Product Design

Category: Product Design

Lamp

December 6, 2021 / Kelly / 1 Comment

DI1: Clearly define the design problem including the target audience

Clearly describe, in detail, the design needed in your blog, with supporting images.

In the Padlet.

DI2: Analyze precedents to inspire and inform solutions to the design problem

Create (and embed in your blog) a Padlet that clearly shows a range of examples of similar design projects and examples of divergent inspiration.

DP1: Apply design thinking practices to generate divergent ideas

Show evidence that you have effectively applied design thinking (brainstorming, ideation matrix, and thumbnail sketching) to generate at least 30 divergent ideas.

Brainstorming

Idea sketching

DP2: Develop selected ideas into design concepts, applying feedback and/or self-reflection to clearly justify your decisions

Show evidence of the process of selecting your strongest ideas and justify your choices.

I have narrowed my designs to 2 choices: Lego lamp and letter lamp. However, I have decided to make a lego lamp as my final product because letter lamps are too common and are not challenging enough.

Make detailed 2D and 3D drawings that show the details of your chosen design.

Isometric drawing

CI1: Apply feedback to iterate and refine your design

Show clear evidence of gathering and responding to peer and teacher feedback.

I asked teachers and friends if my idea was feasible and “innovative.” Although I received some feedback in terms of the simplicity of the design, I would still face challenges. I need to decide the shapes, sizes, how the lights are going to be visible when painted, etc. Later in the designing process, I also got some valuable feedback about the boxes’ materials. Through the feedback, I was able to explore and look at different types of materials: acrylics, 3D printing, and wood.

Clearly show the process of refining your chosen design concept.

This was a simple design I drew after deciding on making a lego lamp. My initial idea was to make all “lego pieces” red with various shapes. They were really simple because, at this stage, I only have brief ideas or sketches.

However, I decided that red was too intense and would limit legos’ shapes after being built. Therefore, I decided to make them either black or white.

I was not able to show a picture of it, but I have decided to go with clear acrylic and get rid of these circle things on the top of the lego. The cylinder-shaped ones will take too long to make and would make hard for the user to build them in different shapes.

CI2: Demonstrate growth in technical and design skills

Show evidence of the technical development of your concept – which tools did you use, and what was the effect?

I started by making brief, simple prototypes with cardboard. My main goal in this process was to see if my “lego lamp” idea was feasible. I focused on measuring the proper size of the blocks and seeing if the LED lights fit in the lego boxes. I cut some cardboard to 10×10 and taped them. After making three cardboard boxes, I realized that the boxes were a bit too big, and they were all square boxes, making it difficult for me to build them into different, unique structures. Luckily, the LED lights did fit into the cardboard boxes. Therefore, I will make the next prototype smaller and vary the shapes (rectangles or triangles).

For my second prototype, I used laser cutting. I first used Affinity Designer to design the boxes; however, I realized that the boxes’ shapes weren’t identical. Some parts were shorter or longer than others. Therefore, through the teacher’s advice, I resolved this issue by using a website called MakerCase. MakerCase was a website that printed the box design when I put in the measurements. This time, I designed the boxes into 3 different sizes: 5cmx5xm, 5cmx10cm, and 5cmx15cm.

After printing the boxes, I taped them assembled them together. Diverse sizes of boxes made me easier to build unique shapes.

I made two more prototypes to test if the LED lights were still visible outside. Therefore, I printed 2 more boxes, one with clear acrylic and another with black acrylic. I will spray paint the clear acrylic box, compare it with the black box, and see which one has better brightness.

Making the clear acrylic box was not easy because it had lots of steps. I first had to laser cut the box, tape them together, use a small syringe to glue the pieces, and compress the cube with rubber bands.

The next prototype was the same box but printed in a black acrylic box. However, the black box was too dark, and the lights were not visible.

Therefore, I eventually decided to use a clear acrylic box and spray paint them in gray. This box had colors but was transparent, which made the brightness show up.

Show and describe how your knowledge has grown.

After lessons, I learned that making prototypes is a necessary process. Before, I always thought making multiple prototypes was unnecessary. I instead preferred going directly to developing the final model because it reduced time. However, these past few lessons really helped me acknowledge its importance because prototypes found out big and small issues before making the final product. For example, before making the first prototype, I did not know the 10cmx10cm boxes were too big. But after the cardboard model, I realized it and cut them into 5x10cm. I was also able to decide on the boxes’ color.

CI3: Create a high-quality design that effectively responds to the stated problemo

Create a design that looks appealing, functions effectively, and has no serious technical flaws.

For my final lamp, I decided to print 3 3cm boxes, 3 10cm boxes, and 3 15cm boxes. They turned out very well. After cutting the boxes, I used plastic glue to put them in shape. The glue was specially designed for putting plastics together; it was really watery. The gluing step was actually a bit inconvenient because there were many steps to follow. I first had to tape them into 3D-shaped boxes- it was really important to cover all sides with tape. Next, I had to use a syringe and put the plastic glue into the sides of the boxes. Then, I used rubber bands to fix them.

After putting all pieces together, I spray painted them in gray. This process was quite interesting and fun since I have never tried spray painting. I had to be extra-careful in this process because the paints were extra-toxic.

Unfortunately, I was not able to fully finish the lamp. However, I really like how the boxes turned out. The color was really cool- shiny but somewhat matt at the same time. The sizes were also perfect for making new shapes.

RS2: Using the success criteria, explain the strengths & weaknesses of the process & product, including the impact of the design on the audience and environment

Describe how your final product is an effective response to the design brief.

Although I was not able to fully finish my lamp, I think it is pretty effective for my user, “Miles.” I was able to make a design that suited his interest which was “architecture.” My lamp was stackable and was able to turn into different forms.

Reflect on what you would do differently next time and why.

If I had more time, I would definitely work on finishing the lamp. I would put the LED light straps into the boxes and actually try them out. I would also like to change the color of the spray paint or paint it more thinly (not paint several layers) because it was too dark for the lights to show up. Printing the boxes with different materials for the boxes would also be another interesting challenge when I try this lamp unit next time.

Why is your lamp design a good response to your design brief?

My lamp is a good response to the design brief because it shows growth and progress. I have experienced several different steps of revision, prototypes, and mistakes to build my final model. I also learned the importance of prototyping and researching before making the final model.

Write about the function of the lamp (How it works)

My lamp’s main purpose is “being able to build into different shapes.” You can change into different forms whenever you want to; it is simply like buying a new lamp!

My target user would like my lamp design because…

My target user, Miles, would like my lamp design because it is related to architecture. Because he is interested in architecture, he can apply it to building legos. The boxes’ color is also really cool.

Storable Glasses- Precious Plastics Eye Glasses

1. Your Padlet of inspirational ideas, including:

Images & examples that show your chosen user (fashion style, interests, etc.)

Design Problem: Design effective glasses that suit my targeted audiences: Readers and writers (simply people who read and write a lot; students, possibly)

My glasses will be…

Fashionable and visually appealing
Comfortable (light in weight)
Storable
Unique (Color, lens shape, etc)

I decided to make glasses for readers and writers because I, myself faced multiple challenges while reading and writing. Whenever I needed to quickly write some notes down, I always forgot to bring pencils; I had to go get them from my bag or my room. It was simply inconvenient. Therefore, I want to design beneficial glasses that have places to store small objects like pencils and erasers. This way, it would be much easier and convenient.

The Padlet below also shows my connection with my users and the development of my ideas. I first gathered characteristics of authors: reading, writing, dressed fashionably, comfortable, and creative. I also noticed they have to carry many stuffs like pencils, notebooks, and erasers because they go through endless writing and revising processes at any time. I thought this would be inconvenient since they might have to carry pencils anywhere they go and might forget. Therefore, I made a connection and thought it would make their lives much more convenient if they have places to put small items in their everyday items: glasses. Therefore, my glasses are going to be storable.

Examples of glasses (Padlet)

Researching on Padlet really helped me organize ideas about my user and glasses. I first gathered lots of random examples of glasses that seemed interesting and unique. After deciding on the user, I narrowed the research range and searched for specific styles of glasses.

2. Examples of brainstorming:

Mindmap

Ideas matrix

3. Lots of rough sketches of your early ideas:

Everything you have sketched so far!

I drew many sketches of glasses that would fit my user. Some of them are very random; however, I thought it would be a good practice to draw them. After doing many sketches and research, I have decided to make storable glasses for authors (my user). My glasses will have small places to keep small objects like pencils or erasers.

4. Developmental drawings of more detailed concepts:

Orthogonal & isometric (3D graphics)

These are the actual measurements of my glasses.

Vector shapes for laser cutting

Affinity Designer Practice

Laser Cutting Shapes Drawn in Affinity Design

I have narrowed the glasses’ designs to 5 different shapes: square, heart, round, star, and round star. I drew these 5 shapes because I wanted to see if having “fashionable” shapes like heart and star distract people. I also made the shapes (lens) a little bigger than the usual size because I prefer glasses with big lenses.

Printed-out Cardboard Prototypes

I was actually very pleased with my printed cardboard prototype. It was not too fashionable and not too boring.

5. Visible evidence of feedback and decision-making:

How did you collect feedback from peers and “user”?

I asked my friends for critical feedback about my design, specifically, if the designs made sense and were actually helpful for “the users.”

What was your response to the feedback you received?

My friends told me the designs made sense; however, I received some feedback regarding the lens’ shape. Specifically, the unusefulness of fancy shapes since the sharp or round edges may interrupt the users from concentrating/writing. Therefore, I went back to the mindmap and looked through all my notes to see if the unique lens shape was needed. Eventually, I decided to get rid of the heart-shaped-lens and use a square-shaped lens.

6. Create:

I decided to re-use some plastics at school to make my final glasses since it is eco-friendly, and I have always wanted to try out these plastic materials. I wanted my glasses to have black as the base color and some bits of pink. So I went to the plastic-collection area (behind the MS/HS cafeteria) and collected lots of black and pink plastics numbers 2 and 5. It had to be plastics numbers 2 or 5s since they were the only ones that did not emit any toxic gasses during the melting process. One issue I faced during this process was collecting enough plastics because plastics at the plastic-collection area were not enough. I initially thought there would be lots of plastic wastes, but It was actually quite hard to find numbers 2 and 5. Most plastics at home and around the school were all number 1s. Therefore, to resolve this issue, I asked my friends to hand me some plastics that they are not using. After collecting enough of them, I re-washed the plastics with soap and dried them completely for 2 days.

After 2 days, I shredded them and melted them into a plastic sheet. During this process, I actually faced another problem: the pink plastics and black plastics could not be mixed together. The pink was actually a number 2, and black plastics were number 5. If we melt them together, it will emit huge amounts of toxic gas. Therefore, instead of using pink plastics, I decided to use some red. Red also turned out pretty well because it gave a natural and unique blend with the black.

I cut the plastics into the shape I had designed previously. Then, I glued the bridge and the glass part together. This process was a bit challenging for me because the plastics did not stick well, even when I tried gluing with a hot glue gun. Therefore, I had to glue multiple times to make layers of glue.

I am overall very proud and satisfied with my final work. I liked the unique color that had small bits of red and orange. However, I personally feel I could have made the plastic sheet a little thicker because my sheet was too fragile. The bridge kept broke, so I had to glue the glasses together. I also could not make the glasses “storable” because the plastics were too thin; they did not stay still. Therefore, next time, I would like to try making the acrylic glasses keep them stable. The last thing I can improve is making the edge of the bridge more round so it feels more comfortable when you wear it; mine was too “edgy,” so it was kind of itchy.