This study examines the ways in which the concept of &#039 / national design&#039 / informs evaluation of products and their designers, through the example of the field of industrial design in Turkey and the recently influential design magazine Art+Decor. For this purpose, first of all, &#039 / evaluation&#039 / is analyzed as a means in which meanings are imposed on products, and as a tool in struggles for positions and status within the field of industrial design. Then, the role of &#039 / nationality&#039 / in such a function of evaluation is investigated. Finally, a case study is provided, in which the employment of the concept of &#039 / Turkish design&#039 / in evaluation of products and designers is analyzed within the texts published in Art+Decor magazine between 2003 and 2005.

The basic notion of this study is related with visual attributes of products which reflect the identity of the company as well as form and design consistency which is a factor forming corporate identity. The sub-notions of the topic are elaborated in the literature review. The efforts which aimed at finding out the distinguishing characteristics of products focused on certain sample products. Digital camera is selected for the field study. The objective of the study is to put evidence that firms can be distinguished from each other with the help of visual attributes of their products and to determine which factors are effective throughout this process.

This thesis is intended to help eliminate misconceptions and missing information over the realm of smart materials, by offering a newly structured &lsquo / Information Hierarchy for Smart Materials Communication for Industrial / Product Design&rsquo / . Industrial and product designers are invited to use the findings of the thesis to assist in developing a common smart materials language and culture, enriched by details, technicalities, opportunities, and creative and innovative material attributes. The study commences with the creation of a concise and compact reservoir of technical knowledge on smart materials and critically contrasts two established systems of classification for smart materials. Then, the subject of materials information appropriate to industrial design is discussed, highlighting channels through which smart materials information may be communicated at an optimum level so as to be amenable to exploitation by industrial designers. A sectoral analysis of smart materials use follows, including the presentation of factors that may hinder their more extensive exploitation in major industrial sectors. v The thesis concludes that smart materials have potential to initiate a breakthrough in the materials universe, and that industrial designers have a role in promoting smart materials knowledge, the capabilities of smart materials, and their innovation possibilities. It is recomended that since smart materials are a new generation of materials quite different from the conventional, they be promoted carefully through the proposed Information Hierarchy.

Thesis (M.L.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes special study report entitled: Planting in interior landscape. Includes bibliographical references.

Sharing components in a product family requires a trade-off between the individual products' performances and overall family costs. It is critical for a successful family to identify which components are similar, so that sharing does not compromise the individual products' performances. This research formulates two commonality identification approaches for use in product family design and investigates their applicability in a generic product family design methodology. Having a commonality identification approach reduces the combinatorial sharing problem and allows for more quality family alternatives to be considered. The first is based on the pattern recognition technique of fuzzy c-means clustering in component subspaces. If components from different products are similar enough to be grouped into the same cluster, then those components could possibly become the same platform. Fuzzy equivalence relations that show the binary relationship from one products' component to a different products' component can be extracted from the cluster membership functions. The second approach builds a Bayesian network representing the joint distribution of a design space exploration. Using this model, a series of inferences can be made based on product performance and component constraints. Finally the posterior design variable distributions can be processed using a similarity metric like the earth mover distance to identify which products' components are similar to another's.

Ett produktutvecklingsprojekt som behandlar hur problemen kring en förarmiljös formspråk, reglage och kombinationen av dessa i högre grad kan utformas på ett kognitivtergonomiskt och estetiskt vis med anknytning till varumärke. I projektet utfördes en omfattande studie över nutidens förarmiljöer där flera tydliga trender upptäcktes.  I parallellkurs utfördes ett kognitiv ergonomiskt praktikfall tillsammans med litteratur som förankrat arbetet i att forma tekniken efter människan.  Sedan har projektet fördjupat i estetiska principer och olika studier kring förarmiljöer behandlas.  Konceptframtagningen bestod av tre faser. Där det initialt togs fram en mängd övergripande formspråk. Sedan lades de åt sidan för att utforma manöverdon. Slutligen kombinerades resulterande formspråk med manöverdon till en helhet och ett slutkoncept valdes ur dem. Projektet leder fram till ett konceptförslag genom formspråk, ratt och mittreglage till förarmiljön. Konceptförslag med återkoppling till varumärket, målgrupp, kognitiv ergonomi och estetik. / A product development project that deal with the problem of how a driver environment's design language, controls, and the combination of these to a greater extent can be designed in a cognitive ergonomic and aesthetic way related to the brand. The project was carried out a comprehensive study of contemporary operator environments where several clear trends were detected. In parallel course was conducted a cognitive ergonomic case study together with literature that secured the work in shaping technology for humans. The project has immersed in the aesthetic principles and various studies on driver environments have been treated. The development concept consisted of three phases. Initially a wide range of comprehensive design language was developed. Then they were put aside to design the actuators. Finally the resulting design with actuators combined into a whole which an end concept was chosen from. The project leads to design documentation through form-language, steering wheel and center controls for a driving environment. Design documentation with feedback to the brand, audience, cognitive ergonomics and aesthetics.

This thesis presents two empirical studies of four pairs of design students collaborating on two small products design sessions in both face-to-face and distributed settings while using computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies and a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE). To gain insight about the way designers communicate and collaborate, the observation focused on how much time the students worked "together" and "individually" in the design process. Each design process was video recorded and analyzed with a video analysis software Observer XT. The first study shows that both teams worked together to arrive at a design concept then they divided the work for each person to work independently (either the 3D modeling task or the 2D graphic task) to produce the final design. Teams worked together less than fifty percent of the overall work time because they could not share design information effectively using the computing technology tools on the collaborative design process. Findings of the first study suggested plausible design criteria for communication tools for distributed collaboration that supports interaction and sharing design information. The second study used the same methodology and experimental procedures as those used in study. However, participants were provided a shared tool such as NetMeeting Whiteboard and Shared program that support shared sketching abilities or shared viewing of 3D objects. The study shows that teams spent more time working together when using programs that support shared sketching abilities or shared viewing of 3D objects. The shared program and the whiteboard function from NetMeeting helped the design teams to share more information. Participants commented that this program helped facilitate the collaborative process by enabling them each to perform multiple tasks such as talking with their teammates and observing 3D object in a shared view at the same time. Participants also reported that they found the distributed setting a more engaging environment to work with teammates because they were "forced to be engaged" and "forced to communicate better," and that they "concentrated more using hand gestures on camera." Although two studies showed that current CVE (Unreal) did not lead to effective collaboration, several potential features such as creating virtual mock-ups for the brainstorming within a virtual environment were introduced. Participants consider real time 3D visualization effective in the design process and thus very promising in the collaborative setting if they can share ideas easily within a 3D virtual environment.

Thesis (M.L.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes special study report entitled : Planting in interior landscape. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Today, backpacks and duffel bags are often designed with a focus on a specific area of use, which makes it difficult to use them on other occasions. A clear example where the differences are noticeable is between functional mountaineer bags and urban bags. It is not uncommon for people staying in these environments to have far beyond two bags in their possession. Overconsumption is harmful to the environment, especially when it is from an industry that is pursued with poor working conditions and dangerous emissions in nature. Therefore, multifunctionality and sustainable design have been of high priority when the products in this project were developed. In this thesis, two models of bags have been developed through a human-centered design process. A large number of user interviews and expert interviews, as well as a focus group, laid the foundation for the requirements and needs of the bags. Spektrum’s company values, as well as the identity of their current products, were interpreted to create brand recognition in the new products. Idea generation was performed through various creative sessions, prototyping, and through a workshop. Evaluation and concept selection was performed by representatives from the target group in the form of personas, as well as by Spektrum. Finally, detailed technical drawings of the concepts were created in Adobe Illustrator. The first model is a backpack designed to work just as well on the mountain as in the city. The other model is a duffel bag that can be carried both on the back and in the hand. It is also designed to perform well in both mountain and urban environments. Both bags are made of polyester from recycled PET bottles and the material is controlled and approved by the highly rated environmental certification bluesign®. The metal parts of the bags are made of recycled aluminum. Both models are adjustable to fit all users within the 5th to 95th percentile. The thesis resulted in the ordering of two alpha prototypes of each model, factory-made by my technical drawings. According to Spektrum, the designs have created great interest among retailers and company shareholders. Both models will, therefore, be put into production and released to the market within two years.

For a long time, auxiliary lights utilizing halogen or xenon light sources has been fitted in front of the car’s front grille when needing an improved high beam performance. The bigger the auxiliary light, the better its light performance has been. Today’s LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology, where several small light sources are used, has enabled a new market of auxiliary lights, smaller in size and more flexible in shape but with performance able to both match and outperform the traditional auxiliary lights. This master thesis focuses on developing an overall solution for mounting the type of LED auxiliary light commonly referred to as LED light bars on the roof of a car and aims to broaden an existing market. LED light bars are characterized by its oblong and cuboid-like shape. High-performance light bars are theft-desirable by nature as they have a high price and lack of theft security in themselves. In today’s market, there is no given solution for the attachment of roof mounted light bars without harming the car. As a result, mountings of this kind are mostly seen neither aerodynamic nor aesthetically appealing. The project has been performed according to the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) phases. During the conceive phase, a comprehensive pre-study was carried out in which car, relevant theories, LED light bars, competitors and expert observations were investigated. In the design phase, ideas were developed using a number of creative methods implemented individually, in groups and in the form of a workshop. Ideas were clustered into categories and were screened prior to the implement phase. In the following phase, the ideas were combined into a concept that was defined in details. A prototype was manufactured and evaluated, after which the concept was iterated into a final solution. During the last phase, operate, all deliverables were produced at the same time as a manufacturing process was initiated. Together with Vparts, a company dedicated entirely to Volvo owners, an overall solution has been developed to enable a good-looking, anti-theft-proof, model specific and aerodynamic mounting of LED light bars onto the roofs of cars. The concept consists of a double curved light bar in combination with lockable and adjustable mounts having an aerodynamic shape. The solution is modular and includes two different versions of the mounts, which together cover 9 Volvo models, each variant consisting of four different components per side of the light bar.