Hello my name is Aliza Camacho and right now I am an intended International Relations with Economics major, although I would still like to explore Psychology, Computer Science, and Engineering. Furthermore, I decided to take this class so I could explore the engineering field and see whether it could be something I would like to pursue.
The consumer product that I believe has notable design features is a pump dispenser, even though it is typically not the main product. For example, when you buy a bottle of lotion the main product is the lotion, and the pump is a part of the bottle to make it easier to dispense the lotion. I think the good features of a pump dispenser are that it can improve the consumer’s experience with the main product by increasing the usability with its simple design. Although, bad design features would be that a pump can reduce accessibility to the main product. For example, when the lotion begins to run out, the tube cannot easily move around the bottle from the fixed position unless the cap is removed. It would be interesting to explore how adjustments could be made to the pump dispenser to eliminate this limitation.
I chose the pump dispenser because I find it interesting that it may typically go unnoticed since it is not the main product but this it is still being used every time the main product is used. Although a pump can be quite annoying if the main product tends to dry, clog the pump and the pump’s usability factor is decreased. The pump can also be aggravating since it is in one fixed position which can reduce the amount of the main product that can be used and accessed. One creativity question I would have is how much more would it cost to change the design of a lid using a pump. Would it increase the cost significantly if the surrounding material of the pump (that keeps it in a fixed position on the lid) was changed to something flexible versus the hard plastic normally used?