Final Submission

I've finalised my product and redone my presentation sheets, taking into account the feedback I received last time, for the final submission. See my product poster:

I've tried to tailor the features of the product to meet the needs of the user, thinking about what would enhance their experience of using it. 

Features:

• Wick Hydroponics - easy, clean, low maintenance growing system
• Detachable Water Reservoir - for simple cleaning. 
• Water Level Indicator - to see at a glance whether the product needs to be topped up
• Adhesive Strip Attachments - stick to window design utilises wasted space, adhesive strips provide a string, safe attachment mechanism. They also allow the product to be removed and reattached if required. 
• Complete Growing System -  product comes complete with everything you need to grow, no other purchases required. 
• Product Sizing - perfect size for growing one herb or salad plant, without using up too much space.
• Reasonable Price - should hopefully allow a range of people to purchase a single unit, and then also allow them to build up a collection once they experience the benefits of it. 

Final Prototype

My final concept prototype!

Feedback

I wanted to gain dome feedback prior to the final submission to see if there were any major issues which needed to be addressed and also just see if people liked the concept!

To gain feedback I posted a link to my poster and a short product description on Reddit to try and reach a wider audience. I also spoke to friends and family who I thought would be interested in the concept. I got a really good response from Reddit, when I last checked 13 different people had posted up comments, questions and feedback on the design. I found these were a lot more questioning and therefore useful than the face to face feedback I got, as people tend not to judge you as harshly in person!

My responses to some of the questions / comments I received:

• How would it attach, what kind of adhesive would it use, would it be strong enough etc. - I feel like the attachment system I have developed should be fit for purpose. The product has been designed with thought into it's scale; I couldn't make it too large as it would lead to attachment problems. 
• Where would water drain to, would you need to oxygenate it etc. - I got quite a few comments related to not understanding the hydroponics concept. It is something which lots of people, especially novice growers, wouldn't be familiar with. The system is simple and used frequently by hydroponics growers, but I think I need to work on how best to convey it to my target user. 
• Could you open your window? - If windows open straight up and down, the product could be kept in place while the window was opened. However, if it opens at an angle, the product could be removed and placed back on later. This obviously not ideal, but I can't really see any way around the issue. 
• Would love to see different versions, larger, coloured etc - This is something I had been thinking about. If I were to continue with the product I could look at creating different sizes, designs, colours etc. 

Overall, I was very happy with the feedback I received. Lots of people seemed to really like the idea and a few commented on how useful it would be in there small apartments, exactly the market I was aiming at. 

Product Details

I've decided to go forward with a triangular form for the product, so have since been working on refining product details. I've been evaluating the general arrangement, looking at the scale, attachments and form.

I've also been playing around with the overall look of the product in solidworks, adding in details such as a clear front panel to check reservoir levels and curving some of the edges. The final model is shown below:

Further Prototyping

Following on from my decision to investigate a different form for my product, I've created some more concept prototypes. I wanted to investigate a few different designs and also begin to prototype at full scale so I could better envisage how the user would interact with the product (something I did too late with my first product concept).

Change of Form

Following on from the pre-submission presentation I began evaluating how the proposed method of attaching the product to the window would work. Through this testing I discovered that due to the weight (at least 5kg) and width of the product, a large torque is produced that twists the product away from the window. It also brought up other issues with the attachments, such as how it would actually be fitted by the user.

From this point decided to evaluate the product as a whole and see whether it would be best to try and develop a new attachment system or change the form of the product.

Main disadvantages of the proposed concept:

• Difficult to install. If I were to develop a better attachment system that could definitely support the weight of the product, it would still require some kind of screw fitting. I feel this would put of a number of potential users, as it's designed for people who have previously never grown their own food, who would be looking for a simple, easy way to do so.  
• Too large a scale. Once I had completed a scale model I realised that the product is quite large. This is mainly due to the water reservoir. In hindsight I think it would be better to develop a smaller product that the user could potentially buy more than one of; this would be a much more versatile system and better for people with limited space.
• High cost. After finalising the design and carrying out rough costing, it became apparent that the RRP would be at least £80. I feel this is a high price for the function of the product and means it has a smaller market of potential users. 

I originally chose a larger hydroponic planter as it would allow a greater amount of food to be grown. However, in hindsight, I think it would be better to have a product which grows a single plant, and allow the user to build them up to grow a small range of food. This would be cheaper, remove any issues with installation and provide a more flexible system of growing food.

With these new insights, my next step will be to re-evaluate the form of the product to create something which better fits the user requirements I set out at the beginning of the project.

Pre-submission Presentation

The feedback received from the pre-submission presentation was very helpful. A lot of the questions and issues that were raised related to further refining the product in more detail; better costing, aesthetic details, how would the attachments work, how would it be powered etc. 

From here the first thing I'll do is work on the attachments. For the pre-submission I didn't have time to properly investigate this and was focused more on how the hydroponics would work and what the design would be like. My proposed method of attaching the planter to the window is still just conceptual and will need to be tested and refined for the final hand in. From there I'll focus on refining the product in more detail and then will look at materials/manufacturing. 

Finalising the Design

I decided to continue with the third concept I prototyped. This was chosen for a number of reasons:

• Could be dual orientation, which allows greater flexibility in how the product could be used. 
• Would allow four different plants to be grown. I feel like being able to grow a wider range of plants is an important aspect of the product. 
• Utilises a simple, efficient and easy to maintain hydroponics system. 
• Simple, modern aesthetic. 

From here I carried out further brainstorming and sketching to develop the form. I then started a new foam board prototype to help refine how the different elements would fit together. This involved calculating how large the reservoir needed to be, thinking about where the attachment points are and refining the scale of the product. 

Concept Prototypes

After sketching out potential hydroponic planter concepts I did some prototyping. I wanted to investigate a few different forms and then select the best one to develop further.            

This would be the simplest and easiest to attach concept, as it's simply mounted straight onto a window pane. It could therefore be used by the greatest number of people. However, this concept would use a wick hydroponics system. This system is incredible simple but only allows you to grow a limited range of plants, mainly herbs and salads. It could not sustain large plants so hence wouldn't have that much actual food growing potential.

I think this concept is quite basic. A camming action would be used to attach it to the user's window. I feel this has the potential to be an effective was to attach the planter but would prefer to try and incorporate it into my other designs. 

I liked the geometric shapes of this design. It would utilise a drip hydroponic system. This type of system is one of the most effective and easiest types available. I also feel like a larger planter would provide greater flexibility and allow the user to grow a more meaningful amount of food to eat.

                 

I felt like this design has the potential to be an attractive and elegant object. Water would be pumped up from the bottom reservoir and then trickle back down from the plant. Actual testing would be required to see if this effect would be desirable or indeed work. 

                                             

Development

Following on from feedback received in the tutorial, I've created some mood boards to try and define what aesthetic the product should have. I'm now focusing on drawing up concepts which fit the desired look and incorporate a suitable hydroponics system. I also need to evaluate how these concepts would be fitted onto the user's windows and how the user would maintain the system i.e. thinking about feeding, power source, controls etc.

Once that is done, I'm going to begin prototyping a few forms out of foam board and testing out attachment mechanisms.

Investigating Hydroponics

After deciding which concept I was going to develop further, I started brainstorming and sketching out potential ideas, with the intention of beginning to prototype the different forms developed. Based on design requirements I'd drawn up, I then decided that incorporating a hydroponic growing system into my design would be beneficial.

Hydroponic's has a number of advantages over a traditional soil-based growing system. Firstly, it is completely soil, and hence mess, free. I knew from growing my own things that it's a messy process, so simplifying it to a 'just add water' set up would be advantageous to my intended user. Also it requires much less maintenance, you can never forget to water it and plants tend to grow better in comparison. By utilising hydroponics, growing your own food could be adapted to fit the lifestyle of the intended user better.

I also found out from research of the existing market that hydroponics is often confined to DIY setups. A lot of the ready to use systems that can be bought were very industrial looking, and functioned only as a practical product, without any aesthetic value. Therefore, the opportunity existed to create a ready to use, aesthetically pleasing hydroponic system, that would appeal to a wider market.

A typical hydroponic system for sale

Furthermore, I felt that trying to incorporate hydroponics would introduce a more technical element to the project and provide some interesting design challenges.

After this decision, I began researching potential systems that I could incorporate into my designs and what requirements they had.

Growing My Own

To get a better idea of what growing your own actually involves and the problems associated with it, I began growing a few things myself. Mainly lettuce, herbs such as basil and chives, onions and radishes. I'm now seeing my first few sprouts!

Choosing a Concept

Following the feedback received from the tutorial session, I decided to focus on developing my first concept - a space saving planter for the urban dweller. It was based on the insight that most people grow their own food due to lack of space, hence there was an opportunity to design a product that would make efficient use of the limited space that the user has available. The feedback I received was that this was the strongest concept, and I felt it had the most scope for development.

My initial thoughts were that the product could take the form of a planter which attached directly to a window, as a third of my survey responses reported they had 'a windowsill or less space'. Aside from this, and a few ideas of what form it could take, I hadn't developed any further. I didn't really know what direction to head in next.

As it was still such a broad concept, I wanted to define more clearly who would use the product and what requirements it would have to meet. At the next tutorial session, this was the feedback I received as well. Therefore, my next step was to create a user profile and draw up a rough product design specification. These are summarised below:

The intended user would be someone living and working in a city. They would typically be a 30-something professional, who works long hours but enjoys cooking in their spare time and tries to follow a healthy, active lifestyle. They would be looking for a product that would allow them to grow a variety of herbs and salads to complement this. They have a small, modern flat, so would require something which uses minimal space and has a clean, simple aesthetic. Ideally, the product would yield the maximum amount of food for the minimum amount of time invested in setting up/maintaining it.

Initial Concepts

After carry out some further research and investigation and examining what products exist, I brainstormed a number of different concepts. I decided to try and focus on the key reasons why people don't grow their own food, and from there brainstorm potential solutions. My chosen three concepts where based on three different areas. The first was device which would allow people to grow your own food if they lacked the space to. I wanted it to utilise wasted space, allowing people to experience growing some of their own even if they lacked so much as a windowsill.

My second concept was based on the insight that people often lack, or feel they lack, the knowledge and skills to consider growing their own food. I brainstormed some potential solutions to this problems, some for use outside and some for inside, that would make the process of beginning to grow your own seem less daunting and encourage more people to try it. 

My third concept was not as well defined. I really wanted to investigate whether it would be possible to grow your own food to genuinely save money and love more economically. It seemed unlikely that anyone without a reasonable sized garden could actually live off of their own produce, but was it possible to make any kind of significant saving? I decided in the end though that this approach would be to difficult to take, and also felt like growing your own food in this way probably wouldn't start with buying the kind of product I'd be developing. Therefore, my third concept or, at the least, area that I wanted to investigate further, was hydroponic growing. I thought it seemed really interesting and would be something I'd possibly want to incorporate into my first two concepts. 

A Garden Visit

I visited a garden to carry out some field research. It was a really good experience and I feel like I now have a much better understanding of some of the problems facing gardeners growing their own food. Here's a summary of a few interesting things I saw:

Seeds: The way seeds are packaged and planted is an important aspect. Seed packets are quite fiddly, and not ideal for storing leftover seeds. Perhaps an opportunity to design a more efficient way of packaging and planting. A new product on the market are seed tapes. These are much simpler to use for the beginner or time pressed gardener.

Protection from the elements: I found out that one of the main problems with growing your own food in Scotland is the unpredictable, often cold, weather. To grow a good range of different vegetables is difficult and so there's a variety of different ways of covering plants. Some of these seemed quite simple and effective, such as the dome planter. Others such as cold frames were more of an investment. Possibly a opportunity to design a large portable cover, that bridged the gap between the small but practical dome and the larger, but more useful cold frame? Could perhaps be a fold away design or similar.

Easy Planting: There were lots of products aimed at making growing your own an easier and less time consuming job. A few good products I saw were seed rulers, used to take the hassle out of measuring were you should plant your seeds. I found out that when growing larger plants it's often necessary to start them off a seedlings before planting them out. There were handy seedling planters which allowed individual seedlings to be easily planted out.

The garden visit was a really useful experience and gave me lots of ideas for products that the more experienced gardener might use to help them grow their own food. I still think I might focus on developing a product for the urban gardener though, as I feel that would be a more interesting area for me. 

A Grow Your Own Survey

To do some market research I created a survey. I hoped it would be completed by a range of people and provide a good insight into the problems people have with their food and the reasons they don't grow any of their own food. I also included questions like 'How much outdoor space you have?' to help me get some figures which I could base my development on.

The survey's been published for about a week and a half now. It's been more successful than I'd anticipated, receiving almost 60 responses. Here is a selection of insights and useful comments that I've collected from the survey:

• The biggest problems people have with their food are; expensive (57%), environmentally unfriendly (32%). About 25% of people also cited problems like poor quality, unhealthy and don't know where it's come from. A few people also commented that lack of variety was a problem.
• Taste was overwhelmingly the most important aspect of peoples food. This was followed by food quality, then healthiness/price. 
• A massive 95% of people said that lack of space was a reason for not growing their own food. 77% said lack of time was a factor, and 59% of people said the convenience of shops was a reason. 50% reported that they didn't know how. It was also commented that some had tried but failed due to lack of sunlight or cold temperatures in their flat. 
• I asked 'What would encourage you to grow your own food. I found the responses could be loosely grouped into 7 categories; space, cost, taste, community, time, knowledge and silly responses! 
• About 40% of respondents reported having a windowsill or less space. 

Lack of Space

Convenience of Shops

Lack of Time

The results have been really useful in identifying the key issues that people face. There are definitely a few key areas that I'll carry forward and focus on while I carry out further research. 

Initial Research

So I've begun by carrying out a bit of simple 'desk research', to gain a better understanding of the problem at hand and find a few areas to research further. From there I'll hopefully have a few insights and specific opportunities identified from which I can begin to develop some initial concepts!

I started off my research by finding a few charities and organisations who are involved in this area. A few useful sources were The Sustainable Food Trust, Soil Association and Sustain.

The Sustainable Food Trust website offered a wealth of information and was a good starting point to help me to better understand what the issues are with food sustainability. A few articles I liked were an interview with Alice Holden, author of 'Do Grow - 10 simple vegetables'. In the interview she was asked 'Why do we need urban farms? There’s always a grocery store around the corner in cities.', to which she gave a very succinct answer about the importance of being in contact with your food in an increasingly urban world. (Interview is here: http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/alice-holden-do-grow/) Another article talked about the perception of growing your own and sustainable food as a 'middle class' issue, something which would be interesting to look into if I chose to focus on growing your own as a way to eat better for less. (http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/sustainability-and-class/)

The Soil Association is the UK's leading charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use. They have a really useful spin off site: sustainablefoodcities.org, which is a campaign 'encouraging public, private and third sector organisations and local communities to work together to improve their food system and to use food as a catalyst to tackle local challenges.' The most useful part was a list of the key issues that the campaign was aiming to address. (http://www.sustainablefoodcities.org/keyissues) 

I'm going to try and use the eight key issues listed as a template for further research, as I feel it gives a pretty comprehensive overview of all the main problems and will help me to focus in on a few of the areas that are most relevant to my project.

Sustain was another useful resource I found. They have a project currently running called 'City Harvest' that's aimed specifically at encouraging urban food growing. (www.sustainweb.org/cityharvest). 

Next steps are:

• Emailing a few of the organisations to see if anyone would be able to answer a few of my questions.
• Reading further into the key areas I've identified from the initial research.
• Carrying out some field research. Find out about community gardening projects or allotments in Glasgow, visit a few to gain a better understanding of the market and identify opportunities.
• Survey people; I've created a simple online survey and have posted in a few forums to try and see what the main reasons are that people don't grow their own food. 
• Research the existing market and what products are already aimed at the sustainable foodie. 
• Perhaps look at some urban gardening blogs.

If anyone would like to fill out my short survey, that would be great! 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZV69MD9

Project Beginnings

The project has begun! Or Phase 2 has at least.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been working in small teams on Project SCOTSMAN. This involved finding, researching and pitching a design opportunity to our classmates, before individually choosing one of the pitched opportunities to carry forward into SCOTSMAN Phase 2. 

There was a lot of variety in the opportunities presented, everything from diabetes to the Dakar Rally, and I felt there was lots of scope for development in a number of the ideas I saw. However, after a bit of consideration, I've chosen to pursue the brief 'Nae Scran'. 

The group pitching the opportunity had identified a problem with the relationship Britain, as well as other developed countries, has with it's food. We rely heavily on imports, waste a lot of what we do buy and are generally pretty disconnected from what we eat. As well as this, the price of food is rising well above inflation and increasing numbers of families are using food banks.

This brief stood out to me as one with lots of potential. I felt that the problem identified is important and often overlooked. Looking into the future, food sustainability can only become more of an issue, so I thought it would be really interesting to do a project in that area. I also thought there would be a lot of scope for research, as the brief relates to a range of issues; economical, environmental, health etc. This brief struck a chord with me as really relevant problem, something which I can relate to and where (hopefully) lots of good potential products exist!