THE ERGONOMIC TRAVEL HAIRBRUSH
The ergonomic travel hairbrush creates a new look at travel hairbrushes that allows for increased comfort, affordance, and portability. Through much ergonomic analysis and user testing, we have created a travel hairbrush that is easy and comfortable to use for the 5th-95th percentile of users.
Final Design
Carbon Fiber Extended
Ideation Sketches
When we began to re-imagine the travel hairbrush, we looked at the existing models on the market. We found that they were uncomfortable to hold and very flimsy. All users, but especially users with thicker hair had trouble firmly gripping the brush to allow the bristles to move smoothly through the hair. For our initial designs, we tried to improve upon these features, while also keeping portability and inclusivity in mind. Below are a small portion of the over 40 different designs our group ideated on.
Ergonomic Considerations
After our initial design sketches, we had to decide what portion of the population we wanted to design for. Because travel hairbrushes are universally used, we decided to design for the 5th to the 95th percentile of users. Looking up different hand dimensions, we focused on making sure our grip diameter, palm width, and palm length fit within the user constraints.
Palm Length
8.9-10.5cm
(5th-95th percentile)
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Palm Width
6.9-8.3cm
(5th-95th percentile)
Grip Diameter
4.3 - 5.3cm ​
(5th-95th percentile)
Design Space
Through several iterations of prototypes, we were able to refine our designs. All of our designs fit to our ergonomic considerations. The pink foam did not allow for robust prototypes, but allowed us to feel how the design would feel in our hand. However, some of these prototypes are meant to be foldable, but that was beyond the scope of the simple prototypes we constructed. Initially, we had trouble reconciling portability with comfort in our prototypes, because a more comfortable grip often meant a larger design. However, through user testing, we were able to see how we could tweak our prototypes to meet both of these requirements.
User Testing
In our user survey, the main questions we were interested in answering included:
1. Is it portable?
2. Does the design indicate its intended use?
3. Is it comfortable?
4. Does the design allow for affordance (left and right handed people)?
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To answer these questions we constructed a survey with categories corresponding to our questions and made several statements and asked the user to evaluate the statement on a 1-7 scale from completely disagree to completely agree. An example .of a statement from the user survey is: "I knew how to hold the hairbrush."
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Then at the end of the survey, we asked the user to pin point on a hand-diagram if there were any pressure points or points of pan through the duration of using our hairbrush. Then asked them if they had a magic what they would change about the design.
Refining Our Design
Through several rounds user testing we were able to hone in on our design. Users liked hairbrushes they could fully fit their fingers around and hold in a power grip position. For users with curly hair, they found this especially important. Interestingly, users did not have a huge preference to the size of the hairbrush, as long as it seemed to them it could fit in their backpack/purse. For our final design, we combined the best aspects of two of our top designs, to create a hairbrush that is portable and comfortable, and inclusive.
Final Sketch
Travel Hairbrush Extended (in use)
Travel Hairbrush Collapsed (not in use)