Category: Product Journey

My final prototype is the fishing bite alarm which has been developing throughout the semester. I have walked through all stages of the design thinking during my design process of the fishing bite. From observing and engaging fishing with my dad, I found the problems he had with his fishing detector: easily to fallen off, couldn’t been heard and seen easily at night. After defining the problems, I had brainstorm and  some possible solutions based on problems I observed, then built the first version prototype shown bellow:

Version 1

The older version has one LED light, which can be seen from far. It also has a sound that one can hear from a distance when there is a fishing on biting. The older version of the fishing bite alarm has a spiral screw that one uses to twist until a fishing line is tied to the alarm. It won’t easily fallen off.

The designed was improved after I had a conversation with my potential customers.  I got really valuable feedback from my dad’s friend who was a fishing enthusiast. I found out new problems that most of the fishman had: they were often misled by the false alarm. The alarm would ring by other forces like wind or other moving objects in the water pulled the fishing line.  He suggested me to improve the spiral screw, because the tiny screw was not easy to rotate by big hands. In addition, he told me that it might work better if there was an indicator to show the position of the rod. By showing my visual prototype to my dad’s friend, it allowed me to learn, gain insight and test my prototype on the actual users who would use it and help me made decision on how to move forward and what needs to be improved. Based on new defined problems, I have refined my design shown below:

Version 2

One of the new features in this redefined fishing alarm is the addition of one LED Light. This means the alarm has two LED lights in total, a red and yellow one. The yellow Led light is designed in a way that it shows the fishing rod position at all times. Whenever there is a fish bite, the yellow light automatically goes off , the red light will be on and the alarm rings to indicator that a fish has been caught by the fishing rod. The volume of the sound can be adjusted by spinning the gray volume control knob. It avoids noise in the quiet environment. Other feature is that the design is integrated with motion sensitive system, it avoids noise caused by other forces like water wave or wind. It ensures that fishermen do not end up being misled by a false alarm.  In addition, the spiral screw is replaced by “the watch strips”.  It is adjustable and made it firmly and tied on different sizes of the rods.

Having showing the physical prototype and conversation with my potential customers, it allows me to learn, gain insight.  It also allows me to test my prototype on the actual users who will use it to determine how I might move forward and refine. It truly help to develop my design, make it better and fit my customer’s needs and wants.

The following is the video of my product description:

My dad was satisfied with my old version of the fishing bite alarm, but that did not mean that all my potential customers would like it. Therefore, I tried to get more feedback from others in order to improve my product.

I had a conversation with one of my dad’s friend who was also a fishing enthusiast and found out new problems that most of the fishman had: they were often misled by the false alarm. The alarm would ring by other forces like wind or other moving objects in the water pulled the fishing line.  He suggested me to improve the spiral screw, because the tiny screw was not easy to rotate by big hands. In addition, he told me that it might work better if there was an indicator to show the position of the rod.

Through the conversation, I got an valuable information and based on that, I have created the new version in order to solve the new problems.

One of the new features in this redefined fishing alarm was the addition of one yellow LED Light.  This was designed in a way that it showed the fishing rod position at all times. The fisingman would easily to find out where the rod was even there was no fishing bite. Whenever there was a fish bite, the yellow light automatically went off and the red light turned on.  In order to prevent misleading by the false alarm, I  created a circuit with a sensor motion. The alarm would ring only for 2 seconds if it was triggered by the other force like wind or if the fish bite a bait and run away. The alarm would kept ringing if there was a fishing bite bait. I also replaced the spiral screw with the “watch band” , it was adjustable and would be firmly tied on the rod.

The new version would ensure that the fishmen could not get false alarms in the future. The two Led lights allowed  the fishmen to see the position of the rod easily. “the watch band” helped it to be firmly tied to any size of the rods. The new prototype design would work more efficient and solves more fishimen’s problems.

My design of the  fishing bite alarm is successful. My dad likes it and believes it will solve his problem. For this week, I have designed an “innovative product”- the shopper’s umbrella.

The shoppers’ umbrella is an umbrella that’s built to enable shoppers to hold shopping bags of light to moderate weight effectively while navigating the rainy weather conditions.  This made possible by a differently designed shaft, which is equipped with a line of four hooks that are attached to a rectangular handle that is located at the bottom of the shaft.  The hooks on the shoppers’ umbrella design function to hold up to four shopping bags to on one hand, the hand that holds it, to facilitate the use of the other hand to perform actions such as opening doors and opening car doors to get out of the rain. The shoppers’ umbrella user can insert the hand that holds the umbrella through the rectangular aperture that forms the base of the shaft to have a more secure grip particularly with the added shopping bag weight.

As indicated by the name, the shoppers’ umbrella is designed for shoppers. This encompasses majority of the adult population as most will shop at some point. The shoppers’ umbrella like other types of umbrella is used as a sunshade during hot weather conditions, and as protection from the rain in wet weather conditions. The shopper umbrella user therefore enjoys the use of this design in effectively holding their shopping while being shaded from either rain or direct heat from sunlight. The hooks can also be used to simultaneously hold a pet leash for shoppers who are also pet lovers.  Moreover the shoppers’ umbrella hooks are effective in holding the umbrella up to dry after use during rainy weather conditions or during storage. The multi-functional nature of this umbrella design and the functional usefulness makes it a valuable investment for potential users.

The shoppers’ umbrella is a novel umbrella design that is set to revolutionize the shopping experience for its users.  Although there are many umbrella designs in the market, none has been designed to specifically cater for shoppers. While the Backpack umbrella comes close as it’s a carry-on bag with a normal umbrella attached to it, this design however requires that its user make dual purchases of the bag and the umbrella, in order to use it; the shoppers’ umbrella on the other hand is cost effective and practical in its application. Moreover the shoppers’ umbrella canopy design is made with recyclable, flexible material that springs back into form during high winds; its ribs are constructed with fiber glass and not steel ribs, these are easily repairable and expose the users to lesser risks in electrical storms. The shopper’ umbrella has rounded tips to limit accidents  such as poking eyes ,rather than  pointed wire tips as in other umbrella designs.

The shoppers’ umbrella will explore various strategies to reach potential users, such as through in store sales through retailers and wholesaler at shopping spots like malls and online sales through shoppers’ umbrella product website. Customer feedback will be sought through administration of customer survey to buyers by product sales representatives stationed at stores holding the product. The customer survey will be administered via email to customers after a few months of product use. The aim of the customer survey will be to establish the level of customer satisfaction, to understand their needs and build customer loyalty for the shoppers’ umbrella. Thereafter regular customer surveys will be conducted are get product and service feedback.  Inducements such as small gifts and discounts on more than say 1 purchase can be offered to motivate uptake of the surveys by users.

 

Electronics Mini Design

I really enjoy my first trial of creating the CAD circuits.  I found it was challenging and interesting. I was struggling with connection. I could not recognize which side I need to connected to  “+”, which side I need to connect to “-“. However,  the electronics lessons on Makerhub website really helped me a lot. Thank Makerhub website for the knowledge about the circuits and how to create basic circuits on Tinkercad.

By following the steps on the website, I created  a parallel circuit by using Arduino board and breadboard. The circuit contains 4 parts (1) two different color of LED lights: red and yellow (2) two different switches: push button and slides switch. (3) two resisters to reduce current flow and (4) a piezo speaker.

Click the flowing link to simulate my design:

MY mini electronic design simulation

or watch the video below to see  simulation experience

On this Saturday night, I went fishing with my dad. I have observed some moments that would reflected some problems. I saw one fishing bite bell dropped into the sea when my dad set the hook.  I also found that my dad could not hear the bell rang when he stood just a little far away from the fishing rod. The last thing I observed  was that my dad could not recognize which bell rings until he got really close to see the shaking bell. From the observation, I concluded the following problems with the fishing bite bell:

• The fishing bell was easy to fall off into the sea
• The bell ring was not loud enough to be hear
• The fishing bell could not been seen easily

I was questioning the following myself:

• How might we make the fishing bell be very firmly tied on the rod, so that it won’t fall into the sea?
• How might we make the fishing bell be easily seen, so the angler can notice which rod has fishing biting right away?
• How might we make the sound louder, so the angler can hear clearly?

I had brainstorm some possible solutions based on problems I observed.  The following were my ideas about the new fishing bell that I believed fit my father’s and other anglers’ needs and wants:

• Creating a fishing bell with a spiral screw, so it can be firmly tied on the pole.
• The fishing bell should have a light on it, so it can be easily seen in the dark
• The fishing bell can be plug in the alarm feature, so it can be heard by the angler.

The following is my design for the fishing bite alarm on Tinkercad:

:

The red bottom part was LED light with sound feature on it. The little yellow part was a spiral screw, you can twist until it was tied. The silver twin bells were there in case that there was run out of battery for the light and alarm.

I believed my “product” would fit my dad’s and other anlgers’ needs,because it is all in one integrated: sound, light and firmly secured. It helps solve all problems with single product.

 

 

Snowman Reminds Me of My Childhood

When I was a kid, the first snowfall was one of the most excited moment of the year. Mostly School would be closed due to snowstorm, which meant whole day of free time. Many fun actives I would do after snow, such as snowball fight, go sledding and of course, build a snowman.  As long as there was not a dangerous cold, I would bundled up and went outside with my friends to build a snowman together.  The fun of building a snowman made us totally forget the cold.

I created a snowman on Tinkercad on Tinkercad to remember  the best moment of my childhood. When I was creating the snowman, I was thinking how I built a snowman in my childhood with my friends. We would roll some balls, big or small for body of the snowman, then found rocks for eyes, twigs for arms, and warped him up warm with a hat and scarf! I applied the similar procedure to my 3D snowman creation.  I created a small and a big white spheres and group it together as a body and head of the snowman; two small black spheres as eyes; a yellow corn as a nose; three red sphere as buttons; adjusted two brown box as arms; grouped a tube and one cylinder as a hat; put a hole of a box on the diameter of the ring then group it as a smiling mouth. I would say building a snow man and creating a 3D snowman design are both creative fun. I enjoy creating my snowman on Tinkercad as much as I enjoy building a snowman during my childhood.

My Sketcher 

Overview of My 3D Snowman Design 

Front View

Side View

Top View