Simply Design

Contextual Research Post 6

We have started to design a brief around our observations. We have been doing lots of mind maps and various exercises to slowly converge on our focus. 

You can see the progression of my work as well as my team’s. I tidied up our mind map and also added our focus in a nice infographic illustration. The next step in our research on locks is to start to interview people. Our interview questions will stem from our research questions. The research questions drive the whole study and will help us design a better bike lock.

Designing for Sustainability

When thinking of sustainability, most think of bamboo wood and burlap. We need to stop thinking only of materials and this is why.

So many times designers forget what energy goes into making sustainability products. For example, creating biodegradable plastic out of corn involves growing corn as well as processing it for use in plastic. That’s all good and well, the issue lies in the end life of the plastic. Biodegradable materials only degrade in a biodegradable environment. Landfills are not a biodegradable environment  because they contain no oxygen for carbon to decompose into CO2. As a result carbon decomposes into a 10 times worse substance for our atmosphere, methane. 

Eco friendly isn’t based on biodegradable materials, it’s about using less materials. Less materials equals less energy. When asked in the grocery store “paper or plastic,” choose plastic. It has 20 times less material than paper and does a better job at carrying groceries.

Contextual Research Post 5

Today my group and I worked on refining the research questions as well as the focus of our project. The research questions are vital for moving our team forward, and the questions are also the basis on which we create interview questions. The focus just gives the viewer a general idea of what we are working on. We broke up our research into three groups: perceived security, storage, and ease of use.

Contextual Research Post 4

We were put in groups according to what we focused on when we took photos. My group is focusing locks and security. We went out and took more pictures and sorted them. We also came up with research questions which we will use to drive our research.

Contextual Research Post 3

We have been researching bikes. I decided to focus on bike locks and took pictures of bikes around Savannah. I noticed some oddities and we organized our pictures in class. Some bikers have multiple locks, and sometimes the exact same kind. I saw one bike with two U-locks. Maybe he accidentally lost the key to one of them. I also observed lots of bikes with just a chain and padlock. 

Contextual Research Post 2

I went to the park last friday and observed bikers. I took notes and came back to work them into a map/infographic of my observations. I think the most notable of my findings was that only one person was wearing a helmet. Also people tend to want to listen to music while riding their bikes. I have always been told that wearing earbuds while riding a bike or even driving a car can be dangerous. The reason being is that you can not hear as well when something is obstructing your ear. This could lead to a serious crash or injury. My thoughts for this design opportunity is to create a speaker integrated into bike helmets. 

Contextual Research Post 1

We have been creating mind maps. These diagrams are simply just organic ways of thinking by making associations and conclusions. The first one maps out the 7 characteristics of ethonography (the study of culture in a qualitative engaging way). The second is a mind map of culture and all the things that relate to it.