LCA Report

The product we teared down, a coffee maker, was manufactured in China. Through out the whole life cycle, the use of the product generated most impact on environment in terms of energy use and water usage. In the long term use such as more than ten years, the coffee maker use electricity and water to produce coffee every day, compared to the short period of manufacture, this phase of life cycle don't need any more material supplements. Hence, to make this coffee maker more green, one should focus more on the way of coffee making, trying on reducing the energy consumption when heating and grounding coffee. In this case, increasing the efficiency of heating and grounding would become the main issue that need to be solved.

However, there is a another problem of this coffee maker. The material usage of the coffee maker can be cut down a little such as the decoration shield outside out of aluminum..etc. as it is still quite a heavy product. Cutting down the material usage not only helps in reducing energy consumption in the phase of manufacture but also help losing weight. Given the consideration on the distant transportation from China to Australia, lower weight and smaller volume will give much help in cutting down the fuel consumption and further the CO2 emission.  

In short, products like coffee maker usually lasts really long in daily run and their is not always a need of replacement unless it breaks. Hence, for designers, personally, I think what we can do is trying to use less material as possible. And for users, One should really care more on their coffee maker in order to expand its life.

Reflection on videos

The videos actually opened up a whole new territory for my understanding of design, sustainability didn't come into my design concepts ever just before watching those videos.

The Greenfly Video and the concept they built on the website is just fabulous. Considering about material and technology, it is never easy for one designer to cover all the facts of different manufacture methods of particular materials, let alone make comparison between each of them. Although the idea is brilliant enough to tell the designer what's better to be used to increase sustainability of their concept, I personally reckon that actual production must and will always differs from simulation. Hence, I actually see it more like a place where designers can broaden their horizon.

The other five videos from Autodesk are also great for designers to know about the very factors that have impact on sustainability. I particularly liked the idea of light weighting as I have never thought about the weight of a product will matter that much in environmental. However it do require industrial designers to master more engineering skills in order to guarantee the quality of particular structure or composition. Also, knowing about the whole life cycle of the products actually helped us to decide which part of the product to emphasize on and to know which part to put much effort in.

In short, there is much more for me to learn.

Project I: Accessible Packaging Week3

During group discussion, the mock-up succeeded in indicating peers which direction to spread vegemite. 

However, people find it more comfortable pressing the button while squeezing the vegemite out, which means that i'd better make the button a seal of the package. Hence, I am planning on rethinking about the necessity of the cutter also because there are other ways to cut the vegemite.

Besides, the package has trouble placing in home as there is no plain surface on it, so, the shape of the cap should be adjusted to comply with daily storage.

Project I: Accessible Packaging Week2

The proposal is about helping one-handed people spread Vegemite onto toast evenly.

To spread the paste evenly, the mouth on the cap are shaped into a thin rectangle, through which the paste can be spread continuously and flat.

Hence, There's no need for the one handed people to spread the paste with knives. 

Also, to cut the continuous paste when finish spreading, a button with spring was placed in the cap functioning as a cutter. 

FEEDBACK:

Jan and Matt suggested that I should think about simplify the structure of the cap, and try to cut down material expense since the mouth is shaped into a thin rectangle.

My tutor liked the concept, and he suggested that I should figure more about the material that i'll use, like the spring and button cutter. Also, given the facts that different kinds of pastes has different properties in terms of thickness and liquidity, he suggested that maybe I can come up with a series of caps that complies with different pastes. 

Project I: Accessible Packaging Week1

Feedbacks From Peers & Tutor Tom:

Proposal A

Anders from Denmark said that the axis of the lever should move in a little that when pressing the package, the other side of the package won't tilt up. 

Song said that their some existing jars can be opened by one hand, and I should find more about the existing packages 

Tom suggested that the structure of the package may be too complex for fast-consuming product to manufacture, the cost would be a problem. Also, the main hardship of stabilization is when one handed people try to get thick paste like Vegemite out if package, rather than open it. Hence, I should consider more on the facilitation of the usage of the content. Also, take the resistance of wall or desktop into consideration when developing packages.

Proposal B

Song said that it may not be a whole new concept as similar product has been in market for years while Anders and Ole thought that I should redesign it or improve the current design in the direction for the one-handed.

Proposal C

Anders and Ole thought that I should cut down the number of the leaves as it may be inconvenient to close the leaves one at a time. 

Tom focused on the mechanism of the proposal saying that there may be trouble achieving it.

Overall, Tutor suggested that I should act like one-handed people in daily life to experience their difficulties more, and develop current concepts.