The Ultimate iPod Touch Stylus -- Entering the Design Phase

After my previous experimentation with making a quick "homebrew" iPod Touch stylus, I got all excited about building a more refined version that had a bit more design and flair to it. In typical product design, we break down the development of any product into multiple, bite-sized phases. Usually, a new project starts off with a research phase were at least some amount of research is conducted to figure out any unknowns and get you headed in the right direction (unless you're working in an area of industry where you think you've got it all figured out already). This phase is then followed by a design (or concept development) phase where multiple ideas are presented, explored, and sifted through to find the most viable design direction. In order to further verify the effectiveness of a design concept, computer models and prototypes are then produced in a design verification phase. If things work well in testing these concept prototypes, the successful design moves into a manufacturing phase (which is often further broken down into manufacturing prep, manufacturing verification, and post manufacturing changes, if needed). Having been in industry for over a decade now, this process is pretty much ingrained in me. I automatically go through these steps with just about every project I'm involved in, whether professionally or in my own shop space, and often feeling like something's outta place if I skip one of the steps. 
Since I researched and figured out some of the basics about how to make a viable iPod Touch stylus a few weeks ago, I decided to jump into the design phase and start exploring some ideas. Over the past little while, I've let some random stylus concepts marinate in my noggin, and started cranking out sketched "ideations" (industrial design lingo for "idea creation") to get things solidified on paper. As a rule of thumb, I always try to start my ideation sessions with some good dimensional references--just to keep me honest. Without those references, it's easy to design something that is way out of proportion and, ultimately, unusable. Just because a design looks great on paper, doesn't mean it's good to go. Actually, one reason conceptual products often look intriguing to us is because they are out of proportion with what we're used to seeing--but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll function well or are even manufacturable without some extensive amount of tweaking. This is the exact reason why it's easy to get disappointed when you see the difference between the uber-sexy concept show car on the revolving platform at the yearly car show in the conference hall downtown, and the bland-ified production version you may see of the "same" car on the dealership sales floor a couple years later. That whole "form follows function" thing will always bite ya' in the butt if you let it. 
To get my designs started with some proper proportioning, I created some referenced sketches from the very few "knowns" I had: the rubber grip for my stylus (which I had intended to cannibalize form an existing pen to save me the hassle of molding my own), and the minimum comfortable stylus length (so the stylus wouldn't be too big and bulky) that I'd found experimentally by using pens of different sizes. To get the dimensions of the grip, I took apart a pen with an appropriate grip that I thought would work well for my swanky stylus, as shown below. I chose a blue-colored grip because I just like blue--a lot. Always have. It's a true Johnny color. 

 I then took out the calipers and began taking measurements of every dimension I needed, including the length and diameter of the barrel where the grip fit onto it...

...and the length and thickness of the grip itself.

I took all these measurements and made a quick CAD drawing (in SolidWorks, my modeling software of choice) that I could use as an underlay for sketching (shown in the upper left of the picture below). I scaled this properly proportioned drawing into both smaller and larger versions, and then sketched over these to create several concepts that I found interesting. Just for kicks, I used a bit of marker and colored pencil to give the sketched forms some "volume" so they would communicate my designs more effectively.

Since I do have a rudimentary stylus to work with already (the one I built as my first post here, using a carbon fiber tip and a mechanical pencil), I thought I'd include a little sample of what it can do--of course, by showing another concept stylus sketch (drawn in Sketchbook Express):

Now that I've gone through some sketched ideations, I've satisfied myself with a good stylistic direction and it's time to roll into the prototyping and design verification phase...which I'll document in an upcoming post. Keep rockin'.