Doggy Distractor

The Doggy Distractor was a project for Product Realization, a class where we explored the process of taking a design from the drawing board and getting it into customer hands. It was designed with the goal of keeping a pet still in various stressful situations such as grooming or bathing and combines the utility of an online trend with the enrichment from already available lick mats. 

We were tasked with designing a simple product that could be prototyped iteratively while also developing plans for mass manufacturing. There was a heavy focus on documentation which included product proposals, risk management, specifications, process and control plans, quality test and tooling plans, a bill of materials and cost model, and standard operating procedures. We also went through stages of validation testing which can be seen below for the lick mat, back plate, and head strap. 

Throughout the course, I remained flexible and worked to some extent on everything which gave me familiarity with many forms of documentation and the design process as a whole. I also learned a lot about silicone and was able to experiment with different mold making and pouring techniques including using pressure and vacuum chambers. My favorite part of the project was getting to test each iteration with my dog, Smunk.