ANNOYED BY CHECKING IN/OUT YOUR LUGGAGE IN AIRPORT?
ELITE PLUS System design New product catergory innovation Service and system design User Experience and product design
As 21st century product designers, designing a product does not necessarily regard on the product itself; but the entire industry as well. This final year project is a practice on how to create a product that can provide new market opportunities. It is aimed to design a system and a service for users.
Project Duration // 14 weeks
2010 May
Individual Project, Final Year Project
Only final year project out of all BA (Hons) in Design 2010, chosen to be presented to Professer Tong, President of Poly U and Lorraine Justice, Director of School of Design. Exhibited in Poly U School of Design Annual Show 2010 in Innocenter, Kowloon Tong, HK. Nominated to the Koelner Design Prize International 2010, representing HKPU as one of the two students.
Reserach stage In the research stage, I had studied the topic on the tendency of transiting possessions when travelling. I have found out the miss linkage between home, airport and hotel in current business travelling. The final year project will then focus on possessions mobility base on these findings.
Initial presentation On week 3, I had to summerise the design directions and present it to my tutor in order to choose one direction out of the three to continue the project. The is base on the rareless, level of difficulties, interesting and personal favours.
The three design directions are: System design for luggage forwarding Furniture design for travelling Luggage design for decoratioins
I chose to develop the system design as this is a new tendency for product designers to concern when designing a product. Compare to traditional product base project, this directions has to think of the whole industry and create a new product catergory which is very challenging but worthy to try.
Design briefs for the three directions The design briefs include introduction, rationale, story, aims, objectives, positioning, descriptions, target clients/ audiences, methodologies, limitations and expected output.
Concept development After choosing the system design to work on, I did deeper researches on existing market situation and design the whole system on shorten the time and reduce the hassle in between a travel experience for frequent flyer/business travellers.
Scenario composing and storyboarding On week 3, I had to summerise the design directions and present it to my tutor in order to choose one direction out of the three to continue the project. The is base on the rareless, level of difficulties, interesting and personal favours.
Background Research Series of different research for supporting the concept that I propose: 1. Ariline research—cathay pacific and virgin atlantic 2. Cargo forwarding research—cathay pacific 3. Situation research—Up In The Air (2007) 4. Social struture research—the elite culture and HK Government 5. Market size research—frequent flyer authority 6. User behaviour research—frequent flyer blogs 7. Luggage market research 8. Luggage history research 9. Logistic company research—FedEx Express
Interim presentation and idea refining By week 7, I was able to draft out the whole story for the system design. I had to present it to my tutor again in order to gain a feedback on the design and refine it. I had did the presentation slides in illustration format which actually was a preparation for an animation in the final outcome. The system design has to be presented also in video format besides words and 2D visuals in boards for better explainations. Final slides are confirmed through 5 times of ideas refine and a script describing the system which can use for the voice over later for the video. The flow of the video includes: Backgorund, problem define, solution, description, scenario, benefits, internal structures and physical product support.
Design requirements confirmation I have analysed on the user, future trend, market, packaging, furniture, technology, production and material research so as to set the design requirements for desiging the suitcase. Styling—matrix board and mood boards For the product semantic guidlines, I did a transition mood board (for user behaviour), a personality board and a dynamic mood board (for product behaviour). The feeling have to be applied to the suitcase design and the logo later on.
Ideas development—the suitcase I started to design the suitcase by sketching and estimating the proportion on paper.
Idea and specifications finalisation Sketching on the appearance of the suitcase and the opening method. The final design has to give a high class, prestige and elite feeling. Materials decisions Due to lack of production time, I used corrugated boards for model making but I suggested to se honeycomb board for the actual product.
Mock up testing—dimensions exploration Mock ups include: 1:10 scale MDF model for dimensions calculating, 1:5 scale paper model dimensions proving, 1:1 scale HD foam model for proportions testing, and 1:1 scale corrugated board model on specific parts for detail calculations. Dimensions confirmation After the dimensions confirmations for the boxes inside, I can also finalised all the three suitacse specifications.
Indications and final details The last considerations is the indications. As the suitcase will have the opportunity to show to the public during transiting, the outlook has to give a luxary and trusted feeling yet not overwhelmed by unnecessary decorations.
Model making Since it is hard to find a prototype model maker for a corrguated board model, I have deided to make the model by myself by ordering large pieces of corrugated boards in China.
Elite plus—A brand new way of travelling We live in a crazy world, hypermobility, advanced technology, connectivity... But air travel has been slow to adapt to these opportunities even though air travel is set to grow in the coming decades. Something has been lost, air travel is hard. In the early days, traveling by plane was reserved for the elite - the rich and the famous. Flying was fun and glomourous. Air travel exploded in the late 20th century and has become mundane. Everyone travels, airport are overcrowded, the environment is stressful, the experience is poor... Considering the frustration of airport restrictions and the hassle of that two-wheeled thing behind you, would it not be nice to deputize the packing and transportation of your belongings to your destination?
Focusing on the ‘’repeat customization’’ of the frequent flyers in business travel. Introducing a new business and new service opportunity. For a few extra dollars the new service would not only save time and reduce frustration but it could make air travel enjoyable again.
Elite Plus - the perfect partner for frequent yers. A seamless hassle free service for the modern business traveler. A service that provides a personal butler who keeps and manages your travel possessions. Clients just bring along their briefcase throughout the whole trip. No need to worry about your clothes, your suitcase, your laundry, Elite Plus will take care of it.
The New Suitcase For better transitting client’s possessions, a set of new suitcase is needed.
W HOTEL CHECK IN KIOSK Interaction design New services innovation System design Interface design
A new service innocation project on interaction design practise. Our group chose to design a check in kiosk to replace human labour force. We pick w hotel as the client. A registration case in the form of a suitcase was designed. It is also a information kiosk during night time.
Project Duration // 3 weeks
2009 March
Group Project (3 in a group)