Upcycling Unwanted

The product I design is made with line cord which is a common product we can see in many families house. There is a problem with these line cords - after a period of time, these line cords will get old, and become easily break. Majority of us will just throw them away. Thus, a large number of these line cords will be discarded with trash and then buried into the soil.




So, I think of using the unused line cord to produce somthing useful. For instance, fruit basket. The shape of this fruit basket is based on the way how plant growing. The bottom is like root, and the small circle is like branch that cover around. The fruit that is placed inside will look like it is growing out from the fruit basket.

Design for life

A TV program called 'design for life' is about a competition within 12 Philippe Stark selected design students from the world. One of them who win the competition will work with Philippe Stark in his design agency for 6 months. But, the rest of them had to leave after each cruel tasks.

There were a few challeges those 12 designers had to face and struggle in order to stay at the end. The first challenge was to buy two products from a market with 100 Euros and 1 hour to find two products which can show function, or ecology, or gender. This challenge is testing their ability of identifying the thinking behind a product. Moreover, testing their skill of explaining their point of view on the product. In the first challenge, designer Nebil was the best in the group of 12 designers because his excellent explanation on his choice of the product. He defined that every product has an attraction to a certain gender.

The next challenge was to design a product that benefits humanity, and this was the only information they get. This was a real challenge for all of them, although they were free to design anything they want, they didn't know what Starks expect from them. Thus, it was not easy if they didn't go and do some reasearch from their target markets. Research and investigation are the essential things designers should do. So, they know what the market want. One of the test for those students were testing their skill of presentation. After watched this challenge, I learnt from Elsa through her presentation that 'everything you do should be well considered like what Elsa did.'. For every designer, we should make our presentation clear and straight forward so the client don't get confused by the end of the presentation.

The third challenge was telling them to design a product which is ethical, ecological and democratic. This is for daily use and is non-electronic. This time, Mike taught me a lesson - some good methods of being inspired. He put himself into a situation where is similar to a blind person. So, he got to understand how blind people feel, what the difference between a normal people and them, and what kind of product they need. Thinking of the target markets and the way they interact the product you design is every designer's one of biggest job.

After finishing watching 6 videos of ' design for life ', as a designer, presentation skill, ability of comprehending a product, and investigation of target market are important as well as essential. Always, designers have different kinds of pressure from everywhere, but always, designers will work out the solution and give the world the most well-thinking product.

Peer Comment - Project 1&2

Project 2
Yoo, Eunbi
http://eunbiyoo.blogspot.com/
Xie, Huan
http://z3326626.blogspot.com/
Yang, Jieyun
http://viviensides1013.blogspot.com/
Chan, Benjamin
http://bjcyc.blogspot.com/
Jin, Yueyue
http://japhop.blogspot.com/



Project 1
ZHANG, Ke
http://cocodesignforever.blogspot.com/
NGUYEN, Thanh Thien Ly
http://lilynguyen1506.blogspot.com/
XIE, Huan
http://z3326626.blogspot.com/
YONG, Kene
http://mycollectionsofmisdirections.blogspot.com/
CHEN, Yiwen
http://snailmina.blogspot.com/

Experience Enrichment

Children Knife is target to kids who love kitchen. These children are keen on cooking and using kitchen utensil to cut food. But, on the other hand, they are not really familiar or careful when they are cutting, and this could lead on a big issue. Cut their finger! Therefore, I designed Children Knife to avoid this happen on children, to make them using kitchen utensil easily.




Children Knife is a knife with a finger protector and a cutting board. The curve shape of knife helps young children to hold knife easily, so they don't lose control of the knife. Also, the back of the knife stop knife moving around, that is the knife only can go up or down. And the finger protector keep children fingers away from the knife a few cm, which help reducing the risk of cutting their own fingers. Moreover, the protector is like a reminder, that every-time when they cut, the protector remind them do not move their fingers under the knife, always leave a little bit space between the knife and their fingers.

Video Reflection - Objectified

Through studying the film "Objectified", which is directed by Gary Hustwit, various concepts are shown.

One of the most significant concept I learned is, a good design should be simple and be able to communicate the designer's philosophy with people, a good design is able to demonstrate its function by itself, so everybody will immediately know how to use when they first time see it. This idea is revealed by Jonathan's talk about Macbook Pro. Some functions should only be there when it’s performing, he shows an example on the Macbook Pro, the indicator only appears when it needs to indicate the user. And when it’s not in use it cannot be seen on the product.

Every product has its purpose of being designed, therefore we make lots of assumptions about the product when we look at the product. We will think about the weight, the price, and how strong the product is. A product will show how it's developed and manufactured. Considering the form, the material and how it connects to us, how we'll be using it.

The other significant concept in this film I learned is, a good design should dissolve human behaviour. This is Naoto's perspective of a good design should be. Researching before designing a good product is initial. As a designer, we need to have a good understanding of people's behaviour, and how they normally use the product. Then to design a product, that people can use subconsciously without thought.

Last concept I learned is considering the product that impact on environment. "The stability of the products is not just about the pretty things. It's about redesigning every single aspect, from the material to designing, production, to shipping, and also need to design a way that product can be disposed logically". Continuously experimenting and exploring new material will help designer to find new way of making new product that reduce the influence to environment.

Overall, "Good design should be innovative, good design should make a product useful, good design is aesthetic design, good design will makes a product understandable, good design is honest, good design is unobtrusive, good design is long-lived, good design is consistent in every detail, good design is environmentally friendly. Last but not least, good design is as little design as possible."

Confusing Design

Video Reflection - The Story of Stuff

The video on "The Story Of Stuff" talk about the issue of resource and how the issue is created. Annie Lenard uses many examples to emphasise the disadvantage of our way of using resource.

After watching the whole video, I deeply realised that human have wasted too much resource for making money for themselves. Obviously, this is an extremely selfish behaviour! They are not just using resource, they are also producing huge amount of waste. Then, those prodcuts make our daily life become useless as we spend lots of time running this linear system to keep the material economy going. We can't continue doing this anymore. Just like Annie Lenard said " If everybody consumed at U.S rates, we would need 3 to 5 planets. And you know what? We've only got one". This is the truth we have to face. So, changing the linear system is the number one thing we need to start doing today!

The government and corporation have the responsibility to make our life better, as we know, they are the one who control the material economy. But, rely on them to change the system is not enough. Because, there is one more group of people play an important role in this system. They are designers. So, they have the responsibility to produce product that is sustainable and renewable. They need to consider the material they are using for making the product, also limit the number of material in a product, especially the material that contain toxics, as it is hard for the other people to recycle it. An example is shown through Annie Lenard's speech, "Like those juice packs with layers of metal and paper and plastic all smoothed together. You can never separate those for true recycling". As we can see, if designers help to create something that is good for using, not wasting. Then, the world will not be like this anymore.

I start to understand that designers are not just designing things for people to consume. They are designing things that is useful and suitable for and human and the whole world.

Video Reflection-Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy

Emotion is an important element in designing a product. We shall not ignored it. A good design has an emotional impact on the users, otherwise, it is only a decoration . The response from the design have three levels. The first one is visceral, the second one is behavioral, and the last one is reflective. This is what I've learned through watching Don Norman's speech on a video called "Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy".

In a design process, the first level visceral means outward appearance. It relates to users feeling, such as the experience sense of smell, sense of touch, sense of hearing and visual sense. A nice looking design directly appeals to the users, and creates a sense of happiness. An example is shown through the video, the 1963 Jaguar, a crummy car that falls apart all the time, but the owners still love it, just because the visceral experience that makes the owner focus on its beautiful shape. The second level - behavioral, means that whether a design is a fantastic functional product or not. It's also an important experience that designers need to consider. Designing a product is not just helping users to know how to use it. Also, making them feel they can control the product, so the product can work the way they want. Don Norman mentioned the global knives in the video. The global knives are a good example that shows the importance of behavioral experience, because "they're so nicely balanced, so sharp. The user really feel they're in control of the cutting". The third level is reflective. Reflective is about personal feeling and thinking, is about notice others perspective, as well as is about our own imagination. A great reflective product can have a great appealing towards the users. Hummer is the best example that gives the users a great reflective experience and imagination.

Overall, an emotional interaction between product and users is the most important process in design. Every designer needs to learn and know how to apply this process to their future design.

Powerhouse Museum

发件人 Studio

发件人 Studio

发件人 Studio

My favourite one

发件人 Studio

发件人 Studio

发件人 Studio

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发件人 Studio

发件人 Studio

Design Excellence (Eneloop ENL-L1EX Solar Lantern)

发件人 Studio

My Career

The reason why I study Industrial Design is because I love all the latest products. I love its form, and I love its function. Sometimes, I'm really amazed by the designers, how can they produce such a beautiful and useful thing in the world. And sometimes, I really want to show my new idea through drawing but the result in the end is not so great. So, studying this course might help me to improve my communication and my way of thinking.

In my leisure time, I often spend my time to read "T3" and some other magzines that relates to electronic product. So I get to know many latest products and its functions which makes me intersted in Industrial Design this area. After HSC finished, and I received my ATAR. I started looking on my UAC book to find some related course about designing a product. Luckily, I found the course "Industrial Design" in UNSW. I'm so excited to go into this course. Because it something I really love to do in the future.

But, it's not easy. After 13 weeks of studying industrial design, I realized that having an idea is not enough, I have to have many new ideas come out every week or even everyday. Being creative is not easy. So, studying and understanding the next step I have to do in order to improve my way of thinking. I will insist to study this course and get better understanding both function and form between product and the users.

Video Reflections - David Kellely: Human Centered Design

From watching this video "David Kelley on human-centered design", I discovered a new change in Industrial Design. In the past, the lastest hardware was the whole idea of designing a new product. But, nowadays, the hardware is becoming less important compare to the past. A more human-centered design is the main purpose of making a new product. As being a designer, we need to take more human-centered approach to design, that is including behaviour and personality in the things we do.

This new idea is presented in the videos, which are shown by David Kelley. Especially the first one, in Prada retail store in New York. The idea is giving customer a more comfortable way to dress up. I think the most human-centered design in the retail store is "magic mirror". Magic Mirror gives customers a 360 viewing of the cloth they are dressing up if they turn around, so customers have a chance to take a close look, to see the cloth in a different new way. The video of "Spyfish" is also a fantastic product that convince the idea of human-centered design. Spyfish is a product that helps people to experience the real world under the water with our visual and auditory sense. Just like the narrator said in the video, " It becomes your eyes and ears as you venture into the deep". This is another design that based on human behaviour and personality.

After watching this video, I discovered that being an Industrial Designer, we need a better understanding of human behaviour and personality in order to design a product that suits for everybody.