Design Hackathon
2023
A thoughtfully designed solution featuring a toolless side brush for an optimal & effortless user experience
The Toolless Side Brush project emerged as our submission for the 2023 Design Hackathon at iRobot, featuring a collaborative effort over 3 intense weeks. Our team, consisting of a Mechanical Engineering lead, an Industrial Design lead (myself), and a Systems Test Dev lead, meticulously crafted a patent-pending design with a strong focus on user experience and cost-effective parts replacement. This innovative solution, aimed at enhancing the physical UX during side brush cleaning and maintenance, secured 1st place in the People’s Choice Award and 3rd place in the Product & Service category following a rigorous evaluation by the judges.
Role
Lead ID
Contribution
Concept Development
Industrial Design
User Experience
Prototyping
Color, Material and Finish
Design For Manufacture
The Current Problems
The Real Complaints
Problems
Customers often neglect proper cleaning of the side brush, leading to replacement costs exceeding $100k in 2022 alone. Not every customer has a screwdriver or other necessary tools when needed to remove the side brush. The post-mission hair buildup exacerbates the cleaning/maintenance process, making it an unpleasant experience.
Design Goals
Our goal is to create a thoughtful design that provides our users with a toolless side brush, encompassing both function and aesthetic aspects. We want to offer a more appealing user experience for cleaning/maintenance and cut down the cost of parts replacement at the same time.
Brainstorming
We kicked off our brainstorming sessions with rapid whiteboard sketches. After days of discussions, we gravitated towards the thumbscrew direction for numerous advantages: cost-efficiency, a straightforward design, user-friendliness, tool-free removal, and eco-friendliness, as the side brush cap can be designed for reusability.
CAD & Evaluation
3-arm rotation lock
2-arm rotation lock
Retractable handle
I teamed up with the ME to kickstart CAD modeling based on our initial ideas. Following a thorough evaluation of factors such as user-friendly physical UX, design simplicity, and manufacturability, the team collectively agreed to advance to the next phase with the selected designs - featuring a 3-arm rotation lock and a 2-arm rotation lock, became the final contenders for building high-fidelity working prototypes, slated for user testing.
Prototyping & User Testing
Prototype Building
We transformed our virtual design concepts into physical prototypes and tested them in real-world settings. This enables us to evaluate the product’s functionality, ergonomics, and aesthetics in a more accurate and realistic manner.
User Testing
We got 33 participants to test our prototypes - 17 votes for the 3-arm rotation lock and 16 votes for the 2-arm rotation lock. There are a few quotes from the testers - “The 3-arm rotation lock aligned perfectly with the 3 bristle arms“ “Easy to pinch and twist it“ “Long nails friendly“ “stable and easy to place in the center“. Although the votes are extremely close for the 2 concepts, the team agreed to move forward with the 3-arm rotation lock as our final design direction.
3-arm rotation lock
2-arm rotation lock
Final Design
Introducing the final design of the toolless side brush - built upon the 3-arm rotation lock with refined surfacing and geometry. The cap is intelligently crafted for easy removal from the side brush, promoting convenient reuse. Clear communication is facilitated through illustrated arrow icons on the cap and lock/unlock symbols on the bristle arms. Additionally, we had fun exploring diverse CMF options catering to different tiers, price points, and special editions.
We won :D
1st Place in People’s Choice Award & 3rd Place in Product & Service!
We are thrilled to announce our success in securing two prizes in a single Design Hackathon competition. The three-week journey was intense, but the end result proved to be incredibly rewarding! Photo from left to right is - ME lead Carlos, ST Dev lead Kat, and ID lead Max(me).
