Maral TabriziPortfolio

Helmet for Sia Arteco Design Company 2005

This project was one of the results of my internship at Arteco design company in Iran which is specialized in transportation design. our mail target market for this motorbike helmet was young generation of motorbike riders, usually from mid-low social class citizens of Iran, their adventurous personalities results into taking extremely dangerous risks to do something very cool or fun. This project was named “A helmet for Sia”. Sia is a cartoon character famous in Iran as a motorbike rider who breaks the law all the time and never wears a helmet.

we started the project with visits to hospitals to find out about rates of brain injuries due to motorbike accidents. we also had visits to human factors specialists to learn about different aspects of helmet design. finally we interviewed 15 motorbike riders which we found in streets of Tehran riding their bike without wearing a helmet and we also invited them to 3 focus group sessions. we found out that these users are not satisfied with the design and functionality of current products that they can afford. the main reason was that the only thing that these prod-ucts suggest is the idea of protection. but that is not what this user group wants. they want to look brave when they go one wheel. sacrificing that brave look needs something cooler, some-thing fun to wear. something that matches their personalities and accommodates their needs. The process of this project is compiled into a 30 minutes video which was shown in an Iranian news channel. you can watch a 5 minutes version of this video here.

Train Restroom Redesign for Raja TrainsArteco Design Company 2006

During my Internship at Arteco Design company in Iran, I redesigned a second class train rest-room for our client Raja Trains. after research and sketching I used Layout Packaging method to perform a usability test of different designs. cardboard was used to create a full size mock up of the environment and to study different arrangements of the restroom features to gain maximum efficiency. The ergonomics of different proposed concepts were tested with multiple users of various body sizes and finally a scaled appearance model of the restroom was made.

Train Service Room Redesign for Raja TrainsArteco Design Company 2006

During my internship at Arteco I also redesigned the Raja Train’s service room. a service room is a very small room inside the train in which a person has to spend much of the time that the train is in move. he provides passengers with complimentary drinks and blankets and other things they might need. there is lots of storage needed in this room as well as a place for the person to sleep, wash some dishes, make drinks and store his personal belongings. I used tape-drawing for testing the placement and ergonomic issues of my designs and finally used Autocad and 3Dstudio max to create the 3D model of my design.

SalamA gateway to interaction

Salam in Persian language means hello which is usually used to start a conversation. Salam sug-gests a new way of interaction in public spaces like a university cafe’ or an airport cafe’. in such places tables are usually occupied by a single patron or with a group of people. my research showed that people who don’t know each other don‘t share a table at such places. students usually hesitate to share a table or “feel weird” to ask somebody to share their table with them. the designs of current cafe’ tables do not facilitate the interaction of individuals. stud-ies show that face to face interaction among younger people have been reduced dramatically during the past 15 years. this was one of the consequences of instant messaging and electronic mail as well as social networking websites. this has taken away the self confidence from users and their ability to start a face to face conversation. my findings from my online questionnair shows that they are used to this kind of interaction and don‘t think of it as a problem, rather an advantage. Salam gives the users the choice to interact or just ignore the person that is sharing the table. but this table and the way it’s designed encourages them to share one and this increases the chance for natural interaction in a university cafeteria. users can switch be-tween the shared and private space by a single move of turning their chair that makes this transition very easy. the design of this table makes the first user to keep their belonging in their own area which makes the table more inviting for others who want to share a table. this also helps with using the space in a cafeteria efficiently. Salam could be used in places that have specific insiders that share the same purpose of being in that place, like a university cafe’ or anywhere inside a campus. this will both optimize space and improve the overall comfort for a face to face interaction for the users

Moto Ntro / Moto PrtlAn interdisciplinary project in collaboration with Motorola UXD

Moto Ntro/Prtl is a networking system that allows people to socialize inside different venues like a conference or a sports event by providing a specific network inside the venue. this ser-vice will replace the random interactions in such events with optimized and productive inter-actions. patrons can find people with same interests to just simply socialize or find users who are interested in joining them in an activity. the Idea for this service first raised when I was at a conference in Kansas city and I was looking for someone who wanted to visit some galleries with me, and I failed. this network is created by a router which is placed inside the venue and connects patrons cellphones to each other and allows real people to interact in a real place and possibly meet. in order to use special features users have to purchase Ntro cellphone. they will be able to create profiles and set its privacy as they desire. the router is designed to be hung from ceiling in an easily visible spot so that patrons realize that this service is available in each venue. the lights on the router show different colors based on the traffic of the network.

Rasti

Rasti is one of my personal projects. Rasti in Persian means the truth. this hand crafted night lamp is made of balsa wood that is carved in from inside so when the lamp is off its only a simple cube. but when it’s turned on, the truth is unveiled.

Barg

Barg is another personal project. Barg in Persian means Leaf. this night lamp is made of a re-cycled wooden frame, natural dried leaves, 5 layers of resin and graphite in between the layers.

Quake

Quake was a result of a flashback to my childhood memories of an earthquake. as a child I could not exacly tell what was going on but I could observe the fallen and broken objects and feel the fear of my parents. the orientation of hung objects, among them my fathers clock changed and remained in that orientation for days. Quake is a reminder to be thankful for liv-ing safely and a reminder that there are people who are struggling with disasters. its deceptive design makes one pause for a second between reality and illusion.

Tolu’

Tolu in Arabic language means the rise of the sun. It is inspired by rising of the sun which makes the things that are concealed in the dark, visible. Rising of the sun in many cultures is used as a metaphor for reveal of the truth from under the shade and veils. it is also a metaphore for turning things inside out and a constant change. Tolu has a lightbulb inside it’s plastic base. the light inside the base makes it shine while it’s placed upside down.

Rendering/Sketch/Prototype Samples