The Floyd Leg

The Floyd Leg was an interesting project I came across recently:

The main idea is captioned in the phrase "Create a table from any flat surface."

Basically the idea is that you buy a set of four of these steel legs which can be clamped onto any flat material to create a table. It started out as a kickstarter project where it raised over $250,000 when it's goal was only $18,000.

They are now on sale on the website for $189 for a set of four (to make one table).

The idea of using these legs to make a table with a piece of old wood that you have in the house is one that I like. It gives the freedom to have a table in your house which is chosen and made by you. I believe this adds value to the table, compared to one just bought from a shop. It's personal.

I for one would like a set. The whole idea is great and could be an insight into a future life where everything is reused and recycled. Not only that, but a furtwhere your furniture is designed and made you.




















For more information have a browse here: http://www.thefloydleg.com/

Open Design

Design and Technology
Roy Shearer and Paul Smith
28/02/14


Defining open design is not an easy task, with many differing opinions on what the term means. To me, open design is allowing others to freely see, use and adapt a design you have produced.

Enzo Mari is considered to be one of the first designers who wanted to distribute his plans freely. He wanted everyone to be able to make their own furniture by starting with the design he came up with. 

Ronen Kadushin produces furniture that's laser cut. Although it is still open design, it is not as widely available due to the process required to make it. 

Arduino is a great example of successful open design - even though the plans are released people really value the Arduino brand.

Local motors - open on input and output is tied to a garage. Solid works files available for all the parts of their automotive design. 

Roy mentioned that the instructions provided with the design are the most important part; as poor instructions do not allow the person to understand and use the design. This restricts the user and is detrimental to their design development.

Roy talked about an Instructable he made with shelves made of wood and old bottles. It is an interesting concept and I like the idea of using items, that would normally just be thrown out, to make useful furniture. It is similar to my next blog post which is going to be about the Floyd Leg.

Open Design is certainly and interesting concept. Releasing designs for anyone to use is certainly something I will consider in the future, depending on what the project I am working on is. Sites like Instructables are really useful platforms for sharing ideas and designs, creating a real community of creativity.

Design Ethnography

Design and Technology
Brian Lonranger
21/02/14


The top down approach of looking at a design problem is popular nowadays as it has a way of understanding minute problems that compound over the course of a design process. These compounded problems are often those which cause a product to fail. It is therefore important to get to the root issues early and have a deeper look.

Participant observation involves living in the culture for a long period, .5 to 2 years, to understand fully who you are designing for. Ford used a suit that restricted movement and vision to design an old person friendly car - it turned out to be one of the most successful car designs for that particular user. Observing someone with a clipboard (being an outsider) will not be natural and the person won't act normally... 

Brian claimed elderly people don't want to learn new systems, they just want to enjoy old age and the way things are. In my experience this is in fact the opposite: my Granny loves new technology and goes to computer classes and my Grandpa just bought a new laptop for Christmas! 

Grounded theory is the idea of going into the field with limited knowledge. Don't form research questions to start with, but do a reccy of the field with no preconceptions and then come up with questions after. A useful interview technique is having 20 questions you want answered. Know what you are actually asking, what you actually want to find out. Generalise some questions - open and closed. Open = walk me through your day. Closed = do you like the pendant. Some examples of good open questions are: What are the challenges you face in the day? What would you change about your day? Check off the 20 questions by just letting them talk - maybe ask only 3 very open ended questions. Then at the end can ask any specifics if one of the 20 haven't been asked yet.

Be participant. If you want to design fishing gear for Alaskan Crab Fisherman then go and become an Alaskan Fisherman... Method of note taking: What you're doing, where, who, when. Half put nothing but observations - facts. Opposite side, anything that is an interpretation (qualitative) - feelings, what others may be feeling. Flesh out notes after the interview - very soon after for the best recollection.

Aesthetics and Technology

Design and Technology
Hugh Pizey
13/02/14


The black box. Somewhat mysterious sounding. The ultimate example of form following function. You can find black boxes in fighter jets, helicopters and many computing applications. They are often used to house electronics and be stored somewhere where they won't be seen for years to come. 

Many designs follow this 'form following function' way of thinking, especially in the field of engineering. Most products are made for a function; to aid the user in some way or another while performing a task. Ultimately, we want products that do what they are supposed to, don't we? 


Think of the humble lamp: it's function is to shine light, so why is there thousands of lamps available in all shapes and sizes?

A quick Google image search will present you with a massive range of forms for a lamp. Yet all perform the same task, providing light for a room by converting electricity. Pixar transformed the humble lamp into a loveable character (as they have a habit of being able to do, may I add). There is such a range in lamp forms and styles, because we each are individuals and have a different taste in what we like. This might seem like the most obvious statement, but lets consider it.


If the look of something is so important, should function not follow form? Should the form of the cars we buy be determined by how they look and feel, not how much bhp or torque produced? Should the chairs we use be beautiful rather than practical.

This may be an extreme way of looking at this, but it certainly offers a new way of thinking. When a design is being produced, should the form just be an afterthought? Or should it be the most important factor? Hmm...

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Design and Technology Film
06/02/14

Well, what to say about this film. Seeing this film for the first time in 2014 - 13 years after when it was meant to be set - probably diminished the impact of the futuristic ideas that went into the film. However, the creativity and vision of the writers of what the future may look like was very impressive. Some of the ideas were so revolutionary at the time that it is no surprise this film has been given the 'cult classic' label. The creativity of the writers to look 33 years into the future and imagine what life may look like is the most interesting part of this film: commercial space flight, video and audio calls to earth, communities in space and on the moon, voice recognition, trips to Jupiter and grip socks.


Considering that this film came out in the early stages of the space race and a year before Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed the first manned mission to the moon, Apollo 11, on the 20th July 1969. It is no wonder this film was such a success considering the hype that was around at the time about space travel and what may come of it.

It was very interesting to see what they thought cameras would be which they did not get right, but they were certainly accurate when thinking about tablets and screens as well as two-way video calling. Such technologies have been made widely available only recently which shows great insight from the writers. Human hibernation, trips to Jupiter, commercial space flight are all yet to be realised, but we are certainly closer to these things than ever before.

The idea of living in space is an interesting one and I touched on it in the previous post about Marc Newson. At the moment we are not at the stage of commercial space flight and so no where near community living in space. However, around 3 astronauts are on the International Space Station at once living for a period of normally 6 months. Supply ships come to provide food and other resources to the astronauts. In this sense the idea of living in space has been realised, but not in the same capacity as in the film. Another concern about living in space is that scientists believe that living in space long term can be detrimental to your health. Bone, joint and weight issues of those in space have to be monitored and recovery is required once back to earth for the astronauts. This leaves me sceptical as to the practicalities of living in space and whether this can be realised even in my lifetime.


One of my main reasons for not getting excited about living in space is not seeing the point. Besides scientific discovery and it being 'cool' for a while, there is not much attraction. Most people choose not to live in places that are hard to live in like deserts, oceans and wastelands. Therefore the idea of living in a place that requires space suits, constant shipping in of supplies and a major lifestyle change (for the worse in my opinion) does not appeal.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Environmental impact. A phrase that even 15 years ago would be responded to with raised eyebrows and a questionable look. Nowadays however, everyone is becoming increasingly aware of the impact they are having on the world. Natural resources are being used up, waste is piling up and the air gets increasingly less clean.

What's the issue you may ask? Well, what does the future hold for our quality of living. Living for today for too long has caused major environmental damage which may never be fully recovered from. I realise this paints a bleak picture and has a 'doom' feel to it, but the following may just surprise you...



The Great Pacific Garbage Patch:

This is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean caused by irresponsible disposal of rubbish. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a massive mass of whole products floating about, but large areas of tiny microplastics. Much of the garbage in the sea is not biodegradable and the materials break down causing tiny pellets of plastic to float in the sea. These pellets are often eaten by fish which are then eaten by humans, causing the cycle to be completed back to us. No country wants to take responsibility for the issue since it is so far from any coastline, but some international groups are trying to prevent it from growing.

Scientists have collected up to 750,000 bits of plastic in a single square kilometre (or 1.9 million bits per square mile) of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

It isn't just fish either: many birds, turtles and sea lions are affected too (to name but a few...)

The problem is that everywhere we look nowadays we see plastic: laptops, lights, bins, cars, trainers. Take a look for yourself - you can't avoid the stuff. Plastics are great for so many different applications due to it's diverse properties and ease of mass manufacturing. However, how to responsibly dispose of it once the product life is over is still not a fully answered question. Recycling is of course a good thing, but with only a minority of plastics able to be recycled, much is still just thrown out. Many councils and states provide recycling services, but they are far from comprehensive: only allowing certain plastics to be recycled.

So the solution:

Well, I wish it was that simple. With the developed world showing little signs of reduction in waste and the rest of the world ever increasing theirs in a strive for development, it is a complex issue to say the least. Recycling, reusing and reducing are certainly good measures, but drastic changes have to be made to preserve our oceans, wildlife and natural world. I feel this has to come from the top down, but even small changes in the daily life of the average person will help. 

I certainly can't give any answers, I wish I could. Challenges I can do: can you watch what you purchase, ask yourself if you really need what it is you are buying and is there a more responsible alternative? Can you reduce the rubbish you throw out and use recycling where possible? Can you encourage others to do likewise?

At the end of the day, it is our future we are looking out for...

Magnitudes

Design and Technology

Ben Craven
30/01/14

It's difficult to get people to give you an estimate, but knowing roughly how big the numbers will be - how many digits even - can be really useful. Whether it is cost, force or power, putting the numbers into a project as soon as possible is important. 

Using ingenuity and logical thinking to get a ball-park figure to see if the project or idea is even feasible is key at an early stage. It may not be that accurate, but even finding out if the product price will be 100's or 1000's may make or break a project. It is important to remember how optimistic or pessimistic you have been in your figures as this can determine your conclusions. If you have purposely overestimated for the worst case scenario then remember this at the end.

It is a very useful skill to be able to estimate values quickly and get an idea of whether the value seems feasible for whatever application it may be. Even quick calculations in shops of the expected price can be a useful exercise to check you're paying the right amount.

Deciding early in the design process whether the idea has the potential to work - whether in terms of costing, power consumption or dimensions - will save a lot of time. Developing a concept to a detailed design phase to then discover it is not feasible would be expensive in terms of money and time.