Group Project Reflection

This is quite a challenging project, it took our group a very long time to arrive at the final solution, also it is quite hard to find a good product to fit in our system. We keep changing ideas on the system and product every week. Finally, we have decided on the purified water which is used to serve in the apartment lobby that has more than 50 units. Because we need to consider the cost of the machinery, how often the consumer will use it. Lots of issues and problems we need to think of.

Product service system is not only a service, but also contain a product that gives user benefit. The pps must be workable, useable, and sustainable. Our solution is that design a water station that can fit difference size of the bottle, provide purified water to the users. And in the water station we also have different size and colour of the bottle to sell it to the customers.

Our aim to design this PPS is that to reduce the bottled water waste, encourage people to use reusable water bottle that help the environment, and to reduce the environmental impact.

To work as a group, we have divide to few areas to work on: online research, technical drawings, internal look of the machine, shapes, colour, the division of works will save lots of time for us and provide better result as each of us got to focus in a specific area. From time to time, during the process, we will meet up to discuss our findings, to make sure that we are all on the right tract. As an industrial design student, this project is a good challenge for us. We need to consider lots of problems, issues. And also, make us learn a lot of new knowledge.

Home

After watching the HOME video, I realize that it is becoming more and more crucial for us to pay more attention to our environment. Like what it said, everything in the world is link together- air, water, soil and the nature habitat. And the link between them are fragile, they can be easily broken and can’t or hard to recover. The planet is form in 4 billion years ago and human being only has a history of 200 thousands years. Yet we are bless with the natural resources and the environment which is made available to us after 4 billion year of evolution in the earth. Volcano area is a good indication on how it look like in the earth 4 billion years ago, full of dust and fire. Then come the initial life form in the hot spring- bacterial which than lead to other type of life form in the earth. The nature is nicely balance before human being come into the cycle. The layer of ice that form on the top of the ocean in the cold region during winter to make the undersea prevent against the cold, so the living thing under the sea can survive in the winter as well. Then the rainforests which prevent a place for the habitats for the animals, forming the balance food chain and holding the soil from erosion and storing CO2 and producing oxygen. These are some of the example of how nature is balance. With the bless of resources like oil, coal, forest… we are growing faster and faster, especially in the past 50 years, with the oil revolution, we have change the face of earth more than the changes that have taken place in the past generations. In Shaihai for example, 3000 sky towers have been build in the mere 20 years time. Also, the use of fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals and a lot other polluted products, they all contribute to the pollution of the environment. ¼ of the animal species are predicted to extinct in the next 30 years due to destruction of the nature. The video show us how transform of energy occur- the available of fruits in the supermarket at the expense of the drying Gordon river and a lot of other rivers in the world. Also, 100liter of water give 1 kg of potato, 4,000 liter give 1kg rice and 13,000liter give 1kg beef.

Nevertheless, the natural resource is not equally distributed, 1 in 4 persons live in the type of environment same as 6000 years ago, their energy source is from the natural and the season, education is a rare previlange for them. And 1 in 6 people live in place with poor hygience condition. Yet 80 % of the world minerals are being use by 20% of the population only.

We are now in a world that is depleting the natural resources faster than it can regenerate and they are not been equally distributed. We can only do so by changing our lifestyle and helping others in the poor nation. For example, donating, eating more vege than meat products, use water and electricity wisely and recycle our waste and ect. As a designer, this also tell me that designing a product is not only all about the outlook and the function now, but also about the ‘greenness’ of the product. So that as a human being, I will fulfill my responsibility for the nature.

Design for Life

The TV program ‘Design for Life’ is very interesting in that it tell us on the elements that are essentials to become a great designers like Philippe Starck. Starck product design definition is simple- to design beautiful, useful and sustainable object that can be enjoy by everyone. Product designers do affect every part of our life every day. For example, the sofa that we are sitting on comfortably, the laptop that we are using, the table that we are using, the bed that we use to sleep, these are all the result of a product design in a way which deem by the product designer to be the best design. Thus, the role of product designers are very crucial for everyone in the world. Because, through design, we can change the behavior of the everyday life in our community. In the first round, Starck ask everyone to chose one of the follow theme- Function, Ecology or Gender.The first essential elements Starck is looking for is to ensure that the designers can look into the behind of the products, not just the product itself. For example, the 90 Euro bike one of the candidate has bought due to the symbolize of sustainability which is less car, less pollutant gas. Neverthess, he forget to see that the bike at such a cheap price is only possible to produce with the exploitation of the cheap labour in the developing countries. Thus he forget to see behind the meaning of buying such a cheap bike. One of the more successful one is the celebrity products, it is because celebrities are selling their own product with their name on them and a lot of people are buying them not because they are better than their same range of product or anything but only because they have the celebrity name on them. This is unsustainability and not really functionally useful.
Overall, through this video, I learn that we have to really question our product first before we really design something. Are they useful? Sustainable? For male or female? Also, we have to put in feelings and emotions, not just a plain design concept pieces to get a good design. There are already too many pointless product in the market, like the Ipod cases which are being produce, providing that the ipod is already a very strong product with a hard and durable case. So as a design, we have to make sure that our product is not just another product out there in the market with pointless aim and don’t good any good for the society.