Teammate:  Andrew Garner
Class:  ID 3051  |  Instructor: Wei Wang

The project brief for this work enlisted designing from the lens of user experience design, and in a 2~3 person team design a product-service system in home appliance in near future (1~3 years) according to the theme, which includes new digital product (UIs) and interactive physical product (smart hardware) based on your creativity and study with the target user group. The theme of the project being on food safety in the home with GE appliances. For our project, my partner, Andrew Garner, and I designed a smart thermometer pan for culinary cooking, which incorporates the use of a removable/universal handle for an entire pots/pans product family that doubles as a wireless food thermometer probe’s charging dock with a partner application to help facilitate the food temperature checking process. The goal of our design was to better incorporate the practice of using a food thermometer while cooking raw meat, particularly when using stove top pots and pans, as it remains the only way to reliably check the safety of your cooked meat. The partner app is meant to encourage the users accurate usage of the food thermometer probe by showing the proper insertion points for specific types of meats as well as allowing the user to detail the specific rarity (or cook of the meat) they would like to achieve.
 

Class:  ID 2023  | Instructor: Herb Velazquez

The intention of this project was to quickly design in the span of 2 weeks, a dinnerware set of 3 objects (plate, bowl, cup, etc.) in accordance with a country/culture’s style of food of our choosing. Anima is the one of a kind Italian dinnerware set Specifically intended for All Souls Day celebration dinners at home. It incorporates the elegance of baroque architecture and the iconography of the beautiful Chrysanthemum to commemorate those not forgotten, both of which hold a special significance in the Italian culture. The cup, bowl, and plate are all designed in descending scale with one another in order to subtly mimic the look of a flower when the trio are all stacked together. This project acted as my first major introduction to the Autodesk Fusion 360 software and helped me become familiar with the skills needed to execute nearly every studio project I have had since, involving CAD and digital rendering with Keyshot. This project was done a year ago, in the fall semester of my sophomore studio, here at Georgia Tech.
 

Class: ID 2024  |  Instructor: Kimberly Snyder

Project Background: Lighting can provide function in several ways. There is the obvious need to create useful light, but there are also more subtle functions that address emotional needs. This project is about exploring how the physical beauty of a floor lamp can also be enhanced by the light and mood created by the lamp. One of the functions of a lamp is to connect with its potential user through its physical form. The lamp might have a physical touch point interface, but because you can use a “smart bulb” you can explore how removing a physical switch might change the user experience.

Personal Takeaways: One of the few requirements was that we would need to use metal in order to construct our lamp for at least the structural support, if not entirely, this was a new experience for me. I had never worked with metal before, and that combined with the scale of the actual products we were making, made the project that much more lifelike.

Product Statement: Arise is the inspirational home office floor lamp intended to help transform its owner’s workspace into one of a tranquil peace as if it were to symbolize an escape from the daily hustle and bustle of the household. Arise is designed to subtly remind its owners of a cool woodland sunrise/sunset with its warm glow, elegant fluted top, and striped lighting effect; emulating the same effect made by trees.

Class: ID 2024  |  Instructor: Kimberly Snyder

Project Objective: To design a consumer wellness product for 2025 that appeals to college students and encourages usage to enhance human wellness/fitness.

Project Background: Students can be quick to let their health fall to the wayside when they start college, but staying aware of good and bad health habits will serve students well in the long-term. Physical health and nutrition are directly connected to mental health, effective study habits, and regular sleep patterns.

Personal Takeaways: Anxiety is the most prevalent mental illness among young adults, particularly those going through college. Since the early 2000's it has become more and more common to the point that almost 50% of all on campus counseling patients point towards anxiety as being the reason for their visit. Additionally, academics is the leading cause for anxiety among college students culminating in an education system which perpetuates this systematic problem.

Product Statement: Slate is the personal scheduling companion, intended to accompany its owner through a Get Things Done (GTD) Program and help instill time management habits into those that promote productivity and efficiency in the owner's day to day life. Designed for undergraduate college students going through wellness therapy for anxiety, and working on bettering time management practices, Slate is equipped to help even double majors stay on track through its easy to use interface, portability, and smart voice activated technology.

Class: 2101  |  Instructor: Tim Purdy

Project Description: The product that you will design throughout these assignments is an interactive and articulating “device” holder or cradle for a desk. The device can be any specific phone, watch or pad. The product can also be designed to hold a category of phones, watches or pads. One of the overall goals of the assignments is to utilize the CAD model as a means to help support the building of a physical model that functions. It also must match in size, material and finish that is represented in the CAD model, renderings and drawings. An additional goal is to help push your modeling skills beyond the 3d printed or laser cut pieces.

Personal Takeaways: As our semester ended up being moved online for the last two months, we did not end up having to make a physical model of our cradle; however, this project acted as an introduction for me to Solidworks, enabling me to become familiar with all the different aspects of the software, having previously used Fusion 360.

Product Statement: My cradle is designed for iPhone’s of generation 8 and up, with an articulating holder that allows for 360 degree rotation. The cradle design also implements bluetooth speaker technology to transform the cradle into a mini theater system of sorts for the user. The wooden pieces cascading down the back of the design are merely for aesthetic purposes, adding a visual balance to its look.