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Writer's pictureElvin

Design #1: Coaster Challenge

Updated: Mar 4, 2020

Understand and Define

We liked how intricate the designs could get, and wanted to improve the spill catching ability of them

What we want in a coaster is something that will sufficiently hold your drink, catch spills, and look good.

We think a good size for a coaster is wide enough for a coffee mug, or about 4 inches in diameter

Traditionally, coasters are just one part, so they don’t technically need any more, but depending on the designer they may choose to include separate parts

Two Questions:

Who will use this product?

Ourselves

What will it do for them?

It will prevent our desk surfaces from being ruined and/or covered with nasty spillage.

Why do they need this product?

To protect our desks, and increase our self esteem

What problem will it solve?

Tables getting scuffed up and dented, and rings of water or whatever they’re drinking

How will this product be used?

By placing your beverage on it instead of on the table

Are there any constraints?

Printer size

available materials

time schedule

Technology available

What will make this product work for them?

Sturdy design that will be able to hold beverages without suffering complete structural failure

Design that will not let liquid flow onto the table

Actionable problem statement:

How might we design a coaster that will be sturdy enough to hold a beverage, catch liquid effectively, and look good.

Ideate

A 2 foot wide coaster to let the whole family join the fun

A coaster that has a grill for liquid to fall through, into a chamber in the center*****

One raised half a foot off the table by 5 small legs

Moat design*

A hexagonally shaped coaster to impress the children*

A coaster designed for cans that locks it in place**

A coaster with an amazingly intricate design engraved onto the top*

A dome with a small flat spot on top that can only be placed upon by a sober person (to discourage excessive drinking habits)

A roller coaster coaster

A coaster that violently expels your drink from it, as a prank

A coaster that tells you what your drinking, in case you don’t know

A coaster that alerts the bartender when your drink is empty

A coaster that mixes your milk and cocoa powder together

A coaster with a built in camera

A coaster that suction cups onto the bottom of your glass

A coaster that suction cups onto the table, so it won’t fall off

A coaster that autonomously follows you

A coaster at 45 degrees so it doesn’t work

A coaster that holds other coasters**

A coaster with a built in phone holder and a passive phone speaker amplifier**

We chose the coaster with the liquid catching chamber because, while it seems intricate enough to give us a challenge, it’s simple enough to complete in the timeframe and expand upon.

Prototype





We need to add a ring groove around the edge to ensure zero spillage and we need to add some graphics in the center to add interest. Shorten the inner ring in order to prevent the cup falling off. Grooves too deep






Test

How can we test our designs?

We can test them by placing mugs on them roughly to see if they hold up, and drop and step on them to simulate use by a child.

How does it feel?

3d printed:

Feels sturdy, doesn’t bend easily, has a good weight.

Laser cut:

Fragile, could snap it by sneezing to hard, very light, bits of charcoal come off in hands

Will it be easily damaged?

3d printed:

Drop test from 5 feet: completely fine, no damage

Placement of mug test: pass, no damage

Spill catch test: pass, didn’t leak a bit

Bend test: no bend

Laser cut:

Drop test from 5 feet: failed, snapped some bits off, almost unusable

Placement of mug test: pass: no damage

Spill catch test: fail, didn’t catch anything and probably got weaker form soaking up water.

Bend test: snapped even more, fail

Changes we decided on:

We will iterate the design.

We want to make the 3d printed version shorter , as it has an unnecessary amount of volume to catch spills with. We also want to make the letters shallower, as the little bits in the centers of the letters seemed pretty flimsy. Finally, for the laser cut version, we want to engrave the grooves and text instead of cutting them, to improve durability.

Make





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Feedback:

Most of the feedback of our final design was positive. Some people said it looked good, and others said it was sturdy. Overall, people thought it was a good design.

The rationale for our design was that if your drink drips on a normal coaster, it gets on the bottom of the cup and drips off onto the table, which is why we made grooves to catch the drips. The reason we shortened the second iteration was that we thought the first one didn’t need so much height to catch drips in, and we had to make the grooves shallower anyway. The easiest stage of the design process was the Understand and Define stage as it just needed you to understand what your product was going to do, and the restraints of your thinking. The other easy one was the Ideate stage, because it was just an exercise in idea generation. One of the harder stages was the Prototype stage, as it had a lot of steps and took the longest. Our product is a strong solution because it is practical to use, and builds upon the traditional idea of a coaster. We could further refine it by tweaking the shapes of the design to find an optimal weight to strength ratio. We think our ability to work as individuals is quite good, and is still improving. We think that our ability to work together is ok, but needs some improvement.

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