Project 2: peer comments

1. http://shixiaomeng3361028.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2.html?showComment=1318986236254#c4563278185172850122

2. http://renzihan.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycled-utility.html?showComment=1318986799993#c7021191319165768387

3. http://studio1-bee.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2.html?showComment=1318987270191#c1388100774025281071

4.http://dennisdolee.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycling-utility-zen-light.html?showComment=1318987468242#c1847473294525848556

5. http://clementyoongides1031.blogspot.com/2011/10/project-2-upcycled-utility.html?showComment=1318987886068#c2399504398774235767

Project 2: Upcycling Utility

Rationale:

Within an ecologically ‘advancing’ context, the need for upcycling is an important feature of modern society. Due to the impact of our ecological footprint, I have chosen to design an upcycled adaption of a spherical lamp. My design highlights the use of synthetic paper at its’ core due to the durability of the material in comparison to recycled paper and cardboard. I chose to cut the synthetic paper in the shape of circles in order for a visually appealing lamp once strung onto the base of the structure. I did not choose to portray an upstanding lamp due to the fact that hanging lamps exude versatility in terms of adapting to different atmospheres and room settings.

The choice of different sizing for the cut out material was due to a trial and error process by which I also experimented with patterns of the same size. The initial product lacked body when lit up due to a ‘clashing’ of the circles; therefore the final result is what I believe to be efficient in design and practicality. By implementing circles of differing sizes, I was able create a final product which, when illuminated, created depth and enhanced the overall atmosphere of a room. I also believe that the final product I have created is economical in terms of materials used as well as encompassing an essence of ‘upmarket’ value. The only materials used in the final product consisted of synthetic paper and thread, emphasising the products’ ecological nature.

Design Confusion

Bill moggridge> what is design?

Bill Moggridge explains what design is and gives both examples of good and bad design. He also goes through the process of design and things that are changing in design. He starts of by going through all the different designs we have. Some typical designs are architecture, graphic design, fashion design, information design, interior design, and industrial design. He shows a short clip of Michelle Obama encouraging and supporting youth to design.

Bill moggridge than explains the different design disciplines these are architecture which he says is the most recognized, then we have furniture design and the most important thing that we all are interested is industrial design. Design disciplines form teams for complex problems for example the divide into groups such as industrial design, graphic design, physical ergonomics, web design, mechanical engineering, production engineering etc. Bill then shows a short clip of an example of a good design. It was a service designed for a visitor from china (intel umppc). This was an interesting concept as it was useful for foreigners to get around a country. This design consists of many features such as a parking assist device, choose music, make phone calls and navigation.

An example of a bad design was two remotes that had a paper covering on it with just the important buttons shown. This shows how badly design the remote control is with a lot of unnecessary buttons on it confusing the user. He then goes briefly through the importance of the design process which the key factor is understanding people and prototyping.

Protyping is important to understand and convey how the product works. He shows us two examples of different designs concepts and how one was professionally created and the other was a simple mockup video. Bill moggridge then finally goes through design today and how its changed for the new designers. He explains the different aspects of change, one being that personal products have expanded to health and wellbeing for example the adaptive eyecare which is self-prescribed glasses that allows you to control the degree of the glasses. Then there is design of the places we live to expand to social innovation programs and finally design for sustainable products expands to global sustainability.

This video was interesting because it explained design thoroughly and how important it was to design for the people and prototyping for users so that trial and error can occur. Designers today would find this very useful and inspiring to design products because it allows us to see understand design in a new light. A very interesting video to watch and kept my attention throughout his whole presentation.

Comments on blogs

1. http://2011jj.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-experience-enrichment.html?showComment=1316594517877#c3469883882855214079
2. http://saghii-sultani.blogspot.com/2011/09/product-poster.html?showComment=1316594763340#c4690636420772622546
3. http://haresama.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-1-product-poster-product-usage.html?showComment=1316594923682#c735087236398769499
4. http://starocean01.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-1-product-poster.html?showComment=1316595145677#c4759989585792913344
5. http://ginnykwok.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-experience-enrichment.html?showComment=1316595519641#c6235734526442672006

Experience Enrichment

Conventional salad tossers usually come in a set of two. This takes up room in the kitchen draws when stored away. This makes it difficult for potential consumers because of the amount of room it takes up and how this does not allow enough space for other utensils. Also when looking for salad tossers in the kitchen draw it is bothersome how you have to fiddle around to find both of parts to the utensil. The handles on the salad tossers are either too thin or have a very uncomfortable grip. These minor problems affect the usage of the salad tossers and it makes it quite strenuous to just make a salad.

The salad tosser that I have created is a two in one. It saves space on the table and in the kitchen draws when you store them away. It is easily found in the kitchen draw because the parts fit together. The colour of the salad tossers makes the design look more modern and sleek. This makes it aesthetically pleasurable appealing to the eye of the consumer. The shape of the salad tossers are ergonomically suited to hold in your hands while serving up a delicious salad.  The curve at the end of the salad tosser creates a nice hold and grip. Due to this curve your hand fits comfortably in place while the product is in use. The fork like design creates balance and its purpose is to allow the salad to be picked up easily and efficiently. This fork like design was suitable and acceptable to its usage purposes after the conduction of tests.

The materials that are used in the design would be either plastic, bamboo, or wood. This would create variations of the product which can appeal to different consumers in the market. 

Annie Leonard: The story of cosmetics

This video is about the cosmetics industry, Annie Leonard speaks about how the ingredients in these products are harmful to us and that they are links to health problems like cancer, learning disabilities and male infertility.  Annie then goes onto looking at the key features of our materials economy “toxics in, toxics out”. If at the factory they are pouring in toxins into a product example baby shampoo you’ll get toxins in baby shampoo, workers, communities and babies.

The average women in the US uses about 12 personal care products a day and the average man about 6. Each product that is used contains a dozen or more chemicals and less then 20 percent of these the safety panel reviews. Basically what annie Leonard is telling us is that we don’t know what these products are doing to us. To make us understand in depth she compares it to another situation asking us would we go on a plane that only inspects 20 percent of its planes?

Some of the types of bad chemicals are carcinogens means they can cause cancer. Other types are Neurotoxins and reproductive toxins proven to mess up brain development and reproduction.

She goes onto explaining that it’s the company’s fault and that are basically responsible for putting peoples health at risk. I believe it’s a useful video for designers because it explains the ugly side of products.

Annie Leonard: The story of bottled water

Annie Leonard talks about “how manufactured design pushes what we don’t need and destroy what we need most”. She starts off by saying if we lived in a city like Cleveland and we needed water would we get it from the tap or would we go for a bottle of water “fiji”? The bottled water was tested against normal tap water and was found that the fiji bottled water was lower quality, loses the taste against the tap water and costs more.

 Bottled water cost about 2000 times more than tap water. In a comical point of view she tells us to imagine if we were to buy a 10000 dollar sandwich. This makes buying a bottle of water sound even more stupid. She then says people in the US buy half a billion bottles every week. Which is enough to circle the globe more then 5 times.

She then goes through the “manufactured demand” process. It starts of by scaring us saying not to drink tap water it is bad. The goes on to seducing us this is done by hiding the reality of the product by images of pure fantasy. For example when the bottled water has pictures of fountains and pristine nature. Even with all these images a third of the bottled water industry’s water comes from the tap. 

Nestle released a statement saying that “bottle water is the most environmentally friendly product in the world”. Annie Leonard disagrees and goes onto explaining the manufacturing process.  This is the "misleading us" part of the manufactured demand process.

In this video I learnt that bottled water was a waste of money and that it’s doing more harm then good to the environment and us. This is important for designers because designers need to look at alternative solutions of materials and manufacturing processes rather then the ones that hurt the environment.

Annie Leonard: The story of electronics

Annie Leonard talks about why “design for the dump” is toxic to people. She starts of by stating the definition for “design for the dump” she explains that it is making stuff to be thrown away quickly. I found the bit where she says that her DVD player broke and she went to get it fixed, they asked for 50 dollars just to have a look at it and a new one at target would cost 39 dollars. She then goes on explaining the process a product goes through.

It goes through extraction, which she explains is the process of getting the materials. Then we go on to production where the materials are taken to and are manufactured into goods. Then distribution occurs and then consumption where us consumers buy the goods at our local stores and then we use these goods not knowing the harms they could be doing to the environment and us. When we are finished with our electronic products we then go through the process of disposal. Electronic products are then either taken to the landfill or overseas to be taken apart for the parts that can be resold and reused. This showed the harms that a simple electronic device can do but we all depend on them.

Annie Leonard then says that each year we make 25 million tons of e waste that gets dumped, burned or recycled. She then talks about how the company’s the designer’s work for try to “hide costs”. They try to externalise the costs, for example instead of paying to make the work environment safe the workers pay with their health. Externalising costs keep allowing designers to design for the dump.

This video was interesting due to its animation which made is easier to understanding the topic. I think its important for industrial designers to see this video because it looks at design electronics that aren’t reliable and the harms it does to our environment and us.

Product sketching

My design Career

I wanted to become a designer because I have always had an interest in the design field.  In high school I did textiles for my hsc because design and technology wasn’t offered at my high school. Textiles taught me design elements and principles that every designer for anything should know. Having to do a design subject and learning things such as the design process I realized how much I wanted to be a designer for my future career. 

With my sister having already studied fashion design I didn’t want to go down the same path. So I did research on what other design careers that were offered. I finally came across industrial design and realized it was a perfect fit due to it incorporating almost everything and anything you could design.  The more i learn from this course the more I grow to really enjoy and love industrial design.

 Initially I started of at UWS penrith studying design and technology which was a 3 year course. Due to my successful first semester I decided to give unsw a chance and see if I could make it into a well-known and established uni.  I wanted to go to unsw because I think the learning opportunities would be greater and I also think that I would be exposed to a better learning environment here as well. With also the influence of my friend whose cousin studied industrial design at unsw and said it was a very good course  I believed unsw would push me forward and help me into my future of design.

 I hope that this course would lead me into design field and let me design products for major companies. I would love to design furniture and pieces of art that can be used or just looks amazing in a home. I would also love to work overseas looking at the cultural influences of design and possibly learn more about design. I also hope that I will be successful in design and with not only just designing products I could possibly enter textiles and look at many different areas of design.

Design Excellence: JOEYCAN

Video Reflection: David Kelley > Human Centred Design

This video interested me because of its topic human centered design. David Kelly talks about how we today are using a more “human centered approach to design and that were including behaviors and personalities in the things we do.”

He goes through the lecture showing examples of this, the first example he shows is a handspring device which is a handheld computer at the time. Then the heart stream defibrillator which is saving a lot of lives and is used at the airport. Another product he introduced was the reader which is a tablet form device making reading magazines enjoyable.

He explains that the development of design has led up to focusing more on the human centered approach to design and looking at incorporating behavior and personality also in to the design. To show us how designers are doing this he shows a few clips that focus on human centered design.

One example that interested me that he showed was where Scott Adams asked them to design an ultimate cubical for Dilbert. The team thought to build their own cubicles to see for themselves the problems that come with them. They first group builds a cubicle making the walls, screens for their computer and their family photos. In the second group scenario the walls are alive and they give “Dilbert” a “group hug”. They want to make the cubicle more human so they achieve this by many features in the cubicle. There was a flower in a pot that wilts when you leave in disappointment and when you come back stands up straight as if it’s greeting you. To make it more home like, in the walls they add a built in fish tank and a small punching bag with the bosses face on it so you can let aggression out. There was a hammock that stretches across the cubicle for that afternoon nap.

This was one of many examples looking at the human centered design approach and I enjoyed all of them. I wrote about the cubicle one because it to me stood out with the human approach and you could see the personality in it making the cubicle “human like”. This I believe would also increase employees work quality as it is enjoyable to work now with the feeling of happiness rather than the feeling of entrapment.

It’s important for industrial designers to see this video so that they can see how important human centered design is in everyday living. The video also is great because it shows how far we have come from 9 years ago in terms of the design world. 

Video Reflection: Don Norman's Emotional Design

Don Norman’s lecture is very interesting and allows everyone to understand design in a whole different way. He goes through by explaining that aesthetics of a design is as important as the functional features of a design. He uses the example of the Phillipe Stark juicer, its aesthetic features are beautiful but the actual use of the product isn’t what it’s bought for. 

Don Norman says that he has bought the juicer and has it in his entry way of his house but “doesn’t use it to make juice”.  He also says that he had bought the gold plated special edition and it comes with a little note saying not to use it as a juicer as the “acid would ruin the gold plating”. As an consumer our main interest are in what emotionally and visually pleases us and by having these senses pleased the product seems to work much better for us as it makes us happy.

There are three levels of design he mentions in his talk. The visceral level is subconscious and it’s the feelings we have towards a product. The example he uses is glass water bottles. We don’t buy the water bottle for the water because water is water, but we as consumers buy it for the bottle because we can then use it as decorations of reuse it.

The behavioral level is also subconscious, and this level of design is all about “feeling in control” and includes usability and understanding. For this he uses the example of the global knives as it is so “nicely balanced and sharp and you really feel you’re in control of the cutting”.

The third level is reflective it is the part of the brain that has no control of what you do and doesn’t see the senses, it’s a “little voice in our head” that tells us whether it is good or bad. He uses the example of the hummer and how the owners of it say that they have never had a car that has attracted that much attention. This was all about image for the owners.

What made Don Normans talk interesting was that it was easy to understand and follow because he explain his points by linking products and designs. I believe it is important for industrial designers to see this video as an inspirational and learning experience for them to view design in a whole different light. This video taught that design should very much incorporate beauty, fun and humor.