Design Notebook
11-7-04
The purpose of this assignment was to create a mechanical water balloon launcher that could launch a balloon 20 meters, and be used safely by a third-grader. Over the past five weeks, we have done our best to accomplish that task. We interviewed third graders and their families to determine the wants and constraints the potential customers had. We defined the problem and brainstormed close to 100 potential ideas for solving it. We used our customer wants to create metrics and the metrics to create features for our water balloon launcher. We used these metric and the current benchmark launcher to choose a concept that would both be interesting for the child and not overly complicated to use. Throughout this process we completed countless tables and charts of brainstorming techniques and KT Analysis. Once our concept was selected we created numerous design sketches and researched potential materials for the launcher. Then we integrated our sketches into a final design, which turned out to be successful in that it worked, and it appealed to both young children and their parents. Finally, we constructed the launcher and made plans so that anyone else can put it together. We tested the launcher over and over again, constantly making little adjustments to improve distance and consistency. Once we had the launcher working to our standards, we allowed an 8-year-old child to test it, so that we could make sure that it met the most important requirement at all. And it did; the child could operate the launcher perfectly, and he had a great time doing it, which is what really matters.
