Yusuke Kanda is a service and experience designer, very keen to design for positive social and cultural change. As a digital design expert, he worked on websites and digital services for various industries such as finance, real estate, telecommunications and manufacturing after achieving BA in sociology. At Royal College of Art, he has engaged with some service design projects, especially for social impact.
Yusuke Kanda
"The Backflip", Living with Autism –
Story by Kendra Clulow, Animation by Magda Kreps
The inconsistent accessibility to support for individuals with Autism throughout their transition into adulthood means they are more likely to drop out and experience long-term mental health issues.
Our approach is to provide long-form personal relationships that are accessible throughout these gaps. Supporting the direction around intense interests whilst marking distance travel and milestones will create the impact of improved self-confidence and mental wellbeing. This will enable individuals to better make choices in their transitions, better integrate within society, and lead to increasing diversity and a better understanding of autism in society.
How might we support young autistic individuals develop the confidence to navigate the transitions into adulthood, to build connections with peers in a safe environment, and to aspire to live purposeful, impactful lives?
We archive this by offering “The School of New Ideas”, a personalised support service for young autistic individuals. It aims to equip individuals with the confidence to navigate the transitions into adulthood, build connections with peers, and aspire to live impactful lives in a diverse society. Our series of pathways centre around individuals' interests, whilst guiding them toward understanding themselves and setting future goals in a safe non-judgemental environment.
The pathways offer both interactive group work and individual mentoring sessions. Our Autism passport sits alongside the pathways, enabling individuals to track their progress and share valuable information with friends, family and employers.
Project Member: Joanne Chiu, Jonathan Hadlow, Yusuke Kanda
In Collaboration with:
RCA Graduate, Animation for "The Backflip, Living with Autism"
RCA Neurodiverse Society Lead, Support for Our Discovery Workshop
London population has been increasing constantly in the latest years. This comes with positive aspects such as economic development, but some secondary effects join as well such as crowdedness that affects mental wellbeing of Londoners.
A BIG City crowded with lonely people. Almost 9 million people in London. And about 90% of Londoners experience loneliness. The government spends billions of pounds due to mental health issues. It is an emerging issue we should tackle.
How might we empower Londoners to make meaningful friendships and get benefit from local nature space in order to support their mental wellbeing?
“Coolture” is an inclusive experience maker platform that empowers Londoners to connect with people better through small group meetings in nature that will improve their long-term wellbeing. It matches people with similar interests and provides toolkits and recommendations for ice-breaker activities and artful noticing experiences of nature.
Project Member: Arif Yusop, Cristiana Stanciu, Fumito Kawai, Ruoyang Sun, Yusuke Kanda
For Yusuke, the purpose of studying Service Design at Royal College of Art is to seek practical approaches to design for positive social and cultural change. He is passionate about seeking design approaches for tackling many inequity and exclusion issues people face in today’s complex world.
His passion comes from his educational and professional backgrounds. When he studied sociology at university, he participated in the activities of an organisation for preserving and reactivating traditional houses in Kyoto, Japan. Through the experience, he wrote the graduation thesis about the citizens' community-building actions using art and design in a local area.
After graduation, he has been designing websites and digital services for various industries in Japan for years. The strength in his profession is to propose design plans clearly and logically. In addition, he prides himself on collaborating well with team members through visual thinking.
These experiences encourage him to multiply the power of design and social actions for a better future. After entering Royal College of Art, he has engaged with service design projects, especially in the social impact area. In the final project, he presents "The School of New Ideas", a personalised support service for young autistic individuals that equips them with the confidence to navigate the transitions into adulthood, build connections with peers, and aspire to live impactful lives in a more diverse society. Those practices during RCA represent his attitudes as a designer.