Community Furniture Design Project Final Post

Sketch

When I first came up with the idea for my design, it started out as a sketch in my sketchbook.the first thing that came from the sketch was a small model made out of cardboard, then I started to model it on Google SketchUp.

Sketch

SketchUp really helped make the chair to scale and get all the mortises and tennons to fit together and match up good. with the model done on the computer we used the laser cutter to cut out a small wood model.

Cardboard Model

We learned a few things from the model, I needed the model to be more ergonomic so it would be comfy, so I made the back at an angle so it wasn't straight up. we made another small model of the chair, but this time it was ergonomic.

Model in SketchUp

After we made the small models we made a full sized model of the chair, I learned that the chair had to be bigger with the full sized model. The final chair I made was bigger than the first full sized model and it was made out of good wood, so now it is in the energy centre for people to sit on and use.

First Model Side View

First Model Front View

There were some advantages to working with SketchUp, like getting everything lined up properly. It helped especially with the mortise and tennons. A habit that I picked up while using it was that I used the measure tape tool for everything.

Second Model Side View

Second Model Front View

The hardest thing about making the chair was probably the sanding, it took forever and it was hard work.

Full Sized model

When I finished the chair there was a huge feeling of accomplishment, it felt awesome that something started as an idea in my head and went to a full sized chair that someone can sit on.

Final Chair

My Full-sized Chair

I have finished making my chair in full size. I had to make a prototype first to get all the bugs out but now I have made my final chair. 

Prototype

My prototype was too small for a normal person, it would have been good for a child. My final chair is bigger and was made out of good wood not the lower grade wood the prototype was made out of.

My final chair

Documented Progress of My Chair

My design for my chair was that it kinda looked like a throne meeting a bridge. When I made my second model it had to more ergonomic because it was too straight on the back, so I had to give it more of an angle. I also gave it a half circle in the back so that it had a similar design to the side of the chair.

First Model Side View

I got some of my inspiration from my Pinterest design board. It helped me because it had so many different and unique things that I could see. Below is the URL to my Pinterest design board.

 http://pinterest.com/purplelitza/furniture-design-board/

Second Model Side View

 Google sketchup really helped me with making my model. I found the measure tape tool helped me the most by getting the lines straight and really helped me line up my mortises and tendons. If they were not lined up right the entire chair would not work at all, it would just be a bunch of cut wood.

First Model Front View

While creating my chair i had to make some reality checks to make sure that people would be comfortable and to make sure that the chair fit design standards. I had to make it more stable from side to side because it is really stable forwards and backwards, I also had to make the back on more of an angle so it would be more comfortable for people to sit on.

Second Model Front View

My Second Design in Sketchup

Final Wikiseat Blog Post

While making the wikiseat there were some successes and some struggles. Some struggles I encountered while making the wikiseat were getting started, I procrastinated more than I should have. I held off doing it until the last few days of building. Another struggle was trying to get the seat to be flat and level on the legs. My mom and I tried our hardest to do it but we did not succeed, but it still looks good and can hold me up. A success I had with the project was getting it done and having it be strong enough to hold me up, now I know it can hold my mom up.

My Wikiseat

If I could do anything differently I would start it earlier and not procrastinate. If I did that I could have out more work into it and made it look nicer. We could have took more time to make the seat sit evenly o the legs, added paint for a nice look and maybe even fabric and cushion on the seat. I think it looks bland and boring now but if I took more time to work on it I could have made it look more awesome than it already is.

Me Cutting Wood In My Front Yard

I learned about the design process in this project. I learned how to use the process and ask people about what they wanted in a seat. Other than that I already knew how to woodwork somewhat, so it just helped me get better at it.I am most proud about how the seat got finished and it doesn't look half bad for being made out of scrounged materials. Since i found all the materials in my basement I thought that it would look ugly and it looks like I was wrong. 

  

Just Finished Cutting Wood

My mom had seen the wikiseat, when she did she liked it she said it looked good for the materials that I used to make it. The materials I used were not very good looking. I had a feeling of completion when I finished the project and a good feeling because I made it for someone to help fix a problem that they had. When I just finished it I though "OMG I'm done it, now I can watch Netflix again" and I had a big relief because I did not have to work on it anymore. I liked the feeling of having it done, like any other type of work. I also was proud because it looked good and could actually hold a person up. Now my mom gets a seat to rest her old body in.

Me And My Finished Wikiseat

Cardboard Model

Cardboard Model of my chair  

Today we made cardboard models of what we want to make for the Energy Centre. I made a model of my chair based on the sketches I made.

Isometric View

Front View

Side View

Bottom of Model with logo

Flat Pack Furniture

The design standards for tables.
Dining tables should be 28" to 30" high, the chairs for the table should be 11" to 13" lower so there is enough room for people's legs. There should also be about 24" of legroom below the table with at least 12" of knee room. Bedside tables are usually not more than 6" above the height of the bed, coffee tables are usually 1/2 to 2/3 the length of the sofa and about the same height as the sofa.

End tables should be about the height or a few inches shorter than the armrest of the couch. Tables designed to conceal the backside of a couch that is not against a wall, also known as sofa tables should usually be 2/3 the length of the sofa and about the same height as the back of it.

What I want to make
 The project we are doing now is to make furniture for the Energy Centre that is attached to our school. The Energy Centre is a public place with lots of things to do so we want to make a place for people to relax in. I would like to make either a flat pack chair or table for this project.

Wikiseat Update

I currently have my legs and seat done, they do not look too good. All I need to do now is attach the seat to the legs. This weekend I will work on saturday and then on sunday I will have to finish the seat at home.

Weedoze SketchUp

Child having fun

I made a model of the weedoze on Google SketchUp. Three are  just of the weerol with the bulldozer attachment from different angles and the other picture is of a child having fun on it, inside his fancy house.

Isometric View

I think that young children starting at about 2 or 3 could use the weedoze safely and still have interest in it. I know that when my nephew was that age all he could talk about was backhoes, bulldozers, etc... so they should have interest in it.

Top View

The materials would be wood and plastic and metal. Something that goes with weerol but would be sturdy enough to actually work and move things. There would be a metal bar that goes through the middle from the extensions off the dozer blade so that it ca actually move up and down.

Side View

It would represent weerol image by having multi purposes, but I haven't figured that out yet. I am not sure what the other uses for weedoze would be, besides bulldozing things, like the other parts of the weerol can be used in multiple different ways.

Weerol Bulldozer Attachment Sketches

We were asked to make designs for attachments for the weerol. I came up with the idea of a bulldozer type front because little children like things like that.

Front View

Top View

Side View

Isometric View

Wikiseat Post-interview

We had to make our wikiseats to solve a problem, I decided to interview my mom. Her problem that I tried to solve was that she was fifty, so when we go to the gym she gets really sore for a while and is really tired afterwards, so I wanted to make her a chair that is comfy to sit on so she can rest.

I interviewed my mom while she drove me to work, I asked her the basic questions like, what would she want her chair to be like, and things like that. She said she wants it to be the size of a normal seat and for it to be comfy for her butt. She didn't want anything special with it, she wanted to be like a normal seat, but it would be a stool so it could be more portable than a chair. With it more portable she could move it around the house and let others use it if she is feeling nice. She wanted the colour of the seat green because that is her favourite colour. It wasn't the best interview but I now have the basic idea of what she wants.

Now what I need to do is get the materials for the seat then start construction. I will try to get scraps of wood and scrounge for other things to make this chair. If i cannot paint it the seat cushion will be green. Then I will need to find a space to build it, most likely downstairs because there is space for activities downstairs, and the tools are downstairs. I just hope I don't get any slivers. 

Weerollin Response/reflection Перепелица

On Wednesday, March 27 we had a Skype presentation by Derek Perkins, the inventor of the weerol. He talked to us about how he made the weerol and the design process he went through. he told us about his background. Derek said he got the idea of bending wood from Charles Eames.

Derek originally thought he was going to be an engineer but he said he wasn't good at math so he decided to go down the design path. He went to BFA Industrial design and, Rochester institute of technology 1994. His past work included consumer appliances, electronics, sports equipment and web design. When he explained this I started to think about what I wanted to do when I grow up, and what i might have to do when making my wikiseat. I also learned the importance of kickstarter to get my idea across to people and to see if it would actually work. When he made the toy he got lots of feedback from children that he let play with the weerol to see how much it could handle. the basic shape stayed the same, but the purpose changed from being just a seat and storage to a multipurpose child vehicle.

The process he described to us to make attachments for the weerol was:
1. Define the problem
2. Collect information
3. Bainstorm and analyze
4.Present Ideas to others
5.Designing Attachments Strategy

Weerol investigation 1

Derek Perkins made the weerol and started selling it on kickstart.com, he made it for his children at first. There are questions I would ask Derek Perkins about his weerol, and how he came up with it.

1. How did you come up with the design?
2. Did you get feedback from infants when you were designing the weerol?
3. How did you come up with the idea for the materials?
4. How did you make t so you can make many different things out of it?
5. How did you come up with the name?


I aslo have some ideas for attachments, like a saddle so its comfier, handle attachments (a handle like a wagon has, or handles like a wheelbarrow).

Wikiseats Investigation 1

The wikiseat project is where people make a seat using a catalyst, and the input of others to solve a problem with the seat. It was founded by Nicolas Weindinger, with the goal of people making a functional seat, while they are creating they are supposed to collaborate with their community so the students can be introduced into new ways of learning. The goal is to introduce students into new ways of learning and designing.

Mr. Wheelers english class used the wikiseat project. His class did it to solve problems with chairs. Mr.Wheeler used the project in his literature class to show his class how to solve problems using other peoples input.

Many students have done the wikiseat project. They made their seats to solve problems that people around them have. Emily made a seat for her mother to cheer her up because she was in rehab for her eating disorder, she made it and coloured it to try and make her mom happier. Tera Rossen made a seat so people have a nice quiet place to sit and a place to put things.

Ergonomics is being able to do work comfortably and safely without harm. A normal chair seat is 17"- 18" from the ground. A bar stool is about 36" off the ground. There should be about 6" - 7" between the seat and the table, so people can fit their legs. I should make the seat comfortable so people can sit without making their @$$ hurt.

I want the seat to be like my catalyst and i want the seat to be comfortable to sit on. I think i should make it so that people can sit with it tables. To make the seat there is a cycle I should have to follow. 

Catalyst Sketches

Sketch #1 is using the gesture technique

Sketch # 2 is using the pen down technique

Sketch # 3 is a 3D tonal sketch using a ruler

Wikiseat First Converstions

When Mr. Nichol first introduced the catalyst I said to myself "WTF is that?", but when he explained what it was and what it was about I thought it was pretty cool, I am excited to make something big like a stool and it actually has a purpose.
In the note I wrote for Mr. Nichol explaining who I might make the stool for i said i may make it for my Mom or my older brother. I said i might make it for my mom because she is getting old and cannot stand as long anymore. I also said i might make it for my brother because he has two kids and that that may help them to have an extra seat for like when they have company over or so they can sit when they play video games. I have not had any conversations with the people about the stool yet because I was working so I did not have time to.
The information i need now i guess is the design to make it, the materials, how comfortable it should be and how strong it should be.
I fund that people have done this project to help someone who has a problem, they created the stool to try and help overcome their problem.I also found out that not too many people have done the project before

Wallet Challenge Reflection

In the design process we had to do a few things.the first thing we had to do was ask questions about the persons wallet and we had to use the answers to have insights about what they wanted and/or needed. we then thought of three to five ideas, it didn't matter how crazy they were we wrote them down and drew sketches for each one. the final idea we came up with was a wallet he could colour on or print things on to (that is why it is white and has scribbles on it). Then we showed the person our ideas and they gave us feedback, with the feedback we made a final design. we the sketched the final design and made a model of it. after we made he model we showed the person it and got some more feedback. we wrote down the feedback, like there was any ideas, positives, negatives or any questions. then we shared our creation with the class and told them what the person wanted, why and what we made.

My final design wasn't far from the initial idea the ideas didn't really vary they all had the same purpose. The part of the project I got stuck on was the idea part I found it hard to come up with lots of ideas for the purpose of having a wallet show your personality, so the ideas didn't really vary too much. I never really got a "A HA!?" moment. Empathy contributed to y design because I also want my stuff to show my personality so i wanted to find ways to do that, like the stores where you can make your own hats, t-shirts, jackets, underwear, etc... Making the prototype helped me realize the space for the slots and pockets and that the size of the wallet actually mattered. My partner really liked the idea of printing or colouring things on it because then no two wallets would be alike, he also liked the prototype because he had enough space to put the things he needs into it but he never gave too much insight on it he just said he liked it. I could have better prototype making and questioning skills because then I would find the process easier. I don't think i would make a version 2.0 with any new physical features, only like interchangeable covers and the texture of the wallet.

The Gift Giving Experience

Empathy helped me understand my partner's issues because I also have a hate for crazy busy stores so I know how he felt, I know that some people like to just stay at home and shop so I used that in my solution.

The part of the process I got stuck on was  the question part because my partner would keep on giving me non-serious answers.

I think the design process is a long process but an interesting one. I think that next time i could do better on the prototype part so my prototype can look better and do better