The Portal between the Virtual and Real in Product Design / Julien Lindley

1. The Portal between the
Virtual and Real in
Product Design
Betwixt and Between Conference
26th November 2014
BA (Hons) Product Design, BSc (Hons) Industrial Design
Design Research Group, Digital Hack Lab
Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design

2. • Product Design – the conception and planning of products for multiple reproduction
…including technology, materials, aesthetics and social implications *1
• Design Process:
Physical – Digital – Physical
Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
http://bgr.com/2014/04/07/
iphone-6-screen-size-internal-presentation
Industrial Designers Society of America (2001) Design Secrets:
Products. Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, Inc.

3. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
Yesterdays’ Student …Product Design Team Observations
 Assembly based hobbies
 Experimentation
 Practical as a consequence of lifestyle
and play
 Creativity constrained by the physicality of
the objects at hand ….

4. Yesterdays Students:
• Generation X Digital Immigrants *2 (Prensky, M. 2001)
• Early Generation Y Early Digital Natives
…With inherent interested in physicality
... Born up to and around1990
Observations …..
• It was a challenge to move from the Physical to the Digital
• Prove product principles physically before investing time translating
designs into the digital world
• Digital environment was for data capture and transfer
Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
Image From Design Secrets: Products. *3

5. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
Todays’ Student …Product Design Team Observations
 Distinctly ‘Digital Natives’ *4
 Limited experience of materials, or
experimentation
 A consequence of lifestyle and
technology availability
 Games and MineCraft culture
 Digitally creative … but unrealistic
expectations of physical constraints
Impossible Structure – Designed by Lewis McGonigal

6. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
Digital Natives ….
They look like us, they talk like
us, but they are almost a
completely different species.
*5 http://www.trendsactive.com

7. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
http://bgr.com/2014/04/07/
iphone-6-screen-size-internal-presentation
Industrial Designers Society of America (2001) Design Secrets:
Products. Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, Inc.
Our observations ….
• The ‘Digital Native’ design process:
Digital – Physical
• Ignores physical experimentation … delivering unrealistic structure
• Generation Z – Technical Skills Gap.

8.  Digital CAD skills are essential for employment.
 Immense power and control over design but
this has to come with responsibility.
 Critical production details need to be accurately
represented and understood.
Imagetakenfromhttp://www.clipartbest.com/spiderman-cartoon:20/08/2014
“with great power comes
great responsibility”
Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design

9. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
PRINTING
IS THE ANSWER
Isn't it?

10. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
A Traditional Approach to 3D Printing
 Working prototyping rather than a design proposal.
 Experimentation in the physical environment.
 Iterative process – creativity versus practical
constraints.

11. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
“How do I sand a 3D Print?”
We need to overcome the assumption that the ‘digital’ environment will ‘sort it out’.

12.  Encouraging students to experience the physical before the digital.
 Designing by making – ‘hands-on’ material experimentation.
 Where ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ meet ‘X’.
 Does ‘X’ need to change in order to meet ‘Y’ and ‘Z’.
Designing Through Making
Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design

13. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
Summary…
Historical Process
Physical … Digital … Physical
Emerging Portal Between the Digital and Physical
Digital Physical

14. Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design
We pose three questions …
• Is it more difficult to move from the Digital to the
Physical environment?
• As educators, do we encourage Digital Natives to take a
more traditional approach or do we explore new design
processes?
• Does this impact the National Curriculum as well as
Higher Education?
…Thank you

15. References:
1 Fiell, C & P. (2006) Industrial Design A-Z, Taschen GmBH, London
2 & 4 Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants [Online] Available at:
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-
%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf [Accessed: 19 November 2014]
3 Industrial Designers Society of America. (2001) Design Secrets: Products. Massachusetts:
Rockport Publishers, Inc.
5 TrendsActive, Trends Interpretation Agency. Generation Trends [Online] Available at:
http://www.trendsactive.com/#!/our-trends/generation-trends [Accessed: 19 November 2014]
Julian Lindley, Steve McGonigal, Richard Adams, John Beaufoy
Product and Industrial Design