Course: Meaning of Forms: ID Studio II
Instructor: Liza Cruze Wellman
View a slideshow of student work for this project

Form is capable of relating far more than just qualities. In this project, students worked in teams of three to design a travel satchel that met the following specifications:

• It must accommodate a small number of valuable items, including passport, money, address book or PDA, cell phone, camera, plane or train tickets, etc.;
• It must allow appropriate levels of access to its contents;
• It must sit close to the body, limiting its chances of being misplaced or stolen;
• It must be comfortable on the moving human body for extended periods of time; and
• It must be designed within the production constraints of LEED’S.

Form, in this case, must be used to communicate use—a travel satchel will have to provide visual signs not only about the sort of place it holds in its users’ lives, but also about it should be placed in relation to the body and how it is accessed, taking into consideration how people sense, perceive, and understand information.

Clearly, too, ergonomics are critical in a project like this. If objects are truly to respond to the human body, designers cannot rely solely on anthropometric data based on static measurements of people; instead, they must understand the dynamic nature of body movements. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the design of wearable products.