Tagged: University of Brighton

Meaningful Stuff – Professor Jonathan Chapman

In case you missed it, last month Jonathan Chapman gave an insightful and thought provoking presentation entitled ‘Meaningful Stuff: Designing Longer-Lasting Material Experiences’. Fortunately the University of Brighton filmed the Professor’s inaugural presentation and you can view it in full view Youtube below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBECx-L55Fg]

Jonathan Chapman is a Professor of Sustainable Design in the School of Art, Design & Media, and Course Leader of the MA Sustainable Design – a ‘transdisciplinary’ postgraduate course, which he co-wrote and launched (2009). Chapman is also the author of Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences & Empathy (Earthscan, 2005). The books main focus of ’emotional durability’ has been adopted by designers, students and educators around the world, providing valuable shorthand for the complex and manifold factors that determine the endurance of ‘value’ and ‘meaning’ in a given object.

7 Days to Go!

Brighton Product Lab

With one week left to go, the countdown to our exhibition begins!

As part of Brighton’s Fringe festival, 47 final year students will be showcasing their products for public view.

We have a diverse range of innovative products in development, some of which have the potential to save lives.

The exhibition runs from 11am to 8pm on Friday 31st May, in the Design Studio in the Cockcroft Building at the University of Brighton, BN2 4GJ. Invites to the exhibition can be found below.

Events will be held throughout the day such as guest speakers and idea generation sessions.

We hope to see you next Friday!

Brighton Product Lab

Designing for People – Part 2

 

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A wealth of presentations were given at the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors annual conference last week, and I wanted to share just some of the key snippets of knowledge from the conference:
– British Standards are about knowledge – knowledge about what ‘good’ looks like.  They are devised to be best practice enablers – they help people to deliver better. Standards are not regulations; regulations detail the minimum legal requirement, complying with standards is not a legal requirement (note: some regulations are called standards which creates confusion in this area).

– Good design requires the consideration of the three P’s – People (the benefit the product delivers to the users, how usable and desirable it is), Profit (commercial viability, technical viability and compatibility), and Planet (resource consumption, waste control, energy efficiency).

– In order to develop inclusive technologies there is a need to understand past experiences with technology and draw on the forms of interactions they demanded of their users, e.g., single action single response for today’s elders.

–  Usability and sustainability can be thought of as mutually inclusive and complementary components. This insight was gained from a tap design study that subjectively measured the usability of three taps in public toilets; usability scores were then compared to the amount of water used when people washed their hands.

Eddy Elton

Guest Lecture: Ben Watson

Ben Watson

Ben Watson of 3M came along to give us a guest lecture today. Ben is involved in research and development and new product development at 3M – a company recently acclaimed as third most innovative in the world (third only to giants Google and Apple).

Ben talked us through 3M’s culture of innovation and creativity, and methods of how thinking outside of the box can be stirred within a business environment. He showed us some innovation models that we could apply to our projects, urged us to take risks, and reassured us that failing was okay so long as we “fail better” the next time.

3M are a colossal company, with one of their products being within at least 12 feet of you at any given time. So having Ben come over to take the time to talk to us was much appreciated.

New Designers 2013 Preparation Day

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A few final year students headed to the Business Design Centre in Islington last Friday for the New Designers 2013 preparation day.

We met the New Designers team, and other business professionals, and details on how to make the most of the upcoming exhibition were discussed, such as stand presentation, exhibition PR, and intellectual property.

Keep up to date with the upcoming 3rd – 6th July exhibition on Facebook & Twitter.

School Outreach

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Over the past few months a small group of our final year product design students have been putting together school workshops to increase the awareness and the uptake of technology subjects at higher education. Our main goal was to inspire the younger generation by showing the skills, benefits and opportunities of product design. The ‘hands-on’ design workshops are delivered in secondary schools  throughout Sussex and so far have received fantastic responses from both pupils and teachers.

Shaun Potter –  Head of Design and Technology at Robertsbridge Community College

“Just a note to let you know how fantastic yesterday was. The kids were really buzzing and your students got some brilliant, creative work out of them. The whole school has got wind of the day and how successful it was. Sarah and the team were highly professional in everything they did, they are an excellent advert for product design as a subject”.

Scott Atkinson – Curriculum Leader of Art, Design and Technology at Midhurst Rother Academy

 “Can I say thank you for the excellent STEM challenge you and your team put together and delivered at Midhurst Rother College on Monday. It was clear from student feedback and the response from staff that it was an enjoyable and education experience you gave us”.

 Carly Heaver – Product Design Teacher at Uplands Community College

 “I wanted to write with a formal thank you for the lovely product design team’s efforts with my year 9 students today. They were very professional and engaged so well with my very mixed ability class. Our students were very excited about what they had had the opportunity to be a part of.

I told the team that I can’t wait to see their work at the New Designer’s exhibition in the summer when I take my AS and A2 students to marvel at the potential of studying a technology related subject”.

Many of the schools visited are now looking into and hoping to set up future workshops with the University of Brighton product design students to further encourage the designers of tomorrow.

Thank you for all the final year students who took part, you made it possible to run some fantastic and enriching workshops!

Guest Lecture: Catherine Payne

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We had a brilliant talk this morning on the psychology surrounding behavioural change.

Catherine Payne, who has worked with various companies including Lucozade, talked us through some established psychological models concerning behavioural change, and applied them in a way that could help us understand how to influence consumers to change their behaviour and adopt our products.

She also took the time to sit with students in the studio afterwards and speak to individuals specifically about their product designs.

Thanks Catherine.

Guest Lecture: Julian Bond

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Julian Bond, R&D Engineering Manager of Parafix Tapes and Conversions Ltd, gave us a talk yesterday afternoon on the various benefits of using pressure sensitive adhesives.

He explained how adhesives could save on material costs and production time, making the manufacturing process much leaner and cost effective. He also touched on how adhesives prove useful in lowering a product’s weight, especially important in the automotive and aviation industry where lowering a vehicle’s weight by a mere 10 grams can give a competitive edge.

Julian also touched on other areas of interest to our projects including legislation and thinking about the waste left at the end of our products’ life cycles.

Thanks Julian