Miles Park
I'm a Sydney based industrial designer and design educator at UNSW Built Environment / UNSW, Australia.
Location Sydney, NSW, Australia
Activity
-
Miles Park made a comment
"In today’s digital world, online networking is equally as important – if not more so – than face-to-face networking". I wonder if the online networking environment zeitgeist is a little overblown and not an equal substitute for face to face?
-
Miles Park made a comment
I've often been told of the importance of networking for business success and for creating opportunities. But I wish to know how to do it efficiently and effectively for success
-
Miles Park replied to Taybah Malik
That's a good example of the designers addressing an observed insight - real people loading a real machine. Now, can they solve the problem of the matching the missing sock?
-
Miles Park replied to Jayne Blake
Good breakdown of the process and the many considerations required to design a useful and desirable product.
-
No it does not produce energy (heating water or electricity), but it does save energy by reducing the amount of lighting in the public spaces below. Heliostat technology is also ideal for large scale solar farms - that are stating to be build in Australia - http://tinyurl.com/j6hldvo
-
I agree. The bike has been with us for well over a century and remains just as useful and in so many situations.
-
Miles Park replied to Vikas Sharma
Tim Philips discuses this in more detail in section 5.7 of the course
-
Miles Park replied to Stephen Rofail
Which suggests, good design is often inconspicuous and quietly gets on with the job in the background and not competing for our constant attention.
-
Miles Park replied to Mark Driver
I also have a similar watch that never needs a battery or winding. A great convenience in this age of battery dependant electronic devices.
-
Jessica also nominated a phone case - lifesaving device for fragile mobile phones! The CAT S50 has a very rugged aesthetic that clearly signals toughness. Do you think other phone manufacturers could address durability without relying upon the aesthetics of earth moving equipment?
-
Its balance, weight and feel in the hand make food more enjoyable. Enjoy your lunch!
-
Designed for long life then? This is a real challenge for technology devices. I recently curated an exhibition about this theme - Beautiful Obsolescence. - http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/beautiful-obsolescence/7821800
-
Not crazy to me. This is an good of observing detail in everyday products. There is an extraordinary amount of design effort and engineering that goes into the design of such products. The precision of how the cap thread opens and reseals is another feature I like with this product.
-
Miles Park replied to nicole delcourt
Nicole's examples of heliostat effects clearly illustrates how technologies can result in unintended consequences - good and bad. Can others think of other recent examples of unintended consequences of technology?
-
Miles Park replied to Susan M
Thanks for sharing Susan. Swiping over the photos gives a fascinating glimpse of how the location has changed over the last half century. Notice how trams once ran along Parramatta road - the main thoroughfare running past the Central Park precinct. Hindsight well tell us that their removal in the 1960s was a poor decision for Sydney's transport...
-
Miles Park replied to Miles Park
Totally agree
-
USB is a good example. I agree that any new system should aim to have some level of backward compatibility otherwise we are going to end up to our ears in e-waste and frustration. Eg, some computer printers that have no firmware upgrade for evolving computer operating systems and end-up useless.
-
Miles Park made a comment
Looking forward to next week.
-
Miles Park made a comment
Where do we price in Design, prototyping and testing? Is this CAPEX? As I see it,a IoT solutions could be prototyped and tested using a whole range of low cost sensors and controllers and networking devices - before the big expenditure of specifying customised components, and commissioning their production.
Iterative and progressively refined prototyping... -
Miles Park made a comment
I wonder where we be in 20 years time? Will it mean legacy wireless networks will have to be wrangled to coexist with a new, yet to be adopted, standard. Will there be a step change in other aspects of IoT, eg batteries, so low power becomes less of an issue and shifts the preference to power demanding wireless networks?
-
Miles Park made a comment
802.11ah - Up to 1km! This could be a game changer. But does that mean more powerful modems to receive such signals?
-
Thanks Amy.
-
Miles Park made a comment
Will an emerging 5G standard mean sensor nodes will need a SIM card, of some sort, and thus a service contract with a service provider?
-
Miles Park made a comment
LPWAN Looks the most economical on paper. But, these are only projections.
I also think that creating a job for a technical person is desirable, considering an unintended consequence of many IoT solutions is to put people out of work. I make no judgement, but just throw this in idea that there are winder social and economic costs that may need to be...
-
Miles Park replied to Andy Pinkard
Yes, I've also noted Mischa mentioning Patents. He mentions that less complex devices mean less costly patents. I've not come across this idea before with my limited dealings with patent attorneys. Could this be explained?
-
Miles Park made a comment
Will these connectivity platforms coexist or will there be winners and losers with a massive shakedown to one unifying standard?
-
Miles Park made a comment
High power for Range, but low energy for battery life
-
Miles Park made a comment
I'd like a device that sends to me a text when one of my chickens lays an egg. The sensor could be a pressure and/or impact sensor combined with a templature sensor? This would trigger a device conned to the wifi, communicates to a server via the Internet and then sends to me text or a tweet......but being chooks, perhaps this should be a cluck!
-
Miles Park replied to Miles Park
Um? I'd punt for a hipster as I'm an industrial designer, but I'm to old to be a hipster and I don't have a beard!
-
Miles Park made a comment
Engineering company. You need a cross disaplinary team to be really successful in business today. A hacker, hustler and hipster is a good start.
-
Miles Park made a comment
There are many unknowns when starting out, mistakes are inevitable.
-
Miles Park made a comment
Good concise explanation. I'd only add that the user interface, a subset of the total user experience, is so much more looking nice.
-
Miles Park replied to Michele H
Tristan. A good practical guide for designers is offered by Autodesk who make a range of CAD and Design software tools.
http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/product-design -
Miles Park made a comment
Mischa emphasises solving real problems. The challenge, as I see it, is to how first identify a real problem worth solving, and not to implement a 'solution' just loaded up with new IoT tech. In many of these instances, solving real problems is relative, and to whose problems are you solving? Does a more efficient parking system encourage more people to drive?...
-
I have an uneasy feeling about this import matter of privacy and inevitable unintneded consequences. But I suspect we will cover some this latter in the course. I think what Mischa is covering here is the challenge of interconnectivity.
But to build on Daffyd's comments - I'd say sunshine is better than disinfectant. We need with these emerging protocols...
-
Miles Park made a comment
Not my idea, but I like smartphones being described as the 'remote control for life'
-
Miles Park made a comment
Many products and electronic devices are increasingly becoming interconnected through digital communications networks. The massive growth of low-cost internet based technologies, wireless technologies, computer processing power, embedded displays , remote sensors and robotics, are contributing to this accelerating trend.
-
Stuart and Marjan, I use the phrase 'make things better' as a shorthand for the many things a design team may aspire to achieve - with their design work. We could also say 'quality of life' is equally ambiguous? So how to make such general phrases more meaningful?
I posted earlier this week about Design Awards. In many such circumstances an expert jury will... -
Miles Park replied to Michele H
Yes, both, it’s a collaboration! We often buy replacement products even when an old product still functions. This is true with consumer technology products - over 90% of computer products still function when discarded. Why? Because we desire new and novel things. The short lifespan for many products is not about durability but it is often to do with what is...
-
Tim Philips told me that the value of the heliostat enabled the developers and council to agree on an increased tower height as a result of demonstrating satisfactory solar access to certain locations on the site.
-
The reflective surfaces are anodised aluminium composite panels that have been specifically developed for the concentrated solar thermal market
-
Prisms - great idea! UNSW research into Photovoltaics (PV) has again set a new record for sunlight-to-electricity conversion by using a PV module embedded in a prism!
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/milestone-solar-cell-efficiency-unsw-engineers
-
Miles Park replied to Doug Karo
I am also curios about what determines the 25 year lifespan. Is it a contractual obligation, performance lifespan modelling of vital components, programmed refurbishment or replacement? I've emailed Tim Philips this and other questions raised by your comments - I'll post his response with my Weekly summary.
-
Miles Park replied to Abigail W
Jui, great low energy choice. In Australia, during the 19th Century, many households would have a 'meat' or Coolgardie safe that works by evaporative cooling.
-
Renee, I agree, 3D printing is trendy tech, but the relevance for this course, and theme for this weeks unit is technology. One aspect is 3D printing and allied digital technologies - they are being applied to an ever expanding range of applications. One particular relevance to this course is the role of such technologies as design tools. They do not replace...
-
Miles Park replied to Debbie Jefferies
Often now when discussing new product ideas I'm thinking of the question .... isn't there an app for that? We have seen the eventual dematerialisation of some product categories into smart phone apps. As Oya says, as products become smaller an smaller, or indeed reduced to just a user interface, the role of the designer is of equally important. Even if the...
-
Miles Park replied to Michele H
Michael, in Wolfgang Joensson’s video he uses the word “obsolescence” to refer to how, over time, some product categories have become smaller (miniaturisation due to microelectronics) and eventually dematerialise by becoming software as smartphone applications (product convergence). Think music players and calculators.
The other and more common...
-
Miles Park replied to Stuart Boyd
In regards to Stuart’s second question about who decides on the “preferred design”. Typically, a design development process starts with a Design brief. This will define the project and design criteria that an optimum design solution should address. It is often discovered during the design process that design criteria will evolve and change as new insights and...
-
Miles Park replied to Stuart Boyd
As Oya stated, “Quality of life can be improved in many ways”. To which Stuart raises the point about objective and subjective criteria. A product design can be interpreted through a variety of objectives and subjective lenses, and by the many people who encounter it. So the success or otherwise of any one design will vary as we all bring our own perspective...
