»korea«

Means... "Jakob learns Korean and forgets German"



(Short intro to Jakob - Jakob is a co-intern who is working with me at Samsung Design Europe. The man is a Product Designer from Berlin, Germany. However he has been living in London for 10 yrs. now.)

Jakob is getting better with his Korean but unfortunately is forgetting his German. In a matter of a day and half he has managed to learn quite a few words & phrases or has atleast been trying hard ! :) Brava Jakob...

Here's what he's learnt & is in the process of learning right now:

+ Ko Ma Wa - Thank You

+ Gwen cha na - Welcome

+ Nong Dam - Just Kidding

+ Jo a - Good

+ Mo ya ? - What?

+ Man na sou ban Gab Sub Ni Da - Nice to meet you

Its unfortunate I couldn't post a day to day report about the workshop itself. After getting here we managed to get back to the residence hotel around 7:00 pm. The two days after that we stayed back working late into the night and therefore I couldn't update this blog on a daily basis. Following is a brief summary of what we did on a day to day basis.

Monday. 17th July 2006



The workshop was kickstarted and all the groups presented their progress and gave a basic overview of their expectations of the Global Membership Workshop (GMW). We were split into groups of mixed teams based on the topic and were assigned rooms that we would be using for the rest of the workshop.

Since the teams were from different countries the language barrier was the biggest barrier. However after momentary discomfort the group started to get comfortable with each other by initiating a simple exercise of creating forms out of paper and sticking them in the room. This also created a very playful atmosphere and set the tone for the rest of the days ahead.

Tuesday. 18th July 2006



We decided to share our processes in greater detail in order to understand clearly the steps that each of the group went through to get to their current stage. Interestingly we realized that not only were the processes different but that each team had slightly varied versions of the brief itself. Although this was a negative aspect and that we felt that the communication with each overseas team should have been distributed equally, we felt that this could have also been the reason why each team had focused on different aspects of the process itself. For eg: Team SDC (China) had focused a lot on translating concept metaphors to product ideas. Team Seoul had concentrated more on the research and trend analysis. In my opinion our strength lied in focusing on the user perspective and creating opportunities from experiences driven scenario building.

Wednesday. 19th July 2006



Morning. We had been looking forward to the tutor feedback since one of our primary expectations from the workshop was to elicit as much feedback as possible from both peers and experts. This would enable us to move ahead in our design process. I personally look forward to critique from various people since it only helps me get a wider perspective about peoples views. As a designer it is important to understand and empathize with people other than yourself because it is them who you are designing for.

Our meeting with the tutor was slightly disappointing as it was not too specific & constructive. However some of the inputs that we definitely will take into consideration are:

+ The needs we had identified were the right ones and that Samsung has identified similar needs, therefore we could go ahead with those

+ Our concepts were too practical and were producable. We were asked to think a little out of the box and visionary even though 2010 was the target year. Contrary to what we had understood, the ideas developed in this project were not going to be produced or would not feed into any product line.



Afternoon. After receiving this feedback from the tutor our group decided to meet and discuss the way forward. Since we hadn't received any feedback on the way forward we decided to take a few steps back in our process, and relook at some of our concepts.

Quite disappointed with the feedback, we decided to organize a constructive critique session for our ideas from Team China & Team Seoul. At the end of the day the critique session went off really well and we really valued the feedback and critique we had got from the two teams in our rooms. We now had a few definitive issues to address in our project.

Thursday. 20th July 2006

Morning: There was a seminar that had been organized for us. Although it was titled 'Introduction to New Technologies', when we finally reached the seminar room we were told that the seminar was on 'User Interfaces for Digital Still Cameras'. Many of us were disappointed, especially the ones from the Creative New Businesses(CNB) group as we were expecting some input into our project by understanding some new technologies such as e-paper, liquid displays, etc. However, the seminar introduced us to a few basics about digital camera UI's.

Afternoon We continued a discussion and brainstorming on a few areas we hadn't concentrated on earlier in our process.

We were also fortunate enought to get a surprise visit from another tutor. After explaining our project from his he shared some of his obervations with us. He suggested the following:

+ Our process until now had been robust from the user perspective and it was great that we had managed to extract the right needs out of it. However, we were asked to take the technology driven approach and combine he findings of this approach with the user driven approach.

+ Since we had followed the scenario based approach we had charted out an entire days experience for one persona. This again had been very helpful in identifying the overarching needs but we were asked to take a deep dive into one activity and explore the potential solution for that one activity. For eg: If Shopping was an experience we had explored, we now had to explore a specific activity such as Sarah goes shopping for shoes.

Later in the night we prepared the presentation we had to make on Friday.


Friday 21st July 2006





Presentations

On my flight back from Seoul, I realised how much the way the air hostesses behave reflects the culture of the country that airline is based in. Other than the behaviour, their uniform also is very reflective of the culture. Although this is not the first time I have noticed this, it definitely sparked off a few ideas.



Korean Air + Lonely Planet = Informed Traveller + Brand Loyalty for the airline

I feel that flights like London-Seoul have a lot more potential in introducing the culture, language, food, places to see, etc. What if Lonely planet sponsored a bit of this experience where travellers would be introduced to Korean culture. This also presents itself as a rich design opportunity where tools could be designed for people to learn more about the culture faster (Culture Intro Kits).

Brand Partnerships seem to be the way in the future since being a lone ranger might just isolate the brand. If the trend is to sell a lifestyle then the strategy should be to sell an entire package of related products and not just one product.

Here I am, typing this post sitting in a service apartment (apartment hotel as some might know it). As I mentioned in my previous post.. that we designers most of the time have the urge to make things look pretty before starting.

But I personally have another hurdle to cross before I get this blog started - starting on a blank slate. Now that I am in Seoul, Korea what better way to start off than narrating observations from a completely new & exciting experience of being in a new place.

I am hoping that this trip will give me a lot to write about. This is the first other country in Asia that I am visiting other than my own - India.

Just to give you a background of why I am here. Currently I am interning at Samsung Design Europe which is based out of London. Every year Samsung organizes a workshop called the Global Membership Workshop. They invite students from partnering institutions & interns who are interning at that time in their overseas design studios in 5 different locations. Most of the participants have previously doing some background work on a particular brief and present their initial ideas to the entire community. The workshop is a platform for each of these groups from different locations to build upon their own ideas with the help of experts and mentors from Samsung Headquarters.

So thats a small introduction of why I am in Seoul. Stay tuned to see and hear more about my experience here.

No this is not one of those eternal questions like "What is my purpose in life !!?". Just a simple explantion of what is the purpose of my visit to Seoul. Never ever thought that I would come to Seoul. Don't think it was on the top of my list of places to visit. However the neighbouring country, Japan was definitely on the top of my list.

Seoul has surely taken a special place since it is the first Asian city I am seeing other than the ones in my own country, India.

Anyways.. getting down to business. Why am I here?

Every year Samsung Design organizes a Global Membership workshop for the student members who are a part of the Samsung Design Membership and interns from the 5 overseas Samsung Design Studios.

The objective of the workshop is to create a thinktank and facilitate knowledge sharing across design studios in the different continents.

The participants have come here having worked to a certain level on a few projects that have been initiated back in their own studios. There are 3 common project briefs and each team has chosen the one they want to work on.

We, Team SDE (Samsung Design Europe) are here to absorb as much as possible from everyone here who have different mindsets, different cultural backgrounds and has a unique perspective on design as we know it.

Although we couldn't go out all through the week due to the workload, on Saturday we managed to get out and make up for most of it !

A few tips on drinking etiquette that I've been made aware of until now:

+ You never pour alchohol for yourself when you are out with drinking with a friend. You pour your friend a drink and he pours one for you

+ While pouring the drink, the person who is pouring always holds the bottle in two hands and similarly the person receiving the drink should hold his glass in two hands

One of the first few phrases that one generally learns in any new language to get around. :)

(1) "ahn-yeoung-ha-se-yo" = "Hello! How do you do?"

(2) "gamsa-hahp-ni-da" = "Thank You"

www.designmembership.com

An awesome initiative by Samsung in Korea. In short the Design Membership provides selected design candidates (who are studying at various universities around Korea) access to facilities almost equivalent to a design studio for their own projects. The selected students can work on a project that they like and are motivated by. The candidates are also supported by Samsung in a few ways throughout their education.

Never ever did I think that I would have to go through 2 all-nighters in a row after the diploma project. What does that say about my time management skills ? Well.. not too much when the it comes down to a group project.

We interns have been working on a project for the past 2 months and as usual time has whizzed past and its already time for us to go back and present the final product in Seoul in front of a bunch of high profile Samsung management. Two of us, Jee Hye & I have been chosen to represent the entire London team in Seoul. Its really encouraging to have that responsibility but it also puts a lot of weight on our shoulders.

Which brings me to the part where I am typing this post whilst continuing my second all-nighter after last night. Why? As I mentioned earlier, when its group work, we need to distribute work amongst everyone. But that also means that it works like a factory manufaturing plant. Only if one part is over can the other take responsibility to take it to the next level. And this is exactly why I am stil here. I play a part somewhere at the end of the manufacturing chain - therefore dependant on the time management of everyone who comes before me.

Is there any other way than to work like a production line? How does one judge the amount of time that will be taken for a certain phase of a project? As a beginner in the professional design world I find myself searching for tools that will help me organize my time or help me prioritize tasks. Does this come with experience and a few more all nighters ?

Is this normal as a part of the journey in becoming a truly professional designer?