Throughout my degree cultivating my skills as an industrial designer, I've developed particular interest in designing product service systems. Exploring this integration throughout my final major project, Longevity, as well as my Sustainable Design project, Flux, has been exceptionally valuable.
After continuing on from stage 1, the main things I needed to focus on were horizontal adjustability and control interactions. To come to the final adjustable design, I prototyped the mechanisms that would allow both the base and the barbell to extend. My prototyping provided valuable insights into the interaction as well as the manufacture details.
The mechanisms use a rack and pinion design to allow for simultaneous extension of both arms when one is pulled.
By using simple lego and foam models, I was able to create three different types of adjustability unlocking mechanisms for my users to test. While I thought their favourite option would be the Lever Pin, they liked the push pin the most, the same applied for the base mechanism.
Specialising in service design, I mapped out the value for each stakeholder and how they fit into the system as a whole. This was very useful as understanding the needs of everyone who would interact with the service allowed me to make better design decisions.
View the full Longevity Service Design Maps Here: Longevity Service Design – IDMP – Miro
Given that my users wanted the device to be as light as possible while it needed to be able to withstand major pulling forces, I used Solidworks FEA simulations and topology optimisation to redesign the extension arms to be as light yet strong as possible.
Using the insights from my prototyping, user testing and CAD analysis, I developed a final design incorporating everything I learnt. You can view my final design in more detail, at my website linked below:
