1
CONTENTS
6 8 10 12
The Outcome
14 16 18 20 24 26 32 36 38 40 42 44 46
The Journey
Product Infrastructure Validators
Recap Physical interaction research Dial prototype Researching detail Fabric research Foam modelling V2 Interim ‘Faking’ a demo Design Freeze Storyboarding Technical drawing + CAD Material sourcing
48 50 54 56 58 62 64 66 68 70 74 82 88
CNC milling Dial turning Finishing Metal Bashing Construction Laser cutting Speaker face Acetate display LED lighting Photo Shoot Filming Final validation Board creation
90
Post Hand-in
Reflection Investigating IP Acknowledgements
3
4
Key Description of activity Thoughts & reflection
5
THE OUTCOME Product Infrastructure Validators
6
7
The Outcome Product
Even though my project’s focus was never about creating a product ready for manufacture, creating a prototype that could illustrate the function of my idea was still an important task. In keeping with the idea that the radio’s unique character and listening experience should be preserved, I designed a product that combines the traditional form of a radio with the connectivity of modern day products.
8
9
The Outcome Infrastructure
For the concept to be able to function, there needs to be some sort of behind-the-scenes support. For this, I created a simple infrastructure that describes how such a service could work. Content is pushed through the internet from the radio station, ready to be accessed live when a device is put on the radio. The radio itself does not transfer any content to the phone, it only syncs the timings between the broadcast and the internet feed. The bluetooth connection also acts as proximity detection to tell the phone when to activate.
10
11
The Outcome Validators
Joseph Begley - Lincs FM Presenter “One of the problems radio faces is that people’s time and entertainment comes from so many more sources than it used to and there’s so many more options. Using your phone to give you a greater, more rounded product is a strong step forward.”
12
Jamie Steane - Associate Head of the School of Design at Northumbria “Where to add physical delight and difference in an increasingly virtual product landscape is an important question for designers. This project enters the debate by creating an enhanced product experience that sits at the centre of the digital/physical continuum.�
13
THE JOURNEY
14
Recap Physical interaction research Dial prototype Researching detail Fabric research Foam modelling V2 Interim ‘Faking’ a demo Design Freeze Storyboarding Technical drawing + CAD Material sourcing CNC milling Dial turning Finishing
Metal Bashing Construction Laser cutting Speaker face Acetate display LED lighting Photo Shoot Filming Final validation Board creation
15
The Journey Recap
Around the half way point of the project, I rewrote an updated brief and specification that I felt best represented where I wanted the project to go. These were based upon the values that became apparent through the first half of the project and having finished the Critical Justification 1 booklet. The CJ1 booklet left off after completing basic video prototypes and foam models. The brief and new specification from the CJ1 booklet were helpful in keeping my project on track and focussed on the right goal. The CJ1 document can be found on issuu through the following link: www.tinyurl.com/ForbesCJ1
16
The Brief
The Specification Must not intrude on the user
Design a radio that empowers the user to be able to quickly and conveniently access live content that might otherwise be inaccessible or a hassle to find.
Core listening experience and values must be maintained Radio set should be able to communicate with smart devices in order to deliver the new content Content must not create undue workload for the radio station
17
The Journey
Physical interaction research
To better understand what makes a quality product, I visited various department stores to look at their range of speakers and radios. In particular, I was interested in the volume and selection dials. My hypothesis was that you can tell the overall quality of a radio by the feel of the dials. It turned out to be correct, as the cheaper radios had wobbly, plastic feeling dials and the most expensive radios had solid metal, steady dials which provided satisfying resistance when turned.
18
19
The Journey Dial Prototype
In response to the field research, I decided to turn my own dials out of aluminium. First off I turned a practise dial. Practising before turning the real thing was a good idea, as the parting off tool got caught on what was probably hot sticky metal, which nearly ripped the bar out of the chuck. Lesson learnt.
20
21
The Journey Dial Prototype
I managed to turn a couple of prototype dials by cutting more slowly and using proper lubricant. I used these dials to visualise the placement and scale of the dial on the radio. Having a physical object to play with made it much easier to progress. I decided that two dials on the lower front face of the radio looked the most natural.
22
23
The Journey Detail Research
Whilst looking at the quality of the dials on offer, I also had a look at some of the finer details of the products. Taking a closer look allowed me to gain insight into how the product has been manufactured and how I might be able to incorporate a similar technique into my design.
24
25
The Journey Fabric Research
Having decided that I would like my radio to have a fabric speaker face instead of a metallic grill or plastic, I visited a range of haberdashers to find the right texture and colour of fabric. Visiting haberdasheries was great as I was able to pick and choose from a huge range of different fabrics. In the end I picked out four fabrics that I liked, leading to my design changing slightly to allow interchangeable speaker faces.
26
27
The Journey Fabric Selections
Scottish Tweed Fairly thick material with a rough texture. Somewhat neutral colour and design, but still interesting to look at closely.
28
Elephant print cotton I picked up this fabric because the design is calm and friendly, but still stands out. The fabric is quite thin, so will need a bit of padding to make it feel less ‘sharp’ in the corners when stretched over the wooden faceplate skeleton.
Blue denim Since denim is a very uniform material, I though it would be good as a plain choice of speaker face. The dark blue complements the Ash wood body of the radio and contrasts with the glossy white of the metal plates.
Electric swirl pattern The design of this fabric really stood out on the shelf in the haberdashery, which made me think “could I use this material to draw people’s attention to my project when exhibiting?”.
29
The Journey Fabric Selections
Grey mesh This material is very thin need two layers to stop colour or shadows from showing through from underneath. Very plain but has some variation in the weave.
30
Grey stretch cotton Very plain, quite dull and has little interest to the eye.
31
The Journey Foam Modelling V2
Using the farbics I liked least as test fabric, I created some concepts for how the speaker face might look and fit together. Creating a foam model like this allowed me to very quickly mock up different types of speaker face. I used inspiration from the detail research I gained in the department stores. The mock ups let me see what different split lines and drop shadows might look like.
32
33
The Journey Foam Modelling V2
Once I had found a speaker face design that I liked, I mocked it up in the Scottish tweed. The design I settled on leaves the fabric protruding ever so slightly but fits snugly up to the frame. This design is pleasing to look at and is also relatively easy to produce. Mocking up in the good material gave me a better vision of what the final product could look like. Having decided on a look for the face plate, I could then start designing a final design to work on. Since I had decided that the screen would be a mobile device, I made the ‘aspect ratio’ of the speaker face 16:9 to complement the widescreen feature of most new smart-devices.
34
35
The Journey Interim
At the mid-way point of the project, an interim was held by the tutors at the Northern Design Centre. This was a chance for us to show the tutors and our peers the work we had done in order to receive feedback. I found the interim to be useful in gaining a new perspective. Since my peers and two of the tutors had not heard my whole concept at that point yet. I took my own notes as well as one of my peers recording my feedback. This helped highlight any areas that I might have dismissed.
36
37
The Journey Faking a demo
After the interim I realised that to make a fully convincing argument, a working demonstration would be valuable. I investigated ways of ‘faking’ a working model for presentation. This proved to be a difficult task as I have little knowledge about electronics and programming. In the end I created a short video to play on a mobile device that would mimic what would happen on the screen. Done again, I would investigate further into app development as a demo could be produced convincingly through an app.
38
39
DESIGN FREEZE
40
Stop designing, start making.
41
The Journey Storyboarding
Storyboarding was an important process of this project. It allowed me to get my thoughts down on paper and became particularly useful when I came to film the morning routine video at my parent’s house. I drew a basic floor plan of our kitchen, and cut out small coloured ‘people’ and a camera so I could move them around in time with explaining the storyboard. The storyboards I produced aided my, and other people’s comprehension of the idea. I feel that something I could improve on is the clarity of the boards, they make sense in my mind and I can explain them, but to anyone else they would be difficult to read.
42
43
The Journey
Technical Drawing + CAD
With a final design in mind, I took to Solidworks to visualise the product. Creating a CAD model meant that I could take a look at the internal structure to see where any weaknesses may lie. I could also export each component to the CNC milling machine very easily from the drawings produced.
44
45
The Journey Material sourcing
I initially thought that a veneer on MDF would be the best option for the body, but after consulting my tutor and the workshop technician, I decided that solid Ash would work better. For the metal plates, I used 1mm aluminium for its workability. Using Ash turned out to be a good choice, as the CNC router cut it very cleanly and precisely. The aluminium was difficult to work, but less difficult than any other metal. The aluminium parts would be easy to mass manufacture, but making a one off by hand was hard. These materials were available from the university, so that saved me both time and money.
46
47
The Journey CNC Milling
To create the body of the radio, I took the drawings from my solidworks files to the CNC router. I needed the accuracy and precision of the CNC to ensure that the product looked as professional and manufactured as possible. The components were cut without error. The only downside about the CNC process is it takes a long time for a one off. Had I produced a batch, the time per product would go down as a lot of the time was spent initially setting up.
48
CNC Timelapse
49
The Journey Button Turning
Having learned my lesson previously about not lubricating aluminium on a lathe, I set about turning the final dials. I wanted to create two different styles of dial, one with a radial pattern and one with straight lines and a groove (to represent the universal on/off symbol). To produce the dial with straight lines, I created a basic jig to hold the dial whilst a 1mm cutter cut the groove on the milling machine. I then sanded the lines on using 1000 grit sandpaper. Sanding the lines to be parallel with the groove was difficult, but helped greatly by the jig.
50
51
The Journey Button Turning
52
53
The Journey Finishing
I used Danish oil to finish the Ash, gloss white for the metal parts and clear laquer on the dials. The Danish oil applied very nicely, and I had no problems there. The gloss white on the metal worked well but was quite prone to chipping. Since I made and lacquered the dials early on, I needed to pay extra attention when handling them as they also easily chipped. If I were to produced this model again, the spray painting would be the very last process.
54
55
The Journey Metal Bashing
To bend the metal plates to follow the shape of the radio, I cut a piece of wood to the same profile as the section of radio that the metal would cover. I then beat the metal with a hammer until it followed the profile. This process was quite difficult as I had little experience with metal. The aluminium bent easily enough but the radius of the corners was more than I was expecting. To remedy this, instead of using the jig with the exact profile, I simply clamped the metal between two sheets of ply and bent it over just the sharp corner of the wood, with a hammer. To reduce the strike marks, I used a scrap piece of wood between the hammer and metal to spread out the impact.
56
57
The Journey Construction
PVA glue was ideal for sticking the radio together as it dried fast and held strong. Since the parts were CNC cut, they went together with little adjustment needed. There were some components which the CNC could not cut entirely (pieces with features on both sides for example). This was not a problem for a one off model since I had plenty of time, but may need to be amended for large scale manufacture.
58
59
60
61
The Journey Laser Cutting
Three components needed to be laser cut, the screen ‘glass’, inner speaker face and out face frame. The inner face is there to hide the inner working when the outer faceplate is being changed. Both components needed to be highly accurate as they were fitting into a pre-existing space. The radial hole pattern was much faster to produce using laser and more accurate. The laser’s accuracy was key. I cut out three different sizes each differing by 0.1mm to find the perfect fit. The only downside of the laser is that when cutting wood it can leave scorch marks that need to be cleaned up.
62
63
The Journey Speaker Face
Initially I cut out the speaker face frame by hand, but I soon moved onto using the laser as I could not repeat accurately by hand. When attaching the fabric to the frame, I started by using staples which looked messy and unfinished. The second version of the faceplate was made from two parts, trapping the fabric in a much more pleasing way without the use of staples. Had I known in the first place that the faceplates were going to be replaceable, I might have designed them differently. Having said this, I am pleased with the way they look now.
64
65
The Journey Acetate Display
To create a convincing display, I used acetate sheet and printed off one blue layer and another layer with just text. Layering the acetate inbetween clear and frosted acryllic like this creates a more authentic looking LCD display. In a perfect world, I would have been able to make a fully working demonstration model with functional LCD display, but given the time limits it was not possible. I decided to focus my efforts more on making a model that I could use in videos to better explain the concept. I needed to decide what the display was going to say, as once I had glued the metal plate on the front of the model, I would no longer be able to change the acetate.
66
67
The Journey LED Lighting
The acetate on its own was not sufficient to create a convincing display, so I took apart a small LED strip torch and soldered on a switch. The LED feature worked well, but was very bright inside the model. This made taking photos of the model with the LEDs turned on quite difficult due to the contrast. To get around this, I took two sets of photos, one with the exposure set high, and one low. I then used photoshop to combine the two images.
68
69
The Journey Photo shoot
After the model was completely finished, I created a small photo studio to take final photos and video footage. This worked well and I even made a turntable in the workshop. The backdrop worked very well and I achieved some great photos. The turntable was not so successful as it was slightly wobbly and stood out in the photo, but it was worth trying.
70
71
72
73
The Journey
Filming - Morning Routine
To film this video, I went home to my family in Lancaster. The idea behind the video was to show the product and concept in a real situation. As this was the first video I made, it involved a steep learning curve with Adobe Premiere Pro. I feel that the concept is conveyed well, but the graphics could be better. I will revisit this video to bring it up to speed with the others. Watch on Youtube (1 minute)
74
75
The Journey Filming - Shorts
These two short edits were created to re-enforce the concept in different situations. They were filmed with a plain background so that the watcher’s focus is about the concept, the scene has been set in the morning routine video.
Boxing edit (28 seconds)
The editing process for these videos was fairly basic and didn’t require much extra learning of software. I feel that I could have varied the content more as the two concepts displayed are quite similar.
76
Plant theft edit (22 seconds)
77
The Journey Filming - Demo
The video demo was produced in case the concept needed further clarification. The video mimics what would appear on the screen of a device connected to a working radio. The video plays on the phone, and the audio plays through a bluetooth speaker inside the prototype. The video only displays content that I have previsoulsy produced. The video would be a useful tool for physical clarification, but would need my personal supervision to ensure the timings are correct and that the bluetooth speaker is set up correctly.
78
Watch on Youtube (intended for use alongside the model radio) (1 minute)
79
The Journey Filming - Advert
This video was by far the most demanding in terms of editing. I needed to learn Adobe After Effects from scratch to achieve the effects that I had in my head. The video here is a fast paced ‘advert’ style video which shows off the concept without dragging on or being boring. I am pleased with the way this video turned out. Having asked multiple people who had no prior knowledge of what my project was about, most of them were able to tell me what the core concept was after watching. It may lack a little detail in how the concept works, but it is very effective in gaining the watcher’s interest.
80
Future Radio - Advert 0:55
81
The Journey
Final Validation - Jamie Steane
Two days before the hand in, I met up with Jamie to bring him up to date on my project. By this point, my work was mostly complete, but it was useful to hear his thoughts on the project having seen it at the very early stages. With the advice Jamie gave me, I was able to fine tune some of the sentences on my presentation board. He also mentioned some useful techniques that I could use to make a presentation more engaging, should I need to.
82
Jamie Steane - Associate Head of the School of Design at Northumbria 83
The Journey
Final Validation - Joseph Begley
Joseph has been a huge help throughout the project. I emailed him around a week before hand-in, to which he replied quickly with some great advice and praise. With Jospeh’s final advice, I was able to fine tune the videos to best show off the concept.
84
Joseph Begley - Lincs FM Presenter 85
The Journey
Final Validation - Lisa Hardisty
Unfortunately, I was unable to meet with Lisa to show her my work as she was busy marking students of her own. Her advice has been excellent throughout. I plan to meet with Lisa in the future, to bring her up to date with the final result. If she can suggest any improvements, I would be more than happy to include them for the New Designers exhibit.
86
Lisa Hardisty - Senior Lecturer of Broadcast Journalism at Northumbria 87
The Journey Board Creation
With the model finished and final advice from validators in, It was board creation time. To best get a feel for how the board would look, I printed off multiple versions at full size (A0 and 1400mm x 841mm). Printing full size using A3 sheets stuck together helped me see the whole picture. I could scribble and draw on these sheets to find ideal placements for objects, pictures and text. Pinning them up in the studio allowed my peers to comment also, from which I gained some good insights.
88
89
POST HAND-IN Reflection Investigating IP Acknowledgements
90
91
Post Hand-In
I believe that the work that I have produced is to the best of my ability. Given more time and resources, there are areas that I could improve on such as getting the electronics programmed and working. However, I feel that I have communicated the concept well enough through the media that I have used. I am pleased with how the product looks and especially pleased that my videos convey the idea to people who previously knew nothing. From this point, I will start investigating IP and approach various radio companies like the BBC, now that I have a polished presentation to show.
92
93
Post Hand-In Acknowledgements
Jamie Steane - Provided invaluable help and insight into the service side of the project. His suggestions were excellent at planting the seeds of ideas in my head. Joseph Begley - Being part of the radio industry, Joseph gave me advice about the real life potential of my ideas which helped form a more grounded and realistic project. Lisa Hardisty - Lisa’s knowledge and expertise in the broadcast industry were great in helping the early ideation develop into sound concepts. The Forbes family - For their excellent performance in ‘Morning Routine’.
94
95