Materials handling pendant research & design
Observational Research
3D Co-Designing
Opportunity Mapping
Design Insights & Strategies
Foam Modeling
CAD Modeling
This project was completed during an undergraduate studio course that was sponsored by Columbus McKinnon Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of commercial and industrial hoists. Pendants control the large hoists and are the main channel of interaction that workers have with the hoists, but they had not been improved or redesigned in decades. Because of this, the company sponsored a project with the Design Department at The Ohio State University in order to find ways to improve these devices.
We started by conducting multiple rounds of observations of users and walkthroughs of various manufacturing facilities to gain a better understanding of the different environments in which hoists and pendants are used. We also conducted an on-site participatory design activity so that the workers could create and share their own ideal hoist control solutions by using a three-dimensional co-design toolkit.
Based on the previous activities, my team synthesized the research results into an opportunity map based on the needs, problems, and themes we uncovered. We then began to individually design solutions to meet those needs and solve the identified problems. By the end of the 10-week class, we each had developed both CAD models and tangible foam models of pendants, which were presented back to Columbus McKinnon. The concept that I created was selected to be further developed, and it has since been patented and engineered for manufacturing.
