Questionnaire for a University Project

[Beo]

Survey completed. Would it be possible for you to consider the needs of less mobile/disabled boaters in your designs? Consider it a challenge...

[dabowman]

With regards to issues with the simplicity of the questionnaire, this is a fairly small project, and purely a design project at that. As no one in our group has any experience this field, the simple nature of the questions helps highlight any issues, though very obvious to you guys, we may have completely overlooked. Obviously if this was a final year project, the survey would have been a great deal bigger, and taken up a lot more of your time

 

Thank you very much for all of your responses so far! We have received many more replies than any of us were expecting, a rather overwhelming response, and we really do appreciate it

 

If you are a student, why not use your university email address rather than a hotmail address? Sadly, there are people who make false claims and one way of establishing whether someone is a student is to ask for their academic email address.

 

I put my hotmail address as I use it much more, and I have trouble sending emails with my Uni email for some reason. My Uni email is:

 

bowmand3@uni.coventry.ac.uk

[steven wilkinson]

hello Dabowman,

Best of luck with this project. I like contemporary stuff myself, and I would be very interested in the outcome of this!

I haven't looked at the survey as we are hirers, rather than owners. Give me a shout if you want a hirers input!

 

[RLWP]

<snip>

 

Our brief for the project is to create a narrowboat that doesn't look in any way like conventional types, something that would sit well in an area like the Mailbox.

 

<snip>

 

Will you let us have the name of the person who came up with this brief, so we know where to send hate mail?

 

 

Richard

[dabowman]

Survey completed. Would it be possible for you to consider the needs of less mobile/disabled boaters in your designs? Consider it a challenge...

 

In all of our projects we look at the needs of a whole range of users when designing actually A large amount of time is spent creating personas, roleplaying, ergonomic testing, etc. to try to cater for the widest possible audience.

[Ange]

Done

 

Best of luck with your project

[Guest]

Keep up Steven....

 

hello Dabowman,

Best of luck with this project. I like contemporary stuff myself, and I would be very interested in the outcome of this!

I haven't looked at the survey as we are hirers, rather than owners. Give me a shout if you want a hirers input!

 

 

Hi there,

I am a student at Coventry Uni, studying 2nd Year Automotive and Transport Design. Currently I am part of a project based on designing a contemporary narrowboat. To help inform the design, we have this short questionnaire aimed at people who have spent time on canal boats, and we would hugely appreciate it if you could spend a minute or two filling it in, it would help us greatly.

 

Survey Link

 

Thank you very much for your time and responses,

Dan

[dabowman]

hello Dabowman,

Best of luck with this project. I like contemporary stuff myself, and I would be very interested in the outcome of this!

I haven't looked at the survey as we are hirers, rather than owners. Give me a shout if you want a hirers input!

 

 

You are more than welcome to take the survey, it's quick and simple and as long as you have spent time on boats, you should have no trouble with it

 

Will you let us have the name of the person who came up with this brief, so we know where to send hate mail?

 

 

Richard

 

After all the research I have done over recent weeks, I had a feeling that would be quite a common view

Edited January 9, 2013 by dabowman

[RLWP]

 

After all the research I have done over recent weeks, I had a feeling that would be quite a common view

 

And do you understand why that is?

 

Richard

[LoneWolf]

And do you understand why that is?

 

Richard

 

can you tell me please cos I don't. I like modern interior boats too - not Whitefield tho cos it looks like a porn set

[Dave_P]

can you tell me please cos I don't. I like modern interior boats too - not Whitefield tho cos it looks like a porn set

 

Agreed. 2nd year students like this should be letting their imagination go wild! Doesn't mean anyone is actually going to build or buy the boat which is designed.

 

I like proper old working boats and modern boats, there's room on the canal for everything. I'm not too keen on newish boats which are pretending to look like old boats, but that's just me. Remember even President and Kildare were modern once!

[steve hayes]

not Whitefield tho cos it looks like a porn set

 

:P :P too true

 

Survey filled in

[dabowman]

From what I have made out, generally (And obviously this is a very from-the-outside view ) there seems to be a bit of disagreement over modern looking narrow boats. The very few that I have seen seem to generate negative views, and from what I have read, not sold very well. Admittedly, I do find, like the Whitefield, that they are kind of half hearted. It has some really nice features, the exterior looks unique and fresh, especially at the rear. The interior I feel lacks a constructed theme, the kitchen and bathroom, though nice, don’t tie in with the boat and look out of place. In our own design, we are looking to minimise the wood panelling found on the walls and ceiling.

[Theo]

In our own design, we are looking to minimise the wood panelling found on the walls and ceiling.

 

I would applaud that. I am rather unfond of the coffin look in a number of recent boats but lots of people like them or there would not have been as many built.

 

Survey completed

 

 

N

[RLWP]

From what I have made out, generally (And obviously this is a very from-the-outside view ) there seems to be a bit of disagreement over modern looking narrow boats. The very few that I have seen seem to generate negative views, and from what I have read, not sold very well. Admittedly, I do find, like the Whitefield, that they are kind of half hearted. It has some really nice features, the exterior looks unique and fresh, especially at the rear. The interior I feel lacks a constructed theme, the kitchen and bathroom, though nice, don’t tie in with the boat and look out of place. In our own design, we are looking to minimise the wood panelling found on the walls and ceiling.

 

I'm curious. I appreciate that this is a design exercise and intended to stretch your imagination. At what point do you learn to work with what a customer might want?

 

Richard

[Tuscan]

I'm curious. I appreciate that this is a design exercise and intended to stretch your imagination. At what point do you learn to work with what a customer might want?

 

Richard

 

 

Isn't that the purpose of the initial survey

[dabowman]

I'm curious. I appreciate that this is a design exercise and intended to stretch your imagination. At what point do you learn to work with what a customer might want?

 

Richard

 

The target market for this, ripped from the brief '...superstructure and the interior should be very contemporary in design and aimed at younger, trendier owners.’ This project isn't as focussed on identifying target markets, white space in the market, etc. it's more of an exercise in interiors. During the first couple of years we are mainly involved in projects that focus on particular areas of the design process, rather than the whole workflow

[Guest]

Tea finished - survey complete....

 

 

HTH

[Québec]

Survey completed. PM sent. Good luck.

[Starcoaster]

I completed it too, but I also notated in my points about 'what could make the above tasks easier' that not everyone wants things made 'easier' or more high tech or different for the sake of it.

I get that your project is to theoretically build a new, modern boat like nothing currently on the canals, but I think you should be wary of getting too far removed from some of the main joys and reasons for boating in the first place.

Doing essential maintenance and taking care of your day to day living needs on a boat is different, and yes, can sometimes make you cuss up a storm and think longingly of the days when you had mains plumbing and everything just 'worked.'

Living for any length of time, even a holiday, is in many ways more complicated and in some ways 'harder' than it is on land, but this is part of the tapestry that makes up boating itself, and something that provides the full experience that really bonds you with the boat and makes things worthwhile.

[David Schweizer]

To be honest I don't know why (a few)people are complaining about the survey, If you don't like it no one is forcing you to complete it. It is for the surveyor to determine what informationn he wishes to secure, and if the construction of the survey fails to produce that information, the surveyor will learn from that experience, he is after all a student, and one of the principal expectaion of students is to advance their knowledge and understanding of a subject, at least this group is attempting some research rather than merely copying data from books.

 

I have completed the survey, and have used the boxes to offer a few suggestions which I hope will be useful. Yes it is simplistic to us, but we all have boats and know much more about the subject than the OP, that is why he is asking us. I wish him well.

Edited January 10, 2013 by David Schweizer

[RLWP]

The target market for this, ripped from the brief '...superstructure and the interior should be very contemporary in design and aimed at younger, trendier owners.’ This project isn't as focussed on identifying target markets, white space in the market, etc. it's more of an exercise in interiors. During the first couple of years we are mainly involved in projects that focus on particular areas of the design process, rather than the whole workflow

 

That's an excellent reply, and with your ability to see the task in hand (meeting the brief) and the wider context (what we are learning now in the whole course), you should do well.

 

People are attracted to boats and canals precisely because they aren't 'trendy', often it is the traditional, simple, environmental and spiritual that draws them. Good job this is an exercise and not a business

 

Best of luck,

 

Richard

Edited January 10, 2013 by RLWP

[Ally]

That's an excellent reply, and with your ability to see the task in hand (meeting the brief) and the wider context (what we are learning now in the whole course), you should do well.

 

People are attracted to boats and canals precisely because they aren't 'trendy', often it is the traditional, simple, environmental and spiritual that draws them. Good job this is an exercise and not a business

 

Best of luck,

 

Richard

Doh...so you DON'T want us to build you a young trendy things boat next year then Richard??????? And you so trendy too....................

[tree]

survey completed and best wishes with it all

[steven wilkinson]

Completed from a hire boaters point of view - with comments from our own initial list of boat requirements (we are looking for our own boat).