MASTERPROEVEN 2017 - 18
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN DE INDUSTRIELE WETENSCHAPPEN INDUSTRIEEL ONTWERPEN
THE DESIGN OF A RASPBERRY GRIPPER FOR AN AUTONOMOUS HARVESTING ROBOT
CONTEXT Worldwide, around 800.000 tons of raspberries are produced each year. Automation in this industry EPFT FYJTU B NFDIBOJDBM IBSWFTUFS FRVJQQFE XJUI TIBLFS รฐOHFST JT VTFE UP IBSWFTU SBTQCFSSJFT #VU UIJT XBZ PG IBSWFTUJOH JT OPU TVJUBCMF GPS UIF TBMF PG GSFTI SBTQCFSSJFT 5IBU JT XIZ UP UIJT EBZ IBSWFTUJOH SBTQCFSSJFT GPS UIF GSFTI NBSLFU JT EPOF CZ NBOVBM MBCPS #VU UIF GBSNJOH TFDUPS IBT TPNF TUSVDUVSBM JTTVFT 5IFSF BSF SFHVMBS MBCPS TIPSUBHFT JO WBSJPVT DPVOUSJFT BSPVOE UIF XPSME BOE BQQSPYJNBUFMZ IBMG of the farm labor force exists out of unauthorized workers. .FBOXIJMF UIF QSFTFODF PG BVUPOPNPVT IBSWFTUJOH SPCPUT IBT HSPXO TJHOJรฐDBOUMZ JO SFDFOU ZFBST #VU UIFSF JT BMNPTU OP SFTFBSDI TQFDJรฐDBMMZ GPDVTJOH PO B HSJQQFS GPS BVUPNBUFE SBTQCFSSZ IBSWFTUJOH GPS UIF GSFTI NBSLFU 5IJT NBTUFSnT UIFTJT XJMM DIBOHF UIBU "VUPNBUJOH UIF NBOVBM IBSWFTUJOH PG SBTQCFSSJFT DBO MFBE UP CPUI UJNF BOE DPTU TBWJOHT #VU B SBTQCFSSZ JT WFSZ GSBHJMF BOE RVBMJUZ NVTU CF HVBSBOUFFE EVSJOH QJDLJOH *O BEEJUJPO QJDLJOH NVTU CF EPOF RVJDLMZ BOE FGรฐDJFOUMZ UP DSFBUF BO economically feasible model.
ANALYSE
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DESIGN OF A PHYGITAL PRODUCT/SERVICE TO AUGMENT THE USER EXPERIENCE IN THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY
CAR by: CHRIS LUCHOWIEC (BOT)
CONTEXT The relationship between car and user is changing rapidly. With the advent of autonomous vehicles, a number of new design and experience considerations have arisen. New models of responsibility and vehicle relationships emerge in an era where the vehicle becomes a passive transportation medium rather than an active driving experience. In this master thesis, research is done on what new services can be part of this transformation and how this will translate to navigating through different means of transportation. How can we integrate User Experience into products and services that combine the digital with the physical? The context in which will be designed was set using a scenario exercise, proposed by D. Gosselin and B. Tindermans. This exercise clearly showed two rising trends in the automotive sector: car sharing and autonomous vehicles. To achieve a consistent and clear scenario these two factors were put to their extremes and the following scenario was obtained: ‘a future where every car is shared and drives autonomous’. In this future context will be designed.
USER RESEARCH
photo: Bosh .
SHARING AUTONOMY photo: Bosh
To achieve User Experience integrated into a new service, a User Centered Design Methodology was essential. Throughout the master thesis, users were highly involved at different stages of the design process. First, in order for the designer to know which area to design in, qualitative semi-structured interviews were held to determine the user’s needs & wishes in the present context. This was done using various stimuli to provoke as much reactions as possible. This way, many insights were gathered and a clear image was gained on all the needs of the participants. These were then examined to determine which needs and which wishes were timeless and would therefore still apply in the future context. Eventually, three main aspects determined the oppertunities of this studyt. It seemed important to create a trustworthy environment for both the user and his/her family. An enlightening feeling is strongly desired and stress is preferably avoided as users already undergo much stress in their everyday lives. Lastly, FREEDOM was the main topic discussed. The user’s need to feel like his/her actions are spontaneous and adventurous instead of thoughtfull and controlled turned out to be the most important aspect.
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
These insights led to three concepts each focussing on every insight in some way but with one dominating. During second interviews, the concepts were assessed with the users, using storyboards, and one was eventually selected to be elaborated completely during the final stages of the thesis.
RESULT The one concept that resulted out of all the research is the one responding to the freedom of the users. The car key is at the centre of this concept. When going from A to B the user has the freedom to determine HOW he wants to go to his/her destination. This way the drive from A to B becomes an experience itself. Possibilities are for the user to choose between routes ranging from a really relax route on a friday night to a historic route or shopping route in weekends. The in-car experience is then enhanced by giving the user exactly what he or she wants. This can be information on what the user sees when driving past it or simply adding comfort in the car to either relax or maybe work while driving.
USER EXPERIENCE
The role of the key in this story is to support this service wherever the user is, in and out of the car. It provides the user with a known feeling which gives him/her a sense of trust. Together with animations on the key interface this trust is paired with a warm feeling and lightens the users Experience sharing, be driven & feel free ! worries to a minimum.
UGENT PROMOTOR:
LEFEVRE STEFAN - stefan.lefevre@ugent.be ELLEN DE VOS - ehidvos.devos@ugent.be
TES TOOL
DEVELOPMENT OF A TOOL TO SUPPORT THE DESIGN PROCESS OF SUSTAINABLE TEMPORARY ART EXHIBITIONS
CONTEXT Sustainability is an expression and concept that has been triggering us, designers, for a long time now. Ever since ‘sustainable development’ was mentioned for the first time, a lot has happened. Designing with the environmental impact in mind, has been growing steadily and found its place in the design process. Several sustainable design strategies and methods have been developed to support this new way of thinking. However, exhibit designers do not seem to follow these developments with the same pace, especially when it comes to the design of temporary exhibitions. Although the demand for a deeper implementation of sustainable development views in the design of exhibitions is rising, the knowledge about the topic stays rather low. Design agencies, specialized in exhibit design, have a hard time figuring out the different aspects of sustainability and how they can implement these in the design process. Furthermore it works both ways, when design agencies ask their clients for a more specified explanation on the sustainable part of the assignment, they are left in the dark with vague answers. There are no clear guides and measure methods for sustainability available in this market segment which leads to difficult situations.
RESEARCH For this thesis, an analysis was made of sustainability and current temporary exhibition design to find out what can be done to combine the two. Therefore, research was done with a focus on different indicators of sustainability and the current situation of sustainability in temporary exhibitions and museums. This to create guidelines and insights for sustainable temporary exhibition design and to develop a system that supports the design process towards sustainability. Sustainability is a complex subject and sometimes hard to implement in the different design processes designers face today. It was important to make the system usable and intuitive for its users, a lot of information needs to be given to understand sustainability and its complexity. After research on different design and sustainability toolkits and the ability to upgrade the system with the most recent knowledge, the choice was made to bundle the guidelines and insights and visualise them in a mobilie application. A method to rate the sustainability performance of exhibitions was added, supported by key performance indicators, to avoid confusion and vagueness around the comparison of different projects on sustainability.
RESULT ‘TES tool’ was created to support the design process of temporary exhibitions towards sustainability. The application provides the designers of temporary exhibitions with tools and ‘tips and tricks’ towards sustainability during the whole lifecycle of the temporary exhibition. The lifecycle is therefore divided in 5 phases, these were observed during an internship at Bailleul design agency. These 5 phases are ‘Briefing’, ‘Creation’, ‘Exhibition’, ‘Debriefing’ and ‘Reflection’. Each phase helps the designers to reach a more sustainable temporary exhibition and expand the knowledge about sustainability. The most important phase is the ‘Creation’ phase, 10 sustainability indicators are given that can be applied to make the design of the temporary exhibition more sustainable . The measuring system, included in ‘TES tool’, consists out of two layers. The first layer is for the designers and gives an answer to the question ‘How many effort did we do to make the exhibition more sustainable?’. The second layer can be used by both the designers and stakeholders and measures the ‘sustainability performance’ of a project. This measuring system will clear out the vagueness around the different sustainability aspects and will make it possible to make a profound comparison between different temporary exhibitions based on ‘key performance indicators’ (the 10 sustainability indicators) accompanied by targets.
DE CONINCK HELLEN - HELLEN.DECONINCK@GMAIL.COM UGENT PROMOTOR: OSTUZZI FRANCESCA - FRANCESCA.OSTUZZI@UGENT.BE
SEEING THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES Research and design of a toolkit to support educational experiences on sustainability for designers Educational toolkit for sustainable design teachers using storytelling and design challenges
Fig. 1 : Overview methodology
CONTEXT
RESEARCH LITERATURE REVIEW
In order to move towards more sustainable scenarios, sustainable design should not be seen as an optional approach or merely a set of criteria to be met, but rather as an integral part of every design process. In reality however sustainable design is often still misunderstood or disliked. The aim of this thesis was therefore to explore how we can teach sustainable design in a more positive and effective way. Learning from the forest and working with mycelium were used as concrete starting points. Mycelium is the root system of fungi, which can be grown in a mold and can be used as a rapidly renewable, incredibly resilient and naturally biodegradable alternative for plastics. This thesis was conducted in cooperation with Bos+ within their project Maakbaar (how can Flemish design contribute to sustainable development worldwide?), and Glimps, a Ghent based company that engages in strategic transition towards more open and bio-based economies.
Sustainability/ Sustainable design (eco design, regenerative, biomimicry, . . .)
The journey from a very open research question to the resulting toolkit is visualised in fig. 1. First, the current situation was assessed. The biggest problem in sustainability education and sustainable design toolkits is that they don’t cultivate a positive sustainable mindset. Moreover, because it focuses mostly on the end result and facts and figures, it fails to teach how we can get to those solutions. We need sustainable design principles (fig. 2) that can be applied in the design process and approaches that encourage creativity rather than hold us back. Secondly, starting from the question “what can we learn from the forest?” posed by Maakbaar, the forest as a teacher and mycelium as an intuitive design exercise were explored. Using forest metaphors proves effective in communicating complex concepts, as well as to get people interested and motivated, but it lacks power because you cannot experience it. Mycelium appeals to designers because of its hands-on nature, and while it cultivates a more positive outlook on sustainability and lets you experience fundamental sustainability concepts, a theoretical foundation remains needed to achieve real understanding. This lead to the conclusion that to foster a positive, action-oriented sustainable mindset, we need to employ a combination of theory- based storytelling and design-oriented experiences. In the concept development phase, possible contexts and target users were explored through user centered design, in order to translate the gained knowledge and explored metaphors/design challenges (fig. 3) into a valuable concept. This resulted in the development of an educational toolkit (card deck) for sustainable design teachers. These experts have the required knowledge and passion to teach sustainability, but do not always have the tools to get that same understanding and motivation accross to their students and very little resources exist to help them.
RESULTS
CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND APPROACHES
BENCHMARK REVIEW Existing toolkits (OVAM SIS, Cambridge sustainability toolkit, SHIFT, . . .) educational toolkits
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE FOREST? Forest as a factory, Forest as a city, . . .
MYCELIUM RESEARCH
RESEARCH
SYNTHESIS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
Biomaterials Workshops
ROADMAP
TESTING
USER RESEARCH #2
MYCELIUM AS A METAPHOR CRITERIA CONCEPT > be positive & fun > inspire as well as create understanding > include a theoretical foundation > solve a need
evaluation mycelium projects 3IO students methodical design > written survey > rate projects (perception vs reality)
USER CENTERED DESIGN (UXD) COCREATION SESSIONS Experts who were consulted: Diederik Rousseau, Kristel Dewulf, Laure Devroey, Winnie Poncelet, Kristel Peters, Lucie Evers
Fig. 2 : Sustainable design principles
MAKING SEM 1 SEM 2
USER RESEARCH #1 online survey (professional designers) focus group (master students 4IO) informal conversations (design teachers, sustainability experts, . . . )
EXPLORATION > metaphors > design challenges
IDEATION #1 > communication (demonstrator) > gamification (in companies, free time designers)
IDEATION #2 > Experts as target group > educational toolkit
Fig. 3 : Metaphor and Design challenge content cads
DESIGN WITH & LEARN FROM NATURE POSITIVE IMPACT MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH DESIGN FOR COOPERATION THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL
IMPORTANCE OF NATURE
SYSTEM THINKING THINK IN TIME ACCEPT UNCERTAINTY SOLVE UNDERLYING PROBLEMS SMALL CHANGES, BIG IMPACT FIND FEEDBACK LOOPS DESIGN FOR RIGHT AMOUNT
OPEN ENDED DESIGN DESIGN FOR CHANGE DESIGN FOR (MIS)USE DESIGN FOR IMPERFECTION DESIGN FOR ADAPTABILITY DESIGN FOR MEANING OPEN ENDED PRODUCTION
Fig. 4 : One-on-One cocreation sessions with target users
The concept was evaluated and further developed through one-on-one cocreation sessions with 6 sustainable design and sustainability experts (fig. 5). It became clear that the tool solved a real need and that the proposed teaching method as well as the content were inspiring. During the cocreation sessions the toolkit was expanded to enable creating own stories/metaphors or design challenges. This resulted in the final concept: a one-person brainstorm kit to help sustainability teachers create more fun and effective lessons. It consists of a set of given metaphor and prompt cards, supplemented with goal cards and guidelines that help the teacher determine the focus & structure of the lesson. The goal, metaphor and prompt cards are divided into 3 lenses inspired by the determined fundamental sustainable design principles (fig. ). Lastly brainstorm tools were added to enable the teacher to create their own lessons, which include A3 templates and brainstorm buddy cards that help you get out of a creative block. In the future, an online database should be made that collects all created lessons to serve as resources for other teachers. While more testing needs to be done to further refine the user experience as well as evaluate the created lessons in practice, the toolkit can already bring us one step closer towards making sustainability an integral part of design: not just a necessity, but an opportunity and source of inspiration as well.
FAY DE HAAN - FAY.DEHAAN@ UGENT.BE UGENT PROMOTOR: FRANCESCA OSTUZZI - FRANCESCA.OSTUZZI@UGENT.BE
VALORISATION OF CHEESE WHEY Closing the loop of circular economy in food production
CONTEXT During the production of cheese there is a large residual flow called whey. Today cheese farmers throw away the whey directly into the sewer or throw it on the land. Knowing that 90% of the milk used for making cheese is whey and only 10% is actually cheese. Technically this makes cheese the residual product of whey and not vice versa. Whey contains the most important parts of the milk: - 4,5% lactose - 0,6% proteins - 0,5% minerals - 0,14% potassium There are two types of flavors in whey, sweet and sour. Sweet whey comes from salty hard cheeses and sour whey comes from cream cheeses. Depending on the type of cheese you are making, you need to add a type of rennet ands this decides the flavor of the whey. The shelf life of fresh whey is only 8 days and it needs to be cooled down under 5°. By closing the loop of cheese production it can contribute to the circular economy and stop the waste of valuable and usable nutrients.
Sweet
Sour
RESEARCH The methodology used to get to the wanted result consists of several steps. The main and most crucial step is the co-creation workshop with different cheese farmers from West Flanders, Wallonia and North France. The workshop includes explanation about whey, a flower association brainstorm in multiple groups to get new ideas, a voting for the top ideas with sticker dots and to end the workshop multiple SWOT’s and roadmaps of the top ideas were made. After the workshop all the new concepts are placed in a decision matrix, this is filled in by a couple of stakeholders and the top ideas pasta, bread and water ice are tested at home. This test food is then tested by several focus groups and blind tested by random people of different age groups. The result after the test was clear, bread scored best followed by water ice and the pasta is a no go. This result leads to a customer survey with different age groups to discover the bread consumption in Flanders. This showed that 50% throws bread away on a regular base, 30% of the people only eat white bread and 70% would pay more for a healthier variant of white bread that helps the local cheese farmers and contributes to stop the waste of food.
RESULT The end product “whey superbread” is a business plan for the cheese farmers and bakers. With this plan they can work together to end the loss of whey. This business plan includes the marketing campaign and branding of the bread, this to create a uniformity over all bakers. Also the financial aspect is included to make a real estimate of the expected costs. The bread contains some interesting beneficial facts, the main one is the shelf life of the bread. Because of the pH value of the whey, the bread has a longer shelf life of about 2-3 days more than an ordinary bread. The white variant is also a good solution for people who don’t like the taste of dark bread and want to eat a bread with better nutritional values. These are only small advantages of a bread with whey, the big advantage is improving the economy for the small artisan cheese maker. Nevertheless stopping the daily waste of valuable food. For many people whey is still an unknown product, which means the problem is also unknown. The population will be informed of this problem through the bread. Next to bread, whey can become a product that is well known and used in all kinds of products. Bread is a good start to spread the knowledge of whey, because it’s a daily product for a lot of the population. Whey is becoming a new superfood and can be a trending product today.
KIMBERLY FRANS - KIMBERLY.FRANS@UGENT .BE FRANCESCA OSTUZZI - FRANCESCA.OSTUZZI@UGENT.BE
DESIGNING AN INNOVATIVE OPEN-ENDED INTERACTIVE PLAY ENVIRONMENT TO ENGAGE CHILDREN IN OUTDOOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
CONTEXT Children born during the last decade are growing up in an environment saturated with digital technology. Scientific studies across the world show us that children spend most of their spare time behind a digital screen; browsing the internet, watching YouTube videos or playing video games. This seems to be only the beginning since the total revenue of the video game industry (which already doubled the movie and tripled the music industry respectively) is expected to grow $27bln by 2020 to a total of $128bln. While screens don’t cause direct harm to these children, it does have a negative impact on their nurture and education. Research warns us of the indirect harm these digital devices are causing to the physical health, social interactions and cognitive skills of the youth. With the support of Barco the goal of this master thesis is to bridge the gap between the digital and physical world. By designing this “phygital” gaming platform we aim to bring children outside, let them engage in physical activity while improving their creative, cognitive and social skills.
RESEARCH Since this problem is rather complex it is crucial to involve the users (which in this case are mainly the children) into the design process. During the problem analysis interviews with children and parents uncovered important needs and wishes. Co-creation moments involving the children were implemented during the concept exploration. During the current process of creating a working product user tests will be used in order to iterate on the design. During literature research it became clear that the concept of “open-ended play” will be a good guideline in order to match our goals of phygital, social and cognitive play. Open-ended play tries to act as a tool for children to create their own games, defining their own rules and goals and also debating these in group. Other play perspectives that need to be tested during the design process are the “forms of play” (social, cognitive, physical etc.), “stages of play” (invitation, exploration and immersion) and playful experiences (focus on the user experience of the child).
RESULT The final product, called “Play Anywhere”, makes use of the recent technology Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) which is implemented into the nodes and tags that make up the gaming platform. These nodes contain a RGB-light which changes colours based on the type and amount of tags in its perimeter. These tags can be distributed as tokens, armbands or even play objects like balls and can have different attributes (such as team colour, timer, multiplier etc.) that can influence the gameplay. Children can use any amount of nodes and tags with any amount of players to play an infinite amount of games. These games can be downloaded from just one smartphone, which changes the attributes of the tags by Bluetooth depending on the chosen game, or the children can use the app to individually change the attribute of each tag in order to create their own game. Play Anywhere embraces digital technology, even going so far to make the smartphone an essential part of the experience, but it is only used before playing and it is used in a social way. It is the digital technology who brings the children back outside to engage in physical, cognitive and social play.
SERVAAS STROBBE - SERVAASSTROBBE@GMAIL.COM UGENT PROMOTOR: ELLEN DE VOS - EHIDVOS@UGENT.BE
A SHAPE SHIFTING DESK DIVIDER AND SOUND BLOCKING DOME USING ORIGAMI IN TEXTILE AND TO ENHANCE THE OVERALL FOCUS AND ACOUSTICS
CONTEXT Open offices encourage communication, creativity and social control. In a flexible en shared environment, this would contribute to better teamwork and a relaxed atmosphere. Also it is much cheaper than an office with a separated room for every single worker. On the other hand, most open offices are ‘too open’. This causes too much auditive and visual distraction in the form of more noise, less privacy and less being left alone. Eventually, the workers’ focus and job satisfaction decreases what rises stress levels and can even lead to a burn-out. An obvious solution would be to introduces barriers like sound blocking panels and so on, but that will devaluate the openness of the office. A balance need to be found between isolation of the worker for focus or confidential jobs, and preserve the openness of the office. This project is supported by Casalis. A company that designs, among others, acoustic panels.
RESEARCH
Inform Informeren
Decide Beslissen
Literature research, interviews and observations in the field showed that the amount of noise caused by the openness of the office is the biggest culprit of distraction. Acoustic panels can solve a big part of this problem by absorbing sound. Furthermore, the personal needs of the worker can be taken into account, when for example he/she wants to make a call, but it’s not worth to relocate themselves. A broad research was done about the complex phenomena of acoustics to get a grip on sound absorption, sound reflection and sound blocking. At last, quick and dirty prototyping gave insight into origami structures, which can be self supporting and compact. Using a spiral of four phases: informing, exploring, testing and deciding, a solution will be found which is a combination of an enhanced open office experience, better acoustics and a wide range of opportunities by combining origami and textile. This within the production capabilities of Casalis.
OPENOFFICE EXPERIENCE
ACOUSTICS
ORIGAMI Explore Exploreren
Test Testen
RESULT A modular, sound blocking, origami dome can be folded to a compact desk divider. The layers of textile, EPDM and acoustic foam block, absorb and diffuse the sound. This enhances the overall acoustics and decreases auditive and visual distraction for the worker and his colleagues. By pulling the structure upwards, the origami pops itself into a locking position. This makes the structure self supporting.
Work in progress
LUCAS WYFFELS - lucas.wyffels@telenet.be UGENT PROMOTOR: JELLE SALDIEN jelle.saldien@ugent.be
Development of a modular toy inspired by the biomechanical structure of seahorse’s tail
CONTEXT Modular toys are sets of toys that consist of several building blocks. With these building blocks children can, depending on the type of toy, build several constructions such as houses, bridges, racetracks, marble runs and many more. The shape of the individual blocks can vary within one set, but they will almost always be compatible and able to connect with all others blocks of the set and other sets from the same brand. This makes it possible for the kids to make their own structures and be creative. Modular toys are very popular with children in third year kindergarten and primary school. There are however many different kinds of modular toys, each with their strengths and weaknesses. Manipulating (toys) is important for kids of all ages to explore and find new ways of playing. Great advantages of modular toys are also that they stimulate creativity and help developing the fine motor skills. The development of the fine motor skill is a basic need. Falling behind on these skills has a negative impact on other skills (such as the social skills) of a child. The backlog will also mostly increase over the years. Toys are experienced as fun by the kids because they give them great flexibility, positive affect, intrinsic motivation and is nonliterally.
RESEARCH A benchmark research was performed in the early stages of the designprocess to help define the demands and wishes for the new design. Some important benchmarks are Lego, Carrera go racetracks, Quercetti, Spacerails, Make It Moov it, Manzanita Kids, Migoga Trasparente, Trenino, Kapla, Vlakkies… A comparison between these benchmarks led to demands and wishes of the new design as it shall focus on the limitations of the already existing benchmarks: increasing flexibility, strength in the connection, possible variations and ease of use. Another interesting parameter is the development of the motor skills. Fine motor skills are skills that include hand-eye coordination and smaller hand and finger movements. Developing the fine motor skills is important and can also be learned doing easy daily tasks such as eating snacks, drawing, zipping your jacket… and playing with modular toys. To develop a new and unique modular toy biomimicry is used. Biomimicry is the science and art of imitation of biological ideas in nature to design and improve human applications. Inspiration for the new design was found in the structure of a seahorse’s tail. This tail is special and unique as it combines both flexibility and strenght.
RESULT The final design in a modular toy for children from six to nine years old. The set consists of many standard pieces or building blocks and junction pieces. These pieces are flexible and connect in different angles to each other. With these pieces children can make long car tracks and other constructions. The tracks that can be made are as flexible as a seahorse’s tail and the connection are as strong as the segments of this tail. Because of the flexible and strong connections a car track can be made throughout the house. Children quickly find their way to cushions, tables and chairs to make their tracks and constructions more interesting and use these elements as support. These chairs, tables and other obstacles act as part of the course. Where none of these objects are nearby, the building blocks of the set itself can be used as support for the track. The design is intuitive and connections are very easy to assemble and disassemble. This, alongside the ease of use and flexibility of the connections, makes the set stand out in the market as other benchmarks use fixed arch components that limit the possibilities for the constructions. The modular toy challenges children mentally and physically (motor skills).
JADE VAN HOECK - jade.vanhoeck@ugent.be UGENT PROMOTOR: Yannick Christiaens - yrchrist.christiaens@UGent.be
Project Macaw An innovative solution to alleviate the dish cleaning experience for 55+ consumers
Internal Knowledge
CONTEXT
Future Scopes within Retail
Generate Background Knowledge
Procter & Gamble is a key player in the world of fast moving consumer goods, The Brussels Innovation Center focusses on the development of packaging and dosing systems for homecare and laundry products worldwide. Innovation and R&D is a crucial part of their business, since they need to keep up with developing trends and upcoming markets to win from competition.
Ideation 1.0 Looking for opportunities within product segments
This thesis project focusses on the growing segment of people aged 55 years and older. This category went from 8% (aged 60 plus) of the worldwide population in 1950 to 12% in 2014, and it is expected to continuously grow up to 21% by 2050. When looking at Europe, we see the 65+ category is even bigger, and it is predicted to raise from 26% in 2016 towards 42% in 2070.
Selection 1.0: Dish Category
When further looking to European numbers, in the UK, study shows 34% is older than 50. They own 75% of the country’s wealth. Globally 60 + consumers spent $8 trillion in 2010, by the end of the decade it will be $15 trillion. Procter & Gamble wants to reach out to this specific growing age group and develop products to fit their needs. This without stereotyping them as ‘old’ since this category is also shifting into modern ages.
RESEARCH
Benchmarking
Analyse The Energy Flow
Future of Dish
Selection 2.0: Idea selection
Shop-a-long + Interviews
Feasibility prototyping
After obtaining a solid background, a diverging phase started. Ideas were generated on the different product segments. Afterwards a convergence was needed and a first selection was done to further focus on a future model for the dish product segment, this implementing a change in experience for the end-consumer.
55+ consumer
Persona
Multiple interviews were conducted in order to obtain an overview, and multiple personas were created. After selecting the topic of alleviating the dish cleaning experience for the ageing consumer, multiple concepts were generated and visualized. These visualizations were discussed with consumers in 1-on-1 interviews in order to find their best fitting solution, and implement their feedback.
Selection 2.1: Updated Idea selection
Visual Proof of concept
Foam Benchmarks
FINAL RESULTS Information and details about the project definition, design process, researched concepts, user verification, prototyping, user testing… can’t be shared, displayed or discussed in this public setting, because the full thesis project and its content is confidential until 12/31/2027
Survey
Ideation 2.0 Looking for opportunities in Dish Segment
The design process started by gathering a lot of primary knowledge on packaging and use, this focusing on getting to know the existing product ranges and solutions already available on shelves, the finished and ongoing internal projects. Meanwhile combined with understanding the 55+ consumer category and analyzing future trends.
The selected concept was further developed through iterative prototyping, a physical proof-of-concept was obtained for final user tests and verification with consumers. These tests gave interesting consumer feedback and promising results on the idea acceptation and future potential of the product.
Basic User Research
Consumer Testing 1: Insights, preference and feedback
Confirmed Idea
Testable product Technical development towards industrialisation
Consumer Testing 2: Testing + feedback
Thesis Project Project MACAW
BAESEN MATHIEU - mathieu.baesen@gmail.com UGENT PROMOTOR: RYSMAN OLIVIER - olivier.rysman@ugent.be
Research and development of a non-stigmatising assistive device for people with reduced mobility, with the aim of supporting them to get up.
CONTEXT
Chronical vs. temporary problems
Functional prototype
A mobility aid is a product designed for people to help them walk, or to support people with a mobility handicap. Assistive devices support mobility, or make transfers in buildings easier. The most common mobility aids are the typical walking frames and walking sticks, but also the wheelchair. The amount of assistive devices that support walking has increased a lot, the amount of assistive devices that support transfers however, remains rather limited. The aids are often not practical to use, can only be used in one situation and are rather stigmatising for the user. Therefore, the assignment of this master thesis is to design an assistive device that enables people with reduced mobility to make their daily transfers in a faster and easier way. This project was developed in association with Freya Products, a start-up company that focuses on developing products to enable seniors to live longer at their own house. They do this by creating value to assistive devices for less mobile home-living seniors. They also have an online webshop where they sell their own products, but also other existing products to help their customers in their everyday life.
RESEARCH There are two different groups with mobility problems. On one hand, there are people with chronical problems, such as seniors with reduced mobility and people with muscle diseases. On the other hand, there are also people with temporary problems, such as people who are recovering from knee operations or people with a hip prosthesis. Both groups have difficulties with getting up, which depends on 4 major factors: the mobility, the balance, the muscle strength and the mental attitude of the person. One of the biggest differences between both groups is that the group with chronical problems will need an increasing support, since their situation can only become worse. The group with temporary diseases will need a decreasing support, since their situation will improve with their revalidation. They will also need less motivation, because they know their problem is of passing nature.
Usable in different situations
In a further stage, it was decided that this thesis focuses mainly on an assistive device for seniors, with the possibility of expanding the target group in the future.
RESULT The result of this design process is a walking stick with a double handle, which enables the user to find support on his cane while pushing himself up. Using this device to push yourself up also ensures an ergonomic posture, as learned during physiotherapy. Because the tubes of the walking stick are made of carbon fibre, it is ultra light and more firm than a regular one. It also has a nice aesthetic value because of the woven pattern. Instead of the standard mechanism, the height of this cane is set with a tube clamp. This makes the setting a lot easier and faster, and is an important factor to consider since the user needs to maintain his balance while changing the height (which is necessary to get up in a comfortable way). It also has a wide surface on the bottom to ensure a wider support surface while getting up and walking. This surface also makes sure the walking stick will not fall over when not being used, since it can stand independently.
JULIE MAES - JULIE.MAES.21@GMAIL.COM JAN DETAND - JAN.DETAND@UGENT.BE
Experimental design of a partitioned enclosure for optimal heat management in reversed desktop (FDM) 3D printing
CONTEXT Desktop 3D printers have found their way to the customer, as they have become user-friendly and reliable. However, this is only the case with easy to print materials like PLA or PETG. These plastics are so easy to print because they don’t shrink a lot when being printed. SHRINKAGE of plastics in 3D printing causes WARPING, as seen in the picture with the blue cube, or LAYER DELAMINATION, as seen in the picture of the yellow cube. Both render the printed part useless. PLA and PETG surely have their uses, but for most applications there are more performant materials available. These materials, like polycarbonate and polypropylene, are more prone to shrinkage and cannot be printed properly on the current consumer 3D printers. Shrinkage can be controlled by heating up the print environment to the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the thermoplastic. The Tg of polycarbonate is 147°C where the current printers may only get as hot as 55°C inside, as that is about the maximum temperature for crucial printer components, like the stepper motors, to be used in. Isolating these components from heat cannot be done by an insulation layer because of a running patent. Water cooling isn’t a viable option for most consumer 3d-printers, as it is quite complex and expensive.
RESEARCH Hot air rises through buoyancy forces, as it is lighter than colder air. So by putting the printer upside down, the mechanics can be put underneath the print environment, making them unsusceptible of the produced heat inside the print environment. However, by doing so, the heat at the nozzle height, where the molten plastic is cooled down, will also flow upwards. The temperature flow at nozzle height throughout the print has been investigated, as is the influence of the open underside on the temperature inside the enclosure. The effect of an external heat source on the print environment temperature has also been examined, together with the placement of this heat source. The phenomenon “heat radiation” needed to be reviewed, as we didn’t know how much the external heat elements could influence the surface temperature of the printed object, which would result in poor print quality. When the final prototype had been finished, strength tests and warp deformation tests were performed to see how the print temperature environment affects the printed parts. The parts were printed in an open environment, closed environment and heated environment (at service temperature and glass transition temperature) respectively. Several other test samples were printed to explore any differences in quality between upside down printing and “normal” printing.
RESULT Because of the limited range of heat radiation, external heater elements could be implemented fairly close to the print environment. It was found that adding a ventilation system to the heater elements did make a huge difference in heat-up time of the inside air, as was placing them underneath the print environment. This resulted in a cheap and efficient printer, which can not only reach inside temperatures of 140°C, but also having low heat-up times compared to conventional printers, as the print volume is very minimal at start of the print. This concept is visualised in the upper picture of this poster. In addition, this can only be achieved with upside down printing while keeping the external heat elements at the underside of the print environment, where they are the most efficient. With this expandable print volume, upside down printers gain considerable advantage over standard printers for larger print volumes, especially for printers with high print heights. The inside air temperature has proven to be very influential on the tendency to warp of the printed plastic, with almost zero chances of warping when printing just below glass transition temperature. Because inside temperatures of 140°C could be achieved, we were able to successfully print parts out of polycarbonate plastic. This has opened up a lot of new applications for desktop 3D printing!
STUDENT: Hannes Browaeys - hannes.browaeys@ugent.be UGENT PROMOTOR: Yannick Christiaens - yrchrist.Christiaens@UGent.be
Workflow and design guidelines for using metamaterial structures in product design
CONTEXT Adding rigid and fixed cells to metamaterial structures enables the creation of mechanisms that consist out of one part. When these metamaterial mechanisms are used in product development, they will significantly reduce the complexity of the product architecture. This allows the improvement of existing products and the design of new products that were not possible in case of normal mechanics. These metamaterial products are printed in one flexible material, so they cannot break and are easy to recycle. In order to use this technology it is crucial that designers learn to work with it .
RESEARCH This thesis develops a workflow and guidelines to teach designers to work smoothly with metamaterial structures. This workflow or method relies on case studies. The cases are real life mechanisms that will convert to metamaterial products. The workflow is used in the first step of building a metamaterial product. After the product is drawn in CAD and printed, an iteration guideline will be used to test and adapt the metamaterial product in the most efficient way. Individual users tests were used to improve the workflow. In the end, a group test shows whether designers experience an added value from the developed workflow.
RESULT Results of the test show that designers who used the workflow succeeded in building better structures than those who didn’t use the workflow. However, building the structures remains a challenge. Exercise is required for the designer to be skilful in building metamaterial structures. When making metamaterial products, new problems will occur. The workflow does not solve all of these problems. Creativity of the designer will always be needed.
STUDENT: Maarten Cornelis - maarten.cornelis@ugent.be UGENT PROMOTOR: Yannick Christiaens - yrchrist.christiaens@ugent.be
Guidelines on how filament winding can be used to improve composite consumer good production
CONTEXT Carbon fiber is used in all sorts of products today. From cars to tennis rackets and even phone cases. The material is used so often because of its interesting properties, being lightweight and extremely strong at the same time. The big problem with products in carbon fiber is all too often their pricing. This price is caused by two very important factors in the production of the material. One reason is the price of the raw materials. More specific, the fabrication of the carbon fiber strings take a big amount of energy, big machinery and generates a big amount of toxic waste that needs purification. The second reason for the prices to be this high, is the proces of producing a carbon fiber part. This proces requires in the most cases a lot of manual labour which means errors from time to time. To resolve these errors in some products, one of the oldest techniques for composite part production, filament winding, could be used. This proces uses a single string of fiber that is wound round a mold in a certain patern and is now mostly used for technical applications. The technique could however be used in consumer products. Some of those products will be researched in this masters thesis.
High pressure tubes
Shin guards
Handlebars
Production
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RESEARCH With the help of a literature research, the idea rose to use filament winding for different applications that put the technique in a consumer context. The chosen applications were custom mountainbike handlebars and shinguards. The difference between the applications is difficult to explain, so we chose to use diamond plots to visualise them. The plots can’t however be drawn without a quantification of some sorts. This quantification will be done trough extensive prototyping and comparisons with benchmarks. When the prototypes have reached their desired quality, tests will be conducted to check if they are actualy consumer worthy. To test the handlebars for instance, cyclical tests will be conducted by BikeLabs International. When the handlebars resist those tests, an ISO certificate can be obtained which means they are safe to use. Apart from cyclical tests, static tests will also be conducted with weights and presses in a D.I.Y. environment. Those tests will indicate the position of a filament wound part inbetween the parts that are traditionaly created trough lay-up. Tests will be seen as succesful if the prototypes reach an equal quality compared to existing benchmarks.
PROTOTYPING As mentioned earlier, prototypes need to be created to compare the “new” products with the already existing benchmarks. To create those prototypes, a desktop filament winder, called the X-Winder is used. This is a D.I.Y. machine which means that there are no complete manuals to produce succesfull windings time after time. Also the suplied soft- and hardware contained bugs that could only be discovered trough using the machine. Bugs made reproducing a part time after time very hard. To find the sweet spot, many different parameters needed to be changed and tested. In the beginning, most part of testing was done to achieve a smooth in and exterior. This meanth testing different winding settings, hardware changes, different ways of curing and different mold materials. To conduct the tests in an efficient and cost effective way, uv-curing reasin and fiberglass were used. Later on in the process, those materials were swapped with carbon fiber and two component reasin. The next phase of testing will be the use of desolvable molds to form the thickened clamp surface and how the filament placing can be optimised when the diameter gets wider. Once the handlebars are shaped succesfuly the knowledge will make the production of the shinguards more straight forward.
Arnaud D’hont - arnaud.dhont@ugent.be UGENT PROMOTOR: Yannick Christiaens - yrchrist.Christiaens@UGent.be
Development of a protective skin for a snowboard base, to keep the base from drying out.
CONTEXT For this project, a protective skin or foil was developed to prevent the snowboard bases from drying out. The skin was developed together with Verdad Snowboards. This is the only Belgian company who produces their own snowboards. Waxing is essential for skis or snowboards. It will make them glide better. But waxing is a complex process. Almost 70% of the snowboarders do not know how to wax their own equipment or do it at the wrong moment. This means that most snowboarders use stores to do the waxing for them, which can be quite expensive and time consuming. In normal conditions there is still enough wax on the board after one week of skiing. But after a year of being stored the wax will be reduced a lot more. This means that after a year the user will need to wax the base again. The protective skin that is developt will prevent the wax from drying out, which means the users do not have to wax the board as often as they do now. The skin also has a protective function: it will protect the base dureing the storage and traveling period. The skin is put on the base of the snowboard after cleaning it. Then the board can be stored until the next trip. When the users prepare themselves for the new ski-trip they take the board to the mountains where they can peal of the skin and the board is ready to use. After the ski-trip they can reuse the wax-skin before storing the board again.
RESEARCH For the development of the product all aspects of design thinking (people, technology and business) were taken into account throughout the entire design process. People. First the potential target group was researched. This by using a survey. After this, customer journey mapping and shadowing were used to get to know the feeling and habits of the potential users. This showed that for most of the people getting the material in perfect conditions for the new trip is a big task, which also seemed to be experienced as annoying. After the shadowing it was shown that the storage place of the board is always different for every user. While developing the wax-skin, users were tested troughout the proces to optimalize the design. Technology. For the technology different kinds of waxing materials were tested in combination with different types of carry-on materials. When the perfect wax/carry-on combination was found tests were done in order to make a Low-end skin and a High-end sustainable skin. The High-end skin was FMBCPSBUFE VOUJM JU XBT B Ă°OJTIFE QSPEVDU Business. This was the start of the project. By discovering a potential product to reduce the costs of the maintenance and gain time for the users. The wax-skin also gives an oppertunity to develop a new sales expierence.
RESULTS Throughout the process a lot of measuring techniques were used for the prototypes. One of these techniques is the young wettability model. This was used to determine the best wax used in combination with the skin. It shows the water resistance of the board after being waxed. The bigger the angle of the water drop the better the resistance to water. After waxing the drop has an angle of 100°. This means that after removing the skin this angle should be achieved. 6TFS DFOUSFE EFTJHO JT WFSZ JNQPSUBOU JO UIF VTFE EFTJHO QSPDFTT 5IJT XJMM EFðOF UIF MPPL BOE GFFM PG the skin. The skin has to be designed using the wishes and demands of the stakeholders. This is why the choise was made to develope the sustainable, reusable version of the skin. To attach the skin on the base vaccuum bagging is used. This will keep the skin on the base and the wax will be saved in the best condition. As an end result the skin will increase the involvement of the user with his snowboard, which will make the snowboarding experience more complete.
Stoelen Yannick - yannick.stoelen @ gmail.com Jan Detand