Design or Die

Once again, this blog will go on another short hiatus till the 5th of May 2009. And by then, all of the deliverables needed for me to graduate would have been submitted. Looking back at my work for my thesis, I think I've done fairly well in terms of having a consistent process. Too bad I can't say the same for my design though. I do hope that it gets better over time. And as the picture posted above says "Design or Die", this is the most apt expression at this point of time.

Mocked Up

I can't wait. Really. For all of these to be over. Well at least for while. My countdown timer says that I only have less than 6 weeks left before everything ends. I'm on an auto work mode where most of work processes have been streamlined to fully maximize the use of time. It has been tests after test where I am refining the design. I'll be having my second last crit tomorrow and even as I am typing right now, My laptop is still in the midst of rendering one of the product images. In case you have been wondering what I've been up to the past 2 weeks, here's a summary of it in pictures.

Thesis updates and timeline

I've been meaning to show the whole process which includes sketches and mockups but I guess the severity of this project has taken a lot of my time. Hopefully though, that I could squeeze some of it and show it in the next few posts. The postings frequency has been rather random and slow of late but I do hope that you won't stop reading this blog. I just had my first crit for this final semester. The comments were alright with most of my tutors telling me to dig deeper into the cultural aspect of my intended users. The change in the form and shape has been quite significant after doing feasibility studies and asking the users the right questions. It was also due to my supervisor's encouragement and suggestion that it had turned the way it is now. The following panels are just some of the updates with a timeline to the project included. The concept still stays the same and if you're thinking of having a look at how far this has come, the preliminary design is found here.

DELL Immersive presentation test run

This is a short video when my partner and I did a test run of the presentation using 3 different laptops and 3 projectors prior to the final thing that was held at the DELL office. The whole idea is to be able to make a presentation that is as immersive as possible.
The concept of the design is a highly interactive environment for a guitarist to choose and select both his guitars and effects pedals. Adding to the experience is how the guitarist can activate and unlock room variables using guitar solos as a password. The user also chooses his guitars by means of hand movements that mimics the strumming of a guitar.

Experience Design process

The final presentation for a collaborative project with Dell finally ended 2 days ago at their office. 5 groups were shortlisted as the finalists and mine was one of them. Our design brief that was given when they came over one semester ago, was : to come up ( which is to design in this case ) and enhance the experience of the user in the chosen context of our choice. To me, what I gained most from this experience was the addition of another design process to add to my arsenal. In a nutshell, the whole process could be summed up into 3 phases:

observe > storyboarding > design

I have to note that in this process, the main emphasis is to come up with a good story. And through that story, design opportunities could be identified. The aim is to generate a wholesome design solution where there are many products and services as the outcome.

I am currently trying to digest and internalize this new process that I've just learned and hopefully able to make it much more comprehensible. And the outcome of this however, will be put up in a follow-up post. The following images are a mini visual diary of what went on during the process.

After having observed the context, storyboarding occurs. During this part of the process, 2 main stories were conceptualized. One story was the result of a 'bad' experience and the other story however tries to counter the 'bad' experience with the "ideal" experience.



Design opportunities were then identified from within the storyboard to create the "ideal' experience for the user.



Role playing were employed to help generate ideas. Apart from that, it also helps to dispel and reinforces certain aspects of the story.





The working mockups added to the fun factor of the process. On its own, it can also offshoot and be develop as a standalone product.






Finally, the concept was presented in such a way that it helps the viewer to immerse in the environment. What was utilized here were 3 projectors and 3 different laptops to help with the simulation.

Design Hacks 101

Hello readers. Its been a rather uneventful 2 weeks where design is concerned but for matters of the heart, that is an entirely different story. I'm not sure what really prompted me to even note about the latter. But then again, if you have no heart, you can't design. Yes I know the past few sentences could have been interpreted as absolute rubbish.

Anyway.

It's about time that I started posting entries with relations to 'design hacks'. The term is a reference to the things we do to any object and adjust it to suit our need beyond its intended designed function. For example, like how you could use a paper clip as a fishing hook. See what I mean? Apart from hacks, this new category of postings that I'm creating is also about my observations of how everyday objects are used by people without much thinking.

Naoto Fukasawa attribute this phenomenon as the 'core of awareness' and ideo (the design consultancy) call this 'without thought'. So in light of these things, I have decided to do my own observations and post them up.

stay tuned.

Cardboard Amplifier

In about less than 24hrs, I'd be making my last presentation for this semester. I did a design hack to create my mock up. The concept is suppose to be a wearable amp for the employees of a certain guitar store. I took out the main circuit board from a Danelectro headphone amp e-studio series. Hijacked a mini speaker from a friend. Throw in some hot glue , masking tape and cardboards and Voila! Oh, and it works too.

Tigga

The thesis presentation went well. I am quite happy with the new design direction that I'm taking now. Other than the fact the design concept came about from real contextual observations, I am also able to fulfill my academic and industry requirement better. At the end of this, I still have to be able to attract potential employers at my graduation show. With 70% of the industry employers coming from the electronic sector, I can't afford to miss this chance to have my design directed at something techno-gadgety.

The Design Brief:
To enhance the urban night skating experience.

The Concept:
A portable device to allow skateboarders and other passersby to view their stunts in sequence immediately after they execute them.

I won't go into too much details at this point of time and there's still a lot of tweaking to do but I do hope the panels will suffice for now.

Virtual Dead Hen

I think I've just reached a virtual dead end. I should have seen it coming but I was too wrapped up in the process. And to add to that, I don't think I was even asking my self the critical questions. And it didn't help either when you have your tutors and mentor agreeing to it in the first place. As much as I loved the idea of the portable skate ramps, we all know that it's not going to work out. It's not feasible.

Hypothetically, even if it did get produced, it's going to require high end composite materials for its structure and lightweight-ness. At the end of it, this thing is going to cost a bomb and I know for sure skaters won't even buy it. It's not even a logical design since the skaters at the very core of it, are extremely DIY. They don't need what I'm going to design. I think whatever they need, it's got to be something simpler.

I have only 4 days left before the submission of my design concept proposal. In the bag though, I still have the skateable street furniture for me to fall back on. But to be honest, I'm not feeling it. What I'm actually looking out for is something that is derived from this context that I'm observing.

But it's not the end yet. It's only virtual.

Innovate please

Good detail design will never
rescue a poor concept.

I think I 've done fairly a good job at coming up with my Product Design Specification (PDS) because it seemed initially that I was stucked with only 1 concept that I could only generate. Taking cue from redefining the design brief to my own advantage, I managed to come up out with a fair amount of 15 ideas. It's still a rather measly amount in my opinion and if Professor Turkka had been in charge of this, I think he'd call this effort extremely pathetic.

I'm not too happy with it myself even after consulting with Carlos( my Colombian project tutor and mentor ). He said it was ok. The only concept that I managed to work out was the first one that I came up with. In all honesty, I don't really think the concept had been pushed to its limit to reach critical innovation.

If you 're wondering, the concept that I worked on was about designing an extremely portable ramp system that can be carried on the back and be installed with almost any urban fittings.
On the bright side though, I found a different set of user group that can benefit from this extremely well. They are the wheelchairbound and alot of the solutions to their ramp problems seemed to resonate with my design concept.

I'm still feeling rather tempted to go through my concept generation phase again. At this point of time, what the concept need is the "Woah! Why didn't I think of that?!" inspiration.

Design Breves

I think the text in the image is pretty much self explanatory for all you design process nuts who are readings this at this point of time. The picture was taken from Andre Liem's book , Managing The Industrial Design Process : A guide for studio practice. ( 2004, Pearson Prentice Hall ), pg 62.

Some of the information seemed a bit dated considering that it was only printed 4 years ago. Especially the bit on the "problem definition" which I took the liberty of crossing it out and added my own take on it.

At this point of time though, I think the term "design brief" is much more relevant than "problem definition" since the role of designers nowadays have pretty much evolved from just being problem solvers. We're a bunch of creative opportunist.

Good to go

caption:
How do you turn 1 chair into many chairs?
That was the question that we explored when we were initially presented with the Erpo Dining Chair. There are many ways to go about it but we decided to approach the subject from a visual point of view. The name "#5" then arose from the fact that you can see 5 different chairs from this single chair. 4 different chairs form a 2-Dimensional silhouette and the fifth one can be seen in 3-Dimensions when viewed at specific angles.
In that aspect, you get many chairs out of one.
"#5" was also inspired from an optical illusion of how disconnected pieces form a full image when viewed from a certain angle. The construction of “#5" had used distinctive parts of the original Erpo dining chair. The two curved spines and the legs are each joined at a 45 degree angle to help form the 2-Dimensional chair silhouettes. The #5 chair had been designed for temporary sitting purposes in places such as art galleries and museums.

chair #5

Fl!p Update
Sam and I went to the NUS museum today to take product shots of our chair. We had the idea of taking the pictures where the chair was in its context, which is, as a transient seating object for gallery viewers to sit down temporarily.
Kudos to Uncle Security for allowing us to take photos there.

Fl!p - Pre Submission

The past week had been quite eventful. There was the Estee Lauder presentation that I thought had been pretty bad but the feedback turned out alright. Also, a long time friend of mine had try to persuade me to buy insurance from him. The conversation turned out to be rather interesting when he showed me the "Life Diagram". I feel rather tempted to elaborate on the latter but I don't want this to be a long post.

So I shall write about my preoccupation within the last 2 days. My friend, Samson, and I had been working on a chair redesign competition. The competition is called Fl!p and the design brief is to re-assemble the chair that they provided us with and come up with another design using only materials from the chair provided. Or as they put it in their flyer, to "Flip" the chair. Whatever that means.
The premise is actually quite similar to an IKEA design hack which can be found at this link.


There are a lot of ways to go about and interpret this. Some entrants are just submitting the "idea" of a "flipped" chair and not really redesigning it. Samson and I on the other hand, decided to take a tongue-in-cheek approach. Since they required the submission of 5 different views of the product, we designed a chair that has the silhouette of 5 different chairs from 5 different angles. Each silhouette forms a 2D outline of a chair. So for us, when we "flip" the chair, you get 5 chairs out of 1 chair.
So here are the pictures of what went on today:

We're still in the midst of it. The final chair design will be uploaded soon.

Start Anywhere

The school is a system. And it also convey its educational materials through a system that has a beginning and an end. But perhaps that is where the danger lies for design education. The design process itself is reiterative and it does not have a start point nor an ending. But as design educators roll out their pedagogy, too many times they are laid out in a linear fashion. And too many times design students accept it blindly without question.

I've never really blamed the school system since classes have to be presented in such a way so that it is progressive. But I guess what is sorely lacking is the fact that design educators forget to point out that the process that they are teaching is actually a cycle with parts that can be interchanged. There is no need to follow the laid out process in a straight line.

So if you find yourself at the next assignment scratching your head and wondering where to start, don't. Grab a pen, take a photo, build mock ups. You don't even have to go looking for that elusive inspiration. It will hit you in the face. The important thing is to start. Just start anywhere. If you don't start somewhere, you won't know for sure where your design direction should be coming from and where it should go.

Just start.
Start anywhere.

The Importance Of Role-Playing In The Design Process

For most designers ( most probably amateur or even student designers ), alot of thinking and designing happens in the head, gets drawn on paper and ideas are bounced off back and forth through discussion. But most of it just stops there.

I've just realized today however that even by having a simple piece of life-sized prop, helped unleashed hidden ideas. The prop got passed around, people subconciously acted out scenes even if they were joking about it. During the role-playing however, the actor may not be fully aware of his actions but his group mates acting as the observer however may spot certain key insighst that may not be apparent during the discussion.

This is one of the tools that I think should be used as an advancement of the mock-ups. Creating mock-ups helps the designer to visualize space, form and other physical elements. But by using it in a role-play, it will help the designer to evaluate his preconceived notions to see if it is being acted out in real life.

Thesis Design Directions

I'm pretty glad that the presentation went well yesterday with all 4 professors being able to see the design directions I had proposed. It is also partly because of smart decision making of me choosing this area. Since none of them are experts in it and that leaves me enough room to explore without them constantly giving me suggestions which I don't like.

I had proposed 3 possible directions for this thesis to continue:
1. Plaza| park
+ This proposal focuses on the redesign of the urban site. It would probably be a plaza. Given that a skate plaza tries to emulate the streets, this design however tries to emulate a skatepark without alienating the rest of the non-skating public.

2. Sit-able skate objects
+ Much smaller in scale compared to the plaza park. As the topic suggest, this design direction will concentrate on making skate structures having secondary functions like being seats or tables. It is not about designing a furniture that you can skate on it. Its about designing a skate obstacle that you can dine on.

3. Portable Fittings
+ This is probably the direction that I like most. This direction focuses on the idea of being able to have the required structures anywhere you want.

To illustrate my point, here are my full presentation panels that I showed yesterday: