Blog 5

Okay so I'm going to share with you about my knowledge on both "Material for design" and

"design for materials" .

Let's begin with material for design - as the name states we are looking at materials we will be using or choosing for our design. This step is crucial because the choice of material will directly influence the durability, performance , functionality , cost, manufacturing process and so on for our product. Therefore, its key we eliminate materials that are not what we are looking for and pick the best material. One of the most useful takeaways would be COWS table, which is an engineering decision matrix that will help us select specific materials for our product . It is essentially a table that helps compare different materials with the same criteria for example cost, hardness, thermal conductivity and so on. Another useful website I got to learn about which will give us the properties of a material is MatWeb .An observation I have made of poor material for design planning would the cheap phone cases that being sold in shoppee. There are very brittle and DO NOT do their job in safeguarding our very important phones so there are only here fro aesthetic purposes but I can't complain as there are usually very very very cheap.

Following that we learnt about Design for materials and my main takeaway from this phrase is that Design for materials directly relates to improving users experience - an addition that should be taken before producing any designs. This is not only to ensure that it is comfortable for users but also to make sure that the different materials in the product are compatible to sustain products lifespan. Using specific materials for a design would also optimise the products performance as Matching the material's properties to the product's requirements enhances its functionality, durability, and overall performance.Designing for a specific material helps reduce waste by ensuring that the material is used effectively and efficiently. One personal example , that I believe could be avoided if the design for material was carried out successfully would be my portable charger , as the name states it is to be portable which means carried around, it should be compact , efficient and LIGHTWEIGHT. what's the point of a portable charger being so heavy ? Its not convenient at all and it sleeps at home as I never want to put in extra effort to carry that load around and that my friends is a good example of why it is important to consider Designs for Materials as we want our products to be used and useful.