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.