Physical Computing in Design - Examples

(Above video contains brief nudity at the end as part of a Fashion show so here's your NSFW warning.)
Last week a second year PDT student asked for example of Arduino and physical computing being used in "real" design projects.
Sketching in hardware an article on Core77 explains how it is changing design.
IDEO labs blog shows some of the stuff that top design consultancy IDEO have been playing with.
Nike + Fuelband - This could have been prototyped and the user interaction developed using Arduino and a PDT student could make that working prototype with arduino.
Prototype Tranformer dresses - above.
A working prototype sonar glove, to help the blind navigate instead of a walking stick.
An experimental prototype interface for CAD modelling.
Add touch screen to your prototype products.
Ride the current wave of wearable electronics.
Prototype the house of the future - this one opens curtains.
For more, look here - Partucularly the "top 40 arduino projects" post, than that hit up google for words like "arduino" and "product design" there are a lot out there, these are just a few that tickled my fancy .

Frequently held false beliefs in product design

A great post over on Product Design Notebook on commonly held falacies in Product Design and Engineering.

The Portfolio Handbook - UCID 2012

The UCID Class of 2012, created this excellent portfolio handbook with the goal of guiding first year students in the process of building their first portfolios. It's superuseful for all students and young designers for advice on putting their portfolios together.

We planned, wrote, and styled the book over the course a 10-week summer quarter. It captures all the knowledge we've learned over the years about creating portfolios. This was a great opportunity for us to give back to the program that has given so much to us as designers. We wanted to help strengthen our design community at DAAP and in the process we ended up creating something that we want to share with the broader design community.

Grab the PDF download, and make a donation $5 donation to their graduation show.

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Get Better

It's relevent to today's crit.

You don't have to toe the line and just, float with the flotsam...
The system might fail you, but don't fail yourself, just...
get better.

OK, so Thou shalt Always kill is a better intro to the wicked lyrics of this duo, but I'm posting "get better", which is more relevent today.

Stereotypes of Design Students

Above image is from a tongue in cheak appraisal of 21 art school student types: Which Student are you? by Chuck Dillon.

Also worth a look is:
Classmate designertypes (and what you can learn from them)
part of the incredibly useful (for design students) Hack2School on Core77

Best Computer for Product Design Technology Students - Part 1 - Hardware

PDT and other technical Industrial Designers are effectively tied to microsoft Windows by Software packages, Solidworks, Rhino, and Algor. (Mac Rhino is in beta and has been for years, and solidworks have talked about a mac version, but don't expect it soon.) The combination of 3D CAD and Photoshot, means that we need fairly high end machines to work.

If I were currently working as a professional designer, I would have the PC below, and this is also what I would recommend for UWE PDT students. I've tried having a mac, but found that the software and hardware limitations of a mac, and the PITA of duel booting means that I've returned back to PC's.

Current Recommended Specs - 11/2011:
- Intel i5 or i7 processor (or equivalent)
- 4GB of Ram (or more)
- 500GB hard drive (preferably 1TB+)
- 500MB Dedicated Graphics Card (Preferably 1GB, NOT integrated graphics - 3D CAD needs a dedicated graphics card)
- Windows 7 - 64bit Operating system

Here are some machines that would do nicely:
15" Laptop - Something like this Acer-5750G, i7, 15.6" screen, 4GB Ram 1TB Harddrive.
22" or larger Desktop - Acer z5801 all in one, £830. 24" touch screen, i5, 4GB Ram, 1TB Hard drive, 1Gb dedicated graphics. (This one also has a TV tuner - perfect for Student room).

Don't buy bottom end machines and don't scrimp and save, I've done that before, and it's a false economy, it's probably got to last you 4 years. Buy a brand you've heard of, I currently favour Acer machines, our previous one lasted 7 years, a chepo machine died in 3 years.

Essential Additional Hardware:
- USB key 8Gb or 16GB Write your name on it, and save a text file on it with your name and contact details.
- External Harddrive for regular backup. If you have a laptop, then a large -1TB desk based external harddrive to back up everything. If you have a desktop you can get away with a smaller prtable hard dr to carry projects into work. 250Gb+.
- Mouse

Nice to have hardware:
A4 Scanner - the Canon LiDE range are ultra thin and well designed - Highly recommeded. Not essential though, as you can use the scanners in the department, or with good cross lighting, use a digital camera.
A3 Printer - I recommend Canon again - Pixma Range. Buy it in the second year.

PC's can be brilliant work horses but they need setting up (usually takes an evening), a little bit of management and they need monthly enema's to keep the performance snappy. Tune in for Part 2 - Software, how to Pimp your windows.

CCS Car Styling - Carl Olsen

Car Design at the college for creative studies 1987-2001.
As a study in form, Biomorphic, deconstructive, constructive, etc this is a really useful resource for design students. Although, some of them are starting to look dated, and his attitude (or perhaps the entire car industries attitude) to women looks very dated too.
Via Core77

Creative Britain in Reverse?

Making the case for more design and technology in the UK.
More info on the youtube page.
via Core77

How pencils are made

5 minute video, Wow, I had underestimated pencils, via Core 77

G is for Graphic Designer

"The vast majority of designers make ugly things for incompetent people."

Scroll down the page to letter G on this interesting article about different professions.

It's about graphic design, but sometimes Product Design can get like this too.

Excellent article on Plagiarism in Universities

Behind the Enemy Lines - Edit, now with a link

RIK Stools - Vac forming

Designer: Inon Retting
Taking a process all designers know, annoying vacform "mistakes" and turns them into a product, such a simple idea. Ace.
via Yanko which has more details.
Design For Manufacture project kicks off tomorrow with the second years.

FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft Bike

FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.

Professional Handmaking of a steel Bicycle frame,
This shows incredible craftsmanship, and those jigs and dedicated tools are amazing.
Soulcraft bikes wbsite.

How to make a Toaster

Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch.

Arduino and Physical computing links

Nike Advert
Nike Shoe blogged by Tom Igoe

Tom Igoe - ITP
ITP Physical Computing overview
Interesting ITP student blog
Another Interesting ITP Student Blog
RSIDpedia - products and materials for makers