Industrial Design
Industrial Design
This was a hair dryer designed to be held by a person with limited hand/wrist/arm mobility. It was modeled to be fully ready to be manufactured by injection molding processes, with pre-existing internal hardware. Every facet of the assembly was meticulously designed in Solidworks.
The main goal of the project was to develop a product that could fully be manufactured, and in that, it is successful. The shell is Injection molded in three parts, with limited cams and fasteners to avoid complication. The internals are all preexisting hardware.
However, the design is left wanting. Too much time was allocated in ensuring that it could work, and not enough time was allocated to considering if it should. What was originally intended to be a hairdryer for those with limited mobility and dexterity, became a clunky, awkward product in terms of use. The user’s hand is intended to fit between the handle and the shell, which is neither obvious nor comfortable in practice. This was before I fully understood how to consider human factors and execute design research.