Design brief:
My mother is always annoyed that every night the dog is afraid of being in the dark and barking. So she hopes that I can design a suitable lamp for our dog to ease her fear of the darkness.
Target user:
I am designing a lamp for my mum’s dog, she is very afraid of darkness, however, she only has really bright lights in her room which will affect her sleep when opened. As a designer, it will be a challenge for me to design a lamp for a pet, as most people wouldn’t realize that there is a need for a lamp for pets. But from this, I could design my lamp from a different perspective to suit the specific needs of my dog.
Design statement:
My mum
needs a way to stop her dog from barking at night
But can not find a perfect customized product for her dog.
Visualisation prototype:
Specification prototype:
Strength:
The lamp is more automated, it could light up whenever it is needed, in some cases for example at midnight, it will not need a person to manually open if the dog barks, so it will not disturb anyone's sleep. The look of the lamp is also very soothing for the dog, it looks like her favorite toy deer so she will feel safer when looking at the lamp. Allowing the lamp to put on the corner of the table helps to shine the light at a lower height and it is just suitable for a Chowchow (the type of dog)'s height.
Improvements:
The manual switch of the lamp could be made into a Bluetooth switch if possible so it could be controlled in a short distance. The tinkercad model uses an IR sensor instead of a sound sensor, however, the lamp will be more effective with a sound sensor as the main issue when the dog is afraid is barking.