Design expert, Professor Lee Kun-pyo, of KAIST University

  What do you want more - a box that can do a lot of funky stuff, or a really shiny box that can do just a couple of cool things? In 2008, the answer is no longer self-evident. Most people would not agree that technology and design are natural bedfellows, but if we dig a little deeper under the surface, design is starting to play a massive role in the marketability of a product. Aesthetics are beginning to have a truly great influence on how popular a product is. In the case of mobile phones that are designed by designer clothes brands, like Prada, or embedded with diamonds and cost over $1.3 million, like the Ancort phone, we are entering an age where technology is often seen as a status symbol or a fashion statement.

It used to be the case that just having a mobile phone said a lot about who a person was, but in a time when mobiles are exceptionally affordable, what you choose to use reflects not just who you are, but how you see yourself. However, there are those who believe that design is not merely about how a product looks anymore, but how people interact with it. Professor Lee Kun-pyo is the Head of the Department of Industrial Design at KAIST, one of Korea's leading Technology institutes. He is also President of the Korea Society of Design Science. Lee's university has been quickly gaining a name for itself. Recently, the Design department of KAIST was named among the top sixty design schools in the World by American magazine Businessweek.

Lee believes that interface design is now integral to how products market themselves with customers. He explains, "In the past, with mechanical devices, there was a tangible end result. If I pushed a lever, a part of the machine might move up. But semiconductors have changed everything to the extent that absolutely everything has become a black box. Users have no idea what is going on inside the device they are using." For that reason, interfaces have to develop fast. When customers go into a shop to browse for products, they are bombarded with options. If you walk into a phone retailer, you will be confronted with hundreds of very welldesigned phones, so the battle cannot simply be won through external factors alone.

Lee says, "When potential customers pick up a phone and start to interact with it, that is when the interface design factor kicks into play. The interface needs to strike a chord with the user's cognitive state, so that the user feels they have found a device that works in a similar way to their own mental functions." And Lee says that if the designers can push the right buttons on this level, the power that they can subsequently wield as a result is potentially fearsome. "You can see this in the example of the iPod, which created such a massive customer loyalty that the iPhone, its successor, if you will, was almost bound to be a success, even if it is quite an unwieldy object as a phone. People unconsciously identify with interface design and become attached to it," he says.

In the past, design in IT was very limited, while functionality was everything. The product would be designed with practical considerations considered first, and then the finished product would be taken to designers to tidy up the item's image a little. Lee call this "cosmetic design". However, the days of cosmetic design have come and gone. Though, as an mp3 player, the iPod may be inferior in terms of functionality to other music players, the iPod Nano and its brethren continue to fly off the shelves. The reason why is, quite clearly, design. In many senses in IT, the success of the iPod was a watershed in hightech production. It was the surprising but epoch-defining victory of design over function. Customers suddenly care more about what a product looks like and says to them than what it can do.

Bill Gates once said that "Contents are King", but many believe strongly that in 2008, that statement needs to be amended. "Context is the new King," says Lee. He gives the example of Starbucks. Its basic function is as a coffee shop, but anyone who thinks its success boils down to the fact that they sell good coffee or tea is quite mistaken. Starbucks, says Lee, is all about context. It is the whole Starbucks experience that makes it a success. People like to feel that they are in an atmosphere where they can relax, converse or read like they were in a Europeanstyle cafe. The concept can be equally applied to technology. Should a product strike a particular chord with a customer, people will instantly become hooked.

So, if the experts are to be believed, design has taken on a new role, and a very powerful one at that. If we look at things in this way, designers are now making a lot of decisions for us, so how they choose to use their newfound power is a question of great significance. Lee believes that for design to function properly in the modern world of IT, designers need to incorporate ethics into their work. He says, "Design has blossomed, but now it is maturing. Ethics are very important when we make a product. Green design is one example of this new trend, and we can see this in producers who are now starting to make products made from sustainable resources."

Lee says that computer games and toys might be another example of this. A thoughtless, uncaring designer might focus on marketability and profit margins at all cost, but a more socially- conscious designer might try to think of the future knock-on effects of certain design features. A computer game or toy may be excessively violent in nature, but a responsible designer should consider these factors, too, Lee suggests. He says, "The role of a designer is also to question the concept and ensure a more ethical product as a result. A product is frozen information, so what ethical values we freeze into the product is a major moral choice. Just focusing on a big profit does not exhibit maturity."

Spiderman believes that with great power comes great responsibility, and Lee would argue that this now applies to designers, too, considering their newfound social status. He says, "A lot of designers say 'the client told me they wanted it like this, so I made it like this,' but the modern designer has to take moral values into consideration, and use their experience and knowledge to convince the client that there are other options available to them. That is their new responsibility."

---

Korea Society of Design Science Spring Conference, May 2008
Korean designers have a bi-annual gathering to exchange ideas and present research papers to one another in Daejeon. The President of the Conference, Professor Lee, explains that May's conference will have a more practical focus, as the group looks to become less exclusive and involve a wider range of participants. "We are trying to get a bigger group of people together to share their expertise. That includes industrial designers, as well as academics. The nature of our Confucianist values in Korea is that academics are still seen as operating on higher level than people working on the front line. I want to challenge that and get more people involved with what we are doing," says Lee. Foreign students are also invited to give their research papers, and presentations can be made in both English and Korean. The international element is something that the organisers hope will take root more firmly in this year's event. Plans are afoot to involve design professionals from top research institutes and companies in Europe and the US.