Bhanu Chander (Product Design)

"This post is a sample in order to give you an idea of how to post your works in this blog"

Hi,

Here are some of my works. Please leave your feedback in the comment sections. Thanks

Question :

Design a multi-purpose walking stick for the elderly. State your perception of the problem and the opportunities that your solution provides. Present your concept through sketches, showing the overall form, different functions  and its construction details.

(Appeared as question no. 10 in CEED 2009 exam paper)

Perception of the problem

Walking sticks are a basic need for elder people especially for walking around, morning walks and also while having long strolls. Elders usually find difficulty in carrying generally used things like water bottle, torch light (for night walks) and so on. Keeping walking stick in one hand and things like bottles or torch lights as well as carry bags in other hand is really difficult.

Old people usually do Surya pranam exercises as well as Surya-namaskar during early mornings as well as during sun set and if they are in a room, they may face difficulty in finding the right direction (East). Elder people likes to hear music on the go and most of them wear spectacles. They will get irritated whenever their walking stick fells down. 

Opportunities that the proposed design provides

The solution given through the design will help the user (elders) solve the basic identified problems in the following manner. 

1. The proposed design supports holding arrangement for half-liter water (or any soft drinks) bottle by making use of elastic cloth material, arranged above the center of the stick (below hand-hold), The reason for placing the bottle near the hand-grip is because the bottle weight will be handled very well in that position unlike placing it at the bottom.
2. A mini-torch light system is integrated in the new walking-stick's front face of hand-grip (as shown in illustration) with switch arrangement for on and off. Hard rubber type of material is proposed so that when the walking stick fell down accidentally, the torch arrangement wouldn't get damaged.
3. A magnetic compass is included on the top of the rubberized hand-grip (with torch on front face) to let the users know the direction especially while doing Surya pranam exercises.
4. A mp3 player will be made available at the back side of hand grip integrated with Bluetooth technology to connect with cordless Bluetooth head phones for music. 
5. An optional  mobile phone cum spectacle holder (made from sponge or foam material) can be provided.
6. Two short supportive legs ( with optional bottom lights) were proposed for the designed stick (at the bottom) so as to make it stand, because keeping in a slant position will balance the weight of the stick along with water bottle. 
7. Aluminium is considered for constructing the stick to make it dead light, considering the weight of the water bottle and other accessory integration.

Final sketches illustrating the solutions and construction of designed walking stick were shown below :

Rough sketch to get ideas on the design were illustrated below.

Hope, you now got an idea on how to create a design post with explanations about your work ...........Good luck with your start.