On May 25, 2007, Seoul National University of Technology held the 2007 International Symposium of the Korea Society of Design Science. The title of this year's Symposium was The Convergence of Universal Design and Information Technology. It lasted for two days and included several notable speakers. The keynote speaker was Abir Mullick, Professor and Director of Industrial Design of the College of Architecture of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. He is a professor of fifteen years, teaching courses in industrial design and architecture.
Before coming to be with Georgia Tech, he taught at the State University of New York, Buffalo and was a two-time recipient of the Universal Design Education Project grant when he was there. Professor Mullick is nationally known for his work in the field of universal design.
The second speaker was Yoshitsugu Morita, Director of the Human Living System Design Department of Kyushu University in Japan. He is a Trustee of the Japanese Society for the Science of Design, and also a Trustee of the Design Research Association. He has won several awards, including the Urban Design Award in Japan, Grand Prize, in 1993, for the planning and design of Ginza- Harumi Dori (Avenue).
Third, Toshimitsu Sadamura, President & CEO of GA-TAP Corporation and part-time lecturer at Yamaguchi University in Japan was also in attendance. He is vice-President of the Japan Sign Design Association, a member of the Japan Society for the Science of Signs and member of the Asia Townscape Design Society.
GA-TAP, Mr. Sadamura's company, is said to be characterized by the total design approach afforded by its multidisciplinary designers working in fields such as architecture, graphics, products and copywriting, and mainly engages in environment-related and communication- related design.
The fourth speaker was Shin Sangyoung, President of LG Electronics Corporate Design Center. Mr. Shin is also on the Evaluation Committee for Industrial Technology Development and Technology Foundation Creation Business, a Recommended Designer of the Korean Industrial Design Exhibition, and vice-President of the New-Vision Course of International Design School for Advanced Studies in Hongik University.
Before he became President, Mr. Shin spent five years as vice-President of the DA Design Research Lab in LG Electronics' Corporate Design Center.
Universal design is familiar to almost everyone, even if they do not recognize it.
When asked to define universal design, Professor Mullick said: "A car is a very good example of universal design. A car is not designed for one person, but if you sit in the car it is easy to use. That is what we design, one thing for many people."
Looking towards the future
Seoul National University of Technology originated in 1910, established as a vocational supplementary school by royal decree from Emperor Gojong. It was renamed Seoul National University of Technology in April 1993.
The university includes six graduate schools, thirty-two departments and four colleges. The colleges include the College of Engineering, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Natural and Life Sciences and the College of Art and Design, which hosted the Symposium. Approximately 15,000 students attend its campus.
The university is in the process of creating new technology center that they dub Seoul Technopolis. The new building is currently under construction, and will serve as a hub of industry and academic cooperation in the area of nanotechnology, information technology, and design science.
The President of the university, Yoon Jin-sik, is looking to bring together those three disciplines in order to hopefully create a new, converged industry involving all three disciplines. The president spoke about this by saying: "The fusion between nanotechnology and information technology is not just a trend in Korea, but it's a global trend. So we are not just interested in nanotechnology and IT but also other types of convergence between IT and BT and other types of tech." The president believes that convergence is an irreversible global trend between many disciplines, and prepares his university to meet such a trend. Woo Heung-ryong, Dean of the School of Arts and Design of Seoul National University and the President of the Korea Society of Design Science, spoke about President Yoon by saying: "He is an education reformer. Everything has been totally changing for three years."
Universal symposium
The speakers covered a variety of topics on the first day. Abir Mullick began the Symposium with his keynote speech entitled Universal Design: Past, Present and Future. He mentioned that the concept of universal design was an outcome of the civil rights movement in the 1060s in the US, and began with a desire to accommodate people with disabilities.
He gave a detailed timeline of the changing views of disabled persons in the United States from 1958 until 1982. He then followed the concept of universal design internationally, and cited quite a few countries who took universal design seriously. In the third part of his speech he predicted future trends in universal design. Regarding the universal design of technology, he said: "The loss of interest in complex technological products will popularize simple products." "Digital technology will develop two types of intelligent designs. The first is combination appliances to perform dual tasks and reduce manual work... Second, smart designs such as intelligent fridge pantry cars, coffee maker grinder clocks and closet drycleaner cars that can think and process information and maintain non-intermittent work flow."
The second presentation was given by Professor Morita, and was titled Relationship Between Universal Design, Good Design and Public Design. The professor put forward a simple assumption by saying: "We assumed that good design is also universal design." His presentation detailed the development of a process to create good product design by incorporating input from product designers, product sellers, and product users.
The key to this system was the creation of quality charts, called Karte, that would assess many different people's evaluation of any product in order to create the best available. Professor Morita said: "This evaluation of functions, including accessibility and usability, allows quantitative evaluations that combine physiological and psychological sensory measurements.
In other words, these charts allow user evaluation for barrierfree design." However, creation of these charts was not at easy as it first sounded. A lot of time and energy was spent in creating just the language for the Karte charts, in order to find universal language that anyone would use to evaluate a product. The entire presentation was an in-depth analysis on the very idea of design. Professor Morita closed by saying: "We will continue to conduct case studies and advance a careful investigation of language evaluation sheets...
Furthermore, we intend to analyze the causes of the diverse user evaluation gaps using design evaluation language, and from the results of that analysis, build solution indices that will clarify courses of action for resolving those gaps."
President Toshimitsu Sadamura of GA-TAP Corporation spoke next, moving the focus of the Symposium away from the theoretical bent of Professor Morita and onto practical applications of universal design. His presentation, titled A Universal Design for Public Transportation, detailed his company's application of universal design concepts in the Fukuoka City Nanakuma Subway Line in Japan. Sadamura began by detailing the timeline of the design project, which began in 1996 and ended in 2005. He detailed design barriers in the construction, which included users with limited mobility, pregnant women, children, and people with heavy loads. His presentation detailed how his company was able to meet and sometimes exceed these design barriers.
Finally, President Shin Sang-young spoke on the subject of Universal Design Case Study in Value Creation of Home Appliances.
He began by saying: "With digitalization and expansion of product functions, recent home appliances become more complex. As functionality of products is increasing, convenience and safety in using becomes critical in product development. Even more, social responsibilities of companies and users' awareness of product usability are increased." He spoke about LG Electronics' application of universal design and gave numerous examples from today's marketplace, from the eye-level display of a popular air conditioner model to differentcolored power buttons on remote controls.
