Reflections

What have you learnt?
I have learnt that it takes a lot of innovation and work to create a perfect product. A lot of thoughts have to be put into the design to make sure it is successful, and that it can work. I also realise that it is only possible to innovate like entrepreneurs when there is an opportunity, but opportunities are hard to come by. I have also learnt that brainstorming is very useful as it helps me to generate creative ideas, albeit impractical.

What difficulties have you encountered?
One of the difficulties have encountered is to decide on what to make. I have tried to research for suitable products but it seems very strange to construct some of those designs in the Internet. Another difficulty will be finding suitable materials to design, or should I say construct, my walking stick prototype.

How do you overcome the difficulties encountered?
I decided to get ideas from my friends after explaining to them the challenge I had adopted. I also tried to ask them to decide which of my ideas were more viable, and which idea would be much more creative. By getting suggestions from others, I chose to work on a walking stick, thus I was able to get the idea of creating a simple walking stick with a compartment for storing an umbrella.

As for my other difficulty, I tried to look back at my design considerations, as well as Ergonomics & Anthropometry. I chose materials based on whether they were safe to use, or effective when it was used. With that, I crafted out my idea on my ADMT journal, before deciding on the specific materials I would be using. This would help solve my major problem in finding materials to construct my prototype.



Reflection-Prototype

During the process, I encountered several difficulties in finding ways to document the evidence. We keep racking our brains to try to show how comfortable the product is, with simple but in-depth explanations. Therefore, we have to discuss for a long period of time before getting our answers.

We overcome the difficulties encountered by trying to get everyone to voice out their views and then try to compare our answers.

My key takeaways from the product is that we must try to find out how we can measure the key component of our design considerations, like comfort, ease of use, etc. It can be qualitative or quantitative, depending on whether it can be defined numerically.

We must also ask for people's opinion and make use of the user's body language to determine whether a certain component is being fulfilled. This is usually quantitative, as it can be measured and defined numerically.

Ergonomics (Product Description and Idea Trigger)

This product is a corkscrew that can be used to open caps of wine bottles. It is as big as my palm and it is red and silver in colour. It is made up of gears covered by the movable red portion. There are two handles at the side. Pushing the tip downwards will anchor it in the cap. The tip can be turned to slowly remove the bottle caps. The end is shaped like a drill and it is very sharp.

What must be taken into consideration? The product must be compact so it is easy to use. It must also be attractive so the aesthetics is important in this case. The end of the corkscrew should be sharp; however, it must not hurt the user. Therefore, a red portion is inserted to keep the device in place as well as a sort of protection from the sharp end of the product.

The elderly will not face any difficulty using this simple machine. However, they may injure themselves if they are not careful enough. Therefore, there should be more protection on the sharp end of the product. Furthermore, the two metal handles are capable of potentially injuring the user too.


This is an improved version of the corkscrew. There is a small cap attached to the movable red portion to cover the sharp end of the corkscrew to prevent the elderly from being cut or injured potentially. There are pads that acts like cushion on the two metal handles. If someone accidentally places their finger between the red portion and handle, and supposedly the metal handle were to fall and hit the finger, the pads will act as a soft protective cushion that will reduce the risk of a severed or bruised finger. There will also be a piece of plastic. It covers the sharp teeth of gears so the elderly will not cut themselves in the process of using the corkscrew. This new design will minimize any possibilities of injury and thus become safer for usage.

Ergonomics II

Ergonomics, as explained in the previous blog posts, is a workplace design that is designed to provide optimum comfort and avoid stress or injury. There are 5 aspects of Ergonomics; they are safety, comfort, ease of use, productivity(or performance) and aesthetics. I shall give some examples to elaborate on my points.

For safety, it can be a product like a walking stick, crutches or any sort of support that can prevent the elderly from falling and injuring themselves.
For comfort, it can be something that the elderly use when they are resting or even sleeping. In this case, it can be a seat, sofa or bed-practically anything as long it is viable.




For ease of use, it will be some complex devices which are invented such that they are simple enough to accommodate to the need of the elderly. It can range from phones to remote controls, which often appear in our daily lives. They must have huge buttons due to the failing eyesight of the elderly so the elderly can see them clearly with ease.


For productivity, I will probably use furniture as an example. If the house has the appropriate furniture to match the design of the house, the elderly will certainly appreciate it and thus stay at home without any worries, some of which will be related to safety. Perhaps, the furniture is too old and thus looks quite weird in the interior of the house. However, when it is replaced with a better furniture, the mood of the place will change and the elderly will naturally feel more comfortable and relaxed.


Aesthetics is a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation with beauty. For aesthetics, it must be a versatile item that also looks good in appearance, even though the good appearance will be unnecessary. We can have a chair with armrest. It looks good and it is also comfortable, making it ideal for the elderly and even people of other age groups.

(This is done with reference to this website and I have also taken some photos from Google.)

Ergonomics I-Question 3

What are the considerations that should be taken into account when designing a workplace that is suitable for the user?

The working environment must provide optimum comfort, so the place should be very simple and plain. The background of the office must not be colours like pink or purple but rather colours like white and black, although too much black is not very appropriate. The seats must be comfortable so the person will not worry too much such that it will hinder one's work rate. The table must have the things necessary, with redundant things being excluded as they will occupy too much space on the desk. Having little things or simple ones will naturally make the place more stress-free. The computer screen must be at a certain distance from the person so that the words can be seen more clearly, thus carrying work out easily. The lighting should also be good, but no too intense such that it will affect the person's eyesight.

Ergonomics I

Compare the 2 different workplace, state your observations.

Ergonomic is a workplace design that is designed to provide optimum comfort and avoid stress or injury. Hence, I will prefer the second design compared to the first design. This is because the second design is much more comfortable and thus provides a stress-free environment. Furthermore, the working environment is not as cluttered compared to the first design. It has the important items that is really needed and does not have redundant stuffs. Furthermore, the person in the first design has problems sitting on the chair as he is fidgeting, obviously that will distract him from the work he is engaged in and thus make his work efficiency lower. He does not have proper lighting too, thus hindering the rate of efficiency too.

Elderly Friendly Room

My focus for the elderly friendly room is the bedroom, the place where the elderly sleep. The room I have designed is not really perfected yet, since the proportions, unnecessary lines and miscellaneous issues are still present(for that, I will like to apologise for this mediocre submission of work).

There is a bed, as you can see, tucked at the corner of the room. Beside it, we have a sort of cuboid seat that is versatile in many ways; it can save as a cushion when the elderly get down from their bed, a sturdy support when the elderly wants to climb on it to take things from a greater height or even, like a bedside table, to put things like their spectacles there before they fall asleep.

There is a shelf on top, as you can see. It is placed high enough such that the elderly will have no chance, absolutely none, of getting their heads hit by the shelf by accident, if not on purpose. There is a camera-like sensor attached to it, but it is not open all the time. It is a rotating camera and it just takes a picture every hour. After that, it will be sent into the respective e-mails of the elderly's relatives, thus reducing the risk of sustaining injury in the room.

There is a cupboard and at the far end, we can see a door leading to the plain background, or the supposed living room. There are large knobs just in case for easy handling but it does not protrude so much; otherwise, the elderly will have bumped into it. The red part is like a support for the elderly, should they have any difficulties moving around the room.

There is also a small television set, assuming there is a larger one in the living room, and a cushion in front of it. It is purely for entertainment and the makeshift seat is comfortable. There is also an extendable backrest for the elderly to lean on, which explains why the cushion is double-layered.

The room is not drawn to scale, but by right, it is not that cramped so the elderly can move around with ease and no worries. There will be much more space, and somewhere behind the television, there will be a toilet, which can be found in every master bedroom. I believe that this house is ideal for the elderly as it is very safe and there is no hidden dangers.

Elderly Challenge-Observation 4

I noticed that the elderly is often treated as nought by people or worse, being considered as 'useless' in the worse case scenario. Often, people do not regard them with the respect they deserve, but rather, with emptiness and often dislike. I know some people loathe senior citizens; I have heard some of them complain about them being dependent on others while not putting in any contributions to society. And therefore, I dare say, the elderly is often neglected by others. People do not give any attention to them when they are in need, and I am going to state some examples.

One, the senior citizens are not offered seats in public transports by egotistic people when they really require it. This scenario has happened a lot of times. The people usually pretend to be engaged in something on their own and pretend to be oblivious to the presence of the elderly. This behaviour is appalling; the government have taken further actions by reserving one or two seats for them, but it is certainly not enough. We need to understand and empathise with the elderly by putting ourselves in their perspective; we need to have the initiative that I believe, many Singaporeans lack.

Secondly, when people walk on pathways, they will sometimes find an elderly having difficulty walking. Instead of helping them, those people will resort to mumbling and grumbling under their breaths or complaining aloud, which I find appalling. Humans have feelings and the elderly are as human as we do; we have to understand people's thoughts and sentiments, otherwise we are no better than being called 'inhuman' by others.

There are many more examples, each which will make us grimace or cringe in disgust. Yes, our thinking has to change, otherwise the society will still stay the same. We can be a developed city, but if we lack the respect to others and ourselves, then we are pretty much useless. Therefore, this very issue has to be improved not by the government or the authorities, but starting with ourselves.

Elderly Challenge-Observation 3

From my observations, I realise that most senior citizen will have a worsening eyesight as they continue to grow older. My grandparents, like many other elderly, have problems with their vision. They cannot read signs in public places due to their blurred vision. The situation will be further aggravated if it is a sign with shiny neon lights. It will cause a lot of inconveniences to the elderly.

I feel that the signs, including directories or some sort of a message to the public, should put words into diagrams so the elderly need not strain their eyes to read the words, so as to reduce any possible inconvenience to the elderly. There is no need to emphasize any point with shiny lights that will irritate the eye of the elderly, especially the barber shop near my grandmother's house, who uses an array of lights to attract customers. By refraining from using such signages, they can save electricity and at the same time, let the elderly know what is happening so they will feel that they fit in into the society.

In NorthPoint, I observed shining lights and small words in notices; I feel they should be improved so the senior citizens can comprehend the message to be conveyed quickly and properly. By making adjustments to such flaws, the public facilities and environment will no doubt be more elderly friendly.

Elderly Challenge-Observation 2

I believe that most elderly have problems moving and shifting their bulk, especially when the place is not very convenient. What do I mean? It means that transportation is not very convenient for them, perhaps the nearest bus stop or pickup points are too far; or maybe, there are not accessible lifts or walkways specially built for them. Many elderly hope to have an environment that allows them to integrate with the wider community, their friends and even their own family members.

How can we make further improvements? This is what my grandmother have told me: "Our house is too close to the highway, so we cannot expect much. I wish we have more bus stops in the vicinity and lesser staircase...not to forget, lifts to every storey of the block." Of course, I have an experience of my own, too. I remembered that blocks of houses which are deemed "elderly friendly" are merely the same as conventional blocks of flats. Imagine that I almost fell while descending down the flight of stairs of my grandmother's block(the lifts are not accessible by all the storeys of the block, only chosen ones). If children and adults find the staircase treacherous, what do we expect from the elderly? Therefore, accessibility should come first, for the safety of the elderly is of utmost importance. The authorities and the government can make several changes to suit the elderly's needs, if necessary.

Elderly Challenge-Observation 1

One of the elderly challenges will be the obstacles and barriers around them, in their living environment. Often, I see the elderly having difficulties navigating in places with treacherous barriers, especially those in car park. There are also open drains on the ground which they have to be wary about. They always require the help of a caregiver or another person to help them move across some places safely and without any worries. Their main issue, no doubt, is to sustain any unnecessary injury, which I believe no other elderly wants to have.

To have a better understanding, I will ask my grandmother when I visit her. She will complain: "The barriers are all coming out of nowhere. I rather stay at home for fear of getting hit or falling." I feel that the authorities should further improve on the design and make sure that the barriers are placed at the location with a definite purpose. Otherwise, all of them should be removed so that the elderly can get out of their houses and go out without any worries.

However, the houses are not as safe as it seems. There are also obstacles in the house; we have to take precautions because the elderly will stumble onto them unknowingly, partly due to their failing sight. The elderly-friendly designs can be applied in the houses, too. The partition, and stuff like that, can be improved so as to create a safer environment for the elderly to live in.

Holiday Work-Part 1: Understanding ‘The Elderly Challenge’

This is a report done by the Committee on Aging Issues(CAI). The link is http://bit.ly/aKVZZC. The four key recommendations of the report is better housings for senior citizens, better accessibility for senior citizens, better care for senior citizens and finally, better opportunities for senior citizens.

What does it mean? I will be elaborate further. It means that Singapore will become more elderly-friendly. There will have a range of housing options to meet the needs of senior citizens plus a better support care to be catered to them. Senior citizens will have better accessibility; the environment will be barrier-free and thus not affecting them from being injured. They can also have a better transport to places thanks to the user-friendly transportation system.

The elderly will also enjoy care benefits; they have access to healthcare and elderly care services. They are cost efficient and of course, much more effective. There will be more and better opportunities, too. They will have healthy and active lifestyle, no doubt. They can maintain fulfilling relationships with their family members. They can also have a lot of friends, and will be involved in activities, some of which even related to the community.

The CAI report is recommending to make Singapore more elderly-friendly by having accessible lifts, walkways and transport pick-up points to make their journey unhindered by any obstacles in the path. This will decrease the risk of any unnecessary harm that may be detrimental to the health of the elderly.

We can ensure that the quality of elderly care here is affordable by making observations of any senior citizens and analyzing information that may be regarding anything in their daily lives. The research can be useful in any improvements to be made. There is another alternative, though. It is to call some volunteers to take care and accompany some elderly. While having a conversation with the elderly, they can actually ask some basic questions to get some information for collation and then use them for the same purpose.

As an SST student, I can make some contributions to overcome these elderly challenges. I can actually help physically, by doing chores for them so as to ease their work load. This may sound easy but it is energy-consuming and time-consuming. I can also make a sort of schedule to help them because most senior citizens are lost on what important things they should do, apart from some of the daily routines. This will also ease their burden and allow them to be less stressed. I can also make an environment less dangerous, for example: making an area free of litter so they will not tumble over the debris or notifying people who can take action when seeing things that may injure an elderly, i.e a broken or fallen obstacle. This can make them unhindered by any worrying factors when stepping out of their houses, into the corridors and lift lobbies.

Personal Reflection (8th March 2010)

Today, three groups has presented their views on helping the environment by introducing their modified product, which is really interesting. The three main things that I have learnt from today's lesson is:

• The Keynotes slides must be short and simple; otherwise, the presentation may look very confusing to the audience as well as the presenters themselves, thus causing some unnecessary arguments.
• The presentation must be straightforward and be clear on the functions of the products; otherwise, the audience may be lost halfway through the presentation.
• The presenter must elaborate on points, especially the main ones, that are important in the presentation but are too short.

The two concepts I learnt today pertaining to design is Feasibility and Creativity. Feasibility is important as the manufacturing of a particular product must be possible, in terms of cost and time that will be taken. It cannot be ideas from movies because often, the ideas are far-fetched, which may or may not be a good thing.

Creativity is another important concept pertaining to design as the unique features(i.e appearance) of a product must attract the attention of the customers; otherwise, it will be a complete failure without these two vital concepts.

I also learnt another interesting thing today; that is, a unique feature in any product can change its whole function and become an exactly different item.

Photography(People)

I took this photo under an incandescent light bulb in my bedroom. If I were to follow the Golden Rule, my face will be at the center; my eyes and one of my ears will be at the intersection of lines.

This is the tranquil surrounding of the SST. The plants seem to make visitors feel calm or perhaps even warm and welcomed into the school. The school is portrayed as a clean one in this picture.

This picture can be split into three by an imaginary line without the towering trees. This picture is something like a panoramic photography. Excluding the school building and the trees, about 1/3 of the photo is filled by bushes, grass, pathway, etc.; in other words, the piece of land we are walking on every single day. The other 2/3 of the picture will be occupied by the building and the azure blue sky.

This is a notice board that can be found on the first floor. I chose to capture this picture as it has reflections and outlines of my classmates and I. This photograph has make use of the Golden Rule.

This creative idea is the brainchild of Shawn, a fellow classmate.

MISCELLANEOUS The most important element to many great photographs is the lighting. Warmth, depth, texture, form, contrast, and color are all dramatically affected by the angle of the sunlight, and thus the time of day. Shooting at the optimum time is often the biggest difference between an 'amateur' and a 'professional' shot. In the early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is low, the light is gold and orange, giving your shot the warmth of a log fire. Professional photographers call these the 'magic hours' and most movies and magazine shots are made during this brief time. It takes extra planning, but saving your photography for one hour after sunrise, or one to two hours before sunset, will add stunning warmth to your shots. Cited from: http://www.photosecrets.com/tips.p05.html

Photography

There are many different types of photography. It can be sports photography, underwater photography, landscape photography, animal photography, aerial photography and portrait landscape, infrared photography, satellite photography, night photography, panoramic photography, etc.

We need cameras, lenses, filters, reflectors and even tripods to get a perfect picture. Aperture is a space which allows light to pass through in an optical or photographic instrument. What is the definition of focus? Why do we need to adjust the focus? Due to the optical properties of photographic lenses, only objects within a limited range of distances from the camera will be reproduced clearly. The process of adjusting this range is known as changing the camera's focus.

The shutter speed is basically the amount of time that the shutter is open. According to a website, in film photography, it is the length of time that the film is exposed to the scene we are photographing. Similarly, in digital photography, shutter speed is the length of time that our image sensor 'sees' the scene we are attempting to capture.

ISO speed stands for International Standards Organisation. It is used to measure the speed of a film. What is Metering all about? Metering is actually a process which involves the camera taking a light level reading from the scene and selecting the appropriate combination of aperture and shutter speed to set the required exposure value.

In photography, the white balance is adjusted so as to get the colors in our images as accurate as possible. As for the three main composition of photography, they are: The Rule Of Thirds, whereby the focus is on two-third of the picture; the Golden Rule, where every intersection must include the key things in the picture into the photograph itself. This will include reflections; the Diagonal Rule, which adds more depth to the picture so that it will not look "flat".

The techniques of photography is very broad so I will list out an example. We can use man-made or natural objects(i.e two rows of trees leading somewhere with a person walking between them) to create a frame for the picture. In this case, the trees will be the frame of the photograph.

Difference Between Isometric, Oblique and Orthographic Drawing

Well, an isometric drawing is a method of visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions, in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and the angles between any two of them are 120 degrees. It simply means a pictorial view of a three-dimensional object. A dictionary says that an isometric drawing is a method of nonperspective pictorial drawing in which the object being drawn is turned so that three mutually perpendicular edges are equally foreshortened(which means having less depth). The meaning of the word 'isometric' in the dictionary is of or having equal dimensions.

What exactly is oblique projection? Oblique projection is a simple type of graphical projection which is used for producing pictorial, two-dimensional images of three-dimensional objects. It is designed to show a three-dimensional view of an object. It can be cuboids, cubes, etc. According to WikiAnswers, it is a kind of a drawing that shows one face of the object in its true shape, but the other faces in a distorted angle. I also found out the word 'oblique' means slanting; neither parallel nor at a right angle to a specified or implied line.

Orthographic projection is a drawing that communicates the shape and size of an object through a series of related two-dimensional views. A drawing, depiction or a map can be made using this method.

Pictures(from top to bottom): Orthographic, oblique and isometric drawing.
ORTHOGRAPHIC DRAWING: www.tpub.com/steelworker1/28.htm
OBLIQUE DRAWING: www.ider.herts.ac.uk/.../graphics/oblique.html(from Google)
ISOMETRIC DRAWING: www.bbc.co.uk/.../drawingformalrev1.shtml(also from Google)

Definition of theme-Environment

Environment is not just the surrounding and condition in which a person, animal or plant operates. It is also about the social and cultural nature around us. It can also be defined as the circumstances, objects and conditions that surround us.

I think it means that environment is not solely about plants and animals. It can also be something like human influences from someone else. It can be traditional beliefs, bias, etc. It can also be situations in which you are.

I think that environment can be ever changing. It impacts and affects us either positively or negatively. Environment may be the state we are all in, whether we are in the examination hall, thinking of something or in a quiet and secluded park. Of course, everyone will have different environments. Finally, I feel that environment should not only be associated with pollution and conservation.

LINKS:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_definition_of_an_environment
www.thefreedictionary.com/environment
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/environment

ADMT Lesson 1: Personal Reflection

ADMT represents Art, Design, Media and Technology. It means creating or editing artworks like cartoons using advanced technology. Art may be something like performing arts, etc. Art is not just about drawings; it can also help express thoughts and feelings too. Design is a process or a procedure. Media, which simply means mass communication, is perhaps something like advertising your own products. Technology resembles the software or application that is used to make animations.

An ADMT student should envisage himself as a creative person. He should be aware the ADMT is a very important subject and thus not neglecting it. The student should also be aware that without art, the world today will indeed be very different. An ADMT student should also have the desire to learn. I aspire to be able to draw pictures or create a brief animation that can convey a proper message. To achieve my aspiration, I will work hard and try to learn more about art via the Internet.

(I cannot put my sketch here as I do not have any scanners. I will try to put something here.)