Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in Strategic Product Design at the International Hellenic University. The aim of this project has been to develop a technological artefact that will address the brief of being a product which imparts some of the analogue experience we used to be exposed to before the emergence of digital technology. However, it must also be a product for the post-digital age. This has required the development of an understanding of how digital technology affects us in our daily lives and the places where we would like to see more human interactions and contact. The biggest challenge for me in this project was to think like a product designer. The course in IHU has provided the tools for this and I now understand the interfaces between art and design and science and design. I have been an engineer for a long time, and I think that the rigor and discipline that is required for engineering, can in some ways stifle innovation and creativity. This project has been a refreshing change and it is really liberating once you embrace it. This thesis reviews the ideas in design that have arisen since the turn of the 20th century. It provides information on contrasting design approaches and it also provides a background, (in an appendix) for the growth of the electronics industry from the invention of the transistor to the current post-digital era. A product concept which I believe has the potential to create a market in tourism and electronics has been designed and the necessary skills to turn it into a real product have been elaborated. The product, a portable inkjet printer for creating and sending postcards which are personalized to your experiences, has been proposed. This device will create more tangible memories of your vacation and will let people at home know that you are thinking about them. I would like to thank Professor Liamadis for his great ideas and support and I would like to thank Kim Roberts, Rania Emmanouilidou and Olga Simoni for their technical support and proofreading efforts. I would also like to thank Cian O’Murchu for helping me to find many of the books I have read in the course of this work. This course has not been without its interesting and challenging moments, but I have really enjoyed participating in it. A Big - Thank You to all the staff and students on the course who helped me and talked to me in English on those long hot summer weekends.