Through brainstorming we developed as toy design that met all the requirements and constraints. Our design is a totally enclosed system, such that it has no free components that would pose choking hazards. It's outer surfaces have no creases or crevices that bacteria could be caught in and is easily sterilized. The toy functions as a maze where the balls travel throughout the obstacles which correspond to components of the water cycle. The user guides the ball through tilting the game and spinning the discs to maneuver the ball through each part of the water cycle to learn about it interactively. On the back of the toy their is art designed by a University of Colorado art student that describes the stages of the cycle corresponding to the toy, it also has a legend that describes what each disc represents.
Initial Pretotype: A pretotype is essentially a rough draft of your final design used to demonstrate how it will work. Our pretotype was made from scrap material we found for almost no cost, such as acrylic, scrap nails at the plinko style obstacles, thumbtacks as knobs, and plywood.
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Iteration #1: We built a more user friendly toy based on the positive feedback we received from our pretotype. This toy was designed to be used for hands on testing with children to receive end user feedback. The cover was made easy to remove via Velcro to test variations in disk design. Pros:
Iteration #2: Through the user feedback we received we made some significant changes to the overall design. We continued using Velcro to bond the cover to further test disc designs. Pros:
Iteration #3: This is our final prototype, we incorporated the changes discovered from the previous iteration. Pros:
Iteration #1 with Kodo: Our initial design with Kodo was to test the idea of making the entire body of polycarbonate. Pros:
Iteration #2 with Kodo: Based on the issues with our initial Kodo design we made further changes. This is our final product, it incorporates the feedback received from the engineers at Kodo, such as designing for manufacturability and improving aesthetics. Pros:
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