The integrated product development process of WAVE.Hat: EEG detecting smart hard-hat for construction site workers

Department of Creative Design EngineeringThis research addresses the integrated product development process of Wave.hat: Brainwave detecting smart hard hat for construction workers. The project was initiated in June 2019 as a university-industry cooperation project between Creative Design Engineering Department of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, and Ulsan local startup HHS co. The motivation for developing Wave.hat was to decrease the fatal accidents. South Korea had the highest rate of fatal accidents at construction sites, according to the OECD factbook 2016 (OECD, 2016). Originally, the main object of this project was to implement EEG sensors into the hard hat. But as the research continued, we found it necessary to include many other components, such as IMU sensor, Thermo sensor, and LEDs. Such decisions regarding the design of Wave.hat were driven by a thick user research, including Focus Group Interview, Fly-on-the Wall, and Contextual Inquiry. The data gathered from those user research methods were then analyzed through a Dimensional Themes??? Matrix, which is a method invented internally in design team to transform the data synthetically. We used such methods to overcome the difficulty to obtain rational insights through the Affinity Diagram, a conventional data analyzing method for designers. Based on the user research, the whole research team was divided into several groups to design the physical product and also the digital product and the electronic components. Specifically, this thesis will address the process of the physical product, Wave.hat, which is the main part of this university-industry cooperation. However, because all design teams should aim a unified goal, a leader was needed to integrate all the solutions. The leader of this project (Project Manager) is the author. He has engaged in this project with base knowledge of Industrial Design and Design Engineering to perform integrated design leadership generating design-driven innovation. In this thesis, the integration between the Engineering department and the Industrial Design department will be illustrated. In Chapter 3, it covers how the three concepts (Ergonomic, Functional, and Symbolic) of Wave.hat were generated. Chapter 4 covers how they are processed through many iteration phases with two aspects (Detail Design and Design Validation). The development process was conducted to narrow down the gap between design research and design practice. This documentation will hopefully provide a case for designers engaged in similar situations.ope