Monday, October 15, 2012

Peer Comments:

Ben Chan
Stan Darmawan
Yue Yue Jin
Coco
Henry Treloar

Project 2- PPS The Floating Bins



Floating Bins on River
Floating Bin on river is a new Product Service System for people who living in Mekong Delta River. Floating market is a culture and proud of the people here. It is where they trade and exchange their goods/fruits/meat by boat. This system is designed to enhance a Greener River, reduce floating garbage and create a new ritual for the people living in this area

There are about 1500 boats joining the floating market in Mekong Delta River everyday. Through the research we found about 6.41-12.25 tons garbage discarded straight into river after the market is finished. The total garbage found on river a year is 2309-4411 tons. This causes many problems such as many dead fish, bad smells, traffic problem (due to nylon bags got stucked into the diving machine) and finally health issues (no clean water for usage). The found floating garages are mostly 35% of discarded meat/ fruits, 30% of plastic bag, 25% of daily waste and 10% of the plastic bottle.  The government current has no solution for this problem. There is only a volunteer club to clean but just after the people throwing their garbage into water.

The Bin captures floating flowers on river, waterlily leaves, thus to create a connection to nature and be more friendly to user. There are 2 bins which are Bio Waste (Brown lid) and Recycle waste (Blue lid) and they are made of Polypropylene Plastic. The bins are low, thus it is easy and convenience for throwing the garbage it. By pressing the Open button, the lid of the bin is kept opening while discarding the garbage. There is hook to keep the boat and the bins balance and stop floating.

In order to support this system, the government also gives out a free attached bin on boat; provides free educated booklet, wrapping paper and bamboo basket to reduce the use of plastic bag. The attached bin is designed to hang on BEO tree (Beo tree is used to recognise the selling goods from far). The attached small bin has 2 level of high. The first level is normal size bin which is enough for using during the market time. The second level is extended from the folds. This makes the bin longer thus the people who leave on boat and need more space for garbage storage during the night. The system is helped by volunteer club. The people sailing around and help to transport garbage from small bin to the public in case the people are busy exchanging / trading. The volunteer also give stamps to the people who joining the system. One stamp is given to people who discard garbage at level 1heigh of the attached bin and two stamps for level2.
The Pubic Bin is then collected by boatman back to the Garbage Centre for separation. The Recycle wastes like bottles and cans are transported to factory for recycle and reuse for many different purposes. The Bio Waste is buried and to create fertilizer by farmers. This fertilizer is used to grow fruits in the local public garden. Every month, the collected fruits are given to poor people on river as well as to award people who have got a lot of stamps.

This PPS brings many benefits to both users and the environment. Firstly for the social benefit, it increases more food source and a healthy environment for living. Besides, it decreases the traffic problems on river. Importantly, the system creates a new ritual culture on river and builds a strong relationship in community by helping poor people. The System also brings many benefits to the environment as it reduces water pollution issue. The system is manufactured with natural and recycled materials. Also it shows a strong relationship between user and product system too. 



Friday, September 28, 2012

Project 2: Concept - Bin on River


Floating market is cultural characteristic for people living in Mekong Delta. It is where farmers exchange goods like fruit, vegetable and many other commodities by boats. It creates a unique beauty on rivers in Southern Asia.

Problems:
As research found that floating markets in Mekong River Delta Vietnam discard around 6-12 tons of rubbish everyday, and totally about 2.309 -4.411 tons a year (vnexpress). People do not acknowledge about water pollution, they usually throw discarded food, plastic bags and bottles straight into river. This cause bad smell on river, water pollution and traffic problems (plastic bags got sticked into boat, diving machine stops working).

Barriers:
People do not aware of water pollution. It is not practical to ask the people to drive boat to riverside and find a bin to discard their rubbishes.

Current solution:
The government has not yet got a clear solution for this problem. Local government is trying to inform/ remind many businesses to not throw rubbish into river.

Design Solution:
People throw rubbish straight into water because they could not find anywhere else more convenience to do so. Therefore, to solve this problem, there must be a place for people to throw their rubbish while they are still sitting on boat and doing their exchanged business.

_ Bins on River: The Bins is designed to hang on a column (tree or concrete ? not sure yet??) which is placed in river around the floating market area. The big Bin is for biodegradable garbage eg: decay fruit/ veggies, prawns, fishes...The small Bin is for bottles.
_ When the floating market is finished about 11am, there a rubbish collecting man (from government) comes, collect the garbage bin and replace other clean bins into the column.
_ The biodegradable bin will be transported to the next door field, where famers burying and turning it into fertilizer for soil

_ All of the bottles/ other recycles from bottle bins will be separated and transported to factory for recycle or reuse in other purposes
_ Regular meeting will be held to remind that they must put garbage into provided bins. If someone who got catch for not following the rule, they must collect floating rubbish in 3 days .

quick sketch of the concept: 




Monday, September 24, 2012

Video C: Who killed the Electric Car


I remember when I was little I used to sit on little electric car and driving around but I had never thought about the existence of a real electric car like EV1 as shown in the video. Petro cars are popular but not to electric cars, we all question why. I have known about the development of new Water Car. It will bring a great benefit to environment but will it like electric car again?

Initially when electric car had just been in the market there were many good feedbacks. Americans loved it because how it offers more advantage than the gasoline car. They are quite and smooth to run and also be home charged. Many people describe electric car as it is cool, fast sexy and sold in good price and especially no smog.

However, there are still many customers who doubt on its quality. They don’t want to switch to electric car because of many reasons like its size, ability and durability. One customer questioned in doubt how long EV1 could survive on the road while we don’t have a lot of electric stations. Thus electric car is only choice for rich people or otherwise it need to do better to be accepted.

The debate between to side has been going on. They both blame and question who did kill the electric car? Many answer other car competitors or government or marketing problems or customer or technology about the development of battery. Personally, I think all of those cause the problems and electric car was killed.

Through this video, I have been thinking a lot about being an Industrial designer. Everyone has a very different mindset from the others, yet may this person think the design is successful but at the same time there are people who hate it. It is very hard to get approve from everyone.  Besides, what a student like me study in school would be far from the reality. It will be harsher in the real world. I can see the deep pain of designer/ director for EV1 when seeing their cars being crashed down and dumped to landfield. It hurts so much. It depends a lot on consumer behaviour and attitude which can save or destroy the design. Finally, I think there is still a gap between users and sustainability designs about the trust of quality and function on product. Industrial designer need to adjust and improve on it so the design should be more friendly to both environment and users.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Project 1: Legs11 - Ecoyum Ready to Feed milk Package.


Current issues and market research:
Mothers all want to raise her child being healthy with complete nutrients in each meal. It is even harder, especially from newborns. Mothers feel hard mixing the proper ratio of formula powder to water to make sure the baby is getting just a right amount of nutrients needed. Runny or too thick formula may cause constipation and spit up problems for the child.
Ready to feed milk is the closest formula to breast milk which allows Mothers the options of combination feeding. It is easy to digest and no mixing with water needed. The package brings more conveniences while traveling on plane or no clean water area.
   
Heroshot Poster: 


Packaging Problems:
Current Ready to feed milk is packed in glass (mostly used in hospital), carton and plastic bottle. They are breakable, heavy for transport and cause many environmental impacts. Moreover, mother has to transfer milk from the package into another sterilized bottle. It causes mess and inconvenience for using.  Uncared design of the bottle brings many misunderstand about the quality of formula. Ready to feed was perceived as instant unhealthy milk while it is truly better than powder milk.


Design:
The design concept is a new bottle is made from an old recycled bottle. Value Pack with premium nipple attached is to encourage people to collect used bottles and return them to manufacture.
The bottle is made of #1 P.E.T plastic. It is recyclable and lightweight for effective liquid transport. Wide neck bottle allows users to insert nipple directly and no need to transfer into another bottle. Label is designed to peel off and separated from the bottle, hence saving more time and energy during recycling process. Patterns support holding and crushing bottle after use, so saving more space while collecting.
The design is clean and simple. Pattern mimics sinus lactiferi in Mother’s breast. It recalls mothers about the quality of the package which is a nutritionally complete breast milk substitute.






Friday, August 3, 2012

Video 2: The 11th hour

The 11th hour (2007) is a very emotional and important video to watch, not just to designer but for everyone who living in this world. We talk about environment almost everyday on TV, radio and many other communications. But we don’t take much action about it simply because our care is not big enough. That is sad and bad.

As in the video scientists had mentioned we are a part of the Nature, we came late in the calendar of the Earth. We are different from others animal, we are not big, we do not have extremely effective senses but all made us different is Human Brain. And yet, this tool protects us but also gradually killing us too. Why? Because we think we are smarter and so stupidly we separate ourselves with the Nature.

We use our brain, culture and technology to drive/control the World. Everyday, we cut a thousand of trees, kill countless animals, poison the air, water … just to get what we want, which are food, clothes and other utilities. We feel no guilty about our cruel actions because we are all good for now to have what we having. But yes so soon, one day we will pay a price for that as a scientist said.

 The Day we have to pay that price is Now. The video shown many scenes about flooding, storming, food poisoning, people crying for their lost of family because of disasters. So, how much more do we want to pay? As remember last year, the whole world cried for the Earthquake happened in Japan. A thousand of people died and lost their family. It was so painful, so hurt in the heart. And we can easily see the reason for this disaster. Because we have been using too much natural resources, damaged the Nature heavily, taken the Green out of the Earth. That’s why it causes climate changes, global warming, ice cracking and melting. If we don’t take action by now in a serious way, yet the last thing in this World to be killed is ourselves.

Nothing can replace the Nature to us. As mentioned, it is a challenging time to live. We all increase our expectations of consuming more and more product. We are using more natural resources like oil but we don’t want to be destroyed. So what should/can we do? Using the understanding of technology and science along with attitude and culture to change the interaction with nature. Be more friendly and gentle to our Mother Nature. Everything needs to be designed in the most effective way. That is aim and big work for all designers.

Designers cannot just do everything by themselves. We all really need to do it, give a hand to build the green world again. Our small action of thinking what to consume and how to consume it in a Green way would give a big change to the world. YES WE NEED TO SAVE OUR WORLD before IT IS TOO LATE.