Arvin Abadilla

Arvin Abadilla, IDSA | 2010 IDSA Southern District Student Merit Winner | University of Houston

Photographers see the world differently than those who don’t shoot. They often find inspiration in obvious, yet overlooked places. The University of Houston’s Arvin Abadilla—a longtime shutterbug—brings that kind of perspective to his design work. “People are dynamic,” Abadilla said. “You're always learning something new about them: their feelings, routines and problems.”

Whether shooting stills, having casual conversations or conducting intensive design research, Abadilla never stops learning about people, how they behave and how they interact with the designed world. The key, he says, is to be responsive. “You can't force people to behave in a certain way,” Abadilla said. “So I have to remind myself to accommodate the user as much as possible.”

One challenge posed by an undergrad project revealed to Abadilla that users of infant car seats were not being accommodated very well. The first users—the infants themselves—didn’t exactly report gross dissatisfaction. But the secondary users—the parents—encountered three problems: difficulty with loading and unloading, carrying the car seat and bulk.

“I solved the loading problem by designing a mechanism that made it easy to load your child in the middle,” Abadilla said. “The carrying problem was solved by referencing a material that had the properties of both rubber and plastic, which I used to design flexible carry handles that conform to the user.” The bulk, which contributed to the other challenges, required a not-so-obvious analogue that also needs to perform the awkward dance of providing safety and comfort. “I treated the car seat like a bicycle helmet,” he said. The resulting design employed impact foam that stays in the car with the stationary base, while a more compact seat transports the child outside the car. It offered a valuable lesson in systems design. “With so many problems, the challenge was to solve for them one at a time and keep bringing them back into one cohesive system.”

The interaction between the user and the product is what drew Abadilla to design after enrolling at the University of Houston. “I actually didn't know that product design existed!” he said. “A friend had asked me what I was really interested in and I told him I liked how people interacted with things. Luckily, Houston had just started an ID program and I was right here. I fell in love instantly!” Based on his experiences interning with BMW Designworks/USA and the Ridgid power tools team at Concept Center International, Abadilla dreams of doing work where the products have soul and meaning and relevance.

Arvin Abadilla can be reached via arvinabadilla@yahoo.com.