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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. 

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Degree Details

School of Design

Innovation Design Engineering (MA/MSc)

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.

Project_CoCo_Experiments and Prototypes — This video shows the experiments that be applied to the project CoCo, allowing people to interact with the natural ecosystem and achieve functions of the small home appliances without electricity. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Video Credits: KML. Download from Pexels China Streamlining Electronic Waste, Download from United Nations Pressmaster, Download from Pexels Cottonbro, Download from Pexels Tom Fisk, Download from Pexels Peter Fowler, Download from Pexels Music Credit: That Slapper, Otis McDonald; Download from Youtube Audio Library

The detachment that exists between Human's life and the natural world.

Project Question - How might we change people's perception of small home appliances by designing the information and experience provided by the product to build a bridge between the user and the ecosystem around them?


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.

All CoCo Devices — Three devices allow people to collaborate with sunlight, water and air (from left to right). The simple shapes are designed in a way to emphasize the device’s structure to convey the information behind the operation.

CoCo_Sun — CoCo_Sun helps people collaborate with sunlight, providing the functionality of a toaster.

CoCo_Air — CoCon_Air helps people collaborate with airflow and providing the functionality of an air purifier.

CoCo_Water — CoCo_Water helps people collaborate with water molecules and providing the functionality of a humidifier.

Scenario

How to use the three devices. — All devices must be activated by a mechanism within the device. The CoCo_Water needs to be prepped functionality of humidifier by the using internal pump.

CoCo_Sun Scenario — Through the magnifying glass with different focal lengths, the toast on the circular plate is baked by sunlight. The plate can be rotated by the device to enable a uniformly- distributed toasting process. Time to toast a bread would take on average 4 mins depending on the intensity of the sunlight. Sometimes, in case it is too dark, the user will obviously not be able to toast a slice of bread. Original images by Vogue.

CoCo_Air Scenario — Triboelectrification, causes the metal to generate static electricity and attracts particles in the air. In CoCo_Air, there are aluminum rollers, Teflon rollers, and rubber strips. After starting the device, they will rub against each other and generate static electricity.

CoCo_Water Scenario — After collecting the moisture in the environment inside a container, the user can use the pump to increase the pressure of the container and then release the air pressure in the container through the device to turn the water into a mist. Original images by Vogue.

In order to change the user's perception, the user experience (UX) design for these devices has been optimized to attract multiple senses, which might include smell, vision, sound, etc. The final result of the device is also intended to highlight the impact of the environment.

Medium:

Glass, Aluminum, Ceramics

Technical details of three devices.

Technological details, which consider usability and technical feasibility, interact with people and device while feeling the co-working with the environment.
EXPERIMENT 01

EXPERIMENT 01 — An exploration of how users’ perception and behaviours would be influenced by the information and experience mediated by the products. According to the outcome, a significant correlation between behavioural patterns and information expressions of the products has been identified.

EXPERIMENT 02

EXPERIMENT 02 — Explore the possibility of turning living plant parts into electrical appliances.

EXPERIMENT 02_2

EXPERIMENT 02_2 — Here, I was doing trials to explore interactions with sunlight, air and water to produce the same functionality as using home appliances. The left one is using sunlight to bake a toast. The middle one is testing triboelectrification for purifying the air. The right one is using a pressure change to create the mist.

Scenario

This is a project about awareness: an object could convey much more than we normally perceive. How to provide information, explore experience, and rethink the UX design of the product itself? How to improve people’s perception regarding the product? Taking people and the environment into consideration, not just focus on human centred design. This is something that my project aims to explore.

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