Professor Oya Reside Demirbilek is the Co-Lead of Education Development at Tyree IHealthE. We asked Oya to tell us a little bit about herself and her research.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself. I am a designer-educator-researcher and a Professor of Industrial Design at UNSW. I am passionate about how industrial design can help enhance life for everyone, particularly for an ageing population. Designing meaningful products and better futures for all are two areas I care about most. I am particularly interested in co-designing with end-users and working with design research methods to create processes that help industrial designers define real problems, be more empathic, and identify genuine needs for their products.
I have had various positions since joining UNSW in 2000. I was the Associate Dean of Education at the Built Environment, leading the curriculum development and helping enhance the experience of students and academic staff (2013-17). Before this, I was Discipline Director for Industrial Design and Program Director for the Master of Industrial Design and the Master of Science (Industrial Design) Postgraduate Coursework Programs. Before joining UNSW, I was Assistant Professor at the Middle East Technical University (METU). I started my teaching career as an instructor in Product Design at the prestigious Art Center College of Design (Europe), La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland (1989-90), right after graduating with a Bachelor of Industrial Design.
I have a few design awards on my CV and have exhibited my jewellery design work in Istanbul, Ankara, Paris, and Sydney. In 2010, I was an International Jury Member for the 2010 Turkey Industrial Design Awards, and in 2018 and 2019, I was a Jury Member for the Australian Good Design Awards. I have two PhDs in Industrial Design, one from Bilkent University, Ankara; and one from Marmara University, Istanbul; a Master by Research in Building Sciences and a Bachelor of Industrial Design from METU, Ankara.
Please tell us a little bit about your teaching and what industrial design is. I love teaching design research methods, inclusive design, product semantics, and empathy. My teaching methods enable students to build their confidence, find their design research directions and articulate their design process and personal values in the context of enhancing their empathy towards people and environments. Teaching makes me hopeful, and I enjoy following up and sharing the success stories of our alumni.
Industrial design is a human and environment centred profession that applies multidisciplinary knowledge to find opportunities and solve real issues. It is a transdisciplinary design process encompassing various design methods, design thinking, user experience, human factors, demographics, technological and material developments and making. This design process is applied for investigating, conceiving, designing, and prototyping future or existing physical products, systems, and services. The name has ‘industrial’ in it as industrial design became a profession during the industrial revolution, with products having to be mass manufactured. The World Design Organisation defines it as a “strategic problem-solving process that drives innovation, builds business success, and leads to a better quality of life through innovative products, systems, services, and experiences.
Please tell us a little bit about your research. My research work is two-fold: one is in product semantics and investigates ways to capture people’s perceptions of the design language concerning products and brands. The second is exploring and finding ways to help make old age physically and emotionally more comfortable for as many people as possible. Both research areas include empathy, inclusive design, and co-designing with real people.
I use co-design as a methodology to incorporate real user needs and ideas into the design process and investigate the complex physical and emotional relationships between older people, daily life activities, and emerging technologies. Research shows that 1 in 5 people globally have some form of disability and that 80% of the disabilities are invisible, making it difficult for people to use, open, read information or handle products or packaging daily. So, my research is about ensuring that product or packaging designs are accessible to everyone and that inclusive design becomes the norm.
What are your ambitions for Education at Tyree IHealthE? I am looking forward to seeing how industrial design will help shape and transform the potential suite of Education programs at Tyree IHealthE and bring together many other disciplines in this process.
What do you think enable projects and innovations to succeed in the health technology space? Successful projects must solve real issues and the right problems, be intuitive and usable and at the same time have a high desirability factor so that people want to use them and even enjoy using them. In other words, successful projects and innovations are the ones that enhance and improve health professionals’ and patients’ lives.
Do you have any professional networks or resources that you can share with our readers?
Talk series - Stories Behind Products
Connect with Oya
Email: o.demirbilek@unsw.edu.au
UNSW profile: https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-reside-oya-demirbilek
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyademirbilek/