Design and Society

Notes from Lecture 8

Assigned today

• Write a thesis statement for your term paper

• Today in Mentor session we have an activity to help you discover topics for a paper

• Next week, the output if this assignment will be part of an exercise we will do in class.

• Remember– Part 4 due Friday– Poster due Monday

Criteria for a good part 3• 5 different alternative designs

– A mnemonic title– a narrative– a sketch– A section relating features to scores on criteria

• A list of criteria– A mnemonic name– a description of what it means– how the criteria will be judged

• A Pugh maxtrix– include universal design criteria– labeled with alternative design mnemonic titles and criteria mnemonic

names– scores accurately reflect the feature to score analysis from each design

alternative.• An analysis of the result

Criteria List• Equitable use

– Is the product useful and marketable to persons of all abilities– Since our market is college students, will rate on use of able bodied,

deaf, blind, and students in wheel chairs.• Organization

– Does the bag have features that allow users to organize a number of different kinds of objects of varying size and weight, in a manner that allows them to be both stored and retrieved in a timely manner.

– Will rate by testing the storage and retrieval times of a “standard bag of items” which include a text book, a cell phone, a pen, a notebook, …

• Perceptible Information– Does the design effectively communicate necessary information to the

user.– Will rate by giving a bag to 10 students and then interviewing them

about their perceived uses of the bags different features.• Cost

– What will it cost to produce? The target cost is $50.– Estimated costs higher than $50 will result in lowering the cost rating by

1 for each $5 over $50.

In this design there are 5 different pockets. Each pocket is wide enough to hold 1 textbook and a folder full of class papers. Each pocket is the same length, so they are staggered within the actual bag. The top 3 inches of the bag are what I call a “shove pocket” it is for when you need to put something in the pack quickly. i.e. a raincoat, electronic cords, or anything that can get wrinkled. The bag also has an elastic umbrella strap, and vertical shoulder straps

#1 Multi-Baggage

1) The umbrella holder meets the water-resistant test leading to a score of 5 on waterproof criteria.

2) The small zippers on the pockets leads to a lower score (2) on the equitable use criteria because arthritic hands might find it difficult.

3) This design requires minimal changes to current designs so it could probably be built cheaply so it gets a high score on cost (5).

4) The many pockets makes it flexible so it scores high on the flexible criteria (5)

mnemonic title

narrative

labeled sketch relates

features to scores

Superior Sketch and narrative

A bike that has an attached basket on the front and a basket behind the back seat. It also has an umbrella holder, a flash light, and a bottle holder. Children can sit on the from basket. Aside from the front basket, and the umbrella holder, everything is just normal. The Umbrella holder can be adjusted to different levels that can be higher or lower. There is also a brake available.

Superior Sketch and narrative• A great way to hide the iPod wires while

jogging, running or walking would be to have the wires be hidden in the sleeve of a windbreaker jacket. Inside the left sleeve is where the wires would travel through. Inside the sleeve there would be 5 loops to slide the wires through so that they stayed in place.

A superior AnalysisDeciding how to weight the Pugh Matrix was tricky. I determined

through trial and error that I should equally weigh all the different criteria. I did this to prevent the resulting product to being “targeted” towards any one specific sub-category.

In doing this, my product stays marketed towards the students as a whole, and not towards any certain number of them. I also included another Pugh Matrix at the end of this conclusion that I did use weights. In both Matrices’, I found that Design 1 did better than the other designs. Design 1 has a much better organizational idea than the other do. Most of the bag is self-explanatory.

The third design obviously did not mark as well because of the complicated pocket idea. Unlike its rivals, the built in organizer serves a much better job of organizing and is also simple and easy to use. It almost met my goals of having a backpack that could organize all the things you would need for as class, do it efficiently, and stay clean.

A superior Analysis

• From the Pugh chart it is easy to see that the quality of the object being designed is just as important as the features that is offers. The design that was my best was my “Expensive” design, even with affordability taken into account, which was kind of a surprise, but then again, it was one of my favorite ones to design. Basically when I designed my “Expensive” design, I thought to myself “What features would you like to see if money weren’t a constraint?” and tried to put them all in. Overall it is a very balanced out design though because it is very much geared towards getting the task done, and getting it done well.

The term Paper

• You will be assigned to write a term paper along the following theme– Role and Influence of Designers: Compare designers in the

Renaissance to designers today.

• The paper will be due Wed Nov. 7– 3 weeks from today

• The paper will develop through a series of exercises that are done in class and mentor session.

• Much of the organization and writing will be done through these exercises.

Variations on a theme

• Your paper is focused on what we call a “Thesis statement”– This is a question or statement that focuses

your particular paper within the broader theme “Role and Influence of Designers: Compare designers

in the Renaissance to designers today”

• Much more about Thesis statements later

Requirements

• Your paper must answer these questions clearly: • Role and Influence of Designers in Society: What

role did Brunelleschi play in Florentine Renaissance society? In what ways did he fit or not fit the typical roles of that time? Contrast with the role that designers play in modern society. In either case who were the designers? (Background, training, social class, race, gender, …) Compare and contrast the design methods and techniques used. You should consider things like culture, interactions with other parts of society, support systems, training/education, team processes, etc. That is to say your arguments and points should be put into context. What responsibilities do the designers have?

Our Paper Writing Process

• Background• Read the book• Prepare a thesis statement• Gather background material

– library visit– Annotated bibliography

• Generate ideas– expand thesis statement– write draft sections

• Incorporate the ideas of others– citations and quotes

• Rework and Polish

Introduction to Florence and Santa Maria del Fiore

by Betsy Natter

Most images from Luciana Burdi, Harvard School of Design

Bronze

Doors

• Situated in fertile plain along banks of Arno.• Very mountainous area.• First recorded settlement 59 BC by Romans.• Multiple invasions/occupations

– Byzantine (Greek speaking Roman empire.) ~200– Ostrogothic (Germanic tribe)– Lombard (Germanic people from Scandinavia)– Frankish.

• From 1115 governed by autonomous commune.– Various forms of representational government.– From 1193 Guilds part of council.

• Struggle for power between – Pro-papal Guelphs supported Germanic.– Secular religious powers. Holy Roman Empire (Ghibellines

supported Germanic emporer) in 12th and 13th century.• In general Florence supported Papacy.• Division ended up between individual families and cities.

– Feudal nobility and powerful merchants supported the Ghibelline party.

– Cultured middle-class supported the Geulph party.• Time of “poverty, ignorance, warfare, religious and

political persecution.”

• “Rules of Justice” 1292 created an elected magistrate to lead the army and defend the interest of lower-classes.– Nobles not allowed to have public power.

• Reformed in 1328 to allow nobles.• Expanding. Annexed towns into mayorships.• “Revolt of the Ciompi” in 1378 when loer classes wanted

their own guild and representation. – Salvestri de Medici was one leader.

• Fell about 1512.• Nominally still a republic, but really a dukedom.

• No strong monarchies emerged.• Independent city-states began.• Urban awareness, migration from country to city.

– Emergence of large cities.– Erection of churches.

• Education: Highly literate (50% of men). – Knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and surveying.– Printing press.

• Mercantile elite came into power, wool trade.• Florin strong. Rise of banking and commerce.• Plague caused desire to return to old values.

Renaissance

• Usually considered to be started in Florence in 14th century. (In reality more widespread.)

• “Rebirth”– Rediscovery of classical texts. Applications to

science and arts.– Revitalization of European culture.– Math from Arabs. – Experimentation and scientific method.– Humanism (importance of individual) and secularism.– Printing allowed dissemination of knowledge.

• Note that lives of common people probably changed little or worsened.

• Artists rather than artisans. Made not born.– “Liberal arts” higher than “mechanical arts.”– Independent personalities.

• Previously concerned more with content and symbolism.• Now: Science and experimentation. Accuracy.

Anatomy.• Interest in mirrors.• Surveying important. Drawings used to communicate

building directions.• Development of perspective, both linear and aerial. • Portraits (first ones since Roman times.)

A Thesis statement

• A few sentences long• Usually has two parts

– A topic – An assertion or argument– E.g. Although often portrayed as the quintessential vampire in literature

and movies, Dracula was neither the first nor the most significant vampire.

• A Thesis statement is Debatable– you must support it with logic and evidence– You don’t need to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, just

malke a solid argument

paraphrased from “Ways of Writing” by the PSU writing center

Assigned today

• Write a thesis statement for your term paper

• Today in Mentor session we have an activity to help you discover topics for a paper

• Next week, the output if this assignment will be part of an exercise we will do in class.

• Remember– Part 4 due Friday– Poster due Monday