Cyclying Sketches

Check out these cycling concept sketches!

Cyclying Inspiration Boards

Here's some cool images relating to South Korean culture and bicycle trends!

Sketch Fast

A sweet pen designed specifically with designers in mind!

PD484 Observational Research

Last weekend I did some medical research and found out some really interesting things through phone/in-person interviews, and observational research. At River Bend Hospital in Eugene I took some pretty cool pictures that really illustrate the direction hospitals are moving towards.

PD484 Cardboard Cart 3

After meeting with our sponsors, Modo, we got this assignment. We were to make 20 cardboard prototypes for a medical cart that incorporated a tablet computer of some type. While we hadn't been given any other constraints at the time, I chose to push the creative boundaries of what the cart could be.

PD484 Cardboard Cart 2

This cart had to carry a 4'x8'x2" slab of cardboard over bumps, ramps, gravel, and through turns. Oh and did I mention it was in the rain?

PD484 Cardboard Cart 1

This cart had to carry a 10"x13.5"x17" box through an obstacle course including ramps, bumps, and zig-zags.

The Igloo

Here's a sweet survival pack that Jeremy, Damien and I created. This pack can be sold alone or integrated into backpacks for back country skiers and snowboarders to carry with them.

Process sketches coming soon!

Observational ADVENTURE!

This weekend a classmate and I went on a walk around Eugene to see what interesting patterns, details, object relationships, and adaptations we could find. Along the way we also found a few things that just made us laugh. Above are our findings, plus a map of where we spotted all these interesting things!

Water Bottles

As an in class assignment a partner and I scavenged for at least ten different types of water bottles. Looking only in the basement of the Knight Library of University of Oregon, we found much more than ten water bottles. The ten bottles above are the ones that are most representative of our findings. So what did we find people look for in a water bottle? Just about anything. From plastic to metal, disposable to reusable, decorated to self-customized, (and even one jar) we were surprised to find so many types of water bottles in just one place. We found that most of them had some type of loop handle to help users transport liquids on the go. Also, that bottles meant for hot beverages tended to have smaller necks, were better insulted and came with a make-shift lid-cup. Furthermore, disposable bottles tended to have a stronger brand image somewhere on the bottle, while reusable bottles downplayed company logos.

My Favorite Design

Ty Nant Water Bottle by Ross Lovegrove

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20050405/blobjects-a-short-history

So what exactly is so great about this water bottle? Pretty much everything. From form to function to environmental awareness to ideology, Ross Lovegrove has created the perfect (re-usable) water bottle. When Lovegrove set out to design this bottle, he did not want to make any water bottle, he wanted to make a water bottle that embodied the idea of water. And that is exactly what he did. Because water is a free-flowing form, Lovegrove created a bottle shape that depicted exactly that. Not only is the form of this bottle perfect, but it is ergonomically ideal. Additionally, the form of the bottles allows the bottles to fit together when shipping, wasting no space, and making less shipments. While I would rather see the bottle in a re-usable form, I'm still hooked on Ross Lovegrove's water bottle for Ty Nant.

To see some more awesome form exploration by Ross Lovegrove go to:

http://www.rosslovegrove.com/

Design Process

My name is Jillian Wells, I am a product design student at University of Oregon. This blog was centered around PD370 Design Process, a product design class at University of Oregon. To see some other sweet blogs from our class go to:

http://pd370designprocess.blogspot.com/