[Interview] "The secret to winning the President's Award 3 times? I looked into the darkest places"

Professor Kang Dong-seon of Hanyang Women's University
Develops Practical Measures for Vulnerable Groups
Participates in 'Public Service Design' Project
Wins Grand Prize Three Times at Performance Report Conference

Kang Dong-seon, a 49-year-old professor at Hanyang Women's University, has won the Presidential Award three times in the past decade. This is a rare achievement for a professor in the Department of Industrial Design. It is a mistake to imagine that a designer simply sits at a desk drawing drafts or doing computer graphic work. In a recent interview with Asia Economy, he said, "I have spent most of my 40s in the darkest and most marginalized places in our society."

Professor Kang Dong-seon of Hanyang Women's University (left) participated as a service designer in the 2021 project to introduce the hospital accompaniment service "Hublence" in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. Recognized for contributing to the improvement of mobility rights for vulnerable health groups, he received the Presidential Award at the performance report meeting held in November of the same year.

He has participated in the "Public Service Design (formerly National Policy Design) project," led by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Korea Institute of Design Promotion. Initiated in 2014, this project involves civil servants, policy users (citizens), and stakeholders forming teams with service designers to design and implement customized policies. [Related article: "No More Desk-bound Administration"... Policies Created by Citizens through 'Design Thinking']

As a service designer, Professor Kang was tasked with increasing satisfaction with public policies through "design thinking." He traveled to field sites such as the Jongno slum area, unauthorized sewing factories in Seongdong-gu, and fishing villages struggling with marine debris, working closely with local residents to create public services. The projects he participated in were honored with the Presidential Award in 2018, 2021, and 2023 at the annual performance report conference held every November.

He said the core of the public service design project is "participation" and "collaboration." Without these two elements, it is difficult to produce results. In 2021, Professor Kang took part in the introduction project of the hospital accompaniment service "Hueblence" in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju City, aimed at vulnerable health groups. The main policy users were elderly people who needed regular rehabilitation treatment but found it difficult to visit hospitals due to lack of family care. To understand their true feelings, Professor Kang came up with the idea of opening a "1000-won photo studio." For just 1000 won, people could have their photos taken in a simple studio, and a few days later, the photos were delivered in frames along with a survey. By seeing them two or three times, he built intimacy and was able to hear honest opinions from about 50 people.

In 2018, he lived and worked closely with residents of the Donui-dong slum in Jongno-gu to explore what they truly needed. "Most slum residents were very attached to their belongings. We carried out a 'clearing project' to discard unnecessary items and improve the environment." To prevent isolation from society and encourage self-reliance, they introduced job opportunities and distributed sensor lights that detect temperature and humidity inside rooms to the residents. Professor Kang recalled, "It was important to become friends with the slum residents, empathize from their perspective, and build a friendly relationship."

In Seongdong-gu, known as a hub for sewing factories, he even drank beer with skilled workers at a tavern to open their hearts. As a result, a "career certification system" was introduced as a foundation to legalize unauthorized factories. It was seen as a way to instill pride in those who had worked in sewing factories since their teens and help them with job transitions. Professor Kang said, "Service design requires keen observation of people and interaction. Thinking of the other person's problem as my own and proposing solutions seems to have produced good results." He added, "The fieldwork was so demanding that I repeatedly resolved to quit, but I felt rewarded by the social changes and participated every year," and expressed hope that the public service design project would solve even more diverse social problems in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.