Decorative Phone Stand

The third prototyping prompt for my Prototyping for Experience Design elective was “Use the 3D printer to combine two tools to improve an experience.” I am very proud of my final prototype, so read on to see how it came to be!

I started by roughly sketching several ideas. I was inspired by the everyday problems I faced in my own kitchen, specifically my need of a phone stand as well as a bench scraper.

After deciding the rough shape and functionality of the concept, I switched to SOLIDWORKS to begin designing in 3D. This is the point where my design took a turn that resulted in a final prototype that was significantly different than intended, but better in almost every way. I realized that if I wanted the stand to work as a bench scraper from an ergonomic standpoint, I would have to redesign the entire thing. Considering the short timeframe of the project, I decided to pivot and follow my secondary concept.

Over the next few days, I made several design iterations on my pen holder concept, each iteration refining the functionality and visual design. My final design took the original triangular outline and pushed it to the limit. Every shape on the final prototype concept invoked the overall triangle.

The best comment I received during our class critique session was “That looks like something you could buy at IKEA!” As a fan of minimalistic Icelandic design, that was a massive compliment. Since completing this prototype, people have been asking me for the .STL files so they can print their own!