The BriefDesk

Image of our BriefDesk
Bird's eye view of desk
Bird's eye view of sliding drawers
Initial concept sketch
Team logo
BriefDesk on wall
Rendered image of BriefDesk on wall

Inspiration

Our group had two members that stayed in residence at McMaster, so we had first-hand experience with any issues we had. Our other two group members go to University of Waterloo and one of them lives in residence there. Although it's a relatively different experience than McMaster, he was able to offer a different viewpoint. At first, we considered problems that we had in the bathroom, bedroom and common areas but we realized we spent the most time in our bedroom, so we decided to focus on that. The problem of lack of space came up and soon our solution of a desk that minimizes space came to be.

What it does

We decided to create a desk that not only folds up and mounts on the wall to save space, but it is also able to be taken off the wall and it can go with you wherever you want. It uses an excellent use its small form factor with lots of table space and extra features such as a mirror, bulletin board, power strip/charger and lights.

How we built it

At first, we decided to identify all the objectives we wanted our desk to have and our constraints with this design challenge. We created a huge list of features and we decided to cut it down with features that are practical and makes sense for the targeted user of a university student (we originally wanted a can cooler, but we realized that wouldn't really fit the intended purpose of being a portable workspace).

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges we had were just trying to come up with a solution and trying to visualize it, two of us went to a different University and as such they didn't know fully what McMaster had and what it didn't. We also had the issue of two of us being proficient in Inventor and two of us being proficient in Solidworks so we had to work around that.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Overall, we're proud of our unique design and how visually appealing it is. We added a lot of practical useable features in a very small form factor. We were also able to work pretty well together as we were two duos who came together and didn't know each other. Our animation showcasing our design is also something we are very proud of.

What we learned

The biggest thing we learned was what to consider in terms of designing a solution for a random scenario. We had to consider problems that we might have overlooked usually so we had to think carefully about it. We also learning what to consider when making something in groups as everyone needs to follow the same dimensions for the parts to come together properly. Lastly the main thing we discovered was through trying to make our desk into a product that has a need, not just something with cool features. We realized that by prioritizing our main functions, we don't add features that take away from the portability aspect.

What's next for The BriefDesk

As stated before, we had a large list of features that we couldn't fully implement with our current design. However, we wanted to consider commercial expansion as this would open us up to a variety of markets and users. For example, this product could be used by many office workers as they have to travel to different places very often. We could have different types of desks with different features for a variety of people. We also wanted to have a modular design; different parts could be replaced such as instead of a wireless charger we could have the bottle cooler. We definitely have big ambitions for this product but overall, we think we designed a fully functional desk that could help a lot of students.