Graduation Project (with Prof. Dr. Sebnem Timur)
Design for Cultural Heritage for Sustainability
*This topic is studied in both studio and graduation project courses.
This graduation project invites students to design a product/product set that conveys cultural heritage and traditional practices to the daily lives of urban dwellers. The project's prominent feature should be prioritizing cultural knowledge transfer, introducing cultural heritage, and raising awareness. The scenario of introducing, promoting, and displaying the product should be considered in tandem with the product(s). Projects can be supported by smart technology, service design, and/or experience design, as needed.
The students are expected to conduct consistent and thorough research on traditional ways of production and cultural practices (e.g. food production, craft production, farming, fishing, heat conservation, health practices, water management, etc.), by spotting, documenting, and analyzing a certain practice related to cultural heritage and then proposing a new and contemporary solution to a traditionally solved problem relying on this prior body of knowledge, experience, and know-how. The following criteria should be considered for the final product:
User needs
Product attitude
Cultural identity
Product identity
Perceived novelty
Perceived sustainability (Qin et al, 2019).
The students should consider the ways to display and promote the products they will design. The scenario may include, but is not limited to;
cultural heritage awareness events
experience design
service design
marketing strategies
smart and digital technologies
to introduce the heritage and raise awareness.
Graduation Project (with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Koray Gelmez)
Cooking at Home: Smart Kitchen Appliance Design
Home cooking has been a rising trend within the context of healthy living, environmentally responsible lifestyles, and slow food. Most recently, cooking, baking, and spending more time in the kitchen have become more popular and visible, especially during the pandemic lockdown. The use of IoT technologies and smart appliances at home is becoming more appropriate nowadays.
In this project, the students are expected to design smart kitchen appliance(s) to enhance, support, and/or advance the cooking experience at home. With the blessings of smart technologies, this project is expected to consider sustainable living, safety, and security, all within the context of a smart home, which encompasses functionality, connectivity, and controllability, as described by Hargreaves and Wilson (2017).
In the context of this graduation project brief, proper and comprehensive user research is vital for understanding the motivations and challenges of users in terms of both the domestication of smart technologies and cooking at home.
Expected outcomes: Smart appliance(s) or a set of smart appliances for
Food processing/preparation
Cooking
Baking
Beverage preparation
Storage and preservation (cooling, drying, etc.)
Graduation Project (with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özge Çelikoglu)
Encouraging Sustainable Behavior Change through Design in Domestic Space
Products and services have significant impacts on individuals, society, and the environment. Regarding sustainable living, these impacts are primarily investigated within an emerging field known as design for sustainable behavior change. Considered a serious issue from an environmental perspective, design for sustainable behavior change aims to motivate users towards responsible consumption by proposing new ways of interacting with products. In this context, designers are key stakeholders who bear the responsibility for creating these interactions.
Relying on this view, this graduation project invites students to design a product/system that minimizes energy consumption (water, electricity, fuel, carbon emissions, paper, etc.) in the domestic space by utilizing behavior change strategies. Since user behavior is a complex phenomenon shaped by a combination of individual, social, economic, and political factors, there is a need for comprehensive user research within the design process. Within the scope of this graduation project, students are encouraged to utilize one of the user groups in a chosen behavioral domain, considering the dimensions of user diversity as summarized in the provided literature.
Expected outcomes:
Sanitary products
Electrical appliance
Medical equipment
Personal care
Consumer electronics
Food/Beverage distribution system
Food/Beverage preparation system
Furniture systems
Smart products
Lighting units
Graduation Project (with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Koray Gelmez)
Design for Disaster
Mankind has been suffering from natural disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, for ages. The consequences of these disasters can be devastating for all living beings. Unfortunately, Turkey is not a well-prepared country for natural disasters. The following table, as declared by the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), reveals the severity of the issue in Türkiye.
In the context of this graduation project, the main question is how design can contribute to being better prepared for natural disasters and to developing methods to reduce damage, suffering, and deaths. In this graduation project, the students are expected to seek and develop alternative design solutions for a specific natural disaster. It is expected to develop a project for (potential) victims and/or (professional or nonprofessional) rescue teams by considering their potential needs. Showing the sensitivity to this critical issue, one of the categories in following can be focused on:
Systems for preparation, emergency, and recovery
Temporary shelter units
Systems for temporary sanitary
Temporary healthcare facilities
Temporary rehabilitation facilities
Distribution systems such as food, medicine, etc.
Transportation systems
Systems for infrastructure or logistics
Systems for the search and rescue
