Documentation Blog for IMA
Designing, creating, and iterating physical and digital prototypes to solve problems. Spring 2022 course.
I decided to create another prototype for the paintbrush idea. While I had a bunch new sketches and ideas for the curtain grabber, I didn’t really know how to execute my sketch into a physical product.
Continue reading “Challenge 2 – My Problem, My Solution! Update 2”
After watching the two videos on Smart Design and Emotional Design, it makes me appreciate and recognize how much thought is put into making a product more than just functional. Before watching the videos, I thought that Smart Design was mainly designing technological products, like Nest’s thermostat or iRobot’s Roomba. But the video made me realize that it also includes products that are ergonomic and focus on human-product interaction as well as functionality. On the other hand, it seems like Emotional Design relates more to digital products, since in the video Bill Moggridge talks about how he realized that he wasn’t focusing on the physical design of the laptop, but more so on the software of the product.
Continue reading “Assignment 6 – Smart and Emotional Design”
I created one prototype for each solution. For the blinds grabber, I used a toothbrush, polymorph for the hook, and foam core for the handle. For the paintbrush rack, I used a plastic tray from food packaging and polymorph to hold the brushes in place. These are very rough prototypes and definitely could use improvements in the next round.
Continue reading “Challenge 2 – My Problem, My Solution! Update”
The term comes from the Industrial Revolution, where new technologies made manufacturing and commercializing products easier. In the past, making products and craftsmanship were combined since people were specialized in both, but after the Industrial Revolution the process of making and designing were separated.
I came up with several problems, but the two I decided to focus on are related to reaching and painting. The first problem is that all the blinds in my house are the type to push up and pull down, so it gets difficult for me when the blinds are pushed too far up. This is especially a problem for certain windows in my house because they are behind furniture, so I have to climb the furniture to pull it down or get help. The second problem is a specific one and not an everyday problem, but I’ve noticed that sometimes when I paint I struggle to find a place to put brushes that I’ve used and need to use later.
Using cardboard for products is great way of reducing environmental impacts since it is biodegradable. It’s interesting to see how sturdy cardboard can be and how cardboard can be used for the final product as well as prototyping. However, the idea of buying a cardboard product always makes me think about how you can make it yourself because cardboard is an easily accessible material. But then again the craftsmanship and effort it takes to make cardboard products is probably the reason why some of these products are over $100.
In the last update, I just had the two long beams of the bridge completed and my next step was to connect them using the cross pattern.
The bridge that gave me inspiration for my bridge is actually this video, but after doing more research I found this bridge to be pretty innovative and clever. I remember in the past, when building any kind of structure for a project people would say to use triangles because it’s the strongest shape and this design utilizes triangles very well. It’s interesting how this bridge it pretty much made of all triangles and how the bottom isn’t flat across the gap.
Since I don’t want to waste too much spaghetti and glue, I decided to draft a plan before starting to build. Unlike the egg drop challenge where we could create multiple prototypes before the final one, the spaghetti bridge challenge makes me work sparingly with the materials I have. This challenge is also a bit scarier because I can’t really test the bridge to destruction before the actual in-class test day unless I build multiple bridges.
Glassblowing blowing a bubble of air inside molten glass to create things like household items and industrial products. The first image I get from glassblowing is the mouth glassblowing way, but that isn’t the only way since there’s a lot of mass produced glass products. Glass products are now manufactured in 2 ways: “studio glass” and “mechanized production”. The studio glass method produces products that are generally made with an artistic expression. The mechanized production method is generally used for mass production and can be divided into two categories: machine press and press, and machine press and blow.
Continue reading “Assignment 2 – Manufacturing Processes: Glass & Ceramics”