The relationship between ideas about cleanliness and actions that affect product longevity

As Mary Douglas famously put it, ‘where there is dirt there is system’ (1991 (1966): 35). She was concerned particularly with the cultural systems that determine the ideas about dirt that motivate and constrain people’s actions with material objects. This paper assumes that such motivations and constraints may affect consumers’ willingness to keep or to dispose of their possessions, and therefore have an impact on product longevity. It reports on ongoing empirical research using product analysis, ethnographic interviews, a questionnaire and student design work into the possibility of increasing the longevity of vacuum cleaners by design interventions. Because its object of study is a cleaning product used in everyday cleaning practices, the research naturally connects with Douglas’ ideas as well as more recent work such as Dant 2003 that focuses on how people deal practically with the materiality of dirt, not determined by cultural categories. This paper builds on Vaussard et al.’s (2014) classification of individuals by their degree of concern for keeping their house clean, into ‘Spartan’, ‘Minimalistic’, ‘Caring’ and ‘Committed’ cleaners and their implications for vacuum cleaner replacement. Introducing a short history of concern about dirt since germ theory, it considers whether the desire for a more up to date/efficient/powerful/good looking/clean/shiny machine may accelerate replacement. It finally considers whether a design that ‘ages gracefully’ might have a longer life-span, either as a personal possession or as part of a service system

User-centered design criteria in automobile design with a case study of automobile dashboard design

Thesis(Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2006Includes bibliographical references (pages: 100-102)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi,102 leavesOur era provides us enormous changes and unforeseen advancements in technology, which lead to specific changes in economic and socio-cultural values. As a result of this shift, consumer.s need and expectations have changed into a search for new experiences. Companies, in search of satisfying the new expectations of this era.sconsumer, aspire to be innovative. To achieve this, they are concentrate on the user as the main source of innovation and design their products taking into consideration ergonomic, user needs and functionality. Automotive Industries is the one of the most developed and changed industries. Nowadays, especially interior of the automobile has changed with significant development. This paper describes and discusses the approach development aspects, and evoluation phases of a new generation interior design of automobile. The primary interest in the driver.s environment is the relationship between the driver.s seat, steering wheel and dashboard location. These are the workstation components that the driver required to stay in constand contact with, and the location of these control dictates the driver.s posture. Consequently, this study mainly aims to explore the role of user-centered design criterias for design phase and the role of ergonomic and human factors for automobile dashboard design

Paradigm shift: the aesthetic of the automobile in the age of sustainability

A great challenge for a future sustainable society is to create a new design culture protecting environmental value. A new product’s language is determinant not only for marketing success and public acceptance, but also for a new understanding of the conflict between aesthetics and ethics that haunts the development of this new design language. The designer’s approach to the new trends will certainly deal with the relationship between industry and society, form and function, package and architecture, and it is an opportunity to create new and coherent design

Development of a 1:1 Scale True Perception Virtual Reality System for design review in automotive industry

The recent improvements of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies makes it feasible for automotive design reviews to be carried out in a virtual world. Design review with virtual prototypes could reduce costs by eliminating the need to build physical prototypes, help speed up the design process, and enable the simultaneous examination of different design options. However, the most important challenge to address is whether a true 1:1 scale representation of the vehicle can be achieved in VR; whilst such claims are frequently made, how this is achieved is not reported in the research literature. In this study, a VR system with 1:1 scale true perspective display was created and calibrated using a large stereoscopic screen and optical tracking system. Various vehicle models of differing fidelity were used to test the capability of the system and ideal sizes of model identified. This paper also reports the use of several virtual tools for the design review process, which augment the immersive experience of the observe

An exploration of materials and methods in manufacturing : shoreline membranes

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-88).This thesis is an investigation into the design methodologies and ideologies of manufacturing processes specifically related to automotive design. The conceptualization, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing of cars is a discipline that would yield exciting results if applied to architecture. The hybridization of different processes of design will raise interesting questions of how built form is conceived, designed, developed, and constructed. An essential part of this thesis research is the study of materials. After an intense investigation of the potential uses and intrinsic properties of new materials in the automotive and construction industries, a select few materials will be applied directly in the thesis. The final component of the thesis is a programmatic theme that will revolve around shoreline membranes. They provide a lightweight and flexible system of architecture for many different building types. The investigation will involve the design of a structure in which its conception, function, production, and form are the direct result of inspiration from automotive manufacturing techniques and material research.by Ryan C.C. Chin.M.Arch

An ergonomics design knowledge based expert system

The research scope and objectives are to investigate the use of 'geometric reasoning' using the knowledge based techniques established for expert systems. An Expert System is integrated within the SAMMIE (System for Aiding Man-Machine Interaction Evaluation) computer man modelling system and used for vehicle interior design. Vehicle design objectives are related to a rule base determined from national and international standards and legislation. Malaysia is now progressing towards becoming an Industrialised Country by the year 2020. In mid 1985 the Malaysian Motor Industry produced the Proton Saga which has since been exported to other countries. Although the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) is playing an important role in design activities and provision of standardisation information, some standards and legislation for vehicle interior design are not easily available. There is an important and urgent need for standards and legislation to facilitate vehicle design within Malaysia and Internationally. A literature survey on the relevance of ergonomics design to standards and legislation for vehicle interior design is presented. Knowledge and expertise required for the knowledge base were elicited from various resources; extracted from journals, research publications and standards reports from various international organisations. The SAMMIE system was used to develop a prototype design model for the vehicle interior and the KES expert systems hell was selected to develop the Ergonomics Design Knowledge Based Expert System (EDKBES). EDKBES has a modular structure for ease of software readability, editing and testing, and to readily facilitate further development. The knowledge base is divided into several sections related to the hierarchical structure of vehicle interior design

The Visual Categorization of Production Automotive Seats on Descriptors of Comfort

Background: The role of appearance of automotive seats on perceived comfort and comfort expectancy has been acknowledged in previous research but it has not been investigated in depth. Objective: To identify the effects of the appearance of production automotive seats, based on the hypothesis that visual design differentiations are affective in creating comfort expectations. The significance of the descriptors Sporty, Luxurious and Comfortable and the associated visual design attributes was of interest. Method: Images from 38 automotive production seats were used in an image-based card sorting app (qCard) with a total of 24 participants. Participants were asked to categorize the different seat designs varying from 1: least, to 9: most for all three descriptors. The resulting data was analyzed using hierarchical clustering analysis. Results: The results indicated that the perceived Sporty, Luxurious and Comfortable were descriptor items that significantly differentiated seats with certain design attributes. It was found that for the Sporty perception the integrated headrest design and angular shapes were key. On the other hand, the Comfort perception was characterised by seating with a separate headrest and rounded seat back/cushion shapes. Conclusions: For seat design processes, the method enables a practical way to identify elements conveying Sporty, Comfortable and Luxurious perception

Designing aesthetically pleasing freeform surfaces in a computer environment

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, February 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-160).Statement: If computational tools are to be employed in the aesthetic design of freeform surfaces, these tools must better reflect the ways in which creative designers conceive of and develop such shapes. In this thesis, I studied the design of aesthetically constrained freeform surfaces in architecture and industrial design, formulated a requirements list for a computational system that would aid in the creative design of such surfaces, and implemented a subset of the tools that would comprise such a system. This work documents the clay modeling process at BMW AG., Munich. The study of that process has led to a list of tools that would make freeform surface modeling possible in a computer environment. And finally, three tools from this system specification have been developed into a proof-of-concept system. Two of these tools are sweep modification tools and the third allows a user to modify a surface by sketching a shading pattern desired for the surface. The proof-of-concept tools were necessary in order to test the validity of the tools being presented and they have been used to create a number of example objects. The underlying surface representation is a variational expression which is minimized using the finite element method over an irregular triangulated mesh.by Evan P. Smyth.Ph.D

A comparison of American and Asian automakers\u27 vehicles in quality, reliability, and safety

Consumer Reports (CR) and J.D. Power and Associates (JDP) are two widely-known agencies that gather data on automobile quality and prepare reports on the data gathered that are related to various aspects of automobiles for different models for each manufacturer. This research has two overarching goals: The first is to determine if there are any clear differences in reliability, between the Japanese and U.S. auto-makers. The second is to determine if there is consistency between JDP and CR in the reliability ratings of vehicles. In order to attain these goals, this dissertation starts with the evaluation of these two major sources in terms of the kind of information they present, the way they collect their data, and what they measure. The result of the analysis provides a perspective on the magnitude and value of the information provided by these sources. The first overarching goal of this research is to obtain comparable quantitative information about automobile reliability manufactured by the U.S. Big Three and their Japanese counterparts. The manufacturers surveyed include US-based companies, such as Ford Motors, GM, and Chrysler, and Japanese-based companies, such as Toyota and Honda. An approach to develop a realistic comparison of data related to a given metric for any given automobile type from the two reports is presented. Then the results from the analyses of the actual data for three American manufacturers and two Japanese manufacturers are shown. Finally, regression analysis was used to determine whether the reliability data of American and Japanese manufacturers showed statistically significant trends and gaps. The results of the regression analysis conclude the dissertation --Abstract, page iii