How to become a perfect cabbage?

project overview

About:

This was a collaborative design thinking project that aimed to create an innovative, creative design for common items in life in one week project. Then we got cabbage. The design proposal, ‘How to become a perfect cabbage?’, is a non-human design. From the insights gathered through research, we got a question: How non-human design infect/push humans? In this project, we based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory on cabbage and focus on what we could do to meet the demands of cabbage. We have created a model that allows users to think from the perspective of plants.

Brief:

create an innovative, Creative design for cabbage using design thinking.

Team:

Lining zhang, Evelyn and Sia

Proposal:

“If you knew that it took 140 days to grow just one single cabbage, could that change the way you think about the products that you eat?”

We love seeing the seeds first, how the shadows indicate the sun’s movement across the sky, and how the plants almost seem to be breathing, and the final result: food.

We analyze the Maslow demand of human beings and infer the Maslow demand of vegetables. We explore how plants are self-satisfied and emotional. Owning their own habitat, they are born back to the land. They should have a close interdependence with the living creatures. Form a virtuous food chain cycle.

my role and learning outcomes:

The main lesson for me as a designer was learning how to Competitive analysis，working with this project I find using software extensively helps me become a better designer. When I have a specific design question, e.g., how to become the best cabbage? I would use the framework software to fill in what I know about cabbage, so as to discover the design possibility of cabbage. I also learning about software for game development, UX is where the science of the player meets the art of game design.

Using many software myself helps me think through a problem not as it is, but as many possible ways as I can.

User testing: as a short project, we usually don’t have enough time for user research and testing. I started to do user testing whenever I can, on my family, friends, people happen to sit next to me in a coffee shop. When life pushes you, you become more resourceful.

research activities & outcomes

overview:

A literature and practice review was first conducted on how to become the best cabbage as this was our initial topic of interest. after the literature review, we found the cabbage after hundreds of years of human gene transformation generates a lot of new varieties. We imagine ourselves to be cabbage, so are we willing to be transformed by humans? Under the extension of this topic, after discussion, we found that we were very interested in the theme of non-human design. In this project, we considered the influence of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory on cabbage and what we could do to meet the demands of cabbage. So we started to imagine what the demand for cabbage is.

research topic: the perspective of plants.

After the first group talking, we found an interesting fact: cabbage and cauliflower came from the same ancestor, and they have differentiated into a variety of varieties in modern times. So we thought about the genetically modified, many genetically modified foods that are currently being controversial. They were all created to meet the needs of people.

One of our storytelling:

The cabbage freak was born accidentally during genetic modification. My ancestor was wild cabbage BrassJca oleIaceavar. Oleracea had a happy life on the Mediterranean coast and the northwestern European coast. Suddenly, one day, the human was harvested cruelly to carry out a variety experiment:

My body was imprisoned and nurtured by human beings, my body was deformed, I became red, bigger, deformed, I lost myself, and I was sad.

our purpose is to reflect human abuse of genetic modification.

Vegetables have been transformed according to people's desires, and people will choose the plants they grow based on taste preferences. We can see that the appearance of wild cabbage has changed a lot. However, we do not know if this meets the needs of the plant itself. Maybe it prefers to stay its original appearance or have other wishes. From the defects of pet dog genes and their health problems, we can know that human choices are not necessarily beneficial to the organisms we cultivate. Our idea is based on non- human desire.

However, After the first tutorial, the teacher told us that we need to think more from the perspective of plants. Many times it is not just humans who use plants to realize their desires. If plants themselves are willing to be used by humans to achieve their own growth How about it? The teacher mentioned a book, The Botany of Desire of Michael Pollan.

research outcomes:

03 Prototyping:

We got inspiration from a book by Michelle Pollan, which mentioned a farm where the chickens, cows, and sheep use and depend on each other. At the same time, the formation principle of grassland was mentioned. Bison graze on the grass. After the imbalance of the rhizome ratio of the grass is decomposed by soil microorganisms, it promotes the formation of new soil. After the land becomes fertile, it continues to grow new grass and then cattle Continue to eat so that a benign closed loop of grassland is formed. Therefore, we use the same principle to infer cabbages. After being cultivated by sunlight, water, and air, cabbages are slowly picked up by human beings. Among them, the good ones are sorted out and shipped to supermarkets for purchase by humans. Cabbage continues to remain in the soil for use as seeds and fertilizers, thus forming a virtuous cycle. Cabbage uses the selection of humans to achieve the prosperity of its own variety and the improvement of the living environment. People and vegetables use each other., Interdependence. The first layer of the device is three small cabbages. They become large cabbages through natural nourishment. Then on the second layer, humans choose the outstanding cabbages to eat, and the remaining cabbages continue to flow to the land. Become fertilizer and seeds.

Feedback& development:

We may show that the process of human picking and harvesting cabbage will plant more plants in the next step, expressing that plants use animals and humans that eat it to gain more opportunities for reproduction.