DESIGN CHALLENGE: DESK ORGANIZER By: Owen Gao, Amina Taslim, Drishti Lakhi

DEFINE THE PROBLEM Keeping an office desk from becoming cluttered with papers, devices such as pens, pencils, staplers, paper clips, post-it notes, and writing pads is a never ending task. This hinders work space and organization. Design and model a product that will reduce the clutter that accumulates on office desks and frees up space.

BRAINSTORM

RESEARCH AND GENERATE IDEAS To start putting together ideas, we first thought of all the possibilities. This was using our ideas from the brainstorming stage. We knew what we needed and so we started drawing desk organizers with random parts that had some important purpose, and eventually we compiled all the ideas into one desk organizer that became our final design.

IDENTIFY WITH RESTRICTIONS Must not attach to the desk Must fit into a box with interior dimensions of 6in depth x 12 in width x 10in height Must include a recessed area, a bent plastic part, and must have a base ¾ in. thick Must have a minimum of five different parts once assembled Must hold a minimum of six parts

POSSIBILITIES

SELECT AN APPROACH We selected our approach based upon the needs of people (ex: teachers, corporate executives, home office workers, and businessmen). The one that we chose out of the three main possibilities was the one that we thought met all the requirements and went above and beyond. This organizer is perfect and can hold any (small) stationary item that makes desks messy. It has small and large compartments of different shapes. It also has compartments that can be closed and opened (drawers).

DESIGN PROPOSAL Our final design was the one that we felt would be the most helpful on a desk. It can be used in many ways. All of its compartments can be used to store many different items. For example smaller items such as a stapler or a few paper clips can be kept in one of the drawers, the open compartment, or even the top of the organizer where they would be most easily accessible. Because of reasons like this we chose our final desk organizer.

MODEL OR PROTOTYPE

RESULTS Our design was optimal as it allowed for many different types of things to be held, such as pencils, pens, binders, folders, and papers. It was aesthetically pleasing and fulfilled all the requirements of a desk organizer. It is something that will not let a desk get messy, if you make use of it properly. All its parts will help every person in their own way.

CONCLUSION 1. Why is it important to model an idea before making a final prototype? It is important to model an idea because you can always go back and change your idea, unlike with your final prototype. 2. Based on your experiences during the completion of the Design Challenges, what was the hardest thing about working as a team? The hardest thing about working together was splitting the work evenly. We should have let more people make the desk organizer on inventor.

CONCLUSION (Cont.) 3. What is a design brief? A design brief is a collection of documents for a project that outline the processes and information in the project. Includes documents such as: meeting minutes, company info, problem description, and brainstorming/sketches. 4. Besides a three-fold brochure, how else can you market your design? We can put up flyers around, have big posters, use television ads, and market in a newspaper.

End