Design

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 sep 2014

Professor Brian Wansink of Cornell University, has been conducting research on eating habits and behaviors of consumers through his Food and Brand Lab, which he founded in 1997 while being at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His new book 'Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life' is just published and focuses on understanding surrounding and environment at five places - home, favorite restaurants, favorite grocery store, work-place, children's school - that influences eating behaviors and find solutions by designing them in such a way that encourages healthier eating habits. According to him, 'It's easier to become slim by design than slim by willpower.' Here are nine recommendations from him while doing a kitchen makeover - (1) Move healthier foods to visible spots (2) Make tempting foods invisible and inconvenient (3) Declutter your kitchen (4) Make your kitchen less friendly for lounging (5) Think twice before buying big packages of food (6) Use smaller serving bowls and spoons (7) Use smaller, narrower drinking glasses (8) Serve food from the counter or the stove (9) Avoid doing other activities while eating. Read on...

USA TODAY: 9 ways to lose weight by rearranging your kitchen
Author: Nanci Hellmich

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 sep 2014

From Henry Ford, to whom manufacturing efficiency was paramount, to Steve Jobs, who valued the working of a product over its looks, design has always been an important component of the products delivered to consumers. During craftsmen era, individuals both designed & created the products. Industrial revolution focused on multiple specialized processes to finish products in large quantity with little room for errors. Autodesk pioneered computer-aided design (CAD) software, to enhance collaboration among highly skilled teams of designers, engineers etc. But today design is becoming critical for product performance and everybody needs to have a basic understanding of design. Autodesk is now promoting design literacy and participating in its democratization process. The gap between design, production and distribution is narrowing with technologies of sharing & collaboration, 3D printing etc and in future it will totally disappear. In the design economy the firms will have to perform in real time and the design will become the product itself. Autodesk predicts the demand for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) professionals will rise to 8.65 million in 2018. It created 'Design the Future' program to fulfill this demand and provides free software to students and curricula & training to educators. Diego Tamburini of Autodesk says, 'design no longer just applies to physical systems, but has permeated to other non-physical areas such as software, services, and the overall "emotional experience" of using a product that also require designers.' Read on...

Forbes: Why Autodesk Is Investing In The Democratization Of Design
Author: Greg Satell

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 aug 2014

Bringing customers or users into the design process is a practice that architects and designers often adhere to. But when users are children like for example in a design process for a school or playground, it might be considered as a difficult and challenging task. Not so, if the ongoing research by Dr. Maria Patsarika and her team at Sheffield University, is taken into account. More and more architects and landscape designers are bringing younger generation into the design process. The practice of having participation from children in the design process is not new and has been mentioned in research studies conducted in 1960s & 1970s. Kevin Lynch, an urban planner, launched the UNESCO project 'Growing Up in Cities' in 1977 that utilized children's creative capacities. Dr. Patsarika's research has looked at the way architects and children communicate with each other. Architects interviewed for the research acknowledged that children brought fresh perspectives and uninhibited curiosity, leading them to explore alternative scenarios. Although children can be disruptive and unpredictable to work with but their overall impact on the design process is considered to be positive by most architects. Read on...

The Conversation: What architects can learn from designing with children
Author: Maria Patsarika

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 jul 2014

Innovation has been considered as a critical component of the strategies of most companies and to achieve it they have tried to transform and eliminate activities from their product development process (PDP). Is this is the better approach? Probably not. Bradford Goldense, an expert in product management & development, suggests ways to improve and build innovativeness into the PDP itself - (1) Companies should add innovation activities at appropriate places in their PDP. (2) Companies should emphasize existing activities that spur appreciable innovative thinking. Moreover there are a variety of soft, quantitative and algorithmic tools, that are available in the market to boost innovation. He suggests selection of three tools spanning incremental to breakthrough innovation, reguired to be used at key points in the concept, definition and design phases, chosen by the nature of the product being developed. It is also found that some deterministic tools spur more innovative thinking than others. Research of 200 companies provides insights into which PDP activities out of the total 20, scored the highest innovation benefits. These were - Requirements definition; Product specifications; Technical feasibility analysis. Some other activities that were closely behind were - Concepting/Concept engineering; Voice of the customer; Market definition. Read on...

machine design: Making Product Development More Innovative
Author: Bradford Goldense

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 jun 2014

Team of researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professors Scott White, Jeffrey S. Moore & Nancy Sottos and graduate students Brett Krull, Windy Santa Cruz & Ryan Gergely, have developed materials that not only heal, but regenerate. The new regenerating materials are capable to fill in large cracks and holes by regrowing materials. The team advanced their previous research on vascular materials and using specially formulated fibers that disintegrate, the researchers can create materials with networks of capillaries similar to biological circulatory systems. For regenerating materials, two adjoining, parallel capillaries are filled with regenerative chemicals that flow out as a result of damage. A gel is formed when the two liquids mix with each other, spreads and fills the gap created by the damage. Finally the gel hardens into a strong polymer and restores plastic's mechanical strength. In addition to variety of commercial usage, these self-repair materials will find particular use for parts and products that are difficult to replace or repair, like in aerospace applications. Read on...

University of Illinois News Bureau: Regenerating plastic grows back after damage
Author: Liz Ahlberg

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 may 2014

Researchers from MIT, Lisa Freed and Martin Kolewe, used fabrication techniques from microelectronics industry to make thin sheets of biorubber with microscale rectangular holes of uniform dimensions and then stacked these with precise positions of pores one over the other. The stacking process was done with the help of a programmable machine adapted from electronics industry used to stack thin material layers to build circuit boards and integrated circuit (IC) packages. Researchers demonstrated pore patterns that could produce 'interwoven musle-like bundles' out of mouse muscle cells and rat neonatal heart cells. According to Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic of Columbia University, this new scaffolding allowed the researchers to form tissue that mimics an important structural quality of heart tissue called 'anisotropy'. Freed and Kolewe say that their research provides unprecedented level of control over arrangement of pore networks and can lead to 'a whole new design space' to further experiment the 3-dimensional factors that influence cell alignment and tissue formation and could serve as a platform for the development of implantable organ tissue. Read on...

MIT Technology Review: A Manufacturing Tool Builds 3-D Heart Tissue
Author: Mike Orcutt

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 may 2014

The design of student learning programs, especially for young children, should be based on their age and mental development. In the article, Priyakorn Pusawiro of King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, explores the importance of Brain-Based Learning (BBL) in creating a better learning environment. BBL is one of the approach that brings concepts and research from neuroscience, biology and psychology, and defines relationship between learning and brain, to keep students motivated and inspired to learn. The pace and complexity of lessons that are taught should be balanced according to the student's capacity and maturity to assist them develop confidence and improve their learning ability. While designing the learning environment, both inside classroom and outdoor, educators should focus on enhancing learning experience and exposure to new things. Moreover interaction between fellow classmates should be encouraged to imbibe social skills. Emphasis should be given to hands-on learning and the discovery process. Media and learning materials should include concepts and examples from daily lives that children can relate to. Technology assisted learning should be encouraged and incorporated in the curriculum. Read on...

The Nation: Design media technology and learning space in brain-based learning
Author: Priyakorn Pusawiro

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 may 2014

In today's digital environment, online presence is a required component of the overall strategy of businesses, governments, nonprofits and individuals, to reach their audience and consumers. Websites are an important tool that showcase the various aspects of the organizations and assist them to connect and interact with their customers. For small businesses, with their limited budgets, it becomes very critical to optimize their online strategy and use a good combination of design and technology in the most efficient way. There are three prevalent methods to build websites - (1) Created and coded by software developers (future alterations are expensive and require more labour hours) (2) Developed through the website building software (less labor intensive due to built-in streamlining tools) (3) 'Off the shelf' or 'Open Source' solution (least expensive if the correct choice of platform was made initially). The technologies and processes that are utilized to develop websites has a long-term impact and results in variable future expense depending on how the website was initially developed. The three important layers of website are - (1) Design layer (2) Content layer (3) Technology layer. Although design defines the visual and front-end aspects of the website and is quite important but back-end technology is a more critical element. So it is necessary to choose and implement website technology that is 'extensible' and evolves with business's requirements. This will help save costs when the website needs alterations and changes in future. Read on...

SmartCompany: Why your website technology is more critical than its design
Author: Craig Reardon

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 apr 2014

Most robotic components that are currently used are hard, large and heavy and therefore limit their speed and motion. But researchers like Saul Griffith are trying to change that. He is using soft, inflatable materials that are lighter, faster and even substantially strong. Soft in this context would signify lighter weight, lower cost, more efficient, more resilient, higher dynamic range, and tunable. Some of the examples of soft engineered robots in the current research include gripping eggs (George Whitesides at Harvard University), inflatable robotic arm, inflatable vehicle etc. Moreover the research have potential to be utilized in medical applications - prosthetics, aiding stroke victims, lessening spinal cord injuries, soft external muscles for aging population etc. Read on...

Engineering: Rethinking Rigidity in Design
Author: Tom Spendlove

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 apr 2014

3D architectural design is changing the work dynamics of architects and their interaction and relationship with their clients. Popular softwares that assist them to design, draft and alter three-dimensional images include Archicad, Vectorworks and Revit. These softwares simplify the work by making subsequent changes in other areas when one aspect is altered or changed. But architectural experts differ in their opinion of the overall usability and impact of these softwares on various elements of architectural design. They argue that actual creativity is essential for design which these softwares cannot provide. Architect Gerard Damiani, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University says that substantial number of architects in the school still believe that mastering hand-drawing is a required skill but there is less use of it as the course progresses where students focus more on computer-aided design. Most architects do believe that these softwares eliminate the tedious, routine and repetitive aspects of design work. Moreover they also help architects collaborate more efficiently with the project team and the client due to the ease of technology assisted sharing and feedback mechanism. Read on...

TribLive: 3D takes architectural design to next dimension
Author: Bob Karlovits

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