Lizzy Kong
Partner: Zainab
Purpose
- To froth milk
- When batteries are inserted and the switch is flipped, it vibrates to agitate the milk
- People who like frothed milk and want an at home cheap alternative
- Froth milk, easy to use, hand held, cheap, for a cup, smaller portions
- Materials, cost, ability to be mass produced
Observation
- Works by transferring electricity from battery to vibrate the wire rod and coil attached to the end.
- It is hand held and it is cheap and it is easy to use
- Designed as a hand held device to make it simple/self explanatory and easy to hold
- The switch on the side is mapping because we know pushing it down turns it on and releasing it back up turns it off. The + and – on the top compartment show us where the batteries go and how they align if I knew how to read them. The warning signs on the side of the frother are affordances because they indicate how to correctly dispose of the tool but also serve as extra grip.
Test
- IT WORKS (extremely well)!!! It is ergonomic and very powerful for its small stature. Since it is just vibration I think it would be very durable as long as you do not froth an entire jug of milk or something.
- It frothed the milk very well, so much in fact that the milk doubled in volume!!
Versus our own device
- Made bubbles
- She does exactly what is expected of her! She gets the job done! You tell her to froth, she will froth!
- She protects from milk harm, will not splatter in your face like the Aerolatte
- Mapping—easy to hold and grasp stir stick complete with tranquil color of green while you agitate your milk. Our frother will agitate your milk but not you! She even comes w a durable, perfectly circular splash guard with hot glue edges to not hurt your fingers
- Affordances—since splash guard is flat you can rest small items on top of it when she is not in use
- Advantages—easier to clean than IKEA, it was made in like thirty min of class time with household materials and blood and sweat and hard works
- Disadvantages—she’s perfect, doesn’t fit easily in drawer, not adaptable with just any cup
- To improve it: We would use battery powered motor if we knew how to make one by hand
Disassembly
- The battery sends electricity to the copper wire which completes the circuit so that the motor can vibrate and then the metal stirrer and the coil attached to it will come into contact w the milk and froth it
- It is made most likely with an assembly line of machinery, and over 20 feet of copper wire, grease, plastic components for hand held mechanism, and steel rod and coil
- About twenty parts
- Surprised by how much wire is coiled in such a small thing and how strong Zainab is at breaking open the frother
Analyze
- Zainab was much better at breaking open hers than I was, so we will use hers as the reference point for the parts on spreadsheet. Didn’t have time to handwrite the labels on the poster paper and cannot write legibly on to the picture I took with the computer. Hopefully the names on my spreadsheet are pretty self explanatory.
- parts spreadsheet
- Strengths: it is cheap, it does its job, and its easy to figure out and use!
- Weaknesses: can only froth small cup of milk at a time, operates using batteries so need to replace every so often.
- Refinements: make it rechargeable, like electric toothbrush. Use more expensive materials that are stronger and more durable to handle larger quantities of milk and/or make frothing faster.
- Learned from disassembly that there is so much condensed in such a small object, and it was all probably made from an assembly line of machines. I don’t even want to see the inner workings of making and manufacturing iPads.
