>		Fumiyo Kojima
>		Fumi Masuda
>		Shunji Yamanaka
Naoto Fukasawa
Naoto Fukasawa Design (+):

		Naoto's talk titled Design Dissolving in Behaviour related his interpretation of the concepts of user centered design. Objects are used by people and the perception of the world held by each individual is unique and reflects the mentality of that individual. A lot of designers view their role as that of a messenger; they want to create objects that will act as their signatures, they want to send a message and have their perception of the world embedded into the objects they design. Naoto's view is different: he wants to further the experience of the person using the design. He is not interested in designing a tea cup per se but in designing or rather facilitating a new way of drinking tea. Naoto sees design as a compromise between environment, people and objects; the role of the designer is to carefully balance the relationship between all three in order to provide an optimum experience. Naoto presented numerous examples of his work to illustrate his approach. He began with a description of the Personal Skies installation (+) he created for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In this proposal for an working environment the lighting for desks in an office space is provided by an overhead LCD screen that shows the sky at a specified location. The occupant of each desk can choose his own sky, creating a personal environment not only in terms of the amount of light provided but also through the projection of personal preference and emotional association to the location and type of sky chosen. The Personal Skies installation reflects the notion of playfulness in design. Experience is born out of interaction, and blithe interactions in which the user gains pleasure through interacting and realizing different facets of the design over time are more enjoyable then a bold design statement which may generate an initial wow but which will diminish in later use through repeated interaction. One of the most humorous examples shown by Naoto was his design for tea bags, one of which had the shape of a marionette which the user can play with as they are preparing tea. Another had a more conventional shape but a unique plastic ring which offered on the one hand a way to play a yoyo game with the tea bag as one was making a cup of tea and on the other a way of displaying the colour of a perfect cup of tea allowing the user to compare the colour of the tea in the cup with the colour of the ring. An internet connected umbrella stand showed the condition outside in the form of rain drops to indicate whether one needed to take an umbrella or not. A phone that doubled as both a phone and an alarm clock depending on its orientation and a cell phone shaped like a pebble to facilitate playing with the phone when not in use were additional examples of the combination of function and joyfulness in order to create a more pleasant user experience. The presentation was followed by a short workshop in which the participants were asked to come up with a set of ideas for new products using a pencil as the primer for inspiration. Numerous ideas were put forward from the use of a pencil such as a measuring device, a gadget for connectivity and a time keeping tool. At the end of his presentation, Naoto extended an invitation to the participants to come and visit him in his offices in Tokyo, an offer which was gladly accepted by a number of participants. After the final presentation of the Summer Academy, some of the participants made use of this offer and went to see his design studio near Shibuya. An additional discussion on product design and ideas for consumer electronic appliances followed Naoto's presentation of his new venture plus minus zero design (+), a range of products which very clearly reflects Naoto's notions of Behaviour Dissolving Design.