Redesign Project
Contact Lens Case
(Erica Silverstein)
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.
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
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.