Indoor Garden - Concepts

some of these ideas are getting a little bit crazy however i think there are some relevant ideas when it comes to thinking about what this product wants to achieve. Is it going to require a light to feed the plants if they cannot get enough sun and what is an attractive and economical (in terms of space and power usage) way of achieving this.

Jordan

Valve Reserach

Investigating valve systems to apply to spray dispenser design.

TOM

Existing Herb Planters

I took another trip to Mitre 10 Mega in Petone, specifically looking at herb planters this time to check out what's commonly available, (in a generic garden centre such as Mitre 10 garden dept.) and what our planter would be competing with if it was in store (we are aiming our planter at a 'mainstream' market and envisage it being sold in places like this). The herb planters all seem to follow the 'main compartment with holes out the side' form, which according to my gardening mother, doesn't work to well because the plants at the top dry out and the plants at the bottom get waterlogged- which makes sense. They are also all for outdoors use and all pretty ugly and heavy looking in my view, without much aesthetic sensitivity. There definitely seems to be a gap for a more contemporary and practical design which could fit in with contemporary environments, (kitchen, décor, home etc.) and which could attract a younger generation to gardening.  -yvette

microgreens

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20120831/tiny-microgreens-packed-nutrients

http://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/Kings+Seeds+Blog/x_post/microgreen-tutorial-00012.html

http://www.profitableplantsdigest.com/growing-high-value-microgreens-for-profit/

-yvette

micro greens idea

Insparation for spray despenser aesthetic

Here are some forms I thought could influence our spray dispenser design

Collaboration Management worksheet week 1

(14/07/14 is the correct date, the date written on the sheet is wrong)-Yvette

Design Presentations

* online examples of proficient, professional presentations. group analysis and critique of presentations (not videos)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-edwiGUU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-edw...iGUU

http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G9Sotw4aAI

See More

http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles
 

First try at storyboarding

Tom's story board

 Storyboard for spray dispenser -Jordan

Storyboard for indoor planter -Yvette


Mike gave us some feedback about these in class, he said that Jordan's story board was good, in that it shows how the user relates to our product in an emotive way, (same as Toms') but maybe the man spraying in the field is not so relevant as our product is aimed at suburban home owners as opposed to farmers. He said my story board is too basic in that it only shows how the subject uses our product, it needs to go more into how the subject relates to the products- (their values, desires, perspective etc.?)
Our next story boards will take this feedback into account -yvette

Gardening Moodboards

Mood boards for indoor gardening. -Jordan

Personas

thinking about designing for people it also helped us to develop some personas which we could apply our products to and see what use/relationship they would have with our product. this helps us to decide if we want to specialise our product for one particular demographic or broaden it so it can be applicable to a wide range of personas. We used our mood boards and research into the 'users', activities and physical environments of gardening to develop these personas.

Group desision to eliminate grow light

*group decision/discussion to simplify planter- no grow light

water resoviour test rig

I made this test rig to see how big the refill hole in the water reservoir should be. Me, my 17yr old brother and my mum (who has bad eyesight), all tried to pour water into each container with each pouring device, (chosen based on what kinds of things I thought people might use to refill our design). We each selected which circomference size was the easiest/most comfortable for each pourer.

(The measurments on the labels are all the circumference, not the diameter, I wrote diameter by mistake) 

(above, common household 'pourers')

My brother
- drink bottle- 18/21cm circumference
-White pourer- 18/21cm circumference
-teapot- 18cm circumference
-Pirex- 21/18cm circumference

Mum (without her glasses)
-drink bottle-21/18
-white pourer-29
-teapot-18
-Pirex-29

Me
-drink bottle-21/18
-white pourer-18/21
-teapot-18/21
-Pirex-29

Overall the average 'comfortable hole size' to pour into is 18/21. We'll use this info for our fink design.

Grow lights

http://www.bhg.com/gardening/houseplants/care/choosing-plant-grow-lights/
http://www.horticulturesource.com/faq.php#why
http://www.survivalfoodgear.com/2013/08/22/raising-food-indoors-one-steps-self-sufficiency/
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hydro/msg0216465428747.html

-Yvettte

Handle Test Rig (for spray dispensor)

I made up this test rig to hand to people to see which extremely simple handle style they preferred. I received overwhelming results. The group will apply these results to our garden spray dispenser design.

This first handle seemed to be liked more by people with smaller hands but very few liked it the most.

The simple round handle was deemed to thin and felt as though it would break, moderately liked.

This handle was the most favourable with a high majority enjoying how this gable filled the hand and proved extremely comfortable for it's simple shape.

The final option was poor as it did not fit many peoples hands. A very poor design ergonomically.

Indoor Planter concept development

Here I was thinking about how an indoor planter could be smoothly incorporated into in indoor environment. I considered use of space and multipurpose functions, ie. a room lamp/grow light.
-yvette

Indoor Garden/Herbicide Dispenser - Development

 I think a geometric form for the planter could work well- creating an interesting contrast/dynamic/tension with the plant and a 'contemporary' aesthetic, (our survey showed aesthetics are very important to people when it comes to indoor plants). Also in the survey, some people were concerned with indoor plants 'taking over' their home, a geometric formed planter could help to counter this idea.

Designs for spray container- slight wedge/slope on container floor means all liquid flows to nozzle, no need to tip container when contents are low

-Yvette

Anthropometrics

I think this data will be extremely important when deciding on the final shapes and dimensions of both our products. With the dispensing bottle, we need to take into account anthropometrics of both male and female hands, whilst wearing gloves!! The pot plant cannot be too large that it is difficult to carry and move, this may also impact on material, in regards to how slippery it is.

Project Timeline

Here's a timeline of where we're at and what's due and when

-yvette

Planter + Original Ideas

TOM

Survey number 2

After our decision to focus on indoor/limited space gardening, (electric) and a garden spray dispenser, (analogue) as our two products, we worked together to develop a survey to find out more about these specific areas, and other people's views on them

This survey validates our idea for an indoor garden and has some useful info for how we can develop this product. Spraying is a more specialized area, most of the people who took this survey were students, who usually don't have the property to spray, so we'll survey some home owners about their spray use. While their are a lot of complaints about spray backpacks in here, we've seen some really good quality spray packs, so we're not so interested in designing in this area. However this survey did show that measuring ratios, spilling, difficulty refilling sprayers and contact with dangerous chemicals are issues people have with toxic garden sprays, which are things we're addressing in our spray dispenser design.

Group Direction

 

Other ideas not included on the above page:

 

-automatic lawnmower, user sets their lawn shape and lawnmower mows by itself- doesn't need pushing, (saving time and energy). Potential issues: could run things over (eg. pets/birds), how to stop? remote control? cellphone connection? how to map lawn shape- aerial photo (expensive), initial manual mow to set lawn shape? 'start tile' on lawn?

 

-Bird/pest scarer with motion detector which activates noise/spray/movment to scare birds/pests. Pros- our research, (eg. conversation with Bunnings assistant) has shown that birds/pests/pets wrecking/digging up/eating plants is a common gardening issue- this product could solve this issue. Cons- many people like to have birds in their garden, (hence bird feeders!). Birds aren't the only moving thing in the garden, other animals, people and plants in the wind also move, all these things could set this product of when not wanted which would get very annoying.

 

After thoroughly researching gardening, identifying existing problems and sifting through all the ideas that came from this research we narrowed down to 2 ideas  to focus on as a group.

1- A miniature garden solution that could be used by someone with very limited to no outdoor space and time to maintain a proper garden.

2- A herbicide/pesticide dispenser which is easier and safer to use than existing products.

Results From Gardening Survey

Here are the results from our initial survey on peoples attitudes to gardening. We will use this information to direct our project- which products we decide to develop, our projects' personas, mood boards and storyboards and how we design our products


-Summary

Users, Activities and Physical Environments of Gardening

I've done some visual research into people who garden, gardening activities and physical environments of gardening.

'gardeners' can include farmers, professional gardeners, home gardeners, hobby gardeners etc. and include different genders, ages, races, cultures and a huge range of personality types. These differences mean gardening is approached in a huge variety of ways.

Gardening and gardens can involve a huge range of activities: relaxing, socialising, watering, weeding, spraying, digging, planting, trimming, pruning, raking, hoeing, mowing etc.

There is huge variety in 'garden environments': public gardens, private gardens, veggie gardens, flower gardens, botanical gardens, parks, city gardens, farms, indoor gardens, outdoor gardens, highly cultivated gardens, low maintenance gardens, community and school gardens etc.

-YVETTE

Gardening Defenition

Oxford Dictionary, "garden n. 1 esp. Brit. a piece of ground, usu. adjoining a private house, used for growing flowers etc. and as a place of recreation. 2 (esp. in pl.) ornamental grounds laid out for public enjoyment. 3 (attrib.) a (of plants) cultivated, not wild. b for use in a garden (garden seat). 4 (usu. in pl. prec. by a name) Brit. a street, square etc. (Onslow Gardens). 5 an especially fertile region. 6 US a large public hall. v.intr. cultivate or work in a garden [from Old French jardin]. gardener n. gardening n.

Collins Concise English Dictionary, "1. a piece of ground, usually close to a house, for the growing of fruits, flowers, or vegetables 2. an area of fertile, well-cultivated land 3. [often pl.] a parklike place for public enjoyment, sometimes having special displays of animals of plants -vi. to work in or take care of a garden, lawn etc. -adj. 1. of, for, or grown in a garden"

We discussed these definitions and our own personal definitions of gardening as a group.  We felt that 'plants cultivated, not wild' was a key definition for us, but this is very broad, and includes everything from intensive farming to an indoor pot plant. We decided to focus on private home gardens for this project.

Wehi- other peoples' perspectives on gardening

So far we've approached most of our research from an 'ihi' perspecteive, ie. our personal views in our brainstorms. In order to effectively design for others we need to get more of an idea of their views, opinions, assumptions, feelings, desires etc. (on gardening), so I've developed this survey to amp up the wehi in our research! -yvette

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uKsK2WREUbZ0ITkKxCVs5bA_k1jSFC9xF8cHHF7X6bE/viewform?usp=send_form

Gardening- Immersive Testing