MIAD Industrial Design Project - Carpal Tunnel Brace
Carpal Tunnel Brace
Project Board
50.8cm x 76.2cm
December 2019
This semester we worked with Murf to design a product that will improve some aspect of people's lives. For this project, my goal was to make a brace specifically designed to relieve pain from carpal tunnel. Being someone who knows people with it, and I have it myself, I knew what needed to be in the brace and what it needed to do. In short, the brace needed to compress the correct pressure points and help support the wearer's fingers, since in many cases they end up going numb.
Project Board
50.8cm x 76.2cm
December 2019
This semester we worked with Murf to design a product that will improve some aspect of people's lives. For this project, my goal was to make a brace specifically designed to relieve pain from carpal tunnel. Being someone who knows people with it, and I have it myself, I knew what needed to be in the brace and what it needed to do. In short, the brace needed to compress the correct pressure points and help support the wearer's fingers, since in many cases they end up going numb.
Inspiration and Background
I was inspired to design this new brace because of my personal struggle with carpal tunnel, and all the people I know who have it. I, a junior in high school, do a lot with my hand and wrist, writing notes, making my art projects, stage crew, etc. My mom who works in a produce department, uses her hands all day doing various things. We all have a lot of stuff to do throughout the day, and mist of it is with our hands, so for people who have carpal tunnel, or wrist problems in general, there has to be something better that can help relieve the pain, while still being able to get our stuff done. I wanted to work on a brace specifically for carpal tunnel because there aren't many good braces that specifically aim to relieve the wrist and hand pain.
Process and Sketches
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The pictures to the left are the first stage of the project, the empathy map and initial sketch. In the empathy map I used the information I gathered from meeting with the people who have carpal tunnel, and what I know from it. It's broken up into four sections, Observations, Thoughts, Listening, and Feelings. While I did change my wording for my answers my initial ones were;
- Observations: Constant massaging, shaking all the time. - Thoughts: If this were made... it would help a lot of people. - Listening: Always painful, restricts productivity. - Feelings: I feel... like this is much needed, and I al excited to make this. As you can see I needed to reword this, which I did as you will see later. My sketch for this part were very rough as well. I highlighted the pain areas and the pressure points are for relieving pain. |
This is my mind map, we made these to help sort our ideas and what we really needed and wanted in our products. This was the second phase in the process. Making the map was very helpful, making me narrow and focus my thoughts. I originally wanted to try and make a brace that would completely get rid of carpal tunnel pain. But doing this is helped me realize that I can only relieve it a bit, there already is a fix for carpal tunnel, surgery. Which if anyone else is like me, they would want to put any sort of surgery off as long as possible. So having a brace that will be comfortable, subtle, and take most of the pain away and doesn't restrict the wearer is ideal.
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My sketches show my initial and general ideas I had for this project. In the first sketch I noted the features and details I would want in the actual product. I also highlighted the pain areas and pressure points that help to relieve pain. In my second sketch I went with less detail to show how I wanted the material to be and other pressure and pain points.
In the second sket the the blue represents a thinner area to keep hands from getting sweaty, the red are pain points, and the pink lines are areas that may need a bit more support. |
Reflection
I think my product will really help user with carpal tunnel. Most braces are just general cheap ineffective braces, and you could spend the money to buy a very fancy one, but if I can make or design something for little cost and be very effective, that would be great. My brace is focused on relieving carpal tunnel pain, it's not a general brace, it wouldn't have any metal in it and it would hopefully be discreet for the wearer. The material wouldn't let your palms get sweaty like the normal braces do. The wearer would have all mobility, unlike some braces that just stiffen the wrist, which could possibly cause more pain. My brace would hopefully clear all the worries of anyone who has carpal tunnel, and can't or doesn't want to get surgery.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I explain the differences and how my brace solves the cons or the normal braces. I explain how I would fix those problems and why it benefits the wearer.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Any research I did was asking people who have carpal tunnel and figuring out what is needed in the brace.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
People who have any sort of reason to wear a brace, especially long term, know the annoyance of them, the questions and the bother of wearing it.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Any research I did was informational, it was all question others, and material or medical information.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I had to think about what would be better in the brace and what I had to leave out, things that would inhibit mobility and anything that would draw attention I kept out of the design.
I explain the differences and how my brace solves the cons or the normal braces. I explain how I would fix those problems and why it benefits the wearer.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Any research I did was asking people who have carpal tunnel and figuring out what is needed in the brace.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
People who have any sort of reason to wear a brace, especially long term, know the annoyance of them, the questions and the bother of wearing it.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Any research I did was informational, it was all question others, and material or medical information.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I had to think about what would be better in the brace and what I had to leave out, things that would inhibit mobility and anything that would draw attention I kept out of the design.