TECHNICAL EXPERIMENT
DESIGN BRIEF
Design and prototype a lamp for a friend or family
WHO AND WHY
My target user
I designed and prototyped a lamp for my sister, Angela, a University of Auckland student.
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Interview
I first interviewed her to find out her wants and needs and generally get to know her more.
She lives in a small room and would like a smaller lamp especially since her current lamp is too big and her room lights are too bright. She wants a convenient lamp that makes good use of the space in her room and suits her wants for a simple and easy to use lamp with no wires or plugs.
She also wants the aesthetics to be personalised to her interests in modern, simple, feminine and oriental designs as well as her love for flowers, gemstones, antiques and reading. She wishes for the colours to be kept white or wooden to suit her room.
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Design Statement
My sister, Angela, needs a way to have a convenient and easy to use lamp that makes good use of space (or small) because her bedroom is small, the lights are too bright. and her bedside lamp is too big and inconvenient to turn off.
WHAT
Ideation
Using information from the interview, I researched, brainstormed and then created sketches of ideas while getting feedback from my sister. ​
VISUALISATION PROTOTYPE
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Before feedback:​
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After feedback:
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HOW
Specification Prototype
The lamp is made up of 3F printed materials. The lampshade Is a translucent PLA filament while the wooden part is a bamboo filament. The lamp is powered through a power bank that is rechargeable and has a conductive material under the wood which makes it be able to be touch sensed by touching the wood while connected to an Arduino circuit with the necessary coding. The bottom can be unscrewed and rescrewwed to adjust the height or act as a clamp to connect on ledges.
DISCUSSION
Strengths
I believe that the lamp fits the need of my user, Angela, very well. It has her need for convenience by being portable, compact and wireless since it is charged by a power bank with a touch sensor so that it is easy to use. It is also attachable to ledges to reduce the amount of space it takes up as well as able to stand by itself for more varied uses. ​The lampshade is cream rather than white so that the light is nicer to the eyes and has good aesthetics that suits her desires and interests - she likes flowers, simple design and suits the colour theme desire.
Improvements needed
I was given feedback from the user that the light is a little small which means the light distribution around her room won't be good so an improvement would be to make the lampshade/light section bigger. It would also be good if the part that clamps has a non-slip surface to make it more secure and maybe use stronger and tougher materials rather than a 3D printed wood filament. The user also suggests adding a dimmable function in the lamp to make it even more convenient.
