Our Journey
Contents Page Market Research (25-30)
Introduction Cloud 9 (1-8)
Concept Two (39 - 48)
Case Studies (17-24) Design Directions (9-16)
Concept One (31 - 38)
Interaction Design (73 - 86)
Design Skills (93 -100) The Bag (121 - 128)
Practical Skills (101 - 108)
Concept Three (49 - 72)
Internals (87 - 92)
Branding (129 - 132)
Final Product (109 - 120)
Cloud9
Who we are .......what our mission statement is...
“We are Cloud 9, a mixture of Design for Industry and Interactive Media Design students from Northumbria University.�
I am a highly creative and versatile junior designer whom is devoted to producing good design, for the sake of the consumer and the social baring that design has in society. I am focused and love a challenge; I thrive on innovation and endeavor for simplicity.
Luke Wilson
Skills‌ CAD, Sketch development, Model making, Understanding of manufacturing. I am proficient in the following software; Solidworks, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Ashlar Vellum Graphite Autodesk Skechbook Pro. Experience‌ The bulk of my design experience has come form a five-month work placement working in-house for baby-ware company Tommee Tippee.
Industrial Designer
Contact details Email: luke.wilson@unn.ac.uk
I am currently in 3rd year at Northumbria University studying BA (Hons) Design For Industry. Design has become a part of my life being passionately obsessed about shape and form of everyday objects I am surrounded by. Aside from design I believe maintaining a healthy body is important so I try and do sports and fitness whenever I have free time.
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Jonathon Sh
Skills: Adobe Suite After Effects Cinema 4D Solidworks Rhinoceros Ashlar-Vellum GraphiteSketching Model making Experience: Completed a 2 month placement with Tin Horse Design Consultant in summer of 2009 based in Marlborough
Industrial Designer
Contact information: Email : jonathon.shek@unn.ac.uk
I am a third year industrial design student at Northumbria University. Originally from the Wirral, Merseyside, I chose to follow a career path in design from an early stage selecting predominantly art and design subjects at GCSE and A-level, then opting to do an art foundation course at Liverpool community college. Skills: I have a good level of sketching and I am also proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign as well as having a basic ability of Rhino and solidworks 3D CAD modeling.
uhoun Duncan Colq
Industrial Designer
Experience: I recently completed a 3 month work placement over the summer break with the innovation consultancy “Innovia� based in Cambridge. Hobbies: I enjoy partaking in many sports such as field hockey, cycling and kitesurfing and listening to all kinds of music in any spare time I have. Contact Details: duncan.colquhoun@unn.ac.uk
I am currently studying Interactive Media Design at Northumbria University, and I am also the web designer for the Students Union. I have had a passion for Art & Design for as long as I can remember, and I consider myself a very creative thinker. Skills… Adobe Suite HTML CSS PHP Jquery
milton
Jonathan Ha
Hobbies... My other passions are photography, and music. I have been lucky enough to combine these two, by doing live music photography. Experience… I currently work for Northumbria University’s Students Union as a Web designer.
Interactive Media Designer
Contact details Email: jonathan.hamilton@unn.ac.uk
My name is Steve Myers and I am a 27 year old mature student, I am currently studying ‘Interactive Media Design’ at Northumbria University and I am in my 2nd year. I live with my beautiful girlfriend Gail and our two cats Seth and Snoopy in Newcastle upon Tyne. Skills… Adobe Suite HTML CSS PHP Pencil Artwork
s Steven Myer
Interactive Media Designer
Hobbies... I mainly do pencil art but I have recently been dabbling with vector art. My commission work is usually my pencil work as I do portraits and pin up style drawings. http://stevepaulmyers.blogspot.com/ http://stevemyersartwork.blogspot.com/ http://myersbastard.deviantart.com/ Contact details Email: steven.myers@unn.ac.uk
Design Direction
Upon receiving the ‘On The Move’ brief from Intel and insight into portable computing devices, we went away to decide on how we would like to approach this brief and for which market would we be designing for. Each of us wrote our own design direction proposal stating our ‘Big Idea’, ‘Problem Area’ and ‘Solution’ based around an area that interested us perceived to be a valuable area to explore through design. After critiquing each others proposals and gathering feedback from Intel officials, we then came to an agreement and decided to pursue professional level digital photography as the context for our portable computing device.
The Big Idea
A new device that will improve the photographers process by consolidating pre and post image capture exercises such as editing, tagging and cataloguing into one single process.
Problem
Advancement in technology and the frequency that we use Internet has resulted in more demand on image capture; consequently the way we interact and view images has completely changed. We believe Lighbox brings these elements together by creating a tool that improves pre and post image capture in digital photography.
Solution
To design a highly versatile and mobile device to assist the contemporary digital photography process.
Case Studies
With the use of case studies we were able to compare and contrast existing products or concepts that may influence our own concept development process. For example, the SNAP digital camera concept by David Lee interested us with its new approach to a digital camera interface by redefining ‘modes’ into ‘moods’ and ‘photos’ into ‘memories’. We thought this made the digital camera a more personal and intimate device. Also. Lucas Ainsworth’s Capture 180 camera concept sparked some interest around the issue of the constrictions that exist in photography today and how a new and radical approach to digital image capture could re-energise and transform photography as we know it.
Journal “The Virtual Learning Environment has revolutionised modern teaching. Accessed through the internet, Students and Teachers log into VLEs at school and home every day to communicate. Journal is a user friendly VLE and tablet computer that works on the principle of cloud computing. The tablet contains no personal data and very limited hardware. A wireless connection to the VLE provides all software and hardware each user needs. A damaged or stolen Journal contains no personal information. Minimal internal components make Journal affordable. Journal empowers students with a wealth of resources during and out of school. Journal helps teachers create engaging lessons and improves digital classroom management. Schools can access and analyse a wealth of student information and parents are connected to their child’s education.”
David Lee
SNAP “Snap is a behaviorally designed camera using ‘Moods’ instead of ‘Modes’ to let us express ourselves. The three ‘Moods’ - play, live and share - cater to how we use digital photos in modern life, and online. Snap is also a portable digital photo album - view memories on-the-go with friends using the innovative double inner AMOLED screen, designed to fold flat and appear as one when open.”
Nick Marks
Capture 180 “Adding a new dimension to photography is the Intel Capture180 Camera. Taking a tangent from the mega-pixel war, and data storage issues, the Capture180 Camera brings in the news with its Virtual Reality imaging proposal. It uses a 180 degree fish-eye lens to capture 180 degree hemisphere and stores the information as meta-data within each shot, allowing the camera’s viewfinder, a digital picture frame, or your computer screen to come alive with the images. The warped photos are unwrapped in-camera into a hemisphere of image, and everything outside of the traditional picture frame is stored as meta-data. When viewing photos, position sensors allow the camera’s viewfinder to act as a window into a still moment in time. If it’s a photo of fireworks, you can point the camera over to the left see the faces of the people sitting next to you- it’s like the camera never left the place. The extra meta-data also means that photos can be recomposed long after they’ve been shot. Photos can be cropped down or up, and this pretty much eliminates the need for the user to point. The whole scene is captured with each shot, and one or multiple photos can be composed from the scene later.”
Lucas Ainsworth
Market Research
After defining our design direction and brief, we set about gaining a broader knowledge of the professional photography market using various research techniques such as: - Persona generation - Interviews - Questionnaires - Role Play - Professional insights - etc... Through these exercises we concluded that our target market could be categorized into three groups / users; - Professional Photographers - Expert Users - Journalists
Who
This product is to be aimed at a more professional / expert user market (for example professional photographers, journalists and expert level consumers of digital imaging products.
What
A mini tablet PC intended for use with digital format images captured from high end digital cameras. The device will provide a means of instant access to filing and cataloguing images, editing and transfer to various sources through a wireless connection between the camera, the web and the device.
Why
Allowing high end digital photography users to have capabilities to edit and file images quickly and easily with a portable device abling them to use it on the move as well as in the studio.
USP
- Quick and easy editing of images - Wireless data transfer between different media - Multi-gestural to allow quicker productivity
Professional Photographers
Expert Users
Journalists
Concept One Tablet With Removable Camera
Our first design concept consisted of a tablet PC device with a detachable / removable camera which could be used for quick ‘point and shoot’ style photography for rapid image capture. The camera would have a traditional view finder to revert back to the point and shoot style of photography used with film cameras. Once the camera is ‘docked’ back into the tablet device, the photos you have taken are immediately transferred from the camera onto the tablet device for viewing, editing, cataloguing, etc... This concept aims to consolidate the transfer and post image capture processes through the use of a single device.
Detatchable camera
Touch screen interface
Point and shoot
Dock camera to transfer photos onto tablet
Concept Two Interactive Digital Picture Frame
This concept explores the problems that exist with contemporary digital photo frames. We aimed to design a more functional digital photo frame by introducing capabilities such as a touch screen interface to navigate through your photo albums as well as having the added functions of editing your photos and arranging them into categories and accounts. Also, making this photo frame extremely portable by having its own power source (battery pack) means sharing your photographs can be made easier and a much more enriched experience. This would also be the perfect tool for a practising photographer to present examples of work to clients and preview their work ‘on the job’.
SD Card Slots
View Photos from Memory Cards
Interact with
h your photos through a touch screen interface
Connect to your camera for ‘Live View’
Concept Three Digital Lightbox Concept
Our final concept came from the analogy of a piece of equipment called a ‘lightbox’, which is traditionally used in the developing process of photographic film to analyse negative images before they are chosen to be developed. The digital lightbox is a touch screen tablet PC device that can be used to edit, catalogue, upload and organise your photos through an easily navigable interface. It aims to streamline the pre and post image capture processes by redefining the transition from camera to computer. The tablet device can communicate with your digital camera through a wireless transmitter that plugs into the mini USB port of your digital camera. Once plugged in, the tablet device detects the camera and synchronizes itself with it to enable immediate transfer of photos taken on the camera.
Hand Held Size
Built in wireless transmitter
Connect to camera
Transfer and edit photos
Interface Design
Our main concern was to design an interface for the device that allowed you to perform the relevant tasks needed either whilst on a photo shoot or after with speed and precision. The interface must justify the use of a digital lightbox device over a laptop or PC. This is done by ‘streamlining’ the pre and post picture taking process through the Lightbox touch screen interface using gestures and the use of a stylus pen. This shortens the photography process and increases productivity when a laptop might not be available or plausible making it ideal for professional photographers in getting there photography to there clients quickly. Also, the added hot key shortcuts such as forwards and backwards / undo and redo and ‘home’ button increase the speed at which editing processes can be carried out.
Once you have synchronized your digital lightbox and camera through the wireless connection, you are ready to start shooting. The photos will be immediately transferred onto the lightbox.
Take the Shot
Images appear on the screen of your digital Lightbox the second it has been taken already enriched with metadata such as the time and place it was taken.
Image Transfer
Edit and make adjustments to the photo using gestures or the stylus pen on the capacitive touch screen straight after the original shot has been taken.
Edit
Organise photos taken on a shoot into stacks on your desktop to keep track of different jobs. Simply drag and drop to add to a stack.
Stacks
Arrange stacks into albums to be stored and viewed on the Lightbox internal memory by dragging and dropping them into the device drop down menu.
Catalogue
Upload photos straight into online accounts such as flickr, facebook or to clients email addresses within your network drop down menu.
Upload
Adjust the order of your photos or carry out additional editing by expanding your stacks to view the total content.
Organise
Display the metadata on your photos to remind yourself at what location the photo was taken and what date.
Metadata
Added captions or ‘tags’ to each photo to serve as a personal reminder of the event using the stylus pen and handwriting recognition software.
Annotate
Quick access to certain operations for each photo through a ‘fan menu’
Options Menu
Internals
By analysing the internal hardware components of existing products on the market, we were able to determine what components we would need to package in our own device. The main components that would be needed would be: - Internal Harddrive (80-120GB) - SD Card Port - USB 2.0 Port - Capacitive Touch Screen Module - Wireless Network Card - Motherboard - Audio Input (AUX Headphone Socket) - Line Out (Audio Output) - DDR3 RAM (+2GB) - Intel CPU Chip - Battery Pack (8hrs +)
Design Skills
Throughout the duration of the project, as a team and individual designers, we used a collection of design skills and tools from the research and conception of the ideas right through to the refinement stages of our final design. All of these skill sets and more were used throughout various stages of our design project: - Persona Generation - Scenario Generation - Group Crit Sessions - Role Play - Sketch Modelling - Rapid Concept Generation - Mind Mapping - CAD Modelling and Visualisation - Story Telling (Story boarding) - Conceptual Sketching
Group critique sessions were held every week to monitor progress in terms of the design and to refine our concept with the feedback we received from Intel.
Group Critiques
Creating scenarios around our design subject helped us better understand and appreciate the area we were designing for.
Scenarios
Acting out story lines of how our product would be integrated into a photographers process helped us to identify problem areas in our designs.
Role Play
Rapid sketch cardboard models gave us quick 3D rough representations of early concepts to communicate our ideas more clearly.
Sketch Models
Post-it note mind mapping sessions were great group exercises to fully explore our design area and target market.
Mind Mapping
Practical Skills
A wide .... of
There were a large number of skill sets used in the production of our prototype model of the digital lightbox device. The majority of the components were hand crafted using the facilities of the university workshop. Each of us expanded our knowledge of model making techniques and experimented with new methods such as: - Laser Cutting - Aluminium Roller Printing - Rapid Prototyping - Screen Printing on Metals
The top casing of the lightbox device as well as the buckles for the bag was constructed from laser cut acrylic to achieve the accuracy we needed.
Lazer Cutting
The majority of parts for our prototype were hand crafted out of modelling materials such as Ureol foam and Acrylic plastic using a mixture of hand tools workshop machinery methods.
Hand Tools
The Stylus pen shaft was formed by turning a section of Aluminium rod on a metal working lathe.
Turning Aluminium
The aluminium sections of the model were prepped within the metals workshop where we annealed and shaped the top ridge section of the device.
Annealing Metal
Each of the Aluminium and gloss finished parts of the device were polished on the buffing wheel and finished with Brasso.
Polishing
Detailing such as the On/Off button were done via either roller printing methods or hand engraving.
Engraving
Final Product Lightbox
“Lightbox is a tablet PC that uses touch screen technology to enhance professional or expert photography users process. The device will provide a means of instant access to filing and cataloguing images, editing and transfer to various sources through a wireless connection between the camera, the web and the device.�
USB 2.0 Port
SD Card Port
3.5 AUX Line Out
3.5 AUX Headphone Port
4.5 DC Charging Port
Forward/Backward Short key Button
Home Short key Button
Capacitive Touch Screen
Power On/Off Button
M6 Tripod Socket
Rubber Feet
Oleo phobic Screen Cover
Polycarbonate Top Casing
10inch Capacitive Touch Screen
Aluminium and Magnesium Alloy Frame
ABS Bottom Casing
Wireless Transmitter (Dongle)
Lightbox Tablet PC
Stylus Pen
Mini USB
Wireless Transmitter
Aluminium Cap / Clip
Nylon Tip
The Bag Lightbox
We decided to design a bag for the digital lightbox device so that it could be used easily on field shoots and always be in close proximity whist working on a photo shoot. The bag is designed to securely contain the device by locking it inside the inner protective shell through a bolt that fastens into the tripod socket situated on the back of the device. Specialist buckles enable the bag to lock in position at 90 degrees providing a secure work surface around your waist. A selection of durable and waterproof fabrics are used on the exterior surfaces of the bag to protect the device from all weather conditions whilst in transit. The interior of the bag is lined with a soft and cushioned lightweight cotton.
Branding
We decided to name our device ‘Lightbox’ after the traditional tool used in film format photography practise to preview images. We believe that our device is the lightbox for digital format photography; a versatile and flexible tool for photographers tailored to aid the pre and post capture of images in a way that no PC has yet to achieve. In terms of graphical appearance and aesthetic, we chose a black, yellow and silver colour scheme to relate to existing high end digital SLR camera brands. We believe this communicates the quality of the product and its place within the market. “Lightbox is the perfect accompaniment to your DSLR.”
Luke Wilson Jonathan Shek Duncan Colquhoun Jonathan Hamilton Steven Myers