A drill and jigsaw for cardboard, complete with a mobile app, that provides essential educational projects and skills.
Purpose
This tool allows vital skills for repairing wooden furniture to be learnt in a safe and positive environment. Therefore, consumers gain the option to prolong the lifespan of their wooden furniture, which benefits the conservation of forests and land.
Background
I am tackling the conservation of forests and land because it is the most popular global policy to influence climate change according to ‘The Peoples Climate Vote’ United Nations (BBC 2021, source below). After in-depth research into forestry, I discovered a web of seemingly unsolvable problems such as illegal logging with forged documentation which is being tackled by many organisations such as Interpol. It then became clear a product encouraging consumer awareness of the consequences of their demand, could tackle the crime and little to nothing is being done here with consumer products due to commercial viability and requiring a societal change. Through further research furniture quickly rose to the surface as the largest consumer product with many ties to illegal forestry. The main area of focus was consumer awareness around disposal which was also found to be environmentally damaging (disposed of as biomass: burned for energy) and ending its life early when repair could be an option. Part of my solution remained encouraging people to buy wooden furniture responsibly, however, my research showed illegal paperwork is circumventing this solution as mentioned earlier. The research into why disposal was early uncovered that many consumers fear repairing furniture due to a lack of skills and that encouraging learning the skills at a young age could set a new normal societal behaviour.
The solution was to allow the consumer to introduce additional cascades to the existing furniture lifecycle, resulting in a reduced demand for logging and lengthening carbon sequestration. The final product aimed to provide a middle ground between children’s toys and a power tool while focusing on having an empowering HCD, with concepts to improve the stakeholder’s experience such as the Pygmalion effect (the parent believing in a child's success increases their chance of success) at the forefront of design decisions.
Challenges
Finding the right problem to address after discovering the scale and complexity of the climate change forestry and land problem, specifically in the sourcing of wood posed by illegal logging. There were a lot of different routes for illegal logging discovered during my research to enter the supply chain the most popular are shown in the image on the left, source below. This was probably too much divergence for the scope of the project. However, I think refocusing on the final stages of illegal wood production (consumer demand) naturally uncovered unaddressed issues within the consumer end of the existing lifecycle that I could begin to address.
Designing for the consumers posed a challenge due to differing perspectives. Parents focused on the product's safety, while children sought empowerment from the interaction. Furthermore, creating a parent-child connection and allowing for the Pygmalion effect to take place also posed a challenge. The safety, for the adult, aspect was addressed with the design style reflecting consumer product rather than power tool. Being empowering, for the child, also relied on the aesthetic but through retro styling (a child sees this product fitting in with things that are grown-up only belongings and off-limits therefore using this should be treated with great responsibility).
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003369/how-illegally-harvested-timber-is-greenwashed-in-china
Design Process Summary
The contents pages of the project diamond sections provide an insight into the iterative design process that I used alongside the Design Council’s ‘Framework for Innovation’ (double diamond).
Discovery phase
Initial Areas of Exploration
Environmental Crisis
Learning Environmental Principles Through Case Study
Creating Something Commercially Viable
Tools and Competitors
Autopsy and Cradle to Cradle
Tools Already Used with Children
Health and Safety
Psychology of the Parent
Interviews
A Day in the Life
Wood Sequestration Cycles
Empathy Testing Competitors
Interviewing Children
Interviewing a Teacher
Lengthening a Cascade with Emotion
Benchmarking Competitors
Design phase
Key Insights
User Needs
Specification
FMEA
Initial Concepts
BSI
Further Concepts
Persona
Market Analysis
Design Development
Colour Scheme
Final Design
Scale Model
User Journey
Final Project Summary
Project Highlights
This was a university project and testing was completed within the constraints of covid-19 lockdown.
Key Research Pages
Key Design Pages
Final Design
Final Design
Spline Saw features the ability to cut, join and finish cardboard safely while learning the safe techniques for power tools therefore, this product is about removing complexity rather than adding features.
The app allows the how to learn essential DIY skills safely, provides projects and informs the user how they can buy products that are less likely to be sourced from the illegal logging trade.
The app makes safe learning easier as the interface is intended to be simple and not distracting whilst using the simulation power tool also providing information on correct usage (hand positions and controls). The stand project is made using the SplineSaw so a mobile device can be propped up whilst working on a project.
The app projects allow users to create a custom net for a multiple mobile device stand (seen right). The concept allows the user to select the model of the devices they want to use and then the correct indent for their device can created.
