Design Student Wanting To Identify Problems With MTBing

chaimes27

Hello,

I'm currently a second year design and engineering student working on a project based around mountain sports. I myself have a background in mountain biking, therefore I have naturally decided to design for the sport I partake in. However I need help to identify issues that I can design around. These can range from difficulty attaching lights to the handle bar to difficulty changing your wheel.
If you would spare a few minutes and fill my survey in (below) I would be hugely grateful. If you leave your name and email and I decide to design around your problem I will of course keep you up to date with my work.

The Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RSMNKRS

Many Thanks,

Christian Haimes

nicklouse

yet another poorly thought out questionnaire.

why dont you think about them rather than make them up after a Saturday night out?

sorry.

cooldad

Way too vague.
Define 'medium end'.
What does this actually mean - "Do you experience any problems with the safety of your equipment?" Gets pinched, gets hurt, hurts you?

But I couldn't do it anyway as I don't do any extreme sports, I just ride a bicycle.

chaimes27

I'm sorry you do not like the survey. However it has had to be made open enough to allow for anyone who partakes in extreme sport to answer. As I'm sure you will appreciate this is very difficult due to the vast differences in each sport.

However if you feel that you could think of any more suitable questions I am always open to suggestions and advice.

Thanks,
Christian

Chunkers1980

Why do you need to 'partake' in extreme sports? If you want to design for MTB (and your course specifically allows) then a survey will yield better results when being more specific

chaimes27

The brief I am working for is to design for extreme sports. I understand that that is a very loose term and is therefor creating some confusion, MTB does sit under this category.

For the moment I need to create enough evidence to prove that MTBing is a feasible market to design for. Once i have managed to do this, as well as identifying several issues, I can make a much more in depth survey.

I hope this clears up the confusion,
Christian

Chunkers1980

Trouble is just riding a bike is not an extreme sport - need to go to the far extremes for it to be, er, extreme.

cooldad

I suppose in a way I do extreme sports, although sport is probably pushing it, and the only extreme is extremely rubbish at it.

chaimes27

I know it is a far push saying extreme sports, however please understand this is purely me manipulating the brief so that I can design for something I enjoy. Unsurprisingly it makes it much more fun to design for something you do yourself.

Being totally honest its an excuse to get on the bike again! So any help is appreciated!

Christian

Angus Young

I was going to fill it in but half way down the survey it just became too vauge. You really need to give some structure/direction to the questions. As it stands you'd need to get into a rambling essay to answer the questions. It does seem rather dashed off rather than thought through. Needs more work.

Wormishere1

Angus Young wrote:

I was going to fill it in but half way down the survey it just became too vauge. You really need to give some structure/direction to the questions. As it stands you'd need to get into a rambling essay to answer the questions. It does seem rather dashed off rather than thought through. Needs more work.

+1

mcnultycop

Wow. That's one of the worst badly thought out questionnaires I've seen in a long while.

Angus Young

Don't get disheartened by the response. One of the best lessons you can learn as a designer is to be able to let go and rethink everything that's gone before if it becomes clear it's not working. And I say that as a designer myself. Digging your heels in and putting energy into trying to justify why something is fine the way it is, despite all evidence to the contrary, will just make your life as a designer a real drag.

rockmonkeysc

Angus Young wrote:

Don't get disheartened by the response. One of the best lessons you can learn as a designer is to be able to let go and rethink everything that's gone before if it becomes clear it's not working. And I say that as a designer myself. Digging your heels in and putting energy into trying to justify why something is fine the way it is, despite all evidence to the contrary, will just make your life as a designer a real drag.

Im a mechanical design engineer. Angus is spot on, the most important skill for a designer is to know when to let a design go as a dead end and start something better. Keep a file of dead end ideas, you might find another use for bits of them one day.

This survey needs rethinking, its one of the most important parts of your project.

Kowalski675

chaimes27 wrote:

The brief I am working for is to design for extreme sports. I understand that that is a very loose term and is therefor creating some confusion, MTB does sit under this category.

Not the way I do it.

rockmonkeysc

Kowalski675 wrote:

chaimes27 wrote:

The brief I am working for is to design for extreme sports. I understand that that is a very loose term and is therefor creating some confusion, MTB does sit under this category.

Not the way I do it.

Extremely bad still counts as extreme

Kowalski675

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

chaimes27 wrote:

The brief I am working for is to design for extreme sports. I understand that that is a very loose term and is therefor creating some confusion, MTB does sit under this category.

Not the way I do it.

Extremely bad still counts as extreme

True, but I don't think that was the meaning he had in mind.

Daz555

I wonder what % of students we get on here actually bother to turn up with a survey which took more than 40 seconds for them to lob together?

cat_with_no_tail

I've taken a different approach to these shlt surveys we get on here now. I just provide comedy answers in the hope that it encourages the surveyor to re-think it.

So:
Q: Which extreme sport/s do you partake in?
A: Extreme Badger Baiting, Extreme Cake Eating, Extreme Masturbation, Extreme Survey completion

Q: How many weeks a year do you manage to partake in your sport?
A: 183

Q: How easy is it to store and transport your equipment?
A: Bacon

Q: Are there any other issues within your sport that you believe we could design for?
A: Giant Squid Attack

cooldad

Trouble is some of the 'surveyors' are so dozy they'll probably take it seriously.

Although some of the trails are so soggy at the moment a giant squid attack is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Kowalski675

cooldad wrote:

Although some of the trails are so soggy at the moment a giant squid attack is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Especially if you're American.

HebdenBiker

2nd year design and engineering student? As in 2nd year at university? If so, that survey is really poor. Perhaps something a VI Former might have thrown together.

Even if we all filled in the survey in good faith (I did not as the questions were meaningless and impossible to answer sensibly or truthfully), the results would tell the OP precisely nothing.

CitizenLee

Cyclists are the biggest problem in MTB for me. Can't stand em

Kowalski675

CitizenLee wrote:

Cyclists are the biggest problem in MTB for me. Can't stand em

BigAl

Completed the survey.

Though I don't think you'll find my responses too helpful. That's what you get if you don't think the survey through.

I would like a tyre that never punctures, is lightweight, rolls well and works in all conditions including the current squid prone ones.

Ask a silly question........

chaimes27

Attempt two- https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q8LCYPJ

paulbox

Have done your latest survey, re Q5, I didn't like any of the options so typed something in the 'Other' box. This returned an error as you have to select one of the options. Perhaps you should therefore have 'Other' as one of the options in the list.

Re the area that you're focusing on, I've never heard of anybody's chain jamming in the cassette. Do you mean between the cassette and spokes?

Paul.

arran77

Likewise tried to answer 'other' to question 5 and it wouldn't let me....I didn't bother after that :roll:

rockmonkeysc

arran77 wrote:

Likewise tried to answer 'other' to question 5 and it wouldn't let me....I didn't bother after that :roll:

I found the same. I don't care what a tool looks like. It's function is all that matters. It's a tool.