Research Papers
Transcending The Transition Plan
By: Andrea Benatar
Once individuals with autism or other developmental and learning disabilities have aged out of high school upon their twenty-second birthday, support for families in implementing their transition plans is cut off almost entirely. Out of the already limited transition options presented in this period of time, most vocational training programs are infeasible and ineffective, while public assisted living options are often poorly funded and inaccessible. In this paper, I chose to analyze one of the few successful, community based models for transition programs that has been implemented on Misericordia Home’s campus in Chicago. Due to the wide range of services housed under a single campus, from various residential options to on-campus and off-campus employment, Misericordia has managed to create a sustained community with a small circular economy that only really relies on base-level state funding and donations. With Misericordia’s intentional community model as a precedent, the adaption of state laws and allocation of funds, along with smaller scale interventions, could lead to more accessible and reliable transition options for families post schooling.
Dissuading Designed Obsolescence In Tech
By: Raymond Pai
Designed obsolescence is a design method of artificially limiting the lifespan of a product (Planned). It was initially practiced on an industrial scale during the Great Depression. The function of obsolescence was to increase consumer spending to move money through the economy to end the depression. 90 years later, companies employ the technique as a key consumer model, deeply designed into their products. No industry has been more notorious and publicized for this practice than today’s tech industry, which has designed obsolescence into the hardware of their products. The natural decomposition of batteries, exploited by companies to render entire devices useless. That translates to thousands of rare earth metals being disposed of despite being functional. Not only is this an aggressive economic practice with widespread environmental and humanitarian consequences, but people have also begun to realize that these are not consumer-friendly practices they would like to support. With growing political and consumer pressure against the practice, how will these tech companies, most of which are headquartered in the United States, pivot their strategies to reduce hardware disposal? This paper will focus on answering this question through the perspective of exploring the successes of other governments’ policies in this problem space, and how their approaches could be applied in the US.
Big Problems
By: Erin Fuller
America has a public health crisis that, while beginning in the 1980s, has only continued to increase and actually had the sharpest increase in the past decade. Obesity is a “bad word”, but that’s because obesity is a bad disease. There is no universal solution for all cases of obesity in America, at this point the problem is just too large. So large in fact that the CDC has predicted by 2030 that half of all Americans will be classified as obese (Park). We will narrow the scope to the prevention of childhood obesity for a few reasons. It is well known that adults are not good at changing behavior, this is why the large majority of New Year's Resolutions fail before February. There have been many solutions by different scales of governments within the U.S. over time, but those generally had small and short term impacts, emphasized by the continued growth of obesity in all states nationwide.
Emotionally Durable Fashion: Changing The Individual Consumer’s Behavior
By: Mihika Bansal
Is there a manner in which products can be designed that will make the user hold on to them for longer? The current lifetime of many products is quite short and this stems directly from the individual consumer’s behavior when using and discarding products. However, if designers are able to foster deeper emotional connections between consumers and their products, consumers will be less likely to throw away products as readily. This paper specifically analyzes the process of creating emotionally durable fashion through pre-existing solutions in the market, both in the manners in which these solutions are successful, and how they can improve. Overall, emotionally durable design works to change the current culture of consumption on an individual scale, which will in turn lead to larger scale, long lasting changes.
Adidas And Sustainability
By: Zoe Attwood
In today’s world distinguished by ever rising consumerism, the issue of sustainability must be taken into account. Projections suggest that by the year 2030, annual global apparel consumption will rise between 60%-80% (Global Fashion Agenda, 2017; Danziger, 2019). Therefore, the fashion industry has an increasingly urgent responsibility to address their many unsustainable practices that are negatively affecting the natural environment. Although there are numerous issues that the industry faces in terms of sustainability, they are often summarised by three problem areas - energy and emissions, resource consumption, and water pollution. As a leading apparel company with a global reach, Adidas faces these huge environmental sustainability issues. However, the company has acknowledged its responsibility to solve these problem areas and have created a comprehensive sustainability strategy that is fully integrated into their overall corporate strategy. As a result, Adidas has become a world leader in sustainable practices in the industry.
Toys For Acceptance: Designing Toys For Gender Inclusivity Within Elementary Schools
By: Angela Lee
According to the School Survey on Crime and Safety, which surveyed 3,500 K-12 public schools, only 12% of schools reported having a student organization devoted to supporting and creating safe spaces for all gender identities and sexual orientations (“SSOCS”). Compared to high schools and middle schools, elementary schools had the least number of these groups, which is alarming considering how many children grow up with confusion, self-hatred, and trauma related to their gender identities.
School administration and policies cannot single-handedly shape how children view and understand the gender spectrum. Children learn and develop their own perspectives within social groups, where they are influenced by their peers’ thoughts. This presents a design challenge: to navigate and leverage elementary school students’ social environments to promote inclusivity and exploration of gender identity.
Outdoor Retailers Can Do Something About Gender Representation
By: Stacy Kellner
This paper examines gender representation in the design of outdoor products and services, and proposes a two-fold solution that translates a looming social problem into tangible actions for outdoor retailers. The research question: How might we help existing outdoor companies make practical decisions that truly reflect women’s needs? Let’s break this down:
- Large outdoor retailers still make the majority of product decisions. They pay for major advertising year after year to remain the “face of the industry”; they can make better use of this power and set a good example for other industries.
- Rather than advocate for a complete overhaul of industry culture, I choose to meet existing stakeholders where they are. Practical decisions provide them with a sense of agency rather than a sense of helplessness.
- “Truly” reflects a commitment to quality design research, which justifies product decisions and holds designers accountable for maintaining that justification over time.
Automation And The Future Of Work
By: Ricky Chen
In our current period and culture, technology is rapidly becoming an integral component of our everyday life. New methods are constantly found to enhance our digital life, and this is quickly venturing into the jobs and types of work we are aware of today and will drastically change how they are viewed in the future. While there are some who think automation will change the way we view work and that new ideas of labor will be formed, others believe that it will leave certain groups of people with fewer jobs as robots start becoming the new workers. However, despite these differences, the overall concern is the same: automation is something to be cautious of as it will alter the labor workforce we currently have whether that is towards a more positive or negative direction.