Designing for Design and Innovation students would mean we have to create a product that does the desired function in a creative and “thinking outside of the box” way. The most common trip-up that most of the Design and Innovation students have experienced in the past is the concept of designing a product for designers. We wanted something that aesthetically fits into the space in which we were designing but also fits the needs and fulfills the functions we want it to do. 

From experience, we knew that the backroom of our Design and Innovation studio can get crowded and when students have a deadline, often organization can be the last on the mind or priority. We wanted to design something in that room to help promote keeping an organizational space while working even when we are in a rush. We understand as designers that not all stereotypes are good (or correct) however, we took the stereotype that DIS students when working towards a deadline, can often be hasty, messy, and often unorganized when rushed. We have taken into consideration that not every DIS student fits under this stereotype, but from past experiences, we know that most do, including ourselves. The studio backroom often conveyed that stereotype when we had projects due, with cardboard sprawled over all the surfaces and scraps of paper or sawdust covering the floor. We also found that at the end of the day, sometimes tools would be left just lying around the studio, which can be dangerous. So, we decided that one of the main focuses for our product would be promoting organization while still offering convenience for our user group. A major issue we saw was students would go to work on the wooden back tables and often the wiring of the detachable tools (sander and cutting tool) would be in the way or often sprawled out with nowhere to put it–you could tie it but that is not good for the longevity of the wiring and bad for the tool itself and there are safety/fire concerns with the method altogether. We found that when faced with this problem, most often students would simply push the wires and tool aside or towards the back of the table. We had defined our users as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students, specifically students in the Design and Innovation major or HASS pathway. More specifically, we narrowed our user group to DIS students who are working on their product prototypes in the back studio. We found that this specific user group is most likely to use the handheld saw/ sander tool that we decided to focus on in our project. When brainstorming which user groups to design for, you can't just settle for the most obvious. So, we decided to dig a little deeper and find other user groups that our product could, in theory, be used by. We first thought of the Design and Innovation professors who spent their day looking at the backroom studio. We also thought about the graduate students who may use the back studio on occasion. Our product was designed to help these professors, students, and graduate students maximize the organization in the back studio all while keeping safety in mind. With a lot of foot traffic through the studio, it is very important to prioritize safety. After a lot of discussions, we also discovered that when trying to brainstorm products for our various projects, it is easier to think in a clean environment instead of an unorganized dirty environment. So not only does our product promote cleanliness for our user groups, but it also encourages brainstorming and creativity.

With the constraints that were provided, we knew that we wanted to make something that encourages DIS students to keep an organized workspace even when they are rushed. We took a walk through our studio and pictured what day-to-day studio life was like during the school year (from the busiest days to the slowest days). We found that the back studio room was the messiest when a project due date was coming up, but then the workspace continued to stay messy even when no due date was close. It seemed that even when part of the back room of the DIS studio was clean, the very back was never perfectly clean or organized.  We did a quick survey of our user group (our fellow DIS students) and discovered that most people find that an organized workspace helps promote their creativity while a messier workspace tends to dwindle creativity and fresh ideas. Since DIS requires a lot of creativity and brainstorming to come up with product ideas and solutions, we figured the best product we could build would be one that helps students stay organized while prioritizing ease of use.  We decided to focus on the tools on the workbench in the very back of the studio, what we pointed out is there is a valuable workspace being offered but because there is no way to store the handheld saw/sander effectively it is left sprawled over the workbench. We went through different ways in which the tool could somehow be stored; it currently is being kept by leaving it resting on the table or handing over the poll. During our initial brainstorming, we found that a majority of our ideas seemed to rely on the product somehow being connected to the pole that the handheld saw/ sander was attached to. However, how we would attach the handheld saw/ sander to our product while keeping it covered was debated. We first thought of a foldable capsule, where the cover would snap together keeping the handheld saw/ sander inside. However, our most well-received and connected idea was an open top that would protect the tool but not trap it inside in order to promote ease of use. 

After we settled on a product design, we made a pin-up to promote and share our product. When we presented our pin-up for our user group (our fellow Design and Innovation students), we found that many people didn't understand what our product function was or where it belonged unless we explained it to them in depth. Many people originally thought that our product was supposed to attach to a table leg. We also found that when we mentioned the handheld saw/ sander, many students didn't know what that was. During our initial brainstorming process, we had never considered that some our user groups would have never used the tool our product was being designed for. This is because we both had used this tool multiple times due to multiple past projects. Even when keeping this in mind, we decided to continue on the path that we were already headed down. We knew that even if some of the Design and Innovation students had never used the tool before, they were bound to use it at some point in their college careers. 

We debated endlessly on how to go about prototyping our product. We thought about using cardboard and PVC pipes to make a rough prototype but we decided the best way to ideate our design and see it in use was to model it in Rhino-8 and 3D print it. We took the time to measure the diameter of both the poll and the handheld saw/ sander. We also took measurements of the length of the handheld saw/ sander as well as the diameter of the largest bit for the saw/ sander. Considering that it was our first-time 3D modeling an object that we intended to print. 

 While 3d modeling, we made sure that our design was compared to our original measurements to get it to the perfect height so that the tool and pole would fit perfectly into our product. But, when going to print out the object, we realized that we had built some parts of the tool without any depth, meaning that it would not allow us to print it out. Once we fixed this issue, we went on to print it. The tool came out slightly bigger than we had planned. For example, it was supposed to be around 4 inches tall when in reality, it ended up being 6 inches. We decided to improvise and use scraps of cardboard we found around the back room to stuff the circles in our design to make them closer to the measurements for our critique.

The next step was to conduct a user test with our designated user group. Considering that our user group is DIS students, we conducted our test in our class. After presenting how our product would work, we got some critiques from our classmates. They commented on how “bulky” our product was. They also questioned why we made the top of the product so big, considering that the largest bit for the handheld saw/ sander tool was around 3 times smaller than the top of our product. We explained how in our 3D modeling process, we had accidentally printed the product a little too large. But even if printed the correct size, the top of our product would still have been too big for the saw/ sander. We then conducted our second user test, with the same user group, DIS students. In this round of user testing, we found that our users didn't trust how the product was attached to the pole. It would often move and slide along the poll, which is not ideal when one of the main goals of our design is safety. They also questioned whether or not the product could fall off the pole if someone were to hastily place the handheld saw/ sander inside and accidentally pull it down. When we tested this theory, we found that when pulled with enough strength, our product did fall off the pole. This contradicts our original goal of ease of use. 

In the future, if we were to redesign and perfect our product, we would make many changes. The first would be to rescale our original product and user test it, we would want to see if any of our original critiques would be fixed by resizing our product. Considering our first user test, we would most likely resize the top of the product to make it more appropriately sized. We want the top to be a little bigger than the largest bit for the handheld saw/ sander. Taking into account our second user test, we would try to tackle how to best attach our product to the pole. One of the original critiques was that the product would tend to slide easily across the pole. One way we debated on fixing this would be to add horizontal strips of rubber to the inside of the clasps. This rubber would help keep the product in place and make it more difficult to make the holder slide and move. Another critique we got was that it seemed like the product could easily fall off the pole if someone was in a rush and just hastily put the handheld saw/ sander in the product. We hope that when converting the product back to its intended size, it will fix this problem. But, on the off chance that it doesn't, we discussed adding some sort of buckle or clasp to the back of the original clasps. Our original product didn't fully connect with the pole, which would allow it to fall off. But, if we were to add the buckle or clasp to the new design. It would prevent the product from falling off the pole. Our inspiration would come from the clasps that we see at the gym on weighted bars. They are easy to use, adjust, and work effectively. We want to test these clasps in the future.