Application and Interaction
My Reflection
This week’s series of interviews on how themes and trends forecasts help to ensure a project planned and positioning effectively to deliver its strategic goals? was a very interesting talk as to how trends are not exactly the future of change, but what is present in the now that creates the attention of the audience to be drawn too. What I took away from these series of talks is to identify current trends but don’t use them to follow suit. Look beyond them and find new possibilities with the current than rather what the future may hold. Also, don’t look at trends that relate to your domain of work and allow yourself to explore other disciplines to help consider options towards your path. I’ve never really thought too much about how the future of trends can last and evolve itself, but I guess trends are the stepping stone to bigger things to come. This lecture has given me more inside knowledge on how to explore these and adopt this approach to my own work. It’s really become a new interest for me and looking to develop to take forward this view in trends and future forecasting. It’s useful to know trends but overall never get to hung up on them and especially don’t use them for the start of a concept as this can lead to nothing to develop something different from what already exists. We have to use these as an opening for the next forecast of things to bring something new to the audience. Technology is the most consistently changing product out in the world that we see evolving over and over again as it’s always competing with itself.
Dezeen (2018) Dezeen and Google’s Soft Futures talk live from Milan
I really enjoyed this talk with Google Hardware’s head of design Ivy Ross, trend forecaster Li Edelkoort and co-founder of the Future Laboratory Martin Raymond on how technology can better integrate with people’s lives. I found this so interesting how they talk about the way technology is like a monster to many but they justify their reason why it’s better for the good as long we learn and help the development of tech to adjust to our needs, not theirs. Martin pretty much scares me than technology but you can see his passion for how tech can benefit in many ways in society in the future. I did really like how he talks about how we really stand by the history of things and not use forward thinking to accept what technology can really do in our lives. This idea of living on nostalgia is having a huge effect on people as they don’t want change, which I can really see in many ways in our world today. A lot of things people are scared to move forward because they don’t know what the future holds and you can see this with politics in many places like America where they have reverted back to issues that are coursing a division in their society. All three of the speakers had a great insight into their own theories of how we and technology will benefit us in many years to come and how the emotion on social change will develop through this from being not being afraid anymore, to actually accepting it’s here to stay and help. This really opened my thought on future forecasting as I am my own critic and realise how much I was sucked into this way of the nostalgic whirlpool of things that I keep hold of but find hard to move on. Don’t get me wrong it’s great to keep memories and revisit at times but we also need to move things forward. We can do this with the past just by learning and making better experiences with what we already have and make a change for the future of others to share. Fantastic watch and a great inspiration to help further my understanding of trends and future forecasts.
Designers, stop designing for yesterday’s planet
Further Research
This article from ‘It’s Nice That’ I came across, was a great read about what the creative sector can to do ensure sustainability isn’t just a concept for just what our clients need, but also what our industry sector should do to prevent this. Alex Crowfoot is the UK principal designer at Futurice, a digital innovation consultancy, in which he speaks about the impact the digital world is having on the environment. The internet is currently producing more than 830 million tons of Co2 every year, exceeding the amount emitted by air travel. Factor in the way digital products and services are increasingly able to connect to the physical world, from e-Commerce to home delivery right through to IoT devices, and the implications are huge. So really we need to look out for the effects we do on the future of this planet as we do for our client’s responsibility.
Futurice is a great consultancy and looking over their website they are trying to make some great changes. This is a good resource for future forecasting as it shows plenty of resources and information for discussion. This is one to look upon for reference in future modules or projects for inspiration and ideas.
Workshop Challenge
This week’s workshop really made me think and look a lot deeper into my findings of trends and future forecasts in my project brief. This has given me an insight into future trends in mental health, dyslexia, and technology can have an impact on supporting people’s wellbeing. What was great about this process is the fact of learning new insights into the way we develop our abilities with the help of technology at our hands to understand something like the conditions of mental health and dyslexia can thrive off helping those to develop their better understanding. My research took me to many websites, Google scholar articles, and discussion forums to help search for what is current and developing in the world.
It was key for me to find out a little about what tech is currently being used to help transform learning with dyslexia. This article on KQED website was great as it gave great in-depth knowledge of what type of technology is out there to help people with dyslexia.
This secondly Orcam website gave a bot more in-depth on how technology has benefit in many places like schools, workplaces, and at home to help those in need to feel supported in their daily challenges. This is a great read into knowing a bit more about how effective tech is being used in the daily lives of a person with dyslexia.
This TED talk discusses the advantages of dyslexia, which is great video to watch and inspire people with dyslexia that they have more to give than they realise.
I then wanted to look at how the technology works and what is developing for the mental wellness of others to help and support people. Came this article from the Global Wellness Summit that talks about current trends in mental tech health that is in use and development. The article discusses the technological advancement that has pushed digital support to the forefront of convenience in people’s pockets, on their laptops, and even within the Facebook messenger. With this in mind, it’s allowed to expand to include a suite of wellness products and services. This was great for my research to explore for my mood boards and see what tech can provide for people’s usage.
For me reading this article on Managing Dyslexia with Gamification gave me a great belief in how gaming can help support the mental aspects for people with dyslexia through a powerful positive influence on people’s engagement and motivation. This is an area that is massive in self-esteem and confidence issues in their ability. I thought this very interesting information and felt I had to explore this within my workshop.
Positioning Statement
The emphasis on supporting mental health and wellbeing is becoming central to our thinking in education, the workplace, and at home. The impact of mental health on those with Dyslexia is something we can all be more aware of the effect if we can remove the stigma for people to openly talk about it. We are all individually distinctive and our reactions to challenges, the emotional repercussions of dyslexia are unique to the individual. The underlying story of personal trauma and order to provide more effective support can help provide coping strategies that can help uncover the emotional difficulties that go under the radar. We need to get people to talk about their experiences and not to shy away from their abilities that can truly discover something that is magnificently unique to their advantage through education or work environment. We need to build confidence in the individual to give that feeling of belonging in a place of society.
Notes towards my research below:
Moodboards
My three mood boards show areas I believe can be explored on how technology can help support people with dyslexia and their mental health through some examples of using wearable, gamification, and on-demand support apps were the trend and future forecast that can benefit the well-being of others are the unique tools that can reach to millions of people across the UK. These are products that can achieve great opportunities for those needing help at moments of uncertainty to take a second to cope with an episode of anxiety or other forms of mental wellbeing, which would allow you to log the data and also reach out to others.
Wearables
Wearable bracelets, watches, rings, or earbuds are the future of our health wellbeing. I like the idea of creating a wearable object to allow you to journal your daily challenges that sync to an app that allows you to do multi-tasks for your everyday needs. This can also provide an option to create a support network in your local community, school, or workplace.
Gamification
This was a curveball for me to look into trends how gaming can help support mental health issues. I feel this can be a great root for people with dyslexia to overcome some challenges through solving solutions and different techniques to help to cope. This is an interesting area to investigate on how gamification could help as there is some talk on using this method in the future.
On Demand Support
This is quite an obvious approach as there are many mindfulness apps in the world that work really well in preventing people’s problems. This is a winner and there is no app for people with Dyslexia alone as well with the topic of mental health awareness. I like this as this can really provide a tool for on-demand support through direct contact or suggestions on techniques to help with everyday challenges.
Ideas Wall
Weekly Reflection
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