SELF-INFLATED LIFE BUOY
Background
We are designing for floods in China. Flood happens frequently in China and China is a country with large population, so when flood comes , a lot of people lose their homes, get injured or even die. According to this background, I choose to focus on the speed to rescue people through my product design which means how to improve the time efficiency to reduce the injuries and deaths.
Life buoy can be considered as one of the most important tools during rescue. I did researches on the current life buoy situation at the very beginning and found that the normally used life buoy nowadays is not convenient for people to carry. During rescue, rescuer can only carry 2 once and the other way is to put some life buoys in a boat. These 2 ways can really delay the precious rescue time.
My concept
My target market is people who live in flood- prone areas and my concept is a self-inflated life buoy which can catch a lot of air to provide people buoyancy with the help of a spring. The original shape of this product is a round container with 3 main components on it: the air duct, the button to release the container and the spring inside it.
How does my product work?
1. Open the cap of the air duct
2. Press the two buttons around the edge of the container to release the cap (the whole product will pop out immediately to catch air)
3. Close the cap of the air duct(the product is now like a tube)
4. Connect the two ends around your waist with buckle
5. Finished
The whole process spends you less than 15 seconds.
How it answers the brief, benefits?
It is portable due to the size is not too big and it is much smaller comparing with current life buoy and most parts of this product are made from plastic, it is not heavy. So people who live in flood-prone areas can always take this product with them. No matter when flood comes, they are already prepared.
On the other hand, rescuers can carry more once, they can put many of this products in a bag and give them to people who need it. This can help to save the rescue time
In conclusion, this product can cover both preparedness and response areas in the disasters. People can get prepared before flood comes or rescuers can save more lives during the disaster.
REFLECTION
In the past two years I learned many skills to improve the communication: CAD, sketching, rhino and workshop operation. Now my presentation is more like a real presentation. But I do need to apologize of my poor oral presentation, that is why I put so many effort to do the model, try my best to make the appearance more like a real product and even make it not only a appearance model but also can show how does it work. And also I spent a quite a long time to do the CAD and rendering. Hope all these efforts can show you a good communication. English is not my first language; I really need to improve my English and I hope I can do better for the next project, I will spend more time to prepare my oral presentation for the next project.
And I think the past studios are more focus on products’ aesthetics, practicability. This project is more focus on to solve a problem. There are many solutions to solve a problem, but our task is to find the best solution which requires time efficiency, practicability and we also need to consider the materials used and product cost of the product. That is not easy for us to do this whole project, which is why I feel so relaxed after the presentation.
As an industrial designer, we are designing products not only can be used, but also help to improve people’s quality of life. We should always keep an eye on what is happening now; we need to think is there anyone waiting for us to help him or her. There are quite a lot requirements in our daily life, some may happen frequently but we do not discover it.
For this project, it is so lucky that I decided to design a self-inflated life buoy from the second week and keep developing my concepts in the following weeks. But I spent so much time on researching materials and technologies, some of them are not necessary towards my final design. And I spent a long time to do the model in the last week. Spent 3 days in the workshop to do the outside model and 3 nights to do the sewing of the inside model. If I could have more time or I was to do this project again, I really want to do some floating test. Try to find out how many air the product need and the load weight. These are really important to show evidence of the practicability of my product.
I think the best thing about this is its small size when packed up it seems really useful for large emergencies. I'm not sure if it is expensive compared to other systems though, also how strong/durable is it in fast flowing water, otherwise i think it is a great idea
回复删除I think you have done a great job on this project !! The idea is innovative and smart, which will help a lot when it put into practice. My concern is that you have to teach people how to use it, because people may be rush in emergency situation. Is five steps too much? Or maybe you make graphic on somewhere to teach them how to use it ! Anyway, you have done a great job !!!!
回复删除Great concept ! very intelligent idea of pull the tub let the air get in and zip it to use, that is so simple way to let user to understand. Good job! I also like the design is small which can be easy carry around. For the thickness of the design, i think is too thick. can make it flat a bit which that will reduce the weight even make user more convenience to carry.
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回复删除hey julia,
回复删除i really like your design. I think it is very clever to design a portable and self inflated float. Also i think youve done a great job on your model! One thing thou, probably if it can be smaller in size, it'll be better for storage and carry. Also, you might need to add more instructions on the outside of your product. Something simple and easily understand, so that people will know what to do with it in emergency.
A reaaaallyyy smart and cool design! Certainly will save a lot of space.. and lives.
回复删除I like that it just pops out when you need it, automatically inflates and you can just use it straight away. But would it be quite dangerous if it just pops out and inflate while you still have your hands on the buttons? Also wouldn't it be hard to bend it into a round shape when it's inflated? (since the air duct doesn't let air out that easily)
If you had more time, may be you could think of how it would deflate, close and re-used..
Nice work overall!
Hi~ Julia
回复删除I really like your idea, its a clever design!
The best about this design is it's in a small size, really easy to store, doesnt take alot of space when you dont need to use it.
And also you have innovate a new way to use the life buoy
By the way, your model looks really nice, you are really good at model making~