Industrial and Product Design Commons^™

Mobile Hyflex In Product Design Studios, Ceri Almrott

Case studies: Digital Education

Studio 201: Design Process is a year 2 design studio module which looks to teach students the iterative design process and is typically structured around active learning and problem-solving in physical studio spaces. Historically the primary learning occurred during a 4hour studio session with an additional 2-hour supervision session occurring later in the week. For the 2024-2025 academic year this model was flipped with active studio activities taking the whole of the early week, 4-hour session and the more theoretical and knowledge transfer activities occurring in the shorter session via Hyflex delivery. The goal of this session was to take …

Moonlight Matcha Process Book, Adrienne Liang

Graphic Communication

As matcha continues to rise in popularity across the United States, there are significant gaps in consumer awareness regarding its health benefits and cultural significance. Moonlight Matcha, a fictitious brand developed for my senior project, seeks to bridge those gaps by educating consumers about the wellness benefits of matcha while featuring a modern, appealing design that resonates with a broad audience. This project has been especially meaningful because it allowed me to explore the full process of building a brand from the ground up – from brand strategy and storytelling to packaging development and user experience (UX) design. It brings …

Materiality And The Machine. Maximising Material Experiences In The Age Of Ai, Ceri Almrott, Keith Colton, Mark Ennis, Ina O'Connor

Conference Papers

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies are expected to significantly impact the future of design, but traditional design methods are still important. Material Intelligence (MI) is crucial for product designers, and a structured four-year approach to undergraduate design education centred around experiential learning through MI is presented. The approach emphasises hands-on experimentation, integrates MI into the core curriculum, and prioritises interdisciplinary collaboration to produce innovative, functional, and sustainable design solutions.

Sustainable Product Design Education Through An Appreciation Of The Low-Tech, Ceri Almrott

Conference papers

The paper presents a case study on the implementation of Low-Tech development model to teach sustainability in design-led programmes. The author argues that sustainability education should include not only the technical aspects of sustainability theory but also the underlying social aspects. The low-tech approach fits well in design-led modules since it encourages students to consider appropriate technological solutions for design projects while focusing on user behaviour to develop articulate solutions. The study explores the pedagogical approach of the content used to teach the design module and introduces a low-tech design workshop to aid students in implementing learning. The results of …

Re-Evaluating Learning Environments To Nurture Studio Culture, Ceri Almrott

Conference papers

Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant remote teaching that lockdown enforced the requirements and suitability of physical learning spaces such as studios can be questioned. This paper seeks to understand the requirements of students in this decade of their physical studio spaces. Using focus groups, surveys and user feedback activities students on the Product Design programme were asked to evaluate the studio spaces within the university as they returned to on-campus learning and provide qualitative feedback on their experiences.

It was found students still require physical studios that allow them to undertake their design work and utilise tools and …

Ready Made, Made Ready: Everyday Objects For Everyday Emergency, Dara Benno

Masters Theses

What does it mean to adapt to a changing world?

Climate change is altering the world as we know it. We live in a chronic state of emergency. It’s easy to slip into a downward spiral of despair or ignore what we know to be true in order to carry on with our day-to-day responsibilities. By facilitating a complete recognition and heightened awareness of the common threats brought on by the climate crisis, we can begin to make the mental shift toward living in a new normal.

Ready Made, Made Ready rejects a dissociative attitude and seeks to shift exceptionalist …

We Got This..., Julian Wellisz

Masters Theses

Working nonstop? Not sleeping enough? Feeling alone in your deadlines? Are you struggling with work-life balance?

Know that you are not alone. Since the covid-19 pandemic began reports of loneliness, mental health issues, and burnout have increased.

It’s quite possible that you are opting-in to an individualistic culture of overwork. If you go to RISD that's almost certain. This is true for students and teachers alike.

While these current systems work for some (primarily those at the tops of their respected hierarchies), for the majority of us there are better ways of being. Providing social and emotional support and creating …

Goodreads Redesign, Brooke Mylander

Graphic Communication

The following project is a redesign of Goodreads.com. The current user interface of Goodreads’ website is outdated and not user-friendly. This project addressed many problems current users complained about the site and made new designs for each major frame of the site with new, fixed features.

Sneak Peek: Sneaker App Design, Adam Birder

Graphic Communication

Sneak Peek is a fictional mobile application I created for this senior project. It is an informational and social app that allows users to browse sneakers and read sneaker news, as well as interact with other users and the content within the app. The goal of this project is to create a fully designed high-fidelity prototype showing the complete user journey throughout the platform.

How Mixed Reality Will Impact Product Design, Wyatt Coe

Frameless

Mixed reality technology promises to merge our digital and physical worlds, unlocking new realms of experience and design. Designers must consider how this will impact future products and experiences now, to identify the most desirable solutions and applications of this technology. The capability of software to simulate reality could fundamentally shift the way we produce and experience physical and digital products, allowing for simplified physical products that support digital experiences.

Psychological Well-Being Through Music Listening, Majed Boughanem

Masters Theses

Design has gotten good at delighting and stimulating us in the short term. Could we design products that are good for us in the long run?

In this project, I looked at positive psychology for concepts to develop into features of products and use music listening as a vehicle for integrating them. I propose three music-listening features that help exercise and cultivate emotional regulation strategies:

1_The Reaction Tile

2_The Monofilter

3_The Vibelist

Each feature represents one or multiple strategies from the Process Model of Emotional Regulation.

Ars Technica, Bayan Mashrequi

Masters Theses

It’s easy to forget that we are living in an age of wonders, where the ability to perform feats that would have seemed divine miracles to our ancestors, has become mundane and routine to us. Even for people who are practitioners of this Modern Magic, the artificers and the sorcerers, the wonderfulness of the endeavor becomes difficult to appreciate most times.

Ars Technica serves a two-fold purpose here: for the uninitiated and the novice, this book aims to inspire and enable students, engineers and tech aficionados by highlighting the connection between mythology, literature, history and folklore with the wonders of …

The Art Of Microbe Maintenance: Value And Applications In Design, Yujin Hwang

Masters Theses

My thesis centers around designing microbial systems and objects for a sustainable future. I propose ideas to bring microbes into the home in order to make people understand them as a part of the environment. Through deep consideration of how my microbe based material could change across national and social contexts, I create accessible, attractive and friendly-looking design objects with microbes that address people’s fear of microbial life. I strive to facilitate the intersection and interaction between people and technologies in ways that are ultimately harmonious for the well being of both.

My ultimate goal for my thesis is not …

Distilling The Narragansett Bay, Parker Ives

Masters Theses

My thesis is an investigation of material vernacular and a celebration of process and material. I am manipulating locally sourced materials to pull out unexpected qualities in order to distill a unique identity associated with a place and the things that give that place its character.

The resulting work focuses on distilling the Narragansett Bay through the lens of three categories. Reminiscence, Impression, Composition. These works fall into the categories of being reminiscent of a place, impressed upon by a place and composed of a place.

This thesis is not a conclusion of this area of inquiry, rather it seeks …

Beyond Conscious: The Knowing Of Self-Owned Anxiety, Wenyu Du

Masters Theses

To achieve recognition of when we might under anxiety attack, the first step is to introduce the practice of expressing ourselves with wearable devices- Nudo for users to say “no”, “I am not in a good condition” with no words, gently reveal your emotional status and give you the sense of support. Nudo works like the defense mechanism of humans and gathers our body signals that are triggered from anxiety as a recording piece that allows users to track what’s happening during every specific moment. It also works as a reminder for those who might not recognize their own anxiety. …

Wild Things: Outdoor Toys For Nature Play, John Mawhorter

Masters Theses

Kids are increasingly plagued by what Richard Louv calls Nature Deficit Disorder; the litany of physical and mental health problems that result from lack of free play in nature. Wild Things is a modular toy system designed to inspire children to engage in nature play. Its reconfigurability allows it to vary its form to match the variety of natural forms.

Made of recycled sail material and shaped like a balloon seed pod, the central spheroid acts as a hub for a plethora of smaller forms that can be attached to it or each other via simple velcro straps. The abstract …

Inter - : Design For Fostering Action-Oriented Awareness Towards Sustainable Transition, Elena Danlei Huang

Masters Theses

In order to meet the need for sustainable transition, it is vital for the general public to be aware of the social and ecological interconnectedness within existential climate crisis, local sustainable development, and urban individual’s behavioral patterns. As a method to rebuild interconnectedness, this thesis explores design interventions for fostering action-oriented awareness towards sustainable transition. Jumping out from the current paradigm, it tries to connect the audience to alternative conceptual representations. An integrated theoretical model built around a local contextualized issue is proposed in the thesis, followed by a practice-based case project focusing on Rhode Island Squid Fishery as a …

Uncertainty Wanted: Deconstructing Gender Gap In Parenting Mentality, Zimeng Xiang

Masters Theses

Gender stereotypes propagate through generations like a loop without a clear start or end, constantly reinforcing and being reinforced by the constructed, gendered system of information around us. For this project, I take the start of parenthood - the moment when new parents begin to learn everything about newborn care - as a critical point to encourage gender-neutral parenthood and eventually, to fill the gender gap in parents’ mental load.

Living Objects, Katie Tzu Hua Huang

Masters Theses

Sometimes, I find myself sunk into my memories, during daytime when the sun illuminates through the seam of the shutters in my room, or at midnight, when the world is in deep silence.

The sound of flipping books brings me back to the time when my mom sat in the living room quietly, with a cup of hot black tea as always. At the time when she read, I always found a stream of light illuminating the table, covering her face partially. One page, two pages, and three pages; as she kept flipping, the repetitive sound made the quiet afternoon …

Move In The Internet, Jennifer Ziyuan Huang

Masters Theses

We work in front of computers and consume digital entertainment our leisure time. Our bodies need frequent consumption of varied movements for essential physiological processes, while screens cause prolonged stationary. Our bodies need good alignment to function well for a lifetime, while devices and chairs cause bad alignments. The goal of my thesis is to design objects to encourage body movements and good body alignments throughout the day. I hope to design for a sustainable state of well-being.

For my first project for the thesis, I looked into sitting. I designed a chair that allows people to switch between kneeling …

Inside The Bubble 2.0, Sunny Yuqing Ma

Masters Theses

As a designer, I use speculation to observe. I use design to express. I want to hit people's souls directly. I want to create unexpected sparks through relaxed storytelling.

A Family Game: Tell The Stories That Shape Us, Zhuoyan Xie

Masters Theses

There are a lot of books and theories on the market to help improve our communication skills and relationship with others. However, they hardly mention that the fundamental principle behind our relationship to others is how we understand and accept ourselves. The thesis aims to promote our understanding of our own identity and identities of our family members. It is worthy to mention that the thesis is conducted in a Chinese context. The thesis mainly learned from Non-violent communication and theories about identity, especially narrative identity. The deliverables are a set of narrative cards and prompts that can be played …

Kitsch Study And Chinese Kitsch Market, Jiaqi Ellie Liu

Masters Theses

From the old industrial age to the new information age, the accumulation of capital has led to the monopoly of the assets and technology of large enterprises, and the pressure of the middle class is increasing day by day.

At the same time, informatization has led to a substantial increase in the next round of energy and material needs, and therefore human needs for thinking, physical and emotional needs have also increased. Kitsch can meet the thinking and emotional needs of the public. Therefore, it has become the mainstream contemporary aesthetics.

Kitsch art & design are easier to be loved …

+ One : A New Companionship, Vivien Mengjiao Han

Masters Theses

+ one is a service that will make pets and their senior owners’ companionship better. By using the home surveillance camera that users already had and machine learning technology to create a matching system that will match with other owners and pets who have similar characteristics in the community, and recommended the appropriate design or products to the user. Our products not only have a series of multifunction daily necessities for both pets and their senior owners but also have a DIY section. The users can download design patterns, and create it at home, experience it before actually buy our …

Night Knights: Reminding Children That Their Nighttime Fear Isn't Something They Have To Face Alone, Ji Hyung Moon

Masters Theses

Night Knights are shining toy guardians that children bring to life through play. They engage children’s imagination that inevitably fuels their nighttime fear, and provide a chance to create stories of bravely confronting their fears through their Night Knights.

Surviving In A Gregarious World, Shiyang Yao

Masters Theses

Contemporary living leads to advanced communication and transport networks that people nowadays are more likely to live in a solo life. Even so, society has incorporated perceptions of single people and a biased assumption that single people are lonely. Loneliness is a big problem, but being single isn’t a problem that needs to be solved. Some people choose to be single. We should challenge the social norm that being alone is the same as being lonely. My research begins with my own experience growing up in China, but the bias against single people happens everywhere regardless of country or culture. …

Experience The World: How The Ever-Present Accessibility Of Hands-On Opportunities & Play Enhance Logistical Learning, Mary E. Chavez

Masters Theses

Living in a digital age, it is imperative--now more than ever--that children engage in hands-on, experiential learning activities to ensure that their ability to relate to the world is not compromised by technology. Children actively need playful, open-ended and self-directed mental stimulation for their young brains to develop and grow. Public school standards stifle a child’s right to succeed in alternative strengths and inhibit opportunities for self-exploration and self-expression. Game design and fort construction are examples of accessible, hands-on activities in which a child can creatively immerse themselves. In doing so, they can begin to interact with the tangible world, …

Lift A Life, Vidur Madhav

Masters Theses

This project analyzes the role that culture and demographics play in interventions within a pre-existing system network. The research is geared towards understanding how healthcare systems demand different solutions across cultural and geographical boundaries. My work acknowledges and highlights the unimportance given to non-clinical services which results in a stark contrast between the ground reality versus the theory of healthcare design. To approach these larger domains of region-specific healthcare problems, I conducted research in the form of case studies, interviews, and on-site observation on three levels: urban tier 1, urban tier 2, and rural. The resultant design, essentially a culmination …

Togather: To Gather Together, Kyungah Sohn

Masters Theses

I believe that we can live healthier lives when we address both our mental health and our physical health at the same time, rather than when we focus on only one of them. Currently, however, mental and physical health are treated as separate issues, while actually they are closely connected to each other. In light of this, services and applications that address wellbeing should promote both physical and mental issues in a more integrated way.

As a result, I designed a holistic system where what we do for mental and physical health is intertwined. This is the premise for my …

Ether: A Social Design, Zihan Zhou

Masters Theses

As an individual with an independent consciousness that cannot be shared, it is impossible to have complete empathy. But as a social animal, empathy is also the ability pursued by individuals and society collectively. Empathy is an indispensable element to also achieve social justice which benefits each individual.

The current media environment is usually that information is aggregated from the bottom to the top, and then transmitted from the top to each individual at the bottom through an announcement of information.

The biggest contradiction arising from this information mechanism is that humans who both send and receive information involuntarily pay …