Limmer Boot Ergonomics!

    The five areas of ergonomic research offer a useful basis with which to criticize, praise, or analyze a design. They generally cover all of the bases and prioritize certain aspects of the design. Safety, comfort, ease of use, performance, aesthetics are the five categories with which to base criticism and are ranked in order of importance. I really agree with the priority each area is given. For items designed to be used in rigorous or technical situations, it is especially important to prioritize performance and comfort over aesthetics.
    Limmer boots are quite possibly the optimum example of an ergonomically designed item that adequately addresses each of these areas. For hikers, workers, and general frequenters of the outdoors, feet can be exposed to harsh weather conditions, wet landscapes, heavy pack load, slick boulders, heavy tools, and unstable ground.
    To assure safety, Limmer boots use a seemingly simple design to cover all the bases. The boots use a single piece of full grain cow hide to minimize seams and improve protection from water. Limmers have a reenforced leather fiber heel counter (a piece placed in between the lining and the outsole). The heel counter is present to protect the foot from a side impact and stabilizes the heel within the boot to prevent ankle turning. The boots also use side supports to protect sides and arches from impact. There is a toe box with reinforced fibers to provide protection from falling items. The shoes use a Vibram® sole which is an extremely tough and abrasion resistant bottom to protect feet from sharp protruding objects and to offer grip to prevent slipping.
    In terms of comfort, the single seam and full grain leather feature on Limmer boots protects feet from water which can cause frostbite, colds, and fungal problems. The seam on the boots is located at the concave curve of the arch. Many other shoes use back strap pieces which require back seams. This creates an inflexible, rigid heel which can cause discomfort near the achilles tendon when descending. Seams can also create a ridge which can give the wearer blisters. As the designers stated “Back seams are a perfect example of a design that is not ergonomic.” One piece shoe backs with no seams allow the boots to mold to the wearers heels. Added ergonomically designed ankle and heel padding add needed comfort.
    An open cell foam padded tongue with outer bellows facilitates the ease of use by facilitating the ease of entry while maintaining its water proof qualities. Limmer boot manufacturers create a custom shoe fitted to each foot specifically. If shoes create any discomfort, the company encourages the wearer to return them to the shop for adjustments.
    In terms of performance, these boots are expected to last least ten to fifteen years at least. Among the crews working in the White Mountains, wearing out Limmer boots to a state of disrepair is a rare feat. A friend from a White Mountain trail crew met a retired crew member who worked in the Whites from 1978-1981, wearing the boots everyday. He still sports the boots today, 32 years later.

Check him out.

 (Photo taken by Emily Dalymeyer)

    Limmer boots are attractive because if you know what they are, you know what they can do. Their aesthetic value is high because their simplistic appearance transcends period fashions. In a society where items like shoes barely outlast the rapidly changing fashion tastes, consumers are left with more things that accomplish less individually. Good designs consider the items ability to last and to fulfill its purpose.
   The true effectiveness of their design is seen in consumer reviews and reactions. It has become tradition for hiker to photograph their feet in Limmer boots as the reach challenging and picturesque heights. It must feel good as the designers to know just how effective their product really is.

Here is the first picture sent to Peter Limmer showing the boots on top of Kathmandu in Nepal.

Sources: http://www.limmerboot.com/#

Hace Frio, Que Debo Hacer?

How can I design a simple way to stay warm for the winter? Living in an old farmhouse without the luxury of central heating, I must get creative in order to successfully roam the house and relax or work in various places without interrupting myself with shivers or complaints.

Step one: What are the places on the body where we lose most heat? Covering the head and toes is essential. I must knit myself a soft woolen hat that I can wear all day without transferring my distractedness to an itchy head from a scratchy cap. Socks are also one of the most crucial stay warm items. By wearing very long woolen socks I can stack functions, keeping my legs and feet warm.

Next comes the actual body. I am finding that one can insulate far better by wearing loose clothing of quality fabric rather than skin tight clothing. The extra room allows for movement which heats the body.

Aside from what I put on your body to warm it, there are things I can redesign in the space around me to select for a warmer climate. Curtains for the windows! Homemade window insulation! Cups of tea and piles of people. With this knowledge I will hopefully be prepared to design my getup and my environment to prevent shivers, lost sleep and grumpy moods throughout the winter.

Word and Image as Teaching Tools

Children’s book authors may know best the benefits of placing words and images together to help the reader better receive the intended message. Images are essential components of a story as children are learning to process the visual representation of language. The idea is, hopefully the child will be better prepared to understand the word if there are familiar hints close by. If for whatever reason the child cannot process the words on the page, they will at least understand the concepts through looking at the pictures and so are able to still enjoy the story. The image may also just help to reinforce the names for objects the child already knew but perhaps not well enough to conjure up on their own.

Take this example. Here the words “Crocodile” “Hips” are conveyed well through the use of silly and bold images.

Images are so important in the learning, understanding, and absorbing processes that they remain in children’s books for a large part of the developmental years, gradually being phased out in the later years of elementary school. Early on the words accompany the images, and as one grows older the pictures are a treat, occasionally accompanying the words.

Something to chew on....if pictures are so crucial in tackling the difficult task of conveying complex ideas or concepts to very young children who have yet to develop the use of language, then why do they become merely extras or bonuses in educational texts as those children age?

Brain Teasers: Playing With Word and Image

According to Scott McCloud, the arrangement of word and image has been used historically to thoroughly or completely convey a message. The combination of the two is usually used to convey an idea that needs more explanation beyond words.

Comics are a common form of art and communication that juxtapose image and word. Appearing in most newspapers near the comic section, one might find a different combination of word and image, ones that intends to confuse and to trick rather than clarify. These combinations, commonly referred to as brain teasers seek to accomplish a very different goal. The reader/viewer leaves the experience feeling smart, clever, accomplished and capable if he can figure out what the author is trying to say. If not, the person may leave with feelings frustrated and incapable.

The content in brain teasers, what the author is trying to say is usually very different than the content in comics. The main goal of a brain teaser is to confuse the mind at first glance and then force the onlooker to think in ways they are normally not asked to explore. This new perspective is necessary in order to synthesize the layout/structure of the words (what I would consider the image) and the letters themselves. The mind must separate from the common practice of reading a word and in doing so receiving the information intended for conveyance by the author.  With brain teasers, the reader must do more than read. They must proccess the letters while simultaneously recognizing how they are arranged, the image they display.

Here is a very simple example that expresses what I am trying to say.

     R                                                                           
     O
ROADS
     D
     S

We first read the word “Roads” twice. That makes little sense. We must assess the situation further to understand what is trying to be conveyed. Now we notice the two words are arranged in such away that they resemble a cross symbol. Hmmm, perhaps....CROSSROADS!




Now my brain feels capable and properly exercised.

Dye It Yourself

Photo taken at the Yolo Wool Mill annual Mill In. Variety of yarns soaking in natural dyes.

Dyeing yarns and fabrics can be rewarding, exciting and valuable in a variety of ways. Making homemade natural dyes is the perfect opportunity for designers to play. Colors can be made out of almost anything and grown or foraged locally. This cuts out the use of toxic chemical dye processes and allows the designer to create their own unique colors and patterns.
The process is usually very simple; chop up plant/fungal/seed matter, simmer in water, add vinegar, add yarn and soak. Many plants require an extra step however which sometimes can complicate matters.

Many dyes need “mordants” to fix the dye to the fiber. It allows the fiber to open up and accept the dye more easily. This creates problems for those who are looking to use natural dyes to make the process cheap and environmentally friendly. Chemical mordants like chrome, copper, tin, and iron can be treated as hazardous waste and must be purchased by the dyer.
For a more simple, cheap, and less hazardous process there are a few plants that can function as natural mordants. Rhubarb leaves, Sheep Sorrel, and Fir Clubmoss.

“Modifiers” are also used to alter the pH of the dye bath to change the color results. Ammonia is usually used to make the dye bath more alkaline. Ammonia can potentially cause respiratory problems and skin inflammations. Soda ash and even wood ash can be used instead to alter the dye bath color.

In tinkering with these processes, designers can create consistently unique yarns and fibers. The process allows designers to relinquish control and feel okay leaving things up to chance to a certain degree. Play and experimentation are very important for the design process.
By bringing the dyeing process to your own kitchen or back yard, designers also can become more acutely aware of regional plant life.

Industrial Design: Gore-Tex

With the mass production of outdoor footwear, it is very rare to find leather boots made from a single piece and naturally waterproof.
 In order to add this very important feature to industrially designed, mass produced outdoor shoes Robert Gore patented a waterproof fabric called Gore-Tex. The primary marketable aspects of Gore-Tex are its waterproof and breathable qualities. The design using this fabric is focused less on pattern and appearance and more on comfort and function. Emphasis here is focused on the whole over the parts. The individual layers of various fabrics which make up Gore-Tex goes unnoticed to the consumer because the important elements of the design occur mainly at the microscopic level.
This waterproof sandwich of fabrics is composed of a thin, fluoropolymer (Teflon) membrane bonded to a fabric. The membrane has 9 billion pores per square inch, with each pore being 1/20,000th the size of a water droplet. This design was found to have problems however because the outer Teflon layer is easily damaged. As a result a revised design adds a polyurethane layer as the inner “protection” layer and another lose fabric shell layer.
While the design of this breathable yet waterproof fabric is very exciting and useful for outdoor gear companies wishing to mass produce water-proof active wear, there are a few drawbacks.
Dirt and human perspiration can block the pores of the Gore-Tex membrane causing it to lose its breathable feature. This can be remedied by washing, however washing shoes is difficult
and cleaning can reduce the performance in general. Gore-Tex products, like almost all other mass produced outdoor gear on the market has seams. Seams on Gore-Tex products are taped over, but with time and wear this is another potential area for water to enter.
 Also. in the process of creating fluoropolymers which are in the Gore-Tex materials uses a fluorosurfactant PFOA. This surfactant has potential to exist indefinitely in the environment and  to bioaccumulate.
The invention of this fabric structure will most likely be ever changing, with chemists constantly altering the chemical structure of the various layers as well as the composition of the fabrics to create the end product. So far, Gore-Tex seams to be a very intriguing invention worthy of a close look.

Objectified: Interaction of Form and Content

Objectify: To express something abstract in a concrete form, to degrade to the status of a mere object

The film “Objectified” provides viewers some insight into the industrial design process, something we rarely hear or think much about. Using Lauer’s principles of form and content we can start to decide what is the ultimate concept of “Objectified.” What message is being delivered?

 Specifically, the “content” refers to what is being told or communicated to the viewer, and “form” refers to the techniques or visual elements used to share the content with viewers. Within this film, form and content interact on multiple levels. First is the broader level; the overarching theme (content) speaks to the audience through a series of interviews with designers and video clips/images of the design and production process with narration in between clips (form). Second is very similar but a bit zoomed in; each individual segment makes its own points on what design is through music, images, interviews, and voice overs.

Looking at the form and content of the broader version (the movie as a whole), I felt the movie did well to provide us viewers with a really unique look at the design and production of everyday objects like potato peelers and toothpicks. Video clips of designers in their studios creating their projects leaves the viewers in awe, fascination, and confusion. These moments are interrupted by commentators making statements to make us think a little harder, to move past a state of awe into analyzing the bigger picture. It really impacted me when a woman mentioned that now form bears no relation to function in objects. The invention of the microchip has allowed designers to create items like the IPhone which is a calendar, a phone, a computer, and a camera all in one, but based on appearances alone seems to be none of those things.

 The final message or concept is somewhat ambiguous. The two competing messages seem to be this; 1) Design is constantly improving objects, and industrialization improves our means to share those designed objects with the population at large and 2) Inherent in this mass production industrial design model is waste, designing for the sake of creating more rather than creating better. I think the film does a good job of presenting these two sides through a balance of designs and designers represented as well as through the commentary. Each of us are then left to interpret the final message for ourselves...and I am sure many of us left the film focusing on a slightly different overarching concept.