Hasta La Ideas

The deadline for the Design for (Your) Product Lifetime Student Challenge is one month away!

The challenge, sponsored by Autodesk and iFixit is Core77’s second in this series created for students and recent graduates worldwide. Although many of the entries are coming in through class activities, there are plenty of online resources to help you envision and design a new “smart” product that’s also smarter environmentally on your own or with a team of friends.

In addition to Autodesk Software (available free for students), check out this video series that outlines and explains sustainable design principles for engineers and architects.

• With Improving Product Lifetime, you can learn how to decide on the right strategies for optimizing a product’s life and end-of-life.
• Design for Durability explores how you can make your product durable—not only by resisting physical damage and wear, but also by staying relevant
• Design for Disassembly and Recycling offers tips and tricks for making your designs easy to take apart and recycle
• Design for Repair and Upgrade will help ensure your products can keep living even if some of their components don’t.

There are underlying patterns to how we all interact with our environment and with each other. To get a better sense of how you can incorporate strategies to shape and influence behavior in your project, check out the Design for Intent Toolkit—which was created by Dan Lockton, one of our judges for this second challenge. The Toolkit includes 101 of these strategies and is organized in a series of method cards that can be used to prompt your creativity and inspire you toward success.

And, iFixit’s Troubleshooting Forum is also a great place to share ideas, ask questions and think through your project.

Wherever you are in your design process for this challenge, check out these resources for inspiration, education and practical support.

Deadline for entries is November 15, 2012!

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