About
A university project which involved taking an existing product and redesigning and improving it for a specific user.
Who?
My user was Daisy, a female university lecturer and an engineer who uses their laptop frequently.
As a working professional during lockdown, Daisy felt the need to improve her posture and comfort when working from home.
What?
A collapsible/portable laptop stand with adjustable angles.
Why?
Daisy didn’t like that it required 2 hands to change the angle as the legs needed to be adjusted separately and further to that, the legs have to be adjusted blind while the laptop is resting on the stand. She also found that the curved feet of the product got in the way of her keyboard.
Design considerations
Needed to remind lightweight, collapsible and compact for easy transport, it also needed to continue to support the same amount of weight of 5kg and have at least the same number of angles as the original.
Process
After initial consultation with the user, design ideas were sketched and user input was given on each design. From there, cardboard modeling was undertaken to explore the possible mechanisms and work out the logistics of them before a full cardboard prototype was made and further user feedback was taken. The next step was to mock up the design on CAD further adjusting the design to better fit the user’s needs. By the end of the project, the design was heavier but still lightweight, capable of supporting the same weight and with more angles than the original. Further user testing explored the most suitable angles. The legs of the stand were connected to ensure they moved in concert. And guides were placed on the side to allow them to be moved blind. The stand legs were adjusted so they no longer had to bear the weight of the stand and the laptop when adjusting the angle and could also be moved by sliding. The time limit on the project meant that I was unable to address the feet obstructing the keyboard but otherwise all design targets were met.
RGE Design 