Sydney L Design in Taiwan

 Today is the 16 th and my day was quite full! I started the day by heading to NCKU to meet with my group to work on our design project. I spent most of the time doing user research on the wants, needs, and barriers of access for elderly people in urban parks. In my research, there were many points I expected, but there were certain design recommendations I hadn’t thought of myself. For example, one of the greatest fears elderly people have at parks is falling. To prevent that, environmental hazards such as uneven surfaces, lack of ground visibility, and trash must be addressed. The four main user values I found across multiple sources were safety, nature, accessibility, and socializing. Knowing these user values felt good because it feels like we are going in the right direction as our current ideas align with these values. Also, while we were working, I realized that the potato I was eating looked like a capybara! Do you agree? After working, we visited Guang-Tsai Embroidery House,

Our agenda on 9/11 was full of activities, from learning about Taiwanese teas to witnessing a Master woodworker in his element. We started off the day by traveling from Tainan to Nantou. The travel was lengthy, but I appreciated the time for extra sleep. Once we reached our first destination, Yoshan Tea, we were given a history of Taiwanese tea and there was this lovely informational map that gave an overview of where certain teas are produced. There were many teas, such as Alishan, Sun Moon Lake, and Dong Ding teas.  The tea tour reminded me of earlier this year when I attended a tea tasting where Dong Ding tea was used as an example of tea texture (or “mouthfeel”) because the tea starts off bitter, but the taste moves around your mouth and ends in a sweet aftertaste. At the event, I also learned about how Western cuisine tends to have an emphasis on flavor whereas Eastern cuisine tends to emphasize texture. “Western” and “Eastern” are large labels, so I’m unsure how accurate they are

On 9/7, I took the HSR to Miaoli to hang out with my friends Amanda, Irene, and Lana. When I got there, we did some karaoke and Amanda’s mom peeled a pomelo and put it on my head. They brought me to a Ramune Soda Factory, which I didn’t realize until the tour started because I had only been told that we were going to a “soda marble” place. On the first floor, there were traditional games that included marbles, such as one where you need to hold onto a railing to not slip on marble and another where you shoot marbles to hit targets. We spent some time playing the games before the tour. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up as much as I would have liked during the tour due to my limited Chinese vocabulary, but I did learn that the English were the first to invent soda, but it was Japan that ultimately invented Ramune. The tour guide was very engaging and she even taught us how to perform a magic trick. Then, it was time to try putting together a bottle of Ramune. First, we put in sugar syr

On September 4th, we took a charter bus to Yingge. Our first stop of the day was the Yingge Ceramics Museum. We had free reign over what we wanted to check out, so I visited the special plant ash glaze exhibition on the 3rd floor. I enjoyed familiarizing myself with the intricacies of ceramic craft and gained a newfound respect for ceramists. The piece that struck me most was an unglazed clay vase with rust-like marks around it from when the artist tied a triangular club rush around it before firing. The overall form of the piece was simple, and the additional touch of color gave the piece elegance. Additionally, something I often need help with in design is getting out of my head and overthinking the design when the energy I put into worrying could be used to actually make things. I like to experiment, but sometimes perfectionism seeps into even the lowest-fidelity experiments. While I do not know the details of the artist’s process in making this piece, I appreciate that this experim

Yesterday was 9/2 and we visited the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. First, we toured the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) and looked at some of their projects and workspace. Their break room had a ball pit so we jumped in! After walking around the place, we went into a meeting room and learned about all sorts of TDRI projects, ranging from a Japanese bathhouse-turned-library to courtroom layout designs. This presentation of the work TDRI unexpectedly helped calm my nerves about my career anxieties. I appreciated the insight we got into what sort of work may be done in the industry, and it brought me solace to know that I don’t need to know everything. By that, I mean that it’s nice to know that I can be part of a team like TDRI and not be expected to be part of every project, especially when it does not speak to my interests or expertise.  Additionally, it helped further erode the idea that design is divided when it’s truly interdisciplinary and every “subsection” of desig