Heriot-Watt

MECHENG H300

1. History of the project
The startng point of the project was a vision in which loading and unloading of dishwasher
could be made easier, but it was realised that this vision was not broad enough and
therefore it had to be changed, the vision became about dish washing in general. The
startng point for the project came from observing difcultes in a situaton and the desire to
improve it.
The vision for this project is one in which people don’t waste their tme on a tedious chore
of washing dishes. This was chosen as it is a chore that people carry out daily and a task that
has remained the same for many years. There have been litle or no atempt at providing
new innovatve solutons. The inital design concept was a product that could make the
loading and unloading process easier and can be found in the appendix in TMA05. The
design concept was however then changed to a service.
The Dishkit project is a unique way of looking at how kitchenware can become something
that is not owned and save people the long and tedious task of washing up. This is an
innovatve soluton that changes the way things are done.
Each of the concepts generated during the design process had the goal of making the
process of washing dishes easier and less tme consuming in some way.
Initally, the chosen concept was a product-based service and it addressed the inital
problem statement, how to save tme loading and unloading a dishwasher. The product
concept met the evaluaton criteria the best compared to the other concepts. Since the
problem statement was later viewed as being too narrow, the chosen concept was changed.
The work done afer TMA05 involved exploring the new problem statement. The problem
statement became- how to ease and save tme washing dishes in general. From there the
evaluaton criteria adapted to the new problem statement and so the service based Dishkit
design concept was chosen.
Further work was done but carrying out deeper research into people, context and material
things. Once the design was established, environmental and fnancial analysis was carried
out to assess the viability and impacts of the design. The design was adjusted and changed
according to fndings to produce the fnal concept design.
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