The ExtensionMate is a revolutionary product for anyone who has painted on a ladder. The product allows the user to carry a paint-can, brushes, and scrapers up the ladder with one hand. The product then fits inside the rungs of the ladder when the user is ready to paint.
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Once the device is placed into the ladder, you can see how easy it is for the user to paint. They don’t have to worry about holding the paint can or any of the utensils.
The inventor of the ExtensionMate did all the right things. He had:
In fact, his prototype was beyond the quick and dirty mock ups we recommend. It was a shiny, high quality, machine built representation of the product. He came into our office looking to have it tooled up, manufactured and delivered to retailers. Our designers, however, had some recommendation for making the product even better.
Many inventors cringe when someone criticizes their invention, and considering all the time put into this product, such a reaction would be understandable. Surprisingly, he was completely open to a fresh perspective. He allowed us to design and quickly build prototypes to test the ideas.
Weather you are a designer or not, we recommend testing your ideas with quick prototypes. As you can see by this prototype, they don’t need to look good, they just need to be testable.
The product needed to be extremely easy to use. If the user was forced to think too much about how to use the product while on the ladder, it could be an added danger to the painter. Another concern was the physical limitation of only having one hand available, since the other hand would be used for climbing up and down the ladder.
Through sketches, simple working prototypes, and client feedback, we developed a number of design solutions. By actually using the prototypes while painting on ladders, it became clear which design features translated to benefits. Allowing professionals as well as perspective ‘weekend warriors’ to test the prototypes furthered our understanding of the design problem and forced us to simplify some of our solutions.
The design chosen during the collaborative process met our design goals in an elegant and reliable way. The handle and paint can hanger are one in the same. This means anytime the painter is transporting the device, he or she is fully grasping and securing both the paint can handle and the product handle. The bush magnetically attaches to the device right above the paint can so there is no searching for a hook or worrying about dripping paint.
