Archives for "Product Design"
The Victor Bike: The bicycle goes even greener
For his final project in the University of Montréal’s design department, product designer Christophe Robillard asked, “If the bicycle is the standard bearer for sustainable transportation, shouldn’t the object itself communicate the same message?”
The Victor Bike is his answer to his own question.
By re-conceiving the shape of the frame, reducing the amount of metal used and carefully selecting greener materials and manufacturing processes, Robillard has set a new standard for eco-friendly bicycle design. But it’s about so much more than that, according to Robillard, himself:
Reducing the material weight, optimising the manufacturing process, using recyclable and recycled materials, simplifying the disassembling and the separation of materials at the end of life are technical points which have to be respected during the development of a sustainable product. I believe in Mr. Jonathan Chapman’s philosophy — EMOTIONALLY DURABLE DESIGN — where the object presenting the best environmental qualities are the ones that we love, to whom we become attached and the ones we preserve.
Victor is not only the result of a quantifiable analysis work following a protocol of green engineering, but an object that has an irreplaceable role to our everyday life.
I tried to show the elegance and the grace which a bicycle can have through everyday use. A companion to the everyday life that joins us in what I consider to be a respectable and admirable lifestyle. I created an object which harmonizes with the townscape while respecting the charisma and the dignity of the cyclist: such values I hold dearly.
Further reading:
Christophe Robillard’s blog
Flickr images of the Victor Bike
Co.Design coverage of the Victor Bike
Redesigning the coffee cup
The betacup is a recently completed competition to re-imagine a coffee cup with reduced environmental impact. As many as 58 million coffee cups are discarded every year in the United States alone, and along with most of them, a sleeve that protects the holder’s hands from scalding.
The proposed solutions offer a range of great ideas for how to approach the problem, from the Karma Cup’s social engineering angle to Miller Creative’s Radial Fin Cup with an integrated insulating sleeve design.
The Karma Cup uses social engineering to increase the use of reusable cups and therefore reduce waste:
Miller Creative’s entry reduces waste by integrating the protective sleeve, using biodegradable and renewable resources for the rest of the cup and employing a manufacturing process that does not require glue:
The betacup contest was sponsored by jovoto, an organization that describes itself as “a marketplace for creative concepts [that connects] those who have ideas with those who need them, providing the necessary tools to make the process fun and fair.”
The betacup entry ranked #1 by the jovoto community is a 100% biodegradable cup made from rice husks and available in a disposable or reusable version. (The reusable one even comes with an RFID sleeve that would replace the prepaid payment card.)
See all betacup entries on the jovoto website.
More of a good thing: Extending your product line without inventing a brand new product
Marc wrote recently about the motorized bicycle that is the latest addition to the Volkswagen product line and a way for the company to extend its brand into an adjacent market. And while innovation is often at the heart of new product development, it is worth pointing out that building a product line can be done without new invention. By varying peripheral product features, cosmetic details or packaging it is possible to use your existing technology and quickly expand your product line to reach new markets. Take Camelbak:
The company, an Arena customer, started making hands-free hydration systems for mountain bikers and motocross riders, “allowing them to drink without taking their hands off of the handlebars in technical terrain.” Since then “Camelbaks” have become popular for use while hiking, running, snowboarding and skiing in addition to cycling. They typically consist of a capped pouch of water with a long tube and bite valve, enclosed in some wearable form factor.
From this simple concept, Camelbak has built an incredible range of similar but specialized products: more than 90 hydration pack styles for recreational and military use. The company dominates the market through good use of technology (easy-to-use bite valve, rugged materials, easy opening and leakproof cap) and a willingness to customize its product for new sports or situations. Camelbak makes a pack for refilling other packs (the Squadpak, 25L capacity) for use by a military unit, packs specifically designed for women, packs for use while skiing in sub-zero temperatures, packs for use under body armor and even a variety of “mini” packs (50 oz) for kids.
Another strategy is the purely cosmetic. Take Envirosax. These reusable shopping bags fold up into compact snap close packages. Envirosax has built its brand by offering a wide array of colors and graphics. Same bag design – different looks to appeal to different market segments.
You can also vary packaging and pricing. In addition to slight product differences, Superfeet uses color, pricing and packaging changes to sell its insoles to multiple market segments. The packaging and pricing for the product targeted at women differs from that aimed at athletes, “on their feet” professionals (doctors, nurses) or industrial workers. Inside the box you will find the same core product, with minor tweaks for the specific user segment.
These three companies have built on their primary product offering and diversified into adjacent markets without inventing a whole new product. Their strategy isn’t for everyone, but it might be worth considering whether your technology can be reused in new form factors or colors or marketed in a new way to appeal to other user groups. Who knows, variation on a theme might lead to your own empire.
Letting nature inspire your product design
If you’re facing a tough design challenge you may want to look to nature to see how millions of years of evolution have addressed a similar problem. Biomimicry (which Marc mentioned in a blog post about tools to help design more environmentally responsible products) is the mimicking of nature to solve engineering or other human problems. The field of robotics in particular has been yielding some very interesting solutions to challenges of locomotion and range of motion. Here are a few of my favorites:
This perching unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relies on a claw design similar to a small bird, enabling it to perch on vertical surfaces.
The Stickybot mimics a gecko, enabling it to climb smooth vertical surfaces.
This robotic handling system gets a greatly expanded range of motion by mimicking an elephant’s trunk.
With fluid-based muscles, this system mimics the muscle structure of a human.
To learn more about some of these (and other) projects, visit the online home of the Stanford Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory, which designed the perching UAV and the Stickybot.
The old ways are sometimes best (or at least really cool)
Most umbrellas today are cheap – literally and figuratively. They turn inside out at the slightest of winds. They are given away to advertise everything from tequila to the World Wildlife Fund. The handles are molded plastic, the spokes are pliable pot metal and the mechanisms seem to stick more often than not. They seem to come in one of two types – the giant golf umbrella or the tiny push-button umbrella – and the mechanisms that drive the raising and lowering of the canopy are familiar, yet unremarkable.
In contrast, please let me introduce you to an old-fashioned umbrella mechanism with style and superior utility. The umbrella in question was produced in 1957, by a company called PJK, and the mechanism patented. The umbrella line is called “Touch and Go.” It looks like this:
Beautiful, isn’t it? And strong. This umbrella has never turned inside out in my experience, and it has been used in blustery New England weather. The spokes are thick, with a rectangular cross-section, and oriented such that the bending moment to flip the umbrella inside out acts through the long axis of the rectangle.
The true genius of this mechanism though, is the tensioning system. Rather than employ a spring inside the umbrella shaft, this umbrella uses the spokes themselves to generate tension. Look again at the detail picture. The spokes are aligned in pairs and when force is exerted on the tip of the umbrella, the pairs are compressed, bowing the two sides out to form the lovely petal shape you see in the photo. That petal shape is a pair of loaded leaf springs. The spring tension is then captured by a trigger-style mechanism at the loaded point.
The umbrella closure is the most impressive part of the mechanism operation. Upon hitting the button, the leaf springs are released, resulting in lightning-fast contraction of the canopy. The canopy snaps back so quickly that a majority of the water is left behind. The canopy is left damp but not dripping.
I found this umbrella in a thrift store 20 years ago – the handle you see here I machined myself, when the old one finally cracked. This umbrella is a product both hardy and beautiful enough to be worthy of reworking, enabling true “green” behavior – repairing rather than throwing away for a cheaper new version.
This old-fashioned mechanism is almost certainly more difficult and more costly to manufacture than the mechanism that has become the norm. But in this case, what we have given up in our quest for a cheaper utilitarian product is both beauty and superiority of function.
Social product development takes product research to the next level
Joe gave some great advice in his series of posts on how to gather and apply useful product feedback. Quirky, a “social product development start-up” that builds and sells consumer products takes it a step further. The company uses crowdsourcing to determine first which products get designed and then which products get manufactured. A recent post on Mashable describes the process:
The community votes on which ones they want to develop and then adds its input on things such as product aesthetics, design, logo, and even its name. The best ideas are then taken by Quirky’s team of engineers and designers and turned into 3D renderings.
The next step is the most important one: the product is then placed on pre-sale, where anyone can buy the product. However, Quirky will only sell something if it hits a minimum number of sale commitments (usually under a thousand). Once that number is reached, the product is made and person who submitted the original idea gets a piece of the revenue pie.
All it takes is $99 to submit a product idea to the Quirky community. If you have a killer product idea (and who doesn’t!)–and the “go it alone” approach isn’t for you–Quirky might be worth a look. (And if you feel like shopping for some interesting products–modular spatula system or iPod nano kickstand, anyone?–Quirky is definitely worth a look!)
Enter to win the MAKE/MakerBot 3D printer giveaway!
MAKE Magazine and Makerbot are holding a contest for the best design for a 3D-printable object, and the prize is a Deluxe CupCake CNC 3D Printer Kit.
From the MAKE magazine blog:
1. Imagine something you’d like to see printed on a MakerBot CupCake CNC!
2. Design your object using any 3D design software you like.
3. Upload your design to Thingiverse!
4. Share the link to your Thingiverse post here, in the comments, by May 5th, 2010 at noon PDT.
They’ve already got some great entries. Why not try your hand, 3D designers?
P.S. If you don’t have the time, inclination or skills to create a design, simply post your idea in the comments of the contest blog post for a chance to win 1 of 5 “Poor Person’s 3D Fabbing” prize packs, each containing:
- 1 Arduino Duemilanove board (courtesy of MakerBot) [Read more about the Arduino here.]
- 1 copy of MAKE, Volume 21, the Desktop Manufacturing issue
- 1 Maker’s Notebook (courtesy of Maker Shed)
- 1 package of Shapelock Design Plastic (courtesy of Maker Shed)
(Via boingboing)
Tools to help you design more environmentally responsible products
Ever since the publishing of Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s tour-de-force manifesto on the complicity of industrial designers in the filling of our landfills, product companies have been searching for ways to minimize the impact of their products while still maximizing their profits. With the help of books like this, as well as new fields of thought and a few online tools, that careful balancing act is becoming far less daunting.
One such field of thought, dubbed biomimicry by its founder and champion, Janine Benyus, is transforming the way scientists, engineers and designers approach thorny challenges. Biomimicry encourages them to first consider how nature may have already solved the very same problem. Too much calcification in your factory’s chimneys? Perhaps you should find out why seashells (made from calcium) are not infinitely large. These relatively ‘simple’ creatures must have a way to prevent further calcification of their shells that is harmless to the environment and readily available (read: free) in ocean water.
Dr. Benyus runs a consultancy called the Biomimicry Guild, which works with clients to uncover solutions to the particular problems they face. There is also the non-profit Biomimicry Institute, which offers a lot of downloadable resources on the practice. (See some great videos of biomimicry in action in Nick’s post on using nature as inspiration in product design.)
A trio of other online tools have emerged in the last few years to simplify the process even further.
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Ecolect offers ways to discover more sustainable materials. Its site includes an online directory of various pre-vetted, eco-friendly materials. You can also subscribe to the GreenBox™ service for about $900 a year to receive a box of 10 or so new environmentally friendly material samples every three months. Ecolect selects samples that are indicative of larger trends in the industry. |
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Sustainable Minds is an affordable, web-based service that helps you estimate, evaluate, compare and track the environmental and human health performance of your products, even in the earliest stages of design. Essentially, you can upload a bill of materials (BOM) and indicate which materials you’re considering for its contents, including their source locations and other facts. You can then calculate the footprint of your product, including how it stacks up in areas like disposal and reuse, and compare it to other benchmarked products. Try tracking it against past revisions of your own design to chart your progress in developing a more environmentally friendly product. |
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Sourcemap is an open source project working to document the carbon footprint of all major products on the American market. Its goal is to help people make more informed decisions about what products they buy by providing a Google Maps mashup and some nifty carbon footprint calculators that show the true supply chain for those products. The team behind this project also sees an opportunity for manufacturers with their acts together to use sourcemap as a platform for proving their environmental chops. |
It’s a brave new world in eco-manufacturing. If you haven’t read Cradle to Cradle, I highly suggest you start there. When you’re ready to apply your learnings, try some of the tools mentioned above.
Know any other resources that should be on this list? Please let us know.
The product that I most want to run away with (or, the making of a product evangelist)
The BOB Revolution
Products that resonate with their users on an emotional level become ingrained in user’s lives and generate their own grassroots marketing buzz. These are the products that users rave about online, tell their friends about in great detail, and wax enthusiastic about to strangers in the grocery line. Building this kind of product takes in-depth knowledge of your user – what they want and need and how they will use your product. It is this knowledge that allows you to connect with your market in a deep way, turning your customers from casual users into true fans.
For example, let me tell you about my jogging stroller – The BOB Revolution. I use it almost every day and have become a BOB evangelist.
These strollers were developed with running parents like me in mind. Actually, what happened is that two guys who were building bike trailers had kids, and they needed to run themselves. They took their bike trailer chops, did a mess of machining and welding, and then tested out their stroller prototypes running with their own kids. I, like the guys from BOB, have lots of stroller needs, and BOB nailed them:
- I want a lightweight, fast-moving running stroller: The Single BOB weighs just 23 lbs. (the Duallie 32 lbs.) and has large, 16-inch wheels for low rolling resistance.
- I need good tracking for long straight runs and maneuverability for tight spots and rough terrain: The Revolution has a front wheel that can swivel or be fixed.
- I run in ALL kinds of weather: There is a built in canopy for sun and light rain and a full weather shield for running in truly inclement weather.
- I got out running soon after my children were born and needed to take them with me safely: There are hefty shock absorbers and a car seat adapter bar, so you can hit the trail with your little one in the Graco bucket as soon as 8 weeks after birth. And there is a 5-point harness for excellent safety as your child grows.
- I need water while running or the occasional coffee while out on the trail: BOB makes a cup holder accessory with space for drinks and a zipper pocket for keys and the like.
- I squeeze in my runs whenever I can – often while the kids are napping: The newest BOBs now recline to 70 degrees from vertical to encourage just this sort of behavior. (If you start running with your baby early, he or she will just assume that napping in the stroller instead of a quiet, dark crib is completely normal!)
- And most importantly, BOB strollers fold up in less than 5 seconds, so I can throw my stroller into the back of the Subaru before my toddlers dash into traffic.
BOB knows me – a running parent – inside and out. As a result, I have become a BOB evangelist. Take the BOB and add some coffee stains, some cracker crumbs, a bunch of mud, a few sunscreen smears, and two cute kids, and you just described my typical run.
All product companies should think about their users the way that BOB does. Ask yourself what your users REALLY care about. Who are they? What makes them tick? What will they do with your product? If you nail the answers to these questions and bake the results into your product design, you will build a base of customers who are more than just consumers – they will be outspoken fans. And that kind of publicity can’t be beat.
An electric hand dryer that actually dries hands…really!
As someone who picks paper towels over electric hand dryers every time, I never would have expected to find a dryer that I not only want to use, but actually want to talk about too. Until, that is, I discovered the Dyson Airblade™ at San Francisco International Airport a few weeks ago. (Before this, the only electric hand dryer for which I’d developed even a slight fondness was one I saw in Australia—and that was only because it was adorned with an illustration of a kangaroo drying its hands while chatting with a cassowary.)
Unfortunately I can’t claim to be turning you on to something new, as the Airblade has been around since 2006. But it’s a product that really works, and I think that always deserves mention.
Enchanted by the Airblade, I wanted to know more about its inner workings, and I was fascinated by what I learned. The Airblade shoots unheated air at 400 MPH (!) through two openings that are only 0.3 mm wide, which has the effect, according to the company website, of “scraping water from hands like a windshield wiper.” Those air sheets start out as the air hanging around the dryer. When they’re sucked into action, they’re sent through a HEPA filter for cleaning and then sent over the dryer’s electronics to cool the components before making their swift exit.
Because it does not rely on heating the air it expels, the Airblade apparently uses less energy (up to 80% less, according to Dyson) than conventional hand dryers. While I cannot personally verify that claim, I can certainly attest to some of the product’s other claims: The Dyson Airblade works faster and more thoroughly than any other hand dryer I’ve used. Next time you see one, try it out!
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