The Covid Station

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a very important design strategy that can be used to make any type of product. Design thinking consists of these steps: Emphasize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. What the design thinking formula does is that it makes designing products and things easier for the average person. The design thinking strategy helps designers get feedback so they can make a product that people will enjoy.

Why is design thinking important when designing?

Design thinking is extremely important to follow when you are designing something because it makes you realize what other people think about your design and lets to have feedback so you can change your design any time, making it easier to make a successful product.

Describe your design.

Because of covid, we have been introduced to products like masks and mask accessories. Taking all of this in mind, I decided to make a mask station and some mask accessories for these difficult times. My mask station consists of a plastic container with a five-inch by 1 1/2 inch space at the very bottom of the container. In this container, we will be putting all the masks and we will be able to take the masks out by thee 5 by 1 1/2 inch space at the bottom. Besides the plastic container, we also have 2 aluminium sprite cans without the top so we could easily put our accessories in. Finally, I also made accessories for masks. the mask accessories is a piece of plastic with slits on the sides in order to put the mask strings in the slits. When you put your mask on, you put the strings on the accessory so you don't have to hang your mask on your ears and instead use the plastic to sustain your mask.

Supplies

List the supplies/materials to your project and upload a photo of all your materials.

Materials:

1-liter coke bottle, A 7 by 5-inch plastic container, sprite cans, cardboard tray.

Tools:

Scissors, Pocket or Exacto knife, Gorilla Glue, can opener

Step 1: Discovery and Interpretation

What is empathy and how does it fit with design thinking?

Empathy plays a big role in design thinking because its to put yourself in other's shoes to see the product from another person's perspective of how they want the product/ design. This step helps you realize what other people might want.

Who is your user?

Right now the mostly the whole world is under lockdown or restrictions and the whole world has been introduced to wearing masks daily. I believe that my user should be every one that owns masks and is taking precautions for the Corona Virus. The specific age group who will be buying this product is people around 20 and up years because they are the age group who are most likely buying masks and cleaning supplies.

What is the interpretation phase?

The interpretation phase is a phase where you go deeper into the information of your product/ design and you ask others what their drivers and constraints are for your design.

What were the drivers and constraints that came from the interview?

Drivers:

-Easy to use

-Fun

-Affordable

Constaints:

-Durable

-Not expensive

-Uses plastic

Reflexion: With my finished product, I think that I achieved all the user's needs and overcame all of the constraints. In my design, I used affordable materials like plastic, aluminum and cardboard, I made it a fun experience and easy to use. In other words, it is easy to use because it is very easy to organize your accessories and masks while also making it easy to take your masks and accessories out of the Covid station

Step 2: Ideation

What is ideation?

The Ideation phase is a phase where you draw what you want your designs to look like and have at least 10 sketches of possible ideas for your design/ idea. This is a very important step in design thinking because it lets you briefly visualize how your product is going to turn out. This phase helped me a lot because it helped me find several different designs I could make my station and it helped me choose how I was going to make the covid station

In the sketches that you see above, you will see that I did not sketch any type of covid stations because at the being of planning this project I was aiming to make a machine or product out of plastic. Later on, I couldn't decide what to create and suddenly I got the idea to make a mask station.

Step 3: Prototype

Describe the steps in detail of making your design.

1.The first thing that I created was the soda can without a top. The only thing that I needed to do to create the topless soda can grab a can opener, place it at the rim of the soda can, squeeze it, and roll the handle.

2. The second thing that I created was a mask accessory to stop ear fatigue when putting masks on. What I did for this was to grab a 1-liter plastic coke bottle and start labeling 1 by 5-inch spaces all around the center of the coke bottle.

3.Once you labeled, you have to grab your Exacto knife and cut along the spaces that you marked on the bottle.

4.After you have about 10 plastic rectangles, you have to label the slits that the mask strings are going to go through. (The slits are preferably supposed to be tilted shaping an arrow towards your ear as seen in the pictures)

5. Finally you have to round the corners at the top so the accessory is not spiky and uncomfortable.

6.The final thing that you have to cut out is the plastic container. First, you are going to have to mark a 5 by 1-inch rectangle along the very bottom of the container.

7. Next you will have to grab your Exacto knife and scissors to be able to cut out the marked space at the bottom of the container.

8. Once you cut out the bottom of the container, make sure that the plastic is not sharp. If the plastic is sharp, just be sure to cut the sharp parts out with your Exacto knife or scissors. Once you finish cutting and making sure that the cut out is safe, you will be finished cutting and will only need to put everything together.

9. When putting everything together you will need a plastic or a cardboard tray in order to glue the sprite cans and plastic containers on. When you go grab a cardboard tray or sheet, be sure to also grab any type of resistant glue like gorilla glue.

10. Next you will glue everything onto the cardboard tray. When gluing everything together, be sure to only glue the bottom side of the container and sprite cans to the cardboard.

11. Once you are done with gluing everything you are finished!!! Just put the plastic accessory or any accessories you want in the sprite cans and put all your masks inside the plastic container.

12. Stay Safe

Step 4: How-to Video

If you want to see how I exactly made this project, be sure to check out the How-To video that I made. Just click on the video preview to watch!!

Thank you

Stay Safe