Interview Summaries

I have posted the summary of relevant answers or insights from the interviews.

Name: Michael Wang
Age: 25
Number of Siblings: 0
City/Province: Canton, ZhuHai
Marital Status: Single
Social Class: Middle
Years in N.Z: 4 .5 years
Been back to china often, recently: 2 times 2004,2006
N.Z Accommodation: House
Accommodation in china: Apartment
If apartments/high rise: what level? 4

Name: Kevin Ren
Age: 24
Number of Siblings: 0
City/Province: Canton
Marital Status: Single
Social Class: Middle class
Years in N.Z: 4
Been back to china often, recently: every year
N.Z Accommodation: Apartment
If apartments/hostels: what level? 2nd
Accommodation in china: Apartment
If apartments/high rise: what level? 19th

Name: Marko Shi
Age: 24
Number of Sibling(s): 1
City/Province: ShenZhen
Marital Status: Single
Social Class: middle class
Years in N.Z: 6
Been back to china often, recently: every year
N.Z Accommodation: House
Accommodation in china: Apartment
If apartments/high rise: what level? 3



Name: Kent Gao
Age: 31
Number of Siblings: 1
City/Province: SunDe
Marital Status: Married
Social Class: lower middle class
Years in N.Z: 4.5years
Been back to china often, recently: 2007
N.Z Accommodation: House
Accommodation in china: Apartment
If apartments/high rise: what level? 4

Name: Kailin Huang
Age: 22
Number of Siblings: 0
City/Province: ShiChuan, ChengDu
Marital Status: Single
Social Class: Middle Class
Years in N.Z: 4.5years
Been back to china often, recently: 3 times
N.Z Accommodation: House
Accommodation in china: Apartment
If apartments/high rise: what level? 4 and 6 (2 apartments)

Summary:

• N.Z has great views – green, garden everywhere, park everywhere, we have gardens in china but not very good.



• N.Z Air is clean, not polluted like Guangzhou, you can't see the sky.



• You can see stars in china but not as clear as New Zealand.



• Most people likes nature rather than man made buildings.



• Interior walls are mostly white.



• Windows are generally closed, because it gets really dusty.



• Most apartment are not open planned.



• Most curtains and blinds are closed because neighbouring apartments are too close; no privacy, no view and for security reasons.



• Usually 3 people live in a apartment.



• Good views from apartment are expensive.



• Having a beautiful scenery can help them relax, feel more comfortable; or more of a lifestyle than just living.

Product Proposal

“looking out is not just about living, it’s a lifestyle.”

From the Secondary Research that the Designers and I have done from the start of the project, a theme began to emerge from the images that were collated. Most if not all apartment shots which has a Window insight either had the curtains drawn or the view was just shocking. Because of the way most of the apartments are raised, every window that you look out is towards another building, with a view of your neighbors kitchen, toilet, living room, Air Condition units, Railings...everything but beautiful, calming views.

This led to further secondary and primary research into Chinese people's living habits and lifestyles. After interviewing a group of people I came to a conclusion that, if people have a great view to look at, it would enhance their environment and create a better living space. Apartment with good views are expensive, but if you can manipulate your surroundings, it is cheaper.

My product will be a movable screen, using the combinations of new technologies like ‘E-Ink and Electrochromatic Glass/Plastic’ to create a ‘Window’ where the users can look out; dream, be motivated and get inspired. They can change the image whenever they like with a click of a button. There is another function with this product as it is a room divider to divert the flow of “chi” into and around the house.

The dimension of the product is 1800mm x 1800mm x 20mm

Design Freeze!

After looking at the possibilities of creating a product which affects both the the direct user and people around them, I came to a conclusion that it would be plausible but difficult to accomplish given the time frame that we have left for this project.

With that in mind, I decided to take it from the blue sky idea back to square 1. Using the technologies which I have discovered but applied in a different way. Instead of looking at Windows/Blinds/Curtains...the technology will be applied onto a movable screen.

The screen has multiple uses, it can be used as a screen/divider for a room, a backdrop, or used as a TV. The product will include the WiFi, Blue Tooth and Usb Technologies whereby the users can upload and change the images on the screen. The product comes with default still/moving images. The users can buy more images or create their own which can be customised/downloaded by going online to the companies website. This will maintain a loyal customer base to the company.

The next step on this design freeze is to come up with the aesthetics of the screen, to do so, I will research on existing screens both modern and traditional.

Yin Yang 阴阳

The dual concepts of yin and yang – or the single concept Yin-Yang – originate in ancient Chinese philosophy and metaphysics, which describe two primal opposing but complementary principles or cosmic forces said to be found in all non-static objects and processes in the universe. The concept is the cornerstone for Taoism and traditional Chinese medicine.
Yin (Chinese: 陰 or 阴; Pinyin: yīn; literally "shady place, north slope, south bank (river); cloudy, overcast") is the dark element: it is passive, dark, feminine, downward-seeking, and corresponds to the night.

Yang (陽 or 阳; yáng; "sunny place, south slope, north bank (river); sunshine") is the bright element: it is active, light, masculine, upward-seeking and corresponds to the daytime.
Yin is often symbolized by water or earth, while yang is symbolized by fire or wind.
Yin (the receptive, feminine, dark, passive force) and yang (the creative, masculine, bright, active force) are descriptions of complementary opposites rather than absolutes. Any yin/yang dichotomy can be viewed from another perspective. All forces in nature can be seen as having yin and yang states, and the two are in movement rather than held in absolute stasis.

Longsheng

The Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, covering an area of 66 square kilometers, these rice terraces were first built in the Yuan dynasty and completed in the Qing dynasty by Zhuang people, making them over 700 years old. The terraced fields are built along the mountain slopes winding from the riverside right up to the peaks, reaching elevations of up to 885m. The views from the tops of these peaks are just superb. While an hour or two is all that is needed to see the designated viewpoints, longer hikes are certainly well worth the effort.

Another interesting design element that can be added onto the product!

National Emblem

The National Emblem of the PRC features Tiananmen Gate beneath the five shining stars, encircled by ears of grain and with a cogwheel at the bottom. The ears of grain, stars, Tiananmen and cogwheel are gold; the field within the circle is red, as are the ribbons festooning the bottom of the circle. These two colors traditionally represent auspiciousness and happiness.

Tiananmen symbolizes the unyielding spirit of the Chinese people in their fight against imperialism and feudalism; the cogwheel and ears of grain represent the working class and the peasantry respectively; the five stars stand for the great unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Farmers are regarded one of the most important peoples in China as they grow crops and rice to feed the nation. In respect of the working class cog whell and grain are used on the emblem, and I might look at ways to incorporate such shapes into my design. Stars represents Unity of chinese people, that too might be incorporated into my design.

China's Flag

The National Flag of the PRC is a red rectangle emblazoned with five stars. The proportion of its length and height is 3 to 2. The upper left of the face of the Flag is studded with five yellow five-pointed stars. One of the stars is bigger than the others, with its circumcircle's diameter being three-tenth of the height of the Flag, and is placed in the left; the four other stars is smaller, with their circumcircle's diameter being one-tenth of the height of the Flag, encircling the big star on its right in the shape of an arch.
The red of the flag symbolizes revolution; the stars are yellow so that they will stand out brightly against the red ground. The larger star represents the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the four smaller ones, the Chinese people. This expresses the great unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC.

For more information visit: http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22294.htm

IKEA - Similar Philosophy "a better everyday life"

The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of home furnishings with good design and function at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. And still have money left!

Most of the time, beautifully designed home furnishings are created for a small part of the population — the few who can afford them. From the beginning, IKEA has taken a different path. That means responding to the home furnishing needs of people throughout the world. People with many different needs, tastes, dreams, aspirations...and wallets. People who want to improve their homes and create better everyday lives.

For more information visit: www.ikea.com/ms/en_CN/

Route To Market - Do It Yourselves!

Orient Home, Home Depot, B&Q and more

The home improvement market on the mainland is the most promising in the world: $50 billion in sales in 2005 and growing at 12% a year. Homeownership has skyrocketed, from near zero two decades ago, when there was virtually no private property, to 70% of all housing today.

Even though that these stores sell Do It Yourself goods, they provide the service of installing all the furniture/goods at the purchasers home.

For more information visit: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982066.htm

Using Mirrors or Screens

Too large a doorway will allow Chi to escape from your home. If this is a problem for you it can be easily counteracted by placing a wind chime outside the door. This will also discourage Sha (negative energy) from entering your home. Too small a doorway will not allow enough Chi to enter the home, but placing a mirror on either side of the door or on a wall opposite the door will help to fix the problem.

If the back door can be seen from the front door, Chi can flow straight through your home without circulating. Placing a large potted plant or a screen in between the two will break up the straight lines and help to deflect Chi.

For more information visit: http://www.fengshui-emporium.com/what's%20feng-shui.htm

Enhance Wealth and Prosperity

Do you know where your financial "power spots" are? The contemporary methods of feng shui associate prosperity issues with the back left corner of any space. Stand at your front door facing into the house; your wealth area is at the back of the house on the left-hand side. There's also a wealth area within each room: facing in from the doorway, it's the corner area in the back of the room on the left-hand side. Where are the wealth areas within your office, living room, kitchen, and bedroom? Now that you've identified your money power spots, here are some quick and easy ways to apply feng shui to these spaces:

Enhance your power spots with symbols of prosperity, such as a bowl of coins (add your loose change to it every day), a "lucky bamboo" plant, or anything that symbolizes success and prosperity to you. There are lots of Chinese luck symbols available, but you don't have to use them unless you want to. A picture of your dream house, or a model of that luxury car you long for, is an effective money symbol because it has personal meaning for you.

Chi Flow

Chi is invisible like air and necessary like air and is a combination from oxygen (Yang) and universal energy (Yin). Normally we have six senses. One of them is "smelling". With our nose we check the quality of air and react. For the Chi we just have the 7th sense, the intuition. Some people feel more or less. Some people feel whether they are at any moment at their sweet spot or not. Some few feel the bad energy frequencies on some places and know when they have to leave from there.

If the corridor is straight and narrow, the Chi flows fast. If the door is wide, the Chi flows slow, as the water flows in wide and narrow rivers. The faster the Chi flows the worse it is for the prosperity of that place. Therefore big and wide entrance halls at hotels are very prosperous. If there is a window opposite the door, the Chi leaves immediately and the house has less Chi and less prosperous.

For more information visit: http://www.fengshui-center.ch/FSE1/qi_flow.htm

New Concept For looking Out

One thing I realised is that why design a product that is going to keep all the blinds and curtains shut...people are doing it anyways..and then I thought hard about what is that I want to achieve with my product...and look closely at my design philosphy, I want to motivate, inspire and help others to achieve to their maximum abilities/capabilities and then some...so after I came up with the concept that my product does not only motivate and inspire the owner or the direct user of the product, the real target are those who get inspired and motivated around that person/product. How good It must feel to be able to help someone indirectly...they don't know you, but because of your decision to better yourself and the people around you. That is what china is all about to me..Unity. 1 for all and all for 1.

The product is not just giving people the beautiful pictures that they want as their blinds are closed...its about opening the window...dont hide what you have...show the world the true china...Make a world within a world, if there is no botanic garden on the 34th floor, make one, it would inspire people to look out and anticipate what they might discover, it could be beautiful landscape, luxurious automobile or as simple and amazing; a family portrait. There are no boudaries with my product, its all opportunities, there can be an 8th wonder of the world created by a nation who united to make people around them better, and together they make the world see the real China!

China's National Anthem

Arise,
Ye who refuse to be slaves!
With our very flesh and blood,
Let us build our new Great Wall!
The peoples of China are in the most critical time,
Everybody must roar his defiance.
Arise!
Arise!
Arise!
Millions of hearts with one mind,
Brave the enemy's gunfire, March on!
Brave the enemy's gunfire, March on!
March on!
March on!
on

Looking at the national anthem of china..really emphasise what I am designing for..I am designing not for a specific/niche/sector/social status...I am designing for the greater China, People of China regardless of social status, " Let us build our new Great Wall!", " Millions of hearts with one mind," to make China Greater, show their true colours. Stop people from hiding behind their blinds and curtains, but open up, and looking out...express themselves to the world!

So why Blinds and Technologies? You may ask!

From the Secondary Research that the Designers and myself have done from the start of the project, a theme began to emerge from the images that was collated. Most if not all apartment shots which has a Window insight either had the curtains drawn or the view was just shocking. Because of the way most of the apartments are raised, every window that you look out is towards another building, with a view of your neighbours kitchen, toilet, living room, Air Condition units, Railings...everything but beautiful, calming views.

This led to further secondary and primary research into chinese people's living habits and lifestyles.

Philips Research - Technologies E Ink

Electronic paper / E InkHigh-resolution Electronic Ink Display prototype developed by Philips and E Ink. Electronic Ink Displays have paper-like viewing characteristics with excellent contrast ratio and clear images that can be seen from any angle. They are light-weight, consume no power when showing static images and allow high-resolution images

For more information visit: http://www.research.philips.com/technologies/display/ov_elpap.html

Siemens Electrochromic Display

The New Scientist is reporting on flexible electrochromic displays developed by Siemens:

The display consists of a layer of electrochromic material sandwiched between two electrode layers. The material changes from one colour to another when stimulated by an electric current. The top electrode layer is made from transparent plastic, so the display can be seen clearly through it.The electrochromic mixture used by Siemens, which enables the screen to work so rapidly, has not been disclosed, but commonly used electrochromic substances include conductive polymers such as polyaniline.

The display is controlled by a printed circuit and can be powered by a very thin printable battery or a photovoltaic cell. The goal is to be able to create the entire device – the display and its power source - using the same printing method, so that manufacturing costs would be as low as possible. Siemens expects to achieve this by 2007.

E Ink + Toppan colour filter

Colour E Ink is no longer a possibility, its reality! This would be fantastic technology to be incorporated with my Designed for China Product!

E Ink and Toppan Printing (supplier of LCD colour filters) have announced a full colour electronic ink display, that achieves 12-bit color in a 400×300 pixel format with resolution of 83 pixels per inch, using a custom color filter from strategic partner Toppan. The color filter design has a high-brightness layout (RGBW) that preserves the paper-like whiteness of the background page while enabling deep blacks for text and a range of colors and tones for images. A smart algorithm uses color sub-pixels to smooth black and white text, for enhanced legibility equivalent to a printer. The display diagonal is 6 inches, similar to a paperback book in size. […]Mass production of color electronic paper displays is expected to start at the end of 2006, with future plans for flexible versions.

E Ink

Electronic paper was developed in order to overcome some of the limitations of computer monitors. For example, the backlighting of monitors is hard on the human eye, whereas electronic paper reflects light just like normal paper. It is easier to read at an angle than flat screen monitors. It is lightweight, durable, and highly flexible compared to other display technologies, though it is not as flexible as paper.

The network of electrodes is connected to display circuitry, which turns the electronic ink 'on' and 'off' at specific pixels by applying a voltage to specific pairs of electrodes. Applying a negative charge to the surface electrode repels the particles to the bottom of local capsules, forcing the black dye to the surface and giving the pixel a black appearance. Reversing the voltage has the opposite effect - the particles are forced from the surface, giving the pixel a white appearance. A more recent incarnation[4] of this concept requires only one layer of electrodes beneath the microcapsules.

Polychrome e-paper

Simple colour e-paper[8] consists of a thin coloured optical filter added to the monochrome technology described above. The array of pixels is divided into triads, typically consisting of the standard red, green and blue, in the same way as CRT monitors, although, for commercial releases of e-paper in the forms of newspapers etc, it will most likely be in the 'CMYK' format, for clarity of writing. The display is then controlled like any other electronic colour display.

For more information visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper

E Ink, How is it made?

Electronic ink is a special type of ink that can display different colors when exposed to an electric field. It is made through a two step process that involves creating two-toned charged particles and encapsulating them in a transparent polymeric shell. The resulting nanoparticle shells are suspended in a solvent until the ink can be applied to a surface. First developed in the early 1990s, electronic ink promises to revolutionize the printing industry and maybe even change the way we interact with the world.

Electronic ink is like traditional ink in that it is a colored liquid that can be coated onto nearly any surface. Suspended in the liquid are millions of microcapsules that contain tiny, two-toned polymeric particles. One side of the particle is a dark color while the other is a contrasting light color. Similar to a magnet, the dark colored side of the particle has an electric charge that is opposite that of the light colored side. When the ink is exposed to an electric field, the particles realign themselves, depending on the charge of the field. When all of the dark colored sides are attracted to the surface, the ink looks dark. When an opposite electric charge is applied, the light colored sides orient face forward and the surface looks light. This ability to change from white to black or visa versa whenever desired makes electronic ink extremely useful. When a book or other surface is coated with electronic ink, it can be reprogrammed to display different words or pictures.

For more information visit: http://www.answers.com/topic/electronic-ink

E Ink Corporation and Lucent Technologies

E Ink Corporation and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced a major milestone in their effort to develop a flexible, paper-like electronic display, as they jointly demonstrated working prototypes built on thin sheets of plastic. Produced just one year after the development project was announced, these devices prove that electronic ink, driven with printed plastic circuits, is a compelling design for electronic paper and other next-generation displays.

The prototypes consist of a 25-square-inch display area made up of several hundred pixels. The displays were constructed using two ground-breaking developments: E Ink's electronic ink, and Lucent's active-matrix drive circuits printed on plastic, which were developed by Bell Labs, Lucent's research and development unit. The transistors in these circuits are made of plastic materials and are fabricated with a low-cost printing process that uses high-resolution rubber stamps. Their switching properties are similar to typical thin film transistors made with silicon and conventional fabrication methods, but they are mechanically flexible, rugged and lightweight. The electronic ink enables the display's paper-like qualities: extraordinary brightness and contrast under a wide range of lighting conditions; easy viewing from all angles; low power consumption; and plastic film construction.

For more information visit: http://eink.com/press/releases/pr26.html