Design exploration of new cloth wringing techniques based on design thinking principles and human-centric approach

Abstract

If you think about the hardest job in the world, what comes to your mind? Engineer? Athlete? President? The list goes on and on. But there’s one under-appreciated job, and it’s the Housewife. This idea was inspired by the very housewife in my household, my mum. It was during spring cleaning period before Chinese New Year, and she was wearing a wrist guard to which I asked why she needed them. She revealed that her wrist was hurting from the multiple cloth wringing after the entire cleaning process. I went on to ask my grandmother (also a housewife) who cooks every day and similarly she faced the same problem. Hence, as a Business graduate student concurrently studying undergraduate Engineering Science, I have taken an interest to tackle this problem using Design Thinking principles. In this project, a design thinking human-centric approach will be used to solve this problem with the incorporation of some mechanical engineering principles; exploring this project from intersection of business and engineering aspect of a product. This project aims to come up with a solution to eliminate the twisting action that exerts the wrists during cloth wringing. The objective of this project is to design a novel mechanism and idea for a cloth-dryer and explore how mechanical design principles tie in with the Design Thinking methodology. This cloth dryer aims to i) eliminate the twisting motion of the wrist, ii) dry cloth to dampness so that it can be used for cleaning.