Now that I have figured out a few design specifications for my product from the interview I conducted with a potential client for the sportsgear, I have created two possible designs for the product.
Out of these two designs, I have chosen one design as my final after comparing them both and analyzing their advantages and weaknesses. I did not choose my initial design for two main reasons: its material and their somewhat bulky size. The actual headphones themselves were planned to be made out of plastic, coated in a thin layer of wax to make the product shinier, yet still water proof, and so although beneficial to sales of the product due to the gleaming finish and therefore visual appeal, considering that the shiny plastic material also makes the headband slippery, it would do more harm than help when the swimmer is in the water, seeing as they would slide off of the person's head - plastic is also easily cracked and breakable, meaning that it is not a practical option for headphone material when the person wearing it will be quite active. In the regard of their 'bulky size', notwithstanding that the headphones did have a slot to plug them in to the rest of the user's swim attire, the build of the headband was thicker, meaning that it would not as slimly fit in with an athlete's swim cap as my final design in comparison, proving more of a hindrance than an advantage.
Here's a rough sketch of the final design that I chose:
Since the writing in the photo is not clear, here is a list of pros & cons of this design:
Advantages:
Out of these two designs, I have chosen one design as my final after comparing them both and analyzing their advantages and weaknesses. I did not choose my initial design for two main reasons: its material and their somewhat bulky size. The actual headphones themselves were planned to be made out of plastic, coated in a thin layer of wax to make the product shinier, yet still water proof, and so although beneficial to sales of the product due to the gleaming finish and therefore visual appeal, considering that the shiny plastic material also makes the headband slippery, it would do more harm than help when the swimmer is in the water, seeing as they would slide off of the person's head - plastic is also easily cracked and breakable, meaning that it is not a practical option for headphone material when the person wearing it will be quite active. In the regard of their 'bulky size', notwithstanding that the headphones did have a slot to plug them in to the rest of the user's swim attire, the build of the headband was thicker, meaning that it would not as slimly fit in with an athlete's swim cap as my final design in comparison, proving more of a hindrance than an advantage.
Here's a rough sketch of the final design that I chose:
Since the writing in the photo is not clear, here is a list of pros & cons of this design:
Advantages:
- Built with a special waterproof combo of 65% silicone elastomer and 35% rubber material to both insulate heat and keep your ears dry underwater as well snugly fit around the shape of your head & staying in a fixed place on your also rubber swim cap while swimming, due to friction
- Very slim & sleek design that allows the comfort of it smoothly fitting in along with your other swim attire
- A positioning clip on the inside of the headband that allows you to position the headphones as you wish and slot it into place underneath the seam of your swim cap to ensure no movement or the headphones loosening mid-swim
- Power button in a safe, discrete place on the inside of the headband that ensures that no other objects accidentally hit the switch and turn the product on/off all of a sudden
- Spongy and cushiony soft-pleather interior for sensitive ears that allow comfort and rimmed with airtight wax to prevent water entering your ears and in the long run, illnesses from that as well as improving sound quality by blocking out other sounds
- Lockable touch-screen volume control and music download options with a high quality display to ensure that nothing else in the environment accidentally knocks a volume button and changes your preferred volume of music as well as allowing you to download your music with ease
- Additional feature of in-built Camera for leisure snorkeling and scuba-divers allows you to capture precious moments underwater when at tropical reefs, or to photograph diverse marine life - no more need for the unnecessary bulk of an underwater GoPro camera!
- App screen with four in-built apps that allow installation of music of your preferred method: - iTunes, download songs you already own from your Apple ID - USB Reader, transfer music files or export photos from headphones to your computer - WiFi & Bluetooth, another easier option to transfer data files via social media and Bluetooth
- USB port to physically link other devices
- It is a simplistic yet attractive design that can be created in a number of different colors (as offered at the bottom of the sketch), meaning there are many options to be offered to customers to make the product visually appealing
A couple disadvantages to this product include that the 'Song Options' panel of buttons were located on a separate wire hanging from the headphones - this means that there will be a wire trailing from the actual headphones that you need to play, pause, stop, rewind and fast-forward the songs you play, allowing the possibility that anything that tugs on this wire can pull the headphone set askew. This can be improved by removing the wire and adding the Song Control panel to the touchscreen along with the volume control keys, which is something that I will have to remember during the Create task.
Overall though, considering that the advantages outweigh the disadvantage, and seeing as the few disadvantages there are can be fixed to improve the product and meet my design specifications, this is a much better design than the first one, and is apt to be created, therefore I can finalize this as the design plan to build off of.
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