Day 1-3 - Humanity Centered Design

My name is 陳珮思 and I am a master's student studying human-centered design hoping to create experiences for a more sustainable and inclusive world. Join me as I document tidbits, reflections, and learnings from my study abroad trip to Taiwan. Here are some highlights from my first couple of days in Taipei.

Taiwan Design Research Institute

Our first stop of our Design in Taiwan program was at the Taiwan Design Research Institute. We were given a tour and an overview of the many award-winning projects completed by the organization. The director at TDRI mentioned the shift towards "humanity-centered" instead of "human-centered" design. Not only are designs focused on the immediate people using them, but aimed at impacting humanity and an evolving society. It was interesting seeing the public service design projects that they completed such as improving the election system, healthcare services, and a courtroom. Society is continuously evolving and new products, services, and systems are designed to cater to an evolving society. I like the term "humanity-centered design" because it adds another dimension to the design, aiming to address design problems beyond individuals into communities. I believe this view can empower designers to design for a more sustainable world.

Trash Kitchen

Almost all of the items in the Trash Kitchen were upcycled including the wall panels, chairs, clothes hangers, ceramic bowls, and sunglasses. The Trash Kitchen hosts workshops where participants can bring in plastic waste and convert them into a pair of sunglasses. We were able to participate in this and watched some plastic caps and shred become melted and molded into a frame for a pair of wearable sunglasses. This made me think about the wealth of possibilities for things that can be recycled, however a huge challenge is scaling up the breakdown and production of such items. I previously worked in manufacturing and understand that the transition from a small pilot scale process into a large scale production process can be extremely different and have many technical feasibility issues. However, this provides proof of concept that it is possible to innovate ways in which we can potentially mass upcycle goods and close the loop to create a more circular economy.

Shih Chien University

We visited Shih Chien University and met students studying architecture, communication design, and fashion design. Groups were formed with a mix of University of Washington and Shih Chien University students. We took a visit to Taiyuan Road to visit shops with various specialized materials such as fabrics, electronic parts, plastic, and almost any kind of hardware or craft supply you can think of. I was speaking with one of the SCU students as we were walking the streets and he mentioned that he did a presentation on how Seattle has excellent urban design. I was actually surprised to hear this since I generally believed that the cities in the United States were lacking in city design due to lack of public transportation infrastructure causing low walkability in most places. He explained that one positive thing about Seattle was that the bike and vehicle lanes were kept separate so that it was generally safe for bikers to commute. This was not always the case in Taipei. Interestingly enough, another SCU student mentioned that she did not enjoy riding her moped bike in Taipei city because it was too dangerous.

DaDaoCheng

When we were visiting DaDaoCheng, a historically significant hub for trading and cultural melding, I noticed a waste truck drive by, followed by the citizens bringing their separated waste to the truck. In general, I observed little to no trash on the city streets which is a stark contrast to the streets of Seattle or San Francisco. I suspect that the attitudes of the people towards preserving their land and environment in conjunction with well designed policies are likely what keep the city clean and sustainable. A fun fact that I learned in the past, is that another name for Taiwan was "Formosa," a Portuguese word that means beautiful, allegedly used by Portuguese sailors to describe the island when they initially passed by. The term is still used to refer to Taiwan today, such as in the name of the company that hosted today's guided street tour through DaDaoCheng. I am impressed by the systems in place to keep the island of Taiwan beautiful and am curious to learn more about what makes them effective and how they might be able to be applied or scaled up in other cities or countries such as in the United States.