Bowler Hats with Sleeves...

Bowler Hats with Sleeves, I love this reference to good old Billy Connelly used by David Townson as the title of his lecture today. I admit it, I am a complete and utter comedy geek, so it made me smile.

It was an interesting lecture about the importance of communication and community in design so you don't come up with ridiculous ideas scotch taped onto an exisiting one. That designers shouldn't design for themselves they need to design for others.

'be selfless, not selfish'

Which is of course a point we should probably all take on, but it was particularly pertinent as generally in undergraduate courses you design for you and your tutors and rarely think of the world outside. Or at least, not in a 'my jewellery must solve world peace' kind of way. But David's point was that designers need to be aware that the public should/need to be of huge influence to designers. The bit however, which really struck a cord with me was on Research Prob Packs given out to a community of children during one of the projects he worked on.

Questionnaires in my experience never tend to be as fruitfyl as you expect thanks to people responding with yes/no answers. Interviews can often seem stunted - especially when the interviewer isn't exactly the most confident of themselves or that they are in fact asking teh right questions...plus the interviewee can often just give back desired answers. But this idea of Research Prob Packs, that could really offer some insight into peoples experiences with dyslexia and the current manifestations of treatments/aids, their coping stratgies...even just a critic of the university/school/work environment (something which I have started myself during my lectures out of my own curiosity and I shall put at related posts).

I have no clue how I'll go about it or what I will put in them. But it's an idea.

Disclaimer: Please note I have no control of Billy Connelly or his use of the f-word. Apologies if you're offended.