Ongle
Simple product design
To design a safe, compact, and easy to use solution for school kids to overcome the problem of making a small circle, leveling of pencils, and safety issues which arise with the traditional geometry compass.
Class project / 4 weeks / group
Topic
Compass is one of the most used geometric tools for making circles. Users range from school-going students to professionals. School students face a lot of difficulties while handling this product. Small defects can cause construction errors hence we found the need to make a new product.
Research
We did some market research and looked at the most selling products, their offerings, and market position to better understand the stationery space and the business side. We visited a school to see the students interact and understand their problems with the product, learning about the user's side.
Problems
After the research, we noted down the most common problems the students faced. Most of the problems revolved around the compass, it being the most used instrument in the box.
Difficulty making small circles
Hinge becomes loose
Screw gets misplaced
Leveling of pencil becomes an issue
Sharp end point is harmful
Point shifts while making a circle
Concepts
Some concepts were explored where we tried to eliminate the pointed end and combine the compass and protractor to provide a safe tool for school students to use helping them make small circles.
Prototypes
Some prototypes were made to test out the concepts and their viability. These prototypes were more focused on the functioning of the product and we explored different mechanisms for the same.
Improvements
After testing out the prototypes with the users we reworked and came up with the final design. The design is inspired by the iris shutter of a camera which can be turned to create circles of various diameters and even measure angles combining both the compass and protractor into a single tool.
