designapalooza’s posterous

I have never actually used this product, but the details of its design make it a
product that I would buy. A washlet is essentially a high-tech toilet seat that
has many functions and addresses needs that you never even knew you had. After
using the toilet, the toilet seat can clean your rear at one touch of a button.
 This is done by extending a wand, which shoots a jet of water at the
appropriate area. The user can then activate a dryer to dry the area that was
just washed. Additional features include automatic flushing and automatic
opening and closing of the lid when a user approaches and leaves. Some models
even have pulsating and massaging options for the stream of water. A heated
seat ensures that you will never freeze your behind on a cold seat again.
Because washlets can eliminate the need for toilet paper, they also promote
environmental consciousness. It is unfortunate that they are only really
prevalent in Asia.
 
For more information, see .
 
- Nick Dou

Since I have been bashing badly designed products/systems, I will talk about
something that I think is designed well. I got my Westone UM1?s as a
birthday present two years ago and I love them. They are in-ear headphones
with a foamy tip that is inserted into the ear canal. This design resembles an
earplug and in fact, it can block up to 25dB of noise. The cord wraps over the
ear instead of hanging straight down from them, which is more comfortable to
use. Also, the cord has a twisted design that makes them resistant to tangling
but still easy to wrap. The level of isolation can be bad in certain
situations, because I literally cannot hear somebody speaking next to me.
In-ear monitors from Shure have a special device that lets the headphone user
hear the outside world by pressing a button.
 
- Nick Dou

Ice skating is a very enjoyable activity, especially when rentals are only three
dollars at Johnson. However, ice skates can be a real pain. When the previous
wearer did not lace the skates properly, they can be difficult to loosen and
tighten, and re-lacing them takes forever because there are so many holes.
They have to be tied just right, not too loose or too tight, otherwise they
will hurt. The skates themselves are extremely stiff and there is virtually no
padding, causing inevitable pain after an hour. I found myself taking frequent
breaks because my feet were hurting. Another disadvantage of rental skates is
that they are usually not sharp, which prevents smooth gliding.
 
-Nick Dou

I used to have a dog named Einstein, he was a good friend.  He is now living with my parents since I now live in a dorm.  In order to fill the void of not having a pet I recently purchased a dwarf hamster.  The girl at the pet store told me the hamster was nocturnal, but I had no idea what the meaning of that was.  My problem was that the dumb hamster ran on is wheel in the middle of the night while i was trying to sleep.  The reason for this is the low cost engineering of the wheel.  The support and bearing system was previously composed of a simple cantilever shaft and a plastic housing. Below is a picture of the old shaft.  So in order to quiet down the hamster i modified the wheel so that it ran on a bearing.  The new system is composed of a flange bearing bolted to the wheel with two round plates. An Allen bolt, some flare washers and a butterfly nut served to secure it to the cage. In this particular situation i took care of my problem.

By: Heraclio Hernandez

     

Click here to download:

HAMSTER_WHEEL.zip (6481 KB)

Lifehacker brought up the very good point that board games are an absolute headache to deal with.
http://lifehacker.com/5138507/store-board-games-efficiently

Boxes of different sizes, made of weak cardboard that doesn't hold the weight of too many boxes stacked on top, each box taking up far more room that the game actually requires, removing a game at the bottom of the stack without messing up the ones on top, the mess made inside the box when you try to store it vertically.

It's just all a mess.

They brought up the point of "library" or "book" style boxes for board games, which, frankly, I've never heard of. It sounded like a great idea though. However, a quick Google search revealed that there really wasn't many of such boxes. This is the only kind I could find, and it's for classic games: . <Note: I had trouble getting the pic attached, no idea why.>

Feels like a great niche for a well designed product to fill.
Hmmmmm... there's an idea...

Kuan Cheng

There are two basic designs for stove tops. Either the controls are on the top, against the all, or on the bottom, closer to the user.

I feel like overall, the design in which the controls are closer to the user is a better design because it eliminates the need to reach over the hot food. In fact, this makes so much sense to me that I can hardly see why the other design exists at all. The only reason I can think of is to prevent small children from turning on the stove. Which, I guess, is a legit concern. But it's such a small demographic that I really don't think they deserve an entire stove design, right? Wouldn't it make more sense to just design all the stoves one way, and then have other little gadgets which help keep little hands from turning on the stove?

Kuan Cheng

   

Click here to download:

Stove_Controls.zip (100 KB)

One of the most puzzling things about our society is that on certain occasions, it expects females to encase their feet in objects which contort their feet into very unnatural poses. High-heeled shoes, for better or worse, are expected to be staples in almost all female wardrobes.
 
The worst type of high-heeled shoes are the ones with tapered (i.e. pointy) close-toe construction (see Exhibit A below). Not only is all your weight already resting on your toes (due to the heels), but your toes are encased in a space which does not geometrically match your actual foot's shape. How many of you were born with pointy feet?
 
Yes, yes, yes - we've heard all the arguments about high heels increasing your height, visually elongating your legs, etc. etc. etc. But it is a fact that these things are not truly comfortable and have been podiatrist-disapproved for ages. My beef is with the person who first invented them.
 
--Alice, who proudly wears flat shoes as much as she possibly can.

The Volt is Chevy's great white hope. This serial hybrid runs entirely on an electric motor, using gas only to power an onboard generator, or "range-extender". This gives the Volt comparable range to current non-hybrid vehicles. The cars lithium ion batteries allow for roughly 40 miles of pure electric drive before the range extender kicks on. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid, meaning a nightly charge could keep you away from the pump indefinitely, as long as you keep your daily driving under 40 miles like most Americans. Quite a cool looking car as well, far from the dumpy looking compact Prius. If gas goes up again before the cars release in 2010, it should be a hot item. However, the car does have its drawbacks. Energy from the grid is not necessarily "clean", so the Volt's environmental contribution will likely be negligible. Also, for those who drive in the colder northern states where your heat is blasting all winter, the Volt will need to run its gas engine at all times to keep the warm air flowing. This will put a dent in your impeccable gas mileage.

While the Volt is not perfect, it represents a giant step in the right direction as the world moves toward more sustainable and green transportation.

Gavin

[I'm using Dove, because it's widely available and pretty representative.]
 
Body wash bottles are generally pretty similar. They are meant to be stored upright, and you must tip them upside-down to dispense the soap, while giving the bottle a squeeze. The major problem with these bottles is that when the bottle starts becoming empty, the remaining soap collects at the bottom of the bottle, and the few seconds of tipping it upside-down during your shower are not sufficient to get it to flow down to the spout. And you also have to squeeze vigorously and shake it (just like the getting-ketchup-out-of-a-Heinz-bottle struggle).
 
Obviously, there are several ways to get around this. If your bottle's top is flat (as shown below in an older incarnation of Dove), you can simply store the near-empty bottle upside-down all the time (and let gravity do the work for you). If the bottle top is round (as shown in the current incarnation of Dove below), you're out of luck.
 
Better body wash bottle designs exist - including the pump-top (like for many hand soaps) and the bottom-dispensing types (shown below for Pantene conditioner).

Note that bottles are used for other things such as lotions, condiments, adhesives, etc. and many of these products share packaging and packaging shortcomings.
 
--Alice

   

Click here to download:

Generic_Body_Wash_Bottles.zip (39 KB)