Turn a generic plastic gadget in to something a little more beautiful

Step 2 Design 2: Ideation & prototyping

When I come across a 'problem' like a bad alarm clock looking for a redesign, I start by browsing great resources like Instructables and visiting cool local designer or antique shops for inspiration.

After you have your 'lightbulb going off in your head' moment its time to get on with the project, but never forget that while creativity starts with an idea, ideas only take form once fleshed out on paper. The act of capturing ideas on paper is a visceral part of the creative process. Do not skip it! It helps refine and evolve your concept and only serves to improve the final design.

Sketching

With a rough idea in my head, it's then time to start getting a feel for what those concepts might look like in real life. I start with sketches of different ideas and then focus on one solution, adding more and more detail. It's a design principle called Breadth First Depth Second... capture lots of different concepts and then settle on a specific design. Don't jump straight into the first idea that comes to you.

Check out my instructable on how to mod a notebook in to an on-the-go idea capturing machine (ok, it's just a notebook with a pencil & sharpener built in .. but I swear by it!)

Eventually, this process elvolves; from pencil/paper to the computer. As you can see from the images I went from a couple of ideas on paper to Google's Sketchup

Prototyping the Alarm Clock in Sketchup

The in-video annotations should help guide you through the steps. Apologies that there is no sound, problem recording audio.

I do have to point out I'm the type that generally goes with the flow and avoids getting bogged down in the details at a start of a project. What might look cool on paper may turn out to be impractical in reality. Think of concept car designs versus what you actually see in the show room; things change and evolve due to practicalities. Just use your intuition and rule of thumb for now. You won't see any measurements or dimensions for a few steps.. just a general adherence to principles such as the Golden Ratio.

Of course, this method of 'making' is a process of jumping in head first without every detail accounted for. Do mistakes happen? Yes! however you can never get every design right first time and only by making mistakes will you get a feel for the boundaries of what works.

References;

Tips on prototyping
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_pfv.htm
This article talks about prototyping games but contains a wealth of information on how to inspire creative ideas in a product development environment.

Piclens/Cooliris
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579
Allows you to browse lots of images quickly, try it with the images results from a google search

Tutorial on using sketchup;
http://sketchup.google.com/training/videos.html

Some instructables that use sketchup to plan in advance
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-garage-from-the-ground-up/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Soul-Cycle-Chopper/#step7
http://www.instructables.com/id/BFX-Build-Plan-Dolly/#step0
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Doggy-Retreat/

3d Mouse
The Logitech 3DConnexion