Ed Roberts
User Centred Design
My name is Ed Roberts and I am an aspiring designer with keen interest in user needs, design for emotion and how we, as people, interact with our living environments.
Final year project
A Product Solution to Assist Users with Maintaining a Healthy Mental Well-being Whilst Working from Home.
Dawn - Final year project
Dawn is a work companion that assists users with maintaining a healthy routine and mental well-being whilst working from home.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, home working and its associated infrastructure has developed massively. A record number of people are now working from their own home workspaces. Whilst this has its advantages, home working does not come without its drawbacks. Many younger workers reported a dip in productivity, as well as an increase in work-related anxiety and stress.
Dawn aims to guide users through their working days at home whilst offering the company of a virtual co-worker. The product enhances working environments with adaptive lighting, supporting the concentration and productivity levels of the user.
Dawn - Lantern handle
The handle on top of the product encourages users to grab the product and acquaint themselves with the form and functionality. It also adds an easy method of portability for ease of use around the home.
Dawn - Wireless charging
The product can be wirelessly charged to allow users to reap the benefits of ambient lighting wherever they desire. The base also has a battery indicator to avoid the product running out of juice unexpectedly!
Dawn - Supporting app wireframes
The product links to a supporting app that acts as a dashboard for all of the product's functions. The user can input their daily routine (as well as connect their Google or Outlook calendar) which helps the AI support their work routine without becoming interruptive or distracting.
Dawn - Evening lighting
The device utilises warmer light if the user is working into the evening. This helps to protect their sleep routine by reducing blue light exposure that could interrupt the circadian rhythm. The lantern-like silhouette communicates the route-finding nature of the product, guiding the user through their working day at home, and building a healthy work/life balance along the way.
BUD
BUD is an indoor herb companion that monitors light, heat and humidity levels of the surrounding environment. The user is fed this information via an app that helps the user to act before the herbs start to wilt. The product has no grow light or automated watering features, instead, the product and app guide the user throughout the process so they can reap the benefits of bringing nature into the home.
Angel - Design Week 2022. My response to the brief set by Panasonic, "Care in the Home."
Angel is a baby formula mixing and pouring device, aimed at first-time parents. The process of sterilizing and preparing the formula by conventional means can take over 20 minutes. This can accumulate a lot of time once repeated 6-8 times a day. The aim of the product is to simplify and streamline the process, allowing first-time parents to spend less time making bottles, especially in the middle of the night. This can eventually contribute to combatting sleep deprivation, forgetfulness and postpartum depression.
The product was designed to be approachable, unambiguous and intuitive so the functionality does not add any unwanted confusion to the busy lives of first-time parents. All parts that require washing/sterilizing are easily accessible from the exterior of the product. As a secondary feature, a small steam cupboard can be placed on the front of the product for quick bottle sterilizing.
A challenging aspect of this project was developing the CMF. The aim was to develop a product that looked modern and appealing to the user group, whilst also exposing many of the major components on the exterior of the product. The proposed solution used natural colours, whilst utilising frosted polypropylene to create strong material breaks that help to guide the user around the anatomy of the device. Matte finishes were also used to avoid harsh surface reflections and to take the aesthetic away from what is typical for a modern kitchen appliance. This can help the product blend into a variety of environments whilst appealing to the target user group.
Angel - Ideation
Ed Roberts
Final year project
A Product Solution to Assist Users with Maintaining a Healthy Mental Well-being Whilst Working from Home.
Awards
Hubbub | Design by Nature 2021 |
"Create an affordable, practical and evidence-based prototype that brings the multiple benefits of nature into the homes of low-income inner-city communities."
My response to Hubbub's Design by Nature competition was shortlisted, having been judged as, "an original concept that would appeal to Gen z."
Work Experience
Chris Carter Architecture | 3D CAD and Visualisation Intern | Sep 2020 - January 2021
Modelled and rendered concept residential structures in a small team based in Winchester. Models and visualisations were presented to clients in meetings, which helped to effectively communicate shape, size, proportions as well as visual context and how a build could impact the view from windows in existing properties. I regularly visited the sites of proposed (or undergoing) builds to gain a better understanding of the surrounding environment and context.
This role gave me experience in a completely new field and had me negotiate a steep learning curve learning new design principles, all whilst on the job. I learned how to interpret architectural surveys and use them to accurately model the surrounding site of a new build. I was often given complete creative freedom over both exterior and interior concepts as well as floor plans.
Osco Europe | Junior Designer | Summer 2021
Worked on the generation of new stationery storage ideas. A challenging aspect of this role was that I was required to develop concepts whilst considering the manufacturing process of a variety of materials, such as wire mesh, bamboo, acrylic and faux leather.