Ideation

Brainstorming

We decided to focus in on one persona, Lidia, for most of our brainstorming since the personas had pretty different needs. We pulled up her empathy and journal maps, and tried to frame the problem in a new way by making it "clean and fun" at first. Individual sticky notes with space to draw out these concepts was very helpful. This criteria generated a lot of the initial ideas, and then the team went out for some drinks and started shouting out crazy ideas, writing down all of them, and slowly talking through the good and bad attributes of each.

These ideas are shown below. From this, we had a few notable concepts that could satisfy the need and that we were excited about. Encouraging those first few "crazy" ideas was really effective to get the ball rolling and make everyone feel comfortable expressing their ideas. In the end, the product we are going with is targeted more to the "Randy" persona, but could be useful for Lidia as well.

All Concepts Generated

mud or snow:

snow blower

inflatable lift bag

vacu shovel

max trax with improved stability

shovel powered by rotating car wheels

telescoping floor jack

turbo auto shovel

spring loaded differential or frame

auto chains

explosives

steamroller

winch mount

flapper boot

caterpillar bag

dehydrator

rat poison

front and rear bumper booster

tree grappling hook

net tow strap

electromagnetisation

ho-tow

helium tires / balloons

visibility based:

mirror system through rearview

3 point camera system with satellite connection

app for offroad training

app for highlighting the best route in real time

Car Cleats

These are inspired by the product "maxtrax" which are known to slip out from under a vehicles tires in slippery conditions. There will be a foot pedal to activate a spring loaded spike mechanism that grabs into soft ground.

Auto Chains

This idea is inspired by a product that already exists for commercial busses but is not available for consumer facing vehicles. Frame mounted traction chains that deploy and retract automatically based on a button that is easily accessibble from the steering wheel for the driver so that they do not need to move.

Winch Stake

In the spirit of self-rescue, this product is a completely stand alone solution for winching your vehicle out of a situation without available points (like trees) to leverage. The idea is that it would be hammered into the ground and provide a temporarily stable point to connect the winch cable to. This also serves the desirement of a lightweight, easily stored solution that could even potentially be carried by an ATV rider.

Concept Maps

The following concept maps show how the above concepts that were brainstormed correlate to a specific need area and helped us get to our final concept generation phase.

Car Cleats Concept Map

This concept map shows how we arrived at the idea for "car cleats" based on the broad need area of rescue independent of existing tow points. Particularly, from user interviews, these users were discouraged by mud and snow, so this determined our specific need and the constraint of low effort, easy rescue. Numerous other ideas were viable for this, but based on the flexibility of storage, distance from the product while in use, and ease of placing it down and driving over it, this idea emerged as our clear solution to this need. Interesting features would include spring loaded spikes for uneven terrain, carrying handles, and a way of mounting both inside and outside the car.

Winch Stake Concept Map

This concept map shows how we arrived at the idea for "winch mount" which then turned into "winch stake" in future discussions. This broad need was focused on self rescue when no winching points are available. While there were many creative ideas for this solution, they had varying degrees of feasibility that were all deemed fairly low or unpreditable. Car cleats and auto chains were the other potential methods, but the winch mount emerged as the lightest, easiest to use and store, and with the most versatile alternative selling points (dog leash tie down, tying down supplies) for specifically self rescue. A notable feature is the structural cross bar for removing it after use.

Concept(s) to Carry Forward

Concept #1: Car cleats idea (Pinocchio)

This pretotype will ask the question “Do you see this as a useful or viable solution?"
Features on 3D print: Spikes (don’t need to be lever activated) and studs along the top, pedal

Concept #2: Winch mount (Pretend to own)

This pretotype will ask the question “Would this product be too much of a hassle?”

We are going to repurpose an existing stake mechanism and ask users if they would set it up and winch off it

We are selecting this idea to pretotype because situations without an obvious winch point came up in interviews (off trees, alone, deep snow with ground far down)

Concept #3: Auto chains (Fake door)

This pretotype will ask the question “Is there any interest”

We plan to mockup CAD/renderings and upload them as an advertisement to an online off roading forum to gauge interest

We are selecting this idea because multiple users complained about how complicated chains are, with one stating that he opted to push the vehicle across ice instead of using the chains on hand to avoid the burden/hassle

Concepts from Second Round Ideation

Concept #1: One time use anchor

Expandable anchor that is a "one time use" feature and stays in the ground while the stake is removed
This is patented and also changes the enviornmental footprint of our design, while not adding much ease for the user as they would still have to get it rooted before activating this expansion
We will not be implementing this idea

Concept #2: Screw anchor

Anchor with rotating screw point to drive anchor into ground
This would require a motorized drive that is bulky and not cost effective
Rotating screw head softens the packed ground around anchor and reduces holding capabilities of anchor
We will not be implementing this idea

Concept #3: Relief in stake point

Relief channels incorporated into stake tip to decrease cross sectional area for easier insertion and a channel for dirt to escape. This relief also increases the surface area of the stake to spread the compressive load exerted onto the soil surrounding the stake tip.
In the next prototyping stage, we will test stake tips with relief and compare the difficulty of insertion and stability compared to our initial 78° taper stake tip with no relief.

Concept #4: Grip reinforcement for comfort

Rubber Grip incorporated onto handing zone for comfortable and stable use. This grip allows users of varying hand sizes to secure the stake with their non dominant hand, which reduces hand strain after repeated use. The rubber grip also dampens vibrations transmitted through the stake.
In the next prototyping stage, we will test the rubber grip and record qualitative user feedback.

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