Author: Kalkidan Fikadu

Product name: R³  => REUSE REDUCE RECYCLE

Persuasive + Commercial + Performance + Enchanted Object

The product is a simple paper recycling bin with additional functionalities, compared to other recycling bins other there.

It’s visually distinguishable and is used to raise environmental awareness. The inspiration for this project came from the amount of paper

we consume each day at our school. Additional research also shows that 35% of the total tree cut around the world are used in the paper industries.

The problem statement is that paper recycling bins around campus are not visually distinguishable/distinct.

Solution: The solution I proposed for the problem statement is that we can add more functionalities to current recycling bin designs. The additional functionalities mainly aim to encourage users to perform a specific task and remind users of the impact of their actions on the environment.

The product uses two types of feedback mechanism to achieve its goal, (1) statistical information (2) images that invoke emotions

Prototype: The product is made up of a rectangular cube covered with LED screen on the surface.

Top View :

• A timer for recording how long the collector has been in use.
• A motion sensor for open and close functions
• Three LEDs for estimating  the space left inside the collector

Front view:

• Displays the number of papers that have been collected
• Gives an approximate estimation for the number of trees that could be saved after the recycling process

Lesson learnt while designing :

Adding more functionality doesn’t equal resourcefulness. This means initially I intended to design a product with more functionality, however, while going through the design cycle I realized the additional functionality created more energy waste, which is counter to my original plan of saving energy.

In this workshop, I with my teammate built an object using Lego bricks. Then both me and my teammate closed our eyes, and I walked him through the lego re-creation process, by touching the already build lego object with my hands and guessing what kind of components it’s made of. According to the information I received from me, my teammate made an effort to construct the lego. However, trying to figure out each lego bricks that made my object, I took apart the object, and the object no-longer had its original shape or structure. Because of that, we had to restart the process of co-creation again. The step-back had made me realize how hard communication can be unless we learn to understand each other. In the second round, we were able to create mutual understanding and, learn from our previous mistakes and create a lego object that somewhat looked similar.

my peer and I also exchanged our final project ideas and tried to question, come up with more ideas for each other’s project.

Here are some of the ideas suggested by me based on research I did in class.

–  Making it a multi-purpose tool

      –  Similar to Stylus Pens – 2 in 1 Touch Screen & Writing Pen (Amazon) 

– How do we charge the pen

       1.   Pen stand 

       2.   Friction  https://www.technologyreview.com/s/507386/how-friction-may-someday-charge-your-cell-phone/

         this inspires users to write more.

       3. The pen is pluggable  

       4. small plug that can be connected with a power outlet 

Design Questions : 

• Does it work with ink?  How can it be refilled when the ink is out 

• Can you make the pen measure high productivity by just moving it continuously, without writing? 

More Ideas 

• Users can change what color they find attractive instead of setting it by default ( for instance I prefer black) 

• Connecting it with an app that measures productivity over a long period of time

In this workshop, the class was divided into 6 groups to implement parallel thinking process that helps people be more productive and focused. The problem statement for this workshop was getting our user, in this case, Eric Parren to start meditating regularly. The first group repressed by a white hat, calls for the facts and just the facts. The second group represented by the yellow hat symbolized optimism, the third hat which was black played the devil’s advocate, the green hat focused on creativity and possibilities, the red hat provided the pros and cons of the solution presented by the green hat and the blue was used to manage the thinking process. The group I was part of was assigned to be the blue hat, using a creative thinking process we came up with a solution we thought would encourage our user to meditate on a regular basis. According to the information we were given, our user didn’t have a fixed schedule. Hence this inconsistency created a gap for improvement. We recommended our user to develop a fixed schedule that can be followed through each and every day.

In this workshop, teams are required to interchangeable work and design an enchanted object with discursive agenda and goal of increasing performance.

The first step to design was determining the problem statement. My team’s problem statement was about protecting and feeding stray cats.

After writing our problem statement we exchanged our workplace with a second team and started discussing solutions for the problem statement they second team wrote. Their problem statement was about how to effectively clean cat wet eating bowl. We came up with various solutions, some of the solutions we proposed were: an automatic fluid vacuum cleaner and a sink bowl that can pass fluids through. Next, we moved to the second team’s workspace. Their problem statement was feeding cats in a timely manner. Based on their problem statement, we designed a model which has a button a cat can reach and touch. When it starts it gets food to the cat’s bowl. After the cat finishes eating the model cleans the bowl. This workshop was thought-provoking and interesting. We weren’t limited by resources or material, we just came up with ideas and tried to implement them.