Design System and Services: Research and Problem Statement

Online shopping was introduced globally in the 1990’s and now it has become a trend for the consumers (e-commerce) worldwide. It is a service to help consumers obtain what they want easily. It helps by reducing the time on shopping, reduce transportation usage and save energy. Even though there are pros in online shopping, but there are also con to it. According to an article done in 2014 on Guided Selling, there are 4 biggest problems that consumers would face on online shopping.

Complication of the web

Visitors are attracted to complex-looking sites, they are increasingly frustrated by the complicated navigations and confusing details. Approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because your visitors can’t find what they are looking for (Forrester Research, 2010). 

Boring experience

Online shopping is a trend and trend will gradually change in time because on commonly experiencing it. Web visitor will get bored by the same thing over and over again. 

Missing product information

A study conducted in 2013 by GE Capital Retail Bank has found that 81% of people look at products online before making a purchase. Not offering detailed product information that address the shopper’s questions about a product is a crucial mistake. It reduces trustworthiness and will make visitor leave the website. According to a Forrester report, 45% of US customers are likely to abandon an online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. 

Lack of choosing support

It’s understandable that having a large variety of products is the benefit of online shopping. However, choosing between a large number of products can be physically exhausting. Offering too many choices without any choosing support is a source of great consumer frustration that you have to be mindful of. Once your shoppers are stressed out, there’s every chance that they won’t choose anything at all.

Referrences

http://www.guided-selling.org/solve-the-5-biggest-problems-of-online-shoppers/

https://www.forrester.com/search?N=10001&tmtxt=online%20shopping

Design System and Services: Ideation

The solution for the problem is by developing a mobile application that consumers could use to help them on online shopping. The apps provide designing features for consumers to design their own product including. Consumers could change the colour, pattern, material, shape and size of the product. The best way to understand consumers is to let them tell you what they want and not let providers decide what consumers will like. With this, there will be a better understanding between consumers and providers. As for research purpose, it was decided to pick a specific product which is shoes.

With the app, consumers could costumize their own shoes such as the pattern of the shoe, the colour and material of the shoe which include the body and the base of the shoe and also the size of the shoe. Consumers also can apply new technology for the shoe such as monitors, LED, speaker and so on. The shoe that was design will be sent to the shoe manufacture and will be develop according to the design. For the cost of the shoes, it will be decided by the material that is use for the shoes.

Design System and Services: References

A Project developed by ShiftWear seeks to create the "most adaptable shoes you'll ever own," a pair of sneakers with a flexible display letting you customise their appearance with an app. The shoes can display static images or animations as you walk.

ShiftWear's aim is to create a pair of shoes you won't ever need to replace because the styling is getting old. When you get tired of a certain look, you'll be able to instantly switch it out using an app on your phone.

There's currently three different shoe styles. A flexible HD colour screen on each side displays whatever graphic design or animation that is apply to it. The battery lasts for up to 30 days and can be recharged either wirelessly or as you walk.

The shoes are waterproof and machine washable. ShiftWear doesn’t want to sacrifice on durability as a consequence of investing in its innovative wearable tech.

The ShiftWear app lets you download HD images to display on the screens. You can make your own designs and then upload them. 

References

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shiftwear-customize-your-kicks#/

https://youtu.be/O5XhzmjUVnk

Trip to Kuala Lumpur

On the 17 of March 2016, SOMAD has organized a trip to 3 locations for the degree students. These 3 locations are National Art Museum, Visual Art Gallery and Petronas Art Gallery . The objective of this trip was to make the students understand the similarities and the difference between those 3 locations, how it was organized and give inspiration to the students on developing their future projects.

For the first location was the National Art Museum. There, we get to see lots of historical items and relic that was kept there. The museum collects old relic and present. For the lightings, the lightings were very dim to help the visitors to see batter of the relics. However there was some lighting that was not finely lightened because it just shows a small part of the relics. For the arrangements, the museum has a lot of sections and these relics were sectioned and arranged into their specific time/era. The relic was arranged accordingly by path which is close to the entrance would be the early era and close to the exit would be the later era.

For the second location would be the Visual Art Gallery, which shows the historical painting and sculpture of famous artists. For the lighting, it was slightly dim because the space is big and to avoid the space too dark. For the lighting on painting and sculpture, it was nicely lit for each of them. For the arrangements, the was paintings were arranged by its era and by path. However the entrance and the exit was the same door, this will lead to mislead path should start from the right or from the left. On the floor, there were some tapes placed for each painting. This was to prevent the viewer to go too close to the painting and give a batter view for the visitor to see the whole painting.

For the last location was Petronas Art Gallery, which artist could portray their artwork there to exhibit. For the lighting, the place was completely dark but the lighting on the artwork was finely lit and for leading the way. As for the arrangements, the artwork was randomly placed. However, there was a flow in each step of the artwork there. The entrance and the exit are the same door but the lighting lead the path so visitor will know which path should take. From observation, the lighting from the left path is closer than the right path. From this observation, as a visitor, it is attracting to go to a closer one. There were also tapes placed on the floor.

    

From my observation, research, and analysis, there some factor that attract and reason to do so. At the second location, although it was plain, I’ve learned a lot from there about exhibition. The research that I’ve done there was the purpose of the tape. At first, I don’t clearly understand the purpose of the tape on the floor. I know the tape was to prevent to get close, but if so why didn’t they put it further. Then by using a cellphone camera, I take a picture from the tape and a picture taken one step back. Analysis from my observation that I saw was hidden were framing and artwork spacing.

Design & Business Strategy: Value Chain

Value chain is is a range of activities which are applied in delivering  a valuable product or services for the market. The activities are as such designing, production, marketing and distribution. Value chain starts with the raw materials used to make the products and consists of everything that is added to it before it is sold to consumers. The goal of value chain is to  properly analyze and organized the flow of the product production  to make sure the product is getting in the hands of consumers with care and quickly as possible.

According to Porter's value chain, business activities could be divided by two categories which are primary activities and support activities:

Primary activities

• Inbound Logistics: involve in receiving, storing and distributing the raw materials used in the production process.
• Operation: stage where raw products are turned into the final product.
• Outbound logistics: distribution stage of the final product to consumers.
• Marketing and sales: involves activities like advertising, promotions, sales-force organization, selecting distribution channels, pricing and managing costumer relationship of the final product to ensure it is targeted to the correct consumer group.
• Service: activities that are needed to maintain the product performance after it has been produced.This stage includes things like training, installation, maintenance, repair, warranty and after-sales services.

Support activities

• Procurement: how the raw materials for the product are obtained.
• Technology development: technology can be used across the board in the development of a product, including in research and development stage, in how new products are developed and designed and process automation.
• Human resource management: activities involve in hiring and retaining the proper employees to help design, build and market the product.
• Firm infrastructure: organization's structure and it's management, planning accounting, finance and quality-control mechanisms.

Multimedia Design New Technology (Learning outcome)

This modules is about developing knowledge in multimedia design such as making advertising ads, animation and more. With this, students can create design which is most suitable for its purpose. It help students on how to manipulate graphic and text in multimedia. 

Learning Outcome

At the end of this module, students will be able to :

Knowledge

• Demonstrate basic awareness of the leading practitioners within their field of study
• Evidence an understanding of the historical context for the discipline
• Have a broad understanding of the wider application, creative and commercial of their chosen field

Thinking Skills

• Articulate their ideas in text form

Subject based practical skills

• Demonstrate an ability to analyze and distill a range of visual imagery and information