Portfolio ofKaiyu HUANG

Jan 2015

2. Accessories

1. Power Tools

“Piecefold” Wallet“Poppop” Bubble CasePocket Highlighter

“AKTUS” Jigsaw

3. FurnitureA-stoolX-stool

4. Lamp & LightingBlow LampFocus

5. ElectronicsFamily Panorama Video Phone"Photoaster" PrinterPortable Speaker for Baby"Storm" Washing Machine

6. Food & PackagingSeed + Teabag

7. ServicePackage Sorting System Design

8. TransportationE-scooter Auditory DesignCampus Paving Design

9. OthersChinese Seal Carving ArtIkebana (Japanese Flower Art)Sketches and 2D Renderings

1. Power Tools

“AKTUS” Jigsaw

year

keywords

co-designer

external tutorial

context

2014

ergonomics, form language,

n/a

TEAMS Design

AKTUS is an ergonomical jigsaw concept design with dual-operation design, easy-placing and quick battery replacing

features.

"AKTUS" Jigsaw

Brief

Initial Ideas

Problem defining

Development

This project is the final year project of my bachelor. It aims to improve the ergonomical facts of jigsaw in order to optimize the tool user experience.

From the observation and interviews, the main problems of operating jigsaw are defined as bad working visibility and instability caused by over-vibration. A new way of operating jigsaw is defined: The handle control optimizes the accuracy and stability of jigsaw working. While the traditional barrel grip is also supported.

According to my research, bad working visibility and instability caused by over-vibration are two of the biggest issues. Bad visibility are caused by sawdust as well as tool blocking the view. Besides, over-vibration also leads to bad cutting accuracy. Overheated saw blade can cause lower mechanical capacity or even blade breakage. Placing the jigsaw while working is another annoying issue to face, since nowaday people lie the jigsaw down, which is unnatural.To sum up, they are1. Instability and bad accuracy2. Bad visibility3. Annoying tool placing4. Overheated blade

Studying and analyzing the user behaviors comes first of all. There are 4 basic points of operating a jigsaw according to my research: Pressing down, Pushing forward, Direction changing, Object holding.

The concept of handle controlling is developed with mock-ups.

Creative Design Outstanding Graduates Exhibition Shanghai

Dual-operating system

Easy-placing design

Traditional jigsaw requires ’pushing’ and ‘pressing’, which may take both of your hands on the machine. AKTUS combines these two by using palm and forearm, while the other hand can hold the board. The wrist is somehow locked, making it safer and stabler to change directions. On the other hand, the traditional barrel grip makes it flexible for some complex curves. Two switches are designed for these two ways of operating.

From the picture below, traditional jigsaws have to be lied down during the wood work, which may lead to safety issues and inconvenience. Blades may destroy the work or even hurt the user. User also needs more energy and time to rise up and put down the tool.

AKTUS shows an natural and easy way to interact between human and tools, just by resting the tool on its bottom.

Working with oil-clay mock-ups ensures a good ergonomical form and an efficient way of operating. Cutting or adding on the oil-clay makes the changing very easy and instantly. Sketches are made to study the form language.

3D model is built according to the final oil-clay mock-up. The data is used for 3D rendering and prototype making.

Cooling Dusting System

Battery

Achievements

Self-reflection

Front air outlet design works not only as a dusting system to blow away sawdust, so that the visibility improves. It also cools down the hot sawblade. Wind going through the blade, cooler blades have a better mechanical capacity. And it prevents from over-hot blades burning the wood.

AKTUS equips a strong battery of 18V 4Ah. The line LED power indicator locates on the back side of the battery. Battery release buttons are located on two sides of the battery. It slides to the same direction as the releasing, making batteries so easy to change.

AKTUS Jigsaw won the “Outstanding Graduate Award of College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University of 2014" and " 2nd Prize of Shanghai University Creative Design Outstanding Graduates Exhibition 2014".

AKTUS Jisaw is the final year project of my bachelor study. I am statisfied not only with the output, but also the challenge I conquered. Since many of the areas are professional and new to me, I put all of my 4 months energy onto this project. Hereby I strongly appreciate the careful tutorial from professor Zhenyuan Liu from Tongji University and especially the external professor Yilin Gu from TEAMS Desgin. This project indeed improves my design ability from all aspects. Thanks to the challenge!

2. Accessories

"Poppop" Bubble Case Pocket Highlighter

year

keywords

co-designer

context

2014

e-commerce, branding, origami, fashion

Jiayun Jin, Wei Liu, Wangshu Ding

Piecefold Wallet is a designer fashion brand based on e-commerce. This is a extracurricular project during my bachelor study.

“Piecefold” Wallet

Brief

Concept

Features

Development

Inspired by Origami, Piecefold Wallet is a designer fashion brand based on e-commerce. All products are made of German

waterproof kraft paper.

As young Chinese designers, we see a luxurious shopping trend in the rapid developing society. Overpriced and poor-functional things are bought for personalization and showing off.Piecefold is a functional, unique, moderate fashion for young generation and shows their attitude to the life. Inspired by Japanese origami, wallets are made only by folding.

No glue, no stitching, one piece of paper are the 3 basic rules of Piecefold. Each wallet is folded by a laser-cut German waterproof kraft paper, which is also tear-resistant. The material and folding method make it extremely durable and environmental friendly.

Designing of folding method and laser-cut drawing are the hardest part for designers at the beginning. Finally 2 best prototypes were chosen from 5. After several iteration of testing and reviewing, the final designs were confirmed by team.

Each designer is responsible for diffrenrent aspect of product according to their personal expertise. 2 for product developing and 1 for website building. I am mostly in charge of marketing strategies and photography. Team meeting is hold once a week for reviewing the development together.

Real Product

Branding & Promoting

Self-reflection

Achievement

1.Platforms. Piecefold has a carefully designed website which links to Taobao, the biggest e-commerce platform in China. Customers see the products on our website and review the comments on Taobao and finally pay by Alipay. This loop makes the shopping so easy and the website helps us stand out from ordinary goods from Taobao. We also create a Wechat and a Weibo promoting account. By sharing and endorsing the promotion on the social media, sales volume grows quickly. At the same time, we are also exposed on traditional media like The Bund Pictorial. On the other hand, we work with some design retail stores as well.

2.Fashion. As young oriented fashion accessory, cool and different are necessary. Design thinking and branding are used into every segment of product to improve the value. We invited 2 cool models and carefully made the photography, together with sharp slogans, making it very eye-catching in a professional way. We are claimed to be young, unique, cool, concerning environment and moderate. Features like pure folding and tear-resistant paper are attractive to the audience.

Piecefold was a great experience for individual designers to challenge from design to commerce. This is a big further step to my old project “Poppop case“, at least in a commercial way. Team work is extraordinary. Every designer shows his personal expertise. It is never so smooth to make everyone align when making decisions, but working with disagreements, listening to others, learning to compromise are the most remarkable experience for me in this project.

Till the end of 2014, Piecefold are sold over 500 pieces. It is available at www.piecefold.com.

year

keywords

co-designer

context

2012

vacuum foaming, e-commerce, branding

Gap Chow, Kenny Leung

POPPOP Bubble Case was a project I participated during the exchange in Hong Kong.

"Poppop" Bubble Case

Brief

Initial Ideas

Development

Design Direct is a project which provides an opportunity to students to create their own personal design brand and develop an on-line profile and network. Students need to create an e-commerce web site to market and sell their own proprietary products.

This project is more commercial concerned. Good designs will be selected to SDWORKS, which is a real commercial design platform promoted by School of Design.

We were inspired by bubble wrap: it has a function of protecting, on the other hand, everyone enjoys the amusement of popping bubble wrap! We would like to apply this texture to the cases of e-products.

At first we would like to apply silicon to our products, but the prototype doesn't look good. Then we turned to PVC skin and vacuum foaming.

We tried to build a solid cane wood mold by the CNC machine, and find some good PVC skins in the market. We found that the bubble shape of the first prototype was not clear enough, even we used longer vacuum foaming time. To solve this, we drilled many tiny air holes on the mold. Then we stitch the joint of 2 layers carefully inside. There are 4 colours of the cases, transparent, translucent, black and brown. For black and brown ones, they have double layers of PVC and one layer of neoprene inside to improve the protection.

Real Product

Branding & Promoting

Achievement

Self-reflection

We gave the name POPPOP to the product and designed a logo according to the bubble wrap pattern, also the packaging. We came up with 3 sentences to brand the products as well. And invited a model and a photographer and got some cool product photos.

Then we bought a domain name and built a website for POPPOP. We uploaded some good photos to that. Visitors are able to check the products and directly buy the products on the website. Chinese people can also buy the products from Taobao, the biggest online C2C market in China.

We also made full use of social media such as Facebook to promote the products. The page is linked to the website and got 150 likes in total. The feedbacks are really encouraging.

POPPOP Bubble Case was one of the 3 SDWORKS promoted new products in 2013 and put into production.

Now it is available in the market: http://sdworks.sd.polyu.edu.hk/poppop-sd

POPPOP was the first commercial brand I joined. I really enjoy working for myself. This is the first time I experienced how passionate and amazing design can be.

I learned more than I expected during this project. Not only the 3d-modeling and website building works I took, but also how to work with a team, how to express your ideas, how to brand your product to customers, and, how to enjoy design.

year

designed for

keywords

co-designer

context

2013

Zebra Stationary

3D print, fun, brand study

n/a

This project was a under a product brand study of Zebra.

Pocket Highlighter

ZEBRA

ZEBRA

ZEBRA

ZEBRA

Brief

Initial Idea

Product

Design a new pen according to an existing pen. Students study the product line, design language, think about the relation between products, brand and usage. Final model will be 3D printed.

I aimed at the Mini LiteRite model of ZEBRA company. This cute double-side pen is somehow a accessory for bags or key rings. But it still has some problems, for example the body it too short for gripping. I would add a bit fun features and try to solve the existing problems.

Finally I decided to develop the "bending pen" among the 2D drawings of double-side pen, since it lengthen the body in a smart and fun way. It solves the existing problem of the mini LiteRite. It can be a cool accessory as well. It looks like 2 pens but actually it is 2 in 1. The bending part is made of special rubber with a metal structure inside. We can see the design language of the father model.

It can be hung on the bag or work as a bookmark.

3. Furniture

A-stool X-stool

year

keywords

co-designer

context

2012

plywood bending

Michael Hoosen

A-stool is a project I did in Furniture Design course in Hong Kong.

A-stool

Brief

Initial Ideas

The course introduces strategies for designing furniture and manufacture. Students have 9 weeks to design and build a load bearing stool/s. Practical requirements such as stability, appropriate strength and comfort are emphasized. The fabrication of the stool should be planned around the tools available at the school where possible.

Both of us were fascinated in plywood bending, so we decided to design a plywood stool which shows the advantages of bending veneers. The final output should be a indoor furniture with light looking and people feel happy to have it.

Development

Self-reflection

Achievement

We chose this 2-piece-plywood dining room stool among the sketches, with one piece seat and one piece footrest. We name it A-stool according to the "A" shape.

In order to get the optimal data, we had a deep study of ergonomics and built a testing stool which the footrest can be adjusted.

The plywood bending technics were introduced by the studio technician. We built 2 molds for the seat and footrest and wet bent 5 layers of poplar veneer on each of them. The veneers were clamped to prevent air bubbles inside layers. The seat and footrest were connected by 4 screws. For better appearance, we hide the 4 screws under the wood skin outside. So screws are only visible inside the stool. The stool was polished and waxed before final delivery.

A-stool is the first time I work with wood. It was quite challenging at the beginning, since we didn't have any idea about the bending technics. The process is hard, but the final delivery is just amazing.

I appreciate tutorial of Scot Laughton and the help of my co-designer.

A-stool won the Honorable Mention of “DRAGON” Furniture Originality and Design Competition of 2013.

year

keywords

co-designer

context

2013

E-commerce, plywood bending

Yiding Zhang

X-stool is another stool design in my home university after A stool.

X-stool

Brief

Initial Ideas

Product

Self-reflection

3 weeks to design and build a stool made of wood. Students learn about ergonomics and human scale; appropriate materials; fabrication and manufacturing processes; and furniture traditions and typologies.

We design a stool for online market. We would like to show that e-shop furnitures can be not just cheap but also elegant. Small-packaging and easy-assembling are considered.

X-stool was named by its shape. The process of building was not as easy as A-stool due to the time limit and proper wood missing in the market. Finally we used 7 layers of 2mm poplar plywood for a good support. The structure is reliable but also elastic. Side of the seat can be hand rest.

The stool has 3 pieces and can be packed in a 600*250*250mm size box, which is acceptable for home delivery. The screw connection make it very easy to assemble.

Building X-stool is independent and more confident according to the early experience. It talks deeper about veneer bending method. The calculation of veneer deepths are much preciser than the ealry project.

600

250

4. Lamp & Lighting

Blow Lamp Focus

year

designed for

keywords

co-designer

context

Focus2014

Opple Lighting

out-of-focus effect, atmosphere lighting, secondary optical design

Ting Wang, Qi Wang

This project was desgined for Opple Student LED Design Competition 2013.

Brief

Initial Ideas

Development

Design a LED lighting for Chinese market. Students need to understand the features of LED, but also study and meet the Chinese living situation and lighting market.

We were fascinated by the out-of-focus effect of the photography, so we tired to apply this effect to create a home atmosphere lamp.

Out-of-focus effect has light dots from big to small, clear to blurred. This requires certain times of testing.

We create this effect by different distances between LEDs to the lampshade, which is also a screen for the effect. Each LED is surrounded by a short PVC pipe to create this effect.

OPPLE LED Design

Champion

Technical Details

Achievement

Self-reflection

The lamp has 1 lampshade and 3 heat sinks. 50 LEDs are located on those 3 metal heat sinks, since LED generates a lot heat . Each LED has a PVC pipe shell outside. Those pipes are in different diameters and length. Because of this secondary optical design, each LED lights up a different size of light dot on the front lampshade. The lights from back heat sink panels LEDs go through the holes on the front heat sink panel. So the front lampshade has different sizes and different sharpnesses of light dots, which looks like out-of-focus effect on the lampshade.

Focus Lamp won the 1st Prize of “OPPLE Student LED Lighting Design Competition“ of 2014.

The design process of Focus Lamp is an experience from fantasy to a real world object. We were happy that not only we won the 1st prize, but more importantly, we insisted the initial idea from the start to the end, and we were satisfied of the final delivery.

Through this project, we had indeed a better understanding our LED and LED industry. We have to say, lighting design is more rational and technical than just brightness or aesthetics, which is what we get from this design and Opple.

Improving possibility is: The diameter and length, these two parameters are enough to control the size and sharpness of light dots. 3 panels could be reduced to only 1.

heat sink

lampshade

year

design for

keywords

co-designer

context

2014

Opple Lighting

fun user interaction, light packaging, low-cost transportation, LED characters

Ting Wang, Qi Wang

This project was deigned for Opple LED design competition.

Blow Light

Brief

Initial Ideas

Self-reflection

Product

Design a LED lighting for Chinese market. Students need to understand the features of LED, but also study and meet the Chinese living situation and lighting market.

This design was inspired by LED features. It is a small and dazzling light source. We also want to lower the price by low cost packaging and delivery, since LED is still high priced to Chinese market.

I like this product because it is traditional and modern. Rice paper makes the new-tech light pure and elegant. The interaction is amazing too. LED is introduced to people by people play with it.

The lampshade is made of translucent and elegant Chinese rice paper.

The amazing point is the user interaction with the product. Users need to blow the lamp from 2D to 3D, which increase the amusement of the product. On the other hand, the packaging and delivery price become much lower.

5. Electronics

Family Panorama Video Phone "Photoaster" Printer Portable Speaker for Baby "Storm" Washer

2011

Sony China

care, Chinese context, home alone kids, communication

Qiulong Yu, Yulin Tu

This project was during the 2012 "SONY Student Design Workshop". 14 students were selected to the workshop to work with

Sony product designers.

year

work with

keywords

co-designer

context

Family Panorama Video Phone (for Chinese home alone kids)

Brief

Initial Ideas

The topic of the SONY workshop in 2012 was "care". And the sub-topic of our group was "care for kids".

Students need to work together for a concept product with the help of Sony designers. The design should be based on Chinese context. A real size model and a demonstration movie of the final concept will be delivered.

Chinese people take family very important. However, since the imbalance of economy in different areas of China, many young parents have to work in another city. The children of them are called home alone children, which take 22% of 250 million kids in total[1]. Since this is a big social problem, we aimed at these home alone kids.

We would like to design a portable device to help them communicate with their parents. Kids would be able to share their mood with their parents, and parents would be able to check the condition of kids in anytime.

[1] http://money.163.com/13/0504/00/8U071DNB00253B0H.html

shake to call receive a call vibrating to note touch to adjust view charge

On/Off

Microphone

Panorama Display

Panorama Lens

Speaker

Supported

ON/OFF botton

with light

双曲面的显示屏目前还没有，圆锥形倒是可以实现

如果手握的地方有很大的按键的话肯定会造成误操作的

Development

Product

Self-reflection

Video

We spent a lot time on the ergonomics and form language of the product. We would like to apply the panorama camera and display to the concept, in order that parents and kids can see each other as well as the environment. The product need to have a handle for easy grip of kids. All these factors determine how the product look like.

The concept product has a panorama camera and screen on the body. A switch and a microphone locate on the handle. Speaker is on the top.

It starts a call by shaking. Once the other side gets a call, it starts vibrating. It can be used in hand or on the table. The direction of the display is linked to the gravity sensor.

This workshop was the first time I work with professionals from a commercial company. This gave me a great glimpse of how designers in company work and think, which is much different than school works. We talked more about the necessity of functions, 3D language of a brand, CMF of a product etc. It was a great experience.

vimeo.com/85278221

year

keywords

co-designer

context

2013

digital photo frame, photo printer, user experience, user interaction

Liwei Liu, Wenwei Lv, (individual work for UI design)

A project of product design in Tongji University.

"Photoaster" Printer

Brief

Initial Ideas

Development

Design a printer and its UI system. Students need to think not only the product but also the environment and what people to use.

The project includes 3 parts. First, each students generates 10 sketches of different concepts. Second, 3 person group to choose the best concept among those 30 ideas and develop the best one. A 1:1 mock-up is required. Third, each student design a UI system to the printer and demonstrate how to use.

The keywords we agreed were: "home" and "photo". We would like to design a home photo printer for young people.

Young people are social creatures and love taking photos. People can print the good photos easily for memorizing and showing.

Printers are always "dead" somewhere at home. Since some photo printer has a preview screen already, why don't enlarge the screen to a digital photo frame? So even in non-working time, the printer can be used as a digital photo frame.

The idea of toaster was a concept of mine. I think the language of a toaster and a printer are the same, because people insert something raw to a machine, then you get something processed from the machine. And it is FUN! Everybody likes toaster. So let's do a "photoaster".

There are 4 kinds of controling for Photoaster: Push-button down, Knob forward, Knob backward, Knob inside. Push-button is only for printing the current photo. Knob turning is for next and previous. Knob inside is for confirming.

The menu bar is always on the right side. You can select by turning the knob. Easy edits are supported such as brightness, contrast, crop, skin beautification or even photo filters. Users can even create a favorite album and display in any way. If you want to print the current photo, you can directly push down the push-button, or you can send it to a printing queue and print later together. Once a SD card is inserted or a camera is connected, importing will be activated. Then selected photos can be imported to the local storage. By fast turning of the knob, we get fast view mode. In this mode, photos are flowing in a smaller size and more photo info can be seen on the side.

Product

Video

User Interface Design

As the mock-up shows, the photoaster printer has a big screen in the front, which can be a digital photo frame in spare time.

The push button is a start for printing the current photo. The knob has 3 functions. Turning for previous or next item, while pushing for confirming the current item.

It has a cable for power source and SD, USB card slots for importing photos. Good photos will be selected and displayed by the digital photo frame.

vimeo.com/85351232

Photo Playing

Photo Printing

Print Current

Previous/Next

Fast Photo Flow

Import SelectedImport AllFast Print

Delete CurrentAdd to Print QueuePrint QueueAdd to FavoriteBrowse FavoriteEditSave to SDSettings

Knob Push In

SD Connected

Knob Turning(Fast)

Knob Turning(Slow)

Push Down Print AllDelete

Print Delete

CropRotateBrightnessContrastSkin BeautifyFrameFilter

LanguagePlayDisplayTime

1:13:24:316:9

Play SpeedTransition EffectPlay RuleAuto Rotate

Set TimeUptime

Insert Paper Printing Finishing Back to Previous

year

designed for

keywords

co-designer

context

2013

JBL speaker

baby, early education, hearing damage, Chinese market

n/a

This project was a JBL design workshop in Tongji University.

Portable Speaker for Baby

1985 1996 2012

2.1% 5.2% 35.1%

Months of Age

Hearing Threshold

(dB)

<3

60-70

3-4

50-60

4-7

40-50

9-13

25-35

13-16

25-30

16-21

25-30

21-24

<25

1400

20,00020

1955 1966 1989

0

5000000

10000000

15000000

20000000

25000000

30000000

1929年

19

30年

19

31年

19

32年

1933年

1934年

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19

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19

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19

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20

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20

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20

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20

09年

Brief

Research

Development

Product

Design a speaker for Chinese market 5 years later basing on the early research of JBL and Chinese market.

According to the statistics, the latest baby boom in China was in 1989. In 2012, the average childbearing age of Chinese woman was 29, which means, the next baby boom happens in 2018 probably.

On the other hand, the educational spending of urban family total spending grows from 2.1% in 1985 to 35.1% in 2012. We conclude that the baby’s market is a big market.

Baby's ears are super sensitive. According to the study, nonstop sound louder than 65db will be harmful to baby's ears. Another study shows, sound frequency from 60Hz to 4000Hz is will be good to babes, which takes only a small part of the hearing range. Normal speakers cannot take this job, due to the sub-woofers or high frequency modules.

The hearing threshold also changes by the months of age, which means, in the first 3 months, sound loudness less than 60db might be unheard to babes. However, at the age of 21 months, babes only need 25db to catch, which is the same as adults.

The shape of the product comes from wind bell. It can be hung on the pram, hung on the wrist or even put on the table.

The power port hides in the handle where cable goes through. It has 3 buttons for basic play control. The volume is adjusted by twisting the body, which is also for On-Off. In the back it reads from 4M(months) to 1M(month) and Max, meaning low volume to max volume, according to the study of hearing threshold of babes.

It is covered by “bite safe” silicon for the safety issue. The bottom is hollow inside, which protects the “bell” when falling down.

[3] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,605485-1,00.html http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/spldose.htm http://www.healthofchildren.com/G-H/Hearing-Impairment.html http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/53343-6-hearing-damage-bass

19661955 1989

[1] 3 Baby Booms in Chinese History

[2] Eduactional Spending of Urban Families

[3] Safe loudness and frequency of sound for babes

[4] Hearing threshold of baby by month age

[1] The China Population Statistical Yearbook 1929-2009 [2] http://money.hexun.com/2012-10-30/147401524.html[4] http://wenku.baidu.com/view/9e840c6f1eb91a37f1115ccc.html

Workshop

year

designed for

keywords

co-designer

context

2012

Whirlpool

water saving, cone shape tab, non-hole inner tab,

Ting Wang, Zhanzhao Liang, Jie Yang

This project was a washing machine workshop of Whirlpool.

“STROM” Washing Machine

Initial Ideas

Product

Cone-shaped Tub

Traditional washing machine is like a box at the corner. But we would like to have a one that gives you a pleasant experience and powerful feeling. More importantly, it would be sustainable and reasonable.

We were inspired by juicer and the glass cup, whose inner surface is a cone shape.

Except for the cone-shaped tubs, STORM has a transparent body so that you can enjoy the view of clothes dancing in the machine.

The UI system is interacted by touch screen on the top cover. The smart machine will generate a best washing solution by just telling it what clothes are inside.

The inner tub of the washing machine was designed as cone-shaped. It is good in 3 ways.

Water-saving. Traditional top load washers have an inner tub and an outer tub. Water is held by the outer tub. While for STROM, the tubs are cone-shaped instead of cylinder. Water is held by the inner tub, which means, for the same washing quantity, it saves at least 1/8 water than traditional ones.

Spin-dry. Traditional top load washers dry clothes by spinning the inner tub. Water escapes from the holes on the inner tub. So the space between the 2 tubs will be dirty after years. While for STORM, since the inner tub doesn't have any holes, when spin-drying clothes, water escapes from the top and goes away between the 2 cone-shaped tubs. (Traditional water outlet locates at the bottom.)

Easy-picking. Traditional top load washer is too deep for kids or short women in Asia. While for STORM is much easier due to its cone-shaped tubs. The eye angle is soft as well.

water-saving

clean tub & spin-dry

easy-packing

Workshop

6. Food & Packaging

Seed + Teabag

year

designed for

keywords

co-designer

context

2014

MUJI

sustainability, green living, light packaging, user experience

Yu Su

This project was for MUJI International Design Competition. The design follows the philosophy of MUJI.

Seed + Tea bag

Brief

Concept

Packaging (touching the seed)

The theme for this year’s awards will be “Long Lasting Design for Living.” MUJI is looking for designs suited to a modern lifestyle that incorporate the wisdom of past traditions, with a view of longevity where such designs will exist for the next 10, 50, even 100 years. The awards event was held in China where rapid development and long history coexist, a land where tradition and future intersect.

Tea is so important for Asians, it is not simply a drink to us, but also a drink about culture and spirit. The seed together with the tea bag, is what we do to nature as return. We get ourselves refreshed from the tea leaves, we contribute to nature as well.

A crucial part of the design is the packaging. 8 tea bags are covered by a Chinese rice paper package. Each seed is covered by a tag linked to the tag bag. Seed tags are connected to the packaging by tearing lines.

People tear off tea bags by touching the seed. People feel the seed in his hand. This is a interesting user interaction with the seed, since this is a green motivation rather than just a cup of tea.

As for sealing and drying issue, a bag of desiccant will be in the package and the opening is carefully glued as well. One set is encouraged to be drinked up within 1 week. The opened opening can be closed by folding as well.

Design Competition

7. Service

Package Sorting System Design

year

design for

keywords

co-designer

context

2013

YTO Express

user research, system design, service design

Jie Yang, Zhoufei Zhu, Yang Xue, Jian Zhou

This social project is called "Fixperts". Our fixpartner is a staff of YTO Express.

Package Sorting System Design

vimeo.com/67875699

Brief

Fixpartner & Problem

Research

Fixperts is a open social project which creates content that encourages people to use the power of fixing to solve everyday problems. Students define a fixpartner and his problem and talk to the fixpartner and try to understand the real value of the fixpartner. Design something that really helps solve the problem. Students should make a clear connection between design and problem solving.

Our fixpartner is a young staff of YTO Express called Fan Zhao. His daily work is taking all the packages to the campus from the company, sending SMS to the students, waiting them to take their packages.

His problem was, since there are too many packages, many students couldn't find their packages and he was always busy searching packages for them. Some people are even angry at him because they cannot find the package.

We started to study how it was so hard to find packages.

Daily works: Zhao goes to company in the morning and get all the packages for that day. Then arrives the site in the campus. After unloading, he sends SMSs to the students and sorts the packages on the ground. Then waits there till 6:00 PM and takes the rest of the packages back to the company.

Site: There is a large area under a glass roof in the campus. 6 to 7 different express companies unload the packages here. Each company has a certain area. YTO Express in one of the biggest. It has more than 300 packages per day.

Sorting system: After careful study, the crucial point is the sorting system. Once the sorting system is refined, students find their packages without the help of Zhao. Students feel convenient, and Zhao has lower workload on the other hand.

Video

Old Sorting System

Old New

New Sorting System

Feedback

Since Chinese names are either 2 characters or 3 characters. Old way of sorting was, packages were selected into 2 groups. And a big family name will be written on the express form. The sorting and SMS sending are finished at the same time. Students go to 2-character group or 3-character group to find there family names.

It is difficult in 2 ways. First since there are too many people share the same family names in China, students need to always bend over and check the full name on the packages. Second, some handwriting is too hasty to recognize. So people get annoyed after several minutes.

We started to think, what information can identify a person apart from names? We got the phone numbers. We use the last 2 numbers of the phone to identify.

Number is better than character in 3 ways. First, number is more recognizable than character. Second, phone number has less chance that 2 people share the same one. Third, phone number is more natural to write for Zhao after he sending SMSs.

In the new system, packages are sorted into 3 groups: 00-39. 40-69, 70-99. So each group has less packages than before, and it doesn't increase Zhao's work load too much. We also made a signs for each group.

We tested the new way of sorting by card model to prove the effectiveness. Then we apply the new system to the YTO Express.

The new system is proved to be a great success. The feedback are really positive from Zhao and the students. Now, even all express companies in the campus follow the new system we designed.

We are amazed at how design change people’s life. We feel happy to fix the problem of Zhao and Tongji students also benefit from it.

8 Transportation

E-scooter Auditory Design Campus Paving Design

year

keywords

co-designer

context

2012

sound, safety, Chinese context, instrument

Vlad Alukhannov, Johannes Eisbrenner, Meile Le, Xueqing Li, Luosijia Wang, Sha Sha

This is an international workshop between students from Köln International School of Design and Tongji University.

E-scooter Auditory Design

44

Sounda ssociating vehicles

AcceptancePerception

Emergency Bell

Wake-Up Sound

Abrasive sound

Natural Sound

Voice

Clear Sound

Engine

Horn

Road Noise

Ideal Sound for

Approaching Vehicle

Audible System

・

・

・

・

・

・

・

・

・

Wall Wall

1kHz 4kHz500Hz Frequency

Volume

Frequency shows speed: As we know, different frequency of sound has different characters. Low frequency sound goes through obstacle due to the diffraction effect, which is good for the e-scooter. However, high frequency sound with unidirectionality and human ears are sensitive to it. Due to the study[1], the variation of sound from low frequency to high frequency is more recognizable. And it is harder to be masked by the background noice. A good solution is, the frequency of sound shows the speed, just like the engine sound from a normal scooter. Pedestrains know the speed of vehicle, the distance between each other, and the driving condition as well.

Problem

"Play with design"

Research

Chinese e-scooter are almost no sound, which is a big safety issue to the pedestrians. Students need to work together and design an accessory of e-scooter to solve the problem.

Our motto is "Who wants to learn, has to play." So the project and cooperation had to be fun. We would apply physical influence and natural sound to the e-scooter .

As the project is facing to Chinese transportation problem, we would like to combine the traditional Chinese instruments with the scooter to make sound, which more natural to Chinese.

Danger in quiet: The driving condition and environment are different in China and Germany. In Germany, e-scooters have sound. People are well-equipped to drive on the scooter lane. However, in China, e-scooters are mostly quiet. Scooters and bikes share the same lane. The interesting point we found out is, danger doesn't really happen on the big noisy and messy street, however it often occurs on the small quiet road. Because on the quite road, pedestrians are less careful than on the big street. This means, the sound device doesn't need to be too loud. It would be good enough to prevent dangers in quiet.

Best sound for e-scooter: Another question is, what is the best sound for a e-scooter? According to the study of YAMAHA[1], the best sound for approaching vehicle has 3 aspects: Sound associating vehicles, perception and acceptance. Which means people need to know it is a coming vehicle by the sound, people need to be alarmed by the sound, people need to feel pleased with the sound. This is why we choose instrument for the sound source.

[1] http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2010/wp29grb/QRTV-03-04e.pdf

Chinese-German

Workshop

The second concept is combined with Chinese yoyo, which creates whistle sound in its high-speed revolution by its special inner structure. The Chinese yoyo was binded on the tire, so that the yoyo turns with the wheel. The faster the e-scooter goes, the higher frequency of sound we get.

The third concept is combined with bamboo cicada, which generates sound by spinning the cicada part. The vibration comes from the nylon and the stick, while the cicada is acutally an amplifier of the vibration. In this concept, the nylon is connected on the axis of the wheel, the vibration from the axis goes to the red amplifier. The sound also changes according to the speed.

The fourth concept is also the conclusion we got. In China we have the bell set. We designed a rail on the bell set and put a glass ball on the rail. We adjust this device to a sensitive condition then install it on the front of an e-scooter. What will happen is, every time changing the direction, a sound of "do re mi fa sol" or "sol fa mi re do" will be generated by rolling of the glass ball.

This is smart in 2 ways. First, the sound shows which side of direction it turns. More importantly, danger always happens by changing the direction. This eliminate the constant sound of the earlier concepts. The sound contains a wide range of frequency as well. And it is fun.

Development

Conclusion

The fist concept is combined with wood fish, the traditional Chinese buddhistic instrument. A wood fish and the stick are binded on the wheel structure, while a small knocking stop is attached on the wheel. So by each round of the wheel, the knocking stop hits the stick and creates a sound of woodfish. The faster the wheel turns, the higher frequency of sound we get.

year

designed for

keywords

co-designer

context

2013

Tongji University

paving, biomimicry, pedestrians and bikes, natural sense

Anne Philipp, Kristina Trautner Nielsen, Christina Wadstrøm, Frederikke Udesen-hansen, Yu Su, Mingmin Huang

This workshop is an international cooperation between Tongji students and Dannish students from Designskolen Kolding.

Campus Paving Design

Brief

Biomimicry

Initial Idea

Transportation design for Tongji University. The final delivery has a design of product and a design of communication. The final output will be displayed in the Nordic Design Week Shanghai 2013.

We learn from nature, since nature is much elder than human and logical in many ways. We were inspired by the way fish gracefully move together without bumping into each other. In the river, fishes in the middle swim faster while on the side slower.

So why not bikes go in the middle of the road and pedestrians go on 2 sides.

We were focusing on the problem that, in the campus, since the road is narrow, bicycles and pedestrians always share the same road. There are no specific lanes for each other.

We would like to divide pedestrians and bikes to go on the correct part of the campus road.

The paving module should be sustainable.

Chinese-Danish

Workshop

Nordic Design Week

Shanghai 2013

How does it work?

Sustainability

As the plaster mock-up shows, a group of Tongji Stones creates a flat surface. However, bikes and pedestrians are divided by different paving layout.

In the middle of the road, paving is horizontal, which is good for biking. While on 2 sides, paving becomes vertical, which is not comfortable for biking, since the holes are too big for bike tires. As for pedestrians, the holes are narrower than foot width, which is acceptable for walking.

Pedestrians and bikes are divided in a natural way instead of using warning signs.

Tongji stone is made of concrete, which looks natural to the world. Wasted modules can by smashed into small stones for recycling of next generation.

Green plants can be planted in the holes. The grass we chose was sedum lineare thunb. This little green thing is very strong and it cleans the dust in the air. It blooms for 2 months each year.

There is also a water cleaning system under the paving. Rain water will be collected and cleaned and sent to Tongji river.

vimeo.com/85278219

Video

pedestrians pedestriansbikes

8. Others

Chinese Seal Carving Art Ikebana (Japanese Flower Art) 2D & 3D rendering

Chinese Seal Carving Art

IkebanaJapanese flower art

Sketches & 2D Renderings

Logitech

Logitech