I'm Tilling You, this Tool is Great!

In my first unit for my STEAM course Design & Engineering, we started off the year with going to the garden, picking up trash, and planting some flowers. After we completed that task we talked about what it means to use tools and the different things that we are capable of when using them. We went on and discussed how we can calculate the area, volume, and surface area of the garden we were working on. By doing this we also learned about vectors, Pythagorean theorem, and SOHCAHTOA and implemented these concepts in our work. Now, going into what we learned about tools, we discussed what simple tools are and how they make up different day to day objects and what it means exactly to be a designer and engineer. Throughout this process, we compared and contrasted different tools, pointing out how some parts of the tools contain simple machines inside of them. We paid close attention to this because we thought back to the tools we used to use and the common tools we see today. Some examples of simple tools: a wedge, lever, screw, and inclined plane. Then, we transitioned our focus to "empathy" and what that has to do with what we were learning. Empathy plays a big part in what we are learning because when designing a tool we need to think of our targeted audience/user or a universal user to understand their needs in a tool. While doing this we had the chance to interview a gardener to listen and ask them questions about what gardening means to them and what they think of different tools and techniques/methods they use when gardening. Since we were taking a deeper dive into gardening tools we went to Home Depot for a Field Experience to look at the different types of tools and their purpose. We spoke to an employee at Home Depot and he explained the detailing of each tool and what each part is made for. For this Action Project, we had to design a tool for a senior citizen with a partner and focus on what we learned as a class and think about empathy throughout the process.

Purpose?
This unit was about “empathy” and how we are able to use and innovate tools. We learned that there are a lot of different struggles that people go through that not many designers don't even consider. Unfortunately, not many people struggle with having to find "workarounds" since there are no tools that aren't made for their specific needs. We were asked to innovate a gardening tool to suit a senior citizen who will be our user. Many senior citizens have a lot of physical issues which makes it difficult to do common things everyday things. With this task, empathy is key as it's the understanding of another person's concerns or struggles.

Innovative and Efficient?

We wanted to add features to our tool to make it be as comfortable and easy as possible, so we decided to add a wristband. This feature is innovative because it helps the user have a better grip/hold and ensures that they can’t drop the tool, and if they do the tool will stick to your wrist. When having a wristband it will be easier for you and your back or knees. If you have any back or knee problems you won’t have to worry about dropping the tools and having to bend over to pick it up. We also wanted to include a foam grip, the makes sure that the consumer has a comfortable experience with our arm rake when using a tool. When conducting our research we noticed that when using a tool it can get super uncomfortable and tiring, so we made sure to guarantee full comfort so that senior citizens can use our tool consistently. Another feature we wanted to add was an extendable handle, we included this feature because we wanted to make this tool comfortable for your preference and make it universal as well. Additionally, the last feature we included were curved prongs. Instead of having regular prongs on our tool we decided to make them curve at the tips. We did this so that the rake can scoop and move the soil easily. This also means that the person using it doesn't have to apply as much pressure to the tool and it won’t cause any hand or wrist problems.

Why our tool is the best?

- We have an extendable handle that will fit the consumer easily. It can be used as a hand, arm, or regular-sized rake.
- We have a foam grip that guarantees full comfort and consistent use.
- We have curved prongs that are made out of iron make your experience faster, easier, and more enjoyable. When doing our research we didn’t encounter any other rakes that contain curved tips.

Simple Machine?

In our tool, we included a simple machine called a screw. We provided this as a way to extend and adjust the tool. You use the screw by having the user twist it to make the rake shorter or longer, and fit to their preference.

How Was Our Process?

When discussing with my partner the vision for our tool we really wanted to make Arm Rake as comfortable and convenient as possible. From personal experience and background knowledge, gardening is not an easy or simple job. If our targeted audience is senior citizens we needed to make sure we had a great plan to ensure that our Arm Rake will be of quality. At first, we decided that we wanted to make the arm rake extendable. We decided to do this so that the tool is able to be universal, and not so limited as other tools. Then we moved on to comfort. When we were at Home Depot we had a chance to check out a Hand Rake, which is what we based our tool off of. It was specifically, a Rubber Hand Rake and made to be a comfortable tool, but my partner and I didn't agree that it was comfortable enough at all, so by confirming that it would be comfortable, we chose to use foam as the handle grip. Whenever I think of senior citizens, I know that it's tough to move a lot and add pressure, so we added a wristband and curved prongs along with the tool for complete support and easy use. Finally, we created a rough sketch with measurements of our tool, and that's when it came to life.

In conclusion, this was a very exciting and thoughtful Action Project. At the beginning of the year, I was eager to take this class because of how much creativity and thought we have to put into our assignments, and through this Action Project, I think it demonstrates that pretty well. When conducting this Action Project we really had to be careful of how we were designing our tools, which is something that we got to experience as designers. Something that I really enjoyed this Action Project is implementing empathy. At the beginning of Design & Engineering, we were learning how to become successful designers and engineers, but also the ones that are empathetic to others' needs and creating things with a purpose. Overall, I believe this was a successful first Action Project of the course, and I am very excited to see what other interesting things we will be conducting and achieving this year.