David Kelley: Human Centred Design

Human Centered Design refers to the design of a product with not just function and aesthetics in mind but with an attempt to create a personal and unique connection with the user in society, thus allowing a product to behave and interact with a person rather than the person just using the object as a form of tool. In this film David Kelley reflects on the influence this new idea is having on modern designers giving us examples such as the Prada Magic Mirror- a mirror with a 3 second time-delay, allowing the customer to change the angle of viewing whilst still being able to fully examine the item) and Liquid Crystal screens (which allow the customer to change the state of the panel between opaque and clear to show friends whilst still remaining in the change rooms) as Kelley demonstrates modern design is "less about the hardware and more about the user experience".

Richard Seymour and Dick Powell: Designing Dream Machines

Designing Dream Machines reflects on the processes and methods of design; highlighting the variety of areas throughout the design cycle the designer has significant influence. A key point Seymour and Powell stress is the importance of understanding and experiencing your designs/ideas through r & d saying that it is through these such refinements that we are really able to see the capabilities of our innovations. They also remind us of the importance of regular evaluations and with that criticism; making sure we see criticism as a benefit and method for improvement. The film also reveals to the audience the designers pursuit to achieve satisfaction not only with his/her end users but all members involved in the design process.

5 peer comments

Alissa Sanders
Sam Whipp
Kate Barclay
Brett Rushbrook
Jonathon Biet

Upcycling Unwanteds

This is my apron made from old plastic bags.

Every year Australian's use 6.9 BILLION plastic bags with most ended up in landfill or our waterways. It is said that plastic bags take over 400yrs to biodegrade and kill approximately 100 000 marine animals each year. So it is time to UPCYCLE!

After a bit of testing and experimenting, i was able to conclude that plastic bags are relatively easy to melt using an iron. However this changed the form of the plastic bag adding new qualities and characteristics. For example, i discovered that once ironed, plastic bags become very strong and when melted together also form a strong bond. This lead me to realise that I now had basically a plastic fabric which also meant i had semi waterproof fabric. I also tested what type of plastic bags are best suited, i found that normal shopping bags (from Woolies etc.) don't melt to well because they are so thin, they tend to melt too quickly and shrivel not leaving the best finish. I then went on to clothes shop plastic bags which come in a variety of colours and tend to be a thicker plastic leaving a much better and more colourful finish. The next issue i had was how to maximise the use of the original plastic bag, that being working around the shops logo. So i created a pattern using stripes! Which meant i could cut out the logo very easily and use as much of the bag as possible. The other issue was creating a pattern that you could use with any plastic bags and not necessarily have to use to much of the one type of bag, because as you know, thats not necessarily how "rubbish" works!

So my final product, is a strippy plastic apron! Which is "lined" or reinforced on the back with white shopping bags. It has pink satin ribbon (which could easily also be made from the plastic bags) stitched on for a tie and neck strap. I have used 2 large Glassons bags, 2 large Equip bags, 3 small bra shop bags, 7 white "woolies" shopping bags and part of a large Just Jeans bag. Although my apron is a little crunchy, the best thing about it, its that you can so easily just wipe it down when you spill something on it, less washing!

Task Five

The Story of Stuff

This is a very interesting clip that talks about the real life cycle of the product and expands on its basic 5 stages:
1. extraction
2. Production
3. Distribution
4. Consumption
5. Disposal

It discusses the impact the governments and corporations have over us and our environment. The film reminds us of how we are a consumerist society and how easily we have been molded into becoming this. It encourages us to think more about why we are buying "stuff" and to think about we're it came from and its "externalized costs"

This clip is so important to the industrial designer, as it is us that can help make a huge change in the amount of consumption and waste of society. As we can design newer models that can be re-used from old ones, and we can design more recyclable objects that produce less toxins. The most important thing a young industrial designer can take form this is to think about not just the design and marketing of the product, but the impacts on society and the environment of the manufacturing process.

5 comments

Jennifer Widjaja
Alissa Sanders
Crhistopher Hui
Wawen Chen
Stanley Wong

Postal Presents

My postal present is a make-up organizer aimed at 16-25 yr old girls. The trouble many women have is that the most common place to store your make-up is in some kind of toiletries bag, which proves not useful at all, as you struggle to dig through and find your make-up, often resulting in ruining the make-up. With this coral inspired concept, contains your everyday make-up, such as mascarca, eye liner and lipstick in a way that makes it easily identifiable. The product with be presented "posted" semi-assembled however can easily be completely flat packed. The product is make from polypropolene and brass plated paper fasteners. It celebrates sheet materials qualities by is minimal use of "fasteners" or adhesion.

Peer Comments

http://jenjunzhu.blogspot.com/2009/08/good-design-juicer.html#comments

http://hyo-jucho.blogspot.com/2009/08/product-that-i-explore-was-iv-pole-used.html#comments

http://chelcienielsen.blogspot.com/2009/08/experience-enrichment-rationale-and.html#comments

Task Four:

Bad Design: Dulux Weathershield tin labbelling.

As you may know, I work in the paint section in Mitre 10 and for every colour we mix there is a specific base paint you need. In many situations the customer does not realise this and will often just try and bring you the tin of paint of the shelf.

In the dulux weathershield range their are many different coloured bases all uniquely labelled in accordance to the colour within the tin e.g. brunswick green has a green label. The only problem is, the black tin of paint has a white label making it very confusing partiularly when this goes against its own colour match labelling system. This can be verfy frustrating and time consuming not only for the person mixing the paint, but commonly customers just expect it to take 30seconds to mix paint so adding this extra time does not settle well with the customer.

Task Five

Ross Lovegrove: Organic Design

Ross is a very interesting character, i love how throughout his discussion you can really see the passion and love he has for design. The main point he tries to get across is this idea of DNA: design, nature, art. He says "industrial design is the art of the 21st century" and explains this in two ways, firstly by showing examples of beautiful products and how they have been photographed and turn into prints/ works of art but then also showing how the original concept sketch is also a work of art in itself, being compared to impressionism and how the "drink bottle's" design is your impression of water.

Ross then goes on to explain his love for investigating the patterns and designs within nature and how they have all evolved over time. He challenges the industrial designer to reach this level of precision and beauty within each of our design briefs. He explains exactly what is is about nature that makes its form so amazing saying that it "takes away what they don't need and produces maximum beauty". He summarises by calling it "fat free" or "healthy design" striping the object back to necessities and developing beauty in the form from its skeleton.

The Flower Toilet Brush.

I first came up with this concept after flicking through magazines, looking at stylish bathrooms and realising how much of an "eyesore" the, often white plastic tools in the bathroom are. I particularly found this interesting because tools in the bathroom are a very un-romanticised concept, such as cleaning the toilet bowl. I wanted to create something that combined current bathroom decoration with bathroom utensil, removing this "out of place" object. Hence i came up with a flower pot.

The toilet brush is designed to have the aesthetic appeal of looking like a flower in a flower pot, hiding any reflection of its actual use. The handle is made from green and white silicone rubber for a soft and comfortable hand grip and then bottom of the brush is made from brown plastic which is easy for cleaning. The bristles have been re-designed to look more like a washing up brush and for ease of use when cleaning the toilet (e.g. getting in the and around pipes). The bucket is brown tin to look like soil and thus the action of taking the brush out of the pot is similar to pulling a flower out of the ground.

The four aspects of pleasure are discussed on the poster.

Yves Behar:

Creating Objects that tell stories

Behar mainly discusses the interaction and importance of the designer throughout the design process really pushing the importance of having good work ethics. Behar encourages the designer to bring passion to the design project and morals/values to its design; saying that the good values we put into the product will in the end produce a more "valuable" product. He also explains how when we give values to the product we also give the product a soul and thus bring a "humanistic sense" to design. He encourages us to work together as designers, not just as a "colourist" that applies the "skin" but a designer that works from the inside out, how can we redesign ALL aspects of the product with the help of those around us? Behar reminds the designer and supports the designer in keeping the passion and enhusiasm of the original idea and persuing those thoughts.. because it is then that we will develop a design that creates conversation.

Task Five

Don Norman: Emotional Design

Don Norman talk is very interesting for the Industrial Designer as we are forever debating the issue of form vs function however in the film don norman really blends these things together saying that "pleasant things work better". He uses a great analogy about a plank of timber, saying that when its on the ground sure he can walk, jump, skip whatever on it, however if we moved this timber so that it was well off the ground he wouldn't use it; this concept is very interesting because it really defines the significance of our emotions in design. Looking back on the plank of wood analogy we realise that the timber still looks the same and still fufills its function but yet due to our emotions we dont use it. This really puts a whole new debate on the table, throwing out the concept of form vs function and saying that its all about emotion.

He talks about 3 types of emotions; visceral, behavioural, and reflective. The visceral emotion is all about feeling satisfied with the appearance of something to the point where the significance of the product itself is lost. The behavioural aspect of emotion he says is a little sub-concious but looks at the useability, feel, sensual, heft and the amount of control we have. The reflective emotion assess the impact of the product on the user, analysing how it has changed them (e.g. self image) or the world around them (e.g. sustainability).

Two key aspects i picked up from this film was how Don Norman defined emotion as "interpretting the world" and the info about how the brain works better when we eat sweets!

Task Two: Good Design

The Eva Solo Grater is so simple and yet so good. Why hasn't someone thought of this in the past, it so easily solves the problem of trying to keep a steady hand as you try to grate your cheese over the pasta because you can't be bothered to get the chopping board out! With this you can so easily just grate and throw it on! My only concern is that it promotes the fact is captures any juice however would this moisture just make the grated material "stick" to the bottom of the cup??

It has been really interesting analyzing the design of an every day object and learning to appreciate its qualities and characteristics. I also realized the advantaged of actually having used a similar product before analysis as i understood the product in its entirety and was able to evaluate it with just reasoning.