Innovation Design Engineering (MA/MSc)
Wei-Haw Huang
Wei Haw is a professional designer with a multidisciplinary background, enjoys using design to explore and experience the world, and, through that process, himself as well. He aspires to create harmony between people and the environment and feels a sense of responsibility to deliver a positive impact while searching for new challenges.
Moreover, making connections between diverse fields of knowledge and different perspectives inspires him, and he thrives on creating new value by working with multi-disciplinary teams.
More precisely, in his past projects, he always cooperated with partners from different fields, such as engineers, designers, and scientists, allowing each of team members to inspire each other and re-examine the nature of different problems. For him, collaborating across disciplines is an important ingredient of coming up with innovative solutions to old problems.
He had worked with world-leading companies, cooperating with their talented people exploring new opportunities of sustainability and innovation to build a better future of the world.
I am motivated by using design to improve people's quality of life, and I approach challenges with a logical yet innovation-driven vision, propelled by the unique and feasible perspectives of others and my expectations for the future. I still believe that design is a tool for creating harmony. It may create commercial opportunities for businesses, but the balance between people and life, and the harmony between the environment and people, are more important, especially in the current extremely difficult situation.
The detachment that exists between Human's life and the natural world.
My project started with a discussion of electronic waste. I focused on the behaviour of users and found that people lacked an appreciation for the fact that the materials in the products they use come from nature and will need to return to nature.
I came to the conclusion that this detachment between people and the natural ecosystem they live in is a result of the current form of UX design which focuses on usability and allowing people to use products almost without thinking.
My aim, therefore, became to rethink UX design in order to help users realize that they have a sense of responsibility for how their product relates to the ecological environment.
I chose to present my work in the form of a DIY kit that lets people build their own devices which can interact with the weather or the environment to produce the functions of small home appliances without the use of electricity. The kit consists of three devices which interact with sunlight, air, and water respectively.
The first device uses sunlight passing through a convex lens to create toast.
The second device purifies air by using the triboelectric effect to collect dust particles.
The third device converts air from the surrounding environment into a mist using a pressure change.
The devices produce results that are affected by the environment as well as providing different sensory stimuli during the experience, helping the user feel a sense of dependence on the natural world.
