Initial Design Brief:
For this project we were to work in pairs to explore and design a new way to make navigating fun for whoever is trying to find their way around Dundee. We are to think about how people navigate if they don’t know the area (tourists) but also how people from Dundee (locals) get around; do they use the same routes?

At the end of this project the person I would partner with and I would have to have made a physical 3D model/ CAD model, and an A3 concept board. We would also have to present our idea to our peers.

The person that I partnered with was Robyn.

Research:

Robyn and I started our research by looking into existing types of navigation. There are many apps that can be used for navigation. When looking at them we realised that they are only really used to get from point A to B and it has to have a defined destination, they do not allow you to explore the surrounding area randomly.

These are existing apps that uses navigation for entertainment; Pokemon Go!, Gatwick Airport AP app and Geocaching.

Pokemon Go! is an augmented reality* game that is a development from a console game.     The app gives the user the real life experience of going out and hunting the pokemon like the character in the game.GPS is used to show the users place correctly on the map.

The Gatwick Airport AP app is also an augmented reality* app. It is designed to help passengers find all the information they will need while in the airport. Instead of trying to read a map or signs the app shows the path lit up on the screen.

Geocaching is an outdoor activity that uses GPS to hide containers all around the world. The user can select a geocach they want to find and the app shows them how to find it on the map. The user does not know what will be in the container but sometimes its more about the journey not what is at the end.

We decided to download a Geocaching app to see what it was like and to see if there were any geocaches in Dundee. There were 34 geocaches marked on the map, this shows that there is a possibility if we were to design a product like this, that people would be interested in it.

*augmented reality – to add or enhance something. Used within apps to enhance your experience of the natural world. Uses your existing natural reality and simply overlays virtual information on top of it on the screen.

We then started brainstorming ways of navigating. 

Standard Map – shows from their location to their intended destination. However this will result with them looking down at their phones while walking, this means they will miss looking at the environment around them.

Music – music will play as the user is walking. The music will continue to play if they keep walking the right way but once they take a wrong turn the music will stop. This means that the user will not have to look at their phones the whole journey. The downside is that to not disturb the other people around, the user would most likely wear headphones, this would be hard to do if it was a group of people.

Match the place to the picture – the user is shown a blurred image of a place and the user has to explore Dundee to try and find it. The downside of this is that the user may not find the place and give up.

Dog collar – the collar connects to the owners phone. It lights up different colours to signal different turns the user should take. To make sure the user gets to see more of the area the app will send the user back on a different route. The problem with this idea is that not everybody has a dog. It could be changed to the likes of a light up wrist band.

Glasses – the user wears them while out and the path to follow is shown through the lenses. Disadvantage of this is that different people would have to have different sized glasses. Also what about the people that already wear glasses?

From these options the one Robyn and I liked best was the Match the place to the picture. We liked this one best because we thought it was a new way of navigating and that it would be fun for the user. It would encourage them to look at their surrounding and really pay attention when walking around.

How to make it more fun?

Was there anything we could add to make the whole experience of going out more fun?

PAC MAN – make their journey be more like a game. The user has to get to their destination in a certain amount of time so they don’t get caught by the ghosts and the places they visit is the food.

Points – the more places the user visits the more points they will get. The points add up and it gives the user discounts in surrounding stores. Some of the discounts could be for locally owned shops to promote buying from local stores instead of big name brands. Discounts could also be for things such as swimming and the cinema for families.

QR Codes – these are at the places and users can scan them to receive information.

Alerts – user receives alerts when they are near another marked place that isn’t their intended one.

Augmented Reality – could be things on the users screens that they have to do while on their way to their intended place.

From these options we didn’t like the PAC MAN because it was to much like an existing app called ‘Zombies, Run!’. We also didn’t like the idea of the augmented reality because it would mean the user would have to look at their phones to make sure they don’t miss anything.

We did like the Points and QR codes because it adds to the whole experience of the journey, it doesn’t just end when you reach the destination.

Development ideas:

We then looked back at the things we had chosen and discussed to see if we could make it better.

We chose for the user to be given a blurred image, we didn’t want the user to give up if they couldn’t find the place so we thought of these ideas to help navigate the user.

Hints – user can use hints when they feel like they are completely lost. Hints will show the user directions for a certain amount of time. Effects of using hints could be that they receive less points when they reach their destination OR you have to use points you already have to ‘buy’ a hint.

Step Counter – shows the user how many steps away from the place they are. The closer the user gets to their destination the amount of steps will decrease, however if the number begins to rise then they will know they are going in the wrong direction.

Compass Direction – the compass will show the user the overall direction they have to walk in to make sure they’re going the right way but it doesn’t give them step by step instructions.

We decided to go with the Step Counter and Compass Direction as it doesn’t require the user focusing on their phone, they can just glance at it every now and then.

Although we didn’t want the users to be staring at a map we thought it would be best to include the map in the app in case they get really lost.

We then started to investigate physical products that the user could use. 

Before, we said we would have a Step Counter and Compass so we thought that would be the best part for our physical device to have. This would allow the user to only need their phone to choose a destination and when they reach their destination or if they’re truly lost. They can put their phones away and just look at the device.

We started with sketching out different shapes and making them from foam.

Circle design is small which will make it easy to carry. The arrow is the compass to show direction. The display is simple and easy to read. The overall look is sleek.

           This is a cylinder design. The screen is on top with buttons on the              side. The sides are caved in so a person can comfortably hold it.               The sides have hand grips to stop it slipping from the users hand.

This is a square design. It is a simple shape and the screen will be            easy to read.

This is an unusual shape. It draws attention so people will                          wonder what it is. However the angled corners will make                        it hard to read the screen and it might be uncomfortable                                                                         to hold and put in a pocket.

The shape we liked best was the Circle Design because it was simple and easy to use. We had to think about who our audience was; tourists and families. For both means that we didn’t want something to fancy or complicated.

With the Step Counter there was a few things we discussed that we thought might be important. 

The first thing we thought about was buttons, would it be touch screen or have actual buttons? If it was touch screen then it would more likely keep doing things it shouldn’t because of it being hit while the user is walking. Actual buttons would be safer, although parents would have to watch children that are carrying it as they would most likely want to press them. We decided that it would only have the steps on the screen so it could be controlled through the app which means it wouldn’t need any buttons.

The next thing we thought about was how would it be powered since it is electronic. Battery or cable? We chose it to be rechargeable using a cable as it would allow for it the be made thinner which then makes it lighter.

We also thought how would the user carry it. Repeatedly taking out and putting something in a pocket can be really annoying so we designed ours to have a clasp on the back so the user can clip it onto themselves. I also thought that a child could be more likely to drop it, to make sure it won’t break I designed it to have string so that it can always stay attached to the child.

We started thinking about where you could get these from. I suggested that they be for hire because tourists will not need it when they leave and the people of Dundee will only need it when they actually want to go out. We came to the conclusion that they could be hired from a tourist shop in the town centre as that is a place that most people will go.

CAD Model designs

Now since we had the concept and design for the step counter we moved onto making a 3D computer model.

Robyn and I made one each to see how it would look if they were different.

My Design

Robyn’s Design

Designs Evaluation

When we started making the model we agreed that the screen should be in a dip and not right on the top. This meant if it was dropped the screen would never actually touch the ground. Other parts of our designs were slightly different, mine was wider and thinner whereas Robyn’s was smaller and fatter. We redid the design so it was a mixture of both. The circle part was the size of mine and the thickness was in between the both of ours. Another thing we differed on was the colour, we decided to go with black though as it is a standard colour and it will work for everybody. Surprisingly we both chose the same material for the plastic around the edges. Although it was plastic it has a rubber quality so if it was to be dropped it would bounce. We investigated with the screen and the colour of text, we went with the black screen, white writing.

Logo Designs

When creating the logo we had a bit of trouble because there are so many elements to our app and product. I started brainstorming ideas that didn’t really sell our service.

I then looked at website that would help me and there I realised what I was doing wrong. It needed to be more simple.

Some of these ones also could be used for something else. feet = exercise, camera = photography

When I showed Robyn she liked the last one but she didn’t like the gradient background so we decided to just have the background a block colour.

App Concepts

Together we discussed how we wanted our app to be, the main thing we wanted was for our app to be easy to use.

The designs that we liked was the first one and third one. Both are simple and easy to use, everything you need is easily laid out. We then went onto create a computer version of these designs to see what they would look like with colour.

This (left) is the computer version of the first idea. We decided to take away the points part on the main screen because it got in the way of the map. This version is easy to use and understand. The symbols used are common so anybody should be able to understand what they are for.

This (right) is the computer version of the third design. This design didn’t turn out how I thought it would look, its very plain and doesn’t look very professional.

(left) This design is a combination of the two above designs. The overall layout is more like the first design which is good because it looks more professional and real. The icons have changed to be the same as the second design to make them unique to this app, we didn’t want it to look like all the other apps out there. The step counter has been added to this design so the person can also look at it on their phone when they are checking the map.

(right) Although the navigation bar is wrong it shows the extra page that has other information options that will show when the user hits the three circle icon.

Concept Board

Now that we had everything designed we could make our concept board. The first one we made had to much writing so we had to redo it. When we redid it we made it look more like a promotional piece. We made two versions of the promotional piece; landscape and portrait. We preferred the landscape because the elements on the page took up more space, there was no large areas of white space.

Overall Evaluation:

This project has been difficult because its had me thinking about different things and working with somebody else can be hard when you don’t know each other. Learning how each other work and process things was interesting. Sometime during these two weeks we would hit a bump where we wouldn’t have quite have an idea where the project was going. There was so many parts to this project that we had to think about and discuss.

I didn’t enjoy presenting our idea because I don’t like talking in front of a large group of people. I think our presentation could have gone better because there were things that could have been said that weren’t because I just really wanted to get to my seat.

Now that the project is over and complete I think we created a great idea that people would enjoy using.

Design Brief:
This project consisted of thinking of public spaces and how the public interact with the space.
I could design a new public space or redesign a space that already exists to make it better.
The space I would create could either be ‘Active’; getting people moving.
Or ‘Calm’; getting people to stop and reflect.
Connectivity was another thing I was to think about wether it be social, community or digital. Would my design change the way that people interact with each other.

Initial Thought:
From the brief I started to chose my options of what I wanted my space to be.
I chose to redesign an already established public space because then I would already know how people interact with the space and I would know how to make it better.
I wanted my space to be ‘Calm’ because it would be a new challenge for me as a lot of previous projects have been fun and lively. I wanted to test myself to see if I could think differently.
I didn’t know what type of connectivity it would be until I figured out where it would go and what it would be.

Where would it go?
Since moving to Dundee the place I am most familiar with is the Union, this made my decision of where to put it easier.
The Union is also at the centre of campus so there is always people around the area.

The main people at the Union is students so I wanted my space to be somewhere they can go when they come across a problem and don’t know how to solve it.
Within the space I wanted something they could look at or interact with that could help them solve their problems.

Initial Idea:
The idea of having a problem and confused thoughts made me think of things rotating, I wanted to incorporate that idea into my piece.
Thought about separate parts rotating on different axis’s to remind the students that there is more than one way to look at things.
They may just have to look at the problem from a different angle.

The standard shape would be circles as they can rotate within each other.
I wanted as many circles as I could get as it would symbolise the more options the student have.
Making this was difficult as I had to make sure all the circles were in proportion to each other with the same thickness and gap between.

Tried different shapes; triangles and squiggly circle.
Triangles
straight away I knew that it would be better if all sides were the same size.
There would be less rotating parts due to the edges.
The model shows that this shape doesn’t work because the inside ones hit the wont bigger than it. For this to work the sizes of the triangles would have to change drastically.

Squiggly circle
This idea was to better represent the student confused thoughts.
The parts would intwine and move around each other.
The problem with this design was I couldn’t think of a way to make them move.

I chose to keep the overall shape as a circle as it gets the movement of all the parts correctly.

Development:
Now since I had the shape sorted I moved onto think about the size of the piece.
Smaller one = small size reasonable size to move by hand, will need a stand

Large one = as tall as a person, makes it a large art piece, will need help rotating

Small one on a post = could then be placed inside

Small ones hanging from trees = make it a decoration, lightweight

All of the above sizes would allow for the piece to have multiple on one place, it would look like a farm.

The ideas I liked the best were the large one and the small ones on the post or tree.
The large one will have a bold impact whereas the small ones will have a more delicate feel.

This then made me think about the materials that could be used for either.
The large one with need a strong material so likely metal
Whereas the smaller ones could just be made from wire which is lightweight.

Decided to go with the large one as it will have a bigger impact.
I wouldn’t have multiple large ones because they would take away the majority of the grass area and I don’t want to do that.

Due to such a large size I decided to look at adding a base/stand to add more stability.
Tried with one stand but due to the weight it would have to have a large width, the model shows that its not very appealing to look at and if somebody was to look at it from the side they wouldn’t know what it was.

Decided to try with two stands the same shape as the one stand.
Forget that it would sit at an angle not flat.

Couldn’t make the stands as one piece had to make it in parts, this was hard as I didn’t know the correct angle to cut it at.

Having two stands is better as the weight is shared between the two sides.

Final Piece:
For my final piece I tried to make sure all the measurements were correctly to scale.
This caused problems because I kept getting confused with the units; they were being scaled down in mm but the model was being made as that number in cm (12mm(scale) 12cm(model))

Thinking about the size and weight I thought it would be hard to move the separate circles so I decided to add a wheel on the side to get the circles started moving.

From my rough model I found out that the tooth picks would go through the cardboard at an angle because of the waves in the layers of cardboard.
I tried cutting parts of the layers to creat a wider space, this would allow me to place the toothpicks in straight.

Due to the wider space the the toothpicks had more space to move and come loose so I covered them in masking tape to make them thicker.

I also had to extend the toothpick on the outer circle on one side so the wheel could be attached.

I chose to make my piece large in size, when it was just sitting on the ground it would have been an equal height to an average sized person but with the added stand it is now going to be taller.
To make it seem more decorative i thought about adding LED’s or laser lights on the inside of the circles.
This would create different patterns of colour when the circles are spun.

Evaluation:
I am happy with how my space has come out.
I am pleased that I was able to get it moving.
If I was going to do this task again I wouldn’t worry as much about the scale and getting all my measurements correct.
I would also like to develop this idea more and see what else I could do with it.

Initial Brief
I was tasked with redesigning a product that was inspired by Richard Sapper’s Tizio Lamp.
From the Tizio Lamp I was influenced by the form; skinny parts with spaces in between. I was also influenced by the movement; although I wanted my product to include a movement I didn’t want it to be the exact same as the Tizio Lamp.

I did some research on Richard Sapper’s other products to see his overall design concepts. Many of his products have a minimal form.

When I realised I wanted to design a new lamp I researched already existing lamps because I didn’t want my design to be the same as a lamp that is already available.

Initial Idea
Once I knew I was going to be designing a lamp that moved I already had an idea in mind. Most lamps that can move, it is just the neck section that moves to change the direction of the light. I wanted my lamp to change from one shape to another.

The movement for my lamp was inspired by a kids toy. The ball can be round and flat, I wanted my lamp to do a similar thing.Instead of it being a ball I wanted mine to be a box because it would have a better aesthetic appeal when closed.

Being able to choose the amount of light produced means the user can interact with the lamp.

I initially designed it as two panels that are connected by dowels and the lightbulb would sit between them.

To get started I made each part separately. I originally thought that they would overlap when flat and a dowel would go through them but when I made it I realised if the parts overlapped they would not be able to bend.

Development
Once realising that having two panels wouldn’t work I started wondering what it would be like it there was only one panel that was wider. I added sides onto the ones that originally didn’t have any to make it look more like a box with the 6 sides.

I still wanted the sides to bend so I had to come up with a new way for that to work. I found out that scoring along the centre horizontally allowed for the material to bend without breaking.

From first glance the shape makes it look interesting but I wanted to add something more so I tried cutting out parts of the side.

It looked nice but to much light would escape even when the shade was closed which would defeat the purpose of being able to choose how open it is.

Tried increasing the number of sections on the sides to increase the look of a 3 dimensional hexagon.

Due to the rectangular base when the shade was close there was no space for the light to come through. Since this didn’t work I decided that I was going to keep it just having 4 sides.

I then moved onto thinking about where the lightbulb would be going. Naturally I would have it hanging from the top, so that is where I started. A rectangle was the easiest shape to do but when I made it I could see that it would produce to much escaped light.

To avoid the user getting burned by the bulb I decided to add a protective shade on the inside although it didn’t effect the function of the lamp it did have a negative impact on the aesthetics.

With the rectangular cut out I couldn’t think of a way that a bulb could be safely attached.

Then moved on to having a circle cut out on the top cause many bulbs have circular ends. This idea started of well as it allowed space for the bulb and no extra light would escape from the top.

Also wanted to add a bulb protector with this idea. I didn’t want the protector to effect the direction of the light so I made it a lamp shade (rhombus) shape so the light would spread, sadly this idea did not work either. The top circle has a diameter or 3cm and for the rhombus to work the bottom circle would have to have a diameter of 9cm, this meant when the box was closed the protector was being squished. If the product was real this would cause damage to the product and make it not work correctly.

I then decided to rethink the type of bulb that would be used; standard bulbs are to big and will not fit the style of lamp.
I then though of a group of LED’s; these takes up less space and, produce the same amount of light and the user is less likely to get burned.

Final piece
The lamp now appears like a box when closed and a hexagon style shape when the sides are bent.
The bent sides are all one piece which made it easier to assemble the parts.
Have kept the idea of the user interacting with the lamp as they can decide how much light can be let out.
The use of LED’s means that the lamp can just have the ordinary rectangular shape no extra parts were needed inside.
The inspiration from the original lamp can be seen as the sides are thin with the spaces between them and although it is slightly different movement is involved.

Design Evaluation
The problems I came across included:
Assembly
Bent sides

Assembly
Due to the sides bending they couldn’t be totally joined to the top and bottom only the outside edge could be glued together
This meant when the lamp was pushed down the sides would come away from each other, the glue wasn’t strong enough.

If I was to redo this task I would spend more time on being able to join all the parts together in a better was so it stayed together when it was closed and open.

Bent sides
Cutting the material half way through allowed it to bend which was fine but it also meant that when the box was closed the sides couldn’t totally flatten, they were still slack.

Welcome to my blog.

This is going to be a timeline including my design projects from my time at university.