Treasuring Time: Thermochromatic Flower Pot

This flower pot was designed to treasure the coming and going of the seasons. To anyone with an interest or appreciation for plants there is a certain connection made with the earth through these cycles. This pot uses thermochromatic ink to give a fun visual cue to the temperature and therefore the seasons.
Most of the year round the stem design is only partly visible however in the hotter months the colour becomes more vibrant and the branches appear. On the hottest days of the year the blue branches will appear. As such this pot is for plants that like the heat such as sedum or sempivivum.

Ceramic pots and soil retain heat well, thus the fluctuations in heat will be smooth and therefore too the changes in the imagery.

The pot is designed to fit any small plastic pot from 15cm in diameter to 8cm in diameter. It suspends the pot 1cm in the air, allowing for a tray to be placed underneath if desired.

The design is also sustainable; the pot is stackable to make transporting efficient.

Bad Design: Korg AX-1500g

This is an effects board for guitar, you plug a guitar into the board and then the board into an amplifier. This then can apply different sound effects to the guitar.

The bad design with the board involves the pedal. Some effects can be manipulated with the pedal, a common effect is the wah wah for example which is controlled by the pedal.
Where this board falls short is that at the bottom of the pedal is a foam pad, if you apply pressure to the pedal once its in the up position, the foam will depress and a switch underneath will activate, thereby turning the pedal control on or off.

However, when manipulating the pedal the weight of your leg and or foot is easily enough to hit this switch by accident. Every time i use a pedal effect i end up turning it off y accident. The design would be improved with a heavier spring loading and thicker density foam pad so that you had to apply more pressure to the pedal to turn the effect off. For my needs, as you can change effects with other buttons i would not need to kill the pedal effects in such a way so i would have gotten rid of that switch all together.

Whilst the design seems good, the designers did not take into account the feel a person needs when playing music, that is, someone who was being careful may very well be able to activate the pedal properly but music and musicians are not supposed to be kept controlled, often the pedal will be played with feeling and thus the designer should have taken the desire of players to play expressively into account.