Purdue Polytechnic Institute

Project 1 – TLI 31500

Name: Evan Pyle

Date: 9/1/2020

Project 1: Product/Environment Observation Journal

For a period of one week, observe the daily activities in which you participate and the products with which
you interact. Keep a list using the following format where you reflect on how to improve tasks and activities
through products or services that would make your life easier or better. Record product (or service)
attributes, new product ideas, possible improvements to existing products, extensions to current product
lines. You must record at least 50 ideas in one week.

Use the following format for each:

Product, Service, or Activity in
your environment with which you
interact.
1. Laptop, Monitor, USBs, etc.
2. Coffee Cup
3. Shoes
4. Online College Textbooks
5. Prototyping
6. Cable connectors
What is the issue, problem, or
limitation?
Cannot find a good laptop
docking station that is affordable
and has the correct ports
Coffee is too hot if drank too
soon and if too late it is cold
Depending on the shoe brand
some of my shoes are too big or
too small even at the same size.
Sometimes in between sizes.
Every book and homework is on
a different website and it is
annoying to easily access.
Have to buy a 3d printer, printer,
laser cutter, CNC, and more
Have to buy so many different
ones for different things
How could this be improved?
New features?
New products/services?
Extensions to existing lines?
Create a modular docking station
that you can easily ditch in and
out what connectors you need
that is cheap
A cup that can detect the perfect
temperature to drink at
Shoes that could easily adjust to
the best fit
One website that all colleges use
for textbooks and homework
included. Pay per book or
subscription service would be
ideal.
A machine that could have all of
them in one or at least a few of
them with interchangeable parts
One cable that can have
anything transfer through it only
be on every device

pg. 1

7. Devices, such as phone, tv,
computer
8. Computer Mouse
9. Bar
10. Sofa
11. Small businesses
12. Computer troubles
13. Computer chair
14. Shipping materials
15. Remote control
16. Spam texts and calls
17. Sports balls
18. Laptop
Purdue Polytechnic Institute
Project 1 – TLI 31500
Can only perform some tasks on
the computer / have to open up a
new task on the phone that was
open on another device
Don’t use a computer bag and
want to take my mouse with me
would like to build my own drink
mixer but it is a lot of work
Different people prefer different
feels to their couch
The company I work for does not
have a LinkedIn page, website,
Facebook, etc.
My computer’s Bluetooth works
sometimes and sometimes not
and my sister’s computer blue
screens an error code, but the
code can be like 7 different
issues
Have to use floor mat not to
destroy the carpet but find floors
mats to be ugly and annoying
Have to have so many different
sized boxes to ship many
different things
lost a remote to one of the
firesticks and don’t want to buy
another one but have another
firestick remote it does not work
for this firestick
Keep getting randoms texts and
calls that I never answer or text
back but have to constantly
delete
must own multiple different types
of balls for different sports and a
ton of them
Really would like to easily take
another monitor on the go
without extra cables
pg. 2
Some type of software that lets
you easily sync all your devices
An attachment that holds the
mouse to the laptop
A bar kit that includes all the
components and instructions on
how to program it all
Each cushion of the couch you
could allow air pressure in to
have harder or softer
One website that would create a
page on each social media
website easily
One app that would run all
diagnostics on your computer
that will tell you what has
changed on your computer and
exactly what the problem is and
how to fix it
some type of wheel that does not
destroy the carpet maybe rubber
or something that reduces weight
One box that could start big and
then could be easily folded down
to many different smaller sizes
a remote that would work on all
devices would be great. almost
every single remote has the
same type of buttons/controls
these days
a program that blocks all random
scammers text and calls
a ball that you can change the
properties. density and such.
maybe not change to every ball
but a baseball to like a tennis ball
A laptop that has two monitors
on top of each other and one just
flips up so stacked monitors
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Project 1 – TLI 31500
19. Tv remote removable backs of remotes
break too easily and always have
to be taped back on
20. Gun I want to own a pistol, airsoft,
paintball gun but they have to
own each one and it gets costly
21. Dog door Have to let the dog outside and
don’t know when the dog is done
so don’t know when to let it back
in
22. Binder Usually, start with a 1 inch binder
and it fills up or the other way
around
23. Hanging pictures A lot of problems can go wrong
when hanging pictures and you
do not want to damage your
walls
24. Fridge Fridge doors don't shut all the
way or are left open
25. 2-liter sodas goes flat and tastes bad
26. Chair Lots of people legs do not touch
the ground or touch too much
when sitting in a chair
27. Video games voice chat many games are now
cross-platform but their in-game
chat is not very good and you
don’t know when players are on
if on another console unless
in-game
28. Cracking eggs get eggshells in food sometimes
29. Clothes Hard to tell when clothes are fully clothing that totally changes
dry. some articles will be and
some not.
30. Items Constantly losing things or don't Not necessarily a tracking device
know where I put them last
pg. 3
a better mechanism that would
hold the back on or get rid of the
back/batteries somehow
A rifle that has an
interchangeable barrel/magazine
so that you can shoot a different
types of rounds
a door that automatically lets her
in and out when she is at the
door. Like a chip in her with a
sensor on the door, this option
be more secure than a doggy
door
a binder that that can adjust up
and down from like .5 and go up
in .25 in increments
A stud finder that has some type
of little nail gun that inserts a nail
at a slight angle all in one
doors automatically close after a
certain amount of time and have
sensors to make sure nothing is
in the way
alter the chemical compound in
for it to last longer
A chair that adjusts up and down
automatically when you sit down
to the perfect height so your feet
are flat-footed
a software that would be able to
download on any device to talk
and text that also tells if the
person is on no matter what
game or console they are on
a device that cracks the eggs
and strains only the egg
when it is still wet then when it’s
fully dry goes to its original color
because that would be needed in
every product, but like just
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Project 1 – TLI 31500
31. Skateboard Able to ride one but hard to do
any tricks
32. 3d printer I recently bought a flashforge
adventurer 3 and they provide
you with their own software that
gives you the best settings for
that printer but if you want to use
another one those settings are
not dialed in
33. Buying Trying to sell some stuff and
have trouble finding people who
are interested
34. Marketplace Meeting up with any stranger
especially to exchange goods
can be risky and scary
35. Wallpapers Always have trouble finding a
wallpaper I like on my phone or
desktop
36. Headset Not an issue with me but a video
game profanity
37. Music Little brother every time has to
look up the clean version of each
song when listening to music or
gets in trouble
38. Ads I hate that now on almost every
social media scrolling down all
you see is ads. You can't block
them like you can on pc
39. Homework I sometimes slack when it comes
to homework, not that I don't do it
but I do the wrong ones first and
end up doing some last second
pg. 4
connect to it and make a noise to
find it quickly
A board that could have some
type of mechanical aid to help
flip the board
A software that would help
integrate other 3d printer
software into others or a website
that provided you with every
printers best setting on every
slicer
A website where people instead
of posting what they are selling
you can just see what they want
and the max price they would
pay
Some type of website/algorithm
that would search the whole web
if they are a criminal and recent
purchases/transactions
A generator where you could put
in your interests/ favorite color,
brands and it would mashup
random 4k images
A headset that would block out
cuss words on anything rather
than the game just blocking out
profanity texts
Be able to just a clean mode only
on each music app
Some app or software, not sure
how it would be done, but to not
see ads on social media
because I never click on them
Some type of app that would
make me do the assignments
due first. Maybe like lock me
from doing the others until the
ones due first is completed
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Project 1 – TLI 31500
40. Coffee Difficult to get the perfect mix, I
usually add two ice cubes to cool
it down and water it down and is
a small cup on the large one
41.Phone calls and music I get phone calls when I am
listening to music and I am
usually not near the device or
cant easily pause it
42. Creating inventions 50 is quite a bit not to have
reproductions, had trouble with
some ideation and looked out for
help and could not find much
help online
43. Bedding During the night I get hot or cold
or when I get into bed. Even
changing covers it sometimes
does not help
44. Texts Many of may send texts on
accident or regret sending some
45. Towels Some people use the same
towel every day. I try to use it
every other day but sometimes it
is still soaking wet.
46. Connecting with people on I seem to have friend
LinkedIn suggestions of people I have no
clue who they are and then the
people I do know I had no clue
they had a LinkedIn
47. Trash Taking the trash out of every
room is such a hard task not
really but it can overflow and
smell
48. Cars A car can be easily stolen and
keys can be kind of an
inconvenience
pg. 5
A Keurig that you could change
the temp it goes up to and the
amount of water it adds
Some type of better way of the
devices communicating to let the
devices know to shut off when a
call is answered
An app that comes up with
different key terms and ideas that
could actually work and the
products they would be replacing
and some research included to
start
There are heated planets and
cooled ones but they don’t adjust
throughout the night and one that
did would be cool. A cover that
maybe you could have holes and
change the diameter of them
If we could come up with an app
or something that would unsend
them would be great
A towel that would dry you off
quickly but also reflect water or
dry out quicker
A better way to connect to
people you actually know
somehow like connecting you
graduating high school class
A trash chute system that could
be built into a house having a
chute in every room looks like a
reg can but has a vacuum
system that takes it to the bin
outside
Every car be a push-button and
no key required but some
software where only the owner
can drive it or authorized users
like a chip in hand or an eye
scan
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Project 1 – TLI 31500
49. Electric Cars When an electric car runs out of
power it has to be towed to a
charging station unlike a gas car
you can just go buy gas and fill it
up and get on the road again
50. Groceries Don't know when you run out of
something in a family and have
to write down what you need
each week
pg. 6
Some types of gas can be used
for electric cars. with the
technology we have right now
the best idea I can think of is a
truck that has a huge battery
comes and charges you up
some simple way to keep an
inventory list of what you need
with chips or something and
when you run out it automatically
adds it to your list