#169 I still need some baffles…

The impending electronics drive is soon to start as soon as a soldering iron with a fine tip makes its way to me. Practicing PicAXE programming is the order of the day when it gets underway. One thing I would need for all this prototyping is wire, and to save it from getting tangled up in a big mess I made this… and I say made, all I did was make some holes in the plastic bit of this coffee jar and there you go, a wire dispenser.

The only thing I might end up doing is to make some baffles or rearrange the way in which the wire is wound just to keep them separate and not get tangled up, but for the time being it is very simple and works. What more do I need.

#117 D&AD Draft Boards

Draft boards for the D&AD project. A few minor changes are yet to be made but it is nearly there.

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#111 Design Products D&AD – IP32001

Three weeks into this semester seems like an ideal time to talk about this modules project. After the shambles that was last semester, it is refreshing to be back on a project where you are not put under as much pressure. This should mean that the work produced should be better.

The project for this semester is based on ones set by D&AD for their student awards competition. We had a choice of 4 set by different companies who sponsor the competion:

1. Michelin: Create a unique product for MICHELIN that would provide real life assistance to high risk motorists in a roadside emergency situation.
2. The Body Shop: Design a contemporary range of packaging for The Body Shop that unites their brand values with the premium nature of the products.
3. Oxfam: Present an idea that engages support for Oxfam by triggering shared values and concerns in a wide range of people.
4. E.ON: Engage generation “Y” in a relationship with E.ON that champions new ways to use energy in the home and empowers them to enlist others in an energy revolution.

Of the four briefs, I chose to do the one set by Michelin, as it was, in a way, about cars, which I like… very much…

Week 1: In the first week of the project, we sat down in groups, depending on the brief that we had chosen, and discussed the brief. What were they asking us to do? What sort of situation might you be in? Have we been in an accident or other roadside emergency ourselves? After this we were given a week to carry out as much research as we possibly could regarding the company and what sort of area we might like to focus on. I contacted a few roadside emergency services, such as the AA and the RAC asking numerous questions, from which I got no response*. A questionnaire was also constructed and posted somewhere where I knew I would get numerous responses and I was not disappointed. The results given were rich in information and provided a deep insight into what people thought. This along with masses of secondary research gave huge amounts to work with, which was useful for the following week.

Week 2: At the start of week two, we went into the groups once again and discussed what we found out. This then led onto the brainstorming of various different ideas to get us thinking. Different insights and scenarios were also thought of so the idea generation could be continued on as we saw fit. Group discussion over we were to go away and in the style that is synonymous with the product design course here, we were to come up with 100 ideas (which I don’t think is the most effective way of idea generation) for the following week, but this time in the format of an A0 sheet and not a sketchbook as this was thought to make the process easier. In fact it made it a little more awkward. I had the sheet stuck on my wall in my room, and was planning on recording it just to show the process of the 100 ideas but the time it took, eventually led me to scrap that idea after only a small amount of time recording.

Week 3: The 100 ideas were whittled down to 3 and the sheet was handed in. The three ideas (shown below) had to be decided and developed over the course of this next week. This along with a first draft of a scenario board had to be completed in the short space of time. As of this moment in time, I am quite far on in the development part and have pretty much completed the scenario board, which says how the product might be used by the user, and this is, as far as I am aware, at a further point that most other people on the course. The idea which was chosen after receiving feedback from a number of people, was the idea of a high visibility flag or flap which hangs down from the bootlid of a car. This would make the car and driver much more visible when they are broken down at the side of the road.

*The no response was in regard to that week that the research was needed. Today (February 4th, and well into week 3 of the project) I received an email from the RAC with their responses to my rather hastily put together questions, so thank you to them greatly, albeit a bit late.

#96 Laptop Bag

Now that the semester has finished, I can get on and show you the main focus of my efforts this semester, my laptop bag.

The basic idea behind this bag, apart from it needing to be designed for myself, was that there are times when people do not have enough room to carry all that they are wanting to carry in their laptop bag. This left with the simple principle of making it modular. A main laptop bag was supplemented with a number of smaller bags in order to achieve what I was looking for. These smaller bags were attached to the main bag using belts or straps. This gave a very distinctive appearance.

Overall I am relatively happy with the outcome of the bag, but there are quite a few parts of it which I feel as though could have been carried out better. Anyways, here are the pictures.

#69 Flown the Nest (Wood’s Electric Aviary)

The time has come to do a review of the main project of 2nd years second semester, the interaction design project where we had to produce a product which either created or reacted to music. This is what was said about it at the time:

Wood’s Electric Aviary is the team name for our Interaction Design module group. Funny name? You might think so, but many an hour went into that name, which originally was just Electric Aviary, only to have Wood’s added later on. The objective is to create a marvellous music generating or reacting product. Something different. Something fun. Something interactive.

It will take alot of work to get to the final product. Lots of coding, wiring, soldering, modelling, photographing and really having fun. Mr Tibbles, Miss McClean and Mr Wood are ready to take on this project, and produce the best that we can offer.

Our work blog is on Tumblr and we shall endeavour to update it as much as possible throughout the process, concepts, prototypes and the final product. The group also has a twitter account which will keep you up to date with all the goings on in between posts on the blog.

That was then, and this is now. The project has now finished and proved to be relatively successful for Wood’s Electric Aviary. It gained the highest grade for it out of all the groups. If you didn’t follow the Electric Aviary blog, you would have missed what was made, but I shall cover it in this review.

Quite early on in the project, once the 100 ideas sketchbook was produced, it was decided as a group that the direction we would pursue was to combine a guitar and a bird box, and the idea changed very little from initial sketch to the final product.

An actual guitar was dismantled for parts, many hours were spent on the electronics of the bird box and the final shape was decided as we worked instead of doing sketches for it.

Looking at the electronics of the bird box first, it may seem like a simple operation, but what was involved with the coding and the hardware pushed brains to the limit and caused quite a lot of stress. A proximity sensor was used to detect when a bird entered or left the box, and depending on the distance, a servo strummed the strings. On the floor of the box was 4 buttons, and when the bird hopped about on the inside of their new home and stood on one of the buttons, it would activate solenoids which would strike the strings and give the impression of them being plucked. However, once the final thing was put together, the solenoids which had worked extremely well in various prototypes did not work sufficiently, so were omitted, the wires were cut. The servo on the other hand had not worked so well in early prototypes but it worked beautifully in the final product.

Over the course of the project, the electronics proved nothing but problematic, and at one point, they failed completely and took a number of weeks to get working properly once again. Luckily they worked as planned when they were inserted into the bird box which was a huge relief as they had not been tested for distance from the strings or how they would sound inside the box before hand. Sighs of relief were heard from all around.

Moving on to the box itself, we were left with 2 options for what it would look like. Either a traditional looking bird box, or something much more abstract. The abstract route was chosen as it would have given us a bit greater freedom and we could have made it much more acoustically sound for use with the strings inside so it would be heard.

A curvaceous shape was chosen which led to a problem of how to produce it. Discussions with a technician gave a few options, one of which we chose to adopt. It involved cutting shapes out of plywood and gluing them together, it led to a gorgeous finish which added to the mysteriousness of the product. A handle was incorporated into the design so it could be hung from a tree or transported easily. A hinged front allowing easy access to change the batteries and maintenance. As a joke or novelty move, the inside of the box was covered in wallpaper. It really was a high class home for the bird population.

Once the work was carried out, it was time to make a press release for it and also a video for it. They were easy to do compared to the rest of the project and turned out well. To see the press release please visit the Electric Aviary tumblr blog. The video is shown below:

Overall, the project proved to be massively stressful in many respects, but hugely fun in others. If given the choice to do it again, I’m not really sure what we would change. Yes there are a number of small changes which would have been made easily, but there doesn’t seem to be any big changes. A lot of effort was put into it, and that was shown with the mark it was given, but it does seem like some of the ideas we could have used were stifled by those running the course. There were numerous times where we were well ahead of schedule, making important decisions when we were told to slow down and change what we were doing despite it being arguably right for what we were doing. It wasn’t just our group though, all the groups were affected by this and it led to the deadline being extended by over a month which was out of order. It is times like these where it gives you doubts about whether or not you are doing the right thing. Miscommunication is a horrible thing to work with.

But to end it on a much more cheery note, what do you think of what we produced and if it were actually to be made, even in small numbers, would you buy one?

#41 I’m not the only one

Seems that I’m not the only one who agrees with the thought that Google is trying to take over the world…

#40 More Camera Lust? Oh my!

Ok, what is it with me and cameras? I wish I knew. There is just something so lovely and utilitarian about them. The feel. The fact you are holding them and holding them up to your face in order to make them work properly. The sound. The sweet click which varies depending on which camera you are using, varying depending on if it is a film camera or a digital camera.

I think I have mentioned this before, but my earliest memory of using a camera is using my dad’s old Olympus OM-10, which he still has and uses.

Moving on to the main focus of this post. Sony have just released information about some of their concept cameras they are working on. Being relatively new in the DSLR game after buying the remnants of Konica Minolta, Sony, at the PMA International Convention have just announced a series of Micro Four-Thirds cameras, aiming to get into that market whilst it is still young. The camera’s they have previewed are essentially compact digital cameras with the ability for the user to change the lens on them, making them much more functional, and usable. Maybe not so much for the casual camera user who only wants a point and shoot, but this very much appeals to me, who likes to be able to have greater control of what I take.

Is this wanting feeling got something to do with the fact that I am a Sony fan? Yes. Does it have something to do with the fact that I have a Sony A200 DSLR? Yes. Is this a very mediocre way in which to end this probably decent post? Yes.

Goodnight.

#33 iPad… Ok

A few weeks ago you may remember that I made a post guessing what I thought Apple’s tablet would be like and the general features it would have. Two days after that post, Apple presented the iPad at their keynote conference in San Francisco. In all honesty, my general mood was quite positive towards the device, albeit I am not that big a fan of the design. I was hoping for something a little more different than the fat iPhone/iPod Touch that we got. It looks like a similar step to when the 2nd generation iPod Nano was redesigned to play video and the 3rd generation one looked like a young fat version of its predecessor.

Anyway, I digress, slightly. My main point of this post is mainly about the fact that the overall opinion of the iPad has been incredibly lukewarm. It hasn’t really been given the reception that Apples other products are usually received with, with the exception of the MacBook Air which I can’t believe is still about. Peoples preconception was warped by the endless speculation on the internet and in magazines, also because this product has been rumoured for many years, well before the iPhone and in fact, even before the iPod in 2001.

That is maybe what the problem is. Everyone had their own idea of what the device would look like, what it would do, and just like you did when you were a child wanting something specific, you would think about if endlessly until the day finally came when you had enough money, went out to buy it and…. it was rubbish.

Apart from the fact that it doesn’t have a camera, nor use a touch OS X system  instead of the iPhone OS it is using. I really do like it, and am very tempted to buy one, even more so that I will be able to attach my camera to it, meaning I could take that with me instead of my MacBook or buying more SD cars and instantly view photos and have much more funcitonality. This decision is probably because I want something no one else will have, or very few people around me have. It happened when I went back to Mac a few years ago with my 2.16Ghz MacBook, the top of the range white polycarbonate one. Only one other person I knew used Mac’s. I went to university, and very few people had them on the Product Design course, but now, almost everyone has one, and it has lost its special quality, I’ll come back to this bit later. The same thing happened when I got my iPhone. I got it on the launch day for the Pay as You Go version on O2 in 2008, only about 3 other people I knew had one, but now, it seems that there are more people with one than without one. The same thing happened when I got my iPod Touch 2 years ago, and my iPod Video 4 years ago, and my iPod Mini 5 years ago (but this one to a lesser extent than the rest).

I like being different. It’s what makes me me. And when I say different I mean a lot more different than the stereotypical person of my age. The things I buy are generally an extension of me. I didn’t buy an iPod or a Mac because everyone else was, I bought them because I felt they were capable of handling what I could throw at them, and I bought them before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. I am not blowing my own trumpet here, just telling the truth. Going back to what I was saying about my MacBook. Now that everyone else seems to have one, it has lost a little bit of significance in my eyes. But there is one redeeming factor about mine. It is the polycarbonate one. And apart from one other person having one, albeit a black one, the rest are the Aluminium ones, and in my eyes they will never have the same character that my MB has. They are produced on a far greater scale and whilst they do look good, they are probably easier to copy than the white and black ones by other companies. The exterior doesn’t behave the same way either. My MacBook is covered in scratches, the clamshell doesn’t line up properly, and the palmrest has masking tape on it because of a crack which has appeared in the usual place on MacBooks of this age. I still love it to bits as it was my first laptop, my first computer and a significant point where I moved back to Apple after a few years of Windows due to my parents decisions.

It is this early adoption which is what gives products a special connection with the owner (in most cases), or getting in before everyone else does. Nothing is perfect to start off with, and the iPad is a clear example of this, but there will still be people who buy it and will want to see how great it really is at the start, show it off, use it to its full potential and generally make the most of it before everyone else is converted and wants to buy one too.

The final thing I will quickly mention whilst I am still talking about the iPad is the remaining omission of multitasking and flash. I really don’t care about either. Multitasking is fine when you’re on a fully fledged computer as that is what you are expected to be doing. On my phone, I have never been in a position where I have needed multiple apps running at the same time, and I use quite a few apps. If I prioritise what I need done, I can get done far quicker than if I am in and out the same apps every couple of minutes, and I have proven this even on my computer. As for flash, I am not a big fan of it. It is too much of a resource hog, especially on my MacBook, and I don’t miss it when I’m on my phone. If I have to use flash, I will, but the websites I frequent hardly use it.

I am aware that I have rambled and ranted on for well over 1000 words now, but I was just in the mood to write a lot, and the iPad still seems to be a hot topic (well as of writing anyway on February 2nd). My thoughts may have been slightly biased since I do like Apple things… quite a lot, but that is neither here nor there. And no, I don’t like the name iPad, it is quite stupid.

I Want One of Those…an Eigenharp

Every so often whilst browsing the vastness of the internet, you end up stumbling across something which you end up wanting so badly. Last time that happened to me, I ended up buying it, but I didn’t stumble across it as it were, it was my iMac.

This week, whilst looking through the most shared stories on the BBC News website, it happened again. A product which for no reason at all is shouting out to me just because of its brilliant uniqueness. An utterly gorgeous piece of design and also a new musical instrument. The Eigenharp. Dubbed as the worlds most expressive electronic instrument, it does enough to capture the looks of traditional instruments whilst bringing it inline with modern technology by stuffing it full of electronics. It is pushing electronics and music to their limits, a creative and innovative way to produce an exquisite yet quite quirky product.

Now what would I do with an instrument which is just shy of £4000? Hopefully I would end up playing it, if I ever managed to learn how to play it, if not it would be one of those things which would sit about the house gathering dust. I’m not saying that I would not play or try to play it, I did used to play a musical instrument a few years ago, it was just the kind of music I had to play which put me off it.

Later on in life, if I have a spare £4000 however, I don’t think I will buy one, just because I have my eye on some Bang & Olufsen things which I have been wanting for a while.

So without further ado, and since I have to stop writing as I can’t help just looking at the Eigenharp as it is beautifully designed, I’ll leave you with a video of it in use. Enjoy.

Eigenlabs website

You use what?

Farmers have done this for hundreds of years, any inventor has done this too. It is something which companies are trying to stop by creating more and more niche products to try and stop it, so they will in turn make more money.

What is it?

Alternative uses. Where a product is being used for something other than for what it was originally meant for. A good example of this which is in the public eye if anyone actually pays attention to the television adverts is on the HSBC advert where the man goes out to India to see how one small company are using their product, with an interesting outcome.

Most of the time we do not even realise that we are actually doing this, it has become second nature to most humans to use something for a completely different task. Using a knife as a screw driver for example, or in once case that I know of, using the hose of an old vacuum cleaner to help extend a curtain rail, which was a bit too short for the window.

It is something which cannot be stopped because it is a hidden force, everyday consumers become designers and inventors themselves, using all they can find in the shed, the garage, the cupboard, in the kitchen or in your wallet.

Looking round to see my room here to actively look for these alternatives, it is amazing how many I can see, a couple of examples of these: a suitcase to put the dirty washing into, it’s big enough to hold clean clothes in, so why not dirty clothes? An old jam jar to hold bits and bobs in, such as pens, pencils, rulers, etc, fantastic at holding things in. But saving the best for last, the one which I started using at the time because I didn’t have anything else to use, an old pair of Apple headphones being used as a bookmark, wrapping it round the page I want to keep.

And at the end of all this, I don’t care if people comment or laugh about my earphone bookmark, it works perfectly well, and I’m sure they do something just as useful with something they own without even realising it.