The first step in creating a product is to identify the needs of the consumer. In the case of our home, the consumer base is entirely made of firefighters, paramedics and other fire professionals. We needed to create a survey, which we did through Survey Monkey, and then distribute said survey. At first, we struggled to send out the survey because as a group, we have very little personal contact with fire professionals. However, we came to find that we could contact fire departments across California and ask them to send our survey to their staff. In doing this, we received over 300 survey responses with extremely valuable feedback. Below is the analysis of some of the survey questions.
Step 2
When creating a product, it is key to remember that there are multiple ways to achieve the same results. Through the design process, our group needed to carefully examine different sub functions of our product including electricity, plumbing, soundproofing and deployment/size expansion. Because our product incorporated ideas from trailers, RVs, and modular homes, we found that each area easily contained several differing ideas.
Step 3
The third step in designing a product involves using decision matrices. Decision matrices allow you to thoroughly analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each aspect of your design, so that you can limit the number of parts, the different kinds of parts, and the cost of each part.
Decision matrices are not always correct, one must always include their own ideas and beliefs in the decision process.
Step 4
Step 4 includes multiple parts, all focused on testing prototypes in order to create a product that utilizes the best possible solutions to problems. At this step in the process of development, we truly began to realize how to take advantage of our various skill sets. Once we hit step four, we realized we were running out of time, so I jumped ahead to the next steps while James and Andre focused on completing detailed 3D models of our project. They did an amazing job of constructing functional models that brought our ideas to life.
Step 5
Step 5 was to create a defense for our product. This defense could also be seen as a sales pitch. In this particular case, we created a Google Slides presentation with an overview of our product, which we displayed alongside the 3D models that James and Andre created. The Google Slides is below.