Ideation

Due to the varied group of people we wanted to design a product for, trades/crafts people, our brainstorming was slightly different than traditional, since we focused on only a few ideas for each problem. From our interviews we heard from a few different groups of people and their problems, this led us to brainstorm for each of these problems. Most of this was done informally and in class as a team. We tried a few methods of brainstorming, including writing ideas on a whiteboard, passing notes around, and having group conversations to draw out design ideas.

We had the most productive brainstorming session when using the whiteboard to write and draw our ideas. This was extra productive when we wrote down an idea and then had to focus on adding/improving upon it. The least effective brainstorming method was when we all sketched our ideas and everyone added to the paper, this achieved the same as the whiteboard but without having productive conversations.

In doing this brainstorming we created a huge list of concepts, some good, some bad that could be used to solve these many problems. We tried to think both in and out of the box and typically in thinking of the most abstract solutions we came up with the most innovative ideas. Below is a short list of a few of the concepts we came up with:

• Overhead tool storage for job shops

• Tool check-out system for job shops

• Tool hopper and organizer for job shops

• Dust collection system for wood shops

• Dust Air Quality system for wood shops

• Un-dusting system for wood shops

• Magnetic light for working under cars

• Car jack alarm for working under cars

• inflatable safety vest for working under cars

• chip that finds lost tools

• etc...

The two concepts we thought best solved the respective needs were the Jack alarm that calls 911 when the Jack stand slips, and the overhead tool storage for machine shops. Below are their concept maps: