Go-Gyro
Aric Prince
The Problem:
Open beverages spill easily. How might we make them more transportable?
Needs:
A hands-free beverage holder specifically made for moments of transportation.
Insights from Preliminary User Research:
Over 50% of College Students have ridden a bicycle in the last year, 92% drink coffee, and many drink boba as well. However, students don't have a safe way to transport their drink if they are riding a scooter or bicycle! This problem causes lots of unsafe riding, spilled drinks, and even crashes.
Interview Insights:
Lots of students we interviewed talked about their struggles with drinks spilling as they sped to class.
Students complained about the struggle of riding a bike/scooter with an open beverage.
Interviewees were unsatisfied with nearly every type of disposable beverage containers they had used.
Interviewees were particularly stressed by drinks spilling during travel.
One of our most notable quotes was:
“I ride a scooter most of the time, so it’s hard to carry any open beverages.”
Clearly, open beverages pose a difficult situation for students who want to travel quickly, especially on bikes or scooters.
(User personas are less applicable to my project than they were to the group project)
Ideation:
I decided to go for a mutable design that focused on accommodating the user's beverage instead of redesigning the beverage container itself. I decided to focus on scooter/bike transportation, and I thought that a mechanism which moved the drink along with the forces of the vehicle would be really cool! This prototype began as something that simply clamped onto the vehicle, held the drink, and let the drink swing to always point straight down.
Low Fidelity Sketches:
Mid-Fidelity Prototyping:
I constructed my mid-Fidelity Prototype out of cardboard. Since this is a weak material, this was prototype effective for observing the product's range of motion and how human interaction with the product would occur, but not for testing its weight-bearing performance.
Insights and Changes from Sketches:
Although during the ideation stage I planned to let the cup holder swing back and forth, I decided to only let it pivot in order to minimize momentum that would occur from swinging back and forth. To do this I replaced the hanging element with a gyroscope-esque system. The new design let the drink rotate around a point much closer to its center of mass, which would hopefully translate into less aggressive swinging around.
Insights from Usability Testing:
After interviewing a few people on their experience with the initial prototype, I realized I needed to make it more functional in order for users to understand its purpose. I removed the toothpicks that stuck out, which allowed the rings to swing past each other effectively. I also noticed that the bulkiness of the prototype was a major complaint of the test users.
Therefore, I decided to make the main horizontal support telescoping for adaptability. This way, the user can choose how far it sticks out, and can adjust that distance for their personal needs. Below, the prototype is pictured with its main horizontal support beam at two different lengths, and with its rotating rings able to move freely in complete circles:
Final Prototype Changes:
In order to go forward with the High Fidelity prototype and make this design fully (hypothetically) functional, I made several more changes, shown below.
First I remade the piece connecting the horizontal beam to the rotating rings. Originally, this piece was restricting rotational movement, so I redesigned it to accommodate a wider range of motion.
Next, I added the fixture that will actually effectively hold the cup. This section is the vertical square column descending from the turning circles, which has the solid circle fixed at 90 degrees at its base. Here it is:
Finally, I added some adjustable arms to hold the cup in place more securely, leaving me with the final prototype.
Final Prototype:
My hope is that if this product were made of proper materials, it could attach to a bike or scooter, hold an open beverage cup, and keep the contents inside even despite swerves during transportation!
