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rapid prototyping weekly design discussions

Prototyping in Industrial Design

Write a blog post about your learnings and understanding of Industrial design prototyping. Do some research on the future of prototyping and give examples of where you think prototyping will go in the future.

A year ago I didn’t know that prototyping in scale is that important, I guess I have imagined prototyping process as the following: idea -> sketches -> CAD (or other digital platform) model

and at this point people could imagine with the power of their mind how successful product is and rethink its appearance/functionality

-> manufacture.

however, as I was getting more acquainted with prototyping, I grew more and more fond of it and its ability to reveal flaws (or benefits) that could be only discovered by directly interactive with a full-scale object. 

the only thing that kind of bothers me is the material. in most cases substituting materials or finding ways to reuse old stuff that has the needed bits of material might work, however if, lets say a person is designing something that, ideally, is going to be made of glass. what then? if it has a complex shape there is no way you can make prototype that could be representative of the actual interaction with a glass object as, for example, plastic is way lighter, along with cardboard or paper or even some light metal (last two have drastically different texture). so, i guess, sometimes rapid prototyping per se might not be useful at all and as a high-fidelity one. 

as for the future of prototyping, I believe as good User Experience design is valued more and more, prototyping that involves getting qualitative feedback from a pool of testers will advance. this stage  prototyping, as far as I understood, is called “Live prototyping” and, according to this article it gets more valued every day. indeed, if you think about it, in a such saturated market as we have now, the most important thing for a product is to be easy and comfortable to use, along with being visually appealing. Before it was mere functionality that could sell. 

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interaction lab midterm project

midterm project: proposal

A. Turn and Link – Anna Zhukova (& Isabel) – Gottfried Haider

B. Sketches

C. Project Explanation

Our project is a fun game that boosts creativity and critical thinking. We were inspired by the “Linko” game and wanted to recreate it in physical form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRw0AHN_7Fw. Our intended audience is kids, so the puzzle is a floor-friendly and vibrant-colored game that engages and entertains. 

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group research project interaction lab

step2&3&4: make, perform & report

Results/processes in terms of script, roles and ideas are reflected in our google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zxwJo6eB24SLhWYegINjtrimZ3LWMK9ZRYbWlZN47k/comment 

It would be helpful to look at it when i refer to it. 

The first thing we did when we met for the first time with our group is that we created a google doc where everyone has included what ideas they came up with for the “read” step. After further discussion, we decided to brainstorm two days later, when everyone has gone through all the other’s ideas. 

Next time we met, we spent about an hour going back in forth about what we can do. We all really liked the idea of Douaa’s crime detection device + we came up with the glasses idea, (it perfectly aligns with the environment described by Ray Bradbury “The Veldt”, as it is a very advanced technology and could actually help parents detect that their children are attempting crime against them). 

Then we started to think about the actual performance to further develop what our glasses are going to be doing and how we can show that. 

We agreed that our performance should be entertaining, however kind of educational (in terms of how the glasses work) so that we don’t have to explain much, the show will be sufficient. Plus, we thought it would be relatable to set the scene in the classroom and involve some funny drama that would also make the performance more entertaining. Of course, we needed everyone to have a valuable role in that, so we almost evenly divided the roles (the google doc attached in the beginning of the blogpost has it on the first page).

And then, we remembered the dongles (Luciana said thats American for USB-C adapters). So yeah, we started writing the script and we were done in an hour. We suspected it was too short, but we decided to fix it during our first rehearsal that was happening the next day. We also needed some stuff to be done:

  • signs “The following day”, “Next recitation” for transitions
  • glasses 
  • (we would find out later that we also need a video frame, however at that time we were not planning on doing that as that scene did not exist)

As Zhuang Yi (I am not sure whats her english name) volunteered to be the narrator, so she also volunteered to create and to print out the signs. She had two days and had to bring them to out rehearsal. Spoiler: she has done a wonderful job! plus, apparently, she had to paint the letters herself! i was so amazed by the dedication she showed! (I’m just mentioning that in case she forgot to give herself credit for that in her own blogpost)

Anyway, the rest of the group, including me, gathered up the next day and started cutting out glasses out of the cardboard. At first, i thought that it would be better to cut out some huge glasses so that during the performance it would be extremely obvious that a teacher has put them on and (+ we settled for the idea of creating two glasses so that the second one could be painted red (spoiler: this would change later)) that they turned red when they do. I have created stuff like that:

while I was trying to turn Ricky into a character from Marvel/DC instead of a teacher, Joy decided to shape glasses similarly to the glasses I had with me:

and, that was a great idea as they were the only ones that would actually fit Ricky (not fall down or make him look like Daredevil (Matt Murdock) the last reference to DC i promise). So, we decided to stick with it. The next challenge was that we had to come up with a way to actually show the interaction (the signal coming from the glasses). As I mentioned, the glasses were supposed to turn red. However, we didn’t have anything red that we could paint the glasses with. So we thought that we are going to go to FabLab the next day and hope they let us spray-paint the glasses red.

But everything changed as we thought that we would also like to do something with the non-red glasses as they looked kind of unfinished. And then the rolls of wire caught mine and Douaa’s attention. We had both red and soldering metallic wire there! So we took our chance and wrap the glasses with it. In the beginning, I was doing the soldering-wire, Douaa was doing the red one. However, We changed later as Douaa was struggling with keeping the wire wrapped around the glasses as she was using glue for that and it didn’t really work. I had an idea of using the soldering wire to do that (as it was much more “obedient” in that sense. And it happened! We spent around 15-20 min of that, and it was totally worth it!

So yeah! the glasses were perfect and easy-to-comprehend artifact! And they were complete. 

Moving on to the next day – the rehearsal – we spent some time working on the script as the initial one took place for 2 min only)))) so yeah, we extended the script, added some scenes (including the last one where the authority holds glasses and shows the projection of the video it recorded (the video of the crime). We added a couple of jokes, worked on our performance nuances such as the change of glasses and slow-mo scene and yellow duck to produce the beep sounds (initially the narrator, Zhuang, was supposed to do that)! I believe everyone has done a terrific job being as loud and clear in their speech and, I am proud of our performance and idea. 

Side note: when we came up with the slow-mo scene (the last one) to show how the glasses work exactly, we decided to do this cardboard frame and Zhuang and Ricky went and started working on that, while me, Joy, Luciana and Douaa were finishing up the script! Later I helped Ricky and Zhuang to complete the frame (I glued some pieces together). I believe the frame turned out perfectly fine!

The day of performance we decided to rehearse our quotes once again and gathered up an hour before the class. We were kind of nervous, however dealt with it perfectly by reassuring each other that everything will be fine! 

Performance went great! We were really happy that our invention also attracted some questions later and were very happy to answer them. Of course, there were some minor inconveniences, maybe we could’ve talked a bit louder and things like that, however, if i am being honest, this was the best one we have ever done! No one forgot their quotes or the times they enter the scene, everything was smooth and clear. I am not sure If we are supposed to attach the video here, but I will include it below in the blogpost. 

Speaking of the questions, the following paragraph will describe the artifact that we have presented, including some details that came up during the Q&A:

Our invention was the Crime Detection glasses. This is an invention that perfectly fits into advanced-technologies environment of Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” as, besides being very fitting into the high-tech environment, it would also be a very helpful thing to have to detect the crime the children were plotting. Our glasses is basically merge of security cameras (recording), AI (algorithm that can actually record and show the needed footage, “understand” when the crime happens) and Google glasses (shape inspiration). The reason why we chose glasses (not just some sort of camera) is that it is, firstly, looks cooler, the second is that they would be more interactive (with the buttons that show the crime scene and instant reaction: turning red and beeps), and finally, more personalized experience (the person who wears them can control them). It also is more fitting into our understanding of interaction. So yeah, this object was unique, quite comprehensive in the way it works and fun to show to everyone else! 

Again, I am very proud of our team for investing quite a lot of time and energy in brainstorming ideas, creating the artifact and other things for the performance and doing our best showing our invention! We were able to divide tasks efficiently, be creative, improvise and react rapidly to unforeseen circumstances (e.g. the absence the frame)!

the video:

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rapid prototyping weekly design discussions

Cardboard

Review the links attached and write a blog post about your thoughts on the ideas and products. Include possible other applications for the concept of cardboard products. 

While cardboard furniture raises a set questions:

  • people are messy and I highly doubt that no one will spill anything or in the winter, come in wet shoes or something that might actually sabotage the furniture over time. The same thing happens at home, especially with kids. I really don’t think that cardboard is easy to clean. However, it might be interesting as, for example, kids could actually draw on furniture (boosts creativity) and create a playful environment. But if no kids and no creative people there that also would want to paint their cardboard furniture, I am not sure how it would work out, even though it would be probably very easy to replace. Not sure, mixed feeling about that one, but it is truly fascinating how stiff and flexible this material can be.
  • Plus, texture is not the same (i would prefer using less scratchy material to put my hands on while working). Also, everyone gets dust in their wardrobe, right? How long will the wardrobe last if it is cleaned at least once a week?

The toys from Nintendo and the bike, however, are very interesting. As far as i understand, the durability in the bike is achieved by applying some kind of water-proof paint (could actually solve some issues with the furniture). But the thing that I found most interesting is mechanics of those things, especially the Nintendo’s piano:

I believe it is fairly interesting that you can actually interact with that thing, just as it is made out of a more conventionally durable material. With the bike is the same thing. 

Also, I liked how in the video Izhar Gafni said that no one would actually want to steal the bike (as it doesn’t cost much + even if stole, could be bought again for not very much). I wonder how cardboard reacts to different humidity levels (should it always be kept at the garage? or home? for it to face less humidity. Or should the paint be reapplied from time to time (maybe for the public use these bikes are not as good as the metal ones as they might need much more care).

The same thing with Nintendo cardboard toys: kids spill things, and in case the toy is made of plastic, it could be cleaned (even if it has some mechanics to it, usually it is inside and unreachable for the water). And even if we apply the waterproof paint or something, wouldn’t that be toxic? And as kids like to lick things, might actually be a problem.

But a lot of useful techniques on how to bend cardboard in the bike video! Also a lot of inspiration from furniture and very cool things about everything is that it is much more eco-friendly, recyclable and cheap! 

Carry out some research on other unconventional materials used in surprising ways. Include comments and pictures of examples in your blog.

I found this website that lists homes that were built with unconventional materials. Some seem familiar: the glass and aluminum one is very trendy now, plus I saw a video advertisement of the NY hotel that is basically a bunch of shipping containers that people rent out for one night to sleep with an ocean view (turns out it is pretty cheap).

https://www.upnest.com/1/post/homes-built-with-alternative-materials/ 

Also this website that lists possible materials (not very much relevant to what we are going to be doing, however I found it quite interesting):

https://www.ta-daan.com/7-alternative-materials/ 

So, the materials we can use are pretty much anything. Don’t really know what else to say here. 

Categories
prototyping documentation rapid prototyping

week4&5: Spaghetti Incident

This blogpost will unite all the things I have done through the past two weeks in preparation for the Spaghetti Incident experiment. 

The glue that I had available was a glue gun glue. In the beginning, I had no precise idea of how the bridge is going to look, however I knew that I am going to need some kind of rods as they are the parts that could be easily (relatively) created using any amount of spaghetti (from 1 to basically any number). Plus, as the length of logical to strive and create batches of the different same-length rods (the 1/2 of length could be achieved relatively easy (my tip: break it when creating a plane, instead of trying to break them as a bunch)). After making these pointless (at this time) conclusions I started to actually make stuff.

As for the rods, there was a way to make them that professor showed to us in class, so I decided to give it a try. This way is basically about putting the spaghetti in a row, creating a flat surface. (picture pending) However, it was much harder than it looked as it took me way too much glue gun to do that. Plus, the glue had to almost spread throughout 1/3 of the rod from both sides (leaving only 1/3 of the glue-free rode in the middle), which although made the rod quite stiff, I believe in long-term would result in construction’s weight being like 50% glue. Nevertheless, this first rod inspired me to try and experiment with the amount of glue on spaghetti (and places I put it on). 

And began that with the experimentation with the ways glue could be put on spaghetti rod (that is just a bunch of spaghetti that create a circular rod) and how it affected construction’s elasticity:

  1. the glue is being put solely on the ends
    1. the middle becomes quite “jumpy”. I bends simply, however not too much. Plus this doesn’t involve much spaghetti. Spoiler alert! That is the way I am going to end up glueing those.  side note: if i was still using the rode that creates a plane, the bending would be much more evident, but it would be considerably easier to break.
  2. the glue is being put on the ends and in the middle
    1. this way of glueing makes the rod mode stiff. However, as I was applying pretty much the same pressure on the option 1 and 2, turns out, because of those “unglued” parts on the rod, it was much easier to break it, while the united front of unglued spaghetti in the middle and everywhere except for the corners was able to withstand the same pressure. 
  3. the glue is being put everywhere. and i mean all over the place. 
    1. surely, this makes the rods much more resistant. However, it has such detrimental limitations as notably increased weight, the messiness and the time it takes to glue it all together. As we are striving to use as less material as possible, not turn my desk into a cemetery of displaced glue, while actually finishing the work in time, this option seemed unreasonable.

so yeah, in the end, the first, and, i would argue, the most obvious way to apply glue on rods turned out to be the most efficient and appropriate. Moreover, for some rods, I kind of twisted the spaghetti around each other, crating spiral-like rod that turned out to be even stiffer than before. 

Moving on to the next stage: manufacture. As I said, I adapted the strategy of created (almost) identical pieces that would later be assembled into the prototype.

For this stage I have been just gluing the spaghetti together into rods (4 long ones a a lot of 1/2 spaghetti ones). Took me a while (mostly because I didn’t have glue sticks for some time in the middle). 

side note: i lied. for the long spaghettis (as they are the main parts and need to be v stiff, i both twisted them around when glueing + added some glue in the middle and all over.)

so now as i had quite a bunch of them (in the picture i have like 1/2 of them or less), I moved on to the actual assembly. 

basically I adapted the triangle strategy for the base (at is it of high importance to make it as unmovable as possible). However s for the rods that hold on to the upper frame, it wasn’t really working out as intended: the rods turned out to be uneven. So, I improvised. The construction in the photo endured 1.5 liter water bottle and even more. I will probably experiment a bit more in the next two or so days. But I believe this is quite successful. I still don’t really get how are we going to apply pressure (on which spot) during the experiment, but I hope to find out that soon.

_______

Nope, still no test. Just a couple of days before the experiment I found out that my bridge is too short (not to self: read the instructions, don’t skim). Anyway, in light of that, I decided to create a new bridge cause there was no point in trying to prolong the one I had as, firstly, I didn’t really have much faith in it as I saw hoe the experiment is actually going to be conducted, and secondly, creating a new one will all the experience I have now seemed like a better idea. And I was write. 

As I am now quite profession in gluing spaghetti, I decided that I could revisit the plane-rods idea as I could create them with less material (hence less weight) per piece. So I started my bridge vol.2. 

created bout a million of those. 

found out a perfect way of breaking spaghetti: using table as a “cutting corner” when being the spaghetti. This time, my rods looked better and neater. So there was a certain advantage to my bridge vol.1 failure! 

So, after about 6-7 hours, I had this in my possession: 

Yes, big change from the last one. This one looks more promising. 

Some details about construction: 

a lot of horizontal half-pieces that prevent the first level from bending. + “2 rows of cables” that hold “towers” together. 

There are also some strengthening rods that presumably will save my bridge during the experiment. i attached a rope on the base indeed looks promising. Waiting for the class to begin and find out!

________

Experiment went great! The set up was perfect (thanks a lot to Andy). My bridge endured ≈ 4088.1 grams with ≈ 271.1 grams of its own weight! Hence, the efficiency ≈ 15.08.

I was very glad and, to be honest, somewhat surprised it handled that much! I thought the max is going to be like 2 kg. 

Anyway, I am very proud of it, however, of course there are some things I would change about it (especially given the way it broke down). These are the pictures that show how it got broken:

As it is shown, it kind of tilted and then crashed right in the middle. If I was creating the bridge again, I would have probably tried to substitute the plane-rods that I used for the towers with the bunch-of-spaghetti-rods to make it a bit more stiff (however, as I think about it, it would probably been hard to attach other rods to them. Also, I would probably make a bit more precise cables as they weren’t really symmetrical (thats way it was easier to tilt and crash). So yeah, a couple of things could be done differently, however I am still very proud and happy!

Plus, it was a lot of fun to test and very nice to see as much people in person as possible from our class! Again, thanks to our Prof and Andy for organizing all this!