The VOX Project : An interview with team member Lide Li
The VOX GROUP project wrapped up on 8 April.
Taking action to support the UN sustainable development goals, a team of HC designers, led by two of our skill leads, Nancy Shen and Shouheng Chen, collaborated with the VOX GROUP for a 4-month project. The first part of the project was to research the carbon footprint, energy usage, and waste generated of a specific display unit throughout its product lifecycle. A light LCA analysis was carried out by the team, in which the boundary and allocation of resources input and emission/waste outputs were evaluated, from cradle to grave. The second part of this project used this analysis to generate several suggested improvements to the given design.
We caught up with Lide Li, an MPhil student in Architecture and Urban Design, who took part in the project to ask him for his thoughts and reflections.
What drew you to this project in the first place?
As an architecture student, I wanted to branch out and try product design. I was interested in the VOX project specifically because of the sustainability angle.
How did you find the application process for the project? Did you enjoy it?
Yeah, it’s actually not very hard. It was just an interview, where I talked to them about my major and why I’d applied.
Once on the project, how was it?
I’m very happy with the results — it was beyond my expectations. I assumed it would be just product design, but we did more than that, including the package design and reverse logistics system. It turns out that the other two help offer a better solution! I learned that you should never assume anything in the design process.
Given the circumstances surrounding Covid-19, how did you find its collaborative aspect?
I have to say that this was the most challenging aspect of the project. It’s not as efficient as face-to-face meetings, of course, but we still got the results we needed. We managed to have a lot of meetings with HC and with the client — which I think is good. Sometimes you have an idea and you don’t know whether it will work or not and whether the client will like it. Since we had a lot of communication, we could get thoughts and feedback from the client throughout the project, so that was nice.
What’s your biggest take away from the project?
This was my first product design project. I did a life-cycle analysis, which was something I’d never done before. My initial intention in joining the project was to see what it’s like to do product design and what it’s like to design for sustainability. So, I think for me, I learned about the whole process and that’s my biggest take away.