This project required us to find a multi-component card with functions like sound, light, and/or movement and transform it into a brand new product prototype. The original card was a card with a mounted deer head that sang "Wild Thing" (bottom right video). I chose the card because I thought it was the funniest song of all of the cards at Target, and was imagining a group of cute animals dancing to it. My card had both sound and movement, and I was determined to use both components in the final design second and third photo). My card was originally pretty bulky on the front cover because of all the hidden components, I’d love to have had smaller pieces to fit better into my own design; however, it’s important to work with what you have.

 

In my design concept, I wanted to transform the parts into a small, child size box that you could give to someone on their birthday. To go along with the theme of “Wild Thing” I purposefully designed a jungle themed box, complete with: animals in sunglasses, a dancefloor, a disco ball, and more (first photo). I wanted one of the animals to be the item moving in my design, to simulate them dancing and ‘going wild.’ The speaker and all of the other components were designed to fit under the dancefloor to hide all of the wiring.

 

My biggest challenge of using the predefined functions was finding a way to incorporate the very sporadic and fast movement of the motor. I did not want the whole structure to fall apart because of how fast that part moved, so I took necessary precautions to give the motor ample room to move and shake so that it did not interfere with the box’s structure. If I had the ability and the time to code the motor, I would have loved to see it move as if the elephant was a smooth dancer or the dancefloor. It may have also been cool to see the other animals dance or move as well.

 

I took away many things from this project. The most valuable is adaptability. You must be able to think on your toes, especially when things aren’t working. Another is patience; you must be patient with your design and be sure to work slow and methodically to ensure your product is a success, even if you want to get out of lab early. I also learned that it takes a lot of preplanning and strategy. You first must understand each component and what it does and how to incorporate it in a way that makes sense. Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I had so much fun building the structure of the box and was so happy to see it work. It made me so proud to see all of the different functions work and do exactly what I had envisioned!