45° Door Catch
Minimum design for ignored problem
Team
Andy Ma / Industrial Designer
Dan Qian / Industrial Designer
Yi Yuan / Industrial Designer
My Role
Lead the concept design project from research, defining problems, concept making, to visualization and mockup making/ testing.
Design Duration
3 Months
Recognition
Project Background
We all know that design focuses on solving problems and making our lives better. However, good design usually means high cost, which people suffering from poverty cannot afford. So our group tried to figure out how to redesign with the limited cost for poor people.
On-site Research
As a result, our group set Chinese villagers as our target users and redesign one object in their lives. For better understanding their living environment, we planned a field trip to Jiangxi Province. Through the 1-week village-life and the interviews with local villagers, we summarized lifestyle of the Chinese villagers and collected several objects they use in daily lives. Then we listed merits and drawbacks of each object and considered how can redesign one of them based on utility and get rid of high production cost meanwhile.
Problem Finding
After summarizing their living environment, we found the design opportunities from the traditional door catch and started focusing on redesigning it with two concerns.
· Frequent bumps make the door catch
bent and deformed, decreasing its
service life.
· Traditional door catch is movable,
the user gets scraped and hurt easily.
Concept Sketch
Mockup Making and Testing
Design Outcome
Design Description
Traditional door catch is still used widely in Chinese villages. When not latched closed, the front part of the door catch is movable and can be bumped or scraped easily, deforming the metal and making it unusable. The axis of rotation on the 45° Door catch has been refined to 45°, so the movable part of the catch naturally hangs down due to gravity which prevents it from moving freely and getting caught or bent. As a result, service life is extended, and safety is ensured.
Before
Now
Before
Now
