Shuai Du

Sparkbot: We help you better capture and organize your inspiration.

As a service designer, Shuai Du (杜帅) primary objective is to leverage her creative endeavors in order to facilitate individuals in cultivating a heightened sense of sensitivity towards the intricacies of daily existence. Furthermore, she aims to safeguard their inherent entitlement to embrace a 'go with the flow' ethos, thereby navigating the convolutions of contemporary society.

Education:

Royal College of Art, MA Service Design (09/2022 — 09/2023)
Beihang University, BE Industrial Design (09/2018 — 06/2022)

Project Experience:

Sparkbot — Utilize technology to enhance inspiration documentation for design practitioners
BioBiz — A commercialization platform for individual designers in biobased materials
Boatrace — Service experience design for vessel reutilization
Research on Product-Service System Design for the Autism Community

With a solid foundation in engineering from undergraduate studies and a design background from graduate studies, she has successfully amalgamated the principles of logic and precision inherent to engineering with the ingenuity and nonconformity characteristic of design. In the realm of service design, a discipline that emphasizes systematic thinking and holistic approaches, she is able to effectively leverage her interdisciplinary collaboration skills and critically analyze problems from multiple perspectives.

She finds great pleasure in engaging in discourse surrounding the interplay between technology and human existence within her projects. While some contend that design simplifies life, she believes that design's very presence is instrumental in enhancing the capacity of technology to serve humanity more effectively. Particularly in this epoch of rapid technological proliferation, it is incumbent upon designers to critically contemplate the intricate dynamics between technology and the fabric of human society. Rather than succumbing to a passive acceptance, individuals should be endowed with the agency to actively select the typologies of technology and determine their manner of integration into the tapestry of our lives.

In her Individual Research Project ‘Sparkbot’, she and her team undertook an investigation into the potential of technology to augment the ideation-capturing process for creative practitioners. Against the backdrop of swift advancements and ubiquitous adoption of AI technology across sectors, we are currently reaping the rewards of enhanced convenience. Nonetheless, we find ourselves grappling with the challenge of information inundation. Notwithstanding, their project endeavors to communicate a profound reverence for the intrinsic human creativity, serving as custodians of individuals' fervent ardor and unadulterated devotion to the realms of expression and innovation.

Everyone should be the designer of their own life.

Inspiration is a spark that ignites the creative process. It fuels imagination, encourages exploration, and generates new perspectives.

Capturing and harnessing inspiration is a goal for many creative individuals, as it allows them to channel their ideas, thoughts, and emotions into meaningful expressions and creations. However, designers and artists, people working in creative industry often face with challenges during the process of capturing and utilizing inspiration, because of the nature of inspiration. Therefore, our project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the journey and hope to create a better experience for designers to capture organise and utilize it.

According to the survey, we have found some noteworthy data: 82% of people strongly recognize the importance of recording inspiration. However, only 57.9% attempt to establish a habit of recording. When asked about the biggest challenges they face, we received the following responses: 1) lack of systematic methods to solve problems, 2) concerns about maintaining the continuity of recording, and 3) Limited time available to dedicate it.

From the survey, we found that the majority of people struggle with how to record their ideas from their minds in the most purest way possible. Many people feel that jotting down notes on paper is the closest way to capture their intuitive thoughts, but it is not convenient for storage. On the other hand, recording on note book for easy storage often leads to a cluttered mess due to the abundance of data, which makes it challenging to retrieve information when needed in the future.

If we can redesign the experience of how people capture and organise inspirations and make it better, we can improve the efficiency, creativity and productivity in our design process.

Our service eliminates organizing hassles, enabling users to quickly locate information by enhancing their memory or just simply do the organising work automatically. This probably allow users to record their thoughts effortlessly and focus more on self-expression, and unrestricted imagination.

Using the conversation mode on your phone, you can easily record your inspirations. And with the help of an intelligent assistant, you can manage and retrieve your inspirational notes. It allows your creativity to flow without limits. Everything can become a reality.