Assistive Makeup Brush
I started developing this product for my Idea to Product class, a multi-disciplinary product development class. We are focused on using universal design to create a ergonomic makeup brush tailored to the user. Our makeup brush is specifically designed so that people of all abilities needs are met. Our hope is to bring accessibility into the beauty industry through our design.
Tools
Solidworks
3D Printers
Laser Cutters
Miro
Timeline
August 2022 - November 2022
Team
Isabella Johnson
Lily Rosenstein
Ruba Siddiqi
Shelly Scheier
Since we are still in the developmental stages of our product, we will not be releasing any specific information about our solution. If you would like to learn more, please contact me at chiou.jaclyn@gmail.com and I'd be happy to talk more in-depth.
THE PROBLEM
We decided to tackle making the beauty industry more inclusive. We chose this topic because the beauty industry currently has a gap in the market for people with disabilities. After some preliminary research and a group discussion, we decided to tackle the makeup industry, specifically makeup brushes as they challenge ALL users to use uncomfortable angles and lack design tailored toward the user. Originally, our target market was people with disabilities, but we did alter our market later as we continued researching and designing.
RESEARCH
We did a variety of research to understand the problem we were tackling, the target market, and need of people with disabilities and people who use makeup. We interviewed makeup artists, people with disabilities, physical therapists, teachers, makeup companies, and more to gain a stronger understanding. We performed ergonomic studies with able-bodied people and sent out a survey to comprehend people's makeup tendencies and opinions. With all our research, we decided our target audience is people with low-grip strength because they are a large group with an less complex problem to solve. As we are a small student group, it is more feasible to tackle a smaller problem and later expand to larger groups and market to a bigger audience.
IDEATION
Our goal is to have a makeup brush that is tailored to the user that is easy to grip. We came up with over 100 different ideas. We decided that a solution much be easy to grip, easy to assemble, facilitate comfortable angle of application, thick, lightweight, and sturdy. To narrow down the ideas, we analyzed each of the ideas, marked if each met the criteria above, and compared the ideas using a ranking system to weight criteria.
PROTOTYPING
We started our prototyping by creating our five best solutions of our clay. We adjusted our design based on ergonomics and feedback as our able-bodied group members used the brushes. We decided on a favorable design based on our experience prototyping. However, we tested our prototypes on people with low-grip strength as that is our target market and found differing results than able-bodied individuals.
These prototypes were manufactured in a plethora of different methods. As I am the only engineering student in the group, I was responsible for the manufacturing of the most prototypes, creating the CAD for 7 different designs on Solidworks. I created molds, used power tools, 3D-printed parts and laser-cut materials to create 8 unique prototypes to test on individuals with low-grip strength.
OUR SOLUTION
After our geriatric and clinical trials of our prototypes, we finalized a design and created a prototype of our solution.
Since we are still in the developmental stages of our product, we will not be releasing any specific information about our solution. If you would like to learn more, please contact me at chiou.jaclyn@gmail.com and I'd be happy to talk more in-depth.