DESIGN THINKING BLOG

Major Project Introduction

 The Problem

My client was my mom, a 48 year old woman who owns a restaurant but is also a stay at home parent. Since she is an adult, she owns a decent amount of accessories but she usually doesn’t have the time to organise her jewellery. As a result, most of the time her jewellery is simply placed in a drawer or in a box. The problem identified was that my client had a large pile of jewellery and she had no form of storage system to help neatly organise and contain all her jewellery. As a result the variety of jewellery would often get tangled up with each other, making it very inconvenient and time consuming for my client when they are in a rush and need to grab some jewellery. Jewellery is very fragile and with her current form of storage, there is a higher chance of damage happening which adds unnecessary costs for my client. After conducting interviews and through emphasising with my client, I was able to understand the needs and wants of my client such as what was her desired aesthetic, what functions did the product need to fulfil, what size should it be, etc.


Design Goal 

I ended up designing a product that would help my client store her large variety of jewellery. All her jewellery would be easy to access, helping her to store all of her things neatly in one place, helping to improve her workflow, efficiency and at the same time help save some money.

 

 

Design Specifications (success criteria)

In order to make the product successful and satisfy

Exploration of Ideas

In this part I had the opportunity to be creative and come up with a range of feasible ideas. After using other forms of media such as the internet and social media, I was able to gather some new ideas on what the product could look like and start brainstorming a couple of product designs I could show my client. However, all this creativity and all these ideas were created while under the constraints of the design brief. Here I tried to think out of the box on what types of designs would I be able to create that was creative and new but still satisfied all my client’s needs and wants, making sure to also look into the specifics and details of each idea such as the joining methods, material type, functionality, and dimensions.

The 3D drawings were a good method to help clearly convey across the product design and help the client have a better understanding of the idea.

At the end of this stage, after going through a creative process of exploring and coming up with ideas, I had to go back and review all of my ideas with my client. This way I was able to evaluate which product design would fit her needs and wants best and also get some feedback on how to further improve the idea.

 

 

Innovative Thinking 

This next part of the design thinking phase involved some prototyping and modelling of my intended product so I could test out its practicality and also do some iterative development of the product after receiving some client feedback on the cardboard model. Here I had to use the skill of problem solving and creative thinking to come up with new ideas and changes I could make to specific parts of the product in order to better cater to my client’s needs and wants

Not only did I have to develop the structure of the product but I also had to go into the details and develop other aspects such as construction methods, material, and colours. To do all of these I had to use my research skills to conduct some further research in order to get a more in depth understanding of my choices, an example being which joint would be most practical and stronger to use.

In the end I had to remember to take all intended changes and test them against my design specifications just to clarify that I was staying within the bounds of my customer’s requirements and checking all boxes when looking at certain aspects such as the function and aesthetic of the product.

Here is my final proposed idea of the product.

 

 

Planning for Production 

At this point of the design thinking process comes the planning for production. In this stage I communicated across the different parts of my product through CAD drawings. These drawings were used to help communicate across to my client more clearly the parts, dimensions and assembly of the product in more detail. This helps them get a better understanding of the product.

First there I did an exploded view of the intended product. Displaying all the different parts and components it would be made out of. Along with it, I made a table that had all the dimensions of every single part.

I also did another set of drawings, this time with all the parts assembled and displaying a corner, a front, and side, and a back view of the product. This shows the client in more detail how the product will look when finished. Again, I labelled some dimensions so my client can get a better feel of the size of the product.

The next step was me producing a detailed production plan for the manufacturing of my intended product. This included a step by step explanation of the making of the product along with tools used, estimated time it would take to complete each process, health and safety measures and finally quality control assessments.

 

 

Production Realisation

In this next stage of the design thinking process was the production of my product. During this process I used my application skills to apply many different practical skills in the making of my product in order to produce a high quality end product for my client. Along the way I also took photos of the different various stages to use as evidence for my production process.

Here I went through the different production pages including marking out, cutting, assembly, sanding and finishing. Within these different stages I went into the details of the process, different tools/equipment used, quality control measures as well as health and safety assessments I conducted.

While making my product there were a couple time in which I had to use some decision making skills and quick thinking skills to make some slight modifications to my product that I felt would help improve several aspects of the product such as the aesthetic, ergonomics, and safety aspects.

Testing and Evaluation 

We have reached the very last stage of the design thinking process. At this point I gathered feedback from my client in two main aspects, the testing of the product within its intended environment, and the testing of the product against the design goals we had set from the very beginning.

For the ‘Testing and evaluation in intended environment’ I placed the finished product on the shelf where it is meant to go and had the customer interact with it. This way, my client could give me detailed feedback on not only how does my product’s aesthetic look within its environment, but also whether or not its positioning/dimensions and ergonomics were comfortable to use and suited to my client’s likings.

In the ‘Testing and evaluation against design goals’ I simply went through every single design goal including the aesthetics, functions etc. and gathered both self and client feedback on whether or not each specification was satisfied, also providing photo evidence on whether or not the product completed it’s task.

After the evaluation aspects of the finished product, I started to explore some possible modifications and improvements that could be done with the same product. Most of these corrections were done under the influence of feedback that I gained from both my client and myself when going through the different stages of making this product. In my future developments I explored many different factors such as its shape and form, materials, construction methods, etc.

Design Thinking Conclusion 

After experiencing and going through all these different stages of the design thinking process, I was able to to become more aware of and utilise a variety of skills in the managing and organising of my D.T project such as collaboration, design thinking, adaptability, problem solving, communication skills etc.

These skills aspect from the design thinking process will definitely be useful for me when applying to any other future projects.

One thought on “DESIGN THINKING BLOG

  1. Congratulations Thammie on your project, I have worked by your side and seen you intricately craft all the small details on your project. It’s been a lot of fun. I have also taken a look at your coursework and would like to commend you on your work. I’ve seen your product in real life and would like to congratulate you on a high-quality product. Your coursework illustrates the design process you carried on over the last 2 years and describes the skills you’ve used in order to achieve this. Congratulations once again and great job on your project.

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