Journal of Design, Business & Society - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic forefronted public urban and suburban nature interactions. ‘Human–nature interactions’ produce positive health impacts, knowledge production, risk perception, sustainable behaviour, engagement in conservation and more. Governmental and charitable reporting documents ‘nature deficit disorder’. The Design Economy report (2021) highlights that social, environmental and economic design must engage communities. Ergo, building community empowerment, is paramount to catalyse and embed sustainable design practices. The authors define a contemporary design space, unpick strategies and present ‘approaches to human–nature interactions’ insights. The My Naturewatch (NW) project features an accessible DIY camera trap, fostering beneficial nature engagements regardless of location, technological and/or wildlife expertise. NW is central within the outlined design space. The article reports on NW deployment(s) and catalysing organizations and communities. Three studies include: (1) The Wildlife Trusts #30dayswild, digital campaign, (2) The Durrell Trust, placed-based activity and (3) Nova New Opportunities, working with re-located communities. The authors acknowledge communities are sacrosanct and a substantial sustainable design asset for regeneration. The work leverages contemporary ‘phy-digital’ engagements, highlighting practices of social, environmental and public design spaces. The findings insights benefit cultural institutions, practitioners, conservation projects and more.

In recent years, exterior façades have become one of the common architectural features in most of the retail business premises. The external façades, in this case, are considered as aesthetic instruments that add more value to the businesses through continued customer attraction. The exterior façade design should incorporate the architectural elements that are attractive for the customers to develop the willingness to get into the business premises. In the retail business buildings, there is a crucial need to have uniquely designed exterior façades that will enhance the aesthetic qualities. This research was conducted to state the façade design effect towards customer preferences in high-end retailer stores. The case study selected was the façade of Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district, comparing between its original and current façade designs. This research used an experimental approach by altering research variables. The altered variables were the façade design elements, whereas the influenced variables were customers’ preferences. The decidedness of sample used purposeful sampling method with a technical survey via a questionnaire. The determination of the customers’ level of attraction towards the exterior façade design of the retail building had been done after calculating and breaking down the façade elements and features. Moreover, the author offers two façade designs of the same building: the original façade design (Façade A) and the current façade design (Façade B) to get a description of customers’ preferences. By comparing both façades’ elements, the result showed that the exterior façade design had a significant effect on customer attraction and aids in enhancing the business value for retail businesses. The building that houses the Louis Vuitton store without a very distinctive external façade was upgraded and the outcomes for this study were assessed. Very limited research has been done about building façades in general. This study about façade design in particular and its influence on customer attraction, resulting in boosting a business, is unique and original in its nature.

This study explores the role of typicality and novelty in influencing the aesthetic preference for industrial products. Typicality and novelty’s effects on the aesthetic responses of designed objects have gained interest in the field of experimental aesthetics over the past decades, with a wide support towards the ‘Most Advanced Yet Acceptable’ (MAYA) principle. What is yet to be discovered is how both typicality and novelty influence the aesthetic preference for industrial products such as industrial machineries. Three industrial product categories that vary in their degree of functionality and decorativeness were identified including highly functional and low-decorativeness products, equally functional and decorative products and low-functional and highly decorative products. Online evaluations using 7-point Likert scales were distributed to participants from Australia and the Republic of China. An empirically validated scale for aesthetic preference, ‘Pleasing to See’ was employed in the evaluation. The empirical results show that typicality and novelty affect and influence the aesthetic preference differently across the tested industrial product categories. Given the findings, a quantifiable evaluation method that can benefit the product design industry especially in testing design concepts of industrial products is proposed. It is intended that the evaluative measures could help minimize the risks related to production, leading to an increased and transformed value of industrial products’ marketability.

Creative industries emphasize human creativity and intellectual abilities. Studies found that most organizations in China’s creative sector failed to establish appropriate motivation strategies that are conducive to creative performance. This study is a cross-disciplinary study, which investigated the organizations’ management and designers’ behaviour in China’s creative industries with mixed methods to answer the research questions. The results lead to a deeper understanding of designers’ needs for motivation and a tangible motivation model for business management to imply. A conceptual framework has been developed as the basis of this research. 41 in-depth interviews were conducted for collecting information about the current motivation methods in China’s creative industries, and their effectiveness. These interviews also revealed the actual needs of designers through finding out their preferred motivators. 396 valid online questionnaires were received from managers and designers to further measure the perceived priorities of the motivators found in the in-depth interviews. The results indicated the current motivation methods focused on extrinsic motivators, while designers in China valued both extrinsic motivators like monetary rewards and intrinsic motivators like recognition. It also revealed the current management strategies are less effective in motivating designers. It discovered that management strategies in China’s creative industries lack awareness about their designers’ needs. This investigation leads to the discussion about the immature ecosystem of the creative industries in China and its influence on their development. This research is an original study that enriched knowledge of the creative behaviour, which identified the key motivators of designers in China and formed a model as advice to the management and policy-makers in creative industries. They can also benefit from this understanding and gain a better insight into motivating creative employees through appropriate motivation strategies.