A NEW MOUSE INTERACTION
HANDY
HANDY
Modern technologies redefined.
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION · SOLO PROJECT · 5 - WEEK
Handy is a revolutionary computer mouse concept that brings together ergonomic, functionality, and aesthetic, offering a brand new way to communicate with digital devices.
ARTISTIC EXPLORATION
This project appreciates the beauty of human figure and applies human scale to ergonomic products. The starting point of this project is an installation that consists of 100 distinct copies of handmade clay sculptures, representing the negative space inside a loose fist.
The installation invited audience to touch and hold the sculptures, and from their experience, I concluded two discoveries. First,the curves sculpted by the hands are natural and soothing, which is appreciated by most viewers. Second, though people’s hands have largely different sizes, most people found the sculptures fit their hands well, even when the sculptures have distinct sizes, shapes, and angles.
RESEARCH
KIAN
Pro model
Looks for portability and prestigious
Currently, there are few mouse products on the market which are both ergonomic and able to imput wide dimensions of information.
MINA
House wife
Fit the environment and style of the house
ERIC
College student
Friends will compete with their gaming gears
JEREMY
Art professor
Functionality and aesthetic is more important
DESIGN OBJECTIVES
From the market research and customer discovery, it is found that people focus on both functionality and elegance. The current products on the market are neither sufficient in the imput nor are they decorative. The computers are now having more 3D features, such as CAD modeling and 3D video games, and a regular mouse does not have enough range of imput to well manipulate the computer. On the other hand, most mouses on the market are overly tech-looking, especially when they have more functionalities. It seems like elegant style is not compatible with functionality, and I am looking for the perfect combination of both.
IDEATIONS
I modelled dozens of clay sculptures representing controllers, of different shapes and sizes, to find the most adaptable shape and self-explainatory functions. Based on user experience, I picked the most popular option and optimized it.
PROTOTYPE
FUNCTIONALITY
To achieve the goal of expanding the scope of input, the mouse should be able to sensor more hand movements.
One major change that this ideation has is a non-flat bottom, so users will be able to tilt it into different angles in order to achieve a sliding effect.
Another feature is that this mouse would feature pressure sensors, so the input is no longer a binary click, but can contain a range of information.
SKETCHES
MODELING
After solidifying the shape with sketches, the mouse is then modelled with nomad and rendered with keyshot.
