DESIGNING SMART PRODUCTS FOR A BETTER WORLD

What is this workshop?
Connected products and systems are everywhere, from your home to your city’s infrastructure and even present alongside the tomatoes growing for your next sauce. This workshop is an opportunity to explore how the Internet of Things can be a crucial ally for a more sustainable future. Through the prototyping process, you will experience an engaging week filled with hands-on design, prototyping and critical thinking.
 
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
IoT refers to connected/smart products, these are physical devices or things that have sensors and are connected to the internet- or to one another. Examples include wearables and health monitors, home automation such as thermostats and lights, mobility with self-driving cars, agriculture with smart greenhouses, and so much more.
Connected devices give us the opportunity for hyper-contextual and real-time data and let us harness this to create solutions for a more fair, inclusive and sustainable world.
 
What will you learn?
Different types of technologies and their prospects in the context of connected devices.
Sustainability strategies in product design and IoT’s potential for tackling social and environmental challenges.
Basic research, mood-boarding, benchmarking and concept development.
How to infuse a product with behaviours, services, and real-world user scenarios to get a sense of the complete product.
Prototyping! Some basics of prototyping and fabrication like industrial design, 3D printing, laser cutting, Arduino
programming, electronics, UX design, and the making of high-fidelity dummy apps.
Concept/product communication skills.
 
 
How will you learn it?
Get ready for a week of serious fun where you’ll be introduced to all the tools and techniques you need to bring your connected product ideas to life. The week is a compact version of our own design process at FROLIC studio, where you will be learning by doing. We believe in making ideas tangible, quickly – and consider prototyping the best way to visualise and validate those ideas. We will utilise different disciplines to bring your concepts to life, and before you know it, you will have built a semi-functional proof-of-concept that will feel like it exists in the real world. This prototype will help validate your concept and give you the learnings necessary for any further steps you want to take with its development.
 
Is this for you?
Yes, if you are curious to understand the good that connected products can have on our planet and practice it yourself for 5 days.
Yes, if you are excited to learn about connecting the digital and physical world.
Yes, if you have plenty of ideas but don’t know how to communicate them or bring them to life.
Yes, if you are tired of working only with a pen, paper, and slides.
 
There are no prerequisites or requirements for this workshop. You do not need to know how to code, 3D model or make interfaces (but you will learn the basics!) – anyone can and is encouraged to join.
 
What do you need to bring to the workshop?
A computer