elle tweedy portfolio
DESCRIPTION
Project portfolioTRANSCRIPT
Elle TweedyProduct Designer
Contents
Mind Your Behaviour 4
Drink Sustainably 10
Ecodesign Centre 12
HEA Essay Competition 14
5 / Mind Your Behaviour
Mind Your Behaviour
Visualising EnergyWe are never going to be able to produce ‘perfect’ sustainable behaviour, but we can ensure that what we design helps reduce our impact on the environment compared to previous generations of products.
7 / Mind Your Behaviour
Human-centred design: design probe to gain user insight into energy awareness
OObserve
HHear
EExplore
How Would You Visualise Energy?
Co-Design ProcessThe project’s process was centred on examining the needs and behaviours of the people that the final product would affect. Solutions generated derive from the insights of the people who will ultimately use the product.
9 / Mind Your Behaviour
Current Chameleon
Raising AwarenessThe Current Chameleon is a real-time energy monitoring product for children that addresses the problem of overconsumption of household energy.
Sustainable Behaviour ChangeBy visualising a child’s personal energy use, the product raises awareness of consumption in young energy users. The Current Chameleon focuses on engaging, educating and empowering them to reduce their energy consumption in their home and beyond.
Prototyping process using an arduino microcontroller to programme the products interface
11 / Drink Sustainably
Drink Sustainably
Addressing Coffee CultureRethink the way we consume coffee and present solutions that strive to reduce paper cup waste. The project looked beyond the container for carrying coffee, and developed a way to cause sustainable behaviour change.
13 / The Next Coffee Cup
The Next Coffee Cup
Product + ServiceAn RFID chip is located at the bottom of the yellow strip allowing the user to gain royalties for reusing the cup at specific cafes. The chip also allows top-up credit to be stored in the cup for convenient payment
100% Plant BasedThe product is made from a bioplastic made from corn starch and is 100% recyclable at end-of-life. This also means that their is no toxic leeching into drinks due to its organic derivative.
Closed Lid IndicationTo reduce spillage the product makes use of intuitive alignment principles. If the lid is not screwed on correctly, the yellow stripe will not be aligned thus indicating clearly the error to be corrected.
Ideation sketches of a sustainable solution to take-away coffee
15 / The Ecodesign Centre
The Ecodesign Centre
Design projects1. Ecodesign Trends Report - Research into emerging global ecodesign trends2. Ecodesign Framework for Product Designers - Collaboration project between Mode studios and the Ecodesign Centre3. Behaviour Change Research Document Research into how designers can influence consumer’s behaviour through products5. Ecodesign Tools for Designers Informative beginners guide to ecodesign tools (i.e. Life-cycle analysis software)
Popularity
Commercial viability
Eco-Status
ThrowawayismOver-consumerism
Innovation
COST & LIFE-CYCLE
Respect for brands
Good design is sustainable per se
Can any brand afford to not have a green strategy?
Social Environmental
Economical Education
Social responsibility
Legislation and policy
Awareness
The Recession
STATEMENT
INFLUENCES
“Is green seen as a trend?”
‘Keeping up with the Jones’’
Greenwashing
VALUE OF ECODESIGN
Consumer demand
The customer is changing everything
Companies have less control of their brand
Sustaining the unsustainable
SCEPTICISM
CULTURE
Lack of corporate transparency
17 / Ecodesign Trends Map
Popularity
Commercial viability
Eco-Status
ThrowawayismOver-consumerism
Innovation
COST & LIFE-CYCLE
Respect for brands
Good design is sustainable per se
Can any brand afford to not have a green strategy?
Social Environmental
Economical Education
Social responsibility
Legislation and policy
Awareness
The Recession
STATEMENT
INFLUENCES
“Is green seen as a trend?”
‘Keeping up with the Jones’’
Greenwashing
VALUE OF ECODESIGN
Consumer demand
The customer is changing everything
Companies have less control of their brand
Sustaining the unsustainable
SCEPTICISM
CULTURE
Lack of corporate transparency
Ecodesign Trends Map
Research DocumentEcodesign trends research document published on www.edcw.org. This document outlines the emerging global ecodesign trends. The exploration is displayed as a journey linking the key issues and opportunities posed to designers and businesses. The document aims to present thought-provoking statements and quotes to create interest in this important subject.
Left shows the overview of my research journey.
21 / Designing For A Client
Designing For A Client
Herb + Spice ShakersA collaborative design project working with Mode Studios and the Ecodesign Centre in Cardiff to generate a new ecodesign product for Modes’s existing product range.
Ecodesign FrameworkThe design project was an exercise in producing an effective ecodesign framework for product designers. This encompassed the environmental and economic principles of sustainability.
Ideation sketches for new ‘MODE’ product
Elle Tweedy‐Product Design, University of Sussex
“Learning to live sustainably -
Problem
Everyday we come into contact, and depend on, hundreds of products. Product design
prides itself in ‘solving problems’ and ‘improving lives’ through means of tangible artefacts.
Unfortunately designers have done their fair share to the contrary in recent years and these
artefacts are increasingly evolving into beautiful pieces of waste. 98% of products are thrown
away within the first 6 months of purchase (Datschefski, 2004). There is a lack of knowledge
and understanding concerning design for sustainability and the impacts every design
decision has socially, environmentally and economically. Product designers need to become
aware of what they are doing, not only to the world, but to each other. We must face up to
macro issues such as climate change, over-consumption, poverty, population growth and
human health. Although many impact assessment tools and sustainability strategies exist, I
feel they are not explored fully in design education. In my experience, students are tackling
sustainability problems with little confidence or conviction. Traditional design teaching must
change in order for us to learn to design sustainably to benefit society. We, as product
designers, have created this unsustainable world, now we have a responsibility to learn to put
it right.
Approaches
It should be the role of product designers to help redesign our environment to make
sustainable practices more viable. Designers are directly positioned to contribute to the
alleviation of sustainability issues (e.g. premature obsolescence), while simultaneously
locking-in positive features and attributes (e.g. energy efficiency). Responsible design should
be used to shape the way we live, for betterment and sustainability.
“Designed artefacts shape and are shaped by the contexts in which they are
used” (Ingram J, 2007)
To achieve this type of design, literacy in sustainability and design thinking should be
embedded into design education, with facilitation starting as early as possible. ’We have to
learn our way out of current social and environmental problems’ (UNESCO). It is crucial that
product designers are taught a holistic approach to design and realise that every design
decision they make multiplies with mass-production and exerts an influence and/or
responsibility issue of some kind
How Can Product Design Contribute?”
23 / Higher Education Academy Essay
Higher Education Academy Essay
Essay Competition 20101st Prize entry - Title: ‘Learning to live sustainably - how can your subject area contribute’
Extract from essay entry
All material and photography © Elle Tweedy [email protected]