Laser Cut Prototype — HCDE 451

I designed and created a 2½D prototype for a cell phone stand for shooting a video of an object below it. Based on my devices, I also attempted to make the stand expandable to fit my iPad. The following were the goals for my design:

• Able to fit both my iPhone and iPad, so that I could film both paper phone prototypes using my phone and digital prototypes on my iPhone using my iPad.
• Minimal visibility of stand parts while taking video.
• Cut from a single sheet of 18" x 24" chipboard.
• Must not use any glue, tape, or other fastening materials to assemble and use.
• Able to be dissembled into pieces that can be stored flat and transported (as in a backpack).

Ideation

I began my ideation process by listing the design requirements from the assignment (also seen in the final three goals for my design), as well as the rest of the goals I had for my design.

Inspirations

In the interest of exploring creation with a laser cutter, I took little inspiration from creations online or tutorials involving laser cutting. Instead, I investigated and was inspired by paper works, boxes, IKEA shelving, 2D/3D puzzles, and toys that have multiple parts.

Sketching

Based on my inspirations and design goals, I first began sketching an overall shape for my stand. When I was satisfied with the overall look, I did basic sketches of the three different parts, the phone frame, the legs, and the connectors/walls, using the dimensions of the phone and iPad. This required some math as my iPhone is not exactly half the size of my iPad in either dimension. I then did detailed sketches of the individual pieces.

First Page of Sketches

Second Page of Sketches

Third page of Sketches

After the sketches, I drew them up in Adobe Illustrator so they would fit in an 18x24 artboard.

Adobe Illustrator Art Board

Device

The phone stand is comprised of 4 frame pieces (2 types), 8 leg pieces (2 types), 4 connectors (2 types), and 8 walls (3 types). Each leg requires two different leg pieces. When in iPhone mode, the stand uses 2 frame pieces, 4 leg pieces, 2 connectors, and 4 walls. In iPad mode, the stand uses all pieces.

Prototypes

Early on, I did a very basic prototype using a piece of paper to see the distance needed to keep the legs out of view of the camera. When first interacting with the laser cutter, I did a laser-cut test where I made the pieces smaller and printed a few of each piece to ensure that things fit together.

Laser Cut Test

My final prototype was cut out of an 18x24 piece of chipboard.

The prototype set up in iPad mode

Notable Design Decisions

The following are a few notable design decisions and their rationale.

• Combining the Pieces Used for iPad and iPhone Mode — Keeping in mind the constraint of an 18x24 piece of chipboard, I wanted to make the frame be expandable instead of replaceable. Including two sets of frames would have required 1.5x the amount of wood the final frame design used, which I did not have space for. Making this happen required the frame pieces to have bent ends to compensate for the scaling of the devices.
• Offset Leg Inserts — I offset the leg inserts to make the legs appear out of the video frame.

Offset leg insert in the top left corner of the frame

• Walls — I decided to include walls to keep the device from being knocked off the stand.
• Base and Top Connector Pieces Shaped like Hats — The hat shape allows for there to be a hole for a device charger once the pieces are connected. Video capture is battery-intensive and requires frequent charging

Difficulties

I experienced difficulties when printing out my design and assembling it as a result of both my lack of experience with laser cutting, inconsistencies in wood thickness, and design flaws.

• I struggled with creating pieces that would insert together snuggly, and thus my pieces fit together too loosely and are unstable as I made the holes too big.
• I made some pieces fit too snuggly, so some of the walls did not end up fitting.
• It is difficult to assemble the device for the iPad configuration as the pieces don’t fit snuggly and stay together, so there is a lot of balance involved.
• I had difficulties with Adobe Illustrator, especially with printing in the correct orientation.

Testing

Methods

I conducted usability testing when testing my prototype with users. Knowing some difficulties from my experience putting the device together and from feedback in my critique (noted later), I conducted the testing using the following steps:

1. I told the user we would be doing a study on a phone stand that records from above, and that there were no wrong answers to the questions I was going to ask them.
2. I gave users the pieces to a component of the stand (legs, iPhone and iPad frame, and connectors/walls), and asked them a few questions: What part of the stand did they think the pieces were a part of? How would they assemble the pieces? (for legs and frame)
3. I then assembled the stand in iPhone and iPad mode and for each, I asked a few questions: Do the pieces fit together as you expected? If not, what doesn’t match expectations? What is the purpose of (an aspect of the stand, like the camera hole, the charging hole, etc)
4. I then asked for general feedback.

Analysis

Some feedback I received from critique and user testing were things that I had expected from my experiences building my device, but there were also a lot of new insights.

Expected Feedback

This feedback came from critique and influenced my user testing. It was also mentioned by my user during testing.

• Too Many Pieces — There are a lot of pieces involved in creating the device. This makes it confusing to assemble.
• Loose — The pieces are very loose, adding to the difficulty of assembly.

New Insights

• Sturdy — To some during my critique and to my user tester, the stand looks like it could support a device despite it being wobbly and loose.
• Small Pieces Overwhelming — My user tester noted that what they found overwhelming and confusing were all the little pieces (connectors, walls) and that the larger pieces made a lot more sense.
• Different Connecting Methods Confusing — The difference in how the frame pieces fit together made it harder to put it together.
• Too Many Types of Pieces — It’s very difficult to tell which pieces go where because there are so many different types.
• The Legs are Easy to Assemble
• Interest in iPad Expansion — There was a lot of interest in an iPad stand
• The Leg is Visible in Camera — Despite my efforts to keep the leg out of the camera view, the leg remained visible.

Redevelopment

Should I have the opportunity to create this stand again, I would adjust aspects of the stand design and adjust the process of laser cutting

Design

• Fewer Types of Pieces — I would work to minimize the different types of pieces and make all connectors uniform.
• Uniform Frame Connection Methods — I would make all frame pieces fit together in the same way.
• Make Pieces Fit Tighter — Instead of adding extra space to make sure the pieces would fit together, I would make the connecting pieces and holes exactly the same width and height. As a critiquer suggested, I would sand down the pieces should they not fit in the holes.
• Move Leg Connections Away from Camera — I would do further testing and move the leg that is closest to the camera so that it is no longer in view.
• Labels — I would engrave names/icons for each piece, indicating what they were and which pieces they connected to.

Process

• Research into Laser Cutting Methods — I would do further research into laser cutting methods to see if there are more effective ways of connecting pieces, and tips on how to create things that bear weight.
• More Time Laser Cutting — I spent a lot of time sketching and ideating for this assignment, but I think that it would have been valuable to spend more time interacting with the laser cutter and testing things out.
• More User Testing — I had to go about my user test in a very particular way as a result of the loose pieces and difficulty assembling. With a sturdy prototype, I would conduct more usability testing asking people to put together the device by themselves, to try recording a paper prototype underneath, and to take it apart. I would also conduct desirability testing about the expandable iPad feature, walls, and charging hole.

User Test Demonstration Video

The following is a video highlighting parts of the user testing for the phone stand prototype: