PSS- Different perspectives of the product

PSS- Rationale

RATIONALE

From the brief, it asks us to design a product service system that offers both products and services. As a university student, I decided to focus my PSS design based on the university.

The university is big and quiet at night. And there are large amount of students (or staffs) staying at university in different areas overnight to do their assignment or study. All the people are allowed to enter the university at night. So it is quite dangerous for the students or staffs staying at university at night time. Therefore, it is important for the university to make sure students or staffs are safe while they are at the university.

There is a service offered at university that you are able to ask a person to walk with you around the university at night time to ensure your safety. But only a very small amount of students are using this service, because they do not know that the university offers such service and also the personal feeling. From my interview to few of the students about the service, their responses to the service are “I don’t like to walk with stranger”; “it is embarrassing to walk with someone that you don’t know”; “I don’t want to cause problem and inconvenience for other people”, and many people do not know that university offers this service.

From my research, there are problems and issues on the injury of the students in a robbery at university. There are numbers of news recently showing the robberies that happened in different universities. Most of the robberies occurred at night times, and mostly happened when a student is alone.

From the research, I decided to design a PSS that is capable of ensuring students’ safety when they are at the university alone at night time. For my design, the product will be a GPS alarm that the student is able to borrow from the product machine and then wear it at night time when they stay at university. So the university knows their location and when they are in danger, they are able to press the alarm and the university security will come to rescue them directly and quickly.

The PSS is designed in two parts. The first part is the product vending machines that are located in the three main areas at the university (Upper, Middle and Lower).

Student will borrow the product from the machine. Firstly, they need to swipe their student card to make sure their identification and they need to type in their university password (the password that used to log into the lab computer) to log into the service. To type in the password, there is a keyboard on the machine, once you swipe your student card, your identity will display on the screen, for example, photo, name and student number. Then you will be asked to type in the password and the duration of time you want to borrow the product for. This is designed for the security and protection purposes for both the students and university, so the university will know which student is borrowing the product.

Even if the student card is stolen or lost, other people still cannot use the card. Because it needs the password to log in. Also the student will need to use the product with great care, because it has their identity, so if the product is broken by student or the student press the alarm with unacceptable reason, the university has the right to impose penalties on the student.

The other part of the PSS is the GPS alarm, which combines the GPS with the alarm, so when the student is in danger, they press the alarm, which sends a signal to the university security centre. Then the university security knows their location immediately, therefore are able to rescue them directly.

The alarm is designed in the necklace style (for the student to wear on the neck), because it is easier to carry with and it is more convenient and quicker to use when you are in danger.

For the emergency button, I design it with a slide top cover, so when the student want to press the alarm, they need to slide off the top cover before they press the alarm button. This design prevents people from accidentally pressing the button.

The GPS alarm is designed in a small size and light weight, which makes the students, feel more comfortable when carrying them.

If you press the alarm accidentally, you are able to turn it off by pressing the alarm button for 5 seconds. If the alarm has not been turned off, the university security will quickly locate the student by the GPS inside the device.

After the end use of the product, the student will return the product to the student centre. Then the product will be inspected and cleaned for the next user to use.

There is a university security centre that provides several computers for the security people to follow students’ location at night. On their computer screen, there are few red dots. Each red dot symbolises each student with the product. When the red dot starts to flash, it means that a student pressed the alarm and need the security to rescue them.

Benefits:

·         Easier way to protect the students or staffs at night time.

·         The PSS is easy to use and understand

·         University security is able to locate the students quickly and directly.

·         Able to attach on body (worn on the neck).

·         Small size and Light weight.

·         Waterproof.

Materials:

Product Borrow Machine:

Machine Body- Metal and plastic (ABS and PC)

Screen- Optical glass

Product window (Transparent) - Tempered safety glass

GPS Alarm:

Top and bottom cover- Metal

Alarm button- Metal

Alarm Button- Plastic (ABS)

Technologies Used:

GPS locator- GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information to earth. GPS receivers take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user's exact location. Essentially, the GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away the satellite is. Now, with distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user's position and display it on the unit's electronic map.

GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.
(Source from: http://www.gpsonroad.net/trackingwp.htm)

PSS Engineering Drawings

PSS-SCENARIO

PSS Product Poster

Video Reflection- Design for life (Episode 3)

I have watched the video “Design for life (episode 3)”. From the episode, Philippe Starck gives these designers a broad brief, which he asked them to design something that are ethical, ecological and non-electrical, without giving them an area or object to design on. I realised as a designer, we don’t only speak about design, so we are not only asked to design a product, like toothbrush or tray, but we speak about creativity.

As a designer, we need to design new stuffs, not only “redo” or work on the existing product. Existing product is to help you to understand more about the brief and to think for design that fits the brief. From the video, I understand that a new idea needs a great level of self belief and confidence, sometimes it is tricky. In design, we don’t only design the product, but we also need to make our design functional.

Inspiration is also a very important part in the design and there are many different ways to get inspiration. From the video the designers used brainstorms to get their ideas. They also went to shopping to get inspirations by looking into what they like and dislike. Another method they used is to personally experience the situation of their design area.

These three methods are good for a designer in order to get inspiration and I think experience on  the situation is a crucial part in design, because as a designer, it is important to immerse your self in the world and people you are design for and to understand them. People will talk about what they want, but design is about meeting the unmet needs, which the people don’t know that they want it yet. That is why we need to immerse ourselves, to observe people and to find out things they want, but they don’t know that they want it yet.

From the last part of the video, where they presented their idea to Philippe Starck, one of the designer said that design sometimes is one man opinion, I agree with it to a certain extent. Because he/she may not like a certain design, but if the design is shown to a different person, he/she might have a completely different view.

In conclusion, I understand in design it is important to think, feel and experience rather than lead straight on single product idea. Also in the current market place, capturing client’s attention is the crucial parts of success.

 

Visual Diary