• Summary of Workshop Results
• A Hands-On Method of Design — Practice and Reflection in the Chinese Context
A Hands-On Method of Design — Practice and Reflection in the Chinese Context
1. Introduction: The Gap Between Design Education and Practice
Before introducing the “Leaning by Hands” method to China, I conducted a comprehensive mapping to understand the current state of inclusive design education and practice across Chinese universities. I found that many students were genuinely passionate and eager to create meaningful, socially responsive design work. Likewise, many teachers were not only strong in theory but also deeply committed to applying design in real-world settings. However, I also observed a clear gap: most inclusive design projects in China still concentrate on product and service design, especially in the context of industrial design. What’s often missing is a full process that starts from the user’s real experience and functional needs, and evolves through hands-on testing and iteration.
This realization struck a personal chord with me. With a background in interaction design and later training in product design at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, I’ve experienced a radically different design approach—one that starts not from screens or sketches, but from material, function, and physical interaction. That’s the essence of the “Leaning by Hands” method, and it’s what I’ve sought to bring back and adapt to the context of inclusive design in China.
2. The Method: Learn by Making, Evolve by Doing
In the Dutch design education system, the process I was trained in emphasized starting with making rather than imagining. When you think of a function or concept, your first move is not to draw it on a screen, but to build it—using different materials to prototype and test whether it works. The design process becomes a dynamic evolution shaped by constant dialogue with users, observation of real-life use, and technical insights from experts.
Within this process, the designer is not the one with all the answers. Instead, the designer acts as an observer and connector—someone who identifies unseen or unspoken needs, and transforms them into usable and meaningful design outcomes. This thinking is at the core of my Haptics of Cooking project, which started from basic hand-feel interactions and evolved into a line of inclusive kitchen tools that work equally well for blind and sighted users.
3. Hands-on Design Experiments: Starting from the Kitchen: A Local Practice in Inclusive Design
This project not only emphasizes the theoretical foundations of inclusive design but also engages deeply with practical application. Designer Boey Wang collaborated with leading Chinese experts in inclusive design to organize a hands-on workshop centered on the theme of reimagining kitchen tools through inclusive design. The workshop was grounded in Boey Wang’s own design research and practice.
Boey Wang is a Chinese designer specializing in tactile and inclusive design. A graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, he focuses on non-visual perception in everyday life and aims to improve user experiences for marginalized communities through thoughtful design. In spring 2025, Boey joined forces with the Inclusive Design Center of the Shanghai Industrial Design Association, along with design researchers Dr. Ying Jiang and Dr. Fang Li, to launch a month-long inclusive design workshop titled “Making a Big Deal in the Kitchen.” The project integrated user research, concept development, and prototype production—offering a complete and immersive design experience.
The workshop was open to design students from top Chinese universities including the China Academy of Art, Jiangnan University, and East China University of Science and Technology. Conducted across four consecutive weekends, the curriculum covered every stage from field research to final product showcase. The workshop unfolded in three main phases:
* Phase One: Research and Observation
Students visited blind communities, elderly care centers, and households with perceptual challenges. They were encouraged to engage with kitchen environments through non-visual means—using tools themselves, documenting functional difficulties and emotional responses, and translating those into sensory notes and contextual analyses. This process built a deep, empathetic connection with real-world user experiences.
* Phase Two: Problem Framing and Concept Development
Through shared reading and group discussion of their field data, students identified recurring issues: for example, visually impaired users struggling to gauge water levels in pots, safety concerns with one-handed cutting tools, and the lack of effective information transmission in kitchen spaces. Boey introduced the concept of “the body as a tool,” encouraging students to design from bodily movements outward, rethinking the interface between users and kitchen tools.
* Phase Three: Prototyping and User Testing
Students translated their ideas into functional prototypes—such as spice jars with tactile markings, pot lids that emit sound cues for temperature, and multi-functional cutting boards for one-handed use. Throughout this phase, Boey and technical advisor Bin Shen provided guidance on structure and materials, helping students test feasibility and refine their designs through hands-on iteration.
Beyond skills training, the workshop created meaningful contact between students and marginalized user groups. Rooted in real research, the solutions students developed embodied the core principle of inclusive design: “learning from differences in ability.” The experience also echoed the academic frameworks proposed by Ying Jiang and Fang Li, such as “embodied empathy” and “value-driven design.”
* Toward International Dialogue: Exhibition and Future Impact
The outcomes of the workshop have been officially selected for exhibition at the main hall of Klokgebouw during Dutch Design Week 2025. This marks not only a significant international debut for original student-led designs from China, but also an important moment of exchange between Dutch and Chinese perspectives on inclusive design education.
Looking ahead, Dr. Jiang and Dr. Li plan to institutionalize this workshop model, integrating it into the design curricula of universities across the Yangtze River Delta. Through structural support and curricular reform, they aim to advance inclusive design education in China and nurture a new generation of designers who are research-driven, practically skilled, and socially responsible.
4. Looking Ahead: From Pilot Experiments to Scalable Models
The pilot projects we’ve run so far have shown promising results. I’ve hosted one in-person workshop in Hangzhou and two online workshops that focused on rapid prototyping. In each case, I saw students’ genuine enthusiasm for design—they want to make things that are real, warm, and socially grounded. But I also clearly sensed a skills gap: while their desire to design is strong, their ability to execute those ideas through hands-on methods is often limited.
This mirrors a larger insight I discussed with Professor Zhong and others: inclusive design—whether in social projects or product development—is never a quick fix. It requires time, long-term commitment, and deeper integration between theory and practice. It’s not enough to host one-off events; what’s needed is a structural method that blends classroom learning with real-world application.
One example of this is our upcoming workshop centered around “functional storage design in daily living scenarios.” Students will work from a specific use case, create prototypes by hand, conduct user research, and refine their designs through iteration and testing. This kind of process-oriented, function-first training helps students internalize inclusive design not as an abstract idea, but as something that can be built, tested, and lived with.
Our next goal is to extend the timeline of these workshops—running longer, more immersive programs of a month or more. This would give students enough time to fully experience the ups and downs of real design work, develop their sensitivity to context, and truly connect what they think with what they do. This kind of slow, hands-on process might be exactly what’s missing from current design education—and what we urgently need to build a more inclusive future.