Group Design Project – B202

Product design report

The Report

The lolpad is a humerus novelty present in the form of a concept keyboard for use with MSN messenger, Yahoo, Facebook and other online chat services.
The keyboard is designed with keys for those situations where you might use slang or colloquiums. Such as a "lol" or "rofl".


Specification

Power
Power supplied:
5V (5V (+-) 5%)
500mA (1 unit load = 100mA)

Connection
Type of Connector:
USB-A

Length of Connection:
Standard USB-A cable (1m)

Device Class:
HID (Human Interface Device)
03h - Interface (keyboard, Mice, Joystick)

Signaling:
USB (Universal Serial Bus) 1.1
Low speed rate (1.5Mbit/s)

Logic
Micro Processor:
Atmel - ATTINY2313(V)

Interface
Compatible with All applications where you can use a standard keyboard as input
Works on Windows98, Windows XP (32-bit) and Windows Vista (32-bit)

Dimensions:
Height = 10 (cm)
Width = 12 (cm)
Depth = 2 (cm) [Inc Key Height]

Power LED:
Red : Wave length -> 610 < λ < 760

How many keys:
13 keys
Arranged: 4 across * 3 down
Key size:
1.5 * 2.5 (cm)
Key Travel (up down):
0.5 (cm)



Keyboard Functionality (An introduction to how keyboards work)

Keyboards are made up of circuitry and a processor. The majority of this circuitry makes up the so called "key matrix"
The key matrix is the circuitry that is underneath the keys. When a key is pressed a switch is turned on within the circuit causing a small
current to flow in the arranged circuit for that key. When the processor see's that a switch is closed it finds out the location of that switch and compares
it to the character map in the ROM of the processor.



This is where our keyboard is different from a conventional keyboard. It won't just be letters stored in the ROM it will be a collection of words/phrases.
However this poses an issue for us. As keyboards use serial transmission, we need to send multiple letters somehow.



Dealing with the issue

Ways of dealing with this issue can be solved using a number of methods. The first of which that we shall discuss is using a UART (Serial Connection). We have taken the time to prepare and gather the information needed to create a possible example of a way to code the chip to achieve sending the word "lol".

As you can see from the code, the way the phrase is sent is achieved by sending each character individually through the serial connection. The chip used in the example code was taken from a PIC microprocessor. (We have chosen
in this case to do the example using C and a PIC microprocessor as we are somewhat familiar with the technical aspect of the chip and coding through other units).

Another way of solving this issue is using a very similar method, but using a USB serial connection and Atmel - ATTINY2313(V) (The processor). The coding would be somewhat similar to the above, however we are inexperienced with the use of this chip.
By using the chip in this way, the computer will not perceive the Lolpad as a special device, therefore, windows will use default keyboard drivers which will be automatically installed.

E.G
The user presses the "LOL" button. The two connections are joined by the button on the keyboard.
The connections run to a certain set of pins on the chip. The chip detects this and sends out the corresponding characters separately
(through the USB serial connection).

Because the LolPad is installed as a standard keyboard device, it means that all programs that use a keyboard will be
compatible with the LolPad. This means no extra 3rd party software has to be included.

The LolPad will be devised of 13 buttons in total (one being the enter).

LOL! Laugh Out Loud
LMAO! - Laugh My A*s Off
ROFL! - Role On The Floor Laughing
STFU - Shut The F*ck Up
MEGA - This button puts "MEGA" in front of everything
BRB - Be Right Back
WTF - What The F*ck
BRT - Be Right There
BTW - By The Way
WB - Welcome Back
OMG - Oh My God!
AFK - away from keyboard
ENT - Enter (this is a function button, that will return the words)


Use Case scenarios

This product would be ideally used on the many social networking sites. These social networking sites are used by a high percentage of teenagers and young adults, as well as older generations. Alongside the rise in popularity of social networking sites and pseudo real time messaging, certain colloquialism's have also worked their way into our society and some have become common use in other applications such as SMS and in some cases common conversation. Mostly concerning the younger generations these abbreviations are a quick and simple way of expressing something that would otherwise take time to key in. While most of these are very short, our product provides a novel and even quicker way of including an abbreviation into a sentence by having a selection of them on a keypad.

Another use for our product is the possibility of introducing new acronyms to people. Some of them are very common such as “lol” which most young people will know of as second nature. However, acronyms like ROFL (roll on the floor laughing) may not be as well known. Our product can act as a portal to present alternative ways of expressing something.

To conclude on this the product is ideally suited to social networking sites and online chatrooms such as Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Twitter, Msn messenger and Windows live messenger.

With the use of this product it could also mean that people don't develop 'bad habits'. If someone is typing slang on a daily basis they begin to pick this up and use it in more formal documents and text's which bring down a persons spelling and grammar. If this product where to be used it would maintain the users spelling and grammar as they would not get in the habit of typing slang, a habit which could result with them putting slang into an important, formal document.


Key Cost Drivers and Business Oppotunities
In this section we will look at the key costs in product manufacture and our target consumer and marketing oppotunities.

Similar Products

This is where the initial idea for the 'lolpad' comes from:

Reservoir Dogs: In Your Pocket - £5.99



http://tinyurl.com/cykxqr

This is because it is a simple, but effective idea. They are cheap amusing and are ideal gifts for friends and family. It is a simple light speaker effectively with a few buttons for the outputs of the speaker. In this design they use cheap/expendable chips that can be programmed once and forgotten about; which would be similar to what we shall use, but not the same because we may need the extra memory space. The main difference between this product and ours is the fact that this one has a built in speaker to play what ever is desired. Whereas ours will push the information down through a USB or wireless connection (such as WiFi or Bluetooth) to be used whenever and wherever you desire. This means we can have a more slimline design and larger fascia, for the larger buttons.


Here are some ideas which are almost exactly the same yet are just numbers rather than our hilarious euphemisms:

Advent - £13.99













http://tinyurl.com/c8yur8

Our design is a combination of these products, We want a similar keypad however instead of having the numbers we have phrases to amuse the user and receiver of the message. Also if the number pad costs £13.99, this is an ideal price for a gift as the software and hardware we would need to implement the design would be similar to the price of the number pad. This is an ideal price as it means the pad is not so expensive that it would put people off purchasing it. Also the size makes it desirable because it is portable. This is a desirable feature because then it can be used almost anywhere. This also makes the product more desirable because its not large like a standard keyboard so it could be carried around to amuse friends and family almost anywhere. The main difference between the expensive Wifi numpad, and the cheaper cable numbad is actually the design, the £35 look alot nicer, aimed at the person who is willing to spend £35 on a numpad. Its design also mimics that of a mobile phones, with its beveled edges, this may be because a WiFi numpad would be used by a person who needs it when traveling with their laptop

Logitech - £34.24









http://tinyurl.com/dbf8cr

This Logitech G15 keyboard is a proper keyboard where as we will be going for the small keyboard, about 20 keys, but this keyboard has the 'G' keys which are a similar idea to what we are planning, although they are fully programmable and interchangeable where as ours will be fixed:

















http://tinyurl.com/4p28b3
This is also an option for our design. It is wireless and has programmable keys which makes it desirable. However the costs that occur through the technology would make our design impractical. This is because people won't want to pay exuberant amounts of money on a product that will be used for a joke. Making our design wireless and programmable is an option however it isn't really a feasible due to this product being cheap and easy to use we wont have the ability to include programmable buttons without making the product confusing. The size of this keyboard is also an issue as it can't be carried from place to place easily. This keyboard also has a small LCD screen which is neither feasible nor necessary to our product as this would increase price for no real gain. The size and price make the design un-feasible because people won't want to buy a large expensive product as a small gift for a friend or family member.

These ideas can all give a footing to developing our idea; as they all have similar ideas to our product. The number pads from the Currys website provide the closest overview on look and functionality, but are maybe a little to pricey and plain. Whereas the 'In your pockets' from Play have the 'LOL' idea but lack the compatibility with the computer which we are aiming for.
Even though there are similar products, there is nothing the same as our design idea, this makes the idea very feasible there is nothing for it to compete with.

With this solid foundation it makes the design very feasible as there is no real competition in the market and with the design concepts, it will be cheap enough to be an ideal gift. Also it is an innovative yet fun idea.


It is important to know the other products in the same market as the one you are planning to build. In this section, costs of similar products will be analyzed to gain an idea of the price range in which we can sell our creation.

The idea of the product is revolutionary and so creates a problem in that there are no products similar to its design. What we can do is research prices of technology based novelties in retailers that sell gadgets and novelties. ‘The Gadget Shop’ for example, sells modern USB based novelty items.


Stores selling these products generally have a section dedicated to USB products and browsing these gives an idea that a product like ours would look at home selling at around ten pounds. This sum would make the product accessible to consumers buying for a less serious present whilst allowing for a trendy look maybe involving some expensive raw materials.

Potential Customer Views: A Survey

We decided that a good way to come up with a selling price, (and therefore a manufacturing price), would be to ask our target group how much they would be willing to pay for the product.
We carried out a survey on 50 students at the University of Portsmouth, studying a wide range of subjects and from a wide range of backgrounds.
After a quick explanation of what the ‘LOLPad’ would do we simply asked;
‘How much would you be willing to pay for this product as either a useful tool, a novelty item or even a "joke" present?’

The results of the survey can be clearly seen in the graph below:



Our initial ideas indicated that the product should be sold for around £5. Our survey confirms this!
We can see that the vast majority of people questioned would be willing to pay between £2 and £8, a small majority of those wanting the product for between £2 and £5. This is strong indication that the product should have a recommended retail price of £5. Any more and those 23 people, or 46%, may no longer be interested in purchasing the product.
The loss of the 16% of people who would only be willing to pay less than £2 is acceptable as any losses from their purchases would be easily made up for by the higher selling price.

The disadvantage of this survey is that only 50 people were asked, all of whom were students. For a more accurate result a wider range of people should be asked, perhaps even extending to possible customers outside of our target group.
It may also be a good idea to speak to retail outlets that sell similar products.


Production Costs
The production costs play a major role in determining the final price of the product. Obviously we want to make a profit! If the production costs are high then the products selling price will be high. We can see from the survey that this would mean few products being sold. This would result in a net loss.

Business Costs
The production of a product has a very wide range of costings. It’s not just the production method that needs to be taken into account but other costs such as labour, admin, expenses etc… The costs can be split into 3 main sections.

1) Direct Costs: These include the labour of staff directly involved in the production, the materials used and the cost of any consumable materials such as printing.
2) Indirect Costs: These include the labour of staff not linked directly to production, e.g. supervisors and admin staff. They also include any materials used in small quantities throughout the production process e.g. oil for machinery.
3) Overheads: These are indirect costs but include the business running costs such as gas and electricity.

Depending on the demand for the ‘LOLPad’, it may not be worth setting up a factory. The initial costs would be very high. If only a few thousand products will be made it would be cheaper to contract the production out to a manufacturing company. This would greatly reduce overhead costs, however the direct and indirect costs listed above would still need to be paid. This is looked at in a bit more detail below.

Materials

The selection of the material takes into account the following factors that concern us:

1. Ability to withstand adverse service conditions - E.g. being dropped, having tea poured on it etc.
2. Economic factors - Keeping within the desired cost.
3. The methods the product is produced - The ability for a material to be manufactured by the process we wish to use.


Considering these factors gives us a list of specifications that the build material will have to comply with, in order for us to provide the most successful product possible.

Firstly, the shell and keys will be made from a polymer (plastic) as they are cheap, easy to mold and shape, do not absorb liquid and can resist wear and tear. These qualities should be present in the finished product to provide the longest service life. Polymers come in many types each with different attributes so it is important to select the correct one.

For example;

Polystyrene – This plastic is dense, tough and rigid. Does not absorb water and resistant to bending and crushing. This plastic has been used for toys, boxes, refrigerator trays and many other types of household hollowware due to its ability to be injected easily into a mold with a glossy finish.
However, this material is relatively expensive and quite brittle so can shatter when exposed to a sudden impact similar to being dropped. These negative attributes mean it is less suited for our product.

Polythene – One of the most widely used plastics due to its ability to stay tough and flexible over a wide temperature range, does not absorb liquid and resistant to sudden impacts. This plastic is cheap and can be molded easily and so can be used on virtually any design we choose for the product.


The attributes of Polythene make it almost perfect for our product as it has good impact resistance and will not be affected by an exposure to liquid, whilst still remaining cheap and easy to acquire. The material is easy to mold and shape giving us more flexibility when designing our product.



Production Process Costs

Now that we have decided on the material and shape of the LOLPad we can decide on a production method. The following methods were considered in the product feasibility study. They were as follows:
1) Injection Moulding: The compound material (normally in bead form, known as resin) is fed into a cylinder via a hopper, where it is piston driven into the cylinders heated section, where it becomes plastic. The material is then injected into the die chamber and left to cool.
2) Screw Extrusion: The raw plastic compound (resin) is literally screwed into a feed cylinder. It is then passed through a heated zone, becoming plastic. Continuing to screw forces the plastic into the die.
3) Calendaring: This is very similar to that used in paper making. The resin is heated then, once plastic is fed through a series of rollers to produce a sheet. These sheets can then be shaped. E.g. by using vacuum forming.
4) Vacuum Forming: A sheet of plastic is heated to a temperature at which it can be shaped. It is then placed tightly over a mould. The air between the mould and the plastic is sucked out, forcing the plastic to take on the moulds shape.

Screw extrusion is normally used to produce products such as wire insulation and is not worth pursuing. Injection moulding would be an over complicated and expensive technique for the cost and shape of the product we are trying to produce.
We have therefore decided that vacuum moulding is the best idea. The calendaring process would be unnecessary as plastic is readily available in sheets.
Vacuum moulding does not give the most accurate results but for the uncomplicated shape we are producing it is ideal. It is relatively easy to set up (one machine) if we decided to produce the product ourselves.
However, to begin with it will not be worth forgoing the costs of setting up our own factory. There are a number of companies that will produce products to their customer’s designs. We would simply need to provide the design. They would produce the mould and the product.
Getting another company to produce the product will eliminate the overhead costs of running a factory. However, both the direct and indirect costs would need to be paid with a small mark up for the manufacturing company.
In the long run it will be cheaper to purchase the equipment needed to produce the product and go into mass production ourselves. We would first need to make enough money to set up a manufacturing facility. There are some downsides to setting up our own manufacturing facility (except the obvious initial set up costs). The overhead costs will need to be paid and any failed products (there is always some error on a production line) will have to be paid for by ourselves.
The initial idea is to use a sub contractor to run a batch production process whilst the LOLPad is introduced into the market.


Types of Production

As I have just mentioned the initial idea is to produce the LOLPad by batch production, possibly moving into mass production in the future. It is worth briefly explaining the difference between the two.
1) Batch Production: This is where a set number of products are made. Then a gap occurs before the next ‘batch’ is produced. This is our initial idea with the LOLPad. It has been decided that an initial batch of 5,000 LOLPads should be produced. Obviously, in the unlikely event they are not right for the market, this will be a ‘one off’ production. If the product sells another batch of 10,000 will be produced and we look into setting up our own factory to move into mass production.
2) Mass Production: This is where the production of a product it continuous. With the LOLPad this will only occur if the product is extremely popular and batch production cannot cope with the consumer demands.

Delivery and Transportation
One set of costs that has yet to be discussed is the cost of delivering the LOLPads to the companies that will be selling them. We are not aiming at an overseas market so air freight will be too expensive and is not necessary with the road and rail networks available in the UK. We have therefore decided to transport the LOLPad by rail to the nearest goods yard to each retailer and then move them by lorry to their destination.
This method of transportation is the cheapest available and is faster than using Lorries for the entire journey (no traffic jams!)

Profit Margins
The survey we previously produced suggests that customers within our target age group would only be willing to pay up to £5 for the product. Obviously the more we charge the more profit we make so our initial aim was to sell the product at £5. Taking off the retailers mark up, (approx £1.50 per product), we are left with £3.50 per product. This must include all the manufacturing and transportation costs and of course, our profit. This does not leave a lot of room for error. We are therefore proposing that we sell the product at £6.99. Although we may loose a few customers the extra money we make will counteract this. The survey did not cover a large group of people and national results may vary. We only asked students, who are generally less well off than other potential customers and would be willing to pay less.



Quantitative Analysis
The Lolpad must be analyzed in a quantitative manner as well as technically. This is done so that we have an idea how the Lolpad would perform it was to be put into production, Or if it should even be put into production. As if the product was deemed 'useless' there would be no point in trying to market the product, as there would be no one to market the product.

The Lolpad is designed to be marketed primarily towards people in there teens and twenties, with a secondary target being all ages as a 'joke' gift, it could also be specifically marketed at specific times of year.

Marketing
The primary marketing is to be towards teenagers and young adults. To appeal to this market an advertising campaign that similar to our video presentation would be required. An original humorous video would be necessary for marketing towards the younger generation as we would need to appeal to there sense of humor and sense of fun and enjoyment. Another way to sell to this type of customer is to sell the Lolpad at specific shops and websites. The target age group would more likely to be found shopping in malls and large stores for their electronics equipment so this gives us an immediate list of possible retailers and due to the boom in internet buying, we would push our product to suitable websites.

• HMV
• Zavvi
• Computer and software stores
• www.iwantoneofthose.com
• www.firebox.com
• www.play.com
• www.amazon.co.uk

If the product sells well we can move into less specialised stores. such as:

• Tesco
• Asda
• Sainsbury's
• John Lewis
• Argos

After a successful advertising campaign this could be regarded more as a deliberate present for birthdays, Christmas etc. To get the most out of this we can sell the product to stores which draw larger quantities of consumers so they come more into contact with the device.

These are the major stores and websites that young people are likely to buy a Lolpad. This is because they would go to the stores looking for something specific and see the Lolpad. This is where it appeals to impulse buy a product. If the correct marketing strategies are implemented then it is highly likely that the Lolpad will sell by itself without having to rely on impulse buying.

Another way of marketing the Lolpad is to create adverts for specific times of years. For example a Christmas themed advert could be developed, With the main point of the advert being that the Lolpad is ideal for a teenager as a stocking gift, or as a secret Santa gift. This means a good marketing plan and advertising campaign around the time of Christmas could result in a lot being sold making Lolpad the gadget 'to have' at Christmas.

As the product becomes more successful we could look into hiring an advertising agency to market it for us. The ‘fun’ nature of the LOLPad means that it is easy to advertise on radio, television and posters. This gives a large audience for the adverts.
The nature of the product would give the advertising agency a large window for creativity.

Sponsorship
having our product sponsored by a well known brand can have many positive effects on the sale of our product.

The product is obviously computer orientated and by seeking a sponsor in that field, it will give the product some authority.
Microsoft would be the obvious choice as it is a brand known throughout the world. The product is aimed at the novelty market and so attracts consumers by the 'impulse buy' effect. By having the Microsoft logo on our product, it will give the consumer a feeling of added security and the promise that the product will work on the PC. This will obviously increase sales as a consumer will buy a cheap novelty product which they know they could use.

Also Microsoft could sponsor us by financial means or could allow us to use its factories to manufacture the product itself. Either way, a sponsorship by a well known business could lower the costs of building and so would improve our profit margins. Or we could pass the saving onto the consumer by lowering the price for a limited introductory offer to spark interest in the new product. With future intent to raise the price if the offer works and demand increases.

Future developments

Britain has many different areas where certain accents and colloquialisms are used as common language. The “lolpad” could be developed to cater for these. Separate products could be sold that would be themed for the certain areas of Britain (or maybe the world) that would contain phrases instead of abbreviations. A particularly effective and unique form of the english language is scottish with sayings such as “Ach noo” and “wee beastey” which could be included. This would not be confined to being sold in those specific areas or countries, they could be sold universally as a comedy accessory.