Throughout the week before spring break, the teams in our Making Things Class worked on refining our product prototypes. Based on feedback from our instructors as well as fellow classmates, we have all created several iterations of our prototypes. For example, our latest iPhone speaker (called "Boost") prototype features a deeper dock for the phone to sit in. This should improve both the fit of the phone as well as the level of sound amplification. In addition, we also redesigned our product’s legs by making them longer legs and placing them at a more relaxed angle. This new design should enhance the product’s overall stability.

Looking forward, we have also been investigating various ways to manufacture Boost at both larger volumes and a cheaper unit cost. 3D printing is a great for rapid prototyping, but has some limitations, such as low volume output for manufacturing purposes. Thus, we are considering injection molding our product because of this technique's advantage of cheaply and quickly producing mass quantities.

We had a week of rest with the Spring Break and are back to Make Things! Find out more about what our class has been doing over the semester so far.

Written by Jon Prinz