LCA report

LCA report

Tear apart pictures

Reflection

Our LCA report shows that the use of the product is where you will use the most resources, given that you will use the product for ten years. Therefore a saving in the energy use of the product can save significant use of resources. You can't change the use of water for coffee making, but you can make it in a way where the cleaning process requires less use of water. 

The most energy consuming process is the heating of water, if you can change some of the components  here that saves some energy it can effect the energy use much in the long run. If you use a part that might take some more resources to make, you can benefit from it in the long run if it uses less electricity to heat the same amount of water. 

Extending the lifetime of this product more than ten years could actually be less environmentally friendly, because in the meantime less energy consuming technology could be developed that could make a new more efficient brewer. However it will make less solid waste. 

In our tear apart study we saw that light weighting had been used well. It was only kept material in the places where it was needed for strength. We could probably do some more of it, but it would probably affect the products lifetime as well. We could change some of the materials like the aluminium housing, but it could also affect the products lifetime. At the same time the brand probably wants this aluminuim to make the product fit into their product portfolio and give a high end impression. 

Sketching and user testing

Useful sources:

Plastics friction

http://www.dotmar.com.au/co-efficient-of-friction.html

Brails

http://www.brailleauthority.org/sizespacingofbraille/sizespacingofbraille.pdf

Concept 5

The packaging is wide at the bottom, but it has a narrow opening on top that allow you to push one tablet out at the time. A flexible plastic part stops the tablet by the opening, but when force is applied to the tablet it goes through and the plastic part snaps back into normal position. The plastic opening mechanism is injection molded, then it's welded on the outside. 

Focus group

Focus group feedback:

"If you're blind, how do you differentiate it from other boxes."
"I want to flip edge, not pull."
"A bit big."
"I want to slide it like this." Holding on top and under. Add friction on top and bottom.
"Looks like a lunch box."

Posters okey, "- a bit white".

Feedback from tutor.
"Is it possible to make it even more tangible."

"More motion to posters."
"Show the context."

Reflection

I didn't have that much confident in the design solution I delivered this time. It was interesting to look even more into the tactile approach and I think I will look more into this for the final solution. While this was a hybrid between a box and a bag, I think my final solution will be softer and closer to a bag.

I will use the next three days to make my final concept. Then some days for user testing and refining it. Then I will use the last week for making the view model and presentation.

Presentation - Cormack

Video reflection

Greenfly

Greenfly is a nice web tool for lifecycle analysis. It takes consideration to manufacture, materials, transport, use and end of life aspects of your product. It splits the impacts areas into water use, solid waste, energy use and global warming. It also takes into account the lifetime and if your product is recyclable. The website also offer design strategies to help you in the process of making your product greener and communicating the sustainable aspects.

This tool simplifies the process of measuring and making your product greener. It is a nice measuring tool for sustainability, but however it is simplified. It takes into account a lot of the measurable sustainability problems, but from the video it doesn’t seem to take into account social and ethical problems related to different manufacturers. So this tool alone is not a guarantee that your design is becoming more sustainable, but it is good help in the right direction.

Source: http://www.greenflyonline.org/video.php

Whole Systems and Lifecycle Thinking

In whole systems and lifecycle thinking you focus on more than how to improve the measureable aspects of your current products lifecycle, like how you can improve the system it is a part of. It is a more open approach to the sustainability problems and it tries to use the benefits of the different sustainability strategies.

Source: http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/products/whole-systems-and-lifecycle-thinking

Improving product lifetime

Product lifetime strategies involve making the product, components and materials last longer. You could for instance do this by making the product more durable, easy to disassemble, upgrade, repair and recycle. By increasing the products, components or materials lifetime you will produce less products and materials and therefore often make less emissions. However you also need to take into account that not all products will make us benefit environmentally with a longer life. A good example of this is old cars that use more petrol than new ones.

Source: http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/products/improving-product-lifetime

Lightweighting

By making the products lighter, you save material and transport costs and increase the sustainability of your product. Optimising geometry by using thinner wall thickness, reinforcements, hollowing parts, trusses etc. can do this. Different design programs or new manufacturing methods can help you to do this. Lightweighting isn’t always the right design strategy for sustainability; you can use whole systems thinking to look at when it is smart to use this strategy. For example it could be better to improve the products lifetime by increasing the wall thickness, than it would be to make the wall thickness thinner.

Source: http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/products/lightweighting

Green materials selection

Green materials selection focuses on the use of materials that are abundant, non-toxic, requires minimal resources, has good physical properties for its function, meets regulations, has good end of life options and is affordable. If you combine this with looking at the lifecycle and the different alternatives and how they affect the lifecycle you can make your product “greener”.

Source: http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/products/green-materials-selection

Energy efficient design

This strategy focuses on making your product more energy effective. You can do this by decreasing your energy loss or focus on making the energy source more sustainable.

Source: http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/products/energy-efficient-design

User testing

Further explanation of the slide lock concept: