Design 21: Social Design Network

A. While in India a few weeks ago, I was appalled at the lack of awareness people had of their personal environmental impact. When I asked my friends if they recycled, they laughed. I got the sense that people did not see waste disposal and energy consumption as a problem. For such a developed country that is technologically advanced, and has a huge industry that supplies many parts of the world with various goods, it is surprising that people are not aware of how their actions and consumption habits affect the environment. Living in New York, and constantly being bombarded with issues about how we are destroying the planet and how each individual needs to be conscious of their impact on the environment, I have become deeply involved in and personally affected by these issues. I am consumed by these thoughts daily. Knowing that a country with the second largest population in the world is not thinking about how they have an impact on the planet frightens me! I would like to concentrate on this issue for my thesis.

B. I am shocked that this is even a problem… That individuals in a country that is highly developed and has such a large population, are not aware of their personal environmental impact. I feel that there are a number of possible reasons for this; there is inadequate policy and legislative instruments, there is no funding, the waste disposal system is still under-developed (possibly due to the first problem mentioned), individuals are not educated and are ignorant...

I found the “Nutri-Terra Indoor Composter” by Julia Sorzano in the 2004 ID Student Design Review. The intersection that jumped out at me was that the machine powers itself through the heat that the decomposition process generates. The system is completely self-contained, so that the user can dump compostable materials in the top, and access soil from a separate drawer down at the bottom without any compost smell wafting through the house. Personally, if I were to make any improvements to the design, they would only be small aesthetic changes (I don’t think the futuristic look really suits the function). Overall, I think that the function suits the need and addresses the bigger problem of waste management and energy reduction.

Apple computers and the iMac specifically were always designed to be a simplistic user experience and to function as a technology "hub." The problem of too many components in someone's life has for a long time seemed to be a design problem. Streamlining, keeping things organized, and allowing these components to communicate with each other are all concerns and the iMac seeks to address this.

Apple takes its own approach to environmentalism by reducing materials as much as possible in each product revision. Reducing used material is perhaps the first step towards reducing consumption. The iMac is always a flagship of minimal consumption.

I am interested in addressing the connectivity of humans through the use of modern technology. The internet has clearly revolutionized the free exchange of ideas and information (in some countries) and the availability of the required technology is increasing and improving. However, the actual networking involved tends to simply rely on the internet as the sole median between people and as we all know this can clutter the exchange. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC http://laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml) has made strides to narrow this gap by creating an affordable basic laptop for children in developing countries or underprivileged areas throughout the world. The OLPC addresses the connectivity of these basic laptops by connecting to networks wirelessly or by creating an ad hoc (802.11s) network between individual computers. Although this aims to create a greater area of connectivity for these computers it is lacking a centralized server. If the computers are out of range of an active internet connection then all they are left with is the ability to communicate from laptop to laptop. Even if you were able to relay the internet from one pc to the next, the amount of collision points involved would essentially make the connection worthless. Typically a network server is the most expensive part of the network infrastructure. If you want to heighten the OLPC from a learning tool to a networking tool than the issue of One Server Per City is a viable project to undergo...

Water. One of, if not the most important resource needed for all forms of life. More than one billion people don’t have sufficient water to drink, shower, cook and farm. Women are mostly effected as they have to haul water from the source, which deprives them from education. The fact they cant use their land to grow food to eat and sell increases their state of poverty.

In high school, I flew to Laos with a group of 14 friends and worked in an orphanage for a few weeks teaching and interacting with the young children on a daily basis. When we got back to Hong Kong, we spent the whole school year raising money for this specific orphanage. We also could decide what we wanted to do with the respectable amount of money we have raised. We decided to buy them a water pump that meant the children could stay in school rather than travel for a whole day to bring water back (they left early in the morning in groups of two, at age 8, this was quite dangerous). I would like to think we have improved their lives somewhat.

This connects to the idea I was talking about previously- low birthrate in some parts of the world..

I have learned that everything is connected. All the problems in the world are connected and depend on eachother. catch 22 style.

I was reading massive change (great book, but can check out the website: http://www.massivechange.com) And really got into the chapter about water.

A topic that I read about here and has been attracting my attention for quite a lon...

The other issue I’m interested for my senior thesis is illegal logging in forest. There are many kinds of woods are decreasing due to people’s over illegal logging. Part of the reason people keep logging illegally is because of people’s needs for wooden products. This illegal behavior does damage the eco-system very badly. According to Rain Forest Relief, “there are 60% or more of each tree just dumped on the yard after felled, and because of that over 20 million species are decreasing” Many of those woods, which are dumped on the yards or into the rivers, are not because they are useless. The reason is just because there is no certain authority to stop them, and they have been logged illegally. If manufacture can handle wooden products more efficiently which satisfied customers’ needs, those illegal factories will have no place to sell those illegal woods. Another solution is to popularize artificial woods instead of real hard wood by using artificial woods to come out new attractive products.

Non-Profit Organization: Rain Forest Relief www.rainforestrelief.org

1st Idea: In elementary school, there was an autistic boy in my class for a few years. He was very intelligent, although it was difficult for our class (myself included) to understand him and the way that he conducted himself. I have been interested in getting a better understanding of autism ever since that experience. Over the summer, I found a few articles on autism because I knew it was a potential topic I would be interested in exploring this year. One particular article, “The Truth about Autism,” in Wired Magazine, really sparked my attention. It discussed autism from a relatively unbiased perspective, pointing out the general strengths, capabilities, and weaknesses of the autistic community. The point I found most interesting in the article is that many autistic people have a strong understanding of 3-dimensional form. I felt this would be a great opportunity to develop a product for young children that could push them to exercise this part of their brain. I think this is a viable avenue to explore because it could potentially aid in creating a good life for several autistic people. A few articles have cited that it is very difficult for autistic people to work in regular jobs. I think that autistic people could enter into a broader workforce if they were taught as children exercise their brains’ 3-dimensional capabilities. I found a toy, Robert the Robot Shape Sorter, which is meant to help autistic children develop hand-eye co-ordination, motor skills, and shape/col...

Identify 2 possible issue /problem areas for your thesis project that you have passion for

Since earthquake is damage to human life, so it effect many victims. I would like to use my design knowledge to help them improving their life.

What’s the context /understanding you have about the issue/problem?

I would like to design the product that is the connection with earthquake issue. When new York resident use and look the product, they will notice earthquake issue.

Identify initial ideas or existing products for addressing this problem by product design.

In reality wealthy and educated people are more powerful and capable, so they can help victims. I would design the product which’s design brief is identify earthquake victim issue. This concept can bring up people’s sympathy in order to sell the product increasing profit to no profit organization.

What’s the premise/reasoning that makes your solution ideas a viable response to the problem?

Because most of earthquake victims are in low-income, they don’t have enough money to provide their basic demand.

Identify who is most affected by your issues. How they will benefit from your thesis idea?

Earthquake victims will get the money from no profit organization, as a result they can improve their life.

Who do you want to interview or collaborate with from those who are affected by the issue your project addresses(NFP, community members, individuals)?

Red cross organization

What’s your next step? A...

When dongs broken legs, Animal wheelchair provides convenient function for dongs. The existing animal wheelchair has some design problems need to be solve . the chair has only two wheel which doesn’t reduce enough pressure for a dog to control the wheelchair. Not only does the wheelchair have difficult function for dog to control, but also metal wheel is heavy weight for dog to control. The senior student Hye kim was focus on wheelchair providing body comfort, and it also provides easy control wheelchair function. Hye Kim was cooperate with UC David. They was working on how to create care program which give promote fosters and ease all aspects of health, comfort and disease of companion animals.

Strengths and weaknesses of the project.

Strengths: having three wheel can release pressure to non-injury legs. Using memory foam to provide comfort ,it is very sweet idea. To use transparent plastic is new design concept to reduce wheelchair weight. Because of material and colors using, it makes wheelchair look more modern and friendly . In our group discussion, we appreciate the product is being rented in hospitals. We also found several points that product can be improved. First, presentation board can be more clear in order to understand materials using and product description. Second, we wonder does the third wheel works better than two wheels.

Propose improvement:

After doing analysis, we found the biggest problems need to be solved. The wheelchair is only for back legs br...

One of my interested for my senior thesis is the poverty in undeveloped countries. I’ve been searching what I can do for those poor countries in terms of food, wearing, living, transporting, education and entertainment as a product designer. I’m thinking how can I make a balance between developed and undeveloped countries? I found that one is more original and closer to nature and the other one is more female to technologies. From my understanding so far for technology is the more it is introduced the more waste are created by people. For example, there are 300 million waste tires are dumped on the landfill annually as well as many older electronics.If we can design some up-cycled products from waste material and provide those products to those poor countries to make a balance between developed and undeveloped countries, people who are in different countries would have a better life.

Non-Profit Organization: Zero Poverty Now http://zeropovertynow.org/