Intercultural Design - Task 1 - 3

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3/2/2026 - 17/3/2026 (Week 1 - Week 7)
Shawn Wong Kai Hen / 0375372
Intercultural Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 1 - 3 : Compilation Document


  INTRUCTIONS  




  Progression  

 Week 01 - Group Forming 

During Week 1, I arrived late to class and most of my classmates had already formed their groups. After speaking with Mr. Asrizal, he informed me that groups could only be formed during class time. However, he later posted a notification on Teams so that students who had not yet joined a group could find teammates and form a group.


 Week 02 - Ideation / Planning / Topic Approvals 

During this week, we started discussing ideas for our project. As a first step, we agreed that everyone would conduct some research and record their ideas in a shared document.

Before beginning the research, we needed to decide on the project location. After voting, we chose Kuala Lumpur. Initially, we considered selecting Japan, but we felt that focusing on a local context would be more suitable for our project.

Once the location was confirmed, everyone began researching ideas related to Kuala Lumpur. My proposed idea is called “Urban Guardian – The Last Mile Companion.” It is designed to support daily commuters, women walking alone, elderly pedestrians, tourists, and low-income workers who rely on walking after exiting MRT and LRT stations in Kuala Lumpur.




  Ideation Workspace  



 Week 03 - Proposal Presentation Submission 

After receiving feedback from our supervisor, Mr. Fauzi, we selected three ideas from our ideation for the proposal. We then began refining these ideas. Nathan, our group leader, and I worked together on Ideation 1, while the other group members were responsible for Ideation 2 and Ideation 3.

At the moment, we are focusing more on Ideation 1, which was proposed by Nathan. However, the final decision has not been made yet. We will wait for the proposal submission and feedback from Mr. Fauzi before confirming the selected idea.


 Proposal Slide 

 Proposal Presentation 



 Week 04 - Field Study / Data Gathering 

In Week 4, Mr. Fauzi confirmed that our selected idea is Idea 3 – Rethinking Public Seating: Informal Seating Habits and Design Solutions for Bukit Bintang. We will now proceed with this idea and begin the data gathering process. Several data collection methods can be used for this stage, as listed below:

Data Collection Methods
Some of the methods by which you can collect data:
  • Observation study.
  • Interview of relevant stakeholders (from the lecture series, you may
    approach any of the guest speakers for an interview, if you deem
    their presentation useful for further research).
  • Online and/or actual physical material* visual research of the
    selected area

After having a group meeting, we decided to use three data collection methods: observation, interview, and survey, so that we could gather more comprehensive data.

I was assigned to handle the survey section, so I was responsible for creating the survey form to collect responses, while other members handled different tasks. I first prepared the questions for both the survey and interview, then created the survey form. The survey consisted of around 10 simple questions.




 Week 05 - Task 2 Submission 

After completing the data collection, we began working on Task 2: Proposal. This task focuses on the data we gathered, including visual, oral, textual, and tactile artefacts, and analysing the cultural and social meaning of the site.

Before proceeding to the Final Task, we are finalizing this mind map to provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges stakeholders face.


 Week 06 & 07 - Design Refinement and Final Submission  

For our idea, we initially planned to use photos from our observations and draw our ideation sketches on them. However, we felt that sketches alone were too simple, so we decided to use AI tools to help generate visuals based on our ideas. The outcome was unexpectedly impressive.

Fig 1.1 - Idea Sketch Comparison

Fig 1.2 - Idea AI Tools Comparison

Since our drawing skills are limited, we utilised AI tools to visualise our proposed public seating intervention within the actual site context. By describing our concept of integrating short-stay seating into existing urban edges, we iteratively worked with the AI to generate and refine different design outcomes. Through multiple rounds of trial and error, we were able to explore various forms, placements, and scales before arriving at a solution that best represents our idea. The images above demonstrate our initial explorations and the progression of our design development.

And Here's our Final Outcome and Final Presentation




  REFLECTION  

This project was one of the few group-based assignments in the course, so I was genuinely excited about the opportunity to collaborate with students from different seminars and exchange diverse perspectives. After forming our group, our discussions progressed smoothly, with each member actively contributing ideas, especially when shaping our concept of improving pedestrian comfort through public seating interventions.

Our responsibilities were clearly divided, allowing everyone to take ownership of their tasks. Throughout the process, I gained a deeper understanding of how people experience urban spaces differently, particularly in terms of comfort, movement, and behaviour in public areas. This project also increased my curiosity about how design can respond to real human needs, and I developed a stronger interest in observing and understanding how people interact with their environment.




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