Warm Up Exercise

• Convergence exercise
• Pick a favorite product. Add sustainability (a) as a product capability, or (b) as a product characteristic.
• Observe. Define. Ideate. Sketch. Concept Story (narrative). Human-centered.
• Intended to stretch & strain (aka wedging, coning & centering). Manage uncertainties. Do your best. Use design thinking.
• Discuss (Slack), Document (Notion) & Mini-Essay Report (Canvas).
• The word-count for the Mini-Essay is intentionally not specified. Use your discretion. Manage the uncertainty.
• 10 pt value. Content+Style+Other. Pat-on-the-back? or Wake-up call? #define average = 5. #deductions.
• This is your audition for the DezignBläst Studio Team

Thinking Progress

1. I tried to look for something that can break easily and hoped to expand their service life by using more durable material, so that people wouldn’t need to purchase so many of this items and the world wouldn’t need to produce so much of them. Overall, it’s good for the sustainable development of our planet
2. I found tissue paper, disposable cups， takeaway bags, food packages, trash bags, etc.
3. Sure, all of these items mentioned above can easily be modified using more durable materials, but the reason why all these products are so popular today is what I was trying to get rid of—their disposability. Due to people’s pursuit of convenience and partially for hygiene, people are reluctant to reuse these products, regardless of the material they are made up of. As a result, since these items will eventually end up in garbage cans, it is best for the producers to produce these products using non-durable materials because this lowers the costs for producers themselves and makes the decomposition of these materials easier.
4. Since the main problem is about human cognition and habit. I started to consider how to influence human behavior. I thought of raising the taxes on these products in order to increase their price and therefore make habitual disposal unaffordable. Or while purchasing a product that contains disposable parts, eg. takeout bags for takeouts, consumers can get a refund by returning the disposal part to the seller.
5. However, none of these methods mentioned here are “sustainability (a) as a product capability, or (b) as a product characteristic”, instead they are external political forces. I then thought of designing decorations on these disposable items that are so attractive that consumers wouldn’t bear to throw them away. Yet, I realized that this won’t solve our ultimate problem, which is to promote the sustainable development of our planet. This method may prevent the disposal of disposable items to some extent, but how likely it is for consumers to reuse these items remains a question. If they do not reuse them, then there is no difference between storing these items on shelves and throwing them away in garbage cans. The total amount of these products produced will remain the same, or even increase, as there might be some people purchase beyond their needs to collect what they want.
6. After considering all of these difficulties, I gave up in modifying disposable products. Then I went to the gym for some relax. There I tried out a spinning bike, a bike without any wheels designed to exercise leg muscles. I found that many people actually pull on a brake to work out better. Technically speaking, when working out, they are transforming their chemical energy into kinetic energy, and due to the brake and the lack of wheels, this energy will eventually be dissipated as heat or sound, two very ineffective energy types. Meanwhile, a friend of mine was complaining on my phone about how difficult it was to head back to her dorm high up on a hill. So, I came up with the idea of a manpower & electric-hybrid bicycle.
7. This bicycle can switch between two modes: charging and discharging. In the normal mode, riders use it as a normal bike. In the charging mode, the rider can charge a battery by transforming kinetic energy into electricity, and in the discharge mode, it does the opposite.
8. I saw the message in Slack and then realized this mini-essay can be written as fiction. I personally liked O’Henry’s type of story, ones with unexpected outcomes, so I tried to write one, but I am not sure if I did well on this.
9. Reflection on my story: those who are willing to exercise their leg muscles usually won’t have any problem riding up a hill.