Hi everyone,
About two months ago I had made a post asking for suggestions for new hiking related products that I could design for my product design thesis project. This was the thread:
http://forums.backpacker.com/viewMessage.jsp?message=249465&thread=26898&forum=4
Now I have gotten to a point where I have decided on a direction, and I am begining to interview people for their opinions and interest in the features of my product.
Essentually what I am trying to design is an information center for hiking trails. It will be connected to digital satellite, and it will allow hikers to access information related to hiking near or on the trail while they are on their hiking trip. I want it to include information about trail conditions, maps, weather, emergency contacts, and trail journals. I know that everyone (myself included) is leary of any kind of man-made interuption on the trails, so my goal is to make this device as minimal as possible in size and impact to its surrounding environment. I will also be studying the Appalachian Trail in depth to determine what type of places that a device like this would belong in. I want to stress that this is just a proposed design, not something that will go into product in case you are wondering. Anyway, I am posting the link for the survey below:
http://www.freesurveysonline.com/fso/AskSurvey.fso?Survey=3413&CheckID=3064
Just copy and paste the link and it will take you right to the survey. Please consider filling it out as it will only take a few minutes. Asking real consumers is something that we generally fail to do as designers. Most often we sit in the model shop and sit test our own physical mock ups and think “Well, it feels comfortable to me, so it must be okay for everyone else.” Then we grab the shorter/taller/whatever person next to us and have them try it, and we say its good enough. I’d like to make sure that I go beyond that in my thesis. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jason Lantagne
HonorOFeagle