Sunday, June 3, 2012
Final Product
Our product was designed in such a way that it would motivate or rather force people to keep their tables clean.
Product: (Brief Outline)
Hexagonal table/Circle table that has only one open table space and the table space is the highest only straight table, the folders are sloping down so that nothing can pile above and will slide down to the end of the slide. In addition, there is an alarm system at the end of the slide to prevent any piling up of things. After the things have piled up above a certain height, the alarm will sound which would definitely irritate the user and force him to clear it. The availability of folders and drawers in the table itself, creates more storage space. Each folder is for a specific subject.
Lastly, the table has a hinge. For the user to come out from the table after usage, he has to open the table and due to the hinge, it would move up when opened. This would cause all the materials to fall down from the table if there were to be any. This would again cause the user to clear his table before opening it to go out, if he wants to prevent his things from falling down and causing a greater mess.
PROTOTYPE:
Product: (Brief Outline)
Hexagonal table/Circle table that has only one open table space and the table space is the highest only straight table, the folders are sloping down so that nothing can pile above and will slide down to the end of the slide. In addition, there is an alarm system at the end of the slide to prevent any piling up of things. After the things have piled up above a certain height, the alarm will sound which would definitely irritate the user and force him to clear it. The availability of folders and drawers in the table itself, creates more storage space. Each folder is for a specific subject.
Lastly, the table has a hinge. For the user to come out from the table after usage, he has to open the table and due to the hinge, it would move up when opened. This would cause all the materials to fall down from the table if there were to be any. This would again cause the user to clear his table before opening it to go out, if he wants to prevent his things from falling down and causing a greater mess.
PROTOTYPE:
Order and Organisation (Messiness)
My group consisting of, Jade, Yiting, Huizheng and myself decided to come up with methods to increase order and organization in our homes. We decided to work on the common problem in all of our homes, messiness.
Problem statement : "How might we reduce messiness in study tables used by those who cannot work in a messy environment, but just do not have the time to do so or are just lazy to clean up their tables"
WHAT MIGHT THEY LACK IN?
1) Organisation.
They might not allocate their materials which leads to pilling up of worksheets, book, files and etc.
2) Mindset
They are very lazy to clean up their tables. They do not prioritize the task of cleaning up the mess on their table.
Some people, can only work in a messy environment. They are just made that way. For such people, the table has to be messy. Thus we did not take them as our target audience. We decided to focus and come up with a product that would just help people who want to work in a neat and tidy environment.
STEPS:
Problem statement : "How might we reduce messiness in study tables used by those who cannot work in a messy environment, but just do not have the time to do so or are just lazy to clean up their tables"
WHAT MIGHT THEY LACK IN?
1) Organisation.
They might not allocate their materials which leads to pilling up of worksheets, book, files and etc.
2) Mindset
They are very lazy to clean up their tables. They do not prioritize the task of cleaning up the mess on their table.
Some people, can only work in a messy environment. They are just made that way. For such people, the table has to be messy. Thus we did not take them as our target audience. We decided to focus and come up with a product that would just help people who want to work in a neat and tidy environment.
STEPS:
Messy Table
Initially, when we were having a group discussion, I particularly mentioned that I did not see any flaws in my home. The other members did mention certain problems such as not being able to wake up on time in the mornings due to certain structures in their home. However, after discussion I came to realize that there were certain problems in my home. It was just that I had been used to living with them such that these problems no longer seem like problems to me but rather part and parcel of my life.
For example, my study table is extremely messy and there are may wires below the table. I have a shortage of space such that I can no longer work on my table but instead work at other places in my house such as the dining table. This simply just defeats the purpose of having a study table.
In the next post, I would give reasons to why people suffer from messiness.
MINDMAP
This mind map, though it looks wordy, is a very effective tool for me to learn and understand the reasons to why there are certain problems in our homes and what these problems are exactly. These problems may be very minor. For example, having too many pillows in the living room, the study table being extremely messy, the toilet being very unsafe for usage, etc. After spending about 3 hours discussing about various problems at our respective homes, we came up with this mind map with the help of our trainers.
Some of the very common problems in our households would be messiness and shortage of storage space. These problems may arise due to personal beliefs, the common practice of being "alone together" or in simpler terms, each individual being involved in his/her own tasks and not working towards a common goal. There is a communication barrier.
We may also not have adequate time to solve the particular problem in our home or intentionally not solve due to religious beliefs. Some may also have different perceptions on what cleanliness and an exemplary home should be like. If a house happens to be too clean, some may say that it looks like a museum and that that defeats the purpose of a home while some may disagree and show their love for such homes.
This is simply just a summary of the mind map. To find out more on what we did and learnt, zoom in to the image :)
Workshop
I am truly very grateful to my school and definitely my teachers in charge for giving me this rare opportunity. The workshop is indeed very enlightening and every lesson teaches me something new. To me, I personally feel that this workshop is something like the D&T (design and technology) lessons I used to attend in my lower secondary.
The main aim of this workshop is to identify a certain problem that we face at our homes and work as a team to find a solution for it. Something that stumped me the most and enlightened me was what our trainer told us, "Every solution is a problem".
We can take the above product as an example. This product was done entirely to save storage spaces at our homes. If we were to stack each pan separately, it is going to take up much more space than putting them inside one another. Thus this is indeed a great way to get some space for ourselves at our own homes. But a problem may arise in such a product. It may be costly, thus putting a financial burden for some. Furthermore, there might not be a need for so many pans for some. Perhaps they might need only one or two out of it. Even so, in this case, they would be forced to buy all.
However, every solution needs to have a problem. Only with such problems, designers would be assured a living.
The main aim of this workshop is to identify a certain problem that we face at our homes and work as a team to find a solution for it. Something that stumped me the most and enlightened me was what our trainer told us, "Every solution is a problem".
However, every solution needs to have a problem. Only with such problems, designers would be assured a living.
My Family
As the title suggests, this is a picture of my family. We were asked to take and later upload a family picture by the trainer who came from SUTD today! I am the one on the far right and my sister is on the other hand of the picture. We took this in Europe 2 years ago.
There is more to come!
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