Does the ability to customize design affect product adoption and satisfaction?

This post is contributed by Greg Fisher, who conducted research on the question above, in partnership with the MakerLab. This post is part of our series on research at the lab, in addition to our initiatives in Education and Outreach. While the future applications of 3D printing technology continue to emerge, it is already apparent that 3D printing holds the ability to transform the way in which our society consumes products that organizations design for us to buy instead of making products for ourselves. During the spring semester, a dissertation research project utilized the Maker Lab to obtain unique insights about how modification of 3D printable product designs affects users’ sentiment of creating products, and how this sentiment of creation affects their likelihood of product adoption. Students who participated in this study were able to customize a digital design of a cell phone case to meet their unique preferences. As part of the study, participants were invited to the Maker Lab to 3D print their customized designs and receive their cases. Printing at the Maker Lab enabled students to experience the process of creating their own cell phone cases that they could keep and show to their friends. The students completed a brief post-print survey at the Maker Lab to measure the extent of their satisfaction with the product creation process as compared to the typical consumption process of buying a firm-designed product from a retailer. When asked to provide reasons why they did or did not like the experience, students reported comments such as “it was really cool to see it be created right before your eyes” and “I made it myself!”

MakerLab Featured in ICIC Webinar

ICIC_CEO_Series746_267_june10

Earlier this week, MakerLab Executive Director Aric Rindfleisch gave a presentation titled, "3D Printing: The Next Manufacturing Revolution?" as part of ICIC's CEO Webinar Series. ICIC stands for Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes development of US Inner City Businesses. ICIC was founded by Professor Michael Porter (Harvard Business School) in 1994 and has helped foster over 750 new companies and over 75,000 jobs since 1999. This Webinar, which is available on the ICIC Website, provides an overview of 3D printing, discusses its potentially revolutionary impact on business and highlights some of the ways in which the Illinois MakerLab has enhanced the innovation activities of local businesses such as PikMoments. If you would like to learn how our Lab can help your business or help you start a new business, please stop by or contact us at UIMakerLab AT Illinois DOT edu.

Makerlab at the Alumni Spring Luncheon

The College of Business alumni association put up a great event in Chicago, bringing together over a thousand alumni for the annual spring luncheon. It was a privilege to provide 3D printed souvenirs ( block I's ) for each table. One lucky person at each table was able to take that home.We had several conversations with alumni about the potential for this technology and many of them were amazed at the fact that the College of Business had taken leadership in this space.

Making Things Class Shoots Videos

Last week's class focused on shooting professional videos for each of our product teams. These videos were shot by John Tubbs and his crew from the eLearning Office at the College of Business and are intended to help market our products and/or seek additional funding for large scale manufacturing. It was awesome working with a very talented film crew and being the stars of the show! In addition to shooting our videos, we also started working on our marketing plan for each of our products. This semester is going by very quickly and it is exciting to see our work come to fruition! Here is an example of a video by one of the other groups in our class. They are developing a iPhone speaker that doesn't require either electricity or batteries.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=311139955677834&stream_ref=10

Written by Colin Korst

Making Things Class Nears the Finish Line!

This week's class was focused on refining and finishing up our final models. Many of us were finalizing details and were able to make progress on the scripts for our video pitches as well. We had another video conference with John Tubbs to work out the final details of our upcoming video recordings. As you can see in the pictures below, the our product (Mr. Jam) is nearing its final design and our prototyping is nearly complete. This latest prototype of our doorstop includes rounded edges to make it easier to handle and the addition of our logo. We believe that our product provides a unique and more versatile solution compared to currently available doorstops.

Written by Kendall Cox.

MakerLab supports students at HackIllinois

The Illinois MakerLab partnered with HackIllinois to lead a workshop on 3D printing conducted by our Guru, Danny Lohan. Students learned the capabilities of 3D printing in both small and large scale applications.

They also learned about the procedure involved in actually printing something. This was in preparation for the HackIllinois event the following weekend, where students developed their own products, and some of the teams used our free 3D printing services provided at the event. Find out more about the cool products designed at the lab on our Youtube Channel

http://youtu.be/NhJTi87eN1Y