Team Alarm Clock: Final Report

Product Design and Development, December 2, 2007

Outline
This presentation will explain The design process that helped us reach our final design The final design and specifications Our business plan for marketing and selling the alarm clock Our next steps we would take to improve the design of the product in order to take it to market

The Original Concept

Selecting a User Group

Users with uneven schedules
Travellers College Students NOT Olin Students

Identifying User Values

Packing space Self Expression

Relationship with Roommate Saving Money Reliablity

Enough Sleep

Pinning Down the Real Problem

Waking up Setting interaction Trusting that the alarm will go off

Ideation

Evaluating Designs Design Evaluation

Was it a plausible idea? Were we as designers excited? Did it really fit with user values? How well did it address specifically identified values to both the designer and the user such as ease of implementation, and augmentation of trust between the user and alarm?

Idea Down-Selection

Reviewing into Design Delving Main Designs

Physical Interactions Nap Button Color Coding to show state Modularity

Physical Interactions

Clock
Advance Alarm Clock Shake Awake

Price Alarm
$9.93 Beeping

Power Display
Wall/ 9V 2xAA Red LED

Use
Standard bed stand ; roll through setting For use in pillow case or pocket; travel size Set multiple alarms with individual sounds Small and portable knob setting Must return propeller to base Few button cycle through; measures temp; M/D/Y Varies difficult to set/operate 2 button runs in circles Click-wheel

$24

Beep/ Vibrate CD/ preset sounds/ radio/ beep Beep

Reflective LCD Adjustable light LCD Analog w/ backlight Reflective LCD LCD/ wall projector

Prior Art:

snapshot

Timex Nature Sounds Travel Alarm Clock Flying Alarm Clock Alarm Clock Projector

$80

Wall/ 3xAAA 1xAA

$17

$25

Loud beep flying propeller Beep/ visual

Wall

$20

Wall/ 9V

Cell phone Clocky iHome

$50+ $50 $50

Beep/ music Beep/ running iPod/ Beep

Battery 4xAAA Wall

LCD LCD LCD/ iPod

Final Design and Justifications

Business Plan

Executive Summary
We have designed a unique modular alarm clock which changes the way people interact with their alarm and solves the annoyances of other alarm clocks. The alarm clock has been designed expressly to respond to the needs of our main customer group, college students. In testing it has proved to be engaging to use and to fix former problems that are universal to alarm clocks. Our clock consistently outperforms the competition in feature quality. Projected profitability by year 3, with 5-year sales projections of 120,000 clocks and cumulative profits of 3.3 million by year 5. Our four point marketing plan will move our sales from the internet to major customers like Target and WalMart while establishing our brand identity and customer trust.

Business Description
Management and Strengths
Andrew Coats: Engineering experience, design skills and business savvy Connor Riley: Software and user interface design experience Avery Anderson: Mechanical engineering and multifaceted design skills

Goals
Distinguish our alarm clock based on form, interaction, and affordability. Provide products with the right features rather than the most features.

Customers, industry
Main customers are college students and their parents doing back-to-school shopping

Product Description
Modular alarm clock
Base module displays time, cube modules faces display alarm times When the cube is in the base, the alarm is set. To set the alarm time, pick up the cube and use the sliding switch on each face. To snooze, hit the top of the cube. Features include: nap timer, multiple alarm sounds, pre-alarm snooze

Competitive Advantages
Unique interaction from start to finish Feature-rich yet simple to use High-end look and feel without high-end cost

Product Features and Benefits

Multiple alarms on individual faces Customers with irregular schedules are freed from constantly resetting the alarm Taking a nap becomes as simple as setting a timer Customer know exactly when alarm will sound and can trust that the alarm is working Customer can easily scroll backward and forward in time Alarm variety helps customers awaken fully Nap timer

Alarm time and current time simultaneously visible Wheel mechanism to set time

Different sounds for each alarm

Tap the cube at any time to snooze for an additional 10 minutes. Adds up to an hour of extra sleep with multiple taps. After tapping Snooze, the new alarm time will display on the cube face. The battery in the cube is used as emergency power for the whole clock.

Users can extend the alarm time before the alarm goes off. Longer snoozes lead to more rest, less annoyance. User is always informed of exactly when the alarm will sound. Customer can trust that they will be woken up even in the event of a power outage.

Customers
College students
16.5 million people 50% 16-24 age range, 50% are age 24+ 56% female Nearly half leave their home state Diverse backgrounds
This is a large market which is frequently moves house and is in need of housewares, including alarm clocks. Back-to-school shopping is an 8.5 billion dollar industry, and our product is ideally placed to appeal to college students and their parents who are spending that money.

Industry Facts
Size of potential market: ~2 million incoming freshmen who live out of state Percent market captured: ~5% Trends in Growth: will follow college growth trends Barriers: consumer acceptance/brand recognition, high marketing costs

Competitive Analysis
Highly segmented Low brand loyalty Key to success:
Unique features Packaging/display placement Promotions

How We Stack Up
Price - $25 more affordable than many specialty or novelty alarms Power Wall/battery the cubes internal battery is used for emergency power for the base in the event that wall power is cut off when the alarm is set Alarm Various preset sounds A step up from most budget clocks Display 5 LED screens

Marketing Strategy
Target young tech-savvy customers through ThinkGeek, BoingBoing and internet sales Establish real-world presence at upscale indie boutiques Advertise at colleges, sell in college bookstores Target back-to school shopping ($8.5 bn) at Target, WalMart

Projected Cash Flow

$4,000,000 $3,500,000 $3,000,000 $2,500,000 $2,000,000 $1,500,000 $1,000,000 $500,000 $0 -$500,000 -$1,000,000 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Cumulative Net Revenue Revenue Costs

Units Sold
120000 100000 Year 1: Initial sales online Year 2: Selected roll-out (specialty retail) 80000 60000 Year 3: Initial commercial launch Year 4: expansion 40000 Year 5: expansion 20000 0 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Units Sold

Next Steps
Proceed to design the clock for manufacture while maintaining the important pieces of the interaction Apply for foundry space and funding Deeper analysis of market space Continued prototype and user testing