Designing for Safety: The Journey of a Product Design Graduation Project

In this article, Creapole graduate, Yuqing Song, takes us through the product design process of her graduation project, Guardian. Focusing on ensuring the safety of women living alone in big cities, Yuqing shares the steps taken and lessons learned in bringing this design to life.

Project Analysis

A project should start with a deeper analysis of 5 key aspects below:

• Social Phenomenon: The journey begins by recognising the prevalence of high crime rates in big cities and understanding the potential impact it has on product design.
• Target Group: A deep dive into the habits, activities, and safety concerns of women living alone, a significant demographic in urban areas, forms the basis of understanding user needs.

1. Cities: Analysing characteristics of renowned international cities like Tokyo and Paris, such as population density, transportation convenience, and nightlife, contributes to contextualising the design solution.
2. Brand: Choosing Xiaomi as the brand, I explored its design features, common colour schemes, and attempted to align my own product design language accordingly.
3. Problem Identification: Through comprehensive analysis, the primary challenge of ensuring the safety of women living alone in big cities is identified, leading to the formation of three specific design directions addressing various settings.

Analysis of competing products

Evaluating existing market products and assessing their strengths and weaknesses provides valuable insights for designing a unique and effective solution.

Research and Pre-Production

Research

Capturing inspiration through sketches and thinking innovatively, potential solutions to security problems are explored and documented. These sketches serve as a foundation for refining functions, shapes, and conceptualizing usage scenarios.

Pre-production

With a defined plan, the modeling phase begins in Rhino, focusing on determining details that align with the chosen design direction. Keyshot is utilised for material selection, colour application, lighting adjustments, and rendering scenes from different angles, emphasising intricate details.

Final project

After careful evaluation of pre-projects, a solution is selected for further development. In my case, I chose pre-project 2, considering the flexibility required for navigating city roads.

The refinement process involves utilising sketches and Rhino to enhance the shape and intricate details.

Modeling Process in Rhino

Here is the rhino modeling process for the final project.

Start by looking at the complex product as a whole and ignore the subtle parts. Build out the overall shape to scale and later modify the details, delete the redundant parts, etc.

Ensuring wholeness will make the overall process of rhino modeling simpler and more accurate.

1. Import sketches into Rhino, if available.
2. Draw lines according to the sketches, constructing the overall shape of the product.
3. Segment the main body to ensure proper structuring.
4. Build the head section, making necessary cuts and modifications.
5. Repeat the process to create the wheels.
6. Finalize the overall shape and add thickness to the surfaces to enhance the product's solidity.
7. Integrate functional details, ensuring precise chamfering where applicable.

Layout

The layout plays a crucial role in enabling others to understand the product. Including scenes depicting the product in use by the target users enhances its functionality and clarity.

It's important to note that Keyshot-rendered product visuals may require additional adjustments in Photoshop to enhance colour accuracy and material realism.

By sharing my design journey, I hope to inspire and provide valuable insights into the process of creating a product focused on safety. Analysing social phenomena, understanding the target group, researching existing products, and executing meticulous design exploration all contribute to a successful outcome. The rhino modeling process and layout considerations are equally important, ensuring the product's integrity and effective communication. May these steps guide and inspire your own design endeavours towards meaningful solutions.

You can reach out to Yuqing via LinkedIn and check out her student work on The Rookies here.