RMIT University / Industrial Design / GRAP 1033 / Design Studio 3: Projects / Semester 1, 2009 FREIGHT BIKE PROJECT Monday – 2 – 6pm Lecturer: Liam Fennessy liam.fennessy@rmit.edu.au Design Studio 3 is the final lower-pool design studio that students undertake prior to matriculating in the thematically oriented upper-pool design studio stream. Studio 3 places an emphasis on drawing on other learning from Design Studies, Communications and Technology courses as a way of providing students with the necessary capabilities to conduct an in-depth design project that revolves around the notion of Industrial Design as an intellectual and practical exercise in the humanizing of technologies. The design projects undertaken in this course seek to refine, challenge and ultimately build knowledge and capabilities in the technical and technological practices required by an industrial designer. Studio comprises of two curricula streams that support each other but have different assessment task: Design Studio Projects and Design Studio Prototyping. Learning Objectives: • Demonstrated appreciation of design strategies for various modes and scales of production • Demonstrated capacity in design research, conceptualisation, communication and realisation of ideas • Demonstrated appreciation for technical design evaluation • Demonstrated capacity to detail a design for production (technical drawings / annotations / transmittals / reports) • Ability to prepare and execute considered design brief • A working knowledge of materials, manufacturing and logistical constraints and opportunities in a design project • Demonstrated ability to work in a design team and individually Full details on GRAP 1033 can be accessed through the RMIT course guides system.
FREIGHT BIKE “Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.” R. Buckminster Fuller Have you ever thought that bicycles might be the right technology for the right reasons? FREIGHT BIKE has the over-arching project theme of technical innovation and new product development in the area of sustainable transportation and the potential changes to modes of transport that are earmarked to take effect in the next 5-10 years in view of carbon emissions trading schemes and other initiatives that will include the cost of carbon in the global economy. The FREIGHT BIKE projects centre on the design and evaluation of bicycle oriented products and service systems through a response to a series of given scenarios in the first stage of the project and from opportunities discovered and scenarios developed by you through in field research. These projects will act as a scaffold for learning about the underlying principles of designing structures that also denote a specific form and function, converting those structures into tangible and viable products, and linking those products into realistic and technologically enabled service systems. Students will have opportunities to engage in the conceptualization and technical resolution of designs to a manufacture ready point, as well as to speculate on the form on the future of bicycles and green logistics systems for a variety of contexts and modes of design and production [modification, low volume / fabrication to mass manufacture]. Projects will respond to the technical design milieu in the form of well resolved, tested and documented designs, structural experiments, scale models and detailed design visualizations. It will be a practical experience, with a mix of group and individual projects, in field research, prototyping, and testing. FRIEGHT BIKE Projects: There are four assessment tasks each weighted at 25% of the overall grading for Design Studio 3 Projects. The Projects will be exhibited in Week 14. FREIGHT BIKE will require an active development in understanding the following: • Project Management • Design Methods • Various paradigms of New Product Development [innovation spaces, social innovation, niche market and demographic innovation, technical innovation] • Structural Engineering Principles and Innovations • Design for Manufacture [DFM] • Materials and Production processes and principles • Product Life Cycle and Environmental concerns in design [Ecodesign, LCA, Product Take-back, Design for dis-assembly] • Human Factors and Inclusive Design • Mechanical Engineering Principles • Design Analysis [observations, iterations, reflection, comparison] • Design Drawing and Modelling
MINOR PROJECT: TECHNICAL STRUCTURES, FORMS AND PROCESSES DURATION: WEEK1 – 14 WEIGHTING: 25% OF OVERALL STUDIO PROJECTS GRADE You are to develop a written, modelled and pictorial glossary of structures, principles, forms and processes that you discover throughout the FREIGHT BIKE projects. You will need to research, design and make scale models / maquettes that represent the structures and forms you choose. You are to complete a minimum of ten (10) glossary entries. Each glossary entry is to be done in the following format: 1X A5 Landscape Colour Photograph of each modelled structure or form and 1X A5 Landscape Glossary Page that contains the following information: Term: (name of the term) Innovator / Designer: (Name of the innovator / designer) Circa: (Approximate year the idea was discovered) Principle: (100 words (max) describing the fundamentals of the principle) Applications: (2 key designs where the principle has been applied) Entry By: (your name) The following terms can be used to start your glossary as well as any additional terms that you discover throughout the semester: Geodesic Structures Tensegrity structures Lamination Compound Forms Hyperboloid structures See Article: Richard Bradshaw, David Campbell, Mousa Gargari, Amir Mirmiran, and Patrick Tripeny, (2002). Special Structures: Past, Present, and Future, JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING NOTE: An Indesign template will be developed by students and distributed DUE: WEEK 14 Submission Format: 1X compiled PDF saved as: TSFP_Lastname_Firstame.PDF 1X Spiral Bound Printed Hard Copy (A5).
FREIGHT BIKE MAJOR PROJECT The major project is based around a ‘diffusion’ innovation and new product development model that works on the sequenced division of design activity so as to arrive at a numerous designs that are technically resolved and responsive to the key constrains required by the product and its contexts of use. “Diffusion” is a method commonly used in distributed and open-source software development, where the research and design process is shared amongst numerous parties. This model is essentially a reversal of the conventional “product design method”, now used most commonly in the automotive sector. So how does it work? The process is split into 3 phases. Phase One requires designers to work in groups to develop a detailed understanding of the given area and to prepare a very detailed Research and Project Scope Document. This document sets the design parameters and forms a comprehensive design brief. Here all designers contribute to the research required to orient future design activity in a considered and strategic way. Phase Two sees a division of the Phase one group into two independent design teams. These teams work towards producing a clear and technically resolved design that can then be evaluated for its production and market viability. The two teams use their Phase One Research and Project Scope as a way of directing design activity and evaluating the quality of design decisions. Phase two has the underlying purpose of establishing proof of concept. Phase Three sees a further division of design teams down to the individual level. In this phase the designers incorporate and challenge all that has been discovered in the first two phases and work from first principles to develop, visualize and technically resolve design concepts. These concepts are used to establish a future product strategy for the underlying concepts developed in the previous two stages. It is in this phase that design can move from the pragmatics of design function and production and into the speculative and aesthetic realm. FREIGHT BIKE MAJOR PROJECT
PHASE ONE: RESEARCH AND PROJECT SCOPE DOCUMENT (GROUP PROJECT) DURATION: WEEK1 – 4 WEIGHTING: 25% OF OVERALL STUDIO PROJECTS GRADE DUE: WEEK 4 (Friday 27 March) In groups of four (4) you are to respond to a given scenario by engaging in a range of design research activities in order to produce a comprehensive Research and Project Scope Document Drivers of New Product Development The transfer of innovative technologies into tangible, marketable and desirable products is contingent on numerous factors and has identifiable drivers that all operate within different scales of economy, and therefore different technological and market orientations. Technical innovations in themselves are rarely enough to ensure market viability, and tend to only attract attention from what Everret. M. Rogers calls “early adopters’ in his seminal research into the social diffusion of technologies in the 1950s (see synopsis attached). In the technically literate and crowded marketplace of today, designs that manage to get enough traction need to be innovative on many fronts, and needs to be either pushing for change (radical), pushed by change (reluctant), opportunistic in the spaces left by change (reactive), or sympathetic to the margins of the change (responsive). Radical, Reactive, Reluctant and Responsive orientations to new product development occur across all scales of economic and creative activity. The key drivers in the area of sustainable product development and their respective design scenarios that will be used in this studio as a preliminary design prompt are as follows: MACRO DRIVERS: INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION AND POLICY COMPLIANCE This is when there is a major change in the ways in which infrastructure and services are allowed to be used due to a serious re-evaluation of the role or capacity of those services in light of an external pressure. Governments legislate so that changes can come into effect, and drive those changes through their various service providers and through policy compliance regimes. A recent example of this is the Victorian State Government Water Restrictions, where the need to conserve water led to: a) a reduction in the water users could legally access by excising certain activities and days of the week from being able to use water, b) by ruling that certain activities had to be done using specific types of equipment (eg: Trigger hoses for watering gardens), c) by introducing rebate and exchange schemes so that people had incentives to change their patterns and quantity of water use, and d) by increasing the cost of the resource and its service delivery. Such a driver is often a very costly method of innovating in that; a) the necessary size and processes of government make change a slow process, but over time the changes are significant and lasting, and b) Private enterprise and citizens often need to be given inducements and / or compensation by Governments so that the change does not unduly impact productivity or equity. Macro drivers, such as government intervention and policy compliance open the way for innovation in the next largest segment of the economy – Big Business. Given the scales of economy that large corporations have, they can be considered Institutions, and therefore a macro driver of innovation. Big business drives innovation in two main ways: 1. By having the capital and resources to undertake the research and development needed to develop new technologies and applications for those technologies, thus being primary suppliers to other Institutions undergoing change, and 2. By having the market saturation to be able to direct consumer sentiment so that innovations can become accepted over time. The reason they are so influential in product development has got more to do with the general economic contribution that they make to economies, through mass employment and wealth generation (GDP), and taxation contributions to government. A good example of this is Apple computers, that up until the iPod revolution had its main funds source from institutional contracts (Government, Education, and other Corporations). This made it possible for Apple to operate at a scale which made iterative technical innovation cost viable over the longer term. While big business has the bulk to push innovations it’s relative size and organizational complexity means that innovation is a slow iterative process. Innovation in big business frequently fails, due to this complexity and the number of pressures that push productivity on a mass scale. A good examples of this is Motorola. Motorola because
of its size and the location of its various OEM parts manufactures divides its product development into categories based on the size of LCD screen that a product might have. Here product development is constrained by standing relationships and investments in the production of particular parts that must be used as a cost imperative regardless of whether or not the part is relevant to the development of innovative new products. Seemingly arbitrary factors such as this are much more common than would be thought, and they have a significant impact on an organizations capacity to develop intellectual property and to bring new products to market. MICRO DRIVERS: PRIVATE ENTERPRISE / SME’s and OPPORTUNITY Changes at the macro level almost always leave an innovation vacuum, which is frequently in the area of service provision or niche products in a specific sector of a market. Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) tend to fill this void by seeing and seizing commercial opportunities in the spaces where previously there was none. Because SME’s have a local presence their ability to align innovation to their local circumstance provides them with an ideal environment in which to react to changes in policy and technology – providing they have an organization structure agile enough to deal with change and either have the capital (intellectual and economic) to seize opportunities. MARGIN DRIVERS: There are three types of margin drivers; two could be seen as radical and on as responsive. Radical margin drivers include entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, scientists and inventors that will take big risks with an idea that may become profitable or will have an impact. Other groups or individuals that have a very focused agendas (such as technologists, environmentalists etc) can also be group in this category. These radical margin drivers are often referred to as “early adopters” of technologies, and their influence on theories, popular culture, politics and trends is significant. They are also the sector that does the initial development of new ideas. This is particularly evident in the area of software development. Responsive Margin Drivers are concerned with ensuring that technological change does not further alienate groups in the community that have barriers to equitable participation in the advances of technology. Policy shifts and the often-rapid rate of technological change that occurs immediately after such shifts often leave people on the margins. This is sometimes called a ‘technological divide’. Responsive margin drivers generally act through advocacy, lobbying and campaigning. They push innovation in essentially humanistic ways, although this can often manifest in new technological development, particularly in the area of service systems. Major Project Scenarios The scenarios below provide the basis of your semester projects PROJECT GROUP ONE: RESPONSIVE MARGIN DRIVER SCENARIO The need for load carrying bicycles in developing world contexts is clearly evident. Transporting goods between communities and markets is an essential economic activity. Bicycles represent the most sustainable means of doing this. Several NGO’s, and philanthropic arms of companies such as X-tra Cycle focus on the distribution and manufacturing training needed to supply green and low cost human powered haulage vehicles. However the current approaches to this need tend to privilege one off production and modification which ultimately is not a viable means of providing suitable products on the scale that the need demands. This product needs to: • Fit to existing MTB bike frames without making any alteration to the frame or its ride geometry • Provide the largest load capacity possible • Take a 26” MTB type rear wheel and be designed to fit any MTB style bicycle • Maintain Drive from the rear wheel PROJECT GROUP TWO: REACTIVE MICRO DRIVER SCENARIO Melbourne City Council has decided to introduce a congestion toll to reduce the amount of car and truck traffic in the CBD in the vein of London and other European cities. This presents opportunities for bicycle courier companies to expand their business into the collection and cartage of bulky and heavy goods, but to take advantage of this ‘owner riders’ will need to upgrade their standard bicycles to bicycles that are capable of handling loads that otherwise would be difficult to carry on a standard bicycle. There are purpose built cargo and bakfiet type bikes and recumbents available designed specifically for this, but they represent a significant investment that is out of reach for most ‘owner riders’. There is therefore a need to design a load carrying extension product that can be retro fitted to existing commuter bikes. This product needs to: • Fit to existing bike frames without making any alteration to the frame or its ride geometry • Take a 20” (405) BMX type rear wheel and be designed to sit as an aftermarket product for specific bicycle types (Brompton, Raleigh 20, Damon etc) • Maintain Drive from the rear wheel PROJECT GROUP THREE: RELUCTANT MACRO DRIVER SCENARIO Australia Post has had to align its practices with all other Federal Government enterprises and departments and reduce its transport carbon dependence by 50%. It proposes to do this by only contracting postal couriers that rely on green energy sources to collect and transport mail and parcels. Bicycles represent the most efficient and cost effective transition to this mode of postal service. Australia post is investigating load carrying bicycle extension design options for box collection activities using its current and under used bicycle fleet. This product needs to: • Fit to existing Australia Post type bike frames without making any alteration to the frame or its ride geometry • Provide the largest load capacity possible given its application • Maintain Drive from the rear wheel
PROJECT GROUP FOUR: RADICAL MARGIN DRIVER SCENARIO Courier and Touring bike culture has a significant influence on the products designed for both commuter and recreational cycling. Given the forced inclusion of load carrying bicycles into courier practices there is significant opportunity for Bicycle Company X to convince the broader public of the validity of load carrying bicycles. This product needs to: • Fit to existing BMX frames without making any alteration to the frame or its ride geometry • Take a 20” (405) BMX type rear wheel and be designed to sit as an aftermarket product for BMX bicycle types • Provide the an appropriate load capacity given its possible applications • Maintain Drive from the rear wheel
Notes on How to Write a Project scope document A Project scope is a comprehensive briefing document that designers construct and present to their clients in the early stages of a project. Typically the document is structured in a way that mirrors the Charge Stages / Phases of a project, where certain elements of the project are delivered to the client and any changes to the development of the project are discussed and altered as needed. Project scopes are important as it gives the client and opportunity to engage in the project and its conduct in a language that they understand (i.e.: through textual reports, costings, and timelines). In your Major Project Group you are to develop a Research and Project Scope Document for the project you are focussing on. Much of this will be about reinterpreting what has already been outlined in the studio outline but with specific focus on the product you are designing, the issues that it has, the manufacturing context in which it will be produced, and the social /organizational contexts and systems in which the product will be used. There are generally 3 to 4 stages in a typical design project (although this is contingent on what is actually being designed): 1. Briefing Phase: Where you clearly re-communicate the aims and objectives of the design activity. Here you talk about the project as a set of outcomes and problems that will be delivered and solved through design and research. This section of the project scope needs to discuss: • The context of application (i.e.: who, where, why the product is being designed) • Key design constraints (i.e. Technical limitations, design and engineering standards, material processing constraints, key problems with the initial idea for the product, IP and patent requirements etc, etc) • Opportunities: Key business opportunities for the product / client that may be outcomes of the design engagement (eg. Increased sales volume, lower overheads, new markets and applications etc) 2. Concepts Design Phase: This phase is concerned with developing and delivering a set of well resolved and clearly communicated design concepts (through presentation panels, scale models and reports). These concepts are used as a way of assisting the client to see the potentials of your design work and to draw out any particular knowledge or problems that relates to the product being designed that the client may not have raised earlier. 3. Detail Design Phase: From the Concepts phase a direction will be decided and more detailed design will take place to bring that concept up to a point where it is producible (this aspect is critical and it pays to ensure that whatever is presented in the concepts phase is capable of being manufactured within the clients capacity (either financially, within their region and network, and conceptually). Te detail design phase requires the designers to develop fully resolved manufacturing drawings, prototypes, testing and visualizations that will form the basis of production, financing, and marketing. Here everything needs to be done to a level where all decisions that have been made are based in reality and can be justified. 4. Final Reporting Phase: This is where the designers present their final report on the design and point the way forward for future iterations and developments. 5. Timeline / Schedule: It is important that the designers present a schedule of works that is realistic so that the client can see all the aspects of a project and develop an appreciation for what is often invisible form outside of the discipline. This has to use real dates and delivery points must be adhered to. Use the project structure and time frames outlined in this project guide to section your group Research and Project Scope Document. Week-by-Week Research Tasks to include as an appendix to your Research and Project Scope Document: Week 1. 9x9 Photo Matrix: as a group go out onto the street and document instances (photograph) that you think might inform the ways in which you might approach the design of the Freight Bike. Format these photographs into a 9x9 matrix and print it out as an A2 poster. (This resource will be shared amongst the whole studio group) Week 2. Precedents: as a group build a library of design precedents (other products or projects) that you think might inform the ways in which you might approach the design of the Freight Bike. Treat this as you would an annotated bibliography. (This resource will be shared amongst the whole studio group) Week 3. Scenarios and Stories: Develop a series of A4 comic slides that communicate who, how and why a load carrying bike might benefit (use Comic Life)
FREIGHT BIKE MAJOR PROJECT
PHASE TWO: DESIGN AND TECHNICAL RESOLUTION (GROUP PROJECT) DURATION: WEEK4 – 8 WEIGHTING: 25% OF OVERALL STUDIO PROJECTS GRADE DUE: Studio Presentation WEEK 8 You will split your Phase One group into smaller groups of two and in these pairs respond to the design specifications outlined in your phase one Envisioning, Research and Project Scope Document. This is the really active and fast paced design phase where you are to take a concept and its key constraints and convert that concept into a fully thought out and technically resolved product design ready for manufacture. You will need to do a lot of sketching, desk modelling and CAID (Solid works) It has Three Deliverables 1. Manufacturing Drawing Set A3: this is a full drawing transmittal and includes all part, assembly and exploded view drawings, a bill of materials, processes and finishes. This includes a 1:1 Orthogonal Design Layout. 2. Presentation Illustrations (annotated product renderings) 2 x A2 (Portrait) 3. One 1:4 scale model of the design Note: Some of these designs may be taken to a full working prototype in the Design Studio Prototypes class with Paul Angus if appropriate.
FREIGHT BIKE MAJOR PROJECT
PHASE THREE: RE-VISIONING AND REPORTING (INDIVIDUAL PROJECT) DURATION: WEEK 8 – 14 WEIGHTING: 25% OF OVERALL STUDIO PROJECTS GRADE Work in Progress Presentation WEEK 11 DUE: Studio Exhibition WEEK 14 In this Phase of the project you go it alone and build on what you have learned in the previous phases of the project to design and articulate a new concept for what a load-carrying bicycle should be if it were to be designed from scratch. You also consolidate all the work that you have done throughout the project into a full Design Project Report) This Phase of the Project has main two elements: RE-VISIONING This is a digital concept design project, where you can let loose and design truly radical design concepts (or deeply conservative if that is your want) of what you think the ideal freight bicycle (complete bicycle) should be. FORMAT: 2x A2 EXHIBITION POSTERS (Portrait and joined to make one large Banner (an Illustrator poster will be developed by students and distributed) One A2 Poster is to include High Quality renderings of several views of your Re-visioned Freight Bike Design One A2 Poster is to include a) technical details (Section views, cut-away views, materials and production information), and b) Concept information (Who the design is aimed at, what it is for etc) NOTE: You are encouraged to submit this design into the International Bicycle Design Competition (IBDC 2009) REPORTING The Design Project Report builds on the project scope document prepared earlier in the semester but includes a significant detail on the your conduct through the various phases of the project and specific detail on the final design outcomes. It is to be done individually. FORMAT: 1X Bound A3 Landscape (Hard Copy) 1x compiled PDF saved as: FBMP_Lastname_Firstame.PDF Use the following as a way of structuring the report: Cover Page: • Course Name • Project Title • Student name and number 1. Introduction / Project Brief – here you outline the revised project brief, the key issues and the design horizons project structure. To include project stakeholders as outlined in your initial approach to the project 2. Context – Here you outline the contextual requirements of the design that you are working on. This is to include issues of cost, manufacturing capabilities, environmental issues, social issues etc – this is used as a way of framing the appropriateness of your design responses. 3. Key Constraints – This section outlines the critical requirements of the project, and the performance measures of your design. 4. The Proposed Designs (one section for each phase of the project) – here you outline the design rationale, key advantages and implementation requirements (material, manufacturing, production volumes, training, distribution etc) developed for each design phase. You are to include images of the designs and the key innovations that you have developed. 5. Next Steps – here you speculate (based on what you have learned through the project) on what future opportunities might be available for these designs – other markets, different ways of approaching the design etc etc. 6. Reflections – here you reflect on what you have learnt through doing the project, how you have worked individually and with others and what this learning might mean for your development as a designer. You should also use this as a way of reflecting on the design process you undertook, and include documentation of your learning process (photos of prototyping, concept development etc). Appendices: EXHIBITION POSTERS (rescaled to A3) PHASE ONE: Envisioning, Research and Project Scope Document. PHASE TWO: Manufacturing Drawing Set PHASE TWO: Presentation Illustrations (rescaled to A3)