Rugged Design for Public Property
An eighth-grade sewing class can do an amazing amount of damage. One of my childhood summer jobs was repairing sewing machines at the local middle schools and high schools. I saw more broken plastic covers than I can remember. Gum was shoved in places that should only contain a
If You Can’t Solve It, Draw It Bigger
Don’t all kids love trig? I was always pretty good at math. The first math class that really got me excited was trigonometry. To me it seemed really useful. Ok, so that’s not normal – but there were plenty of times in my young life that I wanted to calculate
Lessons from the Battlefield Applied to Civilian Gear
“He didn’t like that the buttons were sticking.” “What specifically did he say?” “He said ‘It sucks’ and threw it on the ground and crushed it with his boot.” Special operators, especially Navy SEALs, will not sugar coat feedback. Lives are at stake so a brutally direct approach is normal.
The Glove Test for Product Design
‘Must work with gloves’ is a requirement that we often see in the design specification for rugged products. So what are some of the considerations when designing for gloved use? Temperature Products that may be used in extreme hot or cold temperatures are likely to be used with gloves. For
Don’t Skip Design Requirements
I loved visiting my uncle Bud in Rensselaer Indiana. He had a passion for computers from the very early days of the field. I learned a lot of programming from him. Uncle Bud never spoke down to us kids, he’d dispense his knowledge slowly as he drank cup after cup
The Power of a Concept Bill of Materials
It’s a common refrain from new clients: “we hired a design firm to do a previous project. They made a nice design but when we found out what it was going to cost to build we had to scrap it.” There are several techniques to keeping a new design’s costs