Rusty Supreme: Bike Design

Over the course of three weeks in my class Design and Engineering, we have been learning all about bikes and why they are important for people all over the world. We went to two bike shops, Working Bikes, and Earth Rider. There I discovered that in some countries bikes are a necessity and without them, people couldn't survive or make money. This term itself went pretty fast but I was able to obtain some knowledge. We found out that designing a bike is a difficult challenge. We first looked at examples of how to sketch ideas and then catered towards an audience for the bike. Random groups were chosen and we were given a person to design a bike based to fit them. The process was quite a struggle but we got through it. Here's a slideshow below with some further background info.

Persona: A 12-year-old boy from a small town rides his bike to and from school. His commute isn't that
far. The only problems he faces is riding down narrow streets and carrying his bike up and downstairs.
Since he lives in a populated tourist attraction he worries about people doing things to his bike.

Need: For the average rider to and from school. Lightweight but strong going to support rider on a rough surface.

Benefit: Easy access transporting, Less risk of vandalism, easy carrying up and down the stairs, Inward handlebars so he won't bump anybody.

Reason to believe: The process to design the bike took over a month and concluded many trial and error experiments. We did a lot of research and made adjustments based on personal fits

In conclusion, the Rusty Supreme design sparked off the idea that it already looked like a piece of scrap. The process that went into designing the bike was pretty challenging since I was paired with someone who had completely different views. Things that ultimately went well was our brainstorming of ideas and are concentration on what would work and what wouldn't. I feel this project was rushed and we needed a bit more time. From the project, I would take away that communication is important without it you are in trouble.

Impacting Designs For All!

In my Design and Engineering course, we have been learning how to be empathetic towards people with difficulties. Some examples include the elderly, people with disabilities and overall just making something even more effective. In our class, we were put to the task of being paired with a partner and challenged to pick a tool that we could possibly make better. We decided to choose a transfer shovel. It was simple but a cool tool too. Now we decided to make the shovel more comfortable towards people with back problems and also more natural at the same time. Brainstorming this design was pretty easy we just had to put ourselves in other people's shoes. Below is our design, enjoy!

 
Our research process for this project came from thinking outside the box mostly. We also did quite a bit of online research on elderly people and how gardening helps them feel better. It can be a coping mechanism to pass the time so we wanted to bring all those memories back by making a product that suits their needs. A setback that we faced was deciding on the size of the shovel itself. Since everyone is built a different way the tool may not be comfortable to someone really tall or short. So we added an extendable attachment to fit each individual consumer of our product.

Other shovels can't compare to the Transformer Shovel because we took multiple viewpoints and positions to make it. We considered people with disabilities, and also people who are getting to that older stage of life. Our product is safe and also very versatile, its blade can turn 360°. Our design provides extra grip comfort and wrist strap support. This stabilizes the use of the product and makes it even more effective. Our handle is contoured to the user's palm and fits almost perfectly. Also, our product is made out of the lightest and most durable wood, redwood.

The Transformer shovel has a simple machine of a lever. The shovel becomes a lever when you move out of the dirt. The resistance is the dirt on the head of the shovel, the end of the handle is the fulcrum, and the hand near the center is the effort. Also, the shovel is kinda making a seesaw motion as you go up and down.

Overall this project was used to make us think more broadly and engage more than one opinion when it comes to making and designing something. This wasn't a difficult task to complete but was challenging when trying to make something new off the top of our heads in little time. We eventually decided on a prototype and went with it, now I kind of want to make this revolutionary shovel.