Overview:
The journey of migration is also a process of transformation, during which people went through the self-deconstruction and reshape on many levels.
This project focused on developing a new vision towards migration. This is formulated in the assignment: Designing a product(or service system) based on research outcomes of the emotional needs of Chinese migrants who are deciding to make or have already made a decision to stay in the Netherlands, by 2025.
This is the main outcome from the research. You can also check the side project here.
Project Type & Involvement:
Work for NextportChina B.V.
Research & Human-Centred Design
Timeline:
2019.03 - 2019.11
Reflections:
Instead of starting from ‘what to design’, this project started from ‘why design’. Since the existence of a design is long-lasting, a well established product shall have positive meanings to people at stake in the future world. We started from building a future context where the product and users make interactions. This is a process of understanding the world that we are designing for in a structured way. Step by step the way how human behave in the future context was revealed, as well as the logic behind.
This project was a great opportunity to work in the field of Human Centred Design at the cross-section of sociology, psychology and philosophy. In the end these fascinating research outcomes about people's inner balance, notion of identity and meanings was successful translated into human needs, therefore formulated a functional product. It was a magnificent journey for me as a designer
Other Discussions:
For the future designers or researchers who are interested in Chinese migrants and their emotional struggles, the left part of behaviour framework can be a good starting point.
Although the twelve behaviours were generated specifically from the context of Chinese migrants in Dutch society, some of their driving forces actually can be applied to other user groups.
Take' intimate relationship is built as a world to escape in' for an example. This behaviour is the result of two driving forces: baggage from the past and dreaming of intimacy. For non-Chinese migrants, do they also bring baggage from the past? If so, what are the 'baggage' different from Chinese migrants? For those who have a forced migration background, the 'baggage' can be trauma, or fear, or something even heavier. When they are in a new place and are dreaming of an intimate relationship with this place and people around, do they use intimate relationships still as their secret garden? Or maybe do they tend to build an even stronger castel to forget about the past?
In this case, the framework can be adjusted and applied to other circumstances, and other user groups.