Tutorial 2

Presenting ideas :

I had gone back and looked through my ideas and brainstorm and came up with one set idea.
I usually like to have at least two or three but I thought I would go in the direction I felt most strongly about and develope it from there.
I decided to go with recycling and investigate the paths they are going down for the future and its present status.

I got some good feedback on my idea. Heading in the right direction but needs to be further developed in the design of the application using nutral colours and creating a clean and simple look that further inforces the conservation of the enviroment.

Tutorial one

In tutorial one,
we brainstormed a lot on possible categoryies we could venture into for our project.
 my brainstorm :
 pollution - cars, petrol water - rubbish, suage, petrol, animals being damaged
 forests - cutting down of trees, animals extinct, habitats ruined, food resource

households - energy, appliences, over indulging, not being aware, using too much.
 schools - power? lightbulbs, energy consumption ++
shops - lights on after closed
factories - too many lights? too much energy, sustainable products, recycling

 recycling - plastic, food waste, wood, steel etc.
resue - reuseing things for other things e.g. yohgurt container for a necklace.
 reduce - reducing amount of products we buy

 eco friendly- eco friendly products : http://www.ecostore.co.nz/index.html <---- this is a brand which I have seen many people use and my family uses as well. being aware of enviroment - educating yourself - documentaries, articles, news coverage. turning lights off, or opting for the eco light bulbs

Paper prototype three

Paper prototype two

Paper prototype one

Idea outline

I am making a application that measures the amount of waste you produce, use and conserve. By using this program, you are able to track and get information on food/waste that your household produces. This program can be downloaded onto your iphone, ipad, laptop and even installed into fridge.
The way it works is when you go grocerie shopping,you enter in the food you have bought or scan it in by using the barcode on the reciept.
Once you are finished with a product such as a yohgurt container, you select it on the application and a suggestions box appears.The best, most enviromentally friendly option will have more points beside it. Which evr option you chose, the points it is worth will be directly added to your weekly meter. This meter acts a quota that is idealy met each week. This meter will motivate people to keep going and keep making an effort to Recycle, Reuse and Reduce.

Logo

Food for thought

http://www.use-less-stuff.com/

This website has really good ideas for 'recycilng and using less'

Idea project 2

With my research and brainstorming I have come to one idea of an application that allows you to measure your consumption of food and gives you suggestions of how to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
This will be targeted at people that are not willing to spend a large amount of money on state of the art battery powered cars, and solar powered apliences. This application is for people who are aware of our changing world and want to help out and make a difference, although small, will count.

Why is recycling important?

The benefits of recycling is that it saves energy, land space, money , creates new jobs, reducesing air and water pollution and preserves habitat for wildlife. The world population is growing and each human adds a significant amount of waste to the planet over his or her lifetime. Everyday we use a variety of products in our households and work places to fultill our basic needs. Most of these products and their packaging are wasted and dumped in bins, which just ends up in land fill sites. The fact that the majority of our waste can be recycled and reused is ignored beacuse we don't no how, and have not been pressured enough to do so. We are responsible for our earth, so a small way of helping out and doing your part is to recycle and reuse. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Recycling

Helped me understand the cycle.
reference : http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/importance-recycling/

Project 2

When I heard about this breif I immediately was drawn towards recycling, becasue I have noticed that in my household we do not do this as readily as we should.
It is just because people get lazy and forget why they are supposed to recycle or reuse waste products.
I figured that if there was a way that you could moniter your waste, starting with food, it would be a small step into the right direction, while be guided to do so.
I did some research and found this website that suggests ways in which you can reuse products and turn them into something else

http://toponlineengineeringdegree.com/?page_id=116

Storyboard side 2

Storyboard

This is my idea that I have settled on as a base for my final project.
I think that with this as a stable base I will be able to build and experiement with prototypes and different materials to see what works best.
I Have already encountered a few problems that I am in the middle of solving now.

Sound ball explanation

With a lot of planning and thinking I came up with the idea of the 'Sound ball'.
Using different types of strings to create different sounds and pitches. This would be highly interactive not only for your ears, but also for touch.
Sound : sound of strings as you strum
Touch : have to use hands to cause sounds to play.

The sound ball, is a ball that is split down the middle causing the ball to be in two parts. Inbetween these two parts would be 7 different types of strings that would make a interesting sound. As you open the ball the strings tighten and the tighter the strings becomes, the higher the pitch becomes, vise versa.
The ball would be made out of a sturdy but maluable metal and magnets would be placed on the rim of each ball. This ensures they stay together and the line of the ball is not interupted e.g. such as a latch, which could ruin the sleek simple look of the exterior. The strings would be attatched to a inner installation of a metal/or wood plate that has holes in it so strings could be tied and secured. With this, the strings are also free to be lose or tight, depending on what your preference is.
A problem I encountered was that you have to use two hands to operate this object and then there is nothing free to strum the strings (unless you get someone else two). I feel that if my object required two people it would take away from the whole experience of the object. Becuase I adressed this problem early on I was able to think up a solution. The most appropriate was to make a base for one part of the ball to be stabiliazed on, while the other part is free to be used and pulled up to whatever level you want. Therefore allowing this object to be used by one person, creating a a more beneficial and stimulating experience for the individual.

New idea

Out of all the five senses, touch and sound really caputred my attention.
My previous ideas were interesting but not really something I was passionate or excited about creating. I decided to investigate the 'sound sense' a bit more. I love the sound of guitars so thought that doing something using guitar strings would be intersting.
I planned and came to the conclusion that my object would consist of different types of strings (guitar, wire, elastic etc.) to conduct the sound that I wanted.
As a child I had always been interested in this, playing on my dads guitar and picking strings and elastics to see what sort of noise they made.
In my second to last project in design 101, I used a song called Ocean by John Butler Trio to be my background musi. It shows us the amazing quality and emotion that a simple instrument can convery, creating a really intense and complex sound. This shows my enthusiam for the sound and is something that I used to inspire me for this project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAkOhXIsI0

Inside and outside of cube

I was thinking about inside and outside of cube because they are as equally important as the actual function. To bring another element in, I thought about light using mirrors. Mirrors reflect light and if infront of a light source would create some nice patterns on sourrounding walls.I am also still looking into patterns that I could use and thought about the idea of using patterns that create optical illutions. I came across this idea on a site called stumbleupon : . I have always thought these we so cool so I could maybe incorporate this in my cube.

Further development

After telling my studio group about my two main ideas they all seemed to warm to my first idea of the cube. I decided that it would be a good idea to get the cube to 'transform' into another object/s. This way you could figure out what you wanted to cube to change into e.g. a bracelet, a star, tunr it insdie out etc. This would become very interrative. I also thought that using colours and patterns would a added asset that would bring another level to my project. I researched some colours and patterns that I could potentially use and drew a few patterns in photoshop that I thought would look interesting on the inside of the cube.

Developing ideas

As I was walking down Aro St. I saw a little blackboard placed outside someones house which said "how do you feel today", chalk was provided and people had written down responces such as : good, not happy, bored ... I thought this was very interactive so starting thinking up ideas based on this. I thought maybe it would be better to enlarge this idea and bring it up to a larger scale and putting more meaningful questions at the top e.g. My dream is...... , I love....., Before I die..... ect. This would be painted on a wall and people as they walk past would contribute their thoughts with the provided chalk. Although this was a cool idea, I was guided away from this because it was not very good for your senses, it was more an interractive installation.

Intial thoughts

In design class we were told to bring in interractive projects that we have in our house. I live in a hostel so I could not find anything! I searched and searched my room but sadly I have nothing interesting. I thought the most interractive object I had was my phone and ipod. I bought my phone in becuase it is very interesting how it can do so many things e.g. messaging, calling, videoing, taking pictures, downloading of interenet, bluetoothing, using the inernet without needing wireless, gaming, music, compas, calculater, email and many more. All these functions packed into such a sleek, well designed complex really amazes me. I had never really thought about how complex my iphone was but by doing this exercise I realized the thought and process that had gone into this. Not only was it very interactive it has a beautiful design and asethetic that I think many other phones lack. With this I found a lot of the other objects very intersting, but the one that captured my attention was the rubix cube. I have seen these many times but when it was brought in and talked about it I really began to love the chunky cubes that made up a large cube and the sense of a challenge and of course the over all achievement once all the colours are lined up. So from this I began to think of ideas that I could maybe relate to this cube.

Idea project one