Additional Requirement 2

The Raleigh Chopper




How it works? Well it's a bike, you turn the pedals and the rear wheel also turns causing you to move forwards. It has various different sized sprockets attached to the rear hub to act as gears and one large sprocket on attached to the pedals, it is chain driven.

How it is used? The user sits on the seat with their feet on the pedals, hands on the handle bars and starts to turn the pedals causing the bike to move. It is only really meant to be used by children but many adults have and use them now, although they do look stupid.

How it benefits the user? A bike in general enables the user to go places in a shorter amount of time and often in more comfort.

Product strengths and weaknesses Raleigh launched the Chopper in America in 1969, and in England the following year, where it proved far more popular. Within 10 years, over 1.5million were sold in the UK, despite that it was very expensive £32.55 about £290 today. They were based on the very 'cool' American chopper motorcycles. It had a frame-mounted car like gear lever this also added to it's 'coolness' factor. Other differences were the unusual frame, long padded seat with backrest which kids could give their mates backies on, sprung suspension at the back, high-rise handlebars, and differently sized front (16") and rear (20") wheels. It was as close as kids could get to riding a real motorbike.

How it might be improved I'm not sure if you could improve it as it is a design classic and it has been so successful for a reason. If Raleigh were to re release it again with a face lift then i think they should make it slightly more curvaceous and aggressive looking.

Ray Ban Wayfarers


The arms fold out and the glasses are pushed onto the face and rest on the tops of the ears and the bridge of the nose, the lenses prevent most of the sunlight from getting to the eyes therefore making it easier to see in bright light conditions. The strengths of this product are; they were one of the first pairs of sunglasses to use plastic as the material for the frames, glasses before these used metal wire. They made quite a few appearances in famous films when they were released with some big celebrity's wearing them which boosted their sales. Improvements have been made since their release in 1952, the acetate frames have been replaced using a much lighter plastic and the frames have been made smaller and less angular.


Etch A Sketch
How it works and is used? As you can see there is a grey screen surrounded by a red frame and two white knobs. The grey frame is coated with aluminum powder which is then scraped off by a movable point, leaving a dark line on the light grey screen. The point is controlled by the two large white knobs, one of which moves it vertically and the other horizontally. To erase the picture you turn the toy upside down and shake it this causes styrene beads to smooth out and re-coat the inside surface of the screen with the aluminum powder.

How it benefits the user This was designed to be a fun and clean way of drawing pictures.

Strengths and weaknesses It has sold over 100million units since its realease in 1960 so it has been very successful. One weakness is that it is very hard to rub out mistakes so you basically have to get it right every time.

Dyson Ball


How it works and is used? "We’ve done away with wheels. The new Dyson upright machines ride on a ball so you can steer with ease - no more push/pull around corners and obstacles. Inside the ball is the motor, giving the machine a lower centre of gravity and improving manoeuvrability even further."


Strengths and Weaknesses Some say its suction isn't very good due to having the motor in the ball, all Dysons are also very heavy therefore older users may find them awkward to use, the ball makes it very easy to tunr corners quickly and with less effort.


Eames Lounge Chair


How it works and is used? Well it's a chair, you sit in it, the cushions spread you weight out and give you support but also comfort.

This is one of the most famous pieces of furniture design ever, released in 1956. The chair is made out of 3 curved plywood shells.

It was instantly a hit, Charles's vision was for a chair with "the warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman's mitt"

The only way you would improves this design is by introducing different colours and materials into it.

I really like these chairs and would love one when I have a house.


Summary

Most of these products are re-designs of existing products that don't work very well or have gone out of style, the Eames chair and Ray Bans made use of new materials and process that were invented. I think this is the most important factor in design, to keep up with brand new materials and manufacturing processes to make your products cutting edge and interesting.