Aman+Takhar


 * __WEEK 1 TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT__

Inside the Apple iPod Design Triumph** http://www.designchain.com/testprint.asp?issue=summer02&template=coverstory Question: Describe the unusual business model used in the iPod's fabrication as developed by Apple. http://www.designmuseum.org/design/jonathan-ive Question: What distinguishes the work of the team of Jobs and Ive in relation to products designed by Apple? What new materials are enabling different design? An in-depth look at the man behind Apple's design magic http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39/b4002414.htm Question: Describe the importance of Apple's design team. Are other companies trying to compete with Apple by creating their own design teams?
 * Answer: The design of the iPod is said to be constructed and designed with no input from Apple. This would be a huge mistake to assume because the Ultimate circuit design was still Apple’s as far as any outsider can tell. Apple’s unusual business model used in the IPod’s fabrication is unusual because of the reliance on a third party named PortalPlayer for the platform and reference design for the iPod. Apple picked this third party PortalPlayer because they had the best overall performance and highest quality of sound according to other industry sources. Overall, Apple’s unusual business model allowed them to focus on form factors and user interfaces. That has been one of Apple’s strength; they know how to make a high-tech product consumer friendly.**
 * Jonathan Ive at the Design Museum**
 * Answer: New materials that are created new designs include Polymer advances now enable the creation of composites to meet very specific functional goals and requirements. From a processing point of view we can now do things with plastic that were told were impossible. The work between Jobs and Ive has relation with the products that are designed because the core values of the company were restored when Steve Jobs re-established order and returned to the company. Design and innovation formed an important part of this new direction and Ive became more influential and effective.**
 * Who Is Jonathan Ive?**
 * Answer: The importance of Apple’s design team is that the designs of products have to be user friendly and have to have its own sleek design. Without the hard work of Apple’s design team, their products such as iPod wouldn’t really be award winning design because it could be like any other MP3 player on the market. Other companies are trying to compete with Apple because Apple focuses on few products and rely so heavily on few individuals; it can address only so many markets. But then, most companies don’t have the focus, skill, nor appetite for risk to build mass-produced products.

__WEEK 2 TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT__**

- The applied science of equipment design, as for the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort. - Design factors, as for the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by minimizing operator fatigue and discomfort. - The branch of engineering science in which biological science is used to study the relation between workers and their environments. == Read each of the task analyses and case studies at .Choose one of the case studies, and add an additional recommendation to one of them in step two as 'advice'. - Advice for : Creating bigger parking lots with more parking spaces will improve accessibility for customers traveling to the centre from the car park. ==
 * List the three definitions of 'ergonomics’ **

- ** An example of an ergonomically sound product is the S’Ergo Shoulder Assist. The Shoulder Assist by Sound Ergonomics helps reduce fatigue by supporting the sonographer’s arm and shoulder during prolonged periods of arm abduction. It allows for full range of movement and can easily be rolled out of the way when not in use. More information can be found at: http://www.soundergonomics.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16200&cat=0&page=1&featured ** Choose a country on the web site's map, and read through the description of the products designed for that country. ** List five characteristics of socially responsible product design. North America: 1. Solar dish kitchens are good socially responsible design because solar heating, solar cooking, and photovoltaic panels allow kitchens to go off the grid and can save a lot of power. 2. Mad Housers huts are in idea locations as landowners do not tear them down but tend to give permission for them to be builty 3. Day Labour Stations make it easy for labourers to have meetings and organized classes without having any staff present 4. Computer access, including Internet services being provided at a low cost through the ADM Personal Internet Communicator.
 * Find an example of a product which is ergonomically sound, and add a link to an article about this product.
 * __WEEK 3 TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT__**

5. Products such as LifeStraw is a water-purification tool that is mobile and therefore convenient to use.
__**WEEK 4 TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT**__ Annie Leonard defines the system of the ‘material economy’ as the underside facts about production and consumption. Leonard basically explains that in the economy there are limits that no one sees. It is not as simple as going into a radio shack and buying a radio for 4.99. Leonard explains that it is not the consumer’s who are paying for the products; there is a long chain of events that lead up to the manufacturing of that product. The people who are paying the price are the people who suffer because of all the natural resources we use to put that product through production. Her argument is that we are using too much of our resources in the world. Her example is that United States has 5% of the world’s population but uses 30% of the world’s resources. The United States’ response to this situation is to go take the resources from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is third world countries.

Consumption is explained by Leonard as the heart of the ‘materials economy’. She states that majority of the populace now has the primary title of being a consumer. Consumption is known as the important middle function of the ‘materials economy’ because consumers are always shopping and therefore the cycle of materials are always flowing. The reason the word flow is so important is because materials that are bought by consumers more or less end up in the garbage. Only 1% of products that are bought are kept in use after 6 months of the purchase date. This means all the materials that are harvested, mined, cropped and even transported for manufacturing purposes, 99% of those products manufactured are disposed of within 6 months.

At the end of her video, Leonard provides a solution to the environmental and social issues surrounding the ‘materials economy’. A few points of intervention that she discusses are people working on saving forests, the environmental, labour rights, and even conscience consuming. The issues in the video can be reversed but Leonard states it must be a joint effort through sustainability, equity, green chemistry, zero waste, closed loop production, renewable energy, and local living economies. A direction is needed in the cycle to stop the waste of natural resources and to limit the perceived obsolescence so individual stop throwing out products that they think are useless but really they are still hold lots of value and are usable.

__ **Week 6 Tutorial Articles** __ The first definition of the primary stage of adoption is the enthusiast stage. This stage is where the technology is first exploited. The technology is geared towards enthusiast users which greatly appreciate the technology and enjoy exploiting it. In terms of the camera example, David Liddle explains that the camera was difficult to use and required a PhD in optics to use the camera.

The second definition of the second stage of adoption is the professional stage. Where enthusiasts get their hands on a product or technology, one of them will think that there is a practical way to use it in their own work. For example with the 35mm camera, from being an expensive exquisite camera, all photographers started using it. Also the camera became stabilized because the lens and buttons became user friendly. Stabilization of controls became highly manual

The third definition of the final stage of adoption is the consumer phase, when the technology is developed for enough for people to enjoy at an accessible price. In this stage, the priorities for the product change and that most of the important controls become automatic. With the 35mm camera example, if the camera has a film, it will be read automatically and set the exposure and flash automatically. It is an easy as a chimpanzee taking a picture.

__**Week 7 Tutorial Articles**__  
 * Mat Hunter defines interaction architecture as some extensible series of rules that would allow not just one camera to be designed but a whole a series of them. This would be communicated through a user experience prototype that would make it experiential for the user. Rikako Sakai defines interaction architecture by redesigning the screen behaviours for PhotoStitch. She did this by using tab user interface instead of step by step to make it easier for user to understand because the structure in the previous versions were not visible to the user. **