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.

STRETCHER

Rational
The design is an improve version of the existing stretcher design. When existing stretcher really being put into use, people have encounter a few problems. Thus this design is to help to solve these problems or minimize the effect of these problems. base on the existing stretcher in our life occurred when the existing problem, arising from the improved design. Also, this stretcher is especially design for the patient who is suffering in the flood area, this design will enable the rescue people to get the patient out of the area faster and easier.

The saver disaster stretcher is the ideal product for mass casualty and catastrophic situation, constructed of durable and light weight material, which is the recycled PET fabric, stain resistant to the blood and bodily fluids, easy to clean and wash. It will not leave any bacteria on the surface compare to the other material. It also could help to control virus from spreading in that area through stretchers. PE foam is also used as the floating material. It can be quickly deploy onto the rescue scene to accommodate multiple victim. Once finished, it can be conveniently packed into a small size to provide easy storage and carrying.

Now there is a problem with the stretcher in lifting it up, there are 4 separate foams that will not have strong support to the patient when it lift up. There are lots of way to fix these foam together, but will take time to do it. According to the research on the internet, in Asia, there is a special bamboo mat that people normally put it on the bed during the summer to reduce the heat, and the way this type of mat is weave is very tradition and has a special pattern. I am inspired by this after inspecting the mat itself. This stretcher will use this type of weaving method to make it strong when lifting it up . The good design can come from the traditional material or traditional method to use it more easily and faster.

The foldable stretcher just looks like a backpack, which allows people to carry and hold. The dimension of folded is 50cm * 60cm which will just fit onto the back, and the unfolded dimension is 50cm * 203cm, giving patients enough space to lie down. To place the safety belts are very important, most of the injured parts will be around the neck, chest. Itis better to put the belts below the chest and the other one will be place on the leg that prevents the patient from moving around.

Colour is the most important part during the rescue in the disaster area. Colour is a signal to warn or help people. This stretcher use bright orange and yellow to catch people's attention showing that rescue people are coming to save their life.

As the design student, we have lots of thing to learn, for instance, use of colour, material, and faster or easier way to use the product. The main point of designing this stretcher is to help the rescue team to save people's life much more easier and efficient.



Reflection

A disaster is a natural or man made hazard that has come to fruition resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment.

We could not stop the disaster, but we can improve the technology or equipment to prevent the death and lost. As a design student, we could help our country to design something that are usable to them. We need to have a few steps to start designing a usable product, firstly, research the information about these areas, what do they need when they are suffering in a disaster and select a few of them and get into more details about them? Which kind of material do they have locally? Secondly, elaborate the problem, define the problem, and solve the problem. Thirdly, start drawing some concepts that relate to this area, to finalize the product at the end. Fourthly, conclude the previous information to go to the deeper level with material, use, technology, colour, and make the model to test the results. These steps really help me to get better solution on the product concept in order to sort out a product that is really need improving and will be more useful and easier to use during disaster.

To design a product, we need to think lots of ways or even different ways to come up with an idea. To have a good idea is not easy, by working and discussing with the group mate or friends, asking them to inspect my concept and find out what problem I have in this concept that I did not notice. I spent lots of time on the way of using stretcher, but forgot how to make stretcher strongly support the patient when it life up. By keep working on the problem and finding a way to integrate the traditional way of the bamboo mat is weave really helps me to finish this project faster and get a more efficient solution.

In conclusion, this project taught me that keep on thinking different way is best way of design. And don't limited myself to a few things, the mind of a designer should be open to all the things around us and notice their slight differences. Also I will need to learn more about the use of material and technology that will help me to come up an idea quickly. Spending time on this project is the most important, to have a good product we need to spend a sufficient amount of time on it.

Task 2b: sustanable consumption

After watching the two short videos "story of bottled watter" and " story of cosmetics". It reflect the modern lifestyle which produce a lot of unneccessary waste and cost a lot of damage to our environment and people in third world country, also the cosmetics cantain the toxic chemical which is not good for the health, it might cause cancer. If there is no excessive demand, then there will no be extra pollution done to our environment, no harmful to our health.

The consumer will not know how the bottled water will have big impact in our life, because all we see is what we want, which is the finish product, the final product which don't show the pollution,suffering of the people. The cosmetics which make women beauty and getting a beautiful skin, but this story is more focus on the product safety. People use cosmetics everyday, like shampoo, body shower, lotion,ect. Those chemical will harm to our life, even baby will get affect as well. From the marketing perception, they do mak profit from it, but why they still put toxic chemical into the products, also give consumer good package and iamge to atrract them to buy the products.

As the designer, we need to make the product green and recyle. Designers might think of the new way to drink water instead of using bottled water, give people knowledge that the tape water is clean as well. For the cosmetic, the designer should more focus on the package, make package reusable and other method to reuce the pollution in our environment.

Task2: Recycling

Aluminium, tin, paper, glass, leather, rubber, plastic and so many others can be recycled and some of them can even be recycled 100% for reuse. This really open the eye for industry designer like us. This makes me realize that it is very important for us to understand most of the recyclable materials. So that when we are designing, we can keep this in mind and try to use material that has a high proportion of recyclable percentage. So that we can play a role in saving our already highly polluted earth.

Technology has done a great help for us when it comes to recycling. The rubbish sorting factory and the Reverse Vending machine are two great examples. The rubbish-sorting factory can sort the rubbish into their related and still reduce the work and cost of sorting by more than 50%. The reverse vending machine also help to sort the rubbish people throw away in the shopping center out according to their own category which is in average around 30 ton of rubbish per shopping center. This help to save the massive amount of sorting out work afterward. I believe that with the advance of technology in the future, more and more materials will be able to be recycled at a much lower cost and higher recyclable percentage.

The different type of rubbish recycling and more and more sophisticated way of handling the rubbish, like the disposal of different color glass into different bin, shows that more and more people are caring about recycling and want to make the earth a greener place. In term of consumer point of view, this show that consumer nowadays prefer greener product than the non-green one. This give a great indication to how important is it for industry designer to design a green product if they want their design to be commercially successful.

Overall, Nike give a very good example of “Considered Design”, it shows how it makes use of its 4900 ton of leather waste and 8000 ton of wasted rubber. The key point here come to the design of the shoe that make use of those wasted material which otherwise will be throw away. So when we are designing, we need to pay great attention to the material use, their recyclability, can we make use of the wasted materials and if the materials that we use are bio-degradable after they are being disposed. These are very important if we wanted to play a role in building a greener earth.

Ecological Footprint

My life needs 5.06 Earths, which is higher than the average. From the graph, my housing footprint above the country average, and my carbon, goods and services, and food are below average, this shows that the daily transport like car, bus, train plays main role in our life, even the flight trip are strongly affect my carbon footprint. There something I can do to reduce my carbon footprint which is reduce my shower time, plant more vegetables and fruits in our garden, switch off the electronic appliances not be used, also take more public transport instead of drive to uni or city. This result will help me to keep thinking of how to reduce and carry out.