My Pecha Kucha

Over the past few classes I have brainstormed and designed my 3 different ideas on fusion 360 to solve traveling in the rain on crutches. Although it was very difficult, after a lot of trial and error I started to get the hang of the program. My first design was a leg crutch. This was very challenging to make, however I was able to finish it up cleanly. There was nothing wrong with this design, but I realized that it would be very uncomfortable so I decided against it. Because of the outcome of my first product I tried to make my second product comfortable and made the umbrella hat. The umbrella hat is pretty self explanatory, but one thing that differs my design from others is the plastic hanging all the way down to cover your body. Although this umbrella hat is in no way uncomfortable, the plastic can become a safety hazard and it is not aesthetically pleasing. The last product I designed had to be comfortable, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. My last and final product is the umbrella attacher. This is a product designed to attach the umbrella to your crutches and it covers all the other characteristics that my 2 other products did not have. My idea for this design was good, but after presenting my pecha kucha to the class, I got some pretty honest feedback, and found that there are a few changes I should make to better this product.

Because of this presentation, I was able to get better insight in improving my product, and I am glad that we did this.


this is my pecha kucha

Fusion 360 Trial

Today I learned many new skills in using Fusion 360. These basic skills will be very useful for me when we start to get into the project. I learned how to use the timeline, make more organic shapes and try different views. These will be helpful for me when I make the prototype of my product because the timeline will help me edit shapes. This is important to know because crutches are very organic and unique shapes so in order to get my design well, I have to know how to work with the shapes that I am given and form it to what I want it to look like.

Immersion 9/22

In the past 2 weeks, I have accomplished many things in the Immersion part of this project. Firstly, I decided to change the problem I was trying to solve. My original problem was people on crutches not being able to use water fountains, however after my interview, I found out that traveling in the rain while on crutches was an even bigger problem than my original. I thought that this was a problem that is worth trying to solve because according to my interviewee that was the hardest problem he had faced in the 3 months that he was on crutches.
After choosing the problem I was solving, I started to research about existing products that already help people solve this. There were many solutions to the crutches slipping in the rain, such as water tips, but I soon came to realize that there were not as many solutions for holding an umbrella in the rain. Because of the lack of solutions out there for this problem, I decided to tackle it. I found that there were three ways that people solved this problem. They either had someone carry the umbrella for them, used an umbrella hat, or used a tool called the over the shoulder umbrella holder.
I started to brainstorm for other ways I can solve this problem, and I came up with my own solution. I decided to create an invention that allows you to stick the umbrella in your crutches so that it stays above you at all times. I did my design brief, explaining my idea, and then I did my design specification. The design spec was pretty helpful because I noticed one weakness that my product could have. It may be hard for the person to stay under the umbrella when using their crutches. I am still thinking of new ways to get past this weakness, but from where I am now this idea sounds pretty good.

My NEW Project Topic

In the beginning of the immersion part of this project, I had decided on trying to create a tool that would help people on crutches drink from water fountains. However after the interview, I learned that drinking from water fountains wasn't as big of a problem as I thought it was. I learned that getting places in the rain on crutches, specifically using an umbrella was the most challenging task for my interviewee.
This is why I changed the problem I would like to solve to helping people on crutches get places in the rain.

Interview Questions

For the project, I will be conducting an interview on someone with experience being on crutches and these are the guiding questions I will be following.

Guiding questions:

What was your experience with crutches?

What types of problems did you face while you were on crutches?

How did you solve the problems you were facing while on crutches?

How was being on crutches different from the way you live normally?

What was different/the same about how you thought crutches was going to be like and what it actually was like?

______________________________________

To get even more thorough information, I will be using follow up questions to get specific details. These are a few examples of ones I might use.

Follow up questions:
-how long were you on crutches
-how did you get on crutches
-why do you think you had this problem
-were there any problems that you weren't able to solve
-why did you choose to solve this problem in that specific way
-do you think other people on crutches face similar problems

The Problem That I Will be Solving

The problem that I will be pursuing is that it is very inconvenient for people on crutches to get water from the water fountains.

Immersion Opportunities

Today, in Dfab, we got to experience what doing everyday activities would be like with a physical disability. I chose to stimulate a broken leg by using crutches. I did a series of activities using the crutches, two of which I got photos of.

When I first put on the crutches, I found it pretty uncomfortable to walk, and I was very tempted to put my one leg down and walk normally as I always do. After walking for a while, I felt a lot of pain and pressure in my armpits and my wrists which held all my weight. It was very difficult to control how fast I was traveling in my crutches, because my crutches went forward twice as fast as my body was traveling.


The first everyday activity that I tried was getting some water at the water fountain. It was weird not being able to bend down and get it easily like I always do and it helped me realize what I took for granted. I was so much higher than where the water was coming out, so it was very difficult for me to adjust to the height of the fountain. Also, whenever I bent down, my hair would get in the way and it would take even more time to fix my hair to get out of my face.

The next everyday activity I did was walking up and down the stairs. Walking down the stairs, though easier than walking up was really difficult. I always felt like I was going to fall and I had to go slower than usual which made me frustrated.

Overall, this experience opened my eyes to the struggles that disabled people go through in everyday tasks.