Wound Protector

Design Brief

The main problem solved by this product is to solve the difficulty that the injured person needs to isolate the wound from water when taking a bath. This is of great help to people of all ages and occupations, as small as a finger scratched by the printing paper, to a large incision left by the operation, these wounds need to be kept dry. However, the biggest threat they face is the water flow during bathing. At this time, a product is needed to isolate the user's wound from the water flow and produce a protective cover to ensure the dryness of the wound and avoid infection. Injuries are inevitable and sudden, so all families need such a product to cope with emergencies.

User Interviews

In terms of user research, I first designed some questions that are very common and have a constructive effect on my product. These questions are not tricky and are suitable for non-professionals to answer, which can avoid random guessing due to not knowing the professional field. It can be seen that the people I choose are also representative occupations in all age groups. This shows that middle-aged and elderly people are generally interested in such products. Through their feedback, I got the target audience of my product. I set more specific questions about this and found more specific people.

After determining that the audience for this product is mostly young people, I set up a new round of questions and looked for people of the same age group, different occupations and life stages to answer. They also gave their own opinions on the preference of such products, and I summarized the user research: This product needs to be low cost, comfortable to wear, recyclable, adjustable and suitable for multi-position wearing.

Olivia Baldwin

Age: 45 years old

Work: Maidservant

“I really don't want to be unable to accompany my son and go swimming with him because of my wound, or make my employers unable to eat delicious meals.”

Personas

Theodore Gilbert

Age: 28 Years Old

Work: Policeman

“When I heard that I would not be able to bathe by myself for three months, I very much hoped that a wound would kill me.”

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Conceptual Sketches

At this stage, I tried to draw different kinds of structures. They have the same effect, but their positions may be different. I also tried to design different structures to match multiple body parts as much as possible, so as to save the user's purchase cost. At this stage, I conducted a lot of exploration and experimentation and finally refined the two main structures, the protective shell with the rope and the protective cover. The exploration of different structures will lay a solid foundation for the next model making.

Sketch Models

I made the structures in the sketch above one by one, and the model at this stage did not involve the use of materials. Due to the peculiarities of my design, they are almost all one-to-one in size, so after making them, I can wear them all on my arms or legs for structural experiments. Since the choice of material has not yet been decided, this experiment only tested the tightness of the structure. I wore these models and stretched my arms into the raw rice, and judged whether the structure passed through the number of rice grains leaked in. Experimental results show that some structures will be abandoned, such as protective covers and snap buttons.

Mock Full Scale

After the above experiment, I finally decided to use the structure on the previous page with ropes and rubber on the top and bottom. It can be adjusted well to match different body thicknesses, whether it is arms or thighs. At the same time, rubber as a seal can also ensure tightness. In this production stage, I used tpu as the main fabric surface, combined with woven elastic band and buckle for production.

Physical Model & Material Used

This is the material that was used in the final solid model and rendering model. They are tpu frosted fabric, 1.5cm elastic woven belt and buckle, and medical rubber. Since I did not find a suitable medical rubber in the end, I chose ultra-light clay instead.

Rendering