Before starting this project, I visited a few animal shelters around Rhode Island and Massachusetts to understand how the shelters are run and if they have any problems. I concluded that cleanliness in an animal shelter is very important since it is a major barrier against the spread of diseases between the animals. Some kind of tool or system designed for the cleaning process would increase the efficiency of the cleaning process at the animal shelter; it would benefit the staff of the animal shelter help run activities more smoothly.
After observing the volunteers at the different animal shelters, I came to the conclusion that cleaning the cat litter took much longer than other 'quick' activities. I decided to redesign the litter scooper in a way to increase efficiency.
After doing a lot of research on existing designs, I found that most scoopers are made of plastic and have a lot of extra plastic on which the litter gets caught and then has to be shuffled to fall through the gaps.
After coming up with some initial designs and experimenting with grips, I concluded my final design (below). The scooper head in the final design is made out of wire which is rounded. Because of the curved elements rather than flat plastic, the litter is able to slide down and fall through the gaps which are perfectly sized for the litter itself. The cat's fecal matter is left on the scooper to throw away without having to shuffle the cat scooper therefore saving time and making the process more efficient. By also having a head thats almost parallel to the grip, the cleaner is able to reach for the litter scooper without having to pull it out first.
