Just a quick site update. I have now graduated from my product design degree at Middlesex University. I have had a rapid undergrad to work transition with directly starting work after New Designers.
I have now started a job as an interaction designer [ixD] at TRIL, the technology research centre of independent living. The official blurb about tril is “The TRIL Centre is a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing, all informed by ethnographic research and supported by a shared pool of knowledge and
engineering resources.”. Its an exciting centre to work at because I get to work with a solid core of ethnographic research and get to work with techi people at Intel. There is one another full time interaction designer at Intel, but otherwise I’m a one person team IxD, supported by a Industrail Designer.
I shall be upgrading this site to reflect my Product Design / Interaction Design intressts. I plan to keep on blogging about personal projects and will be writing about my interaction design work at www.ixd.ie.
As part of a Middlesex University AimHigher scheme we were asked to a 2hr workshop on ‘product design’. This started a quick tour of the workshops, and then a brief over view of what they thought a product designer was.
We then told our group of 20 students that we were going to create and develop a new and innovative concept based upon there interests. By using the students interests we could use them to get insight into the specific project.
The point of the workshop was to explain the concept development process of product design, and concept presentation aspect, that is so important to communicating core product ideas. The young designers were year 7’s (11 year old) and y11’s (16 year old). I was amazed at how capable the students were with using product design processes.
hamagotci interface
hamagotice interface
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On the 11th of June I visiting the 2008 Made in Brunel Graduate Exhibition at the Business Design Centre. This is the 4th year that Brunel has branded there degree show in collaboration with HSBC. As Brunel was one of my UCAS options, It was very interesting to see ‘what could of been’.
The work was presented to a very high level, if perhaps a little corporate. The students showed a array of work with Industrial Designers showing alongside Multimedia Designers. There was work from the pure industrial (a house hold bio-diesel factory) to a on-line Avatar system. There were a couple of IA and Service design gems tucked away too, along with a healthy dose of medical products.
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I got this e-mail though today and wanted to let all wannabe Product design superstars of a TV opertunity. I only have limited details with the official blurb being…
“Internationally renowned designer Philippe Starck will be heading up a specially created School of Design in Paris. And he’s looking for untapped design talent in the UK to be his first students.
Ten aspiring designers with the talent, drive and vision to create the next ‘must have’ products of the 21st Century will be given the unique opportunity to learn and work alongside Starck and his team over a period of several months. At the end of it, one person will continue on for a six-month placement.
And BBC2 will be there for this exciting and original new series, Philippe Starck’s School of Design. To register your interest please e mail your contact details to schoolofdesign@twofour.co.uk you will then be sent details of how to apply for this exciting opportunity within the next 30 days.”
I guess it will be similar to project runway + the apprentice. I think its a great idea for a show, but I hope they focus on the process and not the designers.
One of the main components of my jive project was a tangible user interface, this was meant to be a RFID+TUI but I wasn’t able to create thin enough antennas to work in this manor. That is why there is a RFID Antenna on the middle stand.
The tangible user interface uses Phidgets magnet sensors to sensors when a ‘friend pass’ is placed onto the screen. This then triggers one of three actionscripit animations, the initial design and implementation is really simple, but this is just the beginning.
If you are an experienced AS3 coder and know anything about XMLsockets, I would be great full of a hand to get this prototype working to its full potential at the graduate shows. Also, if it could dynamically load photos from Flickr, or really get Tweets that would also be amazing!
Jump in to find out more…
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Finally after 6 long months I have finally gone public with my product design project. I have created a new social communication device that has been designed to make staying in touch with your friends and family simpler.
You can view my jive mini site at http://jive.benarent.co.uk
Just a quick post to let everyone know that the website shall be being updated in the coming weeks. I have just finished my degree, and I’m in the process of creating a showcase mini-site for my final year project. This shall be hosted on this site. I can’t say much about the project as I’m currently applying for a couple of patents. Until then you can see a teaser about my exhibition at http://www.pdeproduce.com.
I have a lot of posts that I would like to get on-line, I have a whole bunch of content to upload to the bog, but I’m currently trying to uphold a good level of quality. This has meant that I have had to go back though my website and copyright the whole site.
Its a very exciting time for me, I have been busy applying for jobs, and currently waiting to find out from a couple. But if you are looking for a product / interaction / UX designer. Please get in touch.
I want to thank all of the great people at <>TAG, I had a great time showing my new products in the exhibition. The opening night was on Saturday and we had a short opening cermoney in which I introduced the tree. I was unable to make the ceramic containers that I wanted to, but my hacked muji containers which seemed to work very well.
While there I got to meet some other great Artists, including Tiffany, (Exhibiting a environment promise, which in turn plants a virtual tree, and changes a dynamic image) Mike, (eco - firefox plug-in) and Beatriz da Costa (GPS pidgin CO2 detectors.) and a whole bunch of other creative from Den Haag. I was pertically intresstead in Patrick Kruithof. work who is undertaking work looking at sustainable design though product experience.
The trip to “den haage” was my first time in the Netherlands, I got to spend one night in Amsterdam and two nights at the haggue.. I was surprised by the amount of art in the city, and it was great to see such a juxtapose of architecture.
I would recommend the city, (apart from the weather) Jump to see my view of the haague in Photos. I have uploaded all my pics to Flickr, and you can view the exhibition for the next month. It will be great too see what sort of interest is created from this show.
Signing off – Ben Arent – International Designer.
After recently purchasing a Phidget 8/8/8 Interface kit I started to have some problem using these sensors to drive a flash as3 animation. The Phidget as3 examples are useful but don’t really give ‘real’ world examples for starting to use sensors to drive a flash animation.
The solution was to create my own event handerler, this event handler is called in the onSensorChangeFunction, which triggers when there is a onSensorChange Event.
You can download my a3 phidget slider example Phidget Magnet Example .
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I shall be exhibiting the EnergyTree at an EcoAesthetics exhibition at a galley called <>TAG its based in the Neterlands and the exhibition will be running for 2 months.
I shall be going out on the 22nd for the opening ceremony. This shall be my first time exhibiting, and its great to start on an international stage.
Watch this space for lots of exciting updates.
