Original Toys And Unusual Projects

Original Toys And Unusual Projects

Milk Frother

mILK fROTHER

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THE DESIGN OF A MILK FROTHER WITHOUT CHANGING THE INTERNAL COMPONENTS?

THE CURRENT FROTHER

TASK ANALYSIS

OBSERVATIONS

AMAZON USERS

After trying the frother for myself, I looked into how Amazon users were using it and what they thought about the current design.
The two standouts were of course:

Awkward to hold
Button position is unnatural

Ideation

The first round of ideation largely focused on bringing the button to the thumb.

Using what I was observing when a hand would hold the frother, I began guiding my design around how the thumb would reach the button.

3D FORMS IN CLAY

After exploring the button location, I swiftly moved to polymer clay to begin work on better understanding the ergonomic form I wanted
to achieve.

Form 1 resembles my first sketches most, while the others designs were developed naturally from this exploration process.

INTERNAL LAYOUT

Before moving on with any of these designs, I confirmed that, even at this stage, they would be able to hold the required components.

3D FORMS REFINED IN FOAM

Form 1 stayed mostly consistent from clay to foam
but at this stage both the curves and angles started becoming more clearly defined.

Form 2, while also similar to it’s clay counterpart,
began to take a far less abstract shape with a more defined profile.

With Form 4, the intent was to explore a smaller form factor with a more symmetrical design.

After converting Form 3 to foam, I rejected the concept
and instead developed Form 5. This form, was inspired by Form 4.

DATA DRIVEN FEEDBACK

A total of 14 people were interviewed.

In addition to the demographic information collected,
they were all asked to rate their preferred models from least to most usable.

KEY TAKE AWAYS

ANGLE OF USE:

NEEDS 90° BETWEEN
SHAFT AND WRIST

FINGER GROOVES:

ARE NOT COMFORTABLE

STORAGE:

VERY IMPORTANT

THIN FORMS:

ARE DISLIKED

PROTOTYPING

Developing CAD for this design presented a number of unique obstacles for me. In addition to the complexities inherent to an asymmetric organic form like this, the fairly small form factor made placing the batteries more complicated than what would otherwise be the case.

To solve these challenges, numerous revisions were 3D printed to insure fit, form, and functionality.

DETAILS

BATTERIES

BUTTON

BODY