DES100 LAMP DESIGN
DESIGN BRIEF: Design and prototype a lamp for a friend or a family
TARGET USER
The person I am designing for is a close friend and a fellow first year design student at the University of Auckland, Joshua Taulapapa. Joshua is a sociable and creative individual and is talented in the arts such as sketching, design and singing. The reason I chose Josh as my target user is because I value his perspective on things especially in the design field and believe that not only as a fellow designer but as a close friend and possible design partner in the future, he can provide great feedback and honest critique that will improve my design methods and thinking. Through interviewing Josh, conducting a contextual inquiry and secondary research, I was able to understand Joshua's personality which led me to design a wall frame lamp. Joshua wanted a modern style wall light that added aesthetic to his room and allow him to freely move around/see at night.
DESIGN STATEMENT
Joshua needs a way to add aesthetic to his bedroom and illuminate his room at night because he wants to have a modern design attribute to his room and be able to see and move freely at night without turning on his bedroom light.
VISUALISATION PROTOTYPE
Prototyping is where you create preliminary or starting ideas of a design that you can use to test assumptions, communicate design ideas, and get feedback for improvements. For the lamp project, we designed two prototypes - a visualization prototype and a specification prototype. The visualization prototype focuses on what the design looks like/feels like. It should answer the questions: does it solve their problem? Do they like the look of it?
By making a visual mockup i was able to test whether the design fit Joshua's needs and desires. This is my visualisation prototype which started as an handdrawn sketch, to a 3d model render on Fusion 360.
[frame design wall lamp]
SPECIFICATION PROTOTYPE
The specification prototype focuses on how the design will work, be built, and function. It should answer the questions: Is it technically possible to create? Will it work the way the user expects it to work?
My lamp design is a frame styled wall lamp that is installed via wall mount. My specification prototype will be produced by creating laser cut box frames then stacking them upon one another to create the shape easily and ensure accurate and consistent measurements/dimensions. The light source will be led light strips which will be insterted onto the inner walls of the frames, and is controlled by an ir remote that allows Josh to change the light intensity and turn the light on/off.
Materials needed include plywood for laser cutting, glue for the frames attaching to one another, led strip lights with a remote connected to it.
[svg file for laser cutting]
STRENGTHS
Some strengths that I found about my design challenge/process and documentation was that:
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I was able to successfully carry out the design brief and create a lamp design for my friend
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I was able to gain a thorough understanding of my clients desires and needs through the process of interviewing, contextual inquiry, secondary research, ideating and creating a visualization and specification prototype as I could contact Joshua easily through phone or video call
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I was able to expand my prototyping methods as I usually only do hand drawn sketches and am only familiar with it, however for this brief I exposed myself to other prototyping platforms such as illustrator, fusion 360, rhino, paint 3d, and online sketching.
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Another noticeable strength I found is the usefulness of researching and referring back to it. Throughout my design I referred back to my research as my lamp design actually molded with the inspiration because my client liked it as well. it made e realise how useful and important it is to researchand look back at previous work and notes.
IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED
What I found challenging during this design process was utilising different prototyping platforms. I had never used fusion 360 before and ti took me a while to wrap my head around it. What I could do to further improve my prototyping skills is use tinkercad for my led strip circuit and therefore be able to familiarise myself with technical experimentation for specification prototypes in the future.
- Another improvement needed would be on my laser cutter file for my boxes. I realised that I added excess interlocking for my frames and I could decrease the amount to simplify my design as well as make it easier to contrust and bind together.
- Another factor I didn't consider was that if Josh lost the remote then how would he able to work the lamp. This could be solved by having another dial or button area built in to the frame that also allows control of light intensity and power, in addition to the remote. To compare, much so designed like a tv - which has buttons on the side for control but also a remote.
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