DESIGN PROCESS The process of making the ShoeWash took a couple of months. With the start of the new company, we started off with the establishment of a company contract that clearly states all of the responsibilities and expectations of being part of the team. After establishing the contract, we came up with a concept statement about our first idea of ShoeWash. Once we came up with a stable idea for our product, we were able to build onto our idea of the ShoeWash and come up with a more detailed description about it in our business plan. In our business plan, we also stated our predicted profit and our plans on how to appeal our product to the public especially our target markets. Once we finished the business plan, we multitasked in creating our website along with our desired design of the ShoeWash. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Our product is a shoe deodorizer/sanitizer that will not necessarily clean the outside of your shoes but it will kill the bacteria that are on and inside of your shoe. With this product, it will prevent many fungal infections such as athlete’s foot, fugal nail, jock itch, and ringworm. These are all caused by the fugal and bacterial buildup in your shoes, which leads to these awful infections. Our product will be a compartment that will hold two pairs of shoes up to the size of mens’ 15. The deodorizing and sanitizing process will take a certain amount of time depending on the shoe size. In order to sanitize these shoes, the inside of the compartment will have UV lights on the top, sides, and bottom. Our product will be made out of steel with a rack in the inside to hold the pairs of shoes. The ShoeWash will be 15 by 15 inches all around. Also, our product will be able to deodorize and sanitize all kinds of shoes ranging from sandals to tennis shoes and to formal shoes.
Form and Function Shoe Wash will not necessarily clean the outside of the shoes but instead, it will kill the bacteria that is on it and lies inside of the shoe itself. The Shoe Wash will prevent many fungal infections and will reduce the risks of getting these infections. Our product will be a 15 inch by 15 inch container that will be able to hold 2 pairs of shoes with a set of UV lights all around the inside. MARKETING STRATEGY Our target market consists of athletes, business workers. college students, families, and the general public. Our company will be able to get our product to the consumers with a large use of advertising. Advertising such as purchased advertising, search engines, bulletin boards, and newsletters to direct them to our online website to see details of the product and purchasing. The Market strategy in an Internet retail business depends on recognition by the consumer. Since our company will be widely based on a website, we will be in need of online advertising. We will start out with awareness of our company through search engine marketing, banner advertising, and affiliates. QUALITY PRODUCTS Our company’s definition of a high quality product would be in the lines of a well designed and creative product to sell. Our product will be high quality due to the production of being able to hold 2 pairs of shoes, while giving the highest satisfactory clean in a 15 inches by 15 inches container. Our product has a very high durability due to its strong material. Also, due to careful measurements and tests, we were able to perfect the form of the ShoeWash in order for it to perform very well for its owner.
TESTING AND EVALUATING 1. Answer the 4 questions on page 206 (in depth) Assessing the way in which we went about our work helped us evaluate our own design work by taking the responsibility of making the various decisions, managing our time wisely, understanding the differences in the needs and wants of our target market, and choosing the specific resources to incorporate into our ShoeWash.
2. What materials make up your product? Why did you choose these? Are they sufficient? How would they handle the various tests on pages 210-214? Explain. The materials that make up the ShoeWash are: glass, hard plastic, UV lights, and stainless steel. We chose these materials because we researched that these materials are very durable and easy to clean. Also since the ShoeWash has a similar form and design as a toaster oven, we knew that these materials would work best for the ShoeWash just as how most of them work very well for a toaster oven. Yes, they are sufficient because we did our research in order to decide which materials would work the best. Due to these materials having a durable and hardness to withstand the different tests ( Tensile, Fatigue, Rockwell hardness test). Also, since these materials have very high melting points, they are able to stay in tact and maintain the same structure if the UV lights ever cause the ShoeWash to heat up.
3. Defend the aesthetics of your product and the decisions you made Lately, simplicity and minimalism has become very popular among many people which was a contributor to our decision making about the ShoeWash’s design. We decided to create a design unlike anything else in the shoe cleaning market while still providing the necessary aspects to make our product the leader in shoe cleaning industry. We chose colors from our logo and ones that appeals to the eyes in society nowadays.
4. Explain the ergonomics of your product Ergonomics refers to the study workplace equipment design or how to arrange and design devices, machines, or workspace so that people and things interact safely and efficiently. The ShoeWash is 15 by 15 inches all around which is not very large so people will be able to have space in order to place the ShoeWash. Also, due to its size, it does not weigh over 8 pounds which will also satisfy the people’s interests.
5. What kind of durability do you think your product has, how does that impact cost and performance? Our product has a very high durability due to its strong material. This should not impact the cost very much because these materials are commonly used for other products all around the world. It’s performance would work very well since most of the materials used are similar to a toaster oven. Also, due to careful measurements and tests, we were able to perfect the form of the ShoeWash in order for it to perform very well for its owner.