Instructions:
This is it -- your final project assignment. Create a nice collection of information that describes the results of your project.
Task:
Your submission should include at least:
1. The name you will give your artifact. This could be a brand or product name if you are doing something in a commercial context, or could simply be what you will call this artifact. I would like you to use your skills in naming from the video modules this week to create this name.
2. One or more nice images of your prototype. (In most cases this will be a photograph, but in the case of websites or other non-physical artifacts, you may use other types of images.) Provide some annotation or explanation of the artifact if needed to understand how it works and its key features.
3. Some background on the gap you addressed and your problem definition (e.g., the key user needs).
4. A very short description of what the next steps would be to further refine and develop your artifact.
5. Any other information you feel might be interesting to your classmates, or relevant to evaluating your work.
Response:
This is it -- your final project assignment. Create a nice collection of information that describes the results of your project.
Task:
Your submission should include at least:
1. The name you will give your artifact. This could be a brand or product name if you are doing something in a commercial context, or could simply be what you will call this artifact. I would like you to use your skills in naming from the video modules this week to create this name.
2. One or more nice images of your prototype. (In most cases this will be a photograph, but in the case of websites or other non-physical artifacts, you may use other types of images.) Provide some annotation or explanation of the artifact if needed to understand how it works and its key features.
3. Some background on the gap you addressed and your problem definition (e.g., the key user needs).
4. A very short description of what the next steps would be to further refine and develop your artifact.
5. Any other information you feel might be interesting to your classmates, or relevant to evaluating your work.
Response:
This is the name I thought up for my artifact:
The GeeSee lamp
The name conveys the amazement at being able to see what you're doing, and is also a play on the word 'gas chromatograph', or GC, as it is commonly abbreviated in the industry.
Here's some pictures:
Here's some pictures:
The pain
A GC chromatograph oven is benchtop temperature-controlled environment for operating a gas chromatography column. The column is a 0.5 mm thick flexible glass tube. While it is relatively robust, it is still a thing that can break. It is from time to time necessary to change the column, and this operation needs steady hands and work in confined space.
Chromatographers are highly trained people, whose time is precious. But very often they feel frustrated when their time is wasted by having to struggle when they change a column.
This is the gap, from which I developed the problem statement "In what way might we design a temperature-controlled environment (oven) for a gas chromatograph better adapted to human operators?"
My problem statement was very wide, and I was able to generate concepts over a wide range of areas, but in the end improving the visibility inside the oven was the idea that best suited the scope of this course.
I was lucky to have had the serendipitous discovery of the existence of the flexible USB light, which greatly simplified the implementation, and will probably enhance market uptake.
Chromatographers are highly trained people, whose time is precious. But very often they feel frustrated when their time is wasted by having to struggle when they change a column.
This is the gap, from which I developed the problem statement "In what way might we design a temperature-controlled environment (oven) for a gas chromatograph better adapted to human operators?"
My problem statement was very wide, and I was able to generate concepts over a wide range of areas, but in the end improving the visibility inside the oven was the idea that best suited the scope of this course.
I was lucky to have had the serendipitous discovery of the existence of the flexible USB light, which greatly simplified the implementation, and will probably enhance market uptake.
Further development
There is much further work that can be done.
- The first design that should be done is the design of modifications to commercial gas chromatographs for installing USB ports.
- There is the option for software control, to change the colour of the light according to the heat/danger inside the oven.
- There should be some work done to find which kind of light beam would be most effective: do we need a focused beam, or more of a floodlight effect.