Hi, I'm Phnam.
Hi, I'm Mardis.
And we're the hosts of Future Future, where two designers talk about the future of everything.
We're in the business of turning science fiction into reality for a better future.
And today, we're going to talk about how design can help.
We oftentimes work with many different types of clients at many different levels.
Sometimes they're pre-seed. Sometimes they're seed.
Sometimes they're well-established corporations.
And when they approach us with their design needs, it sometimes comes as an idea.
"We have an idea that we want to do something...we're not really sure of the different components and aspects of it."
And sometimes they have the technology.
It might be researchers at a university or someone in their garage who came up with a prototype.
But they don't know how to turn that into a product that many people can enjoy.
And then finally, sometimes they just need a revision of their design.
But they have something: a prototype or a first article of a product design that doesn't really have a path yet.
We help define that path. We give it character. We give it an audience.
And we bring it to life in a way...we create a market leading product!
So let's start with, "I have an idea."
So you are here and you are thinking, like most of us, about, "oh, this could be so much better if x, y, z."
And most of the time people would give up on these ideas because they don't know how to translate an idea into a product.
And that's where we come in. Designers are very good at this.
We are trained to do this.
We are trained to think critically about how to get from one point to another from a business perspective,
from a design perspective, from a user experience perspective, and all the aspects that make a product a reality.
And it's really about crafting a very compelling story.
The compelling story is something that relates to the consumer so they buy your product.
But it's also about developing a compelling story if you're looking for investment or funding.
So if you want to attract VCs to your product to get it into the market place,
or if you're selling this story up the chain at a large corporation. You really have to get buy in.
And one note about investment.
Don't try to develop a whole hardware product idea by yourself
with the savings that you've been putting together for the last five years. It's not going to work.
It will cost a lot more than you think.
And you really don't want to invest your own money.
So make sure that you tell the right stories so that you attract the right investors
so you can hire professional designers - like ourselves - to take your idea into reality.
We did a project called Color on the Moon.
We know that we're going to be at the Moon at some point.
We know that we're going to be using it as a launch point to get to Mars and do mining and things like that.
But how do we do it in a safe environment, a psychologically positive environment for humans?
The entire Moon is greyscale.
And by bringing color, we changed how we interact with the Moon and how we can bring the presence of humans into outer space.
And we did another project redesigning the educational system of the country of Singapore.
And we basically started with the idea of, "how do we bring human autonomy to this society?"
And by using education - early childhood education all the way to adult education -
how can we support the future of wellbeing, from an economic standpoint all the way to a personal standpoint?
And then finally the Volo project.
Volo is about reinstating pleasure in flight.
We know with all the problems in airlines today and all the opportunities to fix those, design can play a big role.
And this is why we started out with early conceptual ideation all the way to the final design in CAD.
The second way design can help is if you have a technology and you don't know quite what to do with it.
We encounter this all the time with scientists, researchers, and oftentimes professors
who have come up with something that nobody has ever seen before.
They've come up with a technology that doesn't really have an application,
or maybe sometimes has too many applications.
What happens is we use design and we think about the best solutions possible.
And we also take into account human factors.
We take into account the marketability.
We take into account the feasibility of building something that they've done.
Fusion reactors? Kind of difficult to build!
A neurostimulator? Also difficult, but feasible!
So we kind of help them bring these ideas to life.
And we do this through testing and validation and prototyping.
And oftentimes through this process we go from something that may look like it belongs in a laboratory
to something that is more commercially friendly.
You may have technology that reads brain waves in a way that can be very helpful for children with ADHD.
You might have technology to harvest solar power from space, but you don't know how to turn that into a product that is viable.
We can help.
That's where design comes in, from a strategic standpoint, a design and engineering standpoint.
And we can turn that into something that is not only commercially viable
but also changes people's lives for the better.
The third and last way designers can help is if you have a prototype - let's say a working prototype.
And you want to turn that into a design.
Now, there's one point that I want to make clear: that design is not only here to make that prototype prettier.
Sure, it is a part of the job, but I would say it's about five percent of the job.
We want to make it easy to use.
Easy to understand. We want to make it marketable.
We want to make it a product that you're so proud
that you can't wait to design the next generation with us.
And a lot of this is about designing a strong product that can influence the brand.
And we look at this and we say, "can we roadmap this out?
What are future evolutions of the product going to look like?
And what are future evolutions of the brand going to look like?
And does it fall within the brand?
Does it influence the brand?
And what are the applications for a successful product?"
How can your product influence an industry towards creating better products for everyone?
You know, sustainability and social impact are very, very important to Nonfiction.
And we try to spread that to all the clients that work with us.
So you can see all of these examples on our website, www.nonfiction.design,
if you want to read more about how we went about the solutions and what kind of stories we're telling.
So if you have ideas about a technology, a concept, or even a product,
and you want to evolve it into something that can grow into a market leader,
then reach out to us at info@nonfiction.design.
Or, leave comments below and let's keep the conversation going.
And until next time, bye bye.
Bye!