Day 01:

Day one in the Design area mostly consisted of me planning and asking for feedback on my plan instead of the actual creation of the designs as I had not been able to get my hands on hold of the mini-water bottles I needed to actually construct my raft. However, I did manage to play around with learning how to (somehow) more easily attach the balloon without creating a noticeable leak. It took a bit of trial-and-error and another YouTube video to figure out the best way to tape the balloon onto the straw without really struggling or a huge air leak.

 

Day 02 and 03:

With the dimensions and the issues with the balloon sorted out, I could properly work on my first product. The assembly was rather simple: attaching the bottles to the cardboard and cutting a hole through the cardboard to attach the balloon and straw. However, as seen through the picture, I noticed that the cardboard I had used was not able to stay straight and bent while I was taping the water bottles and cardboard together. This made me re-think the material I was going to use for the base, and through feedback from the teachers, using cardboard was a viable option as long as it was thin enough to still keep the boat afloat in the water.

Another issue I experienced when using the product was how tough it was the blow the balloon up. At the time, I did not properly blow up the balloon before attaching it, making it much harder to stretch the balloon prior to the formation of the final product. For my final product, I would make sure to properly stretch the balloon beforehand.

 

Day 04 and 05:

 

The final two days were the days where I took feedback and my own thoughts and “fixed” anything that I disliked or thought could be improved from my first result. As stated above, as cardboard didn’t seem to quite work the way I wanted it to, I decided to use a thin sheet of wood instead. Due to the change in material, I had to learn how to use a “scroll saw” (at least that’s what it’s called on the internet) and a drill to both cuts the wood into the required dimensions and drill a hole in order for the straw to go through. It was certainly tougher than simply using a blade and poking a hole, but it was an eye-opening experience into using some of the machines in the design lab that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten a chance to use.

Another thing I ditched completely was the use of tape as an adhesive between the bottles and the wood. With the change to wood and the hot glue, I found using tape unnecessary, fiddly and just not pleasant to work with in terms of my product. Simple changes such as the stated balloon issue and the tape issue were also fixed to the best of my abilities.

I had found a stronger and more flexible tape that worked better when attaching the balloon to the straw. It was much easier to use than painter’s tape but also easier to use than tape like duct tape. However, it did not make it leak-proof and I found that it still was leaking air somewhere. A solution could have been to double-tape it sealed to further secure any leakage that could be possible. In addition, I received feedback about the number of bottles I had used: Adding a 3rd bottle would definitely make the raft more secure as in the video, the boat did feel slightly unbalanced. However, I did not fully reflect on this as one, it would have required me to re-think my design from the dimensions, and two, I was unsure of how to fully utilize the balloon as a third bottle would put the straw off-centre.