Holly Martin Bates

The Glasgow School of Art

Product Design
2nd Year

CONTENTS
Letter of motivation
Birde
Imprint
SilentBark
Capsule
Hydration-station
CAD Workshop

It has always been

my ambition to go
on exchange. The
opportunity to meet
new people, learn
different approaches to
design, and experience a
different culture excites
me greatly!

Your Integrated Design

course at KISD would
develop my skills further, as
well as teach me new ones,
and this would help me
evolve as a designer.
I am a T-shaped designer
as I have a strong core
skill-set, as well as broad
interpersonal skills. I
understand there is more
emphasis today on these
kinds of personal attributes
within the creative industry.
On a recent study trip to
London, we visited design
consultancies where they
emphasised how important
it is to be multidisciplinary,
which confirmed that I need
to develop these skills as
much as possible. KISD
lives up to this approach
to design, and therefore
studying with you is very
appealing.
I am intrigued by how your
course gives students the
freedom to design their
own semester. This would

enable me to work on my
weaker areas, as well as
evolve in the areas where I
am confident. I really like to
challenge and push myself!

by our individual cultural

experiences, and how we
bring these together to
create a successful product
or service.

It would be great learning

KISDs approach to design,
and implementing what I
l have learned from GSA keeping in mind the Double
Diamond process. My
personal love of user-centric
and service design is based
on my interest in human
behaviour. It fascinates me
how design can manipulate
and inform how people
behave. I especially enjoy
the research stage where I
can implement ethnography
and user-engagement tools,
and how this informs the
final design. I realise the
Service Design Network
headquarteris located at
KISD, and this makes me
want to come to KISD even
more!

Being fully submerged in

an unfamiliar culture would
equip me with great life
skills, and allow me to be
more culturally aware,
which I feel is crucial for a
designer. I would love to
bring my own experiences
and cultural knowledge to
KISD, and meet people who
have similar or contrasting
experiences. As well as
a creative skill set, I am
also learning to speak
German, and therefore the
opportunity to put this into
practice would be highly
beneficial.

My enthusiasm to learn and

discover is shown outside
of uni-projects as well. I am
part of the Bee Keeping
Society who are a new,
small team of artists and
designers working closely
together to produce bee
hives for our art school. I
love working in a team and
generating ideas with likeminded people. It fascinates
me how we are informed

From speaking with students

that have been on exchange
to KISD, I really like the
sound of how diverse and
unique the course is. I would
love the opportunity to
work, learn, discover and
develop as a design student
at KISD.

BIRD
Designed for the fringe
group Birders
Fringe 4 week project
Enagage with a fringe group, to gain
an understandings of their values,
artefacts and rituals to then design a
product or service

discover
I chose birders. Birders dedicate
time to watch and learn about birds
and their behaviour. I employed
ethnographic methods to research
my chosen fringe group. Meeting with
people in various contexts allowed me
to gain real insights as to what their
values, artefacts and rituals are

The more birds I recognize, the more fun

it becomes
Its not just a hobby, its an obsession. Im
fanatical about birds
You generally hear them before you see
them. Though its amazing how many
people arent even aware of birds singing
My phone is great! Its so much easier than
carrying around a big bird book and I can
quickly take note of what birds Ive seen

Youre relationships with people break

down. If youve got a girlfriend, that all
goes
I want to see, I want to collect, I want to
have more than...

Its critical to document it, otherwise, how

are you meant to identify it?

Birds, like us, are creatures of sight and

sound, of colour and song. You dont
have to see birds to have a meaningful
understanding of what is going on.

define
My main insight was that the subculture hears birds before seeing
them, and that listening to bird
calls was a big part of the birding
process. I therefore wanted to
consider how to incorporate bird
audio into my final design

develop
From my research, I found out that people
generally record the bird by photographing
it. However, a birds call can help identify the
bird, as well as something beautiful to listen
to. Listening out for the birds is a huge part
of the birding process. I therefore wanted
to create a product or service that allowed
people to record and share bird audio

No other natural
phenomenon has quite
such power to captivate
us, and to stir emotions,
as birdsong. Its a power
displayed in religion
and superstition, poetry
and prose, music and
folklore, history and
culture even in the
names we give to birds.

record

live feed

podcasts

location

learn and play

my birdE

deliver
birdE is an app that allows the user
to record bird songs and share them.
The app maps sounds to create
soundscapes and acts as audio library.
Bird audio clips, shared globally,
mean that people can share their bird
knowledge and learn from others
Watch the video prototype at
http://youtu.be/ejapug8_OhM

]|[

mprint

The sensitive doorbell

redux 4 week project
Design a product that people can
connect with on an emotional, intuitive
and personal level by re-imagining
the physical character of a familiar
product to communicate one dominant
characteristic

discover
To begin with I researched
separately sensitive and
doorbells. I wanted to explore
the two definitions of sensitive:
something thats quick to
detect or respond to slight
changes, signals, or influences or
something having or displaying a
quick and delicate appreciation of
others feelings

define and develop

I explored distinct aesthetics and
behavioural definition by looking
into form language, materiality,
appearance and interface. Using
illustrator allowed me to quickly
play around with aesthetics - I
particularly liked the warm,
homely feeling that brass gives

the new visitor

the occasional visitor (exterior)

the frequent visitor

the occasional visitor (interior)

doorbell in context (exterior)

deliver
]I[mprint is a sensitve doorbell made
for the home front door. Users can
interact with it on a personal level,
and leave their imprint.
Watch the video prototype at
http://youtu.be/tutpNftzAqA

Tool for communicating

dog feelings
Digital Speckulation
6 week project
Gain insights based on the theme
of tansport using ethnographic
methods. Using key insights, design
a concept using Speckled Technology
that would add value to the chosen
moment.

discover
I decided to focus on the bus and
train stations. Here I observed people
interacting with the environment,
objects and each other. At this point
I observed a dog acting nervously
with strangers, and the owner of the
dog didnt seem to be aware of this,
neither did the stranger

define and develop

More ethnographic research proved both the
dog owner and strangers of the dog do not
understand the animals behaviour. I therefore
began looking at ways as to how a product
could communicate how the dog is feeling
using speckled tenology. The idea of a mood
dog harness and phone app began to develop.

It can be awkward telling

strangers to stop touching
your dog

stranger
I hate it when people let
their dog come up to me
because I dont know how
the dog is feeling
I dont think I know
very much about dogs
and do something
visual to tell me how its
feeling would be great

dog owner

My dog suffers from

seperation anxiety. I
tried using Adaptil, but
it didnt help. Something
to monitor stress would
be helpful because you
cant always just tell from
looking at the dog

I cant always read

his body language so
something visual to tell me
how Duffers feeling woud
be very helpful

I think I understand my
dog already. It would be
great for strangers or
people that dont own a
dog though

temperature

develop
I discovered that people want something
visual to tell them how a dog is feeling. I used
conductive thread and sewed and created a
working harness to fit a real dog. I came up
with the name Silent Bark because often a
dog expresses how its feeling through body
language, and not always through barking.
I also began to develop an app and a lead,
so this creates a connection between the
dog and owner. The harness and lead would
incorporate speckled technology and use
sensors to measure elements to determine
how happy or stressed the dog is

respiration
rate

heart rate

GPS

deliver
My final design is a dog harness
that communicates the dogs
physiological and psychological
state. Visualising this means
both the dog owner and other
people who meet the dog can
understand the dog more, and
therefore can be more sensitive
towards its behaviour. Using the
harness alongside the app will
esentially help the dog owner
learn spcific triggers that make
their dog happy or stressed
Watch the video prototype at
http://youtu.be/Eavl-iEYB2o

capsule

Improving the smoking

experience for homeless

Guerilla Interventions
2 week project
Investigate and explore everyday
interactions. Usesmoking as an
experience to amplify and improve

You waste part of the

fag by stubbing it out.

discover

define and develop

I observed people smoking

in various contexts to gain a
multitude of insights. I came across
a man who was collecting cigarette
ends from bins, and it made me
think about people who have
a limited income and how they
access cigarettes.

My initial insight led me to speak

to homeless people, and get their
positive and negative experiences
of smoking. Cigarettes are very
precious to the users I spoke
to, due to their expense. They
therefore dont want to damage
or waste any of it, and so I wanted
to develop a product that would
help protect and shelter what
they treasure, thus enhancing the
experience

I never smoke a fag all at once. I

smoke a bit, then put it out, and
keep it in my pocket for later. It gets
damp and damaged though.

I collect doubts from a quiet

place where there arent many
people, its embarrassing. Its
bad enough being here.

deliver
I wanted to create a more
enjoyable smoking experience for
the homeless. The main smoking
problem for homeless people
is that their cigarettes are very
expensive and are therefore
very precious to them. However,
their environment means they
get damaged. Capsule allows
the user to store their precious
cigarette safely. Capsule is water
and air tight. This also means that
the cigarette can be distinguished
without stubbing the cigarette
out, which therefore saves some
tobacco

Drinking
water
in the
redux a 4 week
project
office environment
Design a product that people can

connect with on an emotional, intuitive

and personal level by re-imagining
the physical character of a familiar
Responsive Environments
product to communicate one

4 week
project
dominant
characteristic

Work in pairs to design and

build a responsive environment
for an appropriate context and
user. Focus on how to augment a
previously mundane moment, and
create a moment of delight

discover and define

We decided a mundane moment was drinking water,
specifically in an office environment, as often work
seems more important. We looked into the moment of
use, and thought it would be interesting focusing on a
personal water experience

develop
We made a personal water station that monitors
the users water hydration levels, and illustrates
how hydrated or dehydrated they are. We coded
Arduino and built a pump system which responds
to sensors in the keyboard

deliver
We created a working model
that illustrates how the product
would work. As people type on
the keyboard, it measures how
hydrated the user is. More bubbles
in the station means the user is
more dehydrated. Fewer bubbles
mean the user is hydrated
Watch the video prototype at
http://youtu.be/6E-Vg7ejGO0

CAD Workshop
CAD Design Project
Choose an object, investigate it,
create hand drawings, then produce a
CAD model

discover
I chose to investigate a doubleheaded whisk as it had lots of
parts, materials were interesting
and aethetically I thought it was
very beautiful

define and develop

To understand the product, I firstly
drew elevations and sections.
The whisk is made up of over
20 parts, and to function they
have to fit together perfectly.
After initial drawings, I used the
measurements to create the parts
on Autodesk

deliver
I rendered the model, and used
the same materials that were
found in the whisk

Holly Martin Bates

The Glasgow School of Art
Product Designer
2nd Year