Xiaying Chen.
MUNI S “A speaker for the community.“
Qlean “Designed to improve your vacuum experience.“
CBTF Simulator “Testing a solution for stress relieve.“
“B
SICURO
Bring the past into the future“
As an Industrial design student, I always want to explore beyond my major. I am interested in UI/UX, VR and computer science. From my own experience, I feel the possibility for Industrial design does not only exist in products, but also in a lot of other fields.
MUNI S
The Sharable Bluetooth Speaker
Design Intent
90 dB+
While speakers are necessary equipments for square dance, the noise produced by speakers has disturbed the neighborhood.
This product aims to encourage people to participate in this social activity as well as to lower down the noise by distributing the sound evenly in a certain area.
Stats from https://news.sohu.com/
80,000,000+ People in China participate in square dance
Participant
Emotion Curve
Daily
Monthly
Leader
Not happy when people complain about the noise, while everybody is not hearing the same loudness of music.
Going out with an expectation of having a good evening with friends.
Getting excited for the activities.
Forget the complains and social with friends, but problems still exist.
Ideas The enjoy of Sharing
Square dance is not only a sport that keeps fit. The essence of square dance is the social between target users. The retired group and housewives have a big need to feel connected with the society based on their life. By making the speaker sharable, it encourages communication.
Uniform the sound
In the large open area where people gathered, dancers have to turn up the volume in order to let people at the back to hear the music. With several extension speakers, our users can enjoy music at a lower volume, and a better sound quality.
Inspirations Curve
90%
of the people who do square dancing are female.
Bottle-sized
85% of the target users address about the portability.
Color
Aging
can reduce our sensitivity towards color, brighter colors are actually preferred.
Sketches I started with the general form of the whole body, then went to explore the possibilities of separating forms and combining them.
Form Explorations
The form of sharing
When exploring the form, the focus is on how people are sharing this with others. The aim is to reach a balance between the feel of participants and the feel of the owners.
The Main Unit
Controls the music, loudness and the power.
Night Ring
Gives better visibility at night.
Sub Units
Play the same music as the main unit. They lower down the noise created by distributing the sound evenly throughout the space. There is a power button for energy saving.
User Journey
Help / Setting
Play
Pairing Explore Registration
Activities
Menu Friends Profile
Equipments
Features
No speaker? No worry You don’t have to have a speaker in order to use this app.
Create Didn’t find a place you like? You can create your own.
SAFETY Check the real time location of every part of the speaker. If it goes too far, the alert will automatically inform you.
Schedule Let them know you are coming and check out who are coming.
Explore Let you find a place near home to dance at the right time, the right place.
Make Friends Make new friends through the dance and keep connected.
Icon by Freepik on Flaticon
Wireframes The initial idea of making this app is to fulfill the need of the target users. When doing square dance, music quality is not the most important thing. This activity should be a leisure moment for them to communicate and form new friendships. Therefore, connecting the people in the community is a focus.
Screenshots
Finalization
New ideas keep coming up when I was exploring my idea. It is especially helpful to start doing form explo early. This allows changes and refinements to th form.
When designing a product, it is easy to design for th of yourself. I was grateful that I was informed of th was able to refine my design standing on the users thinking what they would think and worrying wha would worry.
Research is the earliest part I started and con until the project is over. Not only do researches down the ideas and understand the target users mo also, they can provide a strong argument for the when presenting the project to others.
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Qlean
Vacuuming Vacuuming is a regular house cleaning routine. However, cleaning the vacuum machine is a big hassle. Dust would fly around and hairs would stuck in the vacuum. The floating dust and mingled hairs not only make vacuum unpleasant, but also they bring threats to the human body with germs.
Photo by https://www.dyson.com/
Throughout the entire experience, this portion catches the most attention of users, and this is the design opportunity. Having to clean the residue adds an extra step to the vacuuming process add makes it a hassle without efficient tools or means.
Emotion Curve
Why Dyson
Dyson V6
Producing 80,000 machines per day, Dyson is one of the most popular vacuum machine companies in the world. With thousands of users from all over the world, Dyson’s vacuum machines are in many of our homes. Although widely known for its convenience, cleaning this vacuum machine still remains a problem because the dust will remain in the narrow gap of the dust bin.
When the lid is open, dust will fall out. Often times, the dust will fly around and make the user feel uncomfortable.
According to a survey I conducted, most users have to manually clean the rest of the dust that doesn’t come out automatically. Moreover, many of them don’t know how to deal with it.
Since the engine is connected with the dust bin,many dust will stick in the narrow space between the engine and the dust bin. It is possible to clean them by completely remove the dust bin. But most of the users do not know how to do the operation.
Dyson V7 By allowing the engine to lift up, v7 improved the situation of dust remaining inside the bin. But the problem of dust flying around is not resolved. When dust falls off, it makes the machine dirty as well as causes problems to the user.
*How do you clean the Dyson vacuum machine?
*How do you deal with the remaining dust and hairs?
Photos from Dyson.2018 https://www.dyson.com/
Observation Placement can be a problem for those who cannot mount the port on the wall. Dust will stick on the lid.
1.Take the machine.
2.Vaccum the home.
3.Open the trash can lid.
3.Open the dust bin.
4.Dump out the dust.
5.Clean the remaining dust.
7.Close the dust bin lid.
8.Close the trash can lid.
9.Charge the machine.
Button is hard to press and dust will fall out. The cordless vacuum machine makes vacuum easy, but the end of the user journey is not comforatble.
Competitors Most products in the market are relatively affordable. With access from both online and in-store, these tools can be purchased easily. However, most products still need manual labor to operate. They are built for general household cleaning and are not designed for specifically cleaning the vacuum machine.
Competitors
Target Users Based on Myer-Briggs Type Indicators
INTJ & INTP
“embrace rationality, excelling in intellectual and technological pursuits.”
Middle-class homeowners that embrace new intellectual and technological achievements. Logical thinkers that are enthusiastic to improve their life quality espescially in their home. People who pay attention to details and have a regular routine cleaning their houses.
PETER
“If you uses it to vacuum the whole house, you’ll need to clean it several times, or the dust will stick in there.” “Usually I use the vacuum machine to clean small corners.” “I use a plastic bag to cover the bottom and then shake the cleaner.” The target user has a passion for improving life quality, including buying housewares from all over the world. He enjoys showing people his collection and talk about how they works.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Persona
PARENTS
CO-WORKER BOSS
“During holidays, he will travel with us.” “He is an organized person and always gets things done in time.”
“He is a good worker.”
FRIENDS
DAUGHTER
“Dad will play with me everyday.” “We often discuss hot topics together.” Age: 45 Income: $430,000/yr Hobbies: Hiking, Traveling Likes to go to coffee shop for working. Keeps an eye on new products in the markets.
“I enjoy cleaning my house.”
Ideation 1. Rough Explorations
2. Detailed iterations
3. Inner mechanisms
Sketches
User Scenario
Material + Finish HYTREL Thermoplastic Elastomer
POLYSTYRENE
TRITAN
ANODIZED
NCELL Lignocellulose Polypropylene Composite
ARCBIO Reinforced plastic
FLOCK Ceramic
GLOSSY
TEXTURED
MATTE
BRUSHED
with degradable glass fiber
It contains at least 50% renewably sourced polyether glycol derived from non-food biomass. It is suitable for injection molding. It has a variety of finishing and has high durability for longer service life.
Photo by https://www.materialconnexion.com/
This finish will give the product a clean and modern feel. It is also easier for users to clean the surface.
Principle
Fan activated when detected weight on top.
When pressed the button, the inner cleaning stick will stretch out and clean the inside of the dust bin.
Components Hytrel base
Hytrel support
Hytrel Dust bin
Silicone tip Microfiber cloth
Aluminum fan
Aluminum slider Silicone gasket
Aluminum slider support
PANTONE BLACK C TRANSPARENT TRITAN GLOSSY
WHITE HYTREL ANODIZED ALUMINUM GLOSSY
PANTONE BLACK C WHITE HYTREL GLOSSY
PANTONE 2685C HYTREL GLOSSY
Further Development I would work on improving the inner mechanism to limit the dust that may accumulated through multiple uses. I would like to find a way that can both maintain the aesthetic of the product and allow for easier cleaning. I would also consider to add a charging function to this product because the way Dyson vacuum machine is built requires frequent charging. And sometimes people do not want to damage the wall to install the charging unit.
CBTF Simulator With William Reinhard & Angelos Guan
A virtual reality program that aims to relieve students’ anxiety towards taking digital exams in a special facility.
Background
CBTF (Computer-Based Training Facility) Number of Tests. Created to provide automate testing service for University of Illinois, this facility made taking exams an efficient work for a huge student group.It allows students to sign up based on their own schedules and take the exams through an online system. CBTF is often seen as one of the most stressful places to be on campus because important exams are take at a place that you are not so familiar with. While new students are often anxious about being in this facility,
Data from: https://www.naefoee.org/File.aspx?id=20233
What to do
?
What to bring
?
How to prepare
?
A VR simulator can be used to help students acclimate to what taking an exam in the CBTF is like, and what they might expect by giving them chances to practice and environment get familiar with. Along those lines, it could be representative of a stress management tool that helps moderate the stress going into an exam. Where we’re looking to mitigate stress during the actual exams, we ultimately seek to provide a platform for a more immersive practicing experience.
User Journey & Process Design During Exam • • • •
Before Exam • Wait in lines. • Prepare the documents needed for check-in. • Users will choose to leave certain personal belongings on the rack. • User will be assigned a seat. • Instructions to log in and wait.
Operations to answer the question Overview of the exam questions Stress bar to track the level of stress. Ambient sounds that can be distractions
Mines & Surprises • If not given away the phone, it will ring during the exam and you are considered cheating. • Zombie as proctors to give that gaming distance from reality. • Reward system.
After Exam • Throw away scratch papers and return pencils. • Pick up personal belongings.
Field Research After negotiation with the director of CBTF, I was managed to take detail photos of the environment and get the dimension of the room. These images will be used to model the environment as well as to help us imagine different situations which students may encounter with.
Building Environment
Since other 2 team members are engineering students, I was responsible for building the environment. I build a 1-to-1 environment based on the field research sources. Since the model was too big which slows down the frame rate, I simplified and combined meshes to improve the performance.
Audio
I mixed the ambient sounds including the sound of typing, walking, coughing and the sound of air conditioner.
Animation
I did the coding and the animation for the proctors using Unity. The program includes the back-and-forth movement and the trigger to walk towards the user.
Programming
My team members completed the codes for the exam and I did the coding for switching the scenes.
Integrated Experience
SICURO
“Bring the past into the future“ A Future Travel Pod Designed for people over 50 yrs old With A “retro” theme
* Research Image done by Cheyanne Lam
Concept Generation
Inspiration comes partly from the British mini car. I exaggerated the side part and added more curvature to give it a futuristic look. .
Scenario
Model
*Done by Fu Qi and Lani Kong
Other projects
Daux
Re-designing a chopper.
Cryshive A mobile desk organizer module
Qlean
A Trash bin for vacuum cleaner.
Thank you for your time.