Structure

Generate More Ideas in a Structured Manner

Part 1: SCAMPER

My first attempt at structured idea generation is to apply the SCAMPER prompt questions to an archetypical existing product related to one of my problem statements.  The product that I am going to direct these prompts at is a standard water bottle cage:

 Below, I a have listed out a sketch of an idea that was generated from each of the 7 SCAMPER prompts:

1. Substitute
2. Combine
3. Adapt
4. Magnify/Minify
5. Put to Other Use
6. Eliminate
7. Reverse/Rearrange

Substitute - What if I substituted the standard steel wire that water bottle cages are made out of with a flexible rubber, and also changed its shape?  My sketch shows an attempt to reform the geometry to be more conducive for stretching the inner diameter of the cage, and the replacing the material with a high durometer elastic rubber or spring steel.






Combine - What if I combined the cage and the bike frame that the cage is mounted on?  The bike (or a part of the bike) had an integrated cage, rather than the cage and the bike being two separate parts.











Adapt - What if I used something similar to the soft water bottle holders that are on the sides of backpacks and mounted that to a bike?  If I had a big enough cylindrical section of cloth or mesh (similar to what would be on the side of a backpack) and some draw strings to tighten & secure the pack, that might work.

Magnify/Minify - What if the cage was huge, and there was a high loft open cell foam in the interior of it to fill in the extra volume?  This way the cage itself would be big enough to accommodate very big containers, but the foam would hold smaller containers in place.  An added benefit here is that the foam would also offer some degree of thermal insulation

Put to Other Use - What if I used the cage as mounting hardware in a home?  This cage could easily be used to wall mount things in the house, such as a small plant holder.  I have also seen these cages used on bikes to hold battery packs within the water bottles rather than a beverage




 

Eliminate - What if the cage was eliminated entirely, and the water bottle was incorporated directly into the bike frame?  A hose or straw type system could transport the liquid from the bottle/bladder up to the cyclist

Reverse/Rearrange - What if the cage was positioned somewhere else on the bike besides mounted in the top of the down tube?

 

 

Part 2: Table Based Tools - Morphological Analysis

After completing the SCAMPER prompt exercise, I moved on to using the table based tools to generate ideas.  The specific method that I used was Morphological Analysis.  I examined the functional requirements of the water bottle cage.  The specific functional requirements of a water bottle cage are:

1. Holds beverage container in place
2. Mounts to bike frame/metal tube
3. Corrosion resistant
4. Can easily release beverage on demand
5. lightweight
6. resists deformation

From there, I came up with several other products, parts, and materials that independently filled a given functional requirement.

and from there I made connections between these individual parts to come up with a couple of ideas that might be plausible.  You can see below the two sets of connections that I made.  The first series of connections I circled in red, the second set I circled in blue.

The set I circled in red resulted in the Mechanical Grabber Beverage Holder.  The four arms that you see below articulate at every hinge.  These can then be adjusted to fit a wide variety of beverage container diameters.  Once the proper diameter is set, the hinges are locked so that the device acts like a static cage.  The entire device is then attached to a bicycle with bolts using the same standard hard mounts as a standard water bottle cage.  The entire product could ideally be made out of aluminum or plastic for proper strength & durability characteristics.

The set I circled in blue resulted in the Ratchet Strap Beverage Holder.  This product uses a ratcheting strap to secure a beverage container to the product.  The product would then be secured to the bike by using the two band clamps shown on the backside.  This system would allow more flexibility on where the product is installed onto the bicycle.  Those band clamps could potentially be replaced with a series of magnets that could also hold the product onto the bike.

 

 Part 3: Review the Highly Rated Ideas From the Blue Sky Brainstorming Session

1. Magna Holder -This product was originally described as "Two very strong magnets (one attached to the bike, one attached to the beverage container) would hold the beverage container onto the bike until the rider wanted to pull it off".  Overall this is an interesting idea, it would do a good job holding a beverage onto the bike temporarily.  I think that it would be most effective if the magnet that is attached to the beverage was semi-permanently held onto the beverage with something like an electric tie.  This would ensure a tight bond to a variety of different beverage containers.  The real challenge I see with this would be that it would take a very powerful magnet to ensure that it could support the full weight of a beverage container.  I am concerned that there would always be too high of a risk that the container would fall off, or that unwanted metalic items would be drawn to to.  Furthermore, I think that there would be a cost issue with procuring such a strong magnet.
2. The Weave - Described as "A mesh system that could expand or contract to allow for a variety of diameter containers to fit snugly." this idea is reminiscent of the Chinese finger trap.  If there was a good way to provide axial tension along the device, this might be a good way to maintain a tight radial fit on a variety of containers.  I think that the challenge on this one would to find a method of maintaining that axial tension, and also a means to connect "The Weave" to the bike.
3. Stretch Bag - This idea would use a flexible elastic fabric to conform to a variety of containers.  I think that this idea has promise, the challenge here would be to find the right elastic material that can stretch across the required range without fatiguing the material.
4. Morning Coffee Carrier - This idea is uses a series of ratcheting straps to hold the beverage tight.  This idea has high potential, and also came up during this week's morphological analysis in the form of the Ratchet Strap Beverage Holder.  An area for further analysis here would be to make a determination of one vs two ratcheting straps, and a thoughtful analysis of the interior surface of the straps to get the correct level of friction on the beverage container.  Overall this is a very promising concept.
5. The Claw -During the blue sky brainstorming session, this idea was produced by Jenni.  Her idea was to have something similar to "the Claw" game that children play.  During this session, there was not a lot of refinement on how the actual mechanism would work, but I do like the fact that it is easily adjustable.  This idea also came up above during the morphological analysis table exercise in the form of the Mechanical Grabber Beverage Holder.  I think that this is one of the more promising concepts.
6. The Carrier - I think that this would be a very effective mode of resolving the original problem statement of "How might we deliver professional attire to a biker's destination without compromising it's  appearance from the effects such as water, dirt, mud and wrinkles?" however I think that it would be missing some key issues brought up earlier in the research.  This concept would ultimately be similar to the Burley systems that are sold for carrying children and items behind bicycles.  This would probably be too high of a price point for most college students, and it would also take up a significant amount of storage space when not being used.  Last off, it would probably be challenging to lock this up outside in a manor that would prevent theft or vandalism.
7. Roll Away Dry Sack - This idea is very promising.  I have seen similar concepts used for conventional commercial airline luggage.  I think that an improvement to the original sketch provided would be to keep a central cavity open that the clothes wrap around.  This would ensure a large radius of roll-up, which should do a better job of preventing wrinkles.  This cavity could also be used for storing other items that the biker might want to carry, such as dress shoes.
8. Tri Messenger - Again a promising idea, and very similar to conventional commercial airline luggage.  One thing that I particularly like about this design is that (unlike with the roll style bags)  this item could potentially hold a laptop as well as the clothes.  This would be a common need for students riding around campus or to their jobs.  I think that an improvement that would have to be investigated is that there is not really any detail on how the sides would be water proofed. 
9. Garment Pack - This idea is almost identical to the roll away dry sack idea except that it is shown as being worn like a backpack while it is rolled up.  This idea was produced by Sam at the same time that Kjersten developed the Roll Away Dry Sack.  All of the same comments from item #7 would apply here as well.
10. Office Dry Cleaner - I think that this is a reasonable solution to the problem depending on the severity of the environmental effects that the dress clothes have seen.  It would do well with minor wrinkles, but I doubt that it would be easy to come up with a system that could completely dry an entire suite after a rainstorm, or clean out mud from a major splash.  I am also concerned about the amount of time required for each "dry cleaning" and the cost of this item.  This idea does not have a lot of potential in my opinion.

Part 4: 10 Realizable Product Ideas (all are Novel, Valuable, Feasible)

1 - Rubber Cage

2 - Integrated Cage

 

3 - Soft Cage

 

4 - Elastic Cage

 

 5 - Mechanical Grabber Beverage Holder

 

6 - Ratchet Strap Beverage Holder

7 - Behind the Seat Cage

 8 - Roll Away Dry Sack

 

9 - Tri-Messenger Bag 

 

 10 - Airstream Backpack