Week 6 Reflection

Week 6 was a really interesting class! We had Autodesk come in to the class and give us an intro to using Fusion 360. Because I’m an industrial design student, I have been using 3D modeling programs for a few years now. For ID, the standard program is SolidWorks, which is seemingly very similar to Fusion 360. SolidWorks, however, is a little less approachable than Fusion seems to be. Fusion has a lot of handy keyboard shortcuts that SolidWorks doesn’t, which is something that will be so helpful when using it as a design tool. I also love that Fusion is available for Mac, because SolidWorks is only available on PC.

We had a tutorial that went through how to make a phone holder. He showed us how to take a sketch into the 3D form using dimensions, cutting and extruding, shelling, and using fillets. I really like 3D modeling, so I am excited to use that skill in this class.

Later in the class we worked in our group a bit farther exploring more about what we know about our opportunity areas, filling out a worksheet that details more about what we already know.

I am looking forward to being in the FabLab for the next few weeks and beginning to iterate designs for our project.

A little practice goes a long way

This week we had the opportunity to make our first complete model in Fusion 360 with Dan Banach from Autodesk. He went through the process of making a phone case holder. I personally had previous experience with 3D modeling software so his presentation was pretty straightforward and easy to follow. It was fun to have another class that was hands-on since a lot of our class time previously has been spent listening to presentations and brainstorming. After our demo session with Dan, we then went into searching for insights for our project.

Fusion 360 initial box creation
Fusion 360 phone case holder render

This week me and my team Rotam met with Ryan to complete our first interview. Ryan gave us great insight into what it was like for him growing up and what it is like for him now. We shared with him the direction that we wanted to go in and he gave us a considerate amount of feedback. As a result of his feedback, we are considering going in a different direction than we were initially going in. Initially, we were focusing more on making our project about ascetics and now we are considering making the project reflect more utilitarian purposes after hearing one suggestion Ryan gave us. Since Ryan has a powered chair when it rains he runs the risk of his chair dying if the joystick is exposed to the rain. To combat this, Ryan places a bag over his joystick when it is raining. Although this currently works for him, he and the rest of his chair gets wet in the rain. Also, others who do not have the ability to place the bag over the joystick run the risk of their chair dying. We came up with the idea of creating a device that would go over the joystick when it rains so that Ryan would no longer have to carry around the bag. Also for those who cant it or forget to grab a bag on their way out it would also be of benefit to them. We still have one more person to meet with so we are not 100% set on going in this direction or with this idea but it is an option that we did not have before.

Ryan demonstrating how he covers his joystick with the bag

Learning the Software

This past week the class has started to develop our skills utilizing a CAD system, Fusion 360. This is an entirely new process to me considering the most advanced software I have used has been Tinkercad. These programs are drastically different; although Tinkercad seems to have a friendlier user interface, Fusion 360 allows the user to be more specific with the dimensions and design of the print.

The initial tutorial we had to complete for class was rather easy to follow, but did not give a holistic view of the software. The in-class tutorial was much more beneficial, because it helped us create a more complex product, a phone holder. This product required a variety of complex extractions and measurements in order to reach the final version. Throughout this tutorial we were focused on following the simple steps we were given, but when we discussed the reasoning behind certain aspects, it was clear to see the human-centered design break though. For example, we created a hole in the middle of the holder for a charger. Many people would think that this would suffice, but we had to consider where the rest of the chord would go. While doing this, we created an additional extraction at the back of the holder so it could lay flat on a table while still plugged in. This may seem like an obvious decision, but it can be easy to forget the actual function of a product and needs of a user when it is being observed on the computer as opposed to when it is a physical object. Below are the different versions of the final project: the one created by the instructor and mine.

This was the final product of the tutorial we were given.
This was my final result after following the tutorial.

During this class period, we also found the time to create a few sentences furthering our ideas about how we can improve the racing conditions for the athletes we have been working with. Understanding how to use this software is going to be very useful when moving forward in our semester long project, but we are still not entirely sure how we want to tackle our problem statement. Spending more time on Fusion 360 will definitely benefit us, as we discover more features of the software that will assist in creation our process.

Week 6 Introducing Technical Skills

This week we get the chance to learn how to use Fusion 360. Our guest speaker Dan Banach from the Autodesk gave us a great workshop about introducing how to use this application and leading us to build our own phone holder. At first, I had no clue of how it works. I had some experience in using editing application such as Lightroom and Final Cut. Since Autodesk is also from the Adobe, I thought it’s gonna be similar with those apps. However, I was wrong about it. This was definitely a brand new experience to me. Throughout the process, I got lost a few times. My teammates and Dan came to help me a few times, and they helped me to finish my phone holder.

Dan’s introducing Autodesk
Initial state: Drafting the surface

To be honest, by learning how to use Autodesk Fusion 360, I found it really helped us to put our thoughts into reality. Sometimes we only come up with simple thoughts and ideas, but we didn’t really have more specific information about our products. By learning more and more technical skills of designing, we can put our ideas into the app and model it. Also, we can actually print them and test it out, since the plastic material is not too expensive. No matter speaking from expense or environment side, Fusion 360 and the 3D printers benefit us a lot. I’m really interested in next week’s activity in Fablab. Hope we can learn something that can help us to get closer to our product.

Working on it
Phone Holder with wood material

During the How Might We assignment, our group came up with three insights:

  1. How might we create a way for wheelchair-users to see what’s behind them?
  2. How might we create a way for wheelchair-users to grab some object more independently?
  3. How might we design an affordable assistive tool?

I was kinda freak out about our progress, since I thought that we didn’t actually have a specific idea about which area we should focus on. However, my teammates and TA encouraged me that we were still at the stage of brainstorming and working on this question. I realized that we need to conduct more interviews with more wheelchair-user and find out what is the most feasible and helpful plan that we can work on. Probably, Arielle’s suggestions would be helpful. We might need to try to make an appointment with her in the next week. I hope we can have more progress on our project and get more familiar with deigning applications and skills.

Week 6 Reflection – Growing the Passion and Skills

This week’s class was fun and interactive. We learned more practical tools for 3D printing and worked as a team to brainstorm our research project.

The first two hours were solely on the phone holder model with the software named Fusion 360. Although I have watched the beginner videos in the Fusion websites as well as completed the homework assignment which required building a box before class, I was still not familiar with the software enough to say I could create a model myself without guidance. This has been changed with the tutorial lecture presented by Dan Banach. He was knowledgeable and experienced enough to explain the software techniques with easy to understand language as well as sense and follow-up when people felt not sure. By building the model step by step with explanations on all the features, now I can say I am confident in building simple models by myself. After the class, I adjusted the parameters to make sure the phone holder fit my own phone. I chose a photo that I took at Alaska to be the decal in the front (The public link to my model is here). Seeing models created with my hands through the software and being printed by the 3D printer, I felt a sense of achievement to make something come alive. I started to have a passion for exploring more of the software and have the ambition to build more creative things with models in the future.

The phone holder model
Printing the model

In the second half of the lecture, we focused on the project. After the third interview on Sunday, our team had a great starting point for the ideation phase. One thing that our team agreed on was the importance of equal accessibility and affordability. We realized that people with disability would like to be able to accomplish many tasks by themselves without assistants’ help. Thus, two of the themes that we found were vision and tools and attachment. We hoped to create something that can help them “see what is behind them” or something that can help them “grab heavy or hard to grab items easier and independently”. I believe those would be interesting areas to explore later because if we could invent something like this, it is possible that it could benefit more people. The last theme we chose was affordability. We agreed that we would like our design to be equal affordable and plan to take cost into consideration in future design. I think we were making great progress for our project and I am looking forward to doing more research to develop our ideas further before we go to prototypes.

Ideation Phase – How might we questions

Learning from the “Firsts”

For me, this week involved a lot of the “firsts.” It was my first time using the Fusion 360 to design and print out an object, first time interviewing an expert user for the project, and my first time not feeling lost about the direction of the project that the team was taking. With the advancements that we have made this week, I feel more confident that we will be able to provide a tangible product that will help our intended users by the end of the project timeline.

Autodesk 360

This week, one of our focus was on learning how to use the Autodesk Fusion 360. As someone who was hoping to learn about 3D designing software such as AutoCAD and be able to create an object through it, this was an exciting topic. In fact, I was so mesmerized by the shapes that were taking form on my screen while doing the first assignment that I forgot that it was to complete up to part one of the videos. Instead, I ended up completing all three videos to create a final product in one sitting even though it took me several hours.

My first attempt at creating an object on Fusion 360

Although it was fun and I enjoyed the process of creating a product on Fusion 360, there were many frustrating moments throughout the assignment. While trying to interact with the interface, I found out how difficult it is to select a very specific area or a part of an object created. Sometimes, it seems like you clicked the correct side or a part of an object but when viewed from a different angle and zoomed in, that may not be the case. It also frustrated me that there were so many lags with the interface. Many of the times when I tried to change the perspective of the view, the interface would lag, testing my patience. Regardless, I am very satisfied with the result and proud of how much I taught myself going through this one assignment.

The practice with Fusion 360 continued in class with Dan Banach from Autodesk leading the workshop. I was extremely happy to find how easy it was to follow him since I already dedicated a lot of time learning the interface. I am usually afraid of using such technical software since I feel that I am slow with technology but this time, I am looking forward to continuing to hone my skill and see where this leads to.

A phone stand created through Fusion 360 during the workshop led by Dan Banach

Interviewing Ryan

This week, our team finally had an opportunity to interview an expert user of a wheelchair. We were privileged to interview Ryan, one of the mentors for the course. With our goal of creating something that will improve the experience of youth wheelchair users, we began to ask him for his stories, especially focusing on his past. He was extremely nice and opened up to us quickly, sharing his stories and emotions that he felt being a wheelchair user since he was young. While sharing the stories, he shared one particular problem that he continues to face as a user of an automated wheelchair: rain getting into the joystick of his chair, leading to a power outage.

Ryan demonstrating his current solution to prevent rain from getting into the joystick of his chair, which is to simply put a plastic bag over the part

With further discussion, we came to the conclusion that it is better for us to focus on something very specific like Ryan’s challenge, rather than something broad like the one that we have been planning on addressing. Although Ryan liked our original idea, he guided us to a different path since we were under a time constraint. Therefore, we will continue to focus on this particular challenge and address it. We also realized that by pursuing this opportunity, we will be able to utilize the technical skills that we are obtaining in class and provide a tangible product by the end, whereas for the other topic, we weren’t sure how that would happen.

Now that our path of the project is a little more clear, we are planning on returning to our plans and activities that we have done in class to modify and adjust accordingly. Although I have always been nervous that our team was behind and unclear about our destination, I now feel much more confident that we will be able to achieve something that will be of help to users like Ryan by the end of the project. This experience confirmed the importance of working with mentors and understanding the perspectives of the users, so we are hoping to set up more interviews with not only Ryan again, but with other users of wheelchairs also. With the new topic in our mind, we have already started visioning what our product would look like, and we are looking forward to where it will lead to!

Week 6 The Magic of Fusion 360

This week we had class at a different location than the usual Illinois MakersLab. Prior to class, we were instructed to go to the Psychology Building. Initially, I was not sure the reason behind and was intrigued about it but soon I realized that we were going to learn to use a designing software called Fusion 360 and I was really excited about it.

To get us to warm up a little bit before we dive straight into Fusion 360 in class, Professor Sachdev assigned us a small assignment to let us learn the basics of Fusion 360. Even though the assignment was only to design a simple box within Fusion 360, I found it somehow challenging as I had no prior experience in Fusion 360. So, it to me quite a bit of effort and time to get familiar with the interface of the software and later complete the assignment. It was to my surprise that such a simple design gave me so much feeling of accomplishment.

Here is a link to my finished box design: https://a360.co/2E7kLny

In class, we had the honor of inviting Dan Banach from AutoDesk to teach us to fully utilize the power of Fusion 360 to create functional products. For me, the workshop provided by Dan was extremely useful as it took me a shorter time period to design an actual product versus when I was trying to learn the software myself designing a simple box. Dan’s clear instructions and humor really helped us fully grasp the magic of Fusion 360 and I am excited to see what my group, 3DBal, can design with the software. Everybody was able to design a phone holder with their own unique design. If I were to pick a key takeaway from the lecture, it would no doubt be: “When in doubt, click the right key on Fusion369” as emphasized by Dan multiple times during lecture.

Learning the Shorcuts on Fusion 360
Final Phone Holder Design

Here is a link to the phone holder I designed in class: https://a360.co/2E6V3zw

Since my group has had a pretty clear direction since the beginning of our project, we did not find the project idealization as helpful as the other groups. It did help us narrow our direction and focus our research. We also conducted further interviews with other users and yoga instructors to get even more ideas on our product.

Week 6 Diving into Fusion 360

This week, we had an awesome opportunity to get Dan Banach from Auto Desk to teach us about the basics of Fusion 360. Before we met Dan, we got a taste of Fusion 360 by going through an activity so most of us were very new to this platform. It was the same for me as well. I never touched Fusion 360 before and I was going in blind folded. However as Dan was going through the exercise he’s provided for us, I realized it was very similar to “SolidWorks”, another 3d modeling platform. So, the whole process was like a review for me. It was a lot of information for us to cover but with Dan explaining each step clearly, I think I was able to remember a lot of the tools. I feel like after the class, I was in a good position to start mocking up some prototypes for our project.

This Friday, we met up with our mentor, Jenna and scanned her prosthetic leg. We were very grateful that she was able to allow time in her busy schedule to work with us. Using the scanner for the first time was a great experience. I missed a few spots, so I got assistance from the lab assistant and got a great scanned version of her prosthetic leg. With this model, we can create the sleeve that will go on top of the prosthetic leg and create the hole for the battery charger. This is a great reference for us to look back whenever we are stuck.

Another thing I’ve realized is that, the prosthetic leg and the knee pad has a very organic surface area which we have not yet learn from Dan’s class. So, I asked Dan how to model organic shapes in Fusion 360. He told me I should use this tool called, “T-Spline Geometries”. This function can modify a mold like a Play Doh. This is a tool that isn’t in SolidWorks which makes it easier for us to create these quick prototypes of organic shapes.

Overall, I think the next step for us is to meet more people with similar experiences and expertise to get a better understanding of our direction. And this week, we are going to scan our knee to get the optimal shape of the knee pad. We are going to meet again and further discuss about this matter and in the mean while, we will try to find other expertise and interview them for further inspirations. I felt like we have learn so much through this week and I am looking forward to using Fusion 360.

Week 6: How Might We Fusion 360

This week we had an assignment in Autodesk Fusion 360, and then worked on creating a phone holder together in class. I ended up working on the Autodesk pre-assignment on a school computer because it was slowly loading on my computer and taking a really long time to open. Thus during this workshop I had a similar experience, as my computer was taking the longest time to open it up.

Dan Banach did a really great job leading this workshop, because he went slowly and taught us shortcuts. Because my computer was being very slow it was very hard for me to follow along int the beginning because I couldn’t do the steps with him as he was doing them like the rest of the class was.

I was stuck on these screen for a long time as it was taking a long time to load

I got assistance because it was taking so long to load, and eventually got into the software. Because I joined late I wasn’t able to model it exactly to how everyone else was modeling it, but I still got to play around with material and some of the visual design elements of how to make it look within the software. I also I think there are a lot of fun tools on fusion 360 and am excited to use it to model the designs we make in this course!

Next we worked on How Might We statements. My group decided on a central theme around Independence, and had 3 sub-themes of Tools & Attachments, Vision, and Affordability.

The 3 How Might We statements that came from our sub-themes are the following:

How Might We create a way for wheelchair users to see what is behind them?

How might we create a way for wheelchair users to grab heavy or hard to grab items easier and independently?

How Might Design an affordable assistive tool?

I think our last How Might We will be a sub-theme of whatever we create, because affordability is something we want to be part of our product no matter what. As we keep moving along in the design process it is hard to not jump to what is and isn’t possible in terms of design, but we know it is important to try not to think of the final product right now and just trust the process.

In terms of future plans, we are hoping to interview my friend who works in Beckwith this week, bringing our first two How Might We’s to him and seeing what he thinks. Also speaking to him can lead to insights of what he helps the residents with and some of the challenges he sees everyday.

AutoDesk Fusion 360 Basics

This week Dan Banach from AutoDesk lead a workshop on Fusion 360. We learned the basics of 3D modeling as well as shortcut keys. Prior to our class meeting in the basement of the Psych building we were assigned the task of downloading Fusion 360 and following a tutorial of how to make a basic rectangular box. We used methods like sketching, extruding (both adding and subtracting material), and filleting. 

AutoDesk Fusion 360 workshop.

Although I have taken a course on SolidWorks (another 3D modeling program) it was nice to have a basic tutorial to show how to use fusion 360. I downloaded Fusion 360 last year when I found out about the FREE program. I tried to teach myself, and when I first download the program it was little overwhelming. However, once I started watching specific tutorials for what I wanted to accomplish it started to become for familiar. 

My phone dock with a decal covering the entire object.

Dan Banach’s workshop was very helpful! I saw people who had never used Fusion or a 3D modeling program create in 3D space for the first time. The phone dock we created wasn’t the simplest design either. I learned short cuts I had not known before as well as the possibility of inserting a decal on a surface. I would love to take another AutoDesk workshop for Fusion, there are other “environments” I would love to learn about. Specifically I would love to learn how to use the sculpt tool.

Trying to explore the sculpting environment.

This week my group was able to set up an interview with Ryan. Since this was the first time we were able to talk to an expert user we had a lot of questions for him. He was extremely friendly and gave us great advice. His answers led us to a new focal point for our project. 

Current plastic bag solution Ryan created to combat the rain.

We are thinking of focusing on a situation he is faced with regularly. Since Ryan uses an electric wheelchair he is faced with a huge issue when he is caught outside. Water+Electronics=a tough situation. If water gets into his wheelchair the battery will shoot out. He currently uses a plastic bag to cover his joystick. The joystick is where most of the chairs exposed wires which are what would be most vulnerable to water exposure. We are thinking about designing a more durable solution to this opportunity.