Development of Ideas

I thought divergently about my idea, and how the kinetic energy might benefit the audience. To start with, I made a list of all the possible uses for my current design, that consists of a usb inserted in the back, linked to a pendulum mechanism that turns a motor producing electricity. The usb is a universal plug used for data transportation and charging points for many electrical appliances. The main uses would be:

• Phone charging
• Ipod
• Portable speakers
• Portable Lights

However, my target demographic is largely going to a be young adults, aged between 18-30, and my angle is marketing the product as a festival shoe, or to commuters. Other items they may not think of but will certainly find essential in a basic stripped back environment such as camping are as follows:

• Hoover
• Straighteners
• Hair dryer
• Electric toothbrush
• Fridge
• Electric Car

This divergent thinking has opened up a wide range of products that could be used in the shoe, and customers will hopefully like the versatility of the free energy adapter. The shoe is also good for emergencies and survival situations where energy can be produced from movement.

Personas & Journey Mapping

Today we learnt a good technique to use when thinking about our audience. It’s very easy to get tunnel vision and run with my own thoughts, however i’m probably missing a whole range of peoples needs a scenarios that may exclude them from using the shoe, or what they might like about the product.

First we were told to make a range of personas from extreme to normal, producing an identity of a fictional character that will encounter my product in some fashion

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After making up our fictional characters, we ran through how and why our identities had encountered the product, and what there thoughts and feelings were. Here is the outcome.

I found this useful to identify potential flaws such as waterproofing, and who might be excluded from using the product, such as a disabled person or and office worker that doesn’t move the necessary amount in a day to utilize the product effectively.

Further Development

After looking at my research, I started to make decisions about the materials I would use to create the shoe, and what impact it might have on the environment.

As previously mentions, cork is a very versatile material, and could defiantly be utilized in this project. I also think hemp would make a good natural alternative to synthetic material that pollute the environment all along the materials economy.

 

 

 

Poster Design Thumbnail Sketches

I wanted to clearly communicate my message of sustainability, but show it in a way that would challenge the audience to think about the over riding issue of the planet. I came up with two key signifiers which I think will help me. One being the planet, as this is what sustainability is all about, and the other being electricity, or lightening bolts to signify electricity. Below are a few variations of what I came up with. I think they would communicate the desired messages well and the audience would instantly know what the shoe did.

Sports Shoe Adverts

I took a look at some other well known sports brands to see how they visually communicate the messages of a sports shoe.

The poster below is big and bold, but simple. The text takes up almost a whole third of the top of the page. The light background has a very slight radial gradient from white to a slight tone of grey. This makes the big bold black text almost leap out at the audience, and really catches the eye. The tagline is also very clever. The quick fix makes the audience ask how and why?  The poster flows from text, to the image of the shoes, to the small piece of information explaining the design and technology. The poster is well balanced, with the main bulk of the information being at the bottom. This gives the audience the opportunity to read the information quickly and effectively.

From a typography standpoint, i think this design is very effective, however i’m not sure if I used this technique, whether the audience would pick up the purpose of the shoe and what impact it has of the world.

This poster is clear and striking, however the image is solely focused on the shoe, which isn’t a bad thing. However I feel my design needs some sort of information explaining what the product does. This design would fit well on the fibanche spiral as the eye is drawn to the bottom right of the page where the shoe starts. Directly above in another focus point is the logo that contrasts well with the white back ground.

I think this design is incredibly simple but effective. One small line of text saying “Walk on air” with white text on a black background positioned centre of a landscape billboard. Directly above is a 3d model of the shoe, implying the shoe is light enough to rise to the the top of the billboard.

The Audience of My Design

As the brief states, PDF two should include research on my intended audience. Who is my audience? What might they think about my product? And how might they perceive my visual communication.

To do this, we looked a couple of techniques that would help us to jump into the shoes of our audience, and experience what their thoughts and feelings might be when they see the product. This is important to understand before the design process to make sure my product has a purpose, and a customer once the product has been made.

One of these techniques is called personas. A lot of design companies use this technique to better understand their intended audience. Sancha asked us to come up with three identities that might be a potential customer. Its easy when designing to have tunnel vision, and to focus on my own thoughts and feelings, and not consider other peoples age, gender, and own beliefs.

After creating my personas, I took them through a journey map. This means taking the identity through the process from noticing the product, to buying it, and then using it. Doing this raised some questions about my design, and from this I have developed the idea further. I realised that the waterproofing of the shoe would be fundamental to its success. I then looked into other ways the shoe could protect the usb from getting wet. I thought about other waterproofed electronics, for example my mobile phone the samsung s5, and how I might use replicate this in my design. I noticed that the charging port was sealed with a plastic piece that fitted into the plug, meaning no water could go in nor out.

Thinking sustainably, I wanted to use a material that isn’t going to harm the environment from production to the end of use. At this stage, I’m thinking of using cork, like a wine stopper, in order to keep my product dry, however I want to do some more research in order to find out if there is a more suitable product available.

Siva Cycle

I looked at alternative methods of power generation in order to better understand how my design would work. Siva cycle generates power through kinetic energy. A fan is attached to the back wheel that spins when the wheel is in motion. This in turn spins a motor that produces electricity, and then is stored in a small black box. This black box can then be detached and plugged in to your phone in order to charge it.

Experience Design

What is experience design? Its the practice of designing products, processes, services, events or journeys that are focused on the users quality of experience with culturally relevant solutions. Design experience can be subcategories three ways:

• Everyday – these are everyday experiences that we might not notice, for example eating breakfast, or locking the door before going out.
• Recognised – these are experiences that are planned. We know that we are about to have an experience when we go to a concert or a festival, cinema etc.
• Group Memory – these are experiences that are memorable as they are shared with a group of people. For example going on holiday with a group of friends or playing football in a team.

We were split into three groups and told to watch these three videos to better understand how the designer has “sold” there idea to the consumer, making it more appealing through means of gamification and visual communication.

https://www.zombiesrungame.com/

http://www.hellolamppost.co.uk/

The fender website showed a normal average office worker fulfilling his dream to be the next rock star. The video made the guitar seem bespoke and unique to the consumer. It also highlighted the amount of different customisable parts there are to design on the guitar. It shows a journey of how the consumer has come to his overall decisions, and how long it has taken him to get to the final outcome.

Hellolamppost – this idea is to stimulate the people of the area, which they might see as quite boring and a mundane place to live in. It relates to the idea of gamification, where people interact and play games to keep them interested.

Zombies Run! – I thought this was quite a good idea to get people up and active, and specifically people with a tendency to drift off into there own little world. It encapsulates the idea of playing a game, and mixes it with something that other people may find boring and dull. The video promotes the app, and builds tension from the outset with music moving from quiet to loud. The video is also shot from a first person perspective, making the viewer feel they are in control of what they are seeing, immersing themselves further into the concept.

There are three key factors when thinking about experience design:

Cognition – Knowledge/mental understanding

Sensory perception – sight, smell, touch, feel, hear etc

Emotion – what emotional attachment does the viewer have?

We were then told to choose one of the videos and see how these three factors tie in:

Cognition – Language, technology

Sensory Perception – Running, warmth, sweat, smell

Emotion – Fear, danger.

 

Soccket

My initial idea is based around the generation of kinetic energy. I wanted to find out what other products are out there and being developed that are along similar lines to what i’m proposing.

I came across this football that is kicked around, and within the ball is a pendulum that moved to rotate a motor, that in turns generates the electricity. Kicking the football around for half an hour can produce enough energy to light a LED bulb for three hours. This design is a simple solution to the production of energy. A lot of energy is wasted with everyday activities that we should be utilising. The whole idea of the football has been re-thought in order to solve a problem, which is darkness in third world countries, and poverty as they cant afford the electricity to power lightbulbs. This also ties in with gamification, where the user has fun with the product without necessarily noticing the underlying purpose.

For my own project I can draw inspiration from the design of the generator that produces the electricity. It stems from a pendulum placed in the centre of the ball. As the ball is kicked the pendulum swings, giving the movement that is required to turn the motor and produce the energy.

Daisy Ginsberg

I wanted to take a look at Alexandra Daisy Ginsbergs work, as she had set the brief for the design factory this year. Here approach is not to design better, but to design different. A lot of her work is to stimulate debate amongst the design community. She has previously worked with Mini Cooper. She explores the ethical and aesthetic futures of design, and collaborates with biologists.

One of the biggest things Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is known for is her work with synthetic biology, and the questions raised are should we be thinking about a synthetic future if the animals on earth can’t survive any longer due to human destruction.