product design portfolio work

4. •I first thought that being a metal teapot it
would be magnetic but after extensive testing
the teapot is made from stainless steel
therefore it is not magnetic. There is a picture
and video below on proving the testing.
The average males hand length is 189 mm and the
width/breadth is 84mm. The pictures below are of
my second prototype (tested on the same person
who tested the last prototype and it didn’t fit).
This is the rough
sketch of what I
hoped the product
would look like.
It is pretty much a
smaller and single
handed version of
an oven glove.
Prototype:
In use.
video
Out of use.
A problem with this
prototype is that I used
measurements of my own
hand so limiting the range
of future customers that
could use the product.
Video
After researching I believe that Pyro blanket™ 32* would
be the best at protecting the users hand from heat as it is
not effected by water. I would also sew inside the teapot
glove either some fleece or other thick fabric with
insulating properties. Next I would sow parallel lines in one
direction. Then, sow intersecting perpendicular lines to
create a grid. The is a quilting effect it would also help the
heat protective quality's of the teapot glove.
Patterned
fabric
Insulating
fabric
Inside the
teapot glove
Development:
To combat this problem of size. I have
researched the average hand size of men as
they hand larger hands and could still be
used by women thus improving customer
viability. Although if the product is
successful, it could release a women’s
version of the teapot glove and this could
boost sales.
Quilted
fabric
*http://www.adlinsulflex.com/fire-blankets/pyroblanket-32-oz

5. This was the original idea to have one giant
piece of convex either metal or plastic which
would then snapped round the teapot handle.
As shown in the sketch.
This is the original sketch made during
designing. The idea is relatively quite
simple, attaching a zip to heat proof
material. The idea did not need much
development and as you can see from the
prototype the design has not changed.
It was soon realised that it wouldn't be
possible as I couldn't make the plastic curve as
well as I hoped.
Developments:
video
In case you are not familiar as to what a snap
band is or how it works (as they are called
many different names) please look at the
video.
This snap band is convex metal with a rubber
covering/coating.
Rubber is good and protecting from heat
unlike metal which conducts heat very
easily, these materials balance each other
out.
1I used the same snap band as in the video and placed it
3 Next I tried a slightly thinner piece and this curve round
into a ‘pocket’ I made out of some man-made fabric.
width ways but not round the top of the handle.
This is only a proto type as the man-made fabric is not
very good at insulating.
Video
2I then wanted to test what type of plastic would bend
round the teapot handle with the snap band. I first tried a
thick piece of plastic with did not seam to want to curve
round the handle.
4 This lead me to the conclusion that it would be best if
there was only the snap band in the ‘pocket’.
This works well as it
is a very innovative
idea and would
encourage kids into
remembering you
use the cover before
picking up the hot
teapot handle.
The zip I chose was a closed zip meaning it didn't completely separate from the other
side of the zip. This meant it would not attach on to the teapot handle like a coat as I
had originally planned. I solved this by cutting the connecter at the bottom off. this can
be seen in the picture. But this then lead to another problem involving how to connect
the two sides again once on the tea pot. I had to carefully interlink the sides this took a
lot of time and was fidderly which would make this product not commercially viable. I
realise now that it would have been much easier to buy a better zip.
In discussion with a member in a focus
group it was brought to my attention
that as the zip is metal as well as the
teapot, and metal is a good conductor
of heat, with the zip design it is merely
creating a new form of source for the
heat to travel to. So the zip with get
hot just as much as the teapot and
result in burning the users hand. To
combat this problem I could either
change the zip to a plastic replacement
or create a cover underneath the zip
but the material used could get caught
in the zip.
As you can see from the picture the
material product is not the full
length of the teapot handle this
leads for it to slip up and down
when pouring. A solution for this
would be to place rubber grips into
the design hopefully this would
improve the users grip and handle
of the product and also the slip
quality of the product.

6. Developments:
•I started off designing the Velcro version just
to wrap round and attach to its self.
•Soon after starting I realised that the fabric
slips on the metal pushing up the users hand
to the teapot body. This is a problem as the
teapot body is hot and could cause burns.
•I firstly thought that maybe as the teapot is
metal it would be magnetic. So I would be
able to incorporate a magnet in to the Velcro
design. But the teapot is not magnetic.
1 To combat this problem I redesigned the
cover to include pockets for the user to place
their fingers. This in solves the problem of
risk with the product and the consumer.
It was during
the placement
of this design
onto the
teapot handle
that I first
noticed the
problem with
the slip and
came up with
the possible
alternatives.
2 Another way of solving this problem
would be to increase the size/length of
the product thus creating no room for
the fabric to slip up or down the teapot
handle.
Here is a rough sketch
of what I hope the
prototype will look
Then again, using pro desk top I created the virtual
like.
prototype of my developed Velcro design with
pockets.
Simple
design
For multipurpose users (left and right
handed people)
First I made a teapot
on pro desk top. This
jpg is saved on album
as I have changed
material to steel as
that is what looked
most like the teapot in
real life.
This is the rough proto type
of the Velcro pockets. As you
can see the Velcro is on
opposite sides this is because
when you grip something
your thumb goes over you
fingers, and this is where the
Velcro join.
Here is the first
rough prototype
of the Velcro
design, made
from a man made
fabric blend of
cotton and
polyester and
Velcro. I sowed it
together using a
sewing machine
Here are sketches of just how
would lengthen the Velcro
design.
Plan view
Side view
Next I joined the two together creating a realistic design
of what my prototype would look like on a teapot .
This picture shows
the Velcro product in
use. As you can see
the pockets cover the
This is just an example. For a more
fingers, so if there is a
practical product I could use a
risk of the fabric
combination of all my
slipping the fingers
development ideas to improve the
will not get burnt as
Side view
Plan view
slip of the Velcro design.
there is heat
protective fabric over In evaluation I maybe shouldn't have used pro desktop as the
best way of explaining my design. As it is hard to replicate
them.
fabric virtually.
3 A different way I thought of improving the problem would be to create rubber
This is the Velcro design
grips on both the side touching the teapot and the fabric in the users hand.
with pockets around the
Hopefully this would help the fabric from sliding and give the customer more
teapot handle. As you
grip.
can see it is a little big
on the teapot i did this
in hope that my
development two would
work. It does not as the
material merely
bunches together and
the slide still happens.

7. video
Video
As pointed out by Hannah in the video
another problem with the design is
that the finger gap is painful to hold.
This is the rough sketch of the first
semi circle design. The labelling
explains how it would work and how it
is made.
This is the 2D design that I then
sent to the laser cutter to cut out.
I did not care for the colour as this
was a prototype. Once all cut out
and bended into the right shape I
would use acrylic glue to keep the
pieces together.
Development:
The problem with this design
prototype is that as it slides on the
teapot handle, the underneath is left
bare so the users fingers could touch
the metal handle and unintentionally
harm themselves.
The 2D design involved getting 3 ‘tear
drop’ shaped acrylic plastic pieces
they sticking them together using
acrylic glue. This would hopefully
create the thickness big enough to
cover the inside part of the teapot
handle.
A reason why this is not a very good
design is that there is no cover over
the outside teapot handle this could
result in burns and so on.
The colour was not a big part in
designing as these are only
prototypes. In the final piece I would
have set up a focus group consisting
only of my target market and going
with the majorities decision on the
best colour.
As you can see their is a difference
between the first initial sketch and the
2D design version for the laser cutter.
This is because when you pick up the
metal teapot your fingers tend to squish
together and many people have
different finger sizes I would not want to
alienate any potential customers if the
finger gaps were to small.
video
This video shows a good and bad
point of the semi-circle finger
grips by a users perspective.
The strip that encloses sides of the sides was shaped by being placed in the
oven then once reaching melting point moved to the teapot handle then bent
around. This gave the product a close to perfect fit when placed on the teapot.
Problems:
The tear drop design is the same
size as the inside handle of the
teapot. It solves the problem with
my first design (semi-circle, finger
gap) as its is placed inside the
teapot handle instead of around.
video
I added
some foam
support to
cushion the
sharp
edges of
the plastic
finger grips.
Video
Video
This video shows that finger grips are
very useful when I comes to picking up
the teapot its just the sizing used need
some work on as they are still to
small, the same problem the semicircle finger gaps have.