A Creative Teaching Strategy to Generate Concept Designs and Their Possible Application in Tourism

The aim of this chapter is to present the activities and results from a didactic strategy developed to generate concept designs that can be perceived as possible objects to be manufactured. This strategy is directed towards university students on an intermediate level with low performance in the industrial design major. Similarly, this chapter analyzes the importance of creating concept designs for promoting touristic destinations through a logo. The methodology for the present study is of qualitative nature and employs action research. Some methods stemming from a focus on user-centered design and creativity procedures were utilized. The collage technique and a semi-structured interview were the tools utilized on focus groups. It was concluded that the pedagogical proposal contains activities that assist the student in generating ideas in a systemized way. These actions can be applied with different purposes such as creating a design with the aim of promoting a product and a touristic destination.

Aging Suit

The population pyramid is being inverted and the designers are facing challenges in the way they design products, spaces, and services for elder people. Although the design is composed of both cultural and social aspects, the functional aspect takes relevance for autonomy and empowerment of the person that gets older. To design products centered on the physical capacities of the elder population, the aging suit has being used as a tool for the gerontodesign. In countries like Mexico, its application is limited by the manufacturing cost. For this reason, as part of a design methodology for elder people, a low-cost suit was developed focus on the design students and professionals located in Latin America.

Methodology to Apply Design for Remanufacturing in Product Development

This chapter discusses the definitions of environmental design, design for remanufacturing (DfR), as well as a case study to demonstrate the convergent point between these topics. Many products that are currently remanufactured were not designed with this objective, generating a complicated process that requires that the manufacturing engineers develop in a corrective way, modifications in the original design of the products related to its components and the process. The case study analyzes a product that was not originally designed as remanufacturable. The decision was made to develop a reconstruction process that fulfilled the characteristics of remanufacturing. Finally, in applying the DfR, it was possible to expedite the remanufacturing so that material planners do not fear to run out of good parts and have to order the purchase of new product, decrease the use of assembly details that are purchased at a high price, and thus save on the cost of remanufacturing. Analyzing this case and applying DfR implied a savings of 37% compared to the initial process that did not apply this tool.

The Comprehension of Figurative Images of Food Items

Graphic design is a discipline responsible for creating clear and concise visual messages that can enhance the understanding of information, easing the comprehension of the message when using different kind of images. In ergonomics, there have been studies about image comprehension, helping to set up and prove guidelines that enhance the efficacy and efficiency of symbols, icons, and pictograms. The goal of this research was to assess, within four stages, the comprehension of the figurative food illustrations and the effectiveness of ergonomic guidelines when used in the design process of these illustrations. The results showed that the familiarity and comprehension of some foods are limited due to the nutritional or cultural habits of the users. When comparing the graphic styles that use or lack of ergonomic guidelines, it is clear that the use of these guidelines helps the user to comprehend and identify better the graphical information presented.

Anthropometry Devices

This chapter exposes a comparative research of different anthropometric equipment that has a patent register, comparing analogic devices versus digital devices, with the aim to define the relevance and status of the anthropometric devices. The methodology used in this project is integrated in three stages. The first stage is a documental analysis research of the anthropometric patents devices registered in international offices with the aim to identify the anthropometric devices patented. The second stage is the description of the characteristics, features, and functionality for every anthropometric device founded during the first stage. Finally, the third stage is the generation of a matrix with similarities of the devices with the aim to have a comparison between the devices. As a result of this research, it was possible to describe the characteristics of 14 devices used to define anthropometric devices as well as their futures and utilities.

Experimental Design to Analyze a Novel Stabilization Design of a Three-Wheel Vehicle

Given current trends in pedal vehicles, this chapter is intended to develop a product that is capable of driving without the use of hands, for people with disabilities or for simple recreation. An apparatus was developed to measure and record the necessary parameters to design the most adequate mechanism to achieve this objective. Twelve different positions were analyzed for the user, two vertical seat positions, two inverted angle configurations of the inverted pendulum, two free degree limits of the pendulum, two wheel rotation degrees regarding the body of the mechanism, and regarding the axis motion, two axial configurations. The conclusion resulted that the function of the mechanisms was optimal.

Pedagogy as a Fundamental Part of School Furniture Design

The teaching-learning processes are carried out through established objectives for each grade level and these are achieved with didactic activities based on principles, educational concepts, and pedagogical contents. Activities that are divided into specific tasks that are performed with physical aids such as furniture and classroom generate diverse forms of work. Through observations it was detected that the current furniture did not respond to the pedagogical and didactic practices and there is no data indicating that it is designed according to the anthropometric variability of the students of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara according to the school grade taken by the student. Therefore, the authors sought to know the physical and functional characteristics required by school furniture to be a facilitator of pedagogical and didactic practices to make a proposal of a furniture design that meets both the pedagogical demands and the anthropometric variability of schoolchildren.

Thermal Power Sector Sustainability

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices in thermal power plants is dependent on mostly three pillars: social factor, economic factor, and environmental factor. So, in this chapter, sustainable supply chain management of Indian thermal power sector is evaluated. Artificial neural network (ANN) method is implemented to measure whether the benefits of sustainable supply chain management are achieved after practices of sustainable supply chain management in Indian thermal power sector. This chapter also designs a framework by QFD (quality function deployment) method to find solution for some unsatisfactory measures (inputs in sustainable factors) that are not achieved against outputs. As sustainable supply chain management practices in thermal power plants are influenced by a significant number of interrelated enablers and barriers, the drivers or enablers of SSCM are taken as the design requirement to improve SSCM in thermal power industries, and the most important driver is prioritized against the unsatisfied measurands in thermal power sector.

Understanding the Context of Design for Social Innovations

The chapter describes the applicability of designers to the space of finding solutions to social issues through the generation of social innovations. Based on a literature review, it was evident that design requires new methods to apply to the resolution of social issues, and as such, this chapter presents a new method that supports designers in the development of solutions within the design for social innovation (DfSI) framework. The proposed method consists of six stages: (1) identifying the challenge, (2) analyzing the system in which the challenge co-exists, (3) understanding the system using user-centered design techniques, (4) defining the design brief, (5) generating proposals, and (6) evaluating and concluding. The chapter also introduces a design case study that describes in detail the implementation of the design method. The results indicated that the method supports designers to structure their process when aiming to design for social innovation and in particular to define the potential solution, which is reflected in a design brief.

User Characteristics and Ergonomic Properties for Daily Objects Design

An analysis of different objects of daily use was made, specifically four models of lemon squeezers, three models of can openers, and four models of clothespins. Such analysis is made focusing on the strength needed to complete the task and the dimensional relation between the hands and object grips that impact both in ease of use and user well-being itself, identifying the gap between young and older adults characteristics and capabilities and the features of the object. This comparison was supported by a dynamometric study to identify the maximum capabilities of strength application in two different grip forces very common in daily life. These two grip forces are the ground of the interaction with the analyzed products. In conjunction with the force, the registry made an anthropometric assessment of different anatomical points in the hands.