Graduate Product Design Portfolio '23

Product Design ‘23

PORTFOLIO

Product Design

Hannah Cox

I’m Hannah.

I am an inquisitive and curious designer, constantly exploring new ways that I can improve my work and experiment further. I aim to create inclusive designs that can be used by as many people as possible.

Education

Nottingham Trent University Sep 19 - Jul 23

BSc Product Design

Experience

NTU Design Industries Oct 22 - Jun 23

Working as an animator and web developer preparing for the 2023 NTU degree show, responsibilities included leading the animation team, proofreading for print, assisting in designing and making the website functional.

Samsung Electronics (SDE) Aug 21 - Aug 22

Working as an assistant designer within the SDE product design team. Working on the design of multiple projects such as mobile and wearables, with particular responsibility of user interaction design.

Skills

Software

InDesign

Illustrator

Photoshop

After Effects

Design

Tel. +44 7733 325871

hrrcox@outlook.com

IG. @hannahrrcox

Hannah Cox

XD

Unreal Engine

Rhino

Keyshot

Cinema4D

Solidworks

Sketching

User Research

CMF

Prototyping

Scenario Analysis

Portfolio ‘23

Knitted Footwear

Commercial Project - Shoezone Design For Manufacture

Hannah Cox

VRSE Self Directed Project

Inclusive Design of VR Products

Final Year Project: Commercial Brief

01. Sustainable Footwear on a Budget

Brief: Re-design a low budget trainer to be more sustainable throughout the life-cycle of the trainer

Context

In the UK, over 143 million pairs of shoes are thrown away each year, with only 5% of those pairs being recycled. Shoezone is a low end UK footwear retailer who are driving to become more sustainable, whilst providing quality footwear on a budget.

The focus of the project was design for manufacture, focusing on components, materials and manufacturing methods to create more sustainable footwear.

1. 2.

Only 5% of footwear is recycled at end of life, with the rest ending up in landfill.

3.

Due to the multi material nature of footwear, shoes are hard to recycle.

Many retailers, like Shoezone want to reduce the amount of product going to landfill at end of life.

Hannah Cox

Project Scope

A key point of the brief focused on making Shoezone footwear more sustainable. As Shoezone is a low budget retailer in the UK, it was important to understand that sustainability is a multifaceted term, relating to the combination of social, economic and environmental factors.

Therefore it was important within the scope of the project to consider each different type of sustainability to measure the final impact of the project.

Key Research

£13.20

The average Shoezone trainer has 25 discreet components and 10 different materials

Hannah Cox

Natural Recyclable

Bio-based Biodegradable

Is the average price of a pair of Shoezones own brand lines of footwear

‘Recyclable’ is the best term when marketing sustainable footwear according to consumers

Trends and Inspiration

Inspiration on styling came from technical knits and details which are rising in popularity in fashion and design.

Using trends stemming from technical designs lends itself well to sustainability, with knit technology minimising offcuts and waste which come from the production of garments and footwear.

Portfolio ‘23

Hannah Cox

Reducing Components

Existing Shoezone Shapes

Detailing and knit pattern

Process

Existing Shoezone Shapes

The design process mainly focussed on reducing the amount of components in a Shoezone shoe to as few as possible whilst maintaining the shape of the shoe.

This was iterated upon whilst considering the design language of shoezones existing shoes, as to not remove the new design too far from the existing design language.

Final Concept

The final concept is a mono material, single colour TPU trainer. The use of a single colour and material in the design means the shoe can easily be shredded and melted down at end of life, where it can be recycled into a new shoe.

The upper is made using 3D knit TPU yarn and the eTPU foam sole is direct injection moulded onto the upper, using an existing Shoezone mould, increasing economic sustainability and reducing cost to the consumer.

The coloured laces are inspired by popular and trending trail-running footwear designs and help break up the single colour of the shoe.

Portfolio ‘23

Hannah Cox

Design Comparison

Product Design Sustainable Budget Trainer

//More circular materials

//Recyclable at end of life

//Unisex

// Available in two colours

Final Year Project: Self Directed

VRSE: Inclusive Approaches to VR

Brief: Design a product which improves access to VR. The design must be inclusive and accessible.

Context

VR is an emerging technology which has shown potential to change the ways in which we interact with digital technologies. Despite this, VR has been shown to be inaccessible in its current form due to the types of movement and body positioning needed to use the devices.

As a result of this, it was chosen to base the project around improving access to VR.

The Approach

VR is an emerging technology which has become increasingly popular in recent years.

Recognising Exclusion Learn from Diversity Solve for One, Extend to Many

Although VR has the potential to open up new experiences, it is also built around narrow user groups.

People from marginalised communities, such as people with disabilities, are at a greater risk of being excluded from the use of VR.

Hannah Cox

User Testimony

To understand what can be done to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of VR, it was important to speak with users to understand what their problems were with accessing VR.

This helped in reducing the designer bias, identifying common themes between users and identifying opportunities.

Theme Mapping

“I would feel my biggest barrier would be the controllers as I don’t think I’ll be able to move around using the joysticks in the position on some VR accessories”

User with mobility and sensory issues due to CMT disease

“I think the main issue I had when using VR was pushing the buttons on the controller, I just couldn’t do it.”

User with ME and Fibromyalgia

“With my muscle problems and my neck [VR] was very hard to use … I can’t hold my arms up for very long and be active with them”

User with limited mobility and dexterity due to a C6 Spinal injury

‘23

Hannah Cox

Adaptive controller concept

Development

After speaking with users, the decision was taken to focus on designing both a controller and headstrap to enable better access to VR. Development was taken using physical modelling, sketching and CAD to ensure the best outcome possible for improving inclusivity for users.

Familiar shape

Headset prototype, elements chosen by users

User selected concept

Hannah Cox

CMF Considerations

Using the CMF trend of ‘Implicit Inclusivity’ considers the use of high contrast colours to aid visual problems, high tactility materials for users with neurodiversity and other disabilities and high grip finishes to aid grip.

This was chosen by users as the colours for each of the products due to the unisex nature and widely inclusive and accessible nature.

The Designs

The end result is two products, a controller and a headstrap for the Meta Quest.

The controller, FLEX is the first adaptive and inclusive controller made for VR, retailing at £55

The headstrap, LOOP allows for users to adjust their headset to their head more easily, reducing muscle fatigue, eye-strain and cybersickness. The strap retails for £25

Hannah Cox

User Journeys

The controller comes out of the box fully assembled as a gamepad

To use the motion controllers, slide the side controllers up and out of the middle

Attach the side attachments onto the Meta headset

Thread the top strap through the headset and hold with the Velcro

When finished with the controllers, slide them down into the main body

For adaptive mode, plug adaptive buttons into ports on the rear of the gamepad

Put the headset on the head and adjust the sides by pulling loops forward

Adjust the top strap by pulling the top of head loop forward

In adaptive mode, all added buttons function in the positions they are added

Buttons can be remapped on the controller to any position, including two additional action buttons

Hold the top straps down with Velcro when comfortably adjusted to head

Release the straps when done by pulling the loop forward to release the Velcro

Hannah Cox

Prototypes

Hannah Cox

The Importance

People with disabilities and people from marginalised communities are often ignored in the product development cycle, with adaptations being added much later.

With VR becoming more prevalent in daily life, it is important to anticipate barriers to accessing the technology and implement solutions that reflect the needs of the broadest range of users possible.

Both of the VRSE products aim to ease some of the exclusions that people have faced when trying to use VR by presenting adaptive products which allow more people to experience immersive digital spaces.

VRSE

Inclusive and Adaptive accessories to improve accessibility to VR.

Can be used by any one, adapts to your needs and ability.