Protecting cars from evil Pillars
The story behind designing Drum-roller protectors for parking spaces
Protecting cars from evil Pillars
Almost all the apartment buildings have the provision of Parking at their Ground floors or the Basements. The structural integrity of the whole building relies on a strong base, which causes the issue of having Pillars at the parking spaces. These pillars cause parking difficulties as they obstruct a free path. Users have to be very careful while maneuvering past these pillars or they might end up having an ugly scratch on their shiny 4-legged love.
Obviously we cannot make everyone Ken Block(the best car controller of all time), but we can minimize the damage caused to the car once it rubs past these evil pillars. So here is my solution which can keep our whips scratch-free even if we aren't so good at pa rking near these pillars.
On scrolling down, you'll come across
- The final prototype- Drum Roll Guard
- Why is it even required
- How is this problem being solved currently
- Why and How did I end up solving this issue
- BTS-Critical Decisions that shaped this current design
- Future Scope
- Key Learnings
- Feedback
This is a drum roller guard, which can rotate on its vertical axis using the mechanism of ball bearings. The outermost surface is made up of soft material which will prevent the car from damage on impact. As the car rubs past this tool, the drum roller will start to roll along with the surface of the impact. This will eliminate the friction which would have scratched the car if the pillar edge was static at its position. But due to the rollers present at the edges, no scratches will occur on the car.
The Ball-bearing mechanism will eliminate the static friction that would have occurred when the vehicle rubbed the pillar edge
This is just for illustration purpose; the roll-guard will have a soft touch surface
How this Roll-Guard works
As a car navigates through a tight parking lot, any accidental contact with a RollGuard-equipped pillar sets the magic in motion. The drum roller starts to rotate along with the surface of impact, eliminating the friction that would have scratched the car. Thanks to the rollers present at the edges, there are no scratches to be found.
Key Features
Easy mechanism which can be developed at any hardware factory.
Eliminates static friction(using ball bearings) which occurs when two surfaces rub past each other.
Soft material (Polyurethane) will be used at the outermost surface which will absorb the impact as well as stay durable.
Not so complex working structure makes it easy to understand.
Can be attached to all the perpendicular edges.
Once damaged after the impact, the surface of the roller can easily be replaced.
Cost of manufacture will be quite less, hence this tool can be widely used almost everywhere.
But why do we even need this at the first place?🤔
In the bustling world of modern cities, parking spaces are at a premium. Parking lots are often designed to maximize space, resulting in narrow aisles and pillars strategically placed to support the structure. These pillars, while essential, pose a significant risk to cars maneuvering in tight spaces. Accidental collisions and scratches are all too common, leading to frustration and costly repairs for car owners.
Keeping in mind the world that we live in today, having parking at the lower floors of the buildings is the optimum solution for having maximum space. But how much you even try to maximize the space for parking area, the pillars are an inevitable constraint.
So we have to park around these pillars eventually. Which increases the difficulty of parking. You have to be careful of these pillars, especially while reverse parking.
So how were parking lots dealing with this problem earlier?
The answer is- they were not.
Even though this is a very common issue, but there are no solutions provided for this thing in any of the parking spaces. For this project, I analysed quite a few areas like the Malls, Hotels, Hospitals,etc. But I found no care offered to this issue.
This is how the pillars are at a nearby D-mart
You can observe that there are metal strips attached to the edge of the Pillar. It is to protect the pillar from getting damaged in case an accident occurs, so that the cement concrete is protected. It basically provides a reinforcement to the pillar edge.
But what about the car that gets into this accident? What about its protection?
This is where our saviour Drum-Roll Guard comes into the picture. The first point od contact will be of the car’s malleable metal body and the Polyurethane surface of the Roll guard.
The soft-touch material will absorb the pressure of impact as soon as the car rams into the pillar.
Since the car is in motion(most commonly in a tangent to the pillar), it will rub the edge which would have caused an ugly scratch or even a dent on the car’s body. But thanks to our roll-guard, it eliminates the friction that would have been caused if the pillar was static at its position.
The pillar still is static though, but we enabled the surface of the impact to move- using ball bearings. And because the two surfaces in contact are moving simultaneously, there is no static friction generated! Isn't physics beautiful!!!
This is how the evil pillars of the parking area can hurt your vehicle accidentally ☠️
These scratches and dents can be avoided by using Roll-guard at the parking pillars
(PS: No vehicle was harmed during the course of this project LOL)
Let me tell you how did these parking lot pillars became my enemy…
My basic aim was to enhance the user-experience of the residential parking spaces. For this i interviewed 5 people on a 1v1 video call, where i asked them about their current experiences regarding the parking, the issues they face, the facilities they expect, the kind of stuff they are concerned about and more..
This is also a crucial task. Framing the right questions is very important, or else you wont get the answers that are insightful enough. Questions that are open ended lead to a broader conversation which results in elaborative insights from the user.
Following are the questions that I asked my users
Which part of the country do you live in, and what’s the weather there like? {To understand the geographical features of the user, which indirectly affects the parking situations}
What kind of house do you have? {Apartment, Bungalow, Duplex, PG, etc}
What’s your mode of transportation for daily and special purposes?
Do you(or anyone in your house) own a vehicle? If yes, what are they, and how many?
Does your house have some dedicated space for parking? If not, where do you park your vehicles?
Can you give me a virtual walkthrough of the process that you follow while parking at your space?
Do you face any issues while entering or exiting the parking space?
Are there any issues regarding the lighting or visibility?
How often do you visit the parking area; and at what times of the day?
If guests arrive, what is the situation of parking their vehicles?
Are there any specific days of the week/month when the task of parking gets a bit troublesome?
Do you think that the process of parking is a time-consuming process?
Is there any issue regarding accessibility for special conditions? {Disabled, old age people, toddlers. etc}
Do you have any concerns regarding the safety of your vehicle? When the vehicle is parked for a longer period of time, do you have any issues regarding that?
When the parking space is not in use(the space is vacant), would you like to use it for something else?
After getting enough insights from the users, I made notes based on it. Pain-points were defined in a better way and understanding the root problems was done. Based on it multiple ideas were thought of. I used the CRAZY-8 technique for generating ideas. Basic surface level ideas are easy to think of, but they are too generic and common. So i took in hand one root problem at a time, set the timer for 8 minutes, and came up with 8 different ideas from each issue the user was facing.
But I couldn't have solved all the issues at once, so I prioritized the top 3 ideas which I thought would create a greater impact practically. They are as follows
My top 3 ideas
The Drum Roll-guard, which i chose to work upon
A Portable power bank for electric cars which can be stored inside the boot space of the vehicle and can be connected to the power socket of the car from inside the boot space. This would enable the user to park the car normally and leave it charging. Vigilance of the vehicle while charging can be eliminated. And the use of excess wires can also be eliminated.
A Suspended air blower coming from the roof which can be used to blow off the dust that has been accumulated on the vehicle since it has been parked. Furs were also designed at its periphery which can be used to reach the places where the blower seemed to be inefficient. It would have enabled the user to quickly remove the dust from his vehicle before taking it of the parking.
All these ideas were compelling enough to be worked upon, but i felt that the presence of pillars in the parking lots is something which is bothering a lot of people. Solving this issue can impact a large number of users and make their lives easier.
Diving deeper into the problem statement
Once I decided to work on the issues caused by the presence of pillars in parking lots, I introspected more about what is the root problem here. Why are these pillars even a problem.
The answer to this was simple… They were a solid obstruction which caused difficulties in parking. People have to be extra careful while judging the space available for the car parking. And if they had to reverse park, God save the noobies out here🙏🏽
Behind the scenes: Critical Design Decisions
This journey from identifying the problems to designing the final prototype was a continuous process of learning and unlearning. I encountered numerous challenges along the way. There were moments when the initial interview questions didn’t yield the insights I was looking for, prompting me to revise and refine them. There were times when an idea seemed brilliant at first, only to be later realized that it might not be practical or feasible.
Why I had to rephrase my questionnaire after my first 2 interviews
To understand the issues users are facing and empathize with them, I interviewed 5 users with a questionnaire I prepared assuming the issues they might be facing.
In the starting two interviews, I noticed that the interview was going just along the lines of my questionnaire like a templated process. I expected them to tell me more pain points, but it seemed that they didn't have many. They are used to the lifestyle they have been living for a long time.
They didn't realize that they were facing issues, because they were too much used to it that it had become normalized to them.
Hence I created some new questions that were more open-ended and required the user to elaborate on the story behind it.
This way I was able to get better insights and ideas in the last 3 interviews.
How did I extract the ROOT PROBLEMS from the insights of user interviews
Defining the root problems is something that is like the major takeaway i got from this project. You cannot solve an issue unless you have understood the root problem underlying it.
There is a constant loop of WHYs that leads you the root problem. The analogy is clear; you identify the surface branches and the ‘whys’ lead you to the root.
But this is where i realised that you cannot always diverge. There are constraints that prevent you from diverging further. Thats where the sweet spot is…in the broad ocean of fish, you have to hunt the specific species of fish that you're in search of.
To think outside the box, its necessary that you are not bound to the wrong problem statements.
When you ‘stop’ it means that the problem is a root problem . With each “Why” question, I explored the contributing factors that led to the surface-level problem. These factors could range from architectural limitations to user behavior or even cost considerations. Understanding these underlying factors was important in developing meaningful problem statements.
Why I narrowed down to this particular idea
After defining the problem statement for each of the insights, I did the Crazy 8 exercise. This helped in generating eight ideas for each of the problem statements. But to choose one idea from these was a tough decision to make.
I tried this divergent—convergent approach to come up with the top 3 ideas. If I had to test each of the ideas after Crazy 8, it would indeed be an exhaustive and resource-intensive process. In practice, it’s not feasible to test every single idea extensively. So this approach of converging those ideas by applying some constraints like limited time, their practicality etc. proved to be a better way of selecting the top 3 ideas.
PS: Ive talked about the 3 ideas that i shortlisted, earlier in this story.
How the User feedback reshaped our Roll-guard
This is the shape of the Drum roller guard that i initially thought of implementing at the pillar edges. But on presenting the prototype, a very important point came up regarding the parking places with tight spaces. This drum cylinder will obviously occupy significant space, making less room for the vehicles.
To reduce the space it occupies, I redesigned the shape of the tool which looks like an arrowhead at a 90-degree angle. It will enable it to easily attach to the pillar edge, and reduce the protruding length significantly.
Future Scope🔮
- I would research on crafting such a material for the outer surface which doesn't get damaged even after the impact. This will eliminate the need to repair or replace this tool.
- A sensor can be engineered into this tool which will warn the driver if he comes too close to the pillar. This will prevent the collision at an early stage only.
- As this tool is very easy to manufacture and uses simple mechanics, it can be produced in bulk at a very low price. This has the potential to be used by a large number of people in almost every parking lot.
Key Learnings✍🏼
- Extracting useful insights during the user interview is not a usual question-answer session; it has to do a lot with reading between the lines. Users’ actions and his words might even contradict at times. Its up to us to empathize with what he desires.
- I am not the user. I might have my own biases on the basis of my past experiences, which I cannot impose on other users. I have to consider that all the people have different encounters, experiences, and emotions. And I should not jump to the conclusions/solutions right after reading the problem. I should analyze all the directions of the problem and then only start searching for solutions.
- My imperfection is my uniqueness. Every person solves a problem in a unique way. There is no perfect design for a problem. Design is not a templated process.
- Every problem is not a root problem. To design for the broader(root) issue gives the best possible solution. Before thinking of solutions, spend a good amount of time on defining the root problems.
- Overcome surface level solutions and let them out. Its only after that the creative and not-so-common ideas come out.
- User testing is very important. A good-looking design can be a waste of resources if it is not properly usable. Iteration on the basis of feedback is what makes a design better from the good.
