Brainstorming Session

Hi, i am conducting this brainstorming session for my school project. Feel free to post your opinions, reasoning, within the boundary of my theme. Thanks.

Ps: All that is posted here, will be recorded as my report for my college assignment. :smiley: Hope you guys can help me with this project by sharing and communicating LOLZ! THANKS AGAIN!

THEME: DESIGNING AN INDOOR & OUTDOOR RUBBISH COLLECTOR IN URBAN CITY - VEHICLE DESIGN PROJECT

Questions includes : To design or not to design / Why / Benefits / Pros & Cons / applications / reasoning / usage / ideas / etc.

I don’t think you are going to get what you want from attempting an online brainstorm - Brainstorms work best after the intial research period (ie you do your initial research and while going through the brainstorm/concept generation phase you do further bits and pieces of research to make sure you’re not generalising with your design concepts).

I’ll give you my 2 cents…

Initial thoughts for the project itself are relevant to some past experience of mine designing recycling and composting products for urban environments. First of all you need to understand is the rubbish system - in many places in the UK councils are starting to implemenet ‘pay by weight’ systems for rubbish which means the residents will pay by the weight of their rubbish - this is done to try and push people into recycling more, which they won’t have to pay for (well, theoretically, but they obviously do pay for it in taxes). BUT… it’s not only things that can be recycled that residents can avoid, but also getting rid of organic matter (vegetable peelings, egg shells, small amounts of newspaper) which decomposes (creating Compost) and can be used in public parks etc for tree growth/plant growth/other nature-ish stuff. So, in a perfect world, the only real ‘rubbish’ should be things like meat waste (bones etc). Some councils in the UK collect ‘organic matter’ which is great, but a lot don’t. Some schools in London also have ‘compost bins’ where the kids bring in organic matter from home and put it in the bin, and in turn the teachers show them how composting leads to growth of new plants etc etc etc., sunny shiny happy people.

So, in terms of ‘what you should design’, well that’s going to be obvious coming from your research, which should tell you exactly what you should design and not. I’d say a good starting point is to go to your local council and talk to whoever is in charge of waste management and hear what they have to say on their policies on recycling and also if they do/have plans to collect organic matter. Maybe go around your neighbourhood and talk to residents about their rubbish, if they recycle or not, if they compost or not.

Sounds like a really interesting project, keep us updated on it.

:smiley: :slight_smile: Hi, thanks for posting a reply! appreciate it! lols… Basically, my project given topic is Urban Vehicle then i done the general research about Urban Vehicle (Vehicles Types so forwth), then i scaled down to this concept, in which i think i do need more research just to get there. Thanks, you helped me alot by opening up what you’ve had, i think it really guides me on where i should start researching again. Hope you will still keep me updated too. :sunglasses: :smiley: :wink:

Erm yeah strange request mate partly because i dont understand what your asking, but just to echo georgeous comments.

I worked on a project for a high end domestic waste management system and as Georgous states there are different schemes for different areas here in the UK, you need to understand your the current systems put in place my local consituancies.

Waste management is a huge area, so you need to define your scope better than indoor\outdoor - infact that actually confused me. It seems that you have already come up with a proposal with that theme\statement, and tbh i dont think its based on solid research if any.

I personally recomend sticking with the areas of waste disposal in: urban environment,and the use of transport. Do research into these areas, watch existing systems currently being used, SPEAK to USERS etc… then review it all, generate concepts, pick a design direction and get user feedback. Repeat.

Owh, Okay. I am new to this, maybe i might not understand what is called a strong research based concept. I really appreciate for telling me as i can learn more. Frankly speaking, sometime i am kinda lost even in starting a research, as vehicle design is such a wide topic. Even this brainstorming might seem to be abit weird, since i do not know what to ask. lols! Thanks!

Any design ‘should’ have solid grounding in user based evidence.

Solutions that have been dreamed up when soley at ones desk 99% of the time are weak. You need bulding blocks for your design, and they will come from user research ( as well as materials, styling based research etc…)

Any design can have a large scope, product, systems transporation, it is up to you to narrow it down (I.e a well defined product proposal).

You have already highlighted key areas: transport, urban environment, waste disposal. As mentioned before, with those 3 areas go out and research, read journals articles. You will find problems, pick a problem and you have sucesfuly taken the “fuzzy front end” and narrowed it down. Then generate concepts directions for that narrowed down problem, pick a direction and develop it.

Is this a highschool project or design school project?

Hi again! Yea, i am in a design school. At first hand, i actually plan to design a vehicle indoor and outdoor ( personal transportation ) for malls, complexes, workspace etc. For example factory, university. I really wasn’t so stable in what i want to do, and this really cause me time. :confused: :slight_smile: