Designing the scope of the leading edge

After joining DENSO in 2014, I participated in work related to on-board HMI. I took on design challenges to convey leading-edge ADAS functions*, self-driving functions, and other functions to which users are not yet accustomed so that they are clear and easy to understand even during operation. In addition, I was responsible for a wide range of duties, such as on-site research of CMF design for drones to increase visibility during flying and design favored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Since 2019, I have participated in leading design. The work is worthwhile because I can propose areas of interest independently. I am currently investigating the enjoyment of new movement via VR and the metaverse. At a company that has many products that move from minus to zero, such as zero traffic accidents and zero environmental burden, I am looking to create value moving from zero to plus, which will make people feel joy and happiness in the future.

*ADAS: Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems

Getting as close as possible to the usage environment to study it

I believe that when you inspect a design, it is important to re-create as much as possible the environment in which the product or service will be used. When you are working on the leading edge, you frequently move forward with development while imagining functions that cannot yet be experienced, such as fully autonomous operation, so it is important to come up with a way to have real experiences as much as possible.
We often use VR for inspection these days. When we inspected automated driver-less buses, we increased various elements, such as trees, roadside benches, pedestrians, moving vehicles, and driven buses. We did this because if the designed target only is in the VR world, the people to experience it mistakenly focus on it, which makes it impossible to correctly evaluate the target.
At the time, some subjects said, "I mistook the driven buses with the driver-less buses and was confused about which to board", and I realized that it is definitely important to closely recreate the usage environment.

School days designing future products that anybody can use

While I belonged to the Product research lab at University, I was interested in interaction design and tangible user interfaces and studied them on my own. I did this because I liked leading-edge devices and gadgets and noticed that older acquaintances had trouble operating in digital cameras. This made me think about what would be the best way to create products that anybody can use via future technology.
While I was designing, I grasped the technological trends, disassembled existing products to learn about their mechanisms, and inspected experiences through prototyping. This made me aware of imagining real products, not dream products.

To be honest, I did not have a driverʼs license until I joined the company and wasnʼt interested in cars when I was a student.
However, when I heard a company information session by the Design department, I realized that the organization seemed to allow you to think honestly about robots, self-driving cars, and other future products, and it made me want to join the company.
Furthermore, I can participate in not only projects developing products for one or two years in the future, but also projects that consider services 10 years in the future and the future of the company. This made me realize that choosing this company was the right decision.

Becoming a professional and a generalist

The Design department has a system that allows you to freely participate in the projects of other teams called the project system, so if you are interested, you can offer to join various projects. Furthermore, the organization has a climate that supports people when they have an interest in something and want to work on it. For example, I was younger I said, "I think that quantitative research is important at this time", and the project leader and my superior both said, "by all means go for it" and gave me the green light to move forward with it and provided support.

The organization allows you to become a professional that utilizes your expertise in various projects and a generalist that takes on various roles in each project to broaden your expertise.

The joy of seeing your ideas spread

After I designed a product for mass production, I unexpectedly went to the Development floor where the engineers work and was very shocked to see dozens of people working based on the product that I designed. I had heard that hundreds of people, including a partner outside the company, were involved in the development, but I was very shocked when I saw it with my own eyes and keenly realized the importance and worth of my work. Even after a product goes on sale, if I happen to see a vehicle that I worked on out on the street, I subconsciously move towards it and wonder who is riding in it.
Furthermore, if you are in the Design department, there many opportunities to talk to executives even soon after joining the company. I find it fascinating that my proposals reach the top of a large company like DENSO and, depending on the proposal, can impact the policies of the whole company.