Treasuring Time

I originally wanted to create a product that would help us to treasure our presnet time by reminding us of death and that we only had finite amount of time. This was too negative and would difficult to sell as a product. So I decided to focus on the treasuring the present time part, and also the finite time part, but instead of reminding the user of theit death it would remind them of now, and that they should be using their time mor constructively, whetehr that means doing something or maybe taking a break.

The product is a small object, that the user can carry around and play around with using their hands and their sense of touch. The object bears no religious significance, and so it can be used by anybody. It is similar to Komboloi, or worry beads, in that it allows the user to play around with something if they feel worried or nervous or even just bored. The object however is far more compact than Komboloi, and also more solid and can last longer. It is also more masculine, and is something that only the user should know about, as it sits in their pocket and the palm of their hand.

The product would be made of a solid and resistant material like bronze or aluminium. This allows it capture heat and also is quite pleasant to touch. The object does not need to look good, as I focussed on touch when designing it. The curves are specifically placed on alternate corners and edges, and a point on the remaining corners and edges. This made the object feel goodand also more enjoyable to fiddle around with. The sensation can cause the user to react in such a way that they could realise they need to be doing something at the time, or maybe they need to chill. It is a bit like having a little buddy with you, when you are in a situation where you have know one else, for example going up to do a presentation or doing an assignement or homework at home.

Designing Dream Machines

This video, 'Designing Dream Machines' shows us how designers really work and how they start with a brief and end up with the final product. The video is set at Seymour and Powell and British design partnership. One this about this group is that they try to design for the future, rather than design for now, which can be very tricky, as you must predict what is needed for the future, which can cause conflict between the designers and the clients.

The brainstorming phase of the briefs they were given was important in how it showed how open minded you had to be as well as how working in a group allowed more ideas to flow. Next they had to research extensively to get an idea how the product could improve on current products and also how current trends will evolve in the future to allow the product to be innovative and original by the time it is released.

After that the product can start to take shape and many concepts can be produced allowing the client to choose what product they want. This than leads to the prototype phase where the concept must evolve into a working product. They use many techniques, including some futuristic and soem that have been used since product design began. This then leads to the final presentation to the client which, and when the product ends up being rejected you feel for the designers as they have gone through so much to gain nothing in the end. Even the best companies can fail sometimes whic can be very disheartening, however when the designs work, the company will forever be remembered and all the work pays off. Its a tough industry but with pateince and hard work it can all pay off.

Please help!

This is Webster. He is a spider. Unfortunately due to a terrible accident Webster can no longer build webs. He now lives in a bathtub, too afraid to go outside in case a cat, or possum or bird will eat him like they ate his partner and kids. You can help Webby, by helping me. Just give me some good ideas for project 3 and I will eventually have enough time to send Webby to a psychologist to help him get his life back on track.

Bad design

This is the control panel of an airconditioner, with a certain button circled. This button switches modes on the air-conditioner, a fan mode, a heating mode, a cooling mode and a dry mode. This works like a thermostat and in conjunction with the temperature control.


This is a close up. As you can see there is a picture of an 'A' surrounded by two arrows circling around it, so this must be the fan mode. Then its the snow flake, this must be cooling, then a drop of water, so this must dry it, then a sun so that must mean it is heating mode.
Well obviously its not, but it is an error made many times by people in my family as well as friends who have tried to operate it. The pictures stand for what the weather is like, not what setting you want the mode in. So the snowflake is, its cold outside so this must heat the house. Likewise with the Sun, Ive never even bothered using the other settings.

In order to avoid confusion, on the screen it should just use words instead of pictures. This should be no problem since the rest of the controls are in English. Also ive seen it done on other models made by the same brand, and even my mum knows how to use the other models.

All it has is:

HEAT
DRY
COOL
FAN

Surely it would make more sense to put that on the current model I have if its made by the same company.