Introduction: Who does that technology want to make happy?

Hayashi: This time what I felt when judging Unit 16 was that it wasn't just about the technology and that it was difficult to win an award, and especially to be selected for the Best 100, if it wasn't clear who that technology wanted to make happy. 47 items received the Good Design Award from Unit 16, and today I'd like to focus on the attributes of the ones that were selected for the Best 100.

Services [Camping Office](GOOD DESIGN BEST100)

Inoue: This is a service that was started by Snow Peak, a camping equipment manufacturer, who wanted to use their experience and expertise for the theme of "restoring humanity" for work places and working people. It's an initiative to try and change workstyles by actually camping while working, or introducing a camping environment and equipment into the office. This has already been tried out by about 200 companies, and it was highly praised for its vision, which considered who the design of this technology and service could make happy.
In recent years, workstyle reform has become a big topic in society and I'd say a major theme has been "how to reduce work time as much as possible." However, this has taken a slightly different approach, with a mindset of trying to make work itself a more human operation. I sincerely felt that the true intention of these people, who have been passionately making camping equipment for many years, was to try and bring into offices the humanity that you can glimpse outdoors. The memorable result was bringing a smile to everyone's faces, which I clearly remember.
I think one of the major key points was that we were able to see what perspective they had and how much effort they had put into it.

Nagata: Nowadays, you don't necessarily need to go to the workplace for work, and in this time where you can work anywhere if you have a personal computer or a smartphone, going all the way to a company's office is becoming increasingly meaningless. So, in this context I found this camping office interesting because it can make people go to the office with the purpose of, for example, gathering there and receiving new motivations and stimuli, rather than just for work.

Hayashi: I think that in 10 years' time we'll have moved from the current thinking around offices of "we have to go there so we must make them interesting," to "we don't go there unless it's necessary," and I think this is a good example of part of the process of needing to increase the value of going to the office and having face to face meetings when it's necessary.

Mizuno: From a slightly different perspective, I think that there were many other applications that were more well-honed in terms of service design and system design, but I felt things are beginning to change and this service was most characteristic of an indication or sign of that change. From last year there were lots of applications with tools or services for business improvements or motivational improvements, but I feel there is a way to find these things from a different perspective, and this was chosen as a kind of message.

Airport Solutions [Approach of Smart Airport based on the Customs Electronic Declaration Gate] (GOOD DESIGN BEST100)

Inoue: This was praised as it's a system based on the highly accurate facial recognition technology that NEC already has that allows you to walk through customs, and it has taken into consideration the universal design of the whole airport. I think it was chosen because it is an initiative to design the whole experience in 2020, that makes use of the company's existing core technology, and is incredibly meaningful as it improves the experience of Japanese people and people from overseas.
It's very difficult to plan and implement such a whole initiative, but an infrastructure business like NEC skillfully incorporated the biometric technologies it already owns into the service, and I think it was probably highly rated for designing a large infrastructure system.

Judging Support System for Sports [Judging support system] (GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD)

Hayashi: From here on, as next year's Olympics approaches, more and more people will come from overseas, and when new changes are made to the airport, I have had a feeling that not small point but large surface changes are needed. This AI automatic marking system also has the Olympics in mind.

Nagata: This is a project orientated towards the Olympics, which involves the implementation of a device that films the gymnastics events on actual cameras, and then those cameras automatically awards a point score.
This time there were many other applications that used phrases like "using AI" or "through the IoT" in their explanations, but it was hard to discern where the AI was, but I think this had the characteristic of not just talking about AI or IoT, but actually being linked to something of value and trying to connect itself to social uses.

Hayashi: It's wonderful when AI is cleverly used to compensate for the parts that humans cannot do.

Nagata: Video decisions are used in other sports like soccer. However, I get the impression that it's going to spread out in other areas from here on, like using AI and video technology to judge things humans find difficult within fixed rules.

Collaboration Tool [Slack] (Good Design Best 100)

Mizuno: This was highly evaluated not only for the overwhelming fact that all members of the judging panel have used it, but also for the fact that when Slack Japan finds what can be improved, it approaches Slack's headquarters about it, and then the headquarters takes on the improvement to update the system.

Collaboration Tool [Slack] (GOOD DESIGN BEST100)

Mizuno: This service received an award this time as general medical system, for combining together the three services of appointments management, online medical care and electronic medical records. Among medical support services, such as appointments, doctor's tools or electronic medical records, there are many cases where they are all independent, each has their own strengths and they are introduced separately, but this was highly rated for unifying them all together and using UI/UX design that is easy for the patients to understand.
Under the current conditions, where there are strict regulations and you can't carry out online medical care and telemedicine freely, markets and possibilities are gradually opening up, and the way is being cleared by conscientious service system design that includes lobbying, brushed up UI/UX and communication, which was highly praised as an overarching approach.
As most of the areas that can be improved through digital technology have been removed, from here on there will be a tendency for movement in parts of heavily regulated industries like energy, medical care, education, and finance, and I think this was rated as a good precedent of a skillful, conscientious design being carried out that included rule making.

Inoue: This system uses an API to connect everything together, so whatever electronic medical records services are used, they can be accessed in a way that from a user's perspective would make you wonder, "why wasn't this done before?" Looking from the outside, everything is linked together by an API in a very simple way, but the presentation gave the impression that behind that they had put a lot of sweat and tears into it with the determination to complete it, no matter how hard it was for the engineers, or how much it cost. It's wonderful that by completing it, it has increased the user potential.

Order Entry System [AirREGI Handy] (GOOD DESIGN BEST100)

Inoue: "AirREGI," the leading POS register app service, already won the Good Design Award in 2014. This Handy version that won an award this time offers a service that incorporates the entire flow from taking an order to serving it to the table, and you can feel all the hard work that the development side must have put into it. When its prior service was installed in registers, the company must have received various requests from various restaurants. It's improved the situation by enabling the whole process to be put into the system, including the most burdensome aspects like how to take an order, cook it and serve it to the table. Furthermore, they worked to improve its usability by combining it with the existing AirREGI device and accomplished it and I think this comprehensive approach is very significant.
For example, when the number of staff who can't speak Japanese very well increases in the future, this device can help ensure that the quality of service is maintained. I thought it was also a meaningful contribution when workers wanted to get more comfortable at work.

Hayashi: It's said that in the food and drink industry the turnover of staff is fast. Instead of having to train people to become fully qualified, changing to a system that functions regardless of who does it, and one that anyone can use, is surely quite revolutionary.

Management System of Portable Toilet [hint] (GOOD DESIGN BEST100)

Nagata: This is a system that makes the job easier by attaching sensors to temporary toilets to tell how full or empty they are, and measuring the state of how much sewage has piled up in the tank and removing it. I didn't have much of an image of how IT could be used for temporary toilets, but I realized that it offered necessary solutions when I actually listened to the explanations, which I thought was great.
As there are so many disasters occurring now, I think it'll be necessary to prepare these types of solutions from the point of view of resilience.

Hayashi: Originally this was a service for music festivals, but by taking it a step further, it can also be used for disasters, and I think this way of making progress is wonderful.
In the future, when trying to develop something, you don't have to do something big from the beginning, but just take the first step on the ladder for the time being and then you might be able to see something different and go up another step. I think it's good to make a service like this, in a way where even if you can't see everything initially, you make a small start and then continually try to provide new developments.

Conclusion: Applications with stories that resonated were evaluated highly

Nagata: "Beauty and the power to resonate" were the keywords at this year's Good Design Award, and I feel getting a top award was not just dependent on the technology, but on whether they had a story that resonated, and showed how they influenced other things.
Even if they had a substantiated basis, it was only the things with the power to resonate that took the top places, and it was difficult even for things that had become widespread if they didn't have something new or something of beauty.

Mizuno: This year there was an increase of applications from overseas in this unit, and while they showed a formidable image of vision and technology, surprisingly in the end they didn't get into the top places. I think it was difficult if there was nothing that resonated.

Inoue: What left an impression on me was that the people who came to the interactive hearing of the second screening were truly people who were making things based on their own way of thinking, and made it really easy for us to understand. They conveyed to us their convictions that this thing would solve that problem, or that thing was difficult, or that a breakthrough like this would increase something's value.
The judges talked among themselves about how what is important for that company at decision making times, often comes out at these times.
I think items that were selected for the Best 100 awards were ones where you could often see that, and that was highly rated.

Hayashi: As a judge I felt once again that design is not about a thing's form, but the way that thing ought to be.
When an enterprise is thinking about how it should be, and making its ideal form, the power of a designer is absolutely necessary. At those times the cost of design is not an expense but an investment. While design may take time, the results are always connected to benefits, so take a broad view of not just technology but design as well, put it close to management, and I'd be happy if there were conversations about how visions should be designed.