Design Day Victory!
· Team Work, Framer, Product Development, 3D Printing, CAD
My team won 1st place at the University of Ottawa’s Design Day!*
*Specifically in the Accessibility category
We were assigned a client who had limited finger dexterity, making it harder for them to open small caps like on toothpaste tubes or makeup, and our goal was to design a product enable them to overcome this limitation.
And that’s exactly what we did.
Meet the Capella System, the Swiss Army Knife of assistive devices designed to help our client, and the 1.5+ million Canadians people facing similar challenges. Essentially it is a handle with an inverted cone at the end which the user is meant to push into the cap of the item to twist it open.
We engineered the handle for an ergonomic and natural grip, allowing shifting the workload from weak finger joints to the powerful muscles of the forearm. And to maximize that strength, we integrated a sliding T-Handle that magnetically attached to the back of the device. Through our testing, the team found that a single cone cannot open both a wide jar and a tiny, recessed lamp knob. So, we developed a modular magnetic system that allows for swappable cones of different angles.
Our extensive testing ensured the entire tool:
- Weighs just 57 grams
- Survived a 2-meter drop test onto a hard floor with zero damage
- The magnetic systems are intuitive & secure, and provide the clear, tactile feedback our client needs
I’m proud of what our team was able to accomplish, and I want to thank our members Amélie Lemieux, Rares Serban, Ayaz Mohammad Saad Nayeck, and Stephanie Chiamaka Obasi for helping us secure that 1st place win! I also want to thank our professor, Mohammad Alnabhan, and our project manager, Liam Cull, who provided valuable lessons and continuous feedback on our design.
And while you’re at it, check out the website that I created for Capella! Capella Site
