for the luck of being alive.  From people who have lived before us we can rediscover different visions of the world through art – this is the true meaning of culture – and by comparison, we form our own ideas of a world better than the one we are in, the one that we’ve made a mess of.  We can change our future.  In the pursuit of ideas you will start to think, and that will change your life.  And if you change your life, you change the world (Westwood & Kelly, 2014).   

Fig. 2. Josh Olins, Louis Vuitton (2018)

REFERENCES

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2009). Practices of looking (2nd ed., pp. 431-466). New York: Oxford University Press.

Frederick, M. (2007). 101 things I learned in architecture school (1st ed., p. 84). Cambridge (USA): MIT Press. 

Porter, T. (2004). Archispeak (1st ed., p. 37). London: Spon Press.

Beyer, H., & Holtzblatt, K. (2004). Contextual design (2nd ed., p. 3). San Francisco, Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. 

Kim, J., & Ryu, H. (2014). A Design Thinking Rationality Framework: Framing and Solving Design Problems in Early Concept Generation. Human–Computer Interaction, 29(5-6), 516-553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2014.896706

Cooper, R. (1999). Design Contexts. The Design Journal, 2(1), 1-1. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/146069299790225270

Bauer, J., Newman, M., & Kientz, J. (2014). What Designers Talk About When They Talk About Context. Human–Computer Interaction, 29(5-6), 420-450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2014.896709

Westwood, V., & Kelly, I. (2014). Vivienne Westwood (1st ed., p. 5). London: Picador.

Radical Chic. (2018). British Vogue, (February 2018), 156-163.

[indiaartndesign]

Introspection in Design | Kenya Rodriguez Estudio

Interior Design Studio Kenya Rodriguez and Architect Javier Dueñas collaborate to craft an aesthetically pleasing home rooted in multi-cultural nuances by deliberating the art of introspection. https://www.indiaartndesign.com/introspection-in-design-kenya-rodriguez-estudio/

[architectsindependent]

Sketches of Foam & Stone coffee & side tables and seats… Inspired by materials and methods come across during visits and walks around various Doha neighborhoods… • To be prototyped in the not too distant future… • #sketch #marker #drawing #illustration #furniture #furnituredesign #design #qatarcreates #designedinqatar #doha #qatar #thomasmodeen #architectsindependent #finnishdesign #finland #scandinaviandesign #foam #stone #contextualdesign #designflaneur (at Doha) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca_6942L7_Q/?utm_medium=tumblr

[cooperhewitt]

"everything we design must be hooked to context"

Location, location, location

The Starbucks and Square partnership is one example of businesses moving towards contextual design. The New York Times states that eventually customers will be able to order a grande vanilla latte and charge it to their credit cards just by saying their names: simple yet exciting.

Apple’s new Passbook app gives third party companies the ability to create tickets and store them in one location on a user’s device. The great thing is that it automatically attaches them to context. Take, for example, a movie ticket. You enter the cinema around the start time of the movie and instantly a notification is triggered, upon which you’re presented with the ticket. No more digging into the depths of your apps to find something. It all happens in context on the device.

From Medium: https://medium.com/design-ux/a2533f910735

[mylo119]

Stolen Art found in Munich apartment

In 2011 German authorities were investigating a gentleman named Rolf Nikolaus Cornelise Gurlitt for tax evasion when they stumped upon one of the great Nazi art finds in many years. The works that found where of a massive number nearing the number of 1400 pieces, pieces from oil paintings to prints was found in Rolf’s 5th floor apartment in the Schabing district of Munich, Germany.

The German authorities confiscated the near 1400 works in 2011 and be valued at one billion euros, all of the works are believed to have been looted or confiscated by the Nazi party. Looting of European countries during the time of the third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi party one of the agents was Hildebrand Grulitt who was one of Hitler’s art collectors and the father of Rolf Gurlitt who has hidden the art away for many years and sold only but  few, in the apartment of Rolf Grulitt there where 1200 artworks piled upon each other some of the artwork that was in there where by Matisse, Marc Chagall, Picasso  and Braque and many more artists.

[hapiart]

Obsessed with this look @visitbatch put together with the Rainbow Agate Smoke fabric as the headboard?! I mean come on...talk about sweet dreams ☺️ #pattern #color #contemporaryart #instalove #interiordesign #contextualdesign #sf #glam

[vincepast]

Donald Judd Skulpturen der Stadtgalerie Stuttgart. Halle für aktuelle Kunst. Deichtorhallen Hamburg _________________________ #donaldjudd #design #contemporarydesign #sculpture #contemporaryart #stadtgaleriestuttgart #hallefüraktuellekunst #deichtorhallen #hamburg #040 #contextualart #contextualdesign #museum #kunst #art #igershamburg #igersdeutschland #pastdigital (hier: Deichtorhallen Hamburg) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs3SYhnHLdT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=13gwftlzsm813