After finding all of the materials I needed, and planning out what my design would look like, I began starting on my product. Below are the processes of me making my product, and some of the problems I encountered in the process.
- Change of material for box
In my first plan, I was supposed to use cardboard for the box, but then I realized that with cardboard, the box may be very fragile and it would also be hard to make further designs on the box to make it look better. I looked around the design center trying to find another material that would not be that easy to break and also easy to paint or add things on, and I found that the wood boards can fit my needs completely. Then, I continued working on my design with the wood boards I found, carved them into the shape and length I needed, and hot glued the pieces together.
2. Size/dimensions of product
After making the outside box of my product, I decided to move on to the design inside the box, which was making the spring so that the thing inside the box would be sprung out. However, I found that the box I first made was very large, and it would need a very long spring in order for it to be sprung out of the box. So then, I decided to remake my box and change its dimensions of it so that it would work better. Instead of making it 16 by 15, I changed it to 10.5 by 10.5 which works much better.
3. Lid/top design of box
In my original plan, the top of the box was supposed to be a piece of cardboard, with the middle carved out and leaving a border around it so that it would work as a lid that can be opened and closed but still stable. Nevertheless, since I changed the material into wood, the lid would not be able to be carved in the middle and able to open and close. Therefore, I would need to change the design of the lid. Instead of carving it out, I decided to just use a wood board as the lid that can be opened by the side, which turned out to work successfully.
4. Lack of resources for spring
In my plan, I needed a large spring that can allow the things inside the box to be sprung out, but the problem I had here was that there was not large springs available at the design center, which means I would need to change my plan and find something that would work just like a spring. I’ve thought of using A4 paper, and folding it into a spring, but there was not enough elasticity to it so it did not work out well. Then, I realized that using small springs could also work, just by stretching them longer, and attaching one spring on each side of what is being sprung, three in total. Finally, it turned out working successfully, just like how I expected it to work in my original plan.
Feedbacks:
- “I really like how your product can work successfully, and it is also fun to play with.”
- “I think you can improve your product by choosing another way to connect the top to the rest of the box, since it is a bit fragile.”
- “I think your product can be a great gift for friends, or even just to play a prank on them with it would be really fun.”
- “You can use something to make the lid of the box stay better without it flipping off by itself.”
- “More design on the box to make the appearance look better could be a great thing to improve.”