Objectified was a very interesting documentary that i found inspiring and helpful in terms of knowing what to expect once entering into the industry. Showing in depth about the complexity of manufactered products by todays standard the relationship between them and the users and of course the designers who design them. This information was incredible useful for me as i culd understand a broader scope of the industry and what it envolves.
The video showed lots of information and comparisons of many different designers of the years spanning from Marc Newson to Karim Rashid. The comparisons were insightful and design based showing the difference in there views and ideals of design.
Objectified in my opinion is a must watch video for all industrial design students studing and designers alike to really get a perspective on what design really means within a product.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Designing a Product Service System
Reflection
Product Service System
Modular Vertical Garden System
When i first read the brief for this assignment i was incredibly confused by what it was asking as i had no idea what a Product Service System (PSS) entailed. The next few lectures seemed to clear this problem up explaining in good detail what a PSS is and how you can go about designing one. The part that really clarified it for me was when we researched and compared existing PSS models and had to choose which area we where going to design for.
The biggest shock about this assignment was that we had never done anything like this before in any of our previous assignments. Not only designing a PSS but also working in a group, this did prove to have its own set of difficulties as every person in the group had their own opinion to share. Even though this opinion sharing set us back in a lot of the design phase of the assignment, the end result came from an incredible amount of refinement and solid research.
There were many options when it came to the type of PSS we were going to improve or refine, some systems included health, transport, and food. These titles are the main concepts that are defined by the many, many sub-headings that exist within them. An example of this is transport being devised of private, public to cars, busses, and trains.
The concept that we chose was food as we found a large gap in the health food section, specifically community gardens. With this concept our group found that the easiest part of the project was creating an idea for the PSS. This was done through extensive research to find the problems that community gardens face. The research revealed that many community gardens had over 60 person waiting lists. This showed the popularity of this type of activity and the major demand for more to be envolved.
The hardest part of the assignment was designing and producing a product that served an essential part of the PSS. I found it incredibly hard due to the fact that one group member would get a great idea, but through further research found the idea to be impossible to apply. This became very disheartening as we came up with hundreds of so called 'good ideas', ranging from starter kits, hydroponic pots, to many concepts of vertical garden systems.
As i mentioned before the opinions of the other group members became an extremely valuable tool in the design process. Although at times the process was frustrating, the difficulties we encountered while designing this product is what made the system we designed so solid.
The next part of our design phase was choice of material, this material had to be appropriate for outdoor use. This type of use has certain needs such as UV resistant, weather resistant, and shatter and drop proof design. The material that we decided on was PP, this material checked all the boxes for the use we needed it for and was a successful candidate for this product.
One problem did arrise in the final few phases of design was that the colour that we had chosen for the material was a white colour. Although the colour white was an appropriate colour the plastic could not have been recycled plastic therefore must have been virgin plastic. This was one of our biggest mistakes and will be noted in future designs.
All in all i found the project a lot of fun and very interesting to find out about all the different types of PSS that are around today. Looking specifically at there strengths and weakness's to find gaps were either another PSS could fit or an improvement could be made. I found that all group members contributed to all parts of the assignment equally and to the final design of the product.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Design for Disaster
Rational
The Bangladesh people suffer from a yearly devastating cyclone and face the hard task of regathering themselves to start over. The problems they face along the path to recovery happen due to issues with pre disaster technology, problems during and after the event.
The issue I decided to address was the inability to recover or supply fresh water to the population. This was due to mass flooding which destroyed the usual sources of fresh water by contaminating them with sewerage and other impurities.
This project took into consideration the financial situation of the country when designing this product. My original idea was to be a tent that had its own rain water catchment and storage system. This idea came about after reading accounts of the aftermath of the storm bringing heavy rain and storms to the region. My first thought was how could I harness these storms to benefit survivors.
Problems faced when designing such an object is that tents have been designed so many times I thought it would not be a good idea to try and make my own tent but instead just focus my attention on the water catchment system. The system would be designed to suit the tents already being supplied to the areas affected. These tents consisted of a very simple canvas triangle tent, which were very common amongst the camps.
Other issues that arose when designing this product were creating an over flow that would allow the water to not just build up in the catchment area. This was a problem as the catchment was only supposed to create a sieve like response and fill up the jug, bottle or container connected. I found that if the catchment filled up too much it would become too heavy for the tents canvas outer shell and may collapse the tent. This was overcome in the finished design with a sufficient overflow compartment.
The second issue was wether to integrate a filter system into the design. My final design did not include such a device although having one would be of great significance although there may be ‘bugs’ in the rain water some exposure to UV light would diminish the risk of an infection enormously. With this I included a clear bottle that is a flat pack piece, after it is filled it can be used for cooking or just left in the sun for a required amount of time to kill any remaining bacterial in the water.
Overall the product designed was designed functionally to work and stay in the financial constraints of the countries it is meant for. The product can all have a use with in other disasters all over the world as it can be valuable even after the disaster has past.
Reflection
Project 1 was an incredibly difficult project to design for as i had no idea how to design for a disaster struck area. Although in the process of the assignement i learned a lot about the affects of these disasters on countries such as Bangladesh. The difficult part of this assignement was designing a quality part for such a poor nation who needed aid desparately.
My idea sprang to me during the research stage although at that stage i didn't have an idea of how i could achieve it. The idea was a water catchment system that could be drapped over the existing tents being used in the disaster area, and could be hung from trees if the tent could not take the strain. i tried to take advantage of the constant rain after the disaster struck to have a reliable and most importantly clean source of water for the victims. I struggled with the end design of this product for weeks having many restraints to take under consideration such as pricing, weight, portability, and function. The end design came to be cheap, easy to use and set up design that functioned with little to no effort.
i feel like i achieved the goals of the assignment and produced a functioning and cheap product for the bangladesh people and all other disaster affected areas. One thing that could be improved is if the tent manufactures designed this product into the tent itself, this would reduce the need for another product that could be distributed to the victims. The aims of my design were to incorporate the already used triangle shaped tents and if possible trees surrounding them.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)