Redesign Project

Contact Lens Case

(Erica Silverstein)

 

 

CONTENTS

Introduction

Redesign

Conclusion

 

 

INTRODUCTION

This project explores how to redesign the traditional contact lens case (depicted in Figure #1 below), in such a way that it might address the following questions:

1)    What would happen if you replaced the tradition twist open/close lids of the case with hinged lids that pop open when you push them? Would this enable a user to open the case with only one hand as opposed to two hands?

2)    What would happen if you connected the left and right sides? Would this enable a user to open or close the entire case in one motion as opposed to two redundant motions?

3)    What would happen if you strategically placed glow-in-the-dark features on the inside and outside of the case? Would this allow a user to successfully interact with the case regardless of the amount of natural or artificial light in the room?

4)    What would happen if you raised the contact lenses on a platform as the user opened the case, such that the contacts would be lifted out of the solution? Would this make it easier for the user to locate and pick up each lens, since he or she would no longer need to ÒfishÓ for it in the solution?

Figure #1: Traditional Contact Lens Case

Ultimately, my goal is to design a contact lens case that could be stored on a userÕs nightstand, that would allow the user to more easily take out and put in their contact lenses in the dark, and that would require minimal concentration and hand-eye coordination.

In the sections below, I will explain with words and images the four phases of my design process, and I will discuss how each phase addresses a different question from the list above. I will conclude this report with a brief discussion of the limitations of my final redesign as well as some ideas for future studies and exploration in the field of contact lens case design.

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REDESIGN

Phase #1: Replacing the Twist-Off Lid

The first phase of the redesign aimed to tackle the question of what would happen if you replaced the tradition twist-off lid of the case with a push-pop lid. The new case (as depicted in Figure #2 below) has lids that swing open and closed on a hinge in the back of the case. There is a spring-hook mechanism (similar to retractable pens or certain types of kitchen cabinets) that unhooks the lid and swings it open when it is pushed down. To close the lid, you simply push down on it again and it locks. Simply push down again to open it again. In this design, the left and right lids can be open and closed independently of each other. It might be interesting to see if users who have never worn contacts before or used a traditional contact lens case would be faster at opening and closing the push-pop lids or the twist-off lids. It would also be interesting to see if users forced to only use one hand would be faster at opening this case or the traditional case. A follow-up study could investigate if the difference in efficiency at using the two cases is moderated by whether the user is forced to use only their dominant hand or their non-dominant hand. These questions are important because a user might only have one hand available if they are holding a contact lens in their other hand, and the hand that the user chooses to hold the lens be determined by the eye it belongs to rather than the dominance of that hand.

Figure #2: Replacing the Twist-Off Lid

 

Phase #2: Connecting the Left and Right Lids

The second phase of this redesign addresses the question of what would happen if the left and right lids of the case were connected to each other. To achieve this, I replaced the left and right push-pop lids with a single push-pop lid that covers both the left and right lens tanks (as shown in Figure #3 below). A study could ask users to open both this case and the one in Figure #2 and see how many discrete actions the user takes to open each case. I would speculate that users might use two actions to open the case in Figure #2 – one for the left side and one for the right side – but use only one action to open the case in Figure #3. However, it is possible that users might still be able to open the case in Figure #2 with only one motion, if they, for example, spread out their hand (as if waving good-bye) and press down on the case with their entire hand, such that they put pressure on both the left and right sides. For this reason, it would be interesting to see if forcing users to open the cases while clenching their fist or using only one finger would produce differences in the usability of the two cases. This scenario might represent the situation of a user trying to open the case with the same hand that they are using to hold a contact lens (e.g. if their other hand is preoccupied or farther away from the case).

Figure #3: Connecting the Left and Right Lids

 

Phase #3: Making the Case Glow-in-the-Dark

The third phase of the redesign investigates what would happen if you made the case glow-in-the-dark. As shown in Figure #4 below, I decided to make the letters in ÒpushÓ glow-in-the-dark so that the user would be able to read them and open the case even if the lights were off. The narrow glow-in-the-dark strip around the case was designed to indicate the location and size of the target that the user would have to push down on. Aside from the letters and this narrow strip, I did not make anything else in the outside of the case glow-in-the-dark, so that it would hopefully not prevent a user from falling asleep. In addition to the glow, there lid of the case also has a distinct texture, so that users can feel where it is on their nightstand. In contrast to the outside of the case, the inside of the case is much more illuminated. The bottom of the lid is entirely glow-in-the-dark, so that users can easily see where they need to reach in order to close the case. Additionally, the edges of the left and right sides of the case are also outlined in glow-in-the-dark paint. This outline is also slightly elevated, so that the user can also feel it with their fingers. This iteration is also larger than the previous models, so that it might be easier to locate in the dark. My rationale for this design choice is that this case is intended to live on the nightstand, so portability is not a necessity. The bottom of the case is transparent in order to aesthetically appear sleeker. Adding transparency also provides information to the user about whether or not a lens is in the case prior to opening it. It would be interesting to see if adding the glow-in-the-dark elements to this case enables users to interact with it successfully even in the absence of light. Because quite a few changes – size, glow-in-the-dark, transparency, and texture – are represented in the Figure #4, it might be more useful to isolated the changes to determine which factors are the most influential in terms of low-light usability. Being about to use this case in the dark would extremely important to users who might want to take out their contacts right before they go to bed – perhaps even from their bed. If they have already turned off the lights in the room, and are just using their contacts to use their laptop until they fall asleep, it would be more convenient for them to lean over and use the case directly rather than getting up to turn on the light first. It is also probably important to users who wake up while their room is still dark and want to put in their contacts right away.

Figure #4: Making the Case Glow-in-the-Dark

 

Phase #4: Adding a Lens Platform

The fourth phase of this redesign addresses what would happen if you used a platform to raise the lenses out of the solution rather than forcing the user to ÒfishÓ for them. This ÒfishingÓ problem is made worse by increased size of the lens tank during the previous phase; however, it can also pose a problem in smaller cases. In the design in shown in Figure #5, there is pulley-like conveyor belt (for lack of a better phrase) mechanism that raises and lowers a porous platform as the lid opens and closes, respectively. This mechanism is most clearly represented in the side-view. The user will not even need to get his or her fingers wet, since he or she miss never need to interact with the solution. The contact will be lifted to the top of the case when the case is opened, and the contacts will be lowered into the solution when the case is closed. My hope is that this modification would allow the user to better predict exactly where the lens will end up, so that he or she would not have to search for it. If the platform is angled down towards its center rather than flat, so this would allow for even greater control of the location of the lens within the case – gravity would always pull it to the center of whichever side of the case it is on. This would allow the user to make even more precise predications about the location of the lens, which might even allow the user to find the lens while blindfolded, by using muscle memory alone. Studies might investigate are quickly and accurately users are able to find and pick up the lenses with and without the platform, with and without the tilt in the platform, and with and without the lights on.

Figure #5: Adding a Lens Platform

 

Phase #2 -- Revisited: Making the Divider between the two Sides Permeable

Finally, I expanded on the second question (i.e. what happens when you connect the left and right lids of the case) by asking what would happen if you connected the left and right tanks of the case with a permeable divider, so that pouring solution into one side would also add solution to the other side. Would this allow users to the fill up the tank with solution faster because they would not have to switch between sides? Or would this difference be negligible because essentially the same volume of solution is still required to be poured? This modification might require less concentration and hand-eye coordination than redundantly filling each side of the case separately, since the target of where to aim the solution is twice as large.

Figure #6: Making the Divider between the two Sides Permeable

 

Final Product:

Figure #7: Final Redesign

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CONCLUSION

         By comparing Figure #7 with Figure #1, itÕs apparent that there are essentially the same number of steps required for using the final version of my case redesign as required by the traditional case: open the case, insert lenses, and close the case; however, hopefully my redesign would allow each of those steps to be easier and more accessible in low-light situations. The ultimate goal would be to allow users to directly put in or take out their contact lenses from their bed, as they would be able to do with glasses. This might allow contact lens users to not be as dependent on their glasses for those in-between times of the day: in between waking up and putting in contacts and in between taking out contacts and falling asleep; this redesign would remove those in-between times by attempting to make it just as easy to take out and put in contacts as it is to take off and put on glasses. There is clearly a ways to go before this case is just as easy to interact with as glasses, but it is something to strive for in the future.

A major limitation of this case is that the user still needs to distinguish between the left and right sides of the case and needs to aim for a specific side, which still requires some concentration and hand-eye coordination. An alternative approach address this concern would be to make the surface of the case solid and not divided into sides, so that the user could discard their left lens anywhere on the lens platform – even on its right side – and then some technological magic would sense the weight of the new lens and would drop is into the left side of the tank. Then, maybe the case would ÒbeepÓ to signal to the user that it is ready to receive the right lens, so the user could then drop the lens anywhere on the surface of the platform, and the lens would be lowered to the right side of the tank. Likewise, when retrieving lenses from the case, the left lens would pop up first, and it would be the only lens of the platform, so the user would not even need to look at the case to pick up the lens. After sensing the loss of the weight of the lens, the case would be and the deliver the right lens the surface. This system would, in theory, enable a user to interact with the case using while blindfolded and would be able to accommodate low-level vision, concentration, and hand-eye coordination. Although this design is arguably better and more innovative than the one I modeled for this project, I decided to go with the more tradition approach because I wasnÕt sure how to work with the Òtechnological magicÓ mentioned above.

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