benarent.co.uk

Phidget Starter Kit #1

PhidgetInterfaceKit Package #1 - A PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 with an assortment of sensors:

I found this today from www.active-robots.com This will be the ultimate kit to start anyone with any interaction design project, I hope to get my hands on one and will be doing some writeups soon.

On my bouncing around the internet I found this VisoinUnion. They posted my energy Tree, It is only avaible in chinese but you can translate it in Google.

I came across some great resource for design sketching.

I would also highly recommend this book..

Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers

How to Sketch a MP3 Player.

Sketch Rendering.
A Awesome Photoshop Tut.

Powered by ScribeFire.

I have been doing some PC cleaning recently and stumbled upon these old photos. These are for a ergonomic kettle poorer. The Kettle tipper addressed the problem of not being able to get a steady flow of hot water as the kettle empted. I used a cam motion, the product didn’t really work, and was made pretty badly.

This project taught me a lot, and was my first real introduction to CAD. Using Pro-Desktop for this project.

A Active Prototype

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The Golden Ratio

is approximately 1.6180339887. This number is the basic ratio of making stuff look good. It can be in Type, Buildings, Products, but most importantly its constantly seen in nature. When creating a product, I would recommend thinking about the golden ratio and how you could use it to complement the form.

As part of a second year university module I applied the Golden Ratio to my class mates faces. You can see the results bellow, I have also included my own Layered TIFF with Overlay, So you see how beautiful you are.

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Lavatio: Washing Machine of the Future.

Download Lavatio Overview PDF Overview.

Redral: Freezer + Microwave.

Download Redral PDF Overview.

I found this device today, why is that this 5 year old technology has never been used will the iPod removes Sony of PMP. Check out the pattern reconistion interface, point to play.

read more | digg story

the cardiff tower.

Santa and Cole Lights, in a lobby in Cardiff.

Pretty swanky urianls

Awesome Tiger carved in Stone.

Large wooden  clock above market.

A very interssting designed stoll.

I spend Thursday in Cardiff, the capitial of Wales. The city has some very strong archieture, with a great display from modern to the medival castle.  The obove is some of the more modern designs of the very young fresh city. I really recommend checking out Cardiff if you get the chacne.

After spending a couple days on a train I got the chance to read my latest design book. Book Review. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. By Bill Buxton. This book is a deep look at a product design techniquie, but in the lanuage for technical software / user interface designers.  The first half of the book is all about sketching, and covers some product design history. He talks though this by showing mountain bike, and orange juice case studys.  The 2nd part of the book (pages 234 and after) is all about diffent technics that we can us to create sketches using new technology.

This book is a very easy read, with 6 page bibliography and allows for lots of potential follow up reading, on many sections.  I would recommend this book to very one!

Read businessweek review for more information.

Bill Buxtons website.

 
£17.96 from Amazon.co.uk

Addicted to Cheap Shopping? Most people believe that prices are constantly rising, but in reality the cost of most consumer goods have been drastically falling over the past 10 years. Libby Potter crosses three continents to reveal how ‘cheap’ has changed the world.
In America she visits the busiest mall on earth - which can house 32 jumbo jets - and the small town where one store revoluntionised the way everything is now sold. In Europe, she meets shopaholics and sees how one retailer totally transformed how we buy. She also goes shopping in the ‘citadel of cheap’ - the largest wholesale market in the world and discovers why communist China no longer wants to be capitalism’s low price manufacturing workshop. But how long will our addiction to cheap last? [S,SL]

This afternoon I saw a BBC 2 program about the state of England’s addiction on cheap shopping. As a product designer, you have think that its my occupation that are making things worse, but this is my design solutions to a couple of questions proposed on the show.

PROBLEM: So many products, so cheap, products are disposable. Recycling centers can’t keep up.

SOLUTION: a ‘Cradle to Cradle’ design response, where each product is easily up-cycled into the same product or even a better product. See my book review post.

PROBLEM 2: There is always a looser in cheap products.

SOLUTION: Yes, Socially resonability can be built into the design. For example during my time at Resolute I investigated VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) used in our manufacturing process. By designing our products to use a low VOC, we lowered the risk of casnergenic compounds introduced to Resolute workers by 80%. This investing in design and design for the assembly line and the environment add an extra cost to the product, but that’s better than cancer… Isn’t it?

I found this book in the Museum of Modern Art in SanFran, yet the book is written by Lee McCormack an English Designer. The book will teach any designer what you will learn on placement and that Is that industry sees ‘Designers as wankers’. The book talks about how to work with industry and manufactures. The book follows Lee’s multimedia Pod, and how he struggled filling orders and getting componets from manufacuteres. Lee addresses how to approach these industries and how to protect yourself and your ideas.

The book finishes with review from top designs, Paul Smith, Jason Kirk, Karmin Rashid, Neville Brody and Pier Roberts.

Personally I found that I learnt most of these lessons the hard way on my placement, this is an easy and quick read for all design and Product design undergraduates.

Designers Are Wankers

Price: £10.50 GBP