Browsing by Author "Vernon, Mitzi"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Design: Encouraging Sustainability Through Persuasion
    Yang, Yushi (Virginia Tech, 2013-02-08)
    The thesis proposes a mobile app design along with an innovative business plan aiming to encourage sustainable purchasing. To uncover the limitations in current design practices, firstly, represented examples of sustainable design were reviewed. Then, in an attempt to bridge the gap between sustainability and design commercialization, the techniques of persuasion were studied. It is to figure out how to incorporate hot triggers into computational technologies. As an outcome of the study, the final deliverable is a social networking application that provides sustainable product reviews. Instead of following a traditional sustainable design framework, the final deliverable focuses on creating an efficient supply-and-demand circulation for sustainable products. It delivers a unique corporate proposition showing how the system works, gaining modest profits while promoting sustainable development. Based on an online survey and the user study, the value of the proposed idea was validated. Also, the usability and functionality of the app were improved based on participant feedback.
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    Fields of Sound Instructional Plan
    Vernon, Mitzi (Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology: Center for the Arts, 2012)
    Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology: Center for the Arts -Teacher resources
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    The Finishing Touch: An Object of Linking Body and Mind
    McLeod, James Alexander (Virginia Tech, 1998-07-16)
    The use of imagery in preparing for a task is well documented. Sports training, in particular, is one area in which imagery has been used very successfully. In this case the sport is golf, and the task at hand is putting. On average, putting accounts for the highest percentage of shots with any single club in a round of golf. This implies that golfers should focus on putting training to better their scores. This thesis is about designing an object, a putting trainer, which can aid the process of imagery by providing more information to the user.
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    Industrial Design: Tableware
    Sullivan, Martha Lynn Luttrell (Virginia Tech, 2006-11-14)
    The goal of my graduate thesis is to design a dinner service set suitable for mass manufacture. The purpose of completing an academic study of dinnerware as an industrial designer is to gain a mastery of a product used everyday in and out of the home. With such a rich history in ceramics, it is challenging to design a new dinner service set that is functional, enhances the aesthetics of a meal and sustains the intimate relationship of everyday use by adapting to lives. My particular design ideals are expressed in the line quality, section, volume, breadth and visual language of the Galaxy Collection. This document is a record of the research and decision making process for the design of the dinner service.
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    An Industrial Designer's Ethic, A Study: Products for Urban Ecology
    Johnson, Bonnie Kathryn (Virginia Tech, 1999-12-08)
    This body of work aims to discover opportunities for industrial design to support sustainable ways of living in a materialistic society. At first glance, sustainable living and product design seem incongruent. Perhaps through investigation of the nature of product design and models of sustainability, a plan can be established which actually strengthens the reality of each in light of social, economic and environmental issues.
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    Objects of Desire: The Foot as a Site
    Braaten, Lia Marie (Virginia Tech, 1998-05-08)
    The purpose of this study is three-fold: First, to use the foot as a site for a study of form, materials and joints. Second, to investigate the form by studying it as a transformable group of component parts. Last, to ask the question, how does a product become malleable and changeable in terms of intent,transportability and its relationship to the body?
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    Resonant Frequency: Artefacts in Response to Time
    Moulton, Clay Robert (Virginia Tech, 2007-06-15)
    This Industrial Design graduate thesis is a response to the discussion surrounding the question, How can Design move from Green to Good? Three artefacts have been designed. These artefacts respond to a context. Context, in this body of work, is time. Time as context is about knowing the before now, applying it to the now, to positively affect the after now. The artefacts respond to three distinct lifetimes: 5 minutes 45 seconds, 8 hours 45 minutes, and 10 years. The intent is to utilize a Natural system, time, in a manner beyond typical product life-cycle-analysis. Also included are a series of essays which investigate and comment on issues and insights encountered during the Design process of this thesis.
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    Utility in Organization
    Mongeon, Murphy Greene (Virginia Tech, 2003-02-07)
    The following thesis studies how the utility of organization can influence oneâ s work sphere. Presented is a modular storage unit that can be reconfigured to ensure its utility to the user.
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    Why We Draw: An Exploration Into How and Why Drawing Works
    Mills, Jonathan Edward (Virginia Tech, 2010-05-14)
    Visual information allows us to experience concepts in a way that is analogous to the real world; an image represents the semantic meaning of a concept and does so without conforming to the structural or syntactic rules of standard language. Drawing is therefore an agile form of communication, able to maneuver around barriers that impede the exchange of ideas between one profession and another where the difference in cultural dialects gives rise to translation complications. This thesis argues that the value of visual information lies not in the final, finished images, but during the creation of those images, during the action of drawing. If drawings are generally considered a form of communication, then drawing is a form of visual conversation; much like spoken language, its message unfolds as it is performed, and we make meaning from that performance. Following an exploration of the visual and cognitive systems integral to interpreting visual information, a discussion of language structure and sources of language conflict sets the stage for employing the act of drawing as a collaborative tool in cross-disciplinary settings. Proposed is a set of principles guiding this use of drawing which builds upon the research findings herein. These principles are structured to be usable by all professions, regardless of artistic background or traditional practice, and to encourage a reevaluation of drawingâ s role in the problem-solution process.