Universal Design Movie
What is "Universal Design"?
Universal design is the method of making adaptations to objects to make them easily useful to everyone, including people with mental or physical disabilities. Handles and ramps leading to buildings instead of stairs, light switches that are easily pressed buttons replacing switches, and levers on doors over doorknobs are all examples of Universal Design already in action in everyday life.
The Problem
My task is to improve something to make it easier for everyone to use or to create something entirely new to make our lives easier.
The Solution
For my project I decided on a machine that would transport your garbage to the curb automatically. My design was to have a platform that would carry the trashcan be connected to a rail that would guide it along a driveway to the road. The rail would exit a garage (via the garage door or a side one) and go along side the exterior wall next to the driveway to the side of the road. Through my researching I had discovered simple railway systems for transporting items in industries, but none that applied to the average person, so I decided to take this method and make it useful in everyday society.
My three prototypes where each different designs for the rail that the trash carrier would follow. My first idea was for it to go through the front of the garage and would pull up like a drawbridge when the garage door was to close. I decided against this idea because it would be hard to get the mechanics of it to work and it would not look aesthetically pleasing when not being used. My second idea was for the rail to go out the side of the garage (through a door or a created hole) and then proceed to go down the driveway, but I also decided against this idea because if the owner of the house did not have a side door to the garage in the necessary place, the cost of making a large hole in the wall would be enormous. My third and final idea was to once again have the rail go through the front of the garage, but when the garage door would close, the railway that would be in its way would retract into the ground. This method seemed the most efficient because it did not require large changes to the costumer's house and was the least technical. Through my troubleshooting, I produced the design that was the most effect at producing a market-ready product.
I developed the idea further by created a holder for the trashcan, rather than a platform, that would hold onto the trashcan more securely and upon experimenting with my final product I discovered that it worked very well.
Wireframe
Reflection & Feedback
I got feedback on my project and I was told that it would be expensive and was unrealistic, but was still a decent idea and adhered to the ideas of Universal Design.
| trashcanhousehoorah2.3dm |
| trashcan.wmv |
| trashcanwireframe.avi |
