Too often design processes are separated from insights into the use of the designed artifact, and even designers themselves may use models and concepts that focus on the artifact without paying attention to the context in which the artifact is used. To address the issue, it’s important to understand the context and use complementary perspectives (Kyng & Mathiassen, 1997) to develop a better perception of the situation and come up with useful solutions.

With the rapid growth of technology, the smartphone has largely fulfilled most people’s needs for telephone, camera, media player, etc., and it has become indispensable in people’s lives. The iOS and Android are considered to be the most popular operating systems globally; together, they have created a duopoly and account for more than 99% (Moon Technolabs, 2017) in smartphone sales. However, Android has a more market share in developing nations like Asia and Africa while iOS leads the market in developed countries like US, Australia, Europe, etc.

Thus, to build an app for an operating system, the designer needs to consider the context in which it will be used; and identify user needs and preference to deliver ‘native’ (Babentsov, 2017) user experience as users have a fixed understanding of the UX pattern on a particular platform.

The billboard project of ‘The Hidden Voices of Banjarmasin’ created by Group Durian that is designed in WhatsApp’s Android interface. The context of smartphones in Indonesia is dominated by the Android operating system, which shares 88.37% of the market (Statista, 2017). Designing billboard in Android interface would trigger audience’s emotional responses more effectively because people are more familiar with the system.

 

 

Contrasty, in the US, Messenger is rated as one of the most popular social media as it conveniently connects with Facebook as well as local contacts. The billboard could be designed in Messenger’s iOS interface as a metaphor to communicate and resonate with audiences.

Design is making sense (of things). It can be read as design is a sense creating activity (Krippendorff, 1989) that is recognisable and understandable. Be aware of the local context, designer can effectively minimise the failures and straightforwardly convince audience. Various approaches and solutions are shaped by contexts to reduce conflicts and enhance user experience.

Reference

Babentsov, 2017, ANDROID VS. IOS: UI/UX DIFFERENCES, Luanapps, viewed 31 Jan 2018, https://lunapps.com/blog/android-vs-ios-uiux-differences/

Group Durian, 2018, The Hidden Voices of Banjarmasin, WordPress, viewed 31 Jan 2018, https://indonesiadesignstudio.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/group-durian-billboard-project-the-hidden-voices-of-banjarmasin/

Krippendorff, 1989, On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or on the Proposition That “Design Is Making Sense (Of Things)”, JSTOR, viewed 31 Jan 2018, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511512?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Kyng, M. & Mathiassen, L. 1997, Computers and Design in Context, GoogleBooks, viewed 31 Jan 2018, https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-P2y2B_oT1oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=design+in+context&ots=UcBKYGTyvE&sig=dwyFvZysQptGv-hPqPKUWGSmjW0#v=onepage&q=design%20in%20context&f=false

Moon Technolabs, 2017, Apple Vs Android — A comparative study 2017, AndroidPub, viewed 31 Jan 2018, https://android.jlelse.eu/apple-vs-android-a-comparative-study-2017-c5799a0a1683

Statista, 2017, Market share of mobile operating systems in Indonesia from January 2012 to December 2017, viewed 31 Jan 2018, https://www.statista.com/statistics/262205/market-share-held-by-mobile-operating-systems-in-indonesia/

Sasirangan is a traditional cloth of Banjar tribe society and is commonly used in Banjar indigenous events. The word sasirangan comes from the word “Menyirang”(RedDot TripNusa Indonesia, 2017) which means drawing the patterns, tying with threads and dyeing, until now sasirangan still made manually and become one of the traditional handicraft city of Banjarmasin.

Desy, a student of Primary School Teacher Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, kindly shared her experience and understanding of traditional sasirangan. Historically, the sacred cloth was believed as a means of healing for the sick and protecting from ghosts. Each design of motif has different meanings created by sasirangan artists, and it often follows the will of the buyers.

I was very fortunate to be invited to the sasirangan studio operated by Orie, who is known as one of the best sasirangan designers in the city. From the very first steps of designing and drawing patterns; threading lines with a tiny needle, to dyeing with the mixture of magic powders, the idea is gained that massive effort and patient contributed to creating a special and unique piece of sasirangan.

 

 

 

 

As the complicated and fussy motif of sasirangan, people in Banjarmasin often purchase it from trusted and professional stores rather than make it themselves. The price is decided depends on the designs, patterns and colour of sasirangan. More complicated, higher the price. Nowadays, people prefer to choose the print version over hand-made one as the price is much cheaper and the colour is more diverse.

 

 

 

According to Desy, she usually wears sasirangan as kebaya, a traditional blouse-dress worn by women in Indonesia, in formal situations. Moreover, most of publics showed up in the anti-smoking event day wore sasirangan as shirts, dresses, etc., to show their recognition and awareness towards the issue.

Sasirangan is often puzzled with Batik, a traditional and famous Javanese technique that creates motif by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a special tool then applying wax resist dyes to allow the designer to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired. Similarly, the diverse patterns of sasirangan and batik are influenced by a variety of cultures and inhabit; both of them are considered to be the intangible heritage of humanity(UNESCO, 2009). Sasirangan was embedded in modern designs in New York fashion week 2017, the collaboration endowed a new meaning to traditional heritage and allowed it to spread world-widely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Asikbelajar, n.d., Kain Sasirangan: Sejarah, Arti dan Motif, viewed 24 Jan 2018, http://www.asikbelajar.com/2014/04/sasirangan-sejarah-arti-dan-motif.html

RedDot TripNusa Indonesia, 2017, SASIRANGAN “Traditional Clothing” BANJARMASIN South Borneo INDONESIA, Linkdin, viewed 24 Jan 2018, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sasirangan-traditional-clothing-banjarmasin-south-borneo-indonesia

UNESCO, 2009, viewed 24 Jan 2018, http://whc.unesco.org/

Zubedi, V. 2017,  New York Fashion Week: First Stage – Runway, gettyimages, viewed 24 Jan 2018, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/event/indonesian-diversity-september-2017-new-york-fashion-week-first-stage-runway-775037953#model-walks-the-runway-wearing-vivi-zubedi-ss18-during-the-indonesian-picture-id843852562 

Regarded as the key factor to cause a wide range of diseases including many types of cancer, heart disease and stroke, chest and lung illnesses and stomach ulcers, tobacco smoking leads to over 7 million (WHO 2017) deaths annually. It does not only destroy the health of the smokers, but also ‘…exacerbates poverty, reduces economic productivity, contributes to poor household food choices, and pollutes indoor air’ (Chan 2017).

In December 2012, Australia successfully became the first country to introduce the legislation of Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 that requires all cigarettes sold from July 2012 to be packed in olive brown packages without brand design elements except for their brand names and product names displayed in a standardised font, colour and location (Wakefield 2011). Plain packaging eliminates the function of cigarette packs as portable advertising methods for tobacco companies, by smokers conveniently disseminating branding and imagery wherever they go. The Act went further to include large warning depictions of diseases caused by tobacco smoking, which was required by FCTC to cover at least 30% or 50% of the front and back of the packages (Hammond 2011). It aims to improve the public health by discouraging people from using tobacco products, discouraging relapse of tobacco use and reducing exposure to tobacco smoke (The Department of Health 2017).

The government’s announcement of Plain Packaging Act showed Australia’s serious commitment to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. However, the paths through its realisation have continued to be opposed and attacked by tobacco companies, who are desperate to prevent its implementation in Australia. (Wakefield 2011) The victory of Philip Morris’ case against plain packaging law, which was criticised by the court as an ‘abuse’ (Knaus 2017) of trade agreements, was invigorated and it established an important precedent for plain packaging to be implemented elsewhere.

Following the treaty of plain packaging and comprehensive graphic health warnings on cigarette and tobacco packs, the pack display declined by 15% (Zacher 2014). It has effectively minimised the exposure to tobacco promotion and has increased attention of health knowledge and perceptions of risk by smokers and non-smokers to promote smoking cessation (Hammond 2011). The drop of 0.55% points (Belluz 2016) of smoking rates between 2012 and 2015 attributed to the packaging changes that shows the success of plain packaging. The expectation aims to accrue the benefits of the Act overtime to protect young people from the tobacco industry.

 

 

Reference

Australian Government Department of Health, 2017, Evaluation of tobacco plain packaging in Australia, viewed 14 December 2017, http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/tobacco-plain-packaging-evaluation

Belluz, J. 2016, Cigarette packs are being stripped of advertising around the world. But not in the US, Vox, viewed 14 December 2017, https://www.vox.com/2016/6/2/11818692/plain-packaging-policy-us-australia

Hammond, D. 2011, Health warning messages on tobacco products: a review, Tobacco Control, viewed 14 December 2017, http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/5/327

Knaus, C. 2017, Philip Morris cigarettes charged millions after losing plain packaging case against Australia, the guardian, viewed 14 December 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/10/philip-morris-cigarettes-charged-millions-after-losing-plain-packaging-case-against-australia

Wakefield, M. 2011, Welcome to cardboard country: how plain packaging could change the subjective experience of smoking, Tobacco Control 2011,  Tobacco Control, viewed 14 December 2017, http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/5/321

World Health Organisation, 2017, Noncommunicable diseases: the slow motion disaster, viewed 14 December 2017, http://www.who.int/publications/10-year-review/ncd/en/index4.html

World Health Organisation, 2017, World No Tobacco Day 2017: Beating tobacco for health, prosperity, the environment and national development, viewed 14 December 2017, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/no-tobacco-day/en/

Zacher, M., Bayly, M., Brennan, E., Dono, J., Miller, C., Durkin, S., Scollo, M. & Wakefield, M. 2014, Personal tobacco pack display before and after the introduction of plain packaging with larger pictorial health warnings in Australia: an observational study of outdoor café strips, Wiley Online Library, pp. 653–662, viewed 14 December 2017, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.12466/full

Considered as one of the greatest archipelagoes, the Indonesian landscape of forest and sea drew archipelago communities into the orbits of land-based civilisations. Special land and sea products (resins, fragrant barks from trees, pearls, etc.) make the archipelago important to foreigners, attracted them to its water lanes and jungle paths, and brought in new knowledge. Living more on sea than on land, archipelago sailors put products into ‘water-borne chains of exchange’ (Taylor 2003). Some of these products ended up in distant societies with different sets of cultural requirements and different inheritances of knowledge. When objects circulating in trade networks reflected the growing manufacturing capacity of Asian civilisations, they triggered a corresponding development in some archipelago communities on the coasts of Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Java. These communities grew into ports which specialised in collecting products from their immediate hinterland, from their neighbours, and from places that could be reached across the water.

In South Kalimantan, there are hundreds of rivers became an important transportation route to the present. The capital of South Kalimantan, Banjarmasin, is located near the junction of the Barito and Martapura rivers. Known as ‘River City’, Banjarmasin is a few inches feet below sea level and laced with flood-prone waterways, and many houses are built on rafts or stilts over the water. The city split by the river Martapura provides its own characteristics on the lives of its people, especially the use of rivers for water transportation, trade and tourism. Floating Market Kuin Estuary is a traditional floating market on the river at the mouth of the river Barito Kuin, Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. The market is not only the reflection of the culture that has taken place long ago, but it also shows respects for the unique traditional trading wisdom of Banjarmasin Banjar.

Floating market is one of the cultural heritages in selling goods among community along rivers ecosystems which are recently grown as tourism attraction. (Normaleni 2015) Linking floating market and tourism offers opportunities for local economic development. The local style of floating market opens early in the morning and only lasts for 3 hours. The specialty of this market increases the tourism as well as remains the traditional barter transactions between local merchants. Women traders of boating sell their own production, while the second-hand purchase from the hamlet called panyambangan for resale.The Floating Market is inseparable from the formation of Banjarmasin and its surroundings as ‘Leading Tourism Icons’. (Rahmini, Pudjihardjo, Hoetoro & Manzilati 2015)

 

 

 

Reference

Maududdin, F. Lok Baintan Floating Market in South Borneo, Indonesia, viewed 07 Dec 2017, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3522809/The-floating-markets-Indonesia-Mesmerising-images-traders-shoppers-weaving-river-chain-20-boats.html

Normaleni, E. 2015, Tourist profiles and perception as a basic planning for sustainable tourism development Lok Baitan Floating Market, South Kalimantan, Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology, pp. 11-16, viewed 07 Dec 2017, http://eprints.ulm.ac.id/1104/1/Journal%20Bu%20Elyn.pdf

Rahmini, N., Pudjihardjo, M., Hoetoro, A. & Manzilati, A. 2015, The Role of Bonding, Bridging and Linking at Traditional Markets in Indonesia: A Study at Lok Baintan Floating Market Banjar Regency South Kalimantan, Journal of Applied Economics and Business, viewed 07 Dec 2017, http://www.aebjournal.org/articles/0303/030300.pdf#page=76

Taylor, J.G., 2003,  Indonesia : Peoples and Histories, Yale University Press, ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed 07 Dec 2017, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uts/detail.action?docID=3420328