Bloxes

Bloxes are building blocks meant for adults, and were designed with adults in mind. Their large size makes them great for building life-size structures. They are incredibly versatile, and can even be used to build arches and other free-standing structures. Many different tech companies (Google, Mozilla, twitter) keep bloxes on hand for employees to play with as a creative outlet.

Cami Secret

As much as I do not believe that this video needs no further justification, this product seems to encompass all of the hallmarks of a bad design. First and foremost, it solves a problem that does not need to be solved: camisoles are not nearly as troublesome as this video suggests. It also solves the "problem" inefficiently and inelegantly.

Apartment Dishwasher

I despise the dishwasher in my apartment. It's racks are the most irritating that I have ever seen, severely limiting both the number and type of dishes that it can be used to clean.

Exhibit 1: The Top Rack

Bowls go in the middle, facing each other like soliders at war and wasting room that could be used to fit two additional bowls. I know that it was done so that it would be easier for the dishwasher to clean the bowls, but I have never seen another dishwasher with this set-up, and they all worked well enough. The racks for the cups are also unnecessarily wasteful. Eight bowls and 12 cups is the entire capacity of the upper rack.

Exhibit 2: The Bottom Rack

An enormous hub in the middle of the bottom rack means that only small plates can be placed in the center rows in both front and back as regular plates don't fit. Also, the silverware holder is part of the bottom rack, while the empty space on the inside of the door is wasted.

Dishwashers are one of the most energy- and water-intensive appliances in the house. THey should be loaded efficiently and run only when necessary, but the poor design of this diswasher forces us to run it at least one extra time per week.

Thermos Intak Water Bottle

After quite literally years of trying to find a well designed water bottle, I finally was introduced to the Thermos Intak. I hate buying bottled water and like to have a drink with me in class, so I tried at least six different water bottles from freshman to junior year. All of them were terrible- they leaked water everywhere. The worst offender was the Rubbermaid Chug bottle, which once popped open in my backpack and drowned my TI-89. Either the mechanism holding the bottle shut was too weak, or the seal between the bottle and the cap was inadequate in every water bottle I tried. The Intak does not suffer from either of those problems.

A rubber gasket insures that the fit between the bottle and the lid is tight. A rubber stopper ensures that no water can leak from the mouthpiece, and the clear plastic lid is solidly held down by two different mechanisms to ensure that it doesn't open by accident. I can throw this bottle in my backpack with my laptop and papers without worrying about leaks.

It is also high capacity while maintaining a reasonable size, as well as easy to grip.

Microsoft Zune Device Interface

The video above demonstrates everything that I love about the Zune firmware.

The first thing that I love is the "twist" interface. It eliminates the need for excessive menu drill-down. For instance, to switch from an artists menu to a genre or album menu, it is necessary to go "back" and select the desired sort method. On the Zune, you just swipe across the screen. The metaphor expands from "backwards and forwards" to "up, down, left, right," presenting new possibilities for how options and information can be displayed.

The very best part of the Zune interface though, is the use of text. For instance, at 0:14 in the video above, faint text can be seen underneath the album artwork and song title. This is a list of upcoming songs. Tapping this list causes it to display full-screen, where a song can be selected. The text above the album artwork is interactive as well. Tapping the artist name brings up that artists profile: albums in your collection by that artist, a list of albums available for purchase, pictures, a biography, even a list of similar artists, all in a "twist" menu.

The home screen has two faces, a typical list of media categories (music, movies, podcasts, apps) and the quickplay menu (now playing, recently played, recently added, and "pins" or any items that are frequently used).

MAE 377 Chimney Cover

The project that I was assigned in MAE 377 was a chimney cover that would keep warn air inside of the house, keep rain outside of the house, and could be easily opened of closed. The first step of the design process was to figure out a non-powered way to hold the chimney cover open. My eventual solution used tension and gears to move the chimney cover into the open position and to hold it there. My next steps involved a great deal of sketching. I made rough sketches of how the overall device would work in order to figure out what components would be necessary, and then sketches of each component. Finally, once I had a general idea of components and their dimensions, I began drafting the project in PRO/E, which was a very helpful way to verify that all of my dimensions had been calculated properly.

Entire Project

Doctor Who Freezer Paper Template

Freezer paper can be used as a low-tech screen-printing method. Basically one-sided wax paper, freezer paper can be ironed to fabric (without damaging the iron) and then later peeled off, cleanly and easily. It makes a great quick, low cost stencil.

This is the stencil that I created for a Doctor Who-themed t-shirt. With separate photos of the Doctor, the TARDIS, and K-9 from the internet, I used Photoshop to strip each image down to a silhouette, then combined them and washed-out any areas of overlap. Once this image was printed, I traced the outlines onto the semi-transparent freezer paper and cut out areas that I wanted painted with an Xacto knife. The freezer paper was then ironed onto a t-shirt and painted over. Once the paint was dry, the paper was peeled off, revealing the design below: