Project II Brainstorming Session

Our first brainstorming session with our project II teams was Thursday during our class time. These are the poorly-designed items that our team members brought to class for consideration:

Mackenzie
1. Can Opener
-small metal piece used to turn blade is hard to grip
-not enough leverage to turn the blade and open a can
2. Stapler
-when the bin was full of staples, the top would not shut all the way
-would not staple in this state
3. Ear Buds
-produce a lot of audible static when plugged in and while listening
-uncomfortable shape
-do not stay in ear very well - fall out often

Alex
4. Whiteboard
-originally had a black plastic frame, which soon fell off
-appears to be mounted on a sheet of corrugated cardboard, now visible from the sides
-surface is scratched, stained, and dented
-overall not very durable or high quality
5. Pringles Can
-can't reach the last chip!
6. Gloves
-touch-screen compatible, but only a small pad at fingertip
-if fingertip does not reach to very tip of glove, touch-screen pad can not be used

Lizzie
7. Whisk
-rusting
-not durable (gets dented and bent)
-handle not comfortable to use
8. Nail Scissors
-fingers holes too small for most fingers
-flimsy tip - bent before scissors were ever used
9. Tongs
-no tension - tips bang together and make a clacking sound
-no grips on tip to help hold items
-shape of tip not well thought out
-metal handles get hot from steam/smoke
-handles are close together and uncomfortable
-unbalanced - heavy in front, hard to hold

Erin
10. Utility Knife
-poorly contoured
-chunky
-finger hold is too close to blade - makes user uncomfortable
11. Pizza Cutter
-wheel rotates inside of semi-circle holder - hard to clean entire product
-slippery plastic on grip
-spike on one side of handle - finger hold? extra cutting edge? - doesn't make sense
-plastic wheel - too dull to cut pizza
12. Glue Stick
-large grooves in lid make it harder to open
-slippery plastic surface with no ridges also makes lid hard to grip

We narrowed these options down to the two that we thought needed improvement most - the pizza cutter and the tongs.

Our first brainstorming exercise - identifying major problems and possible improvements.

We then created mind maps to generate new ideas and sketches to clarify our design improvements

After these exercises, we decided that the tongs had greater design problems than the pizza cutter and that we had the most innovative ideas for their improvement. We became attached to the idea of rounded handles - the handles seemed to be more comfortable to grip when they were farther apart, and the aesthetics of the design were very pleasing. We even imagined a logo and branding based on our design!

Design gold!

We got a little stuck after that, so we got a fresh sheet of paper and each drew sketches of how we visualized our final product.

My mock-up sketch.

We also researched similar designs to see what had already been done and to seek sources of inspiration.

An old found design for ice tongs - we thought the diamond-shaped hinge may be worth considering.

Next class period, we will prototype a few of our ideas to help us understand how they will work in 3D form.