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Concepts
Accessible Cutting Board
A modular cutting board designed to make cooking easier for those with upper limb mobility differences by including magnetic attachments and a knife rail.
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Contributors
Carolina Warneryd: General board and part design, fabrication, sourcing partsSharmi Shah: 3D-printing parts, CAD, knife attachment mechanismJordan Ambrosio: General board fabrication, sourcing partsSteven Herrera: Magnetic attachment fabrication, CADLambert Hu: User interviews, CAD, knife attachment mechanism
Reviewer Feedback
Ellen Roche
Concept
Given that the range of people with limited dexterity is so broad, it might make sense to pick a target population and focus on making a cutting board for that population. I like the knife rail and pivoting linkage a lot, but maybe there's a way that you can have a base that maintains the product in a secure position (grips/breadboard features/microstructures) so you don't get movement of the food once you start to cut. Similarly, I am wondering if you could have a "holder" that goes over the knife blade that makes it easier to cut with, instead of a handle that extends from the knife blade. Is there any value in looking at a scaled down meat slicer? There are some nice cutting techniques used for paraffin embedded specimens for histology that are pretty neat and might give some inspiration. Regarding users - I have a grad student with one hand if you want to speak to him I'm sure he will be happy to - just let me know. In your slides you show a bilateral amputee but I don't think the product is designed for that user.
Analysis
Is there a risk that the knife inadvertently comes out of the grips and causes injury. If the user has limited dexterity how easy would it be to mount a knife in the gripper. For your specs, a range might be better - for example - what does the 10N force refer to? the downward force for cutting a specific food type with a specific type of knife? Would the lifting force and pushing force on knife not be very different?
Execution
Your mockup was effective in identifying the usability and potential risks - I think it would be great to use this to conduct user testing both with PTs/OTs and with people with impaired mobility.
April
Concept
I wasn't clear on how your product was differentiated from current options (I know you mentioned "medical looking" but beyond aesthetics). You might also survey users to learn the top most difficult tasks in the kitchen and see if you can incorporate more of them into your product.
Analysis
User testing will be key here - you seem to be mostly estimating the ease of moving the various components around with your own (presumably normal) abilities. What you find easy may not track with what someone with reduced hand mobility finds easy and you won't be able to predict that until you test.
Execution
The model is good, but really nailing down strength required to move certain magnetic pieces is key.
Juhan Sonin
Concept
All Juhan's Green team feedback is in a single PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nib1eci9otmt3b5/MIT2009_Green_MockupReview_Feedback_Sonin_Fall2022.pdf?dl=0
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
No feedback provided
Peter Nielsen
Concept
The design intent is clear. Can this be expanded to children learning to cook?
Analysis
t think that the product definition could be helped by a complete user walkthru - see how it looks to deploy the prototype, wash some vegetables, cut them and get rid of stems and ends, wash the proto and put it away. See if any of that suggests changes.
Execution
More testing may illuminate the may ways we stabilize foods for cutting. Do the movable "walls" want to be slightly L shaped to retain axially when slicing? Is there some downward vector wanted for some types of cutting? Are there other ways to move or position the knife, on a pivot, or held by a vacuum clamp?
Dabin
Concept
You've identified a compelling problem of giving autonomy back to users in the kitchen - there is certainly a sizable population of people who suffer from various neuromuscular disorders and sever arthritis. There are a lot of alternatives on the market for devices that make slicing/chopping/dicing (vegetable choppers) efficient targeted towards able-bodied users - what is the additional value provided by your proposed solution? I would encourage you to identify this and if you haven't already, talk to end-users in addition to OTs and PTs.
Analysis
While the demo and presentation covered some good common cases (apple/cucumbers), the variety of vegetables a home chef would encounter is wide. Your spec sheet calls out "pushing force on knife < 10 N ", while this may suffice for softer foods, how would this work for harder and more challenging vegetables like butternut squash? Another thing to consider is the degrees of freedom of the knife - while it is able to pivot up-down and translate horizontally across the board, how does this deal with food that you would need to slice through, such as bread or fragile foods that will crush under the knife? Serrated knives are ideal for these applications but require the slicing motion. The frictional gripper aspect of your device was interesting? How well does this work when the board get wet or has food particles remaining on the board? This will also probably need to be dishwasher safe and easily dismantled, especially if your target audience are people who have mobility issues -you might consider the exercise of walking through how a user would set up/use/clean your product. You may also want to consider the maintenance and upkeep of this advice - cutting boards wear out over time and knives need to be sharpened. If either one of these components wears out, does the user need to buy a whole new setup (especially if the product is knife+cutting board)? Is there a portion of this that could be modular?
Execution
The mockup presented did start answer a couple of the key questions - it may have been good to test out some more challenging vegetables and geometries, such as butternut squash. Good thoughts went into the selection of material for the constrain mechanism.
Keith Clavin
Concept
The cutting board is very promising. There seems to be a definite distinction between your product and the existing options. It's difficult to find a space that is not completely saturated but you seem to have done that, which in and of itself is an accomplishment. Anything that can help people to perform necessary tasks more easily and quickly is a big positive. The use appears to be intuitive and the need valid.
Analysis
The outlook for the market and future of the product look to be promising. It is not a product with many inherent risks in terms of surprises that may make themselves known at a later stage, so I would rate it high in that category. It would be nice to hear/see a little more about the specific future iterations that could build off of this model and possible prove to be more adaptable to different cutting or cooking situations.
Execution
The mockup worked pretty well and definitely projected an intuitive feel. Seeing it in action with people who are not members of the team and real potential users will be a big step. I'm sure many suggestions for height, weight, stability, etc. will be presented, so it will be your job to determine which are most critical and useful to the broadest segment of the population who would be using a device such as this.
Rob Podoloff
Concept
You have done a nice job identifying a need and a target market. You need to find Some target users to actually test with your concepts. You will want to produce many iterations of each attachment and clamping concept and try them out with actual users.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
Your mockup does a nice job of presenting the concept and identifying areas in need of further design exploration. The key to making it a good product is making easy to use and clean.
Kamala Grasso
Concept
I think the basic concept is quite clear - I understood the user problem and why something like this would be needed. But I was a bit confused by your user persona - I would think Melinda the chef would have different needs that someone at home who just wants to be able to do the basics. Also, you list several different "customers" on your slide. You have a case where the user might not be the same as the customer. In the Q&A, you mentioned talking to OTs which was great. I would also encourage you to talk to as many actual users of the product.
Analysis
I think being easy to clean (and dishwasher safe) would be a big need and I didn't see that on your product contract. You will also need to decide if you work with off the shelf knives or only with your own custom knives. If the former, you might want to put that in the contract as it will need to be accounted for in your design.
Execution
You rmodel illustrated the concept and provided a good basis on which you could now gatgher feedback. One of your big risks identified was securing the knife. While you did build something into which the knife could fit, it was so wobbly it was difficult to consistently cut.
Daniel Braunstein
Concept
I'll try to address concept, analysis, and execution in this single text block. You know about the project from a couple of years ago with the prosthetic attachments. I would make a full-court press to engage your specific users and you should develop the use case. The attachment project started by trying to bee all things to all people, but the team eventually refined their use-case and offering, and developed a meaningful product. Right now, you are missing this important information. I understand the concept. It is clear. But without clear input from users, I am left wondering if the concept has merit, and am concerned that the implementation, as presented will not address the issues of constraining items to be cut. The magnetic blocks are well and good until you cut something, at which point you have two unconstrained items. Now what? How does one continue to cut the cucumber? Then there's slicing action. I am reticent to offer additional features or ideas about this specific cutting board because, without a clear use case and user, it seems all engineering conjecture. But.....I wonder if instead of having a mounted knife attachment into which one inserts the knife for chopping assistance, you instead have attachments to knives that interfaces to the cutting board. would that architecture more readily permit chopping, slicing, etc? A refined use case, informed by users will go a long way in developing this offering.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
No feedback provided
Dave Custer
Concept
First off, kudos on your clean slide design. You were clearly "GREEN" and the slide margins did not interfere with your message. Your use and user are clear. This would be a game-changer for people trying to be independent. The ability to cook for oneself is a terrible ability to lose; all of a sudden it's easy to feel like you are a burden to others because they must do simple tasks like cutting vegetables for you. Thus, the impact at an individual level could be extremely high. Does your secure slicer have additional user cohorts? Children come to mind. Clumsy people--I'm clumsy enough that if I had to cut 1000 cucumbers, I might want your slicer. Does a church's insurance company want one of these in every church kitchen to reduce payout to clumsy volunteers (I know; I know; I just blamed the victim...)?
Analysis
Do you need to add needs along the lines of easy to wash/sterilize for the target users? Are there design aspects that need to be evaluated along the lines of the sliding of the bearing, the sideways torques to be expected/resisted? Can you use some sort of linkage to make the knife cut and slide along the point of contact, especially at the surface of the cutting board? Will you be accommodating a range of knives that are already on the market, or do you expect customers/users to purchase your specially shaped knives?
Execution
Are high friction surfaces difficult to clean and keep sterile? The vegetable clamping mechanism seemed fiddly and not robust. How could it be made robust? I didn't think your mockup was "medical." Maybe a little on the "industrial" side, but there are some kitchen gadgets that go out of their way to look "professional," so yours will fit right in; despite not being as folksy as a wooden cutting board and a knife. How do people cut vegetables in space (low gravity)?
Elizabeth Stevens
Concept
Secure slice: This assistive technology sounds truly valuable to users with limb mobility issues. My husband can't move his shoulder much after an injury, and while cooking is not hard for him, he can't do many things he loves. Have you been able to interview users? User interviews when done early on can be so valuable, especially when you ask open ended questions about user experience and pain points. (Open ended: what do you do when you cut? Closed: Do you like our design?) People genuinely like to talk about themselves and their descriptions can help you improve your product.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
From a communication standpoint, the product mechanism and value were clearly and quickly conveyed using your model. It quickly gets the point across, so the audience can dig into the finer details. Adding more casing (as in a consumer product) might help us visualize the user experience better.
Collapsible Mannequin
A display-style mannequin designed to collapse for transportation, making travel with the device easier for all designers, from semi-professionals to hobbyists.
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Contributors
Sandra Villagrana: design, 3D printing, presentation, specifications, sourcing materialsJosh Rorhbaugh: CAD, design, machiningHenry Sobieszczyk: Specifications, presentation, assemblySteven Marquez: AssemblyJolie Bercow: Presentation, CAD, sourcing materials, graphicsNathan Ramesh: assembly, machining, graphics
Reviewer Feedback
Ellen Roche
Concept
The user and concept are super clear,. This has to be compelling to be much better than what's out there. I think you want to make it rapidly deployable. People don't want to carry tools or spend time assembling mannequins. Could you have a "spine" connecting the components with hinges that could collapse in between each of the "slices"? Maybe some type of self expanding structure - think about a frame made of a shape memory alloy that can be heat set to expand but can be constrained (this would be so cool). What about having inflatable components within your slices or within an overall structure to make it pop up. Think about bridal fairs, fashion shows....
Analysis
There is a world of research in rapidly deployable structures and mechanisms and it's so neat - large scale examples for military shelters etc, and small scale examples for telescopic surgery and minimally invasive surgery. Look at tensegrity for inspiration, and Robert Wood's lab at Harvard does some nice "pop-up" microrobots - you could apply similar principles here. Kaitlyn Becker from his group is now a MechE faculty and could be super helpful.
Execution
Nice model and effective, but as you already plan to, you might need to make it simpler to assemble and disassemble.
Peter Nielsen
Concept
The use case is clear. The compressed form and speed of deployment seem like drivers of success or the other thing here, require optimization as those tow factors are most of the value proposition.
Analysis
The specs suggest a 35 pound weight - this should be done in #10-ish.
Execution
Consider including the "legs" (stand)? Some sort of origami solution may work there. For some applications a personalization of the segments may add value, designer's name or logo. The foldup motion should be really simple on this. Can the individual plates have sliding or two-position inserts to allow a size change or two?
Dabin
Concept
The mannequin is designed for traveling display purpose. The users identified are going to conferences, bridal travel show, flea markets etc. The user is well defined. The use case described above has a well definable constraints and requirements. The key value of your product is the portability of the display mannequin.
Analysis
For fashion professionals, properly display the clothing is the most important feature (from my perspective), so the contour is probably one of the most critical aspects that need to be figured out. I would love to know the priority of the specification based on the user need. The main challenge will be adding the necessary resolution without compromising the portability and weight of your product. It was mentioned during the demos, but a good direction to consider is varying the number of rings over the entire vertical axis, and weighting regions that need higher resolutions more when considering the distribution of rings. Is adjustability an important thing to consider for users (height/ width)? Do they want just a single standard size, or are there a range of mannequin sizes that people generally use? Your spec sheet mentions "easy to assemble" but disassembly time may also be important to design for. You may also want to explore mechanisms that don't require many specialized tools.
Execution
The demonstrated mockup was effective in conveying the vision of the product. While rings are certainly one way to achieve a collapsible 3d shape, have you explored alternatives like inflatable mannequins/compliant structures that can bend to a certain form when bearing weight (origami/kirigami -inspired structures)? Overall, nice job.
Keith Clavin
Concept
The mannequin idea, like the other two, really moves into an interesting segment of the population that is probably often taken for granted. The whole team has done a good job of locating gaps within sub-industries. This really only happens with sound research habits and thorough reviews of existing products, so you should all be credited with putting the time into the preparation of your designing.
Analysis
I was a little unclear on the pricing specifics of the product. It sounds like maybe there are many options for the fashion industry to offer, so comparisons are a little tricky. The idea of a sustainable, reusable, portable mannequin is unique and worth developing in greater specificity in terms of very particular pricing, product variation, and use cases. I also feel like the environmental impact angle can be emphasized more.
Execution
The mannequin looks like a usable mannequin and one that matches closely with existing ones in size and shape. Have you considered a drape or some kind of cloth that would cover the internal structure when displayed? I would also like to see a version that offers some variability in width at different points in the torso. I think this was mentioned at the demo, but could be a major distinguishing factor from the standard, static mannequin.
Rob Podoloff
Concept
As a non-fashionista, I am not sure of the depth of the need for this product. Although your concept seems much more convenient for shipping, I am not sure of the value you provide compared to existing low cost mannequins.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
While your model does a nice job showing the final shape you are trying to achieve, it does not really address some of your key user requirements like ease of use. Rather than building a model of the complete concept, you might be better served by figuring out some of the more important details like tool-free connection methods and how you would make your entire structure more stable without adding significant weight.
Kamala Grasso
Concept
At a high level the concept was clear. In the Q&A, you mentioned that designers use mannequins for two different purposes - designing the clothes and showcasing the clothes. Your design seems to be aimed at the latter but it would be helpful to be super clear about that. It will guide your design choices.
Analysis
You mention that one of your findings is that your mannequin can mimic the form and function of a mannequin. It would have been helpful to show some examples of that - what does a sweater look like on a std mannequin vs yours.
Execution
The model showed an overall form. However, I wanted to see more that would help answer the questions. 1) can it mimic the function of a standard mannequin. As mentioned above, I'm not yet convinced of that. The lack of something smoothing out the individual rungs (a fabric cover for example) is likely to make the clothes hang in an odd way. and 2) can it fold. I would have liked to see a demo of that.
Daniel Braunstein
Concept
Please continue to clarify the user and use case. Don't try to be all things to all people. I am guessing the needs of a young, starting designer attending fashion week in Milan has needs that are vastly different than the cosplay folks that hang out in Vegas. My message is to focus on one group and really get to understand their requirements. Similar to last time, I wonder about inflatables. Perhaps you can use inflatable shapes in areas that require more refined/continuous shapes, while low fidelity areas remain a piecewise linear, low resolution structure. Is origami out of the question? It is difficult to provide a continuous, organic form with your "collapsible" requirement, and rethinking whether or not (and why) you can avoid a continuous surface may be a good gedankenexperiment. There is a universe of difference between fashion week and a sales person at a mid-coast Radisson convention. Please clarify the use case. I also wonder about using tensioned rods and fabric, like tents. The shapes of tents one can acquire are kind of impressive. Look at MSR or Marmot tents. Could you have a minimum set of wire frames over which a fabric could be tensioned into an approximate shape? Technically, this may be somewhere between the piecewise "frame" you currently have and the continuous surface of a traditional form. Just a thought.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
No feedback provided
Dave Custer
Concept
User and use is clear. Again, I think there are related user cohorts that might benefit from this concept; I bet clothing stores find it tedious to store mannequins and would be delighted to be able to collapse them when not in use. I think you should aim for half of your current weight target.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
I think your mockup shows the feasibility of your concept well. And suggests lots of room for clever ways to connect all the parts quickly and accurately. Maybe your mockup is too good because you think it's a prototype and all you have to do is tweak it a little, so you'll miss the truly amazing other direction you could take this concept.
Elizabeth Stevens
Concept
Collapsaquin: Clear well-rehearsed talk. I didn't get a clear sense whether you'd talked to potential users. User interviews when done early on can be so valuable, especially when you ask open ended questions about user experience and pain points. (Open ended: what do you do when you cut? Closed: Do you like our design?) People genuinely like to talk about themselves and their descriptions can help you improve your product.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
From a communication standpoint, the product mechanism and value were clearly and quickly conveyed using your model. It quickly gets the point across, so the audience can dig into the finer details. It was cool to see the pieces come apart. (I'm not a technical expert, but are screws the best way to lock them in place? They look more time consuming than maybe magnetic pins or some other locking mechanism. For the communication value, you'd want to ideally demo an easy-to-use process)
Urban Farming Tool System
An adaptable system designed for farming in urban environments to increase efficiency while farming with the help of modular tools.
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Contributors
Ronak Roy: design, CAD, presentation specifications, 3D printing, fabrication (gears, motor, and sliding shaft) Sophia Leon Guerrero: design, CAD, slides presentation, fabrication (adjustable A-frame), product contractBen Weizer: design, CAD (final rendering), fabrication (cultivator tines)Ambre Declap: design, fabrication (adjustable A-frame, modular tool shaft)Rachel Park: design, contacting/interviewing consumers, slides presentation, fabrication (planting bed)
Reviewer Feedback
Ellen Roche
Concept
Strong and clear idea, like that its super-modular, with interchangeable tools. How often you would change tools and how portable the overall unit would be might be risks that you could discuss in your lab this week. I'm wondering if you could use the upper part as a "rack" for replacement tools or other tools/effectors, so they would be available for changeovers. Would there be a simple way to push/crank this manually from one side so you would not be walking over the soil you just tilled/watered etc...
Analysis
To clarify on your product specifications - you would need to make sure that you clarify why you can't you use the hand-push cultivators in raised beds, or what the associated limitations are. Also, it would be good to clarify if the $800 specified is the yearly cost saving or the proposed cost of one of the farmhands. $800 a year seems low so you would want to make it very affordable. Risks could be dislodgment of tools and associated malfunction or injury. Cost would be important to ensure there are overall cost savings.
Execution
Impressive mockup, definitely requires some sort of protection to prevent injury and soil going everywhere. Tool replacement/maintenance schedule would be important and portability of interchangeable tools would also be key.
April
Concept
You cite "1 in 3 urban farmers make a living from their farms" as justification for your product - I would guess there's myriad of factors at work there, mostly economic and not technological. Quotes or survey data from users would be far more compelling.
Analysis
Your specs are a good start from generality. It would be great to see more specifics specs based on the functionality (i.e. tilling, watering, etc.).
Execution
I'm not sure why you went for tilling as a first modality. You mentioned in your demo that it is performed twice a year, and although it is labor intensive (and probably worth designing technology for), it seems to me that some of the much more frequent (and also fairly labor intensive) tasks would have been a bigger first target. Watering is one example that comes to mind and certainly a rich technology space that could be integrated with your general form factor.
Juhan Sonin
Concept
No feedback provided
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
All Juhan's Green team feedback is in a single PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nib1eci9otmt3b5/MIT2009_Green_MockupReview_Feedback_Sonin_Fall2022.pdf?dl=0
Peter Nielsen
Concept
With this level of complexity I am expecting some partial autonomy as well, self-propulsion or like that. How frequently is this used in tiller form and is there adaptation to other bed tasks?
Analysis
The exposed blades are mildly terrifying. Sensors, safety brake, shields....
Execution
Kudos for doing a ton of work. A bi-stable rotor height should be part of this to ease moving from bed to bed. How can the structure be optimized to achieve the rigidity that is desired?
Dabin
Concept
The concept itself seems promising - helping urban farmers is a nice idea and could be a worthwhile cause. However, as someone who isn't very familiar with urban farming it was unclear from the presentation how the user would interact with your product (are there multiple? is it big enough? how many people does it take to operate? etc) In the future, it would be helpful to include visuals of what an urban farm looks like in order to help your reviewers appreciate the problem you are trying to address.
Analysis
It seems you had some good learnings from this milestone - it still isn't completely clear to me what the main pain point your product is addressing is: tilling was presented as the initial target, but it was also mentioned that this is only done 1-2 a year. Is this really the main barrier/pain point that urban farmers experience? How much money does an urban farmer spend for the tilling process (is it only paying laborers for 2-3 days of labor?) are more regular tasks such as seeding/watering things more valuable to automate because it reduces labor costs more frequently?
Execution
While it is clear you've identified the challenges and built a model that illuminated some challenges in rigidity and geometry outlined in your presentation, it would have been nice to see some further exploration or initial attempts at addressing these issues - even some concepts that could be explored in the future (how do you fix the rigidity issues? What will the tool ends look like?). You should use these reviews as an opportunity to share your thoughts and receive feedback on technical aspects of the product, and less of trying to sell it to the group - that part comes later :) Going forward doing some more numerical analysis prior to sourcing components and motors may save you time and effort and heartache in later stages in the projects.
Keith Clavin
Concept
The farm hand device is taking up a topic related to an important niche in our society. Urban farming is a growing, and probably necessary, part of the future. The general idea here makes sense and seems that it would be helpful. The exact user base, like how many square feet these people generally use and how many of them there are, is still a little vague to me. It sounds like there are is fair potential but are we sure that they would opt for this over existing methods, which may vary by region or type of crops?
Analysis
The research is persuasive as to the product's fit into urban farming. I think one of the points was that more urban farmers can generate more revenue with this type of help. This is a fair point, but one that I wonder about in respect to the desire for this. Are we sure that many farmers want much bigger harvests and/or revenue? Many may be content to keep their operation at a smaller scale and avoid the challenges that come with a larger harvest and tighter schedules requiring more seeds, etc.
Execution
The mockup worked well and appeared to generally complete the task, which is great. It is a little intimidating looking. I would like to see a little more description of safety precautions that would be built into the machine in regards to the blades as well as its movement along the planter bed.
Rob Podoloff
Concept
Nice job explaining your target customer and intended functionality. However, I was not clear on whether the cost of your machine could be justified by the amount of benefit it provides.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
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Kamala Grasso
Concept
As someone who is not familiar with urban farming, I would have loved to see some picctures to help me visualize where this would be used. Also, you menioned in the presentation that you wanted to increase the number of urbans that make a living from their farms. I wasn't sure what to make of that stat. I thought many farm were cooperatives or non profits rather than individuals but that may be my lack of knowledge of the market.
Analysis
A key aspect of your concept seemed to be about use with a variety of tools (I'm not totally sold on that). But there was nothing in the product contract about being able to work with other tools effectively. Would the concept require tools specifically made for the device or are there off the shelf items that could be attached?
Execution
The mockup worked and definitely created clear rows, although a lot of dirt ended up outside the box. Definitely something to refine. As with any automation of a manual task, the key will be in whether the result is either better or cheaper.
Daniel Braunstein
Concept
I love agriculture projects - the cause, the equipment, etc. Hard life though. Now, I still totally "don't get" the urban farm thing. Is this a community garden? A pipedream of a living roof on top the Prudential? ten acres of regular farm that happens to be in a city? So the user remains unclear to me. "Urban farmer" doesn't mean a much to me. So please be more specific - How many acres? where? how many employees are typical? What type of yield, how many pounds of produce, etc etc. So I don't know if we are dealing with hobbyists who might want to make a few dollars at the local artisans' fair, or if there are bonafide producers who struggle because they cannot use typical farm implements. Sharpen the user description. I worked on a harvesting project years ago that looked similar to your mockup. Look up yellow team "Sprouticus". I introduced them to The Farm School in Athol MA - great people. They needed a cost-effective way to harvest delicate greens. The device that was developed by the team was a bit off the mark. At the same time, a local high schooler developed an attachment to a battery powered drill that cut and flipped the greens into a bag. Way simple and effective. The high schooler focused on small, cheap, and practical - because that's what the farm needed. You described something like "multiple tools", yet we only saw one tiller. Must you devise multiple tools? Why not focus on one specific need of the farm? What would that need be? As modeled, why wouldn't a small tiller from Harbor Freight not do the job? Sure, you might have to make a few more passes, but you would do so much faster. It's about the work (in the energy and power sense of the word). I love that you engaged facilities. Please stay safe. that thing is damn scary and nothing to joke about. get some guards on there and develop a safety plan. If you continue on this, we will be all over you on the safety business.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
No feedback provided
Dave Custer
Concept
The user and use are clear. I don't feel like I understand the tool system, which makes it hard to judge the utility of your concept. Is this an opportunity to rethink how bed farming shouldest be done?
Analysis
Can you avoid getting bogged down designing every gardening tool that is available at Home Depot to incorporate into your concept? Is there a specific crop that you could target that would introduce you to the urban farmer market? (My guess is that marijuana would be a high-value test crop. Or fancy lettuce.)
Execution
The ability to adjust to different bed geometries was clear in the mockup demo.
Elizabeth Stevens
Concept
Farmhand: Clear, well-rehearsed presentation. It was effective when you chose to set the stage for this product, helping the audience visualize the setting and user. It's great that you have done user interviews that has informed your design. The value seems clearly conceptualized.
Analysis
No feedback provided
Execution
From a communication standpoint, the product mechanism and value were clearly and quickly conveyed using your model. It quickly gets the point across, so the audience can dig into the finer details.