Design MethodsA2 Product Design

How does designing start?

• Individual inventors are dissatisfied with existing products

• They want to make money

• They want to help others

• They are interested in technological and scientific advancement

James Dyson – Constructive Discontent

The ballbarrow which took the standard wheelbarrow design and added a spherical plastic wheel for added manoeuvrability across all terrains. A simple but massively effective change, it kickstarted Dyson’s now-signature re-invention of established products, and would later be the basis for Dyson’s ball-based upright vacuum cleaner.

K.C. Gillette – To Make MoneyWhile working as a salesman in the 1890s, Gillette saw bottle caps, with the cork seal he sold, thrown away after the bottle was opened. This made him recognize the value in basing a business on a product that was used a few times, then discarded. As existing, relatively expensive, razor blades dulled quickly and needed continuous sharpening, a razor whose blade could be thrown away when it dulled would meet a real need and likely be profitable.

Production began in 1903, when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades.The following year, he sold 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques and good advertising. By 1908, the corporation had established manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, England, France and Germany. Razor sales reached 450,000 units and blade sales exceeded 70 million units in 1915. In 1918, when the U.S. entered World War I, the company provided all American soldiers with a field razor set, paid for by the government.

Trevor Bayliss – Wanting To Help Others

Trevor Bayliss - Comfortable, cozy and smoking a pipe in his home on a verdant island on the Thames in west London, found himself listening one evening to a depressing account about AIDS in Africa. He might have switched to a more cheerful program except that something the narrator said intrigued him about the power of radio to spread public health information. Or, more accurately, the lack of radios to take advantage of this power.

So Baylis thought about how the scarcity of radio receivers could be solved on a continent of six hundred million where few have access to electricity or can afford batteries - the cost of which is equivalent to a month's salary.

The Freeplay Radio

Townes and Shadlow – Science and Technology

After the Second World War Townes and Shadlow experimented with modified radar techniques using microwaves to study molecular structures. During this experimentation they created the first laser. The two scientists never consider the commercial application of the laser, thinking it would only be useful in scientific research. Today lasers are used in wide range of applications.

Constructive Discontent – The Wheel Chair

Wheel Chair Video

Extra Reading:http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/oct/09/five-new-wheelchair-designs

Extra reading: Understanding the needs of a wheelchair user

• http://ezinearticles.com/?Daily-Problems-and-Challenges-of-Using-a-Wheelchair&id=4628337

• http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/going-nowhere-my-life-in-a-wheelchair-1761724.html

What is the primary design method for your project?