What were some strengths? What needs refinement?
Some strengths of this design are that it meets the success criteria, shows energy transformation, and most importantly, people actually enjoyed it. This shows that this design has fully met its success criteria of working and achieving its purpose. However, I do believe that this design has a few areas for improvement such as the turning points for the marble track, and the funnel at the end. I think that the marble wheel at the top of the design was a success in functioning correctly, but I noticed that the marble would occasionally fall off the first turn point of the track, and land straight in the funnel. This shows that the turning area of the track needs to be larger, to prevent the marble from “escaping”. The funnel was intended to work as one of the highlights of the product, where the marble would roll inside the funnel and eventually “shoot out” from the end of the funnel. Yet, because of the angle of the bottle that has been used as the funnel, the marble would go straight inside the funnel, and not roll out at all. This was not a large problem for users as I observed that people would just take the marble out from the opening, however, if there would be more time for refinement, I believe this is an area that could be focused more on.
Refinements in the process:
While creating this product, feedback from my peers helped me to further think about my design choices. When I was struggling to keep the cardboard strips in the “U” shape, a peer thought of using a string or band to tie both ends toward each other. This better improved my product and influenced many more design choices later on. Having a conversation with other peers who were creating their own projects also was a great experience to share some ideas and feedback we had throughout working on the designs.
Peer feedback:
Peer 1: “I like your overall design and I think that the marble wheel part is really cool. However, I see that the first part of the marble track looks sturdy, and the other two look a bit flimsy, which may be the problem with the marble sometimes not being able to successfully roll down the track…”
Peer 2: “This is so cool! I think that there is nothing really to say, but I noticed that there is only one supporting “stick” under the track? Maybe adding another supporting material underneath would better stabilize your design?”
Peer 3: “Some feedback that I would give you is to change the funnel part since it can be another really amazing feature in your design”
Peer 4: “I really like the whole idea of having this marble run, and I don’t have much feedback. I just was wondering if you intended to add a use or purpose to the box that is supporting the marble wheel? What features would you add to that?”
Summary of improvements to make (see pictures attached under each improvement):
- Refine the ending two parts of the track, and change to a harder piece of cardboard
- Add another supporting point under the track
- Change the material of the funnel, and make more use of it
- Add a purpose to the box, maybe have the track overlap or be inside the box?
