Design studio: Special Carrier
Task: make a carrier for an object (donuts) for a dinner party
Things to consider:
- How does the carrier introduce the object?
- Interaction with the users
- Think about the context
- Affordance
- Is cardboard happy?
- Make people happy ;)
- Transporting
Step 1: Play with the cardboard
Task: Get familiar with the corrugated cardboard
It is important to get familiar with the material (corrugated cardboard) before using this material to build things. For experimenting with this material, I peel off the three layers to study the structure of it. Both the top and bottom layers are smooth and the middle one owns a unique texture, which can probably be utilized in the future model making. Then I experiment with bending the corrugated cardboard. I found that the cardboard is easy to bend along the corrugation and hard to bend along the other way. Due to the thickness of the material, the maximum bending angle is about 115 degree.
Step 2: Make a corner of a cube
Task: Make two corners of a 6" by 6" by 6" cube. One should be satisfactory. The other one should be made by one piece of cardboard without fasteners.
Objective: Get familiar with how corrugated cardboard can connect with each other.
Prior to building a corner of a cube, I brainstorm different ways corrugated board connect to each other without glue.
However, due to time limitation, I fail to turn all of my drawing ideas into sketch model. For the first corner, I glue three piece of corrugated cardboard. However, what needs to be considered is the thickness of the corrugated cardboard, which means that two of the three pieces of cardboard are rectangles. For the second corner, I make a “L” shape and use finger joint connect it into a corner. The finger joint provides enough friction so that the corner will not rip apart.
Step 3: Make a dummy of the object carried
Dummy can serve as a model and a guide to the carrier. We can also get familiarized with the material by making the dummy.
Initially, I feel like it is hard to make a dummy donut, especially by using corrugated cardboard as the material. However, challenges and opportunities always come along. By building the skeleton of the donut and wrap it with the peeled off cardboard, I was able to make a desirable donut. I am really happy that a lot of people like it :)
Reflection after critiques:
After seeing so many boxes that is amazingly connected (such as knitting), I am surprised that there are much more different ways that I thought to joining the cardboard without glue. In my opinion, the purpose of experimenting with the joint is to get prepared for the carrier we will design later.
The importance of doing alternatives: only by doing the iterations by hand, we can know how the ideas work and to what extend does this material model the conceptual ideas.
I learn a useful tool for generating different ideas of variations (see the pic on the left). By using a table has two variables, I can come to different combinations.
In addition, I also take away something about the field of design. According to Steve, design is a social profession which requires social interaction between people. We can’t isolate design without considering about the context. I also learn about the terms vertical thinking and lateral thinking. We need to learn how to form the latter way of thinking, which involves a much greater depth. From my perspective, these abstract concepts seem unrelated to this project. However, they are the ideology that we, as designers, need to bear in mind.
Notes of good package design:
This is the note I take during the presentation by our TAs about some good designs.
Step 4: Making Initial Sketch Models
Task: Make sketch models of several carriers (allow to use glue).
Before starting making sketch models, I roughly sketch some ideas on the notebook and choose several to make sketch models. When I make a decision, I prioritize the novelty and the utility of the carrier.
Model 1: Rotation structure
Form my opinion, I really like the idea of rotation because it provides people a different opening interaction. When people hold it, they will feel that the middle part is a little bit loose, reminding them of moving or rotating. Steve says that this model is using the extension of the material. In other words, this is the structure that cardboard don’t normally do. However, it is doubt that if it is stable and reliable to use cardboard to make the rotation structure.
Another problem with this model is that it makes people unsafe by exposing too much donut to the air.
Model 2: donut bag
This model gives the donut a good protection. However, when it opens, the donut will roll to the side, which is a problem. In addition, people are not able to tell what is inside until they look at the side of the package. Maybe it is a good idea to cut some part of the cardboard to show the different flavors of the donuts.
Model 3: Packman & Pokemon Ball
The round shape of the donut resembles packman and the Pokemon ball. That’s how the idea of this model forms. From my own perspective, I think it is pretty interesting to open as it will resonate with people’s surprise when opening the Pokemon ball.
However, after I asked Steve if this approach (extracting elements from the game and applying it to the package) is appropriate or not, I learn that this approach is “pandering”, takes the advantage of people’s psychology. In other words, people may purchase donut not because of the donut itself, but because of the package with packman on it. It is not appropriate for this project.
Key take-aways from the critique:
Different people prioritize different things when designing the package. Some common criteria people prioritize are:
- Utility
- Protection
- Easy to carry
- Interaction
- Affordance
- Reuse
- Form follows the object
- Novelty
I feel like it is very hard to make a decision between these criteria, as when people prioritize something, they sacrifice things at the same time.
Step 5: Focus on one approach and develop it
Task: we are asked to focus on one among the several approaches and develop it without glue.
Initially, I want to develop the rotation package because a lot of people like it. However, after trying to make some small model of the spin structure without glue, I find that although I can make it rotate without the help of glue, it is very loose and complicated to assemble. In addition, the package should not be so complicated in the consideration of the affordance. Therefore, I should give up on this approach although it owns a very interesting interaction. But anyway, I also learn a lot from making this model.
I finally decided to develop the idea of the donut bag.
Suggestions from peers:
After the activity of speed dating, I get some feedback from my peers.
Things I done well:
- Like the interlock structure
- The interaction between triangle and circle
- Customizable
- Great use of material
Possible improvement:
- Less exposure to the air
- Add a handle
- Unsafe, afraid of fall apart
- When open each triangle, the donut will fall out when people hold it in certain way
- Add some cutting at the end of the carrier as well to serve as an indicator to take apart
First iteration:
After testing the ideas, I bought some real donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. The size of the real donut is different from it of my dummy, so I have to adjust the size of the carrier.
Problems & Things need to improve
- The structure is not stable. When I hold it, the two sides will have the risk to fall down. In order to improve the sturdiness of this carrier, I need to make the cut on the edges of each triangle deeper so that they will connect tightly to each other.
- The tabs on each triangle structure is not reliable. In order to use friction to connect them, I need to change the shape of the tab to make them insert into each other.
Second iteration:
In this iteration, I mainly addressed two problems: the tabs and the depth of the cut.
After critique, Steve and Stacie pointed out some problems with my carrier.
First of all, I need to change the shape of the handle in order to differentiate it from the other parts of the carrier.
Secondly, it is hard to insert the triangle structure into each other. Steve suggested me to make a little cut at the corner of the original cut to make the insertion more easier as well as add some visual cues.
Experimenting with the handle:
In order to make the handle different from the other parts of the carrier, I made three sample handles to test. The first one was simply changing the size of the rectangle, which is not very obvious. The second one I cut the handle with some wavy lines to indicate that it is the place where people hold things. However, it still fails to standout because of the shape of the outline resembles the other parts. The third one is the one I like most, as it is no longer rectangular shape anymore. One problem with it is that the middle part is so fragile so that it will bend when I hold the whole carrier. I need to improve this part in the next iteration.
Third iteration (final edition):
In this iteration, I mainly changed the direction of the corrugation, the cutting and the handle.
During making the second iteration, I found that triangular structure will easily bend. The culprit of this problem is the direction of the corrugation. In order to make it not bend so easily, I changed the direction of the corrugation of each structure. I also make some small cut at the angle (the second pic above) in order to make the insertion more easily.
After putting the real donuts into the carrier, I found that it bends a lot and become unstable. I decided to add something in the middle part to make it safer. (the following pic)
Final Photos
Reflection
These are some most important things I learn from this project:
First of all, I get familiar with the material: corrugated cardboard. Before making the carrier, we were asked to play with the cardboard and make corners and dummy of the object. During this stage, I learn a lot about the structure of the material, the way to connect without glue, and how to make the best use of the cardboard. These things form a solid foundation for designing the carrier. For example, I learn how carboard can easily bend in one direction and not in the other, and apply it into the model of my carrier.
Second of all, I learn how to make a decision. I remember Stacie listed a lot of things people prioritize when designing the carrier. However, we can’t prioritize everything and address every problem. Therefore, we need to make a decision about what we need to address in our own design. Apart from making a good decision, I also learn how to make a decision in a short period of time. If the idea doesn’t work, I need to give up as soon as possible no matter how smart the idea is. For instance, I need to give up the spinning carrier I made at first because the structure can’t be made without glue, although a lot of people think that it is innovative. Making a decision quickly will save my time.
Last but not least, I began to know the importance of doing iterations. Although I made subtle changes each time, but those small changes will indeed influence the quality of the final work. After asking for feedback and discussing with a lot of people, my carrier is getting better after iterations. In addition, my craftsmanship improve gradually. I found that I can cut more quickly and cleanly during the third iteration.
The things I learn from this project are far more than the three listed above, but the most important one is that I found that I really enjoy myself while doing this project :)
