1. Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the challenge posed to you? Did it get you excited and why?

If you participate in a water sport where you are in, and sometimes under the water, you don’t have a viable life vest option. LINK is a performance life vest designed specifically for in-water activities that aims to increase life vest usage.

2. What point of view did you bring to the challenge? Was there anything additional that you wanted to achieve with this project or bring to this project that was not part of the original brief?

As someone with a fair amount of water sports experience I know that life vests are something to be avoided. It is equipment that doesn’t improve your performance on the water and likely takes away from the experience. The existing relationship is one where regulations push life vests on users, as apposed to be pulled in by them.

Ten years ago, there was a tectonic shift in the usage of ski and snowboard helmets to the point where you’re more likely to see more people with helmets on then not – especially the experts. This same type of shift in perception is what needs to happen with in-water sports and the key is to develop a life vest that is beautiful, high performance, and sought after.

3. When designing this project, whose interests did you consider? (Discuss various stakeholders, audiences, retailing, manufacturing, assembly, distribution, etc., for example.)

Many audiences were outlined in the brief but the two most critical to the success of the project were regulators and the target users as they occupied opposite ends of the perceived needs spectrum between safety and performance.

Regulators:

Early on it was clear that this project could be sidetracked by regulations and red tape, stymieing a successful outcome. My sense was that current regulations were written for a much different user then the in-water target user I was designing for and felt that the best design solution could lie outside of existing regulations. I made the conscious decision to allow the project to produce blue-sky concepts as it would be more productive to design the best possible solution that users would actually use, and if the solution fell outside of existing regulations then I could work with regulators to discuss why it might not be approved and foster discussion.

Target Users:

While this problem exists for a number of “in-water” sports such as swimming, stand-up paddle boarding, windsurfing and kiteboarding, I chose surfing as the “lead sport”. Surfing over the past 40 years has become a culturally dominant lifestyle. Skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, kiteboarding, and windsurfing: They’re all based on surf culture.

Secondly, surfing is arguably the most demanding of water sports in terms of conditions, physical fitness and ergonomic requirements on gear. Surf equipment literally becomes a second skin to the body.

4. Describe the rigor that informed your design. (Research, ethnography, subject matter experts, materials exploration, technology, iteration, testing, etc., as applicable.) If this was a strictly research or strategy project, please provide more detail here.

Research //

Interviews with industry experts and water sports enthusiasts were conducted in addition to visits to physical retail locations and online forums. Key features for a new vest design included:
- Provide neutral buoyancy during regular usage.
- Fit high on the chest to stay clear of a surfboards and wind/kitesurfing harnesses.
- Allow for a full range of mobility in the arms, shoulders, head and torso.
- Be aesthetically pleasing.

Experts //

Throughout development, numerous individuals from various fields of expertise were consulted:

Design:
Mark Knight & James Britain - Designers, Mountain Equipment Co-op
Glen Mordon - Designer, Patagonia
Mark Anderson - Product Development Manager, Mustang Survival

Technology:
Materials and Manufacture - Feathercraft Products Ltd
Inflation Technology - Halkey Roberts
Compressed Gas Technology - Leland Limited
Materials Specialist - Dr Frank K Ko, Director, Advanced Fibrous Materials, University of British Columbia

Retail:
Pacific Border – Surf, Paddleboarding
Ecomarine – Paddleboarding, Sea Kayaks

Development & Prototyping //

Early prototypes sought to emulate the design of surfing “rash guards” (spandex/nylon shirts that fit tight to the body), as this design met the basic requirements identified in earlier research. However, after eight prototypes failed to adequately incorporate an inflatable bladder, inflator and CO2 canister, it became clear that housing an object that goes from being flat and wide to being round and narrow within a tight shirt was not going to be possible.

While discussing expandable bladder materials with Dr Frank Ko, the option of folding the bladder like an insect’s wings was discussed – a major breakthrough. Within a week the rash guard design had been dropped in favor of a much smaller, folded sling design and after three prototypes and two rounds of pool testing, LINK’s basic design as it is seen today was developed.

5. What is the social value of your design? (Gladdening, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, labor-mindful, environmental, cultural, etc.) How does it earn its keep in the world?

Since LINK’s recent unveiling at Emily Carr University of Art & Design’s Grad Show, two levels of social value have emerged.

The first and immediately obvious value is the direct benefit that LINK would create via the reduction of drowning deaths and related injuries. Loss of life and long-term disability carries an immense social and economic impact to families, communities and society as a whole.

The second and potentially more impactful in the long term is the dialogue that LINK could foster around water, risk and safety. Similar to the hurdles that ski and snowboard helmets faced, the wider adoption of safety equipment is a combination of improved design and the development of “reasonable” public regulations. As an artifact, LINK could be the lightning rod in the life vest industry to revitalize debate around life vest design and whether as a society we’re better off to have exceedingly high standards of life vests with little to no actual usage, or high yet realistic buoyancy standards with very high usage.

6. If you could have done one thing differently with the project, what would you have changed?

The project has emerged in a really great space and people respond to LINK with great enthusiasm. There is not much I would change to the core design features of LINK, however feel I could have accelerated the design process had I spent more time in the field working with end users from the start of the project. When prototypes were finally put into the water environment you could instantly spot issues and opportunities. At the pool I was testing at curious life guards would wander over and have all sorts of questions that were really interesting and lead to new features I likely wouldn’t have been aware of till much later in the process.

In retrospect then, get out of the studio and get models and prototypes into users hands no matter how bizarre or roughly constructed they are. You’re bound return with piles of unexpected learning and new ideas.