Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Table of Contents
MacBook Charger
Wegmans Reusable Shopping Bags
- Waterproof material that can be cleaned with a sponge
- Sturdy straps
- Flat bottom to prevent tipping, increase capacity
Reusable Shopping Bags
I do not mean to suggest that reusable shopping bags are a bad idea, merely that the majority of these bags that are sold are poorly designed.
Rubbermaid Chug Bottle
Monday, December 12, 2011
My Photos
More Photos
That Sort of Town
The Library Phantom
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Design Process
What I Learned
The most important thing that I learned in MAE451 was what the design process looks like in a commercial environment. I knew that they had to be a formal structure behind product design, but I was not sure what it would look like .My career aspirations are to one day work in the design or engineering department of a toy company, so this class served as exposure to what a job like that would entail. In a way, it was like a semester-long Realistic Job Preview.
I also learned that the very beginning of the design process should start from a need, something that I had never considered before. I suppose I have a very cynical view of a very materialistic culture, but the idea that each product is a design created in response to a need was a much more shocking discovery than it should have been. I always assumed that, for the most part, the product came first, and then it was up to the marketing department to create a need. Reflecting on it now, all great products must start as a need. All of my favorite belongings make life easier or solve a problem. In many cases, they solve a problem I never knew that I had until I used them.
Another important concept that I learned for the first time in MAE 451 was that you should never evaluate while brainstorming. I like to overthink things, and in the past any brainstorming activities have always been hampered by thoughts like “That would never work.” Thinking like that breaks the flow of ideas and kills creativity, a lesson that I learned during the divergent design portion of mini-project three. I have even applied this lesson to my group work in the MBA program. As a team, we always evaluated ideas while brainstorming but now we are working on breaking this habit, and we are already starting to become more effective.
My Design Philosophy
I am finally able to verbalize my design philosophy after reading “beautiful thing” by Robert Clay. The first chapter of the book contains a section called “Design Clichés,” which lists and explains the common clichés of many different schools of design (modernists, post-modernists, Arts and Crafts). My favorites are “Form follows function,” “Less is more,” “Form follows emotion,” and “Form expresses function.” I believe that the most mundane everyday objects should be not only functional, but also beautiful. This includes large objects such as appliances and furniture, to smaller items such as kitchenware, electronics, or even disposable items such as toothbrushes. One of the best examples I have of this principle in practice is my parents’ stove, which was designed by the company that is now Revolve Design Inc. It is over twenty years old, so I could not find a picture, but it is a beautiful, elegant example of what is often a purely functional object, without having any needless decoration of ornamentation. It also follows the principle of “Form expresses function”- the knob that controls the griddle is easily distinguishable from the knobs controlling the gas burners. Arthur C. Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology is “indistinguishable from magic,” but when it comes to design, I do not believe this should be the case. An object’s form should express both what it is used for and how to use it.
I also believe that design should be accessible. There is an incredible range in size, age, and ability in the world and many products do not allow for these factors. I believe that designs should be held to the standards of Design for All: products, systems, and services should be usable, without adaptation, by as many people as possible. Sustainability constraints should also be placed on design; as a species, we can no longer claim ignorance of the harm that we have done to the environment. Minimizing any further damages to the planet is the responsible thing to do.
Good design:
- · Meets a need
- · Is considerate of end-users
- · Is convenient to use
- · Can be utilized by anyone
- · Is minimally harmful to the environment
- · Can be used with a minimum of instruction and explanation
- · Makes the product’s function readily apparent
- · Is honest (no plastic that looks like wood, no fasteners used solely for show)
- · Is pleasurable (pleasing to look at and use)
Bad design:
- · Is functional at the expense of beauty
- · Is beautiful at the expense of function
- · Does not consider the circumstances of the user
- · Can only be used by certain segments of the population
- · Causes unnecessary harm to the environment
- · Is difficult to use and understand
- · Is dishonest (claims to fulfill functions it cannot)
- · Is frustrating
Though I am interested in designing nearly any sort of consumer product, I am most interested in designing toys. I wasn’t allowed video games when I was young, and my access to television was incredibly limited, so most of my free time was spent in imaginative play with dolls and blocks. As I grew older, I played with my own toys less often, but as a frequent baby-sitter, I never really stopped playing with toys. In a way, the past twenty two years of my life have been market research. I am also very passionate about the importance of play in childhood development. I would love to design toys that encourage imaginative play. These perspectives and experiences would inform my work as a designer. I’ve seen firsthand the joy, wonder, and learning that a great toy can create, and this is what I would strive to accomplish.
Design Principles I Would Like to Know More About
- Composition- the placement of elements, especially as relates to photography
- Color- Color can be instrumental in creating emotions and impressions in design. There is a great deal of psychology and symbolism behind color that I would like to learn more about in order to be able to use color more effectively.
- Typography- Like color, font choice is an element of design where tiny changes can make a large difference. I would love to learn more about choosing the right font for a design, or even about creating fonts.
- Gamification- Gamification is the process of designing products, systems, and services that use the motivational power of games to make a difference. There is a body of growing research on this topic that I would like to explore.
- Interactive Architecture- Interactive Architecture is the idea that environments, powered by ubiquitous computing, can interact with, and encourage interactions between, the people who inhabit them.
- User Interface design- A growing portion of our lives are spent on mobile devices and the web, and the way we interact with the technology around us is nearly always through a graphical user interface. I want to learn more about the rules of good design for user interfaces, and the metaphors that they utilize to improve user understanding.
- Ubiquitous computing- Design in a world where practically all objects are "smart" and networked
- Childhood development- It would be very helpful to have a solid understanding of childhood development in order to be able to design toys. Knowing what is developmentally appropriate for a certain age, how children learn, and what interests them would all be helpful topics to inform the design of toys.
- Packaging design- So much packaging is frustrating, wasteful, and inefficient that there a large opportunities for improvement. I find both the environmental and the human aspects of this topic intriguing.
- "Change by Design" by Tim Brown
- "Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services" by Kim Goodwin
- "Designing with the Mind In Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules" by Jeff Johnson
- "4dsocial: Interactive Design Environments" by Lucy Bullivant
- "Interactive Architecture" by Michael Fox
- "Exploring Materials: Creative Design for Everyday Objects" by Inna Alesina and Ellen Lupton
- "Materials for Inspirational Design" by Chris Lefteri
Approaches to Design and Problem Solving
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Mini Project Team Approaches
Friday, November 25, 2011
Interesting Design Problems
- My book collection is currently housed in two IKEA Billy bookcases, but I had an incredibly difficult time finding bookcases that I was satisfied with. Before trying IKEA, all of the options that I was able to find were made of very poor quality particle board, had very short shelves, had a lot of needless flourishes, were low capacity, were outrageously expensive, or were incredibly ugly. Only the cheap bookcases seemed as if they had been made to hold books; more expensive bookcases were clearly just for show and form most certainly did not follow function. The Billy bookcase is very plain, simple and clean, with shelves long enough (and strong enough) to fit several thick books on each one. I do love them, but they are far from perfect and I am still seeking a more elegant, effective bookcase.
Storage and Furniture
- I am intrigued by custom-designed, purpose built furniture and storage for meeting more individualized needs.
Kitchen Appliances
- I strongly believe that most kitchen appliances are incredibly poorly designed. Most of my ire is reserved for dishwashers. Loading most dishwashers is infuriating- poor layouts leave enormous gaps of wasted space. Asone of the least energy- and water-efficient appliances in the house, each cycle of the dishwasher should be able to clean as many dishes as possible. The proper balance needs to be struck between maximizing capacity and achieving the proper placement that will allow the dishwasher to do its job. I also dislike the knobs on stoves and ovens, whose form does not adequately explain their function. Words like "Left front" should not be required to differentiate the purpose of each knob. Potentially dangerous accidents happen in the kitchen; it is especially necessary that an object's form should communicate its function.
Packaging
- Packaging is often wasteful and nearly always frustrating. Unpacking internet orders is sometimes like playing with Russian nesting dolls: a clamshell in a bag in a box in a box. This doesn't only hurt the environment; many people are injured while opening plastic packaging.
A high-powered, small-footprint vacuum cleaner
- Many individuals do not have the room to store a large, upright vacuum cleaner, but most of the small vacuum cleaners available are so weak they are hardly worth using. A small vacuum cleaner with enough suction to be effective would fill a niche market that is not being effectively served.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Gamification
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Mosaic
Copper Jewelry Box
Monday, November 21, 2011
AP Physics Design Project: Vertical Axis Turbine
Our first challenge was to turn a microphone stand into a support structure. For our initial plan to create a horizontal axis wind turbine, this support consisted of PVC pipes and an elbow. A small dc-motor was then mounted inside of the pipe to generate power from the rotation of a central hub. We made two different types of blades, flat balsa wood blades, and curved pvc blades. Neither provided a fast enough rotational velocity to generate enough power without gearing, so we settled on a vertical-axis design that would allow us to use a smaller radius turbine.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Joanna Blakely: Lessons from Fashion's Free Culture
Sunday, November 13, 2011
A Very Potter Musical, A Very Potter Sequel
This is a fan-created Harry Potter musical put on at the University of Michigan a few years ago. Simultaneously a parody and a loving tribute it shows the potential and impact of remix culture better than anything else I know. This is the sort of thing that can only be created in a world with cognitive surplus and technologies that allow anyone to create and distribute content.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Other Books and Articles
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design by Bret Victor
Full Article:http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/"Go ahead and pick up a book. Open it up to some page.
Notice how you know where you are in the book by the distribution of weight in each hand, and the thickness of the page stacks between your fingers. Turn a page, and notice how you would know if you grabbed two pages together, by how they would slip apart when you rub them against each other.
Go ahead and pick up a glass of water. Take a sip.
Notice how you know how much water is left, by how the weight shifts in response to you tipping it.
Almost every object in the world offers this sort of feedback. It's so taken for granted that we're usually not even aware of it. Take a moment to pick up the objects around you. Use them as you normally would, and sense their tactile response — their texture, pliability, temperature; their distribution of weight; their edges, curves, and ridges; how they respond in your hand as you use them.
There's a reason that our fingertips have some of the densest areas of nerve endings on the body. This is how we experience the world close-up. This is how our tools talk to us. The sense of touch is essential to everything that humans have called "work" for millions of years.
Now, take out your favorite Magical And Revolutionary Technology Device. Use it for a bit.
What did you feel? Did it feel glassy? Did it have no connection whatsoever with the task you were performing?"